Telecom sector revenue reached $15.35bn

ISLAMABAD: The growth rate of Pakistan’s telecommunication sector has been impressively fast-paced during the last four years as telecom sector revenue reached $ 15.35 billion during July 2013 to June 2017.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has indeed contributed a lot by bringing Mobile Broadband services – 3G, 4G, LTE, to the country and has contributed $ 4.42 billion to National exchequer during July 2014 to June 2017.

Statistics issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) have showed that number of mobile phone users reached 150 million by May 2018, as compared to 145.99 million by end of January 2018.

Telecom sector revenues during the first two quarters of FY 2017-18 touched Rs 235.5 billion, revealed the Economic Survey 2017-18.

Due to the enabling of telecommunication policies and spectrum auction for next-generation mobile services, broadband penetration rose from 3.7 million to 52 million, said the Economic Survey 2017-18.

The ministry official told APP to promote telecom industry in 2014, 3G licenses were awarded to Jazz, Telenor, Ufone, and Zong while the last one was also given the license of the 4G service. Later on, in 2016, Telenor received the 4G license and after that Jazz was awarded the same license in 2017.

He said, the Telecom Policy 2015 had been taken as a standard of reviewing and integration of numerous telecom sector policies into one National Telecom Policy and Abolishment of ICH regime.