Total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the telecom sector stood at $1.13 billion in 2009-10 which is about $508 million less than the previous fiscal year. Cellular mobile share in total stake remained about 80 percent as $908 million were spent on infrastructural expansion in all region of Pakistan.
The annual report 2009-10 of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) revealed that during the past 5 years, telecom sector investment was over $11 billion, which created millions of job opportunities in the country. However, as the telecom sector is heading towards maturity, investment is also contracting with time and decline in the FDI is attributed to saturation in the telecom sector.
Telecom sector attracted over $6.3 billion FDI in last 5 years which is an encouraging response by the investor towards Pakistan telecom sector policies. UAE, Norway and USA remained the major sources of FDI during last five years. Out of the total $6.3 billion FDI in the sector, UAE invested over $2 billion and its share was more than 32 percent while USA and Norway brought about $890 million and $639 million FDI respectively. In the PTA annual report another wave of FDI is expected after the launch of 3G services by Pakistan.