ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday that 5G spectrum auction would be held on March 10 and no changes were likely to be made in the schedule, saying that the sale was likely to fetch between $300-$700 million.

The authority is offering 597 megahertz (MHz) in several bands in the upcoming auction and three existing telecom operators have been mandated to obtain a minimum of 100 MHz in the auction process.

“With the prescribed rate, even if 300 MHz is obtained by the telecommunication operators without any competitive bidding, the government will get $300 million,” PTA Director General Licensing retired brigadier Aamir Shahzad told a media briefing.

“And if all the 597 MHz is sold at auction at a slightly competitive rate, $700 million will be available for the government, but this scenario is less likely to happen,” he added.

Shahzad said that the auction would be conducted using a multi-round electronic clock auction format, with the main allocation stage starting on March 10. He said the 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands would be offered during the first round.

He added that after the auction process, the rollout of 5G services would take between three and six months as certain infrastructure was needed for the fresh spectrum.

Meanwhile, Chairman PTA Hafeezur Rehman said that the auction would lead to improved quality of service and data speed.

“Around 50 million new users have been added in the system during the last five years, but only 10MHz was increased in the 2021 spectrum auction,” PTA Chairman said.

“Improved data service and enhanced coverage will also increase average revenue per user (ARPU) for telecommunication operators,” he said.

The ARPU is a key performance indicator that measures the average revenue generated by a company from each consumer within a specific timeframe, monthly or annually.

“We started with $0.7 and now the ARPU has reached $1.3. Therefore, it is likely to increase as more data is consumed by the subscribers,” Rehman said.

“The authority expects mobile broadband speeds to improve by around 25 per cent following the auction,” he said.

He said that the government had offered many incentives to telecom companies in the new spectrum auction, but obligations to improve the quality of service as well as coverage area had been increased.

“This will help the country to embrace further upgradations like 6G and not like 5G, where we have been delayed,” the PTA Chairman said.

He added the government had also eliminated the right-of-way fee that used to be around Rs36,000 per kilometre annually; this, he said, would encourage fiberisation projects.

The chairman also said that telecom operators had already placed orders for 5G equipment, while local manufacturing of 5G-enabled smartphones had commenced, with 500,000 to 600,000 units produced so far.

He said the other measures being taken to facilitate the faster rollout of services after the auction were options for spectrum sharing, relaxation of certain regulatory terms and incentives for network expansion.

“Operators have been given one year to make the necessary capital investments without upfront spectrum payments, allowing them to focus on improving service quality,” Rehman added.

However, the operators will have to expand 5G coverage to additional cities apart from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, while fiber-to-the-site ratios will increase from 20 per cent to 35pc by 2035.

Besides, the minimum download speeds for 4G service have been increased from four megabytes per second (Mbps) to 20Mbps in 2026–27 and to 50Mbps by 2030–35.

For 5G, minimum download speeds will rise from 50Mbps initially to 100Mbps by 2030–35, with latency targets reduced to 35 milliseconds. Upload speeds are benchmarked at 20pc of download speeds across both technologies.

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Meta Platforms CEO and billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is set to be questioned for the first time in a US court on Wednesday about Instagram’s effect on the mental health of young users, as a landmark trial over youth social media addiction continues.

While Zuckerberg has previously testified on the subject before Congress, the stakes are higher at the jury trial in Los Angeles, California.

Meta may have to pay damages if it loses the case, and the verdict could erode Big Tech’s longstanding legal defence against claims of user harm.

The lawsuit and others like it are part of a global backlash against social media platforms over children’s mental health.

Australia and Spain have prohibited access to social media platforms for users under age 16, and other countries are considering similar curbs.

In the US, Florida has prohibited companies from allowing users under age 14. Tech industry trade groups are challenging the law in court.

The case involves a California woman who started using Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube as a child.

She alleges the companies sought to profit by hooking kids on their services despite knowing social media could harm their mental health. She alleges the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts and is seeking to hold the companies liable.

Meta and Google have denied the allegations and pointed to their work to add features that keep users safe. Meta has often pointed to a National Academies of Sciences finding that research does not show social media changes kids’ mental health.

The lawsuit serves as a test case for similar claims in a larger group of cases against Meta, Alphabet’s Google, Snap and TikTok. Families, school districts and states have filed thousands of lawsuits in the US accusing the companies of fueling a youth mental health crisis.

Zuckerberg is expected to be questioned on Meta’s internal studies and discussions of how Instagram use affects younger users.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, testified last week that he was unaware of a recent Meta study showing no link between parental supervision and teens’ attentiveness over their own social media use.

Teens with difficult life circumstances more often said they used Instagram habitually or unintentionally, according to the document shown at trial.

Meta’s lawyer told jurors at the trial that the woman’s health records show her issues stem from a troubled childhood, and that social media was a creative outlet for her.

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The power and petroleum ministers on Wednesday assured the nation that there would be no electricity and gas loadshedding during Sehr and Iftar during this Ramazan.

Addressing a joint press conference alongside Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, Power Minister Awais Leghari said, “We have decided that there will be absolutely no loadshedding in any area — unless there is a huge fault God forbid — during the timings of Sehr and Iftar.

“Even economic loadshedding in areas with high-loss feeders will be restricted at the time of Sehr and Iftar,” he added.

Leghari noted that it was Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s wish that those fasting were provided with utility services in a proper and timely manner so they “do not face any issues”.

Meanwhile, Malik stated that “complete arrangements” had been made to ensure the supply of gas “with maximum pressure from 3am to 10:30pm, especially during Sehr and Iftar”.

Leghari affirmed that it would be ensured that “there is no suspension of electricity during these timings across Pakistan”.

He highlighted that a special control room has been established at the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) to monitor all feeders and ensure the same.

“You have the 118 helpline; please file a complaint on it if you face any kind of issues. It will be addressed immediately,” the power minister said.

In his remarks, Malik said the decision regarding no gas loadshedding was taken after consultations with the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), so that the public could be provided with “as many facilities as possible”.

“Additional volumes have been arranged,” he said.

For gas-related issues, consumers can lodge a complaint on 119, the petroleum minister stated, adding that situation rooms have been established in the SNGPL and SSGC head offices.

He added that directives have also been issued to the regional offices to monitor the supply of gas, especially “on the tail ends”.

Malik contended that the gas supply in the winter this year was comparatively better than in previous winters.

“With all these efforts, the Power Division and the Petroleum Division are trying to become a source of ease during the blessed month of Ramazan,” the minister said.

After the Ramazan moon was sighted in other parts of the world last night, Pakistan is expecting to begin the holy month with the first fast on Thursday.

In a supply schedule issued days ago for Karachi and its nearby areas, the SSGC said gas would be available from 3am to 9am for Sehr and from 3:30pm to 10pm for Iftar, with the supply expected to be suspended outside these hours to manage overall demand.

Similarly, the SNGPL had proposed providing gas from 3am to 10:30pm daily during the upcoming holy month across Punjab.

On Tuesday, the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling for no gas loadshedding during Sehr and Iftar.

“We have already written to the federal government,” Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said.

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