Pakistan to Get its First 4.5G LTE Advanced Network in Just Few Months

wi-tribe is all set to deploy Pakistan’s first high-speed LTE Advanced (LTE-A) network and make it live by around May 2017, we have checked.

According to details made available to ProPakistani, wi-tribe has already signed Huawei for deployment of this high-speed — also billed as 4.5G — network in at least five cities where wi-tribe currently operates.

Newly planned LTE Advanced network from wi-tribe will be capable of delivering speeds of up to 100Mbps per household within the next few months. This speed cap will be raised to 200Mbps per household by the end of 2018 while — with time when more advanced CPEs (customer premises equipment) will be made available — the same technology will be able to deliver speeds of up to 400Mbps per household in or around 2019.

Once deployed, wi-tribe will become the first operator in South Asia and the Middle East to deploy the technology on its rich 3.5Ghz spectrum.

wi-tribe, in a statement shared with ProPakistani, said that this network upgradation is part of HB Group’s $50 million investment plan that it had announced when it acquired Wi-tribe from Qatar’s national telecom company Ooredoo.

Commenting on the investment, Chairman of the Wi-tribe Supervisory Board and Former UK Government Minister Shahid Malik said:

“Within six months time, over 1 Million households will have access to the fastest wireless home broadband service in Pakistan using the most advanced technology currently available anywhere in the world.

In practice, this will mean a revolution in terms of the amount of data Wi-tribe can offer its customers, but more importantly, it will mean lightening speeds of up to 100 Mbps for a single user household.

This type of speed is unheard of in our industry and if you couple that with huge GB volumes available, we will be able to offer the best internet packages in Pakistan in terms of speed, volume, reliability and value for money.”

Not to mention, this network up-gradation is wi-tribe’s second major investment after it acquired the multi-million dollar spectrum in August 2016 to double its network capacity.

wi-tribe told ProPakistani that it will have its LTE-A network live by May 2017 while 50% of its network will be upgraded to LTE-A services by the end of July 2017.

Shahid Malik, while revealing future prospects of this advanced network, said that this is the beginning of an investment journey and by the end of 2018, wi-tribe has plans to be delivering bandwidth speeds of up to 200 Mbps to single user households, and when the CPE technology catches up with our LTE-A, 8 transmit and 8 receive technology, the company will be able to deliver beyond lightening fast speeds of up to 400 Mbps in 2019.

With LTE Advanced network deployed, wi-tribe will be positioned to offer match-less broadband internet services for home and business users, coupled with digital entertainment solutions and live TV as well.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • Witribe sadly has only 21 MHz of spectrum in 3.5 ghz range. With Wateen now being acquired by Mobilink, Mobilink will have a whopping 63 MHz of 3.5 ghz spectrum which will make Mobilink the complete leader in LTE and LTE-Advanced. With 63Mhz Mobilink can provide 1Gig LTE speeds at home. This is a major disruption to FTTH and gpon also because you can get customers very quickly.

    • Dear Witribe has 40 MHz in 3.5 GHz. 20 MHz witribe plus 20 MHz they purchased from world call recently. And LTE advance services require minimum 40 MHz spectrum. So Witribe is all set to launch LTE advanced services.

      Moreover Wateen has 20 MHz in 3.5 GHz frequency, Did Wateen officially acquired some company? How Wateen’s spectrum become 63 MHz? And remember that Wateen was not the part of the deal of Warid with Jazz.
      You can correct my info by providing sources.

      • Can you explain please if it somehow relate with volte service? Do you see any chances in future of volte in Pakistan? Thanks

      • Please do your research before misinforming readers

        1. Witribe has 21 Mhz spectrum in 14 regions. It has got this from Burraq. WorldCall has only 21 MHz bands outside karachi lahore islamabad pindi and faisalabad. Witribe has service towers only in karachi lahore islamabad and faislabad and therefore cannot provide this LTE 4.5 in the main cities . because even with Witribe and Worldcall combined it only has 21 MHz in khi lhr isb and fsb. I’m very sorry to take air out of your argumint and you can check facts on PTA website in spectrum section.

