Pakistan’s telecom sector has moved from the approval stage to operational preparation for fifth-generation network testing in Gilgit-Baltistan, following the Gilgit-Baltistan Council’s clearance of the policy framework governing the trial phase. The matter is expected to be formally routed to the telecom regulator in the coming days, and attention has now shifted from securing policy consent to executing the technical groundwork required to conduct meaningful field trials across one of the country’s most geographically demanding regions.
Gilgit-Baltistan caretaker Minister for Information Technology Ghulam Abbas confirmed that the council secretariat had finalised a summary outlining the policy directives for the fifth-generation testing phase, with the proposal having been vetted by both the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Information Technology. Once formally signed off by the Prime Minister, the summary will be transmitted to the Ministry of Information Technology, which will then authorise PTA to initiate the trial process. A PTA official confirmed that internal planning is already underway, and that following final clearance, telecom operators active in Gilgit-Baltistan will be instructed to prepare for field testing and network validation across the region’s challenging high-altitude terrain.
The fifth-generation spectrum auction conducted on March 10 did not include Gilgit-Baltistan or Azad Jammu and Kashmir, as both territories operate under separate regulatory arrangements that require independent frameworks for spectrum allocation and trial authorisation. Pakistan’s current telecom landscape in these regions includes Jazz, Zong, the merged Ufone-Telenor entity, and the Special Communications Organisation, which operates specifically in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. PTA will coordinate with all four operators to ensure readiness ahead of the testing phase, which will utilise key frequency bands including 2300 megahertz, 2600 megahertz, and 3500 megahertz. These bands will allow companies to assess infrastructure requirements, evaluate signal behaviour across mountainous terrain, and determine deployment feasibility before any commercial rollout is considered. The outcomes of the trial phase in Gilgit-Baltistan are expected to play an important role in informing Pakistan’s broader fifth-generation rollout strategy for remote and high-altitude regions, where connectivity challenges differ substantially from those encountered in the country’s urban centres where commercial fifth-generation services are already being planned.
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