much on references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . august 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message special communications organization type public industry telecommunications corporation genre telecommunication founded july 1976 1976 07 headquarters rawalpindi pakistan area served azad kashmir gilgit baltistan products landline cdma gsm internet owner pakistan government website www.sco.gov.pk special communications organization sco is government organization operated by ministry of information technology and telecommunication and maintained by pakistan army . sco is playing major role in providing telecommunication services in azad jammu and kashmir and gilgit baltistan . 1 contents 1 history 2 products 3 maintenance 4 controversies 5 see also 6 references history edit sco was established in 1976 and it remained the single telecommunication network provider in its served areas for about 3 decades having extensive footprint of pstn gsm cdma and internet provision . 2 products edit sco is responsible for providing the telecommunication needs to a population of 4.5 million spread over 85 793 km2 consisting of the mountainous terrains of azad jummu & kashmir and gilgit baltistan . 3 in addition to the wired landline services sco is also providing cdma services . it is also providing cellular mobile service under the brand name of scom . scom is the first ever gsm service of azad jammu & kashmir and gilgit baltistan . dsl and dialup internet services are provided under the brand name of snet . maintenance edit maintenance services of sco are provided by pak army . controversies edit sco is often criticized for poor performance and creating obstacles for other carriers in providing telecom services in ajk . sco was given sole monopoly in ajk and the area as a result suffered and lacked in modern telecom services . however after the 2005 quake significant loss of life was attributed to not having communication facilities in the area . 4 subsequent protests resulted in government of pakistan opening up the pakistan administered kashmir for mobile operators which has significantly improved mobile services in the area . 5 however ajk still lags behind in broadband services due to strict hold of sco on the network access . 6 sco has created major hurdle in opening up 3g 4g in the ajk as it is not able to upgrade its network and is certain to lose whatever market share it has if the other operators are allowed to offer 3g 4g services . 7 the government of pakistan has now given approval for funding for sco to upgrade its network which may remove this hurdle for 3g 4g services in ajk . 8 see also edit list of dialling codes of pakistan telephone numbers in pakistan 92 references edit sco website . sco is a public sector organization working under government of pakistan ministry of it . . retrieved august 11 2012 . sco website . establishment of sco . . retrieved august 11 2012 . ajklive website . services by sco . . retrieved october 2 2012 . human rights watch report . pakistan telecom authority news release . news article . govt to auction 3g 4g licenses in ajk later this year . 2016 02 15 . retrieved 2016 06 17 . sco given the approval for upgradation of its gsm network . 2016 02 11 . retrieved 2016 06 17 . v t e mobile network operators of pakistan mobilink sco telenor pk ufone warid zong retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title special communications organization & oldid 737116049 categories telecommunications in pakistanazad kashmirgilgit baltistanpakistan federal departments and agencies1976 establishments in pakistangovernment agencies established in 1976hidden categories articles lacking reliable references from august 2012all articles lacking reliable references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 31 august 2016 at 21 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view