State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

Here’s an Urdu related entry - Urdu SIM service from Warid. It so happens that the previous story about Urduwas also related to Warid. The whimsical mix of English and Urdu terms in this FAQ (Amoomi Sawalat) follows the same pattern as discussed earlier and my previous criticism is equally valid here. The Urdu menu service seems to be useful I would think that Urdu sms will be supported as well. Overall it is a good first step towards localization.

This new series will bring you interesting telecom and technology news bytes and headlines from around the world. Please share comments on whether this is something you’d like to read on a regular basis.

Cell phone helps Japanese stay in shape. NTT DoCoMo introduced a “Fitness Phone,” designed to help the user stay healthy — and avoid bad breath (just breathe into the phone to get a reading). The primary target groups are said to be fat-fighting middle-aged businessmen and young women on diets. Sounds like a great combination of market segments to me! See a video demo here.

China Mobile and other Hong Kong telecom stock peaked recently because of 3G expectations. Telecom stocks also gained after the Chinese regulator said it is relaxing the pricing and other policies in the mainland’s fifth 3G license auction. “Talk in the market that China will issue the 3G licenses soon and restructure the sector drove telecom shares higher,” said Jackson Wong, investment manager at Tanrich Securities.

India is planning 50,000 WiMAX based Internet kiosks. BSNL is set to issue tenders for setting up 50,000 Common Service Centres catering to semi-urban and rural areas across the country. The project has a target date of Aug 2008 and is expected to get a special spectrum clearance. BSNL has bigger plans for WiMAX rollout in urban areas as well. 

Adobe released new version of its flash player for cell phones, Adobe Flash Lite 3. This version promises to bring the quality of live video on cellular phones closer to that of video on computers. More than a billion Flash-enabled devices are expected to be available by 2010. Nokia is betting on this new version to bring rich content such as videos and animated ringtones to its phones. More here.

Vodafone is increasing its push to India and Chinaamong other countries. Vodafone CEO Sarin’s main strategy is to increase Vodafone’s presence in countries that are driving regional economic growth and gain a majority stake in the right companies. Vodafone has majority stakes in wireless firms in India, South Africa and Romania. Is Pakistan part of Vodafone’s plans? No indications so far.

Disney will shut down its branded cellphone service. It had planned to sell phones featuring Disney content and services aimed at children and their parents. However, MVNO model failed to take off. Disney will instead license its content to other carriers.

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are believed to be one of the top ten emerging telecom trends in Asia. Pakistan Telecom Authority defines Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) as an operator that does not own spectrum but has commercial arrangements with conventional Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to buy minutes of use (MoU) for sale to its own customers. The diagram (click to enlarge) shows the 5 MVNO models approved by PTA.

In May 2007 PTA released a brief framework (pdf) for Mobile Virtual Network Operators. Commenting on that blogger Tee Emm wrote about the need for further clarifications. A few points from the framework:

• PTA will oversee and approve the MVNO agreements and breakups.
• PTA shall allocate separate number blocks to MNOs for use by its MVNO partner.
• MVNOs cannot sign separate roaming agreements with operators other than the parent network operator.
• MVNOs will contribute to universal service fund and research & development fund, among other fees. 
• Accompanying the 3-page framework, there’s an appendix (pdf) which includes a checklist, fee schedule and application form.

As common with PTA procedures, a consultancy paper for MVNOs was issued in 2006. This detailed paper (2.4MB pdf) provides some additional background on the issues considered. The framework also took in consideration feedback and commentary from the Ministry of Information Technology (MOIT). The ministry had asked PTA to consider policy guidelines regarding MVNO’s rights and obligations for spectrum, security, regulatory operations; other commercial terms were to be left to the parties. 

PTA has done a decent job with introduction of the framework and has kept the barrier to entry (fees, conditions etc) for MVNOs fairly low. Let’s see how many nationwide MVNOs get started in Pakistan in the near future.