Spectrum Master Plan and report has been developed by incorporating international best practices applicable to Pakistan.
To ensure faster telecom network speed, Pakistan’s Government has approved a three-year “Rolling Spectrum Strategy 2020-2023”.
The Spectrum Master Plan provides a future roadmap for spectrum allocation as well as spectrum-related policy reviews that are anticipated to take place between 2020 and 2023. The report has helped Ministry of IT & Telecom (MoIT&T), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) in formulating the three-year rolling Spectrum Strategy – which is a key area highlighted in the Telecommunications Policy 2015.
The report was prepared with collective efforts of MoIT&T, PTA, and FAB. The outcomes of International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) World Radio-communications Conference (WRC-19) have also been incorporated in the report.
Federal Minister for IT Syed Amin Ul Haque said the present government, in line with its vision of Digital Pakistan, gave highest priority to the Telecommunications Sector issues, particularly Spectrum. The Federal Minister for IT said that Rolling Spectrum Strategy will be helpful to telecom companies for formulating their business plan. Rolling Spectrum Strategy will be also become basis for the 5 G technology in the country, he said. He said that steps are being taken for the promotion of IT and telecom sector in the country. He said that transparency is vital in the auction of spectrum. Syed Amin Ul Haque said that provision of the broadband services in the country is the topmost priority of the Ministry of IT. It may be noted that the Rolling Spectrum Strategy provides a future roadmap for spectrum allocation as well as spectrum-related policy reviews that are anticipated to take place between 2020 and 2023.
The publication of the spectrum roadmap will help commercial operators with their network planning investments.
The strategy report discusses global trends around wireless communications, the challenges faced by spectrum managers and spectrum management needs to cope with these trends. It stresses the requirement for Spectrum Sharing and Trading and adoption of Spectrum Pricing – Administrative Incentive Pricing (AIP) to promote efficient utilization of frequency spectrum.
The strategy discusses current utilization and future frequency spectrum outlook for mobile broadband services, broadcast services, fixed services, aeronautical and maritime services, public safety and land communication systems, satellite services and unlicensed bands for short range devices.
