ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee has approved the auction of 600 MHz spectrum, a move expected to significantly improve internet speeds and lay the foundation for the rollout of 5G services in Pakistan, Information Technology and Telecommunication Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a joint press conference alongside Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the IT minister said the federal government aims to complete the spectrum auction by early 2026 following the ECC’s approval. She added that the recommendations of the Spectrum Advisory Committee would soon be presented to the federal cabinet.
Khawaja said the government would carry out extensive consultations with all relevant stakeholders, including telecom operators, to ensure a smooth and transparent auction process. She acknowledged that limited spectrum availability has constrained internet performance in Pakistan, keeping speeds below global benchmarks.
“Due to a lack of spectrum, internet speed in Pakistan is not up to world standards,” she said, adding that the planned auction of 600 MHz spectrum would address this gap and support next-generation connectivity.
The minister also said the government was working towards launching 5G services within the next six months. She described the internet as the backbone of the digital ecosystem and stressed that the government intended to enhance both speed and access nationwide. According to her, efforts are underway to complete the auction process in the first week of February 2026.
The announcement comes at a time when slow internet speeds, frequent disruptions and restricted access have become common complaints among users across the country.
According to the Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Pakistan ranked 97th globally for mobile internet speeds in November, with an average download speed of 24.79 Mbps. The situation is more concerning for fixed broadband, where Pakistan ranked 146th, recording an average download speed of just 18.27 Mbps.
Despite these challenges, Pakistan has recently taken steps to strengthen its international internet capacity. Last month, the country became part of the South-East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE) 6 submarine cable system, a 19,200-kilometre high-capacity fibre network linking Pakistan to major digital hubs from Singapore to France.
The SEA-ME-WE 6 system offers a total capacity exceeding 100 terabits per second, providing one of the lowest-latency routes between Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe. Pakistan has been allocated 13.2 Tbps under the project, with 4 Tbps already activated, offering a significant boost for cloud services, data centres, fintech, e-commerce, streaming platforms and the wider digital economy.
The new network includes more fibre pairs and more than double the capacity of previous SEA-ME-WE systems, enhancing resilience and reliability along key Asia–Europe data routes.
