Karachi: Caretaker Federal Minister for Information Technology Dr. Umar Saif has said that major progress is expected in a month with respect to PayPal and Stripe, the platforms used for currency transactions.
On the occasion of the cooperation agreement between HBL and Pasha in Karachi, the caretaker minister for IT while talking to the journalists said that a strong business case has been prepared for global payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe. In which it is stated that Pakistan has come out of FATF’s gray list.
He said that Pakistan’s financial structure is strong and the State Bank has made many reforms in this regard. $10 billion a year can be earned, making the Pakistan market a strong business case for potential global platforms like PayPal and Stripe.
The caretaker federal minister also assured to complete the homework to introduce 5G technology in Pakistan before the formation of the next elected government and said that currently all the telecom companies of Pakistan are using 274 MHz spectrum. 4G penetration is limited to big cities, only 6,000 towers out of 56,000 towers are connected with fiber, telecom companies need to provide ease and infrastructure.
He said that for this purpose, the government has decided to add 300 MHz to the existing spectrum, this additional spectrum will be given to telecom companies through auction, including the 5G band. The Hertz spectrum auction will also introduce 5G.
The Caretaker Federal Minister said that there were some legal issues in the spectrum auction which are being resolved quickly, an inter-ministerial committee has been formed with the approval of the cabinet for the spectrum auction, now the international consultant for the spectrum auction. are being hired to create an auction framework to invite telecom companies to participate in the spectrum auction.
He said that investment in spectrum and infrastructure is necessary to increase the revenue of the telecom companies, currently the telecom companies serving in Pakistan are 0.7 to 0.8 dollars (Rs. 250) average user revenue. which has the lowest average revenue per user in the world.
He said that an ease was given to the telecom companies in the form of structure sharing policy, while now radio towers sharing is also being allowed through active spectrum sharing and the tariff issues of telecom companies are also being resolved, Wright said. Under the off-way policy, telecom companies are also being given permission and facility to lay fiber optic along the network of national highways and railways so that telecom companies can invest by increasing revenue.
The caretaker minister further said that the spectrum auction was targeted in ten months out of which two months have already passed and all the remaining homework will be completed in the next eight months so that the newly elected government can complete the process quickly.
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