Liberalizing telecom sector in Pakistan: issues and prospects

The telecommunications sector at the global level is passing through rapid technological developments and an increasingly liberal policy environment. The same holds true for Pakistan where the sector has been exposed to reforms witnessing a significant expansion of both fixed and mobile networks and striking improvements in quality. Pakistan may be categorized among those Asian economies which have partially privatized the state owned telecom sector while deferring the introduction of full scale competition to a future time. There exists a service competition rather than network competition. To inculcate and strengthen the concept of a market driven economy, the government of Pakistan established an independent regulator with the name of Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) in 1996. The paper reveals the fact that there has been a marked improvement in various fields, like the degree of competition, infrastructure, cost reduction and quality.