In Pakistan’s increasingly digital economy and after the 5G spectrum auction, where 480 megahertz (MHz) were auctioned for $507 million (total allocated spectrum across cellular operators is 754 MHz), a familiar question continues to surface in policy debates and public discourse: if fixed broadband providers can offer unlimited internet packages, why can’t mobile operators do the same?
At first glance, the argument appears compelling; after all, both fixed and mobile internet providers rely on the same global internet infrastructure and procure international bandwidth at broadly similar prices. Yet this comparison, while intuitive, overlooks a critical distinction at the heart of how networks function. The real constraint in mobile broadband is not international bandwidth; it is the last mile.
Over the past two decades, the cost of international bandwidth has declined dramatically. Submarine cable systems connecting Pakistan to the global internet, landing in Karachi and Gwadar, carry vast volumes of data at ever-lower unit costs. Both fixed broadband operators and mobile network operators tap into this same global backbone. In that sense, the upstream cost of delivering data to Pakistan is no longer the bottleneck it once was.
This is where the common argument gains traction: if bandwidth is cheap and shared across the industry, why should mobile data remain capped? The answer lies not in how data enters Pakistan, but in how it reaches the end user.
Fixed broadband networks, particularly fibre, are built on a fundamentally scalable architecture. A single fibre line can carry gigabits of data, and capacity can be increased with relative ease by upgrading equipment at either end. Even when shared across multiple households through passive optical networks, the available bandwidth per user remains high and predictable.
Crucially, the marginal cost of additional data consumption is close to zero. This is why fixed-line operators can offer unlimited packages without materially degrading network performance.
Mobile networks, by contrast, operate on licensed radio spectrum, a finite and expensive national resource. Each cellular tower is allocated a limited amount of spectrum, often measured in tens of MHz, which translates into a fixed capacity that must be shared among all users connected to that cell site.
In a dense urban area such as Lahore or Karachi, a single tower sector may serve hundreds of active users. If even a small fraction of those users begins consuming large volumes of data, streaming high-definition video, for instance, the available capacity is quickly exhausted. Speeds drop, latency rises, and the quality of service deteriorates for everyone.
Unlike fibre, spectrum cannot simply be ‘expanded’ on demand. It must be auctioned, regulated and carefully managed. This makes mobile networks inherently constrained in a way that fixed networks are not.
Pakistan’s telecom market amplifies these structural differences. With relatively low fixed broadband penetration, mobile networks serve as the primary internet access point for a majority of the population. This places extraordinary pressure on already limited spectrum resources.
At the same time, Pakistan has one of the lowest average revenues per user (ARPU) globally. Mobile operators must balance affordability with sustainability, all while investing in spectrum licenses, network upgrades (2G 3G 4G 5G), energy costs and expanding coverage. In such an environment, data pricing is not merely a commercial decision but a tool for managing network load and preserving service quality.
Unlimited mobile data, in this context, would not be a consumer-friendly innovation. It would be a recipe for network congestion.
Where mobile operators do offer so-called unlimited packages, these are typically subject to fair usage policies, speed throttling, or time-of-day restrictions. Night bundles and app-specific packages are common examples. These are not equivalent to the unrestricted, always-on unlimited plans seen in fixed broadband. Rather, they are carefully designed mechanisms to distribute traffic and avoid peak-hour congestion.
The debate, therefore, should not be framed as a question of pricing parity between fixed and mobile services. It should be reframed around infrastructure.
If policymakers wish to move towards a world where mobile data feels effectively unlimited, the solution lies in expanding capacity, not mandating tariffs. This includes releasing additional spectrum in mid-band and millimetre-wave frequencies, accelerating fiberisation of mobile towers (backhaul), promoting small-cell deployments in dense urban areas and expanding fixed broadband to offload heavy usage from mobile networks.
In other words, the path to ‘unlimited-like’ mobile experience runs through investment and infrastructure, not regulation of retail prices.
The expectation that mobile operators should offer unlimited data simply because fixed broadband providers do so is based on a false equivalence. While both rely on the same global internet backbone, they operate under entirely different constraints at the access level.
International bandwidth may be abundant and inexpensive. Spectrum is neither. Until that fundamental reality changes, unlimited mobile data in Pakistan will remain less a policy choice and more a physical impossibility.
The writer is an ICT regulatory expert with over 20 years of experience. He can be reached at: [email protected]
