Telcos seek grid upgrades for 5G rollout

Company chief says 'smart buildings' with 5G bubble could prevent PIMS-like fire damage

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan's 5G rollout is driving a massive increase in electricity demand, with telecom operators warning that power grids must be upgraded as consumption at 5G networks is twice that of 4G.

Jazz, the first telecom operator to link 1,000 sites with 5G, has called on the government to upgrade power infrastructure to support the growing demand.

"Electric vehicles and 5G services have led to higher demand for electricity," Jazz President Kazim Mujtaba said while briefing media on Thursday.

The company plans to reach 2,500 5G sites by the end of 2026.

Mujtaba added that 5G has negligible benefit for individual customers, but its key use cases are for industrial, corporate and government services.

He said damages from accidents like the recent fire at PIMS Hospital, Islamabad, could be reduced by implementing "smart buildings" with a 5G bubble as an early warning system.

"An average of one million sensors are installed in one kilometre area. If we take the example of PIMS, the sensor installed in the AC plant will tell beforehand that it was consuming higher electricity and overheating. After the fire erupted, all relevant officials would be informed at their phone sets about any abnormal development," Mujtaba said.

"We have requested upgrading grid stations as 5G cell sites need more power. The battery backup has also been upgraded at these sites," he added.

Jazz will invest $1 billion in network expansion over the next two to three years, but to reap the benefits of 5G, the government must also invest in supporting infrastructure, Mujtaba said.

Meanwhile, sources in the Ministry of IT and Telecom said that while Jazz has linked 1,000 sites with 5G, the other two operators are lagging behind. Zong has upgraded 350 sites, while the Ufone-Telenor merged entity has only 200.

Mujtaba said the country needs more 5G-compatible handsets. The government and telecom companies are close to striking a mechanism for providing 5G handsets on instalments. Telecom companies want to block SIMs of defaulters on all networks if customers fail to pay instalments, but banks are not ready to take the exposure, he added.

Jazz officials further said they had faced losses of billions of rupees due to early closure of markets. They said the government has realised that interruption in network services is a hurdle to the digital economy, and there has been no major interruption in internet services after the spectrum auction.

Responding to a question about the environmental impact of 5G, they said solar was the best option. About Starlink and other satellite network companies, they said Jazz was fully capable of competing.