Pakistan’s fibre backhaul crisis is not a rumour or an industry gripe, it is now an admission written into the government’s own Economic Survey 2025-26. Industry officials have long cited weak network infrastructure as a major obstacle, and only 14 to 19 percent of telecom towers are connected to fibre networks, leaving most users dependent on mobile broadband services. That single number explains a great deal: why your 4G crawls at peak hours, why speeds vary so wildly between city and town, and why Pakistan’s newly auctioned 5G licences may not deliver what they promise.
What Is Fibre Backhaul and Why Does It Matter?
When you open a website on your phone, your data travels from your handset to the nearest cell tower over the air. But from that tower onward, the data needs a fast road back to the internet, that road is called backhaul. Fibre backhaul allows mobile towers to carry far more data, more reliably and with lower latency than traditional microwave links, so networks can handle heavier traffic and deliver smoother 4G and future 5G services in dense urban areas and growing towns.
The alternative is a microwave radio link: a pair of dish antennas pointed at each other, bouncing signals through the air. Microwave works, but it has a much lower capacity ceiling. As more people connect and stream more data, a microwave-fed tower gets congested fast. Most towers in Pakistan remain dependent on microwave links that are unable to meet the high-capacity and low-latency requirements of 5G services. That is the quiet reason why your phone often shows four 4G bars but still loads pages slowly.
The Numbers Behind Pakistan’s Fibre Backhaul Crisis
Pakistan has more than 207 million mobile and fixed-line subscriptions and 58,423 cell sites, according to the Economic Survey 2025-26. Of those sites, the picture is stark. According to the latest figures from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the share of mobile sites linked by fibre rose to 17.9 percent in 2025, up from 14.8 percent in 2024.
Progress is happening, but slowly. Fiberisation stood at just 11.8 percent in 2022, rose to 13.2 percent in 2023, then to 14.8 percent in 2024 and 17.9 percent in 2025. At that pace, reaching even 40 percent would take well over a decade, and the international benchmark for a healthy 4G network sits around 40 percent, while 5G demands far more. For comparison, Japan, South Korea, and China have fibre-connected tower ratios well above 80 percent.
The average internet speed in Pakistan currently stands at 25 Mbps, placing the country at 198th position globally. This ranking is a direct consequence of inadequate backhaul investment, and the fibre backhaul crisis sits at the heart of it. Despite a telecom market valued at $4.52 billion, Pakistan continues to struggle with high taxation, limited fibre-optic expansion, and delayed policy reforms.
Why Getting More Fibre in the Ground Is Hard
It is not just a matter of money. Several overlapping problems make fibre deployment genuinely difficult in Pakistan.
- Right-of-way delays. Right-of-way approvals involve multiple authorities including municipalities, cantonments, and development bodies, causing delays of 12 to 18 months and raising costs, although the government’s recent decision to abolish right-of-way charges on key corridors has provided some relief.
- High equipment taxes. The most critical concern in Budget 2026-27 lies in fiberisation costs: while customs duty on general fibre optic cables has been reduced to 0 percent, last-mile equipment still faces total tariffs of nearly 70 percent.
- Low returns. Pakistan’s mobile average revenue per user of approximately $1.10 per month, far below the global average of $8.20, makes the payback period for infrastructure investment deeply uncertain.
- Terrain and skills. Terrain variations, flooding risks, and skilled labour shortages for splicing and installation compound execution difficulties, while urban congestion and rural sparsity create uneven progress.
You can follow Pakistan’s official telecom statistics and regulatory decisions at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The 5G Auction Makes the Fibre Backhaul Crisis More Urgent
The $507 million 5G spectrum auction of March 2026 tripled Pakistan’s assigned spectrum and requires extensive fibre backhaul to deliver. Three operators, Jazz, Ufone, and Zong, now hold 5G licences. The government has auctioned 5G licences to these three operators, allowing them to start services in key urban centres. But a licence and spectrum alone cannot conjure speed. 5G Standalone requires backhaul bandwidth above 10 Gbps per site and round-trip times under 5 milliseconds, speeds that only fibre can meet. Without fixing the fibre backhaul crisis first, 5G in Pakistan risks being a marketing badge rather than a real upgrade for users.
Operators face aggressive deployment obligations requiring 1,000 sites per year, including 200 new greenfield builds annually, with fibre-to-the-site ratios that must escalate from 20 to 35 percent over the licence period. That is an improvement, but still well short of what 5G Standalone needs to thrive. For context, you can read more about how global 5G technology depends on dense fibre backhaul infrastructure.
The National Fiberisation Plan and the Amended Telecom Bill
The government has set out a plan to close the gap. Speaking at the EU-Pakistan Business Forum 2026, the IT minister said only a small share of telecom towers in Pakistan are currently connected through fibre, adding: “Only 16% of our towers are fiberised at this point. Our target is that in the next three years, we will increase that to almost 60%.”
The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication is targeting a minimum fixed broadband speed of 100 Mbps for all users across Pakistan as part of a major national overhaul, and will hire a consulting firm to develop Pakistan’s first National Fiberization Policy and Plan, launched under the World Bank-supported Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP). Alongside tower backhaul, Pakistan also plans to increase fibreised home passes from around 2 to 3 million to at least 10 million within the next two years.
The amended Telecom Bill was meant to speed this up by making it easier to lay fibre across government land and housing societies. The National Assembly approved the Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganisation) (Amendment) Act, 2026, which permits companies to lay optic fibre cables free of cost across any government-owned land and housing societies. However, the bill ran into trouble in the Senate. A proposed telecommunications bill was stalled after lawmakers objected to provisions they say could undermine constitutional property rights, with one of the most contentious clauses treating a property owner’s failure to respond to two official notices as “implied consent” for telecom installations. A PM-constituted committee is now reviewing the bill’s provisions on right of way for telecom facilities and operations on private property and housing societies.
Out of a total allocation of Rs141 billion, the government has earmarked Rs35.7 billion for telecom operators under the Universal Service Fund (USF) to expand optical fibre cable networks in different regions. That funding is welcome, but the gap between today’s 18 percent and the 60 to 80 percent target remains enormous, and speed of execution will matter as much as the plan itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is fibre backhaul and why does Pakistan need more of it?
Fibre backhaul is the high-speed cable connection between a cell tower and the main internet network. Without it, towers use slower microwave radio links that limit how much data can flow. Pakistan needs more fibre backhaul because its current 4G network is congested and its new 5G licences cannot deliver fast speeds over microwave connections alone.
How many of Pakistan’s cell towers are on fibre right now?
According to the PTA, the share of mobile sites linked by fibre rose to 17.9 percent in 2025, up from 14.8 percent in 2024. The Economic Survey 2025-26 puts the range at 14 to 19 percent, depending on how it is measured. Either way, roughly four out of every five towers still rely on microwave links.
What is the National Fiberisation Plan targeting?
While the initiative promises 100 Mbps fixed internet for every user and aims to push Pakistan into the top 50 global speed rankings, the country is also targeting 80 percent fiberisation of mobile towers to enhance network capacity and reliability. The IT minister has set a three-year timeline to reach 60 percent tower fiberisation, starting from the current 16 to 18 percent.
Will the amended Telecom Bill actually fix the problem?
The bill removes one big hurdle, cost and permission to dig through government land, but the fibre backhaul crisis has several causes. High equipment import taxes, low operator revenues, skilled worker shortages, and approval delays from multiple local bodies all need to be fixed together. The bill is a necessary start, but it is not enough on its own.