ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rolled out 5G services on 440 mobile towers across the country as part of a broader push to upgrade its telecom infrastructure, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication was told on Tuesday.
Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General (retd) Hafeez Ur Rehman, briefing the committee, said the rollout on select towers was a significant milestone in the country’s digital transformation journey and would pave the way for faster internet access.
He said the regulator has also managed to lift the country’s overall internet performance, with Pakistan’s average internet speed now placed in the “medium” category, up from “average,” owing to sustained improvements in telecom infrastructure.
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The PTA chief, however, conceded that internet services outside the central parts of Islamabad had long remained sluggish. He cited his own hometown as an example, where speeds hovered around a mere 1 Mbps, and said efforts were under way to bring better connectivity to such underserved and remote areas.
Committee members were told that persistent electricity load shedding continues to be one of the biggest hurdles in delivering reliable telecom services nationwide. Officials briefing the panel said the country witnessed an average of 10 hours of load shedding in May alone, with some far-flung areas going without power for as long as 18 hours at a stretch.
They explained that such prolonged outages drain the backup batteries and generators installed at mobile towers, resulting in frequent disruptions to mobile signals and internet connectivity.
The committee was further informed that the prime minister has set up a special committee tasked with devising recommendations to ensure uninterrupted power supply to telecom towers, in a bid to minimise the fallout of load shedding on the country’s communication network.
