Pakistan’s Mobile Broadband subscribers cross 100mn mark

In a major achievement, the broadband subscription in Pakistan has reached a historic 100 million mark this year.

As per the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the achievement comes on the back of government policies, effective competition among telecom operators.

PTA stated that in 2012, there were less than 2 million subscriptions but after the introduction of 3G services, the figure jumped to 16 million in 2014 and 100 million in 2021. The telecom regulator informed that presently 87 percent of the country's population has access to internet/broadband services at one of the lowest rates in the region.

It informed that broadband is provided over 3G/4G networks with an average download speed of 17.7 Mbps and upload speed of 11.3 Mbps (mobile) which is above the speed levels in other regional countries.

It was learned that mobile data prices declined to only 0.70pc of the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita which is well below the UN Broadband Commission’s recommendation of less than 2pc.

PTA said that all four national Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs), SCO, and fixed-line broadband operators including PTCL collectively have broadband subscriptions of over 100 million.

Back in 2010, the Pakistan telecom sector reached 100 million mobile subscriptions, it launched the first-ever biometrically verified SIMs across the country in 2009 and implemented the world’s first open-source DIRBS in 2019.