3G Network Likely to Reach 90% People by 2020: PTA

GSMA revealed that 3G coverage in Pakistan is likely to reach 90 percent people by 2020, and mobile broadband is expected to reach 40% According to statistics given by Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA), the 3G and 4G subscriber base in Pakistan touched 18,040,854 in September 2015 from 15,765,680 in August 2015.

3G Network Likely to Reach 90% People by 2020: PTA

Also Read: Growing E-Commerce: Pakistan to Have 40 Million Smartphones by the End of 2016

CMPak has 3,769,542 3G subscribers and 201,564 4G subscribers. Mobillink has a 3G subscriber base of 4,909,203. Telenor has 5,485,083 3G subscribers. Ufone has a 3G user-base of 3,518,635. Warid Telecom has 156,827 4G subscribers till September 2015, according to data revealed by PTA.

Overall cellular subscribers in Pakistan is 120,940,513. The total number of cellular subscribers at Mobilink was 35,156,550, Ufone 18,750,250, CMPak 23,518,919, Telenor 33,191,103 and Warid 10,323,691.

Pakistan had almost 250,000 broadband users few years back which has now reached 24 million broadband users comprising mobile broadband in the country, showing a substantial growth rate.

“The mobile broadband area (3G, 4G) was also showing a reasonable growth with around 20.6 million users since its launch 15 months ago.”

Said Chairman PTA Ismail Shah.

“Mobile operators have been investing heavily to ensure access to the internet in Pakistan. With connectivity becoming less of an issue, the challenge now lies in increasing the number of digital commerce accounts and promoting digital payments.”

Said Alasdair Grant, head of Asia at GSMA.

Almost 60 million people in Pakistan have accessibility to a cell phone.But they don’t have a bank account, mobile money or branchless banking. Mobile operators have already started to capitalize to escalate branchless banking account adoption and usage.

GSMA said technology-based solution providers in the financial and payment industries should collaborate with branchless banking operators to generate payment products for various market sectors.

Pakistan has to face different challenges such as socio-political obstacles in the form of weak legal and regulatory frameworks, digital illiteracy and lack of cognizance about digital commerce in order to achieve it’s goal of a digital Pakistan.

Also Read: Mobile Broadband Connections Reached 15.8 Million in Pakistan