‘Pakistan to lead Asia in adopting 5G internet technology’

E-Paper | July 23, 2026

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rahman has said that Pakistan will become the first country to test 5G technology.

Talking to APP on Monday, she said the government would start preparations for the introduction of 5G by 2021 and claimed that Pakistani people would adopt the new technology ahead of all other Asian countries.

The 4G spectrum licence was sold for $295 million and after getting 10 per cent advance tax by the bidder the total amount of $330m of the auction had been deposited in the national kitty, a ministry’s spokesperson said.

The number of broadband users increased from 3.7m to 44m over the past four years and now with the leap to 5G networks, “we can start to completely reshape entire industries, and rethink how we run our cities and manage critical national infrastructures”.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2017

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Shafqat Iqbal

Jul 04, 2017 10:48am

Appreciate yours approach of forward looking!

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Imran Ahmed

Jul 04, 2017 10:49am

Well done Minister!

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agnosrtic

Jul 04, 2017 11:25am

She would not be there to lick her words. Korea is number one in the whole world, followed by Japan, Europe, America and to a lesser extent by India. Pakistan will be the last amongst China, Japan, Korea, Europe and North America, THE LAST. Stop blabbering Madam, get back to work and show what has been done and what is planned for next 6 months to 12 months PERIOD!

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SAAF GO

Jul 04, 2017 11:28am

First in Asia with 5G ? So what ? What did you achieve with 3G and 4G ? With an extremely low Literacy rate, perhaps the lowest in Asia, and loadshedding for up to 18 hours a day, what do you expect to achieve with 5G ? Please do not befool the people. Do something concrete and take credit for that.

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leoman

Jul 04, 2017 11:29am

No Kalabagh Dam, No Burn centers, thousands of schools having no roofs, No clean water supply systems, No sewerage or drainage systems during rains, not enough street lights and numerous other day to day living requirements but Thanks God we are going to lead Asia.

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SALMAN ALI

Jul 04, 2017 11:45am

This is encouraging. However, can Minister also address the fact that Pakistan ranks at the bottom in Asian countries on Smart Phone adoption (23% in Q4 2016). Asia average is 51%. With such low ranking, it maybe difficult to attract investment in 5G.

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Ruquyah

Jul 04, 2017 11:51am

Asia means where .. most other asian countries in far east have 5G like Singapore

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Ahsoo

Jul 04, 2017 12:26pm

There are issues of electricity in country, water, sewerage and we are focusing on 5G while high-speed broadband services are not available either.

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sandy

Jul 04, 2017 12:31pm

according to a latest report pakistan lagged behind all other asian countries in internet speed.

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SaLAMAT KHAN

Jul 04, 2017 12:33pm

5G is a very high level of technology that no one has in fully implementable form. Its a very costly technology. Its something only hi-tech nations like USA, Japan, India and EU are taking it forward. Pakistan will never get it till these countries implement it first and becomes cheaper after a decade or so.

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Lilly

Jul 04, 2017 12:58pm

Wishful thinking by pakistani minister. I guess she has no idea how 5g would be operational. It requires significant investment from the telecom companies. With a shoe string budget and revenue through auctions pakistani telecom industry cannot invest the required funds. Minister should not fooll the people into thinking them pakistani technological readiness is in advanced stage. And morever there is no progress on digital transformation in pakistan. There is no connectedness. First pak should have a badic infrastructure to achieve that.

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Khalid

Jul 04, 2017 01:46pm

I guess the minister of technology is not aware as to who are the winners when it comes to telecommunications. in 2021, she won't be the minister, NS won't be the PM and PMLN will all but disappear. Making promises is the easy part minister, delivering on them is the real task.

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dheeraj kumar

Jul 04, 2017 02:07pm

Oh is there even 4G in Pak. I heard PAK is still on 3G?

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raja

Jul 04, 2017 02:28pm

comedy of the year

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Statistician

Jul 04, 2017 06:15pm

A person who seems to be chellanged in diffrentiateing bw telecomm and IT. This is the best person PMLN found for IT ministry! They should have left this ministry headless just like the Foreign ministry.

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alba

Jul 04, 2017 11:46pm

G5 cold be very helpful to Pakistani hospitals and surgeons, not to mention surgical patients. With G5 connectivity Nawaz Sharif would not have had to go abroad for heart bypass surgery.

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ali

Jul 05, 2017 12:28pm

funny enough! i think she is unaware of the fact that 3g and 4g available in Pakistan is lacking the actual internet speed . first measure should be to spread 3g n 4g signal across Pakistan.

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Solomon the king

Jul 05, 2017 01:46pm

Pakistan has the most expensive communication services including internet and quality of the speed of HSDPA and LTE (3g and 4g) pathetic and she talks about the 5G. She thinks she can fool this nation, a majority of whom uneducated.

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Telco. Man

Jul 05, 2017 04:29pm

North America is testing 5G for over a year now. 5G is not just about High Internet Speed, for a country to progress and to really take advantage of 5G you need to create that environment. How to use and benefit from it. It is not just download files, movies, songs, whatsapp, facebookin etc……. Society needs to be prepared and people willing to adapt (not misuse it) for this high tech world.

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Pakistani

Jul 05, 2017 06:03pm

@Ahsoo Does it require to have a brain of Neuro surgeon that this is the Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication and she is sharing the goals from her portfolio perspective. I can ask the other Minister to share the goals and actions respectively and not slam them for the job of another portfolio...

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Jul 05, 2017 10:31pm

3G is yet to reach many places ...lol

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