In an attempt to catch on with the rest of the world in terms of the latest technology, Pakistan Information Technology Minister Aminul Haq has announced that the government will introduce 5G wireless technology by December 2021.
In a statement, the IT minister said that the government was taking effective measures to introduce the latest service in Pakistan and it would ensure that this is done by the end of next year.
The trial run of 5G would start from a hospital in Islamabad and Zong, a Chinese telecom company, would help the government in this regard, he said. However, before this step, the government will have to connect Islamabad, Karachi, and Gwadar via fibre optics network, he added.
Furthermore, the IT ministry has established a policy committee on bidding for the 5G service. The committee has the representation of the members of all the stakeholders — telecom companies and the Frequency Allocation Board.
The committee is currently looking for an international consultant to auction the 5G licences, which would be followed by the biddingprocess, its starting price, and other conditions.
In August 2019, Pakistan successfully tested 5G network in the country. “Zong has become the first operator in Pakistan to successfully conduct a 5G trial and this is yet another milestone for the company,” Wang Hua, chairman and CEO of Zong, had said following the trials.
Khaleej Times had reported that the 5G service in Pakistan will be 100 times faster than the current levels, while the network will be 10 times faster than existing broadband connections available in the country. “5G home routers speed has been recorded at 4 gigabytes per second, which means that it can download a 50gb file in just two minutes,” the report had added.
But the road to 5G isn’t easy and Pakistan still has to go a long way to achieve this milestone. For example, the United States only has 5G coverage in 25 cities, whereas in China, only 50 cities have 5G coverage. “On top of it, the kind of 5G available for now is some kind of speed boost over 4G instead of the full-fledged 5G services,” said a report by Profit magazine.
