Pakistan to Remain at Lowest in smartphone usage & 5G coverage: GSMA

GSMA in its new report has predicted that Pakistan will remain at the lowest end in Smartphone usage and 5G coverage among the countries in the Asia Pacific region by 2025. The report, titled “The Mobile Economy Asia Pacific 2021’, highlighted this staunch reality while revealing the status of 5G in different regions.

Apart from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Samoa will also be the last to roll out 5G services in their countries by 2023. The report revealed that  India, Cambodia, and Brunei Darussalam will roll out 5G services by 2022. The report maintained that South Korea was the first country to roll out 5G in 2018 which was followed by Australia,  Maldives, and New Zealand in 2019.

Pakistan to Remain at Lowest in smartphone usage & 5G coverage

Even in 2020, Guam, Japan, Laos, Northern Mariana Islands, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand launched 5G in their countries. In 2021,  Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia joined the 5G pool.

“Up to 74 percent of Pakistanis will use smartphones in the next four years up from 51 percent, while smartphone users in Bangladesh are likely to be 62 percent against 41 percent in 2020”.

The report predicted that by 2025, 80 percent population globally will be using 5G smartphones, which is an increase from 68 percent in 2020.

When it comes to broadband usage, 42 percent of the population will have a connection in Pakistan by the end of 2025. In 2020, Pakistan had just 27 percent broadband usage among which 10 percent is taken under telecom coverage.

“However, the results will be different in coming 18 months mainly because of three factors which include IT and telecom infrastructure development under the Universal Service Fund (USF) projects and the outcome of upcoming spectrum auction which will expand IT and telecom services to a large un-served population,”

Syed Amin Ul Haque, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication responded to these predictions in a very positive manner. He revealed that the government is working on several initiatives in this domain that will accelerate the 5G  launch and usage in Pakistan. He believes with these efforts, Pakistan would be able to overcome the projections made by GSMA in its latest report. He further added that the GSMA report was compiled on the basis of ground realities in 2020.

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