Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has hinted that auction of next generate 3G and 4G spectrum for AJK and Gilgit and Baltistan is on the way in near future.
Without giving a timeline or any details, a relatively vague statement posted on PTA’s said:
The process for Next Generation Mobile services Award has already begun and soon people of AJ&K and GB will enjoy the high speed wireless broadband services in their areas.
For those who don’t know, 3G and 4G spectrum auction held in April 2014 didn’t include AJK and Gilgit and Baltistan regions.
PTA, in response to a ProPakistani question recently, had said that Kashmir Council will have to approve the request from regulator that had asked AJK government’s consent for allowing operators to start 3G and 4G services in the regions.
It is still unclear if 3G and 4G spectrum in AJK will be auctioned through fresh bidding or already operating players will be granted spectrum as per their respective spectrum block sizes against a flat fixed fee.
For GSM licenses, back in 2005 when a massive earthquake had hit the northern areas, all Pakistani cellular operators were given service extension to offer cellular services in AJK at a fixed fee.
PTA said that this decision will be based upon policy directive from MoIT, which will be issued after the consent of Kashmir Council.
Below is complete statement issued on PTA’s website:
In Pakistan, currently five cellular mobile operators i.e. Telenor Pakistan, Pakistan Mobile Communication Limited (PMCL/Mobilink), PTML (Ufone), Warid Telecom and China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak) are providing services using GSM, UMTS and LTE technology.
In Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB), there are six cellular mobile operators i.e. Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, CMPak, Warid and Special Communication Organization (SCO) are providing services in the said area.
The operators have covered most part of the AJ&K and have also extended services to main localities of GB.
Now, as a result of this, mobile services with data facilities are available in far flung mountainous areas of the country.
The process for Next Generation Mobile services Award has already begun and soon people of AJ&K and GB will enjoy the high speed wireless broadband services in their areas.
Good
@AAMIR ATTAA If you have any news on when the last remaining 4G license will be auctioned, please let us know. I am talking about the 4G license that was not sold during the last auction.
PTA has so far not succeed for auctioning remaining 4 g license
they are working on another company and talks already initiated with qatar.
they want new entrant with 4G services on the go
This will be good news for our fellow pakistanis in kashmir :) This proves that we are one :) no force in the world can divide pakistan into further parts ! We will prove that we are one. We are united.
ahaan
how Bangladesh separated from us?
some incompetents lost the war I guess
*partiotism finished**cursing the government**getting visa for UK*
Y’a happy now?
not cursing government
you are not enough mature to understand
I guess youre right….
It is great new for
Tourism Industry in Gilgit & Baltistan. It would be helpful for foreign
tourist to stay connected with home + internet any where in GB. Hope to see
3G-4G LTE Coverage On District Level in GB. Most Tourists enter Pakistan
from China Border, enjoy, praise the unhidden beauties of Pakistan then come to
Islamabad, goto Lahore and exit Wahgah towards India.
SCO will get 3G license. rest I don’t know what and how they do.
Finally the news came for which I was waiting…
Does PTA have the jurisdiction in AJK & GB????
@aamir7 can’t digest my comment and deleted.
It wasn’t abusive nor unethical
I said truth and only truth.
its more than a year and its still not confirm about launching of 3G in ajk… so poor PTA
aamir bahi can u confirm the date of launching? by using ur own resources, we are waiting from a year
its very hard to tell a timeline as of yet.
how about now? its been 4 months!