Pakistan has expanded its 5G footprint to 449 operational tower sites spread across 22 cities, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology.

Briefing lawmakers, PTA Director General Amir Shehzad said the authority receives network performance reports from telecom operators every 24 hours to monitor service quality and identify towers experiencing outages.

PTA Member Sadiq Memon said Karachi has 50 active 5G sites, while Hyderabad has only three. He cautioned that if deployment continues at its current pace, nationwide 5G implementation could extend until 2035, by which time newer technologies may have emerged.

Responding to lawmakers’ concerns, Minister of State for IT Shaza Fatima said telecom operators had originally committed to introducing 5G in five cities during the first year of the rollout.

PTA Chairman also told the committee that telecom companies are not only expanding Pakistan’s 5G infrastructure but are also exporting 5G-related equipment.