He recently conducted a 5G call to Beijing with success
Pakistan may launch 5G services in two years’ time as the country looks to join other developing nations in the region in the technological race.
Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Syed Aminul Haque said that 5G services will launch in Pakistan by December 2022 as the infrastructure development will take about two years. Haque had recently made a test call between Islamabad and Beijing and was impressed by the overall quality of the experience. He also felt that the availability of the technology will help country in economic prosperity.
“I think December 2022 is the ideal date (to launch the 5G service) as it would take one to two years to improve infrastructure and increase optic fiber penetration across the country,” he said. “It means that when the modern state-of-the-art technology comes to Pakistan, the country will make great economic progress.”
Haque said that the government is in liaison with relevant stakeholders and will ensure that the required infrastructure is in place for the technology to be launched.
“We are in touch with relevant stakeholders to improve and modernize the infrastructure. We will launch 5G in 2022 and prepare for its (spectrum) auctions,” he said.
A critical sector for the economy
According to reports, $3.5 billion will be spent on the improvement of mobile networks in Pakistan between 2019 and 2025. The total spent by all the South Asian countries will clock at about $67 billion. According to PTA, Pakistan has over 169 million cell phone users in the country and about 85 million of them are 3G/4G users. It is estimated that the mobile sector will contribute $24 billion to the economy by 2024, amounting to 6.6% of the GDP.