Liberalization of telecom sector has seen stimulant growth since 1990s across the world with commitments made by over 70 WTO member countries to open up their value added and basic services sectors. Telecommunication has been acknowledged as a crucial infrastructure for any modern economy in the world.

PTCL had the exclusive right over basic telephony in Pakistan till 2003. Cellular mobile services in Pakistan commenced in 1990s when two cellular mobile telephone licenses were granted to Paktel and Pak Com (Instaphone) for provision of cellular mobile telephony in the country. Now there are four cellular players M/s Mobilink, Ufone, Paktel and Instafone in the market. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) extended number of incentives to these companies for the growth of mobile phone sector which include drastic cut in royalty and introduction of CPP regime.

First of all, PTA undertook the task of granting licenses to new cell phone companies. As a result of bidding, licenses were issued to M/s Telenor and M/s Warid, which are going to launch their operations in the coming months. Each license fetched hefty amount of US $ 291 million. Thereafter, the task of awarding Local Loop (LL), Long Distance International (LDI) and Wireless Local Loop (WLL) licenses was initiated. Because of the importance of WLL technology in developing economies, having socio economic conditions similar to Pakistan, the Authority decided to promote this technology