Internet speeds up 60pc in two and a half years, minister says

Pakistan's internet speeds have risen 60 percent over the past two and a half years and fibre-optic connections have doubled, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said at the Margalla Dialogue in Islamabad on Tuesday.

The minister said data use on the country's networks had grown by two terabits per second, taking total live internet capacity to about seven terabits per second. Two new submarine cables had been added to improve international connectivity, she said, and fibre-optic connections had gone from three million to more than six million.

Khawaja said the recent spectrum auction offered 480 MHz and was the largest in Pakistan's history. Available spectrum rose from 274 MHz to more than 750 MHz as a result, she said.

She said 5G services had been launched in the country and that about 1.8 million users had subscribed. She named no operator and gave no date for the launch.

On artificial intelligence, the minister said the sector could become a $4.8 trillion global economy by 2033 and would transform jobs rather than eliminate them. A worker using AI tools could be up to 100 times more productive than one with similar skills who did not, she said. Digital skills would matter more as adoption grew, she said, and the government remained committed to its Digital Nation Pakistan vision and to expanding digital infrastructure.

TechJuice reported that the improvements have not satisfied every customer. Users on different networks and in different regions complain of slow speeds and say they have seen no noticeable improvement in their service, it reported.

The figures were given by the minister at the event and could not be independently verified.