        2. Wateen has 42mhz of 3.5 ghz spectrum in main cities because it bought the spectrum from DHA on whose name it did bid. It also bought some spectrum from dvcom before. Wateen is in best position to launch LTE 4.5 in karachi lahore and islamabad but doesn’t have the investment. Now when Mobilink buy Wateen, Mobilink already have 21 MHz which it got from Dancom and WOL company buy in 2005-2006. Remember the Mobilink infinity. It was running on this WiMAX spectrum. So wateen and Mobilink combination will have 63 MHz.

        3. Only remaining spectrum of 21 MHz is with few other small players like Qubee and giant like PTCL who can be bought also. Nayatel micronet has bought one company with only spectrum in faisalabad. Maybe Mobilink buy nayatel also and get nayatel spectrums also.

        3.5 ghz spectrum now is the main spectrum for LTE Advanced technology and work very well in combining with other 3G or 4G spectrum using CARRIER AGGREGATION standard.
        Cellular mobile companies should now buy this spectrum because it is cheap but will be very expensive later.

          • Good effort going through website and reading.

            Now follow what I’m saying.

            1. Witribe has 21mhz in all 14 telecom regions of Pakistan. This is band 3. This is not enough to run a LTE network of any type in dense city like karachi Ktr lahore Ltr or islamabad itr

            2. Wateen has band 42mhz, 2 x 21 MHz (bands 5+6) in most important and dense cities. This is in Gujranwala telecom region, faisalabad, islamabad, Lahore and karachi.

            3. Mobilink through subsidiary Linkdotnet has 21 MHz across Pakistan except 1 or 2 areas.

            Now when Mobilink buy wateen and combine they will have a gigantic 63 MHz of spectrum in most valuable cities of Karachi Lahore and Islamabad and Faisalabad. Rest cities are practically useless, except could be Gujranwala. This also they can get spectrum later from other operator like you said WorldCall may sell it.

            4 Superdiaglue and Mytel is bought by nayatel micronet group

            5 sharp communication is Qubee and they got this by buying from Telecard which owned this spectrum first. They got it very cheap and now the value will be very high.

        • “Please do your research before misinforming readers”

          Yes we should always research things and only then proceed to misinform people :)

        • This is very good misinformation. How did this happen when Mobilink is almost bought Wateen.
          Qubee and Witribe should combine into one and that is only way to survive.

  • بہت اچھی بات ہے شکر ہے پاکستان میں بھی ایل ٹی ای ایڈوانس لانچ ہو رہا ہے اور امید ہے اور جو 4جی کا ایک لائسنس رہ گیا ہے وہ بھی ایل ٹی ای ایڈوانس لانچ کرنے میں معاون ہو گا

    • Aon bhai LTE advance services ke liye kam az kam 40 MHz spectrum ki zarurat hoti hai. Agar Zong b 1800 MHz wala spectrum le le toh b uska total 1800 MHz spectrum 25 MHz banay ga. Jis pe LTE advanced services possible nahin. Han Zong Carrier aggregation kar k 60-70 Mbps average speed easily de sakta hai.
      Mazay ka baat yeh hai ke Zong ka sara 1800 MHz spectrum ek line mein hai. Beech myn kisi aur ka spectrum nahin. Agar zong yeh wala b jeet gaya toh us k paas 1835 se le kar 1850 tak total spectrum aa jaye ga. Jo us ke liye bohat faida mand ho sakta hai.

  • extremely good news but could anyone tell me the usage of 100 mbps (other then downloading movies from torrents and watching videos on youtube). such high speeds are required by major servers (which are definitely not there in homes). for normal users, a speed of 10mbps is more then enough, with the condition it is provided uninterrupted.

      • sir sir sir……. its very true u r, for experts like you, there is CBR (committed bit rate), but y to spend so much on LTE-A when there are many areas without even 3G!

