Lockdown: Blessing in Disguise for Telecom Sector

Web Desk — The telecom sector has been generous enough to contribute to the national exchequer 129 percent in the fiscal year ended in June 2020 as compared to a year ago owing to Covid-19 lockdown, the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) has reported.

Sharing its Annual Report 2020, PTA highlighted that the surge in demand for telecom services due to lockdown resulted in significant growth not only in the subscriber base but also in the usage of telecom services. Data usage by the end of December 2020 was 4,498 petabytes (PB) compared to 2,545PB in December 2019 — a growth of more than 77 per cent, the report noted. One PB is equal to 1,000 terabytes (TB). “This substantial growth would not have been possible if the networks were not upgraded,” PTA said, adding that currently the country has international bandwidth connectivity of 3.1TB and with 47,000 cell sites, of which 90pc are 4G-enabled sites. Due to higher business volumes, telecom sector emerged as a prominent contributor to Pakistan’s economy in FY20 compared to FY19 despite the economy being under pressure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector contributed Rs278 billion in FY20 against Rs121bn in the previous fiscal year. The PTA annual report highlighted that in the last five years, total broadband subscription in the country grew by 175pc. Total revenues of the sector reached Rs537bn in FY20, mainly generated by mobile sector. The report claims that financial gains have been equally enjoyed by telecom consumers. “The affordability of telecom services in Pakistan have improved over the years and currently the per “GB broadband” prices are as low as $0.20 which is amongst the lowest in the region,” it added. The regulator said government revenues increased manifold with tax collection on handset imports due to Device Identification & Registration System.