So the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) challenged the report that was released by Hootsuite which was titled as the “Digital 2019 (Pakistan)” where the platform said that PTA have provided wrong figures. In that regard PTA said that there are some in accuracies in the information which has been shown in the report which shows the current ICT development in Pakistan.
As per the the report, it shows lower figures of internet users and penetration (mobile and fixed) of the internet in Pakistan. It has also given an incorrect score to Pakistan in contrast to the afford ability of devices and internet services without providing any solid evidence. According to Hootsuite, 44.61 million internet subscribers in Pakistan have a penetration of 22% by January of 2019 whereas the real figures show that internet subscribers for mobile and fixed broadband was at 65.13 million with a penetration of 31.19% as of the start of 2019, Hence it is concluded that the platform did not mention at least 20 million subscribers and 9% internet penetration in Pakistan, thus defaming the reputation of the country in terms of Internet services provided. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that there has been a significant amount of growth of 25.8% in the total amount of internet subscribers from January 2018 to January 2019, showing the affect Mobile Internet has had on the country.
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Moreover, according to the report, the score given toPakistanwas 56.37 out of 100 in terms of the affordability of devices and services and has in turn ranked the country below other Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh and even Bhutan, whereas, other well known and much more authentic organizations such as Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had ranked Pakistan better offin terms of the affordability of the devices and services and this shows what a hoax Hootsuite is.
In terms of the ranking, A4AI ranked Pakistan at the number 28th position in terms of affordability beating India(ranked 35th) and Bangladesh (ranked 46th) and when it comes to the Mobile Broadband Basked, Pakistan once again had the upper hand claiming the 78th position ahead of both Bangladesh (95th) and India (105th) in the category.
