ISLAMABAD: The upcoming next generation spectrum auction might fetch $300 to $700 million to the national kitty, with the authorities expecting that the auction will increase internet speed up to 25 times with the launch of 5G.
The auction, scheduled to be held on March 10, will be conducted in rounds and will increase the speed of 4G technology by five times and 5G by 25 times.
Briefing the media at the PTA headquarters here on Wednesday, Chairman PTA Maj-Gen (retd) Hafeez Ur Rehman and DG Licensing Brig (retd) Aamir Shahzad told reporters that the spectrum auction was offering 597 Megahertz (MHz) in different bands, and it would be mandatory for operators to secure a minimum of 100 MHz.
“With the prescribed rate of 300 MHz obtained by telecos without any competitive bidding, the government will fetch $300 million,” Aamir Shahzad said, adding that it was estimated that the government might generate up to $700 million.
The next auction will be technology-neutral, said Hafeez, adding that the Right of Way (ROW) was brought to zero from Rs26,000 per kilometer charges, as it would help accelerate the installation of fiber countrywide.
The auction will be conducted using a multi-round electronic clock auction format, with the main allocation stage starting on March 10. The authority will offer 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands during the first round. After the auction process, 5G service rollout will take between 3-6 months, as installation of infrastructure is needed for fresh spectrum.
“Around 50 million new users have been added to the system during the last five years but only 10MHz was increased in 2021 spectrum auction,” the PTA chairman said, adding, “Improved data service and enhanced coverage will also increase ARPU for the telecoms.”
The ARPU is Average Revenue Per User -- a key performance indicator that measures the average revenue generated by a company from each consumer within a specific timeframe monthly or annually.
“We started with $0.7 and now ARPU has reached $1.3; therefore, it is likely to increase, as more data is consumed by the subscribers,” Hafeez said, adding, “PTA expects mobile broadband speeds to improve by around 25 percent following the auction.” He said telecom operators had already placed orders for 5G equipment, while local manufacturing of 5G-enabled smartphones had commenced, with 500,000 to 600,000 units produced so far.
The operators will have to expand the 5G coverage to additional cities apart from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, while fiber-to-the-site (FTTS) ratios will increase from 20 percent to 35 percent by 2035.
The minimum download speeds for 4G service have been increased from 4 mega bites per second (Mbpc) to 20 Mbps in 2026-27 and to 50 Mbps by 2030-35.
For 5G, minimum download speeds will rise from 50 Mbps initially to 100 Mbps by 2030-35, with latency targets reduced to 35 milliseconds. Upload speeds are benchmarked at 20 percent of download speeds across both technologies, so the internet speed in case of 4G will go up by five times and in case of 5G by 25 times in launched areas.
