Pakistan to have 5G technology by 2020

State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rahman has revealed that Pakistan is set to have 5G technology by 2020, according to a report in local media.

At the ITU-PTA Asia-Pacific Regulator’s Roundtable 2016 in Islamabad, she also informed that Pakistanis would have the complete broadband technology by the end of 2018.

The 6th annual ITU-PTA Asia-Pacific Regulator’s Roundtable 2016 commenced on July 18 with nations from all over Asia attending the event. This is the first time this conference has been held in Pakistan, largely due to the efforts of PTA. The goal of the conference is to discuss and lay out policy for the information technology and telecommunication industries.

Rehman further announced that Pakistan would be the first country to successfully implement the Over-The –Top (OTT) framework for IT. Such a framework will allow broadband users in Pakistan to access content directly from third parties instead of going through internet service providers (ISP).

She added that the government’s primary focus right now was on women empowerment and the development of remote access areas through the use of technology and that privacy and consumer rights were the biggest challenges for the IT regulators at the conference.

The conference being hosted in Pakistan is an important step as greater collaboration with other Asian countries could help develop the region’s IT and telecommunication services.