Vision 2025 Mobile broadband subscribers to reach 79 million in Pakistan

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in its Vision 2025 has indicated that the concept of smart cities and towns with widespread use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) will ultimately help in improving quality of life of people by means of connected transport, contactless payments, smart energy and m-governance etc. Within next 10 years, the access to affordable broadband will be as significant to socio-economic development of the country as systems like transport, water and power. Mobile technology has just begun to reveal its real value for the developing countries like Pakistan and according to Vision 2025 by PTA, the mobile broadband subscribers are expected to reach 47 million within next 5 years and around 79 million by 2025. This penetration will certainly turn out to be amazing and will eventually help in improving the living standards of the people. PTA has successfully awarded Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) to the cellular operators in 2014 and is further taking steps so that 5th Generation Mobile Services Technology could be launched in the country on time unlike the 3G and 4G services which were introduced after 6 years of delay. The Vision 2025 also revealed that the revenue from connected devices will also exceed both the Voice and Data revenues by 2025. In addition to this, the mobile and similar market in Pakistan is also expected to cross US $ 17 billion per year by 2025 which is currently US $ 4 billion per year. PTA has also manifested a support for the key service providers in the country who will be encouraged to offer Over the Top (OTT) services such as Viber, Skype and will be allowed to work with third-party digital distributors to provide consumers a seamless experience.