        • I hate PTCL more than you but there is no alternative just like you have to stick with Lesco for electricity regardless how pathetic there services are :(

          • Kaka G, LESCO ka kaam hai electricity provide karna aur bill charge karna. Yeh koi murgh pulao thodi hai jo Savour ka acha nahin laga to Haq Bahu ka try kar lo. They provide electricity, and charge money for it. Even if we had several distributors of electricity in Pakistan, all of them would have the same service quality. IESCO used to be pathetic, but things are improving big time, and same goes with LESCO. Most parts of Lahore get excellent service with prompt response times in case of a complaint.

            • i which world do live , please go out out of Pakistan and see
              there are multiple companies in many countries like you have in telecom, isp
              thats called competition and Lesco ,Fesco Iesco have monopoly because its not privatized in Pakistan like we used to have PTCL many years before

    • clould based backups, video conferencing, acquiring education online by interacting with your professor and class mates via the net: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course . maybe virtual reality or augmented reality applications in future. the world marches on. only pakistanis think we don’t need more bandwidth.

      of course all of this is only possible if they have sufficiently large volume limits. 100mbps with 300GB volume limit is useless.

    • Come out of your 240p YouTube world. Netflix 4K HDR requires at least 30MBPS. And if you have multiple family members who are using the internet when one person is streaming Netflix, your bandwidth requirements will easily cross 50Mbps.

  • Dear Aamir Attaa. I am from Lahore city where we are still not have access to ptcl fiber lines. Our area telephone exchange name is Kahna Nau PTCL Exchange and we are living very near to this exchange but here is no FiberOptic connections. We have requested many times but exchange is not upgraded as yet. I would like to request you kindly highlight this issue with higher ups in ptcl. many thanks

  • in the US even 3g is faster than our LTE speeds…. Bogus bogus, people have leaped towards Gigabit LTE and Google Fiber with speeds of upto 1Gb per second downloads, and we are thrilled to get 150 kb per second wow …….

  • Is this really real?? How can be this ignored country is getting too much lime light? :S The situation seems cheesy…

    • pings are determined by Pakistan’s international bandwidth links and our location in the world. so they will not improve unless you gamers get off your behinds and start hosting servers in this very country.

      • Yeah like every game has a custom server option right? What about AAA titles? Not every online game has custom servers.

        • i’m not a gamer. i’m just pointing out that latency is a function of geographical distance. you want low latency? put servers closer to where you are.

        • Then move to EU. Companies will only provide local servers when they think country have enough buyers of their product.
          If only 50-100 people are going to buy Battlefield 1 legit in Pakistan then DICE isn’t going to make a local server in Pakistan. Heck they don’t even have local server in India or UAE.
          Ping is dependent on your distance from the server so no local server = no better pings. Sorry but increasing speed isn’t going to improve your ping.

          • I very well know that speed doesn’t affect latency. And that is your response? Move to EU? Good God mate.

            Ever heard about Warface? Paladins? MechWarrior Online? They have dedicated South Asian servers. Too bad they don’t offer good ping. But why they have SEA servers? Because they have a large fricking player base from India and Pakistan. Not only our distance, but our routing is pathetic too. Consistent 130-140ms pings can also give proper entertainment if it is stable but that is not the case most of the time here in Pakistan.

  • Chahay 4g aye ya 9g aye…Ppl r still going to use it to access Facebook…Kya faida itni investment ka

  • LOL.. we already get 100Mbps+ 4G LTE speed in INDIA (30Mhz in 2300Mhz band).
    INDIA also deploy LTE Advanced (LTE-A) network in combined 30Mhz (2300Mhz band) + 10MHz (1800Mhz band) carrier aggregation. speed touched 200Mbps.

    we also have Jio Giga FIBER 1Gbps home broadband and DTH service.

    • yeah pakistan is really backward (i’m serious). i can’t believe you are comparing india to pakistan. have a look at the size of the relative IT industries. $100bn in exports in India versus just $2-3bn by pakistan. really there is no comparison.

      also i think propk is moving up in the world when it starts to attract indian trolls like yourself. you lot don’t bother with the smaller sites.

