The total revenue of the telecom sector of Pakistan has crossed $15 billion during the last four years, from July 2013 to June 2017. The last four years were impressive for Pakistan’s telecom industry as the revenue has reached close to $15.35 billion during this time span.
In this regard, the contributions of Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) are admirable as they introduced Mobile Broadband services i.e. 3G, 4G, and LTE in Pakistan. Talking in financial terms, MoITT has added $4.42 billion to the National Exchequer during July 2014 and June 2017.
According to a statistical report published in April 2018 by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the number of 3G/4G subscribers in the country has crossed 53 million. Meanwhile, the number of mobile phone users have increased to 150 million in May 2018, up 4 million as compared to 146 million users which were recorded in January 2018.
As revealed by the Economic Survey 2017-18, revenue of Pakistan’s telecom sector reached Rs 235.5 billion during the first two quarters of FY 2017-18. In the meantime, mobile phone imports in the country have crossed $500 million figure in just 8 months, as recorded in March 2018.
A ministry official while highlighting the historical backgrounds of the telecom industry to Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) revealed that 3G licenses were awarded to Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, and Zong back in 2014, while Zong, Telenor, and Jazz were also awarded the 4G service license at a later stage. The provision of 3G/4G services and spectrum auctions for next-generation mobile services resulted in an immense increase in broadband subscribers from 3.7 million in 2014 to 53 million as of now.
