Telecom operators have warned Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that its Information Memorandum for the 5G spectrum auction is commercially unviable as it would require each operator to invest about $150 million annually in network infrastructure, besides spectrum costs.
PTA issued the Information Memorandum under a federal government policy directive to launch of 5G services in Pakistan.
It says operators must deploy at least 1,000 new cell sites every year which would require annual infrastructure investment of $150-200 million per operator over the next five years, which is too expensive.
Operators opine that this cannot be justified in Pakistan’s stranded market and have called for revisions from the regulator.
The proposed framework requires a phased 5G rollout, starting in Islamabad and the four provincial capitals.
PTA has also tightened quality-of-service requirements. The minimum 4G speed threshold has been increased from 4 Mbps to 20 Mbps, fixed broadband minimum speeds have been increased from 4 Mbps to 10 Mbps within one year, and the minimum 5G speed set at 50 Mbps.
Operators warned that this framework ignores existing financial pressures like low tariffs, high taxes, rising energy costs, and rupee depreciation.
PTA plans to auction 597.2 MHz of spectrum across six frequency bands and has sought stakeholder feedback. The final Information Memorandum will be issued after incorporating industry input. The 5G auction comes next.
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In a country where a simple phone call often takes multiple attempts to connect, bragging about 5G is a bad joke. Voice calls drop, connectivity fails, and people rely on WhatsApp and other VoIP apps because operator networks can’t deliver the basics. If you can’t make a reliable call, 5G isn’t innovation—it’s lipstick on a broken network.