'Advisory Committee for 5G Planning' formed to define roadmap

09 Jan, 2020

The committee will develop strategic plan and roadmap for 5G technology in Pakistan with the formulation of working groups for 5G spectrum management, telecom infrastructure development, telecom regulations review including health and safety and 5G applications and use cases.

The committee comprises members from Ministry of IT and Telecommunication, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Frequency Allocation Board (FAB), PM Office SRIU (Strategic Reforms Implementation Unit), PM Taskforce on IT & Telecom, academia, cellular mobile operators and telecom vendors.

Zong has successfully completed official 5G video call and also reached the mind-boggling speeds of over 1.5GB per second during testing. Zong is committed to pave the way for more cutting-edge and innovative use-cases in the coming days that will set a benchmark for the industry and build on Zong's existing technical superiority.

Jazz has also successfully tested the fifth generation of mobile technology. The 5G trials of Jazz aimed to test the improvement in performance of the network as a result of this technology. These trials were conducted at Jazz's Digital Headquarters in Islamabad, where average download speeds of 1452 Mbps and upload speed of 68 Mbps was achieved along with successful HD voice & video calls.

The PTA has granted six months permission to Jazz and Zong mobile operators for conducting test and trial of 5G technology under limited environment and non-commercial basis.

According to PTA, in line with the policy directive of the government of Pakistan, the PTA has issued "Framework for Test and Development of Future Technologies (Particularly Fifth Generation (5G) Wireless Networks in Pakistan)" for facilitating testing/trial only of 5G technology and related services in Pakistan.

As a follow-up of the abovementioned policy directions, the PTA has granted six months permission to PMCL (Jazz) and CMPak (Zong) to conduct test and trial of 5G technology under limited environment. The permission is limited to testing purpose only on non-commercial basis.

Commercial launch of 5th Generation services in Pakistan would be done in due course following a process involving policy directions by the government of Pakistan and necessary regulatory approvals.

According to PTA, the rapid growth in mobile data traffic and consumer demand for enhanced mobile broadband experience have led to an increasing emphasis on the upcoming fifth generation of mobile technology (5G). Seen as a comprehensive wireless-access solution with the capacity to address the demands and requirements of mobile communication for IMT-2020 and beyond, it is projected that this technology will operate in a highly heterogeneous environment and provide ubiquitous connectivity for a wide range of devices, new applications and use cases.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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