ISLAMABAD: “Pakistan is not yet ready and it still needs huge investments to develop an enabling environment and the required infrastructure to launch 5G,” said Julian Gorman, the head of GSMA Asia-Pacific, while talking to a group of reporters.
Expressing his disappointment that the situation had not changed much since he visited Pakistan three years ago regarding the Digital Pakistan initiative, Julian Gorman said Pakistan had yet to develop an enabling environment for 5G technology and owing to fiscal challenges, this was not the right time for the country to launch 5G.
Also read: PTA organizes workshop on GSMA mobile connectivity index
He said Pakistan’s telecom sector had been passing through a difficult patch of fiscal constraints, including one of the highest taxation burdens, devaluation of the exchange rate, withdrawal of Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) and other problems.
He said Pakistan would have to reverse its policy for moving towards the trajectory of growth. “Pakistan needs to implement a roadmap for promoting the telecom and IT sectors on a consistent basis. Without consistency and predictability of policies, investment cannot be lured on a permanent basis. Pakistan is not ripe for launching 5G technology at the moment,” said Julian Gorman.
Also read: Musk says Twitter to hold off relaunching blue check verification
When asked to compare Pakistan and India for promoting the telecom sector, especially in the context of recent launch of 5G by India, the visiting GSMA head of Asia Pacific said that India was ahead of Pakistan because they successfully overcame significant constraints. The scale of the economy of India, he said, helped them in achieving advancement but financial sustainability helped them to go ahead with the launch of 5G.
Also read: WhatsApp to introduce new privacy feature for desktop version
“Pakistan will have to move towards the trajectory of growth prior to the launch of 5G technologies because it required substantial investments as pre-requisites for setting the stage for moving ahead,” he said and added that the existing situation was not ripe where the taxation burden, 30 percent devaluation of exchange rate and other policy reversals made it hard for the telecom sector to survive in a difficult situation.
