The telecom industry has made remarkable growth, which has led to record-high revenue of Rs. 694 billion, up 6% from Rs. 651 billion in FY 2021–2022.
However, the economic slowdown and elevated operating costs during the same period of 2020–21 led to somewhat slower growth in the last quarter.
In accordance with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Annual Report 2022, the sector attracted US$ 2,073 million in investment and contributed Rs. 325.2 billion to the national coffers, of which Rs. 222.7 billion came from taxes and the remaining Rs. 102.5 billion came from Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) auction and licence renewal proceeds.
Despite a hard year highlighted by mounting inflationary pressures and profitability worries, the report, released yesterday, reveals optimistic telecom statistics and expanding usage of telecom services across Pakistan thanks to a progressive and supportive regulatory environment.
Pakistan has more than 197 million telecom (fixed and mobile) subscribers, with a teledensity of 90%.
Additionally, there are now 194 million biometrically verified SIMs or subscribers, compared to 124 million broadband subscriptions, which have a 56 percent penetration rate, and 8,970 petabytes (6.8 GB per subscriber, per month) of mobile data usage, which represents an increase of 31 percent annually.
To read our blog on “Telecom Infrastructure Sharing Framework finalized by IT Ministry,” click here.
