A leading Pakistani think tank has said that a 10 percent increase in fixed broadband penetration can increase GDP growth rate by at least 1.38 percent in developing countries like Pakistan. According to a working paper “The Fixed Broadband Challenge: Building the runway for Pakistan’s Economic Take-Off” prepared by Tabadlab, countries like Malaysia, Bangladesh and Vietnam have done well to expand their infrastructure and services. According to estimates, an investment to at least $6 billion is required to capture the potential target pool of 10 million house passes, a massive undertaking that is beyond the current capacity and intent of existing service providers. These considerations are now being evaluated by the Ministry of IT and Telecom in light of industry feedback regarding the National Broadband Policy 2021. Pakistan faced major connectivity issues since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, with millions, particularly those residing in remote regions of the nation, unable to access the Internet for business and education purposes amid lockdowns. Tabadlab said the country had seen high mobile broadband usage and low smartphone penetration amid the pandemic. It said increasing Pakistan’s fiber optic connectivity would create an investment potential of $6 billion. “The importance of a strong national connectivity profile, with fixed broadband as its mainstay, can be encapsulated in the following statistic,” the paper read. Discussing Pakistan’s fiber optic situation, the report said between 130,000 and 150,000 kilometers of it had been laid out in the country but only nine percent of cell towers were connected to it compared to international benchmarks of 40 percent. “The government still treats telecommunications as a commercial service as opposed to a utility, resulting in high license fees and duties,” the report added. In recent years, fibre optic infrastructure has been prioritised as the preferred technology for fixed broadband due to its higher speed and lower probabilities for electromagnetic interference.