Pakistan Telecom Authority has released recent broadband figures where broadband internet penetration stands at 8.34% in March 2015. This is significant because in March 2014, the broadband penetration stood at 1.95%.
The increase within one year is very dramatic, a change of over 6%, which is possible due to introduction of mobile broadband in terms of 3G/4G services. The licensing process led to rapid infrastructure development in the country and mobile internet received much attention, shifting many users from the slow 2G/EDGE services to fast 3G/4G/LTE internet speeds. This is also resulted in greater coverage of broadband services and on-board new customers in undeserved areas who previously relied on PTCL DSL or local cable area connection.
These figures emerged from the Quality of Service surveys that PTA conducts at regular intervals and this comparison shows stark differences in propagation of internet services through newer technologies. Residential broadband has slower pickup among the masses and is more time consuming for the companies to reach out to people further away.
Compared to that telecom companies have the advantage of using existing infrastructure (consisting of towers) to provide mobile broadband after going through complex upgrade process. The survey has rated telecom performance as ‘good’ and it is being hoped that it will continue to improve over the next few months.
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