5G in Pakistan: Minister’s Promise vs. Reality

On Monday, while addressing the Mobile Phone Summit in Islamabad, the Federal Minister for IT and Telecom, Dr. Umar Saif, talked about the opening of the 300 MHz band for the 5G auction this year. However, our telecom service providers have not been able to provide basic-quality network coverage in many regions of the country.

As a citizen of Pakistan and having traveled to different cities recently, I would say that telecom firms in Pakistan require a lot of improvement. There are places (not far away) where you even don’t get any service for voice calls or texts. One such place is in Adhore, in Mansehra district. A few other places where network quality is dismal include Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Charsadda, etc.

Moreover, even on the M1 motorway, there are places where you don’t even have network coverage for voice calls and texts (like near the Jhari Kass interchange). What is more shocking is that even in the capital city of Islamabad, there are places where mobile internet performance is below par.

Reasons Behind Below-Par Network Performance

In our point of view, the main reason behind the below-par performance of telcos is the greater number of users and the smaller number of BTS (base transceiver stations). In this regard, senior industry experts said that GSM BTS capacity varies with technology. A single 2G BTS supports dozens to hundreds of calls and limited data. 3G handles more users and offers better data speeds. 4G BTS handles hundreds to over a thousand users, with higher data rates. 5G BTS can serve thousands concurrently.

Moreover, the actual capacity depends on factors such as spectrum and network design, mostly involving multiple BTSs for optimal network coverage and capacity. On the contrary, if a single BTS is responsible for providing coverage to too many UEs, it can become overloaded, which can lead to downgrades in performance, slower data speeds, dropped calls, and low quality of service for users.

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