Framework error: code: 28 reason: Operation timed out after 30000 milliseconds

When trying to install a package (in my case openjdk7-dev) you might run into this [on command line OR in the pkg ui]:

Error:
Please check the network connection.
Is the repository accessible?

1: Framework error: code: 28 reason: Operation timed out after 30000 milliseconds with 18904080 out of 20853709 bytes received
URL: 'http://pkg.opensolaris.org/dev'.
2: Framework error: code: 28 reason: Operation timed out after 30000 milliseconds with 18999276 out of 20853709 bytes received
URL: 'http://pkg.opensolaris.org/dev'.
3: Framework error: code: 28 reason: Operation timed out after 30000 milliseconds with 19187200 out of 20853709 bytes received
URL: 'http://pkg.opensolaris.org/dev'.
4: Framework error: code: 28 reason: Operation timed out after 30000 milliseconds with 18991256 out of 20853709 bytes received
URL: 'http://pkg.opensolaris.org/dev'.

The solution to fix this was to simply set an environment variable:

export PKG_CLIENT_TIMEOUT=300