Pakistan's 5G Dream Stalled by Fibre, Cost, and Policy Hurdles

According to leading Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror, collectively these constraints indicate that 5G at present is closer to a marketing narrative than a functional technology for most Pakistanis.

It added that the millions spent by operators on licence acquisition need to be recovered, and in a fragile economic environment, consumers are likely to bear the cost.

Without policy reform, investment incentives, and affordable devices, it said, 5G in Pakistan will remain aspirational.

"Yet, while the auction was celebrated as a breakthrough, the reality is far more complex. The spectrum sale is only the first step in a long and difficult journey. The structural, device, financial, and infrastructural bottlenecks that Pakistan faces mean that 5G, for now, is closer to a marketing story than a working technology for most citizens," the report detailed.

"The most pressing challenge lies in the physical infrastructure required to carry 5G signals. Towers alone are not enough; the real bottleneck is the backhaul, the network that connects cell sites to the core. Globally, fibre-optic cable is the gold standard, capable of carrying terabits per second with latency measured in fractions of a millisecond. For 5G standalone networks, backhaul bandwidth above 10 Gbps per site and round-trip times under 5 milliseconds are essential," it added.

The report stressed that Pakistan remains far from meeting the requirements, with only about 15 per cent of cell sites connected through fibre, while the remaining 85 per cent depend on microwave radio links.

"These links have fixed capacity ceilings, degrade in bad weather, and cannot scale to the traffic loads that 5G will generate. Fiberising a single site costs between $10,000 and $20,000, and with tens of thousands of sites needing upgrades, the capital commitment extends well beyond the half-billion dollars raised in the auction," it mentioned.

"The problem is compounded by Pakistan's right-of-way fee structure. Unlike India, which charges a one-time fee of roughly ₹1 per metre, Pakistan levies between PKR 35 and PKR 60 per metre every year. This transforms what should be a one-time capital expense into a permanent operational drain, discouraging investment," it stated.

As Pakistan ranks 76th out of 93 economies on the Fibre Development Index, the report noted that fibreisation is set to remain the "Achilles heel" of the country's 5G rollout without meaningful reforms.

- IANS