“In Pakistan, a phone can manage solar output, deliver heatwave alerts, and power a woman’s first digital wallet. That’s not just smart tech—it’s smart scale,” said Aamir Ibrahim, CEO of Jazz. Addressing a global audience of telecom leaders, he urged the industry to move beyond metrics like speed and coverage and focus instead on digital inclusion, climate resilience, and real-world impact at the GSMA M360 Eurasia summit in Tashkent.
Speaking at the panel Scaling Smart: Eco-Efficiency Across Billions of Connected Devices, Ibrahim said that in emerging economies like Pakistan, smartphones are not aspirational gadgets—they’re essential tools that enable people to survive and thrive amid climate and economic pressures.
Pakistan isn’t just digitizing—it’s adapting, he said. In a country facing energy shortages, rising inequality, and climate volatility, connectivity is not a luxury. It’s a necessity for safety, productivity, and inclusion.
He highlighted the opportunity of convergence—where digital access, financial inclusion, and climate resilience reinforce each other. A single device, he explained, can help a farmer access weather alerts, connect a woman to mobile banking, and let families track solar output in real time. But such transformation is only possible when digital services are affordable, trusted, and relevant to people’s lives.
Ibrahim cited Pakistan’s fifth-place ranking on the global Climate Risk Index and pointed to the country’s massive grassroots energy shift: importing over 17GW of solar panels in 2024, becoming the world’s third-largest solar importer. He emphasized that this change wasn’t driven by policy—it was powered by people using mobile technology to take control of their energy futures. This, he said, is what distributed resilience looks like.
Despite progress, affordability remains a major challenge. Smartphones still cost more than 50 percent of a low-income user’s monthly income, and 14 percent of the population remains on outdated 2G/3G networks. Still, there is forward movement. Pakistan recently led South Asia in narrowing the mobile internet gender gap, with the proportion of connected women rising from 33 percent to 45 percent in a single year.
These aren’t just numbers—they’re stories of transformation, Ibrahim said.
He also outlined Jazz’s transition to a platform-based digital services company—or ServiceCo—focused on delivering impact at scale. Jazz was the first mobile operator in Pakistan to sunset its 3G network, accelerating the shift to faster, energy-efficient 4G services. It has adopted an asset-light infrastructure model, partnered with the National Disaster Management Authority to operationalize mobile-enabled early warning systems, and joined the CORE Alliance to promote device reuse and reduce e-waste.
We talk about scaling smart—but smart isn’t about specs. It’s about significance. The future won’t be built by pushing more tech. It will be built by connecting more people—to income, health, and safety, Ibrahim concluded.
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