Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunications Shaza Fatima Khawaja announced on Friday that Pakistan would auction the 600 megahertz (MHz) spectrum next month to provide better internet speeds and roll out 5G in the country.

In a meeting last week, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved the process of auctioning the 600 MHz spectrum within two months.

“The spectrum available for our telecom industry is extremely limited,” said the minister while addressing the media in Islamabad, and added that telcos “provide services in the country using just the 274 MHz”.

“We are a spectrum-starved country,” she said.

“We are a country of 240 million people with only 274 MHz of spectrum,” she stated, adding that “Bangladesh, with about two-thirds of Pakistan’s population, provides 600 MHz.”

The spectrum is the range of radio frequencies that carries wireless signals for mobile phones, the internet, TV, and radio. Mobile networks like 3G, 4G, and 5G operate by sending data over specific frequency bands within this spectrum. In South Asia, Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka have launched 5G networks nationwide, while Pakistan, Nepal, and Afghanistan have yet to do so.

The federal minister maintained that spectrum availability in Pakistan was the lowest in the region due to the absence of any major spectrum auction for many years.

“It will not only improve our 3G and 4G services, but also introduce 5G in Pakistan for the first time,” she elaborated.

The federal minister emphasised that the internet was “critical infrastructure,” like roads used to be in the past.

“The internet plays a crucial role in the development of the social sector, large-scale economic policies, and national and personal security. Without this [600MHz] level of connectivity, we cannot move forward,” she maintained.

The IT minister said that it is vital to perceive the internet and connectivity as an “enabling tool” that will unlock the country’s “ economic potential and create employment”.

Last week, during a press conference alongside the finance minister, Khawaja said that the government was trying to ensure that the auction is completed by the end of January or early February.

The federal minister said that in the auction, additional bands were being offered in Pakistan for the first time, which would not only improve 3G and 4G quality but also ensure the rollout of 5G services.

She stressed that the internet was integral to the government’s digitisation efforts as part of the Digital Nation Pakistan Act, 2025.

In November, the consultant for the 5G spectrum auction presented its report to the government, which had remained stalled due to the merger of PTCL and Telenor and litigation over the 2600 MHz band.

The report, prepared by US-based consultancy firm National Economic Research Associates (NERA), noted that Pakistan was offering 606MHz of new spectrum across six major bands: 700MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz, 2600MHz and 3500MHz. The 2600MHz band was considered the most suitable for 5G.