Pakistan’s Universal Service Fund has a fresh budget to work with, and this time the numbers come with a specific target: 3.66 million people across 21 districts who are still waiting for reliable mobile broadband.

The USF Policy Committee approved a Rs32.90 billion outlay for fiscal year 2026-27 at a meeting chaired by Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja. The session also cleared 15 new 4G projects spanning 1,893 mauzas, according to details reported by The Express Tribune.

How the Budget Breaks Down

The approved allocation splits into two main streams. Rs24.89 billion goes toward disbursements on projects already under construction, while Rs6.56 billion is earmarked for new initiatives launching in the coming year.

USF Chief Executive Officer Mudassar Naveed, along with senior management, walked the committee through the fund’s proposed project portfolio and spending priorities for FY27 before the budget was signed off.

To keep implementation moving without delay, the committee separately approved releasing Rs5.57 billion as the first-quarter tranche. That upfront release matters practically: USF projects often stall in their early months waiting for funds to clear, so front-loading the first quarter’s allocation is meant to avoid that bottleneck.

What’s Already Running, and What’s New

USF currently has 28 projects under implementation. Of these, 17 fall under the Next Generation Broadband Service Delivery (NG-BSD) category, covering mobile broadband rollout, while 11 are Next Generation Optical Fibre Network Services (NG-OFNS) projects, which extend fibre backbone infrastructure to underserved regions.

The new funding adds nine more NG-BSD projects and four additional NG-OFNS projects to that pipeline. The committee also approved block allocations for smaller lots under both programmes, a mechanism USF typically uses to fund connectivity in scattered, low-population settlements that don’t justify a standalone large-scale project.

The Scale Behind the Numbers

The 15 new 4G projects specifically target 3.66 million people spread across 1,893 mauzas in 21 districts. That figure gives the budget approval a concrete human scale rather than leaving it as an abstract fiscal allocation, and it signals where USF’s near-term priority sits: mobile broadband expansion over other connectivity types.

For context, a mauza in Pakistan’s administrative structure is a revenue village or land unit, often smaller than a full union council, meaning these projects are aimed at genuinely localised, hard-to-reach populations rather than district headquarters or towns that likely already have some coverage.

Why This Round of Funding Stands Out

USF budgets are an annual fixture, but the scale and split of this one point to a continued shift toward mobile broadband over fixed infrastructure. Nine new NG-BSD projects against four new NG-OFNS projects suggest the fund is prioritising last-mile mobile access over fibre backbone expansion this cycle, likely because mobile broadband reaches end users faster and at a lower per-connection cost in sparsely populated terrain.

That said, approved budgets and disbursed funds are not the same thing. USF has previously faced delays between policy approval and on-ground project completion, so the real test of this Rs32.90 billion allocation will be how much of it translates into working towers and live connections within the fiscal year, not how quickly it clears committee.

The Bigger Picture for Digital Inclusion

Pakistan’s digital divide remains sharply regional, with connectivity concentrated in urban centres while large parts of Balochistan, interior Sindh, and northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continue to lag. The Ministry of IT and USF have framed this budget as part of a sustained push to close that gap, expand telecom access, and support digital inclusion in remote areas.

Whether this translates into meaningfully improved coverage will depend less on the approval itself and more on execution speed, an area where USF’s track record has been mixed. The 3.66 million target gives this year’s plan a measurable benchmark that wasn’t as explicit in previous budget cycles, which at least makes it easier to check progress against, come the next fiscal year.