Spectrum of opportunity

At long last, there appears to be some ray of hope for sanity to prevail. The Supreme Court appears on the verge of breaking the bureaucratic logjam that has hitherto been preventing the advent of the third generation (3G) of mobile communication technology from being launched in Pakistan. If the honourable Court is able to finally force the government to stop the inordinate delays and hold a free and fair auction of 3G spectrum, then the nation will be in its debt. The government should be doing its best to accommodate the telecommunication industry. The five telecom operators between them have accounted for over one-third of all foreign direct investment over the past decade. They account for one in every Rs20 paid in taxes and employ tens of thousands of people. Fair market competition between them has meant that Pakistanis ensure some of the cheapest telecommunications costs in the world.

With the 3G auction, the industry has had a fairly simple demand: if the government sets a reasonable base price for the spectrum, they will not only pay the licence fee, but bring in billions of dollars in more investment into the country, in addition to dramatically improving the quality of telecommunications infrastructure in the country. Yet, the previous administration had been asking for far too high a price for the spectrum and delaying the 3G auction. The Nawaz Administration appears not to have paid too much attention to this problem it inherited, but we are grateful that the apex Court is forcing its hand.

The advent of 3G spectrum in Pakistan would allow ordinary Pakistanis, armed with a cheap smartphone, to be able to access the whole world’s information, spurring innovation, productivity and economic growth. Its arrival on our shores has been delayed by government unreason. We are glad that the courts have decided to remedy that situation and we hope this administration will not make the same mistakes as its predecessors.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2013.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.