Pakistan needs to focus on robust 4G rollout: Julian Gorman

ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan has set the target to commercially launch 5G internet by December 2022, a global expert in the field suggests that it should rather be a long-term goal for the whole region.

“4G penetration is less than 40 percent in Pakistan, whereas the pioneer 5G markets in Asia Pacific have well over 70 percent mobile broadband penetration and user penetration of 4G over 80 percent,” Julian Gorman, GSMA’s Head of Asia Pacific, said while talking to the scribe.

Gorman highlighted that countries in the region including Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and those with similar conditions like Indonesia the 5G have longer-term opportunities, largely because there is still a lot of room to grow for 4G, which is the dominant mobile technology across the Asia Pacific and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

He added that it was not clear “now” whether consumers in many of the region’s emerging markets will pay more for a 5G service, particularly when 4G will meet their needs in the majority of cases.

Gorman stressed that for these markets, the focus is on “getting 4G right” and advanced features such as identity, digital commerce and payments, and cross-ecosystem collaboration, etc. pave way for the launch of 5G at the right time.—PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021