Launch Of 5G Services in Pakistan Not Possible: Ministry informs NA panel

According to the latest reports, a delegation of the telecom industry recently discussed with the National Assembly Standing Steering Committee on Information Technology that the 5G services launch in Pakistan would be impossible amid the electricity price hike. In addition to that, the telecom sector representatives also briefed the committee that the profit margin of the Telecom industry has been reduced significantly due to the recent economic crisis. Due to this, the launch of 5G Services in Pakistan has now become impossible.

Launch of 5G Services In Pakistan Has Become Impossible Due to Power tariff Hike

The committee was told that out of the total profit earned by the mobile companies, 1.5 percent went to the Universal Service Fund. Owing to the serious financial crunch Pakistan is facing right now, cellular companies could not even import telecom-related gadgets. The point worth mentioning here is that the letters of credit could not be opened, which is no doubt a hampering service.

The telecom representatives asked the committee to forward recommendations to the federal government in order to solve their problems. Officials of the IT Ministry further discussed the reason for financial crimes. They said that illegal SIMs are the major cause behind such crimes. 52,000 such SIMs have been even confiscated. PTA launched live biometric verification in order to counter the issuance of illegal SIMs. SIMs can not be issued through dummy fingerprints now that’s a good thing to control such crimes.

The PTA officials stated that there are stringed several challenges and impediments to launching the 5G Services in Pakistan. Among them, the main ones are:

• low handset and optic fiber cable (OFC) penetration
• increasing inflation
• the low average revenue per user (ARPU)
• rising operating expenses (OPEX) coupled with high taxation

We all know that many developed countries have deployed 5G technology by now. Pakistan is beset with the above-mentioned challenges in offering the said services. So, these impediments could potentially affect the 5G Launch in Pakistan.

PTA is claimed to also work with the industry and other stakeholders in order to provide detailed recommendations on the 5G rollout in Pakistan. In order to support 5G, the percentage of Fibre-To-The Tower/Site (FTTT/FTTS) needs to be increased. Other technological innovations for broadband proliferation such as Wi-fi 6E for enhanced latency Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) needs to be facilitated.

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