    • Bhai bol to aise rahe ho jaise YouTube pe Jio, Airtel, Vodafone aur Idea k speedtest available he nhn hain, anyways khwab dekhna achi baat hai k india is getting 100 Mbps on their Lte.
      Keep dreaming ?

      • lol.. kuch logo ko speed nhi milte toh iska mtlb yeh nhi ki All INDIA 4G network khrb hai..
        and ya its true Vodafone aur Idea ka 4G bohot bkws hai, aur dono company ab merge bhi hoga, after merge dono company k 4G network bohot strong ho jayega..
        but abhi mai Jio 4G ka baat kr raha hu..
        Jio 4G ka average speed 20Mbps+ hai and mujhe 90Mbps+ easily mil jata hai..
        10GB ka file mai 15mins me dwnld krta hu..
        aur most important INDIA me Jio 4G completly FREE hai + voice calls bhi free any network..
        pichle 7months se and aage 31th march tak free hai..
        pakistan me koi operator ki itna aukad nhi ki FREE 4G de.. :D :D
        and ya Jio ka free 4G k chalte kisi kisi place me network overload bhi ho raha hai..
        thatswhy logo ko speed nhi mil raha hai..
        but Jio per day apna network upgrade kr raha hai.. and Trillions kharch kiya hai INDIA me 4G LTE launch k liye.. 31th march tak woh problem solve ho jayega..
        & Jio Giga fiber ka speed youtube pe dekhlo 900Mbps+ hai :D :D

          • FREE re..
            maine kya kaha.. Jio 4G free hai truly unlimited free pichle 7months se..
            koi paise nhi dena hai..
            jaise tumhara TELENOR pakistan me FREE trial diya tha 4G jab start kiya tha.. waise Jio diya hai june 2016 to march 2017 tak FREE hai..
            abhi tak koi paise nhi pay krna para hai.. aur sath me phone calls & LIVE TV bhi free hai..

            aur other operator ki baat kare so Jio free 4G k chalte baki operators k rate pichle 2months se 10 to 20 times kam hue hai..

            AIRTEL/VODAFONE/IDEA 4G Rs250 (INR) me 10GB 4G de raha hai..
            Rs999 (INR) 40GB 4G hai..

            AIRCEL 3G apna Rs499 (INR) me 40GB 3G de raha hai..

            one more thing INDIA me online recharge site/app har 2 se 3din me ek new app launch hota hai jo hamesa 50% to 100% cashback offer deta hai first recharge pe..

            jaise abhi pichle 2 din se ek new Haptik app chal raha hai Rs1000 recharge/DTH pe Rs500cashback. so yeh sab se recharge aur cheap ho jata hai..

            INDIA me uber/ola jaise wallet money ko recharge/DTH/electricity bill etc me bhi use kr skte hai..
            jisse iske cashback offers ko recharge me use kr lete hai..

              • 6,622 INR ?? or 1103 INR ?? apna PKR me he bata do.. mai currency convert kr lenge..
                50 GB k koi pack nhi hai yaha..

                Rs999 k 3G/4G pack hai Airtel/voda/idea ka 40GB + Rs250 me 10GB.
                so Rs1249 (INR) me 50GB pakar lo..

                AIRCEL 3G k 40GB hai Rs499 me..
                or BSNL 3G k toh Rs1099 (INR) me truly unlimited 3G hai, no fup..

                but Aircel 3G & BSNL 3G har place me sahi nhi hai..
                jaha Aircel 3G & BSNL 3G k network sahi hai woh log enjoy krte hai cheapest plan ka..

              • 4G handset k price kitne hai tumhare woha ??
                i mean 1GB RAM k 4G VoLTE smartphone k starting price ??

                VoLTE toh pakistan me hai nhi ?? right ??
                4G me call kaise lete ho 2G/3G me chala jata hai ??

