Tapping the potential of 5G

AI Summary

Pakistan’s recent 5G spectrum auction offers a foundation for expanding digital services, but the article argues that infrastructure alone will not generate broad economic gains. It highlights potential uses in industry, healthcare, agriculture and business, while emphasizing affordability, digital skills, reliable power and inclusion as key challenges.

In March, Pakistan’s three mobile operators paid about $510 million for something no one can see, hear or touch. The long-delayed 5G auction nearly tripled mobile airwaves, but airwaves alone change nothing. A licence does not teach a child, and a faster network will not, by itself, create a job or make a hospital more capable. 5G is infrastructure, and infrastructure is judged by what is built on it. The question is no longer how fast Pakistan can connect, but what it can become when people, machines and institutions connect, compute and respond in real time. Great infrastructure is built for what is possible, not merely for what is demanded. When telecom operators launched the country’s first 4G service in 2014, mass demand for mobile data was not yet evident; it arrived with the capability. Pakistan stands at a similar threshold. Broadband penetration has more than doubled since 2019 to nearly 66pc, according to the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA), and ICT exports reached a record $4.6 billion in 2025-26. The digital economy is not waiting to be born; it is already here. 5G will decide how far, and how fast, it grows. Faster smartphones are only 5G’s most visible layer. Just as an express lane eases every other lane of a congested motorway, new spectrum draws off data-hungry users and frees capacity for those still on 4G. The larger prize lies beyond the handset. A factory can use sensors to detect faults before they halt production; a small business can draw on cloud computing and AI without its own servers. Here, 5G stops being a telecom story and becomes an economic one. Faster smartphones are only 5G’s most visible layer, the larger prize lies beyond the handset; with cloud and AI, 5G forms a new operating layer for the economy Picture a midwife in rural Sindh consulting a Karachi specialist by video, a wheat grower in south Punjab receiving irrigation advice in Punjabi, or a Faisalabad entrepreneur serving clients in Dubai without leaving home. The technology largely exists; the task is to join up network, cloud, AI and data with, above all, skilled people. But ambition without inclusion risks widening the very divides it seeks to close. Though networks cover over 92pc of Pakistan, the GSMA estimates only 58pc of adults used mobile internet in 2025, held back by affordability, digital literacy and social norms. The gender gap in usage shrank from 25pc to 8pc in a year, yet Pakistan still has the widest phone-ownership gap among surveyed countries: 68pc of women against 93pc of men. The goal, therefore, is not the fastest network but one within everyone’s reach. That requires affordable devices, digital skills, dependable power and stronger backhaul, as well as rationalised taxes, local device assembly and the Universal Service Fund resources for underserved communities. No Pakistani should be shut out by geography, income or language. The goal should be a network within everyone’s reach. That requires affordable devices, digital skills, reliable power, rationalised taxes, local device assembly and the USF resources for underserved communities. China is an example. By end-2025, nearly two-thirds of Chinese mobile users were on 5G. More telling is its strategic shift from a carrier of calls and data to a provider of computing power and intelligent services, with a 6G testbed fusing communication, sensing, computing and AI. The lesson: 5G creates most value as a platform, not an end in itself. With cloud and AI, it forms a new operating layer for the economy. Fixed wireless access can bring broadband where fibre is uneconomical, AI can tune networks in real time and sensors can bring visibility to farms and supply chains. Pakistan need not wait for 6G to think this way. Global capability, however, creates value only through local relevance. Pakistan needs a large language model that understands its languages and culture, along with an AI assistant accessible through SMS, USSD and voice calls. This would ensure that people using basic mobile phones are not left behind. The future must be built for the next 100m users, not just those already connected to the internet. The digital value Pakistan creates should be captured, and compounded, at home: freelancers exporting services, start-ups scaling on local cloud, talent competing globally without emigrating. No single sector can deliver this alone. Operators must invest; the government must offer predictable policy; the regulator must enable efficient spectrum allocation and infrastructure sharing; device makers must cut costs; universities must build AI, cloud and cybersecurity skills; and public institutions, among the largest users of technology, can accelerate adoption. Pakistan’s 5G journey has begun; the next chapter is about turning connectivity into capability. Success will be measured not in speed tests but by whether a doctor can reach a distant patient, a farmer can make a better decision, a freelancer can win a global contract and a Pakistani