Licenses of all sorts of telecom companies — including cellular and WLL operators — in Pakistan have been billed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority as technology neutral for two decades now, however, it was only this week that the licenses were termed “Technology Neutral” by a court of the law.
Thanks to the ruling, PTA officials including former Chairman of PTA, has been vindicated as they were being investigated by NAB for allowing Warid Telecom (now part of Jazz after merger) in 2014 to offer 4G services on its existing spectrum that it had bought in 2014.
NAB had maintained that the license Warid had back then was for 2G technology and that it was illegal to allow the operator to deploy a 4G network on the same spectrum and license terms.
PTA team had maintained that cellular licenses issued to mobile phone companies explicitly had “technology neutral” mentioned in the terms and that they followed the license terms in true letter and spirit.
NAB, while it didn’t consult any domain expert, was perusing the case against Chairman and other top officials of PTA that was ultimately challenged in Islamabad High Court.
Court, in its verdict, said that the investigation officer was indeed disputing the interpretation of the policy issued by the federal government.
Not to mention, NAB investigation officer has requested the court for more time to submit a follow up on the matter.
It must be mentioned here that Ufone is also allowed to offer 4G services on its existing spectrum that it was using for 2G and 3G services.
For a layman’s understanding, operators are allowed — through license terms — to offer 2G, 3G, 4G or even 5G services on whatever spectrum they have bought. It is then up to operators to make sure that there’s no congestion on the network.
There are three things that are co-related in order to find out if the spectrum is enough or not:
- Speed
- Number of Users
- Size of spectrum.
If you have a smaller number of users then you can use a smaller spectrum to offer X speed. If the number of users grow with the same spectrum then the speed of the network will reduce. If you want to maintain the speed with higher number of users then operators need to add more spectrum.
But the crux is that technology-wise an operator can offer any G (2G, 3G, 4G or 5G) on a given spectrum. This essentially means that current mobile phone operators would be allowed to offer 5G with the same license they currently have, with no additional fee.
However it’s going to be a different story on how they would be able to offer 5G services on the same spectrum (size and band), and that’s where government could be making money, i.e. by selling more spectrum to phone operators.
We clearly need professionals in govt bodies such as NAB, Judiciary, Civil Services, etc for decision making and also to provide strategy direction. The world has moved on towards block chain enabled documentation and we are still dependent on paper files for approvals, which are only granted once these files carry currency notes in them.
Its seems NAB made blunder , technology free verdict mean , that mean operator don’t need to pay for 5G
author here just pointed out the number of users for the speed of various technologies, where as bandwidth is the main issue for any technology.u can see 4g/LTE on ur cellphone on 2.5MHz band but it would be like BMW tag on suzuki FX. Moreover, if someone is offering 5g on 3GHz band it is like Educator brand of Beaconhouse. Dont make yourself fool by logos. The real game starts when u have the real weapon in your hand.
Dude you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Banda thora research kar leta hai
Read more about electromagnetic spectrum. You are confused…
There is no doubt in the honesty and integrity of Dr Ismail. He is one of the best in industry and these incompetent NAB officials issued warrants because they cannot interpret a simple clause
He was my teacher ?
Correct but no warrants have been issued by NAB. They were investigating the matter and harassing them in the name of investigation and had put their names on the Exit Control List.
Something of similar sorts is happening with David Khaqan abbasi ad well. Where NAB officials know Zero about LNG Terminals and all that Shebang… But they act on whims and desires of Amraan Kaan.. you’ll see Shahid Khaqan will be vindicated as well
Then why PTA asked Zong to stop advertising 5G in their advertisements?
To save the Chairman PTA claimed licenses are technology neutral but not to offer 5G using the same license ??️
Because Zong was testing 5G on a spectrum issued by PTA on trial basis for free. it was not for commercial purposes. And Zong was not making 5G trials on its existing spectrum.
NAB wanted to nab former Finance Minister by pressurizing PTA officers to become approver against him.
NAB was supported by top management of FAB (Frequency Allocation Board) who held grudge against former PTA Authority because it refused to revise FAB’s salary packages.
For their petty interests, these two organizations held entire telecom sector hostage for more than one and a half year.
Mafia won and NAB again could not be able to dig out white color crime.. Courts in Pakistan support the white collar culprits against NAB inquiries.. Clearly shows, if everything in Pakistan was clean and happened as per procedure, then who made corruption.. I think, its we the GENERAL PUBLIC… LIFAFA Authors like AMIR ATTA also supports these criminals by confusing the things through levelling the feild..
you have no idea how spectrum auctions and their renewal works around the world. Go to any international online forum and ask what “technology neutral” spectrum means. Please do read all the answers for NAB guys as well.