Pakistanis Spend USD 1 Billion A Year On Imported Mobile Phones
The issue of imported mobile handsets in Pakistan is getting attention from foreign press as well. Here’s a report from Press Trust of India /Rezaul H Laskar.
Pakistanis spend about one billion dollars a year on imported mobile handsets, with 20 per cent of users changing their phones up to three times a year.
Most markets in major cities are chock-a-block with shops — ranging from plush showrooms to small kiosks — offering the latest handsets and a variety of services, including the “unlocking” of handsets smuggled in from abroad for as little as Rs 700.
Apple’s iPhone, brought in illegally and hacked for use in Pakistan, goes for about Rs 40,000 in shops here, which also offer a wide array of cheap handsets aimed at people living in areas not covered by fixed phone services.
Like their counterparts across the border in India, cellphones with cameras, MP3 players and all the other bells and whistles are a trendy fashion statement with Pakistani youth.
“All my friends have flashy mobiles and most of them change handsets at least once a year,” said teenage college student Ozair Usman. “That’s why I convinced my parents to get me the latest Nokia handset.” Mobile phones also played a key role in protests over the past few days against the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf. Student leaders and rights activists, fearful that their phone conversations were being eavesdropped on by security agencies, organised “flash protests” by sending out the venue and time of demonstrations on SMS.
The total number of mobile subscribers in Pakistan is expected to cross 77 million by the end of 2007-08 and some 2.5 million new users sign up every month.
But the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which regulates the telecom industry, has warned in its annual report that the spending of one billion dollars on imported handsets is a burden on foreign reserves and is increasing the trade deficit. The report said exponential growth in the telecom industry is also burdening overall imports. In 2006-07, the telecom sector’s imports were about 4.4 per cent of Pakistan’s total imports, up from 2.4 per cent in 2003-04. PTA has said that telecom equipment imports are one of the reasons for an increasing trade gap.
The PTA report said the government is now considering providing incentives to top mobile handset and telecom equipment firms to consider manufacturing handsets and other equipment in Pakistan.
Handset sales have also been driven by measures like mobile number portability (MNP), a feature that is set to be introduced in India only next year. Some 100,000 Pakistani subscribers have changed service providers since MNP was introduced in March.
In 2005-06, the telecom sector received over 1.8 billion dollars in foreign direct investment and PTA has said that the trend of increasing investments in the segment is expected to continue in the future.
Mobilink, the service from Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holdings, is the market leader with about 30 million subscribers and a 40 per cent market share. Telenor Pakistan is the second largest operator with about 15.5 million customers while Pakistan Telecom Mobile’s Ufone is in third place with 1 5.42 subscribers.
The mobile phone segment contributed over 66 billion rupees to the national exchequer in taxes in 2007, more than 70 per cent of the telecom sector’s total contribution.
TelecomPk.Net is a leading source of information and analysis about Pakistan Telecom industry.
This is very true, and the sad thing is that the mobile phones bought do not fit in the market here, the features and technology supported by the phones is simply not present or provided by any of the service providers in Pakistan. I think more education is needed for end users and responsibility probably lies with service providers to make their websites available with probably comparison of features supported etc. The very advanced phones are no good as the most common features that you can use is either Camera or Listen to MP3’s.
This may sound like a really silly question but why are the providers simply not selling phones from their websites or retail stores… Ok, maybe not the internet due to low usage rates but what about the stores? Would that really be such a bizarre concept to put into practice even in a cash based economy like Pakistan? I am provider “a” these are the products guaranteed to work with my network and I’ll sell them to you cheaper than the grey market.
It just doesn’t make sense for someone to buy a phone at grey/black market rates when you can’t use the features on it. Coolness vs ignorance?
It would be wonderful if you post a simple “intro” for the rest of us on how the wireless industry in Pakistan actually works… where the phone come from, if there is a US equivalent of a “line rent fee” (what????), and how the various plans and payment options are created.
In other words, if I went to Pakistan today and wanted to get service, how exactly would I go about it?
gps
hi
I am wanting to sell grey market phones and refurbished handsets to pakistan, ie nokia n95 8gb $300 dollars new nokia sapphire arte $550 u.s dollars?
Why pay more when you can pay less- just for the look!
Is there any buyers or resellers out there who would be interested in purchasing or resellers?
Please leave an email address or tel no to be in touch.
jazakallah