Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Major General (Retd.) Hafeez-ur-Rehman has assured the Senate Standing Committee on Less Developed Areas that the upcoming auction of fifth generation spectrum will play a decisive role in resolving the country’s chronic network capacity problems and improving service quality across Pakistan, including in remote and underserved regions that have long struggled with inadequate connectivity. The assurance was given during a briefing to the committee, chaired by Senator Niaz Ahmed, where lawmakers raised concerns about the state of telecom infrastructure in less developed parts of the country and pressed officials on what concrete steps were being taken to address the gap.
A significant portion of the discussion centred on Chitral, where connectivity challenges have persisted despite incremental infrastructure additions. The PTA chairman informed the committee that additional telecom towers have been installed in the region, bringing the total number to 142, but acknowledged that a single optical fibre line serving the area remains a source of repeated disruption, as construction activities in the region frequently result in cable cuts and consequent service outages. He stressed that better inter-departmental coordination was essential to preventing such damage, calling for PTA to be formally notified before any construction work commences in areas where telecom infrastructure is present. Load shedding and network congestion were also raised as compounding factors affecting service quality in Chitral, pointing to a broader set of challenges that go beyond infrastructure count alone. On the fifth generation rollout, the chairman stated that the auction of 480 megahertz of fifth generation spectrum is expected to significantly ease pressure on existing telecom networks, while also underlining that fifth generation services require fibre optic backbone infrastructure and cannot function effectively over microwave systems, making the development of stronger backbone connectivity a prerequisite for meaningful fifth generation deployment across the country.
The briefing also surfaced longstanding concerns around the Universal Service Fund, which is mandated to extend connectivity to underserved areas but has faced significant operational disruptions in recent years. Universal Service Fund Chief Executive Officer Mudassar Chaudhry informed the committee that the fund has completed 165 projects to date and provided subsidies worth Pakistani Rupees 140 billion, with 45 percent of that funding directed towards Balochistan. He revealed, however, that fund-related issues had previously halted projects for nearly two and a half years, tracing the problem to the Finance Division’s utilisation of Pakistani Rupees 57.2 billion that had accumulated in the fund until 2013. The process of returning those funds began in 2025, with Pakistani Rupees 17 billion recovered from the Ministry of Finance so far, while approximately Pakistani Rupees 40 billion remains outstanding. The committee directed that a comprehensive briefing on the Universal Service Fund’s financial position and project pipeline be presented at its next sitting, signalling continued parliamentary scrutiny of how connectivity obligations in less developed areas are being financed and delivered.
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