Rural population may become a major beneficiary of the introduction of 3G and 4G network technologies. Broadband being mobile would help in reaching the farthest of hinterlands. It can, therefore, help deliver the benefits of internet technology in key areas like education, healthcare, agriculture, local-level governance, security, disaster management, etc.

But many people dismiss this idea as far-fetched. Some of them argue that operators will not have a business case for data services in rural areas due to high rollout costs. Others say that rural uptake will be low due to lack of demand stemming from low literacy ratios, high device prices, and low user incomes.

This line of reasoning gives rise to the notion that 3G/4G services are just for the affluent urbanites. This impression sticks when one looks at the PTA’s four-phase rollout obligations for 3G services. Operators are required to provide 3G services to at least Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta within nine months.

But, fast forward six years from the license-award date and operators are legally bound to cover only 50 percent of Tehsil headquarters. That leaves out half the country, which will most likely be rural in scope. While operators are expected to be aggressive in urban rollout across Pakistan, the same cannot be said for rural areas yet.

The lax official rollout obligations are an unfortunate reality. But the Ministry of IT and Telecom still has those levers at its disposal which can be used to break the lid off the rural connectivity vessel. To start with, it should come up with a holistic ICT framework that is centered on broadband.

Such framework, which should have ideally been consulted and formulated before the 3G/4G auction, must provide ambitious milestones for rural broadband penetration and incentivise various broadband service providers to achieve them. Here, mobile broadband can be a key plank of that plan due to its mobility advantage over fixed broadband.

Based on that framework, the government should deploy the industry-funded Universal Service Fund, whose very existence is based on the idea of taking telecom to the un-served areas. The USF-funded projects-–which are executed through licensed telecom operators after bidding process-–have already been instrumental in providing telephony services, broadband facilities, and optic fiber to many remote areas.

Same can be done for rural mobile broadband access, where USF should finance the capex and operators only worry about the opex. The government must allow the USF management the financial autonomy it needs to perform its mandate properly.

In the end, one must point out that many in the rural areas may not be “educated” in a formal sense, but they happen to be practical, rational and politically-smart people. Arguments against rural broadband uptake and useful connectivity sound defeatist. Similar predictions had made rounds when SMS was introduced in the 90s. Did SMS fail in Pakistan? Well, Pakistanis sent 316 billion SMS in FY13, easily beating India and China-–two of the world’s largest telecom markets-–in terms of SMS per subscriber.