The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) here on Wednesday apprised the media that the 5G spectrum auction will be held on March 10, 2026 and no changes are likely to be made in the schedule.
PTA expect that the auction would eventually help increase the earnings of the telecos in the country.
The country is offering 597 megahertz (MHz) in several bands in the upcoming auction and the three existing telecom operators have been mandated to obtain a minimum of 100 MHz in the auction process.PTA Finalises 5G Framework by Early February
Media was informed that the auction will be conducted using a multi-round electronic clock auction format, with the main allocation stage starting on March 10, and the 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands will be offered during the first round.
He added that after the auction process 5G service rollout will take between 3-6 months as installation of infrastructure is needed for fresh spectrum.
Meanwhile Chairman PTA retd Maj.Gen. Hafeez-ur-Rehman said that the auction will follow improved quality of service in both telephony as well as data speed.
“Around 50 mn new users have been added in the system during last five years but only 10MHz was increased in 2021 spectrum auction,” chairman PTA 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 to $1.3 – therefore it is likely to increase as more data is consumed by the subscribers,” chairman PTA said adding, “PTA expects mobile broadband speeds to improve by around 25 percent following the auction.”
He said that the government has offered many incentives to the telecom companies in the new spectrum auction, but obligations to improve the quality of service as well as coverage area have been increased.
“This will help the country to embrace further upgradations in the technology like 6G service,not like 5G where we have been delayed,” he said.
The government has eliminated the right-of-way fee that used to be around Rs36,000 per km annually, this move will encourage fiberisation projects.
The chairman also said that telecom operators have already placed orders for 5G equipment, while local manufacturing of 5G-enabled smartphones has commenced, with 500,000 to 600,000 units produced so far.
The other measures taken to facilitate faster rollout of services after the auction are options for spectrum sharing, relaxation of certain regulatory terms and incentives for network expansion. “Operators have been given one year to make necessary capital investments without upfront spectrum payments, allowing them to focus on improving service quality,” he added.
However 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.
Besides the minimum download speeds for 4G service has 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.
Applications, along with a $15 million bank guarantee, must be submitted by February 27, the DG said.
Qualified bidders will participate in mock auctions before the main allocation. If demand exceeds supply in any spectrum category, prices will rise in successive rounds.
The auction will conclude after the assignment stage, with provisional winners required to submit performance bank guarantees within 15 business days before licenses are granted