                • Handsets ki alag alag prices hain same as India jitna gurh daalo ge utna meetha hoga, anyways yaar it’s all depend on service I don’t know what speed are you getting right now, I’m getting 13-18 Mbps on my 3G and it is a good speed, maybe you are getting 20-25 Mbps on 4G it’s good for you. Anyways it was nice talking to you. Peace ✌?

        • Proof? His toilets claim can be verified, as proofs are available. Thos saboot hai to bhonk!

          • India has toilets.. 90s ki baat 2017 me maat bola kro..
            Thos saboot chahiye toh wait for few months..
            google maps India me restaurant, toilets etc search me add kr raha hai..
            phir i will give you..
            but i have one ques.. tum pakistan wale hamesa India k toilets k bare me bolte ho.. tumlogo ko itni toilet kyun lagta hai yaar ?? apna ilaj karalo.. :D :D

          • Yar tameez se baat karo us say, woh ki impression le ga k Pakistani aisay hotay hain? Us nay jab koi ghalat baat nahi hum se aur aik pakistani website pe mehmaan hai oh humara, aisay respect karwao ge apnay mulk ki? Be decent to him as long as he is.

          • yup example RAW in Afghanistan,Balochistan,Fata. They spread terrorism even in their own country. Par yeh nahi mantey.

            • Yup, terrorism phelane mein ye top par hain ye sab he jaante hain, kashmir mein jo kuch kar rahe hain wo sab k saamne hai, but koi bhi Pakistan India k phadde k beech mein aane ki himmat nhn karta, ye maamla dialogue se hal hoga aur us k liye mil kar bethna zaruri hai par Modi wo banda nhn hai jis k sath baat ki jaye koi sensible govt aye to kuch ho sakta hai, Pak Ind k log sukoon se jeena chahte hain par beech mein Extremists baat banne nhn dete

      • Bhai pehle apne foujiyon ko roti to dedo aye din wo bichare rote rehte hain, toilet baad mein bana lena ?

        • hahahah.. pakistan army ko khilane k liye paise nhi hai.. :D :D
          INDIA me ek movie bhi bana tha.. pakistan army ko khilane k liye paise nhi hote hai pak govt. k pas.. :D :D

    • LOL.. bas 200Mbps? we get over 400Mbps on our PTCL home broadband! And our LTE provides upto 800Mbps speeds….

      • home broadband ka bhi bataye hai..
        we have Jio Giga FIBER 1Gbps home broadband and DTH service.

        200Mbps wireless broadband ki baat kr raha tha..

        • Very good. You should regularly visit here and let us know what’s going on at Indian side. By the way what’s your name n which city u from?

          • why do you want to know my name ?? is it INDIAN name is not enough for you ?? i am from East INDIA.

  • the same HB Group as SkyTelecom in Kashmir is looting public by providing cable net in ajk for 0.5mb connection for rs 2000 with max download speed of 60kpbs

  • Zong MBBS k signal weak hon to kon c device behter rahey gi jis me zong sim use kar sakon or device k sath antina b ho to behter please help ……..

    • 4G Wingle Telenor or Zong Huawei E8372
      4G Cloud Huawei E5573 Zong Old one as new Zong Cloud and Telenor cloud not has Antenna Option
      PTCL Charji Cloud EC5377

      You can use any of these. I have all in stock

  • Thanx for the article

    Few Questions Though

    Q.1 Do we need to upgrade our devices ?
    Q.2 Are they going to improve coverage by add new antenna sites?
    Q.3 I am a new costumer(Going to be) …Should I wait for the upgradation….
    Q.4 Like wateen do they provide some sort of external antenna for areas with lower signal strength?

  • No use bcz these companies put a download limit and that’s really important for me bcz i don’t want a 100mbps if I have to restrict myself to 10, 20, 30gb etc..

  • Lets see if this 4.5G etc etc will bring any benefit to consumers as well or it will just be used for marketing. I’ve been a witribe customer and there’s wasn’t much difference between their connection and a dial up connection


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