ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first 5G innovation lab was set up on Wednesday at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) in a joint venture between the industry and the academia.

The target of the innovation lab is to determine the utility of 5G through the social-eco lenses, and launch indigenous solutions related to health, education, mobility and businesses which suit the local environment. The ‘innovation lab’ is a research project powered by Jazz and Huawei technologies, while various disciplines of Nust will be involved to determine the impact and utility of 5G telecom services in the Pakistani society.

By leveraging its high bandwidth, low latency, and advanced security the project will help researchers to work on potential use cases for 5G in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality and healthcare sector, manufacturing and service industry, agriculture, security, disaster management, entertainment, and the public sector.

Mohsin Mushtaq, federal secretary for Information Technology and Telecom (MoITT), performed the groundbreaking of the 5G Innovation Lab, and said the lab will play a pivotal role in helping build an ecosystem to explore 5G-enabled use cases of IT & telecom technologies.

Speakers highlighted that unlike 4G, the 5G usage was not limited to data and telephony, but was a wider implementation as stimulant for digitisation of other industries.

Kaan Terzioglu, VEON Group CEO, the parent company of Jazz, said there was a need to have a look at the future of communications where 5G would have an important role to play. He said the priority of Jazz was to provide 4G to all, but it was making a major commitment towards innovation in the country and exploring the potential of 5G to help transform business and society.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2022