Archive for August 29th, 2008

The State of Pakistan’s Handset Market – An Analysis

Published by Shariq Syed on August 29, 2008 under Business, Economy, Emerging Markets Telecom, Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Mobile