Connectivity Milestone: PTA Confirms 5G Deployment Reaches 449 Tower Locations Nationwide

Pakistan has operationalized 449 active 5G tower sites across 22 cities, according to a briefing by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology on Monday.

PTA Director General Amir Shehzad informed the panel that the regulatory body actively monitors network performance by collecting data from telecom operators every 24 hours to track tower uptime and quickly identify outages.

Highlighting regional deployment speeds, PTA Member Sadiq Memon noted that Karachi currently hosts 50 active 5G sites, while Hyderabad has only three. He cautioned that at the current rate of development, a comprehensive nationwide 5G rollout might stretch until 2035, at which point the technology could already be obsolete.

Minister of State for IT Shaza Fatima highlighted that telecom firms had initially pledged to introduce 5G services in five major cities during the first year of rollout, adding that Karachi—the country's largest metropolitan center—requires a stronger infrastructure focus.

Echoing these concerns, Committee Chairman Syed Amin Ul Haque urged telecom providers to prioritize and accelerate tower installations in Karachi. Meanwhile, the PTA Chairman remarked that domestic telecom operators are simultaneously exporting 5G hardware while working to expand the local network footprint.