Senate panel raises alarm over internet degradation, fuel theft at telecom sites

ISLAMABAD: A Senate subcommittee on Monday expressed concern over worsening internet quality and repeated fuel theft at telecom installations after being told that more than 9,200 incidents of theft and vandalism had affected nearly 16pc of the country’s cellular infrastructure over the past 11 months.

The subcommittee of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology, chaired by Senator Sadia Abbasi, reviewed threats to telecom service continuity across the country. During the briefing, officials said Sindh recorded the highest number of fuel theft cases, with 3,938 incidents reported in 31 districts. Punjab followed with 2,827 incidents in 38 districts, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 1,668 incidents in 25 districts and Balochistan 716 incidents in 26 districts.

Officials of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told the panel that prolonged loadshedding had seriously affected service continuity by quickly draining backup batteries and consuming generator fuel reserves. They said the PTA had taken up the issue with Nepra and the power division to secure dedicated priority feeders for telecom infrastructure and to expedite the installation of smart transformers at critical network sites as part of longer-term resilience measures.

Security and service continuity concerns

The Universal Service Fund and its quality assurance teams also briefed the committee on infrastructure deployment in Balochistan. The panel was informed that 80pc of target areas had been identified through competitive bidding, but telecom operations continued to face major obstacles because of security risks and continued diesel theft.

In response, the committee directed the relevant departments to identify areas with high levels of theft and asked district and provincial authorities to deal with complaints strictly in accordance with the law. It also instructed telecom operators to put in place immediate protective measures against fuel theft so that connectivity standards could be maintained without disruption.

Network upgrade targets reviewed

The subcommittee also examined network modernisation measures, including recent spectrum auctions that increased available bandwidth by 480 MHz and the issuance of 5G commercial licences in March 2026.

Officials told the panel that the infrastructure plan includes increasing average 4G speeds from 4 Mbps to 20 Mbps, requiring the rollout of 1,000 new sites every year, and introducing Voice over LTE and Voice over Wi-Fi services.

To ensure compliance, the regulator has imposed stricter limits on network downtime for cellular mobile operators. Under the revised thresholds, downtime must remain at 5pc or below at the union council level, 3pc or below at the tehsil level, 2pc or below at the district level, and 1pc or below nationwide.

The committee also reaffirmed that internet access should fall under essential services criteria.