Information Technology Minister Syed Aminul Haque announced on Friday that Pakistan will launch 5G technology by December 2022.
Haque, speaking in a TV’s morning show , said that the government is working to update the country’s technological infrastructure
“Pakistan does not have the structure to support 5G technology at this time,” the MQM-Pakistan lawmaker said, “It cannot be provided unless 4G is expanded.”
He stated that the government is currently providing 4G services to 1.4 million customers.
Electronic Voting
Haque said that electronic voting system will be introduced in future elections.
Haque added that “Digital Pakistan” is a vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and he wants an e-voting system for overseas Pakistanis.
The IT minister said that the Election Commission is considering the option as it is their duty to hold transparent elections.
“We want to get it used for the July 12 elections in Azad Kashmir but it cannot happen at the moment due to legal issues,” he said.
‘Govt needs to increase 4G subscriptions first’
Information and Communications Technology expert Parvez Iftikhar, commenting on the IT minister’s statement, said the government can surely achieve its goal of launching 5G by December 2022, but for that a lot of work will have to be done.
“There are nearly two years to go, but a lot of work needs to be done,” he told SAMAA Digital. “As always, the initial launch of the technology will be in commercial areas of mega cities, from where it will expand to the rest of the country.
To a question regarding 3G and 4G services, the expert said that 3G is a thing of the past. “The 4G technology has enabled many new services which help the people work from home, hold meetings on apps like Zoom, and go live on social media,” he said. “Before 4G, people could not foresee how the new technology would benefit them. Same is the case with 5G.”
He said the government has to first increase 4G subscriptions in the country to achieve a smooth introduction of 5G. “They have to facilitate a massive increase of 4G subscriptions,”Iftikhar said. “This can be done if the government facilitates the private sector in enhancing penetration of optical fibre cables, while at the same time increasing the available
spectrum in the market.”
