The Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday that telecom operators must submit their bids for the upcoming 5G spectrum auction by February 27.
Under the rollout requirements, each successful operator will be obligated to deploy 1,000 new network sites every year, including 200 sites in areas facing persistent network issues. The services will cover both urban and rural regions, with initial 5G rollout planned for Islamabad and provincial capitals. Operators will also be required to enhance tower fiberisation annually and submit a mandatory 5G coverage map.
In the first auction round, participants will be required to acquire spectrum in the 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands. A spectrum cap has been imposed to prevent any single operator from acquiring the entire allocation within a band.
The PTA chairman said Pakistan’s earlier dollar-denominated spectrum auctions placed heavy financial pressure on operators due to currency volatility. To reduce costs and support network expansion, Right of Way (RoW) charges have been slashed from Rs 3,600 to zero.
He said 274 megahertz of spectrum is currently available, and each operator will be required to purchase a minimum of 100 megahertz. Several safeguards and performance benchmarks have been built into the auction framework to improve overall service quality and address network congestion.
The chairman added that the telecom industry was widely consulted during the auction design phase, with operators presenting their concerns to the Auction Advisory Committee. Eight out of ten demands raised by the industry were accepted. He clarified that expansion of fiberisation will be funded by operators themselves, without drawing resources from the Universal Service Fund.
Expressing optimism about the auction outcome, the PTA chairman said selling more than 50 percent of the available spectrum would be considered a successful result, though it is too early to predict final demand.
He also clarified that the PTA has no role in mobile phone taxation, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). He noted that taxes on used mobile phones have been reduced and said the PTA is encouraging local manufacturing of affordable 5G devices, adding that handset prices typically decline as new technology gains wider adoption.
