The Pakistan Telecommunications Company is to invest £1.75 million over the next year as part of a drive to provide Net access to 80 per cent of the country's population.

The move is part of the Government's Universal Internet Access Coverage Plan which details how 400 cities, towns and villages will be hooked up to the Net by the end of the year.

According to AFP, these are ambitious plans. Sixty two cities have already been hooked up and a further 262 more will be added to the list within the next eight weeks.

Elsewhere, India said that increased Net traffic and congestion had forced it to take measures to double its bandwidth over the next two months. ®