The Government of Pakistan has approved plans to auction more than 600MHz of telecom spectrum within the next two months as part of efforts to ease internet congestion, enhance mobile broadband performance, and enable the rollout of 5G services. The move is also intended to attract new international operators into the country’s telecom market.
Pakistan is expected to offer approximately 606MHz of spectrum across six key frequency bands, including 700MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz, and the newly introduced 2600MHz and 3500MHz bands. The 2600MHz and 3500MHz bands are widely regarded as suitable for 5G deployments, with authorities targeting a commercial 5G rollout within five to six months following the auction.
The decision was reportedly taken earlier this month during a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Pakistan’s Cabinet. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khwaja, quoted by Dawn, said the auction is expected to be completed by early February 2026, making it one of the largest spectrum releases in the country’s history.
The scale of the auction is significant, with the proposed allocation nearly ten times larger than the total spectrum auctioned in all previous rounds combined. Officials have cited worsening internet congestion as a key driver behind the accelerated timeline, describing it as a major constraint on Pakistan’s digital growth ambitions.
The auction framework and pricing recommendations were prepared by US-based consulting firm National Economic Research Associates (NERA), drawing on recent spectrum auction experiences in other international markets. The recommendations cover auction design, pricing mechanisms, and implementation strategies.
According to the IT Minister, Pakistan’s 245 million population currently has access to just 274MHz of spectrum, compared to around 600MHz available to Bangladesh, which has a significantly smaller population. The spectrum expansion is positioned as a foundational step in supporting national digitisation initiatives under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025 and the upcoming Connect 2030 vision, which aims to ensure minimum user connectivity speeds of 100 Mbps nationwide over the next five years.
