IN a welcome development, Minister for Information Technology Dr Umar Saif has held out an assurance that the 5G auction would take place within the next ten months. In a meeting with Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General (Retd) Hafeezur Rehman, he highlighted the urgency of dismantling in the 5G auction process and resolution of issues related to taxation, tele-density and spectrum distribution.
Pakistan was one of the few countries that started preparatory work much earlier for the launch of the latest 5G technology but regrettably it could not keep pace with the rest of the world because of the domestic chaotic conditions created by the political instability and a weaker economy. As per initial announcement and commitments by the relevant authorities, 5G was to be rolled out in three big cities of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi in mid-2023 but now the Minister is giving the deadline of mid-2024. Given the Minister’s track record of a doer, it is hoped that the new deadline would be achieved easily with active cooperation and collaboration of other ministries and institutions. Going by the fact that Pakistan is the seventh largest mobile phone market in the world, home to a remarkable 190 million mobile phone users, it makes sense to exploit the fuller potential of the country in the IT sector by ensuring time-bound implementation of all policy and other measures. It is also a matter of satisfaction that Dr Saif is fully cognizant of the concerns of the people about poor quality of service by cellular companies and IT service providers. There are also issues of quality of IT education being imparted in the country besides the level of skills of our manpower. There are genuine expectations that the professionally competent and visionary Minister would succeed in his plans to modernize the IT and telecom sector besides making contribution towards aligning the curricula with international standards.
