Transworld Associates

Transworld Associates is a Tier-1 provider based in Pakistan serving as a backbone for IP connectivity in Pakistan. It is a joint-venture between Orastar Limited and the Oman based OMZEST Group.^[1] Transworld owns and operates the 1,300 km submarine communications cable named TW1 that links Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Transworld Associates (TWA)

Trade name	Trans World Associates (Pvt.) Limited
Company type	Joint venture
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	October 1, 1980; 44 years ago (1980-10-01)
Headquarters	Islamabad , Pakistan
Area served	Pakistan
Key people	Saad Muzaffar Waraich (President)
Brands	Transworld Home
Services	Tier 1 network Peering Internet transit Data center Broadband Internet IPTV Telephone
Number of employees	900+ (2024)
Website	www.tw1.com

In addition to operating TW1, Transworld is also a consortium member of the SEA-ME-WE 5 submarine cable and maintains the landing point for the cable in Karachi, Pakistan.^[2]

History

Transworld Associates was incorporated as a private company in Pakistan in October 1980. It was a subsidiary of Orascom Investment Holdings (OIH) S.A.E. In January 2022, OIH divested its shareholding to Orastar Limited. As of September 2023, Orastar Limited holds 90% shareholding in the company with the remaining 10% owned by the OMZEST Group.^[3]

Network

Transworld is the only operator in Pakistan which fully owns its submarine cable, TW1. They are also the consortium partner in SEA-ME-WE 5 and the upcoming SEA-ME-WE 6^[4] and 2Africa^[5] cables.

TW peers with DE-CIX in Frankfurt, Germany over a 100G link and Equinix in Singapore over a 400G link.^[6][7] They also have peering and interconnect agreements in Asia and the Middle East through Etisalat by e& and Omantel.^[6][8]

Transworld Home

Transworld Enterprise Services (TES) Pvt Ltd was incorporated in February 2011 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Transworld Associates.^[9]

The logo of Transworld Home

It was commercially launched in 2017 as Transworld Home, a residential triple play service provider offering Internet Services, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) / digital TV (with the most number of HD Channels in Pakistan) and Telephone through its Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. ^[10] They offer plans ranging from 30 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s.^[11]

From Quarter 4 of 2022 to Quarter 4 of 2023 Transworld Home maintained its position of being Pakistan’s Fastest Internet Provider in Ookla Speed Test Global Index. ^[12]

Services

TWA offers numerous services as a Tier-1 provider, including IP Transit, MPLS and DDoS protection.^[13]