The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has decided to procure a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) Portal for population coverage, planning, and the quality of service.
These include installation, configuration, customization, data migration, training, maintenance, and support (services).
The web-based Geographic Information System portal is aimed at overlaying the population data (at the UC, tehsil, district, and provincial levels) along with Base Transceiver System data and cellular sectors along with coverage data layers (containing 2G/3G/4G and/or 5G when available) for the purpose of including coverage versus population estimation, complaint resolution, and visibility of cellular infrastructure-population density, Licenses Quality of Service Key Performance Indicators (QoS KPIs), etc.
The system will be capable of performing the required analysis for Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K), and Gilgit-Baltistan at the administrative levels as stated above.
The PTA has invited proposals from companies with a legal presence in Pakistan in this regard.
Required System Features
The system will have an additional high-level dashboard that summarizes the overall coverage statistics in terms of population in a customized area that is being served by a specific service provider, etc.
The PTA requires the population density estimation to be covered from a resolution of 30 sq m to 100 sq m using any available sources, including open sources of the data (the resolution can be increased to 500-1000 sq m if deemed appropriate due to costs or any other factors).
The selected bidder will be responsible for enabling the integration of new data into the existing database as per the timelines mutually agreed upon with the PTA.
The application will be customized with the provision of open-source satellite imagery on the above-mentioned resolution-based base maps for the visualization of different layers of datasets that include but are not limited to population, BTS, sectors/cells, coverage, and complaints in administrative or customized boundaries (polygons), etc.
Open-source application platforms can be used for the development of the system.
The system should be compatible with multiple file formats that include but are not limited to csv, shp, tab, xml, kml, kmz, and other global GIS standard formats in addition to the widely used MS office file formats, etc.
It should also be capable of integrating with multiple databases to reflect the desired results on the dashboard and easy to use (GUI-based) layer selection for the visualization of required information along with business intelligence-related data analytics and insights, including but not limited to the need of coverage/infrastructure in an automatically selected area, highlighting the number of complaints from a specific area as well.
Moreover, any further integration will be according to the requirements of the PTA from time to time.
The portal should also offer a site-level layered display, separate as well as a combined view of either all or a few selected layers, and the capabilities of simultaneously analyzing CMO coverage with population and other data layers.
GIS Views to Offer:
- Improved detailed GIS view up to the village/town level.
- Capable of displaying relevant details.
- Capable of pinpointing the desired location through name, coordinates, and/or any other GIS references.
- Must support terrain profiling in terms of elevations and infrastructure or standard terrain models being used in telecommunication can also be used.
- Must be compatible with the widely used datum of GIS, including WGS (84) and/or other datums.
- Must support population customized profiling and demarcations.
- Must support important locations such as hospitals, universities, mosques, markets, and points of interest.
- Must be capable of displaying/exporting relevant information according to specific boundaries. (Village/Town/City/Tehsil/District/Province/Nationwide) into any desired format, including but not limited to MS Office formats, PDFs, etc.
The system should provide common access to network data, maps, and statistics of radio coverage through a single web interface for any group of users. The system should be fully automatic, with the ability to simply add new data sources/multiple datasets and sophisticated filtering ‘on-the-fly’ coverage layers (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G when available) with provided, signal strengths and color coding/legends.
The system should have the ability to display technology-wise coverage on the GIS map for all operators and show coverage percentage calculation (according to a geographical area in sq m/sq km) and population vectors).
The Sectors Display of Sites (operator wise) should be based on the relevant parameters, and the dashboard will contain the following basic information:
- Site count (2G/3G/4G).
- Capable of displaying/exporting relevant dashboard information according to village/town/city/tehsil/district/province/nationwide.
- Site information like shared site/guest/host/height, etc.
The system must have the capability to handle nationwide data of coverage predictions and BTS information for all five (5x) operators simultaneously, along with other datasets as stated above.
The dashboard should offer a variety of ways to dissect data, along with an executive dashboard for a high-level overview. The system should have drilled down capability without overcrowding the main dashboard (a click on one entity will result in the drill-down enabling the visualization of the required information).
The system should be capable of extracting information in statistical and graphical manners. It should be able to be manually updated as and when required in terms of data sources and other items/modules. Additionally, it should be able to draw and extract required data/information in customized polygon(s).
