Over 76 Million Mobile Subscribers In Pakistan
According to PTA released numbers the total mobile subscribers in Pakistan crossed 76 million. During 2006-07 the revenue of mobile industry was Rs.133 billion, an increase of 48% from previous year. The 4.12 billion US dollars of foreign investment poured in the telecom industry in the past year has been a major driver of this growth.
This is certainly a big achievement and PTA deserves a pat on the back. The challenge of course is to sustain this growth in a fair manner to all and not at the cost of the basic rights of consumers. Lets all remeber the basic point that consumers in Pakistan deserve good service at competitive rates. PTA must not allow the quality of service fall below reasonable standards.Â
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The most eyecatching participant of this race is Telenor - steaming ahead with 15M consumers in less than 3 years time. Telenor has described clearly the segment, the segment service and segment comunication according to the segment and service. Persona, Djuice and TalkShawk each of them having their own unique way to roll-out marcom. My gutt feeling says that soon Persona is going to establish itself as the premium postpaid pack in the coming days; TalkShawk is already out and about with “Dhun” and Djuice having its own value added delivery stack for the consumers. Telenor is a “pure” Telecommunications company; their technology roots go very deep and cellular business runs in the blood involving a strong connection with the consumer because of such background. They suffered a pretty bad setback initally on the marcom side but settled quickly by identifying and improving the mistakes. Mobilink with 30M consumers; which is also not bad is tangled with all sorts of stuff - because their services evolve around “awam” (upper to lowest sects) it needs to do all that to survive; which I’m sure Telenor would be doing shortly. Mobilink; all it needs to do is organize itself, it has everything in communications and products but organization. They need to identify their Youth Brand (both in Prepaid and Postpaid) and make sure it is communicated as youth brand “only”; Value Added Services - PEP PTP; Circle A Brands; Circle B Brands and so on and their marcom consequently. Ufone; if you ask me - I will tell you nothing but to change their Marketing Management team and it will get better for them. There is no strategy behind any of their recent stints as they stink from head to tail - one can’t possibly figure out the target market they are trying to place. They are still sleeping in the era of “disruptions” where it has totally changed to “involvements”. Let the market and consumer come to you with their own choice, don’t force them to take decisions.
Thanks,
Bil
bilal_mughal@msn.com
I wish PTA could issue the stats including the churn and dual subscription factors, as 76 million out of approx 170 million population presents a very rosy picture of country’s economy which is quite a contrast to actual situation on ground. Further to remarks regarding Telenor, Mobilink & Ufone - a degradation in Telenor quality has been observed probably because of network overload or coverage gaps. Talk Shalk is known but Persona exists only in ads. Warid & Ufone are doing good in postpaid market segment after Mobilink. Coming to Ufone, I believe that U-mail, Endless Possibilities Postpay and Sara Pakistan Hamara Pakistan were excellent campaigns. However, lot more is required to be done.
True. The Postpay and Dino (prepay) campaign did spark but finished off quickly. It’s the recent campaigns that make little sense. The market is nothing but Jazz and TalkShawk war - TalkShawk though is going on the Jazz (early days) lines when it comes to Brand Ambassadors. Telenor’s Network is good but there are handoff problems at times in certain areas. Persona is going to emerge soon as the postpaid choice unless the BlackBerry campaigns take new turn to make the Indigo image robust.
It’s Indigo’s “Gadget Enabled” marketing communication which adds spice and boost to the image otherwise a brand like Indigo is a full toss for Telenor which they can hit right out of the park. Indigo story is getting more of a “Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” type of a thing - unless it gets ultra cool e.g. ferari, milan etc. It’s going to get bangged pretty hard in the near future.
Thanks,
Bil
bilal_mughal@msn.com
Bilal, thanks for the insights. Yes Telenor really stands out in terms of growth but to Aamer’s point, their quality level has gone down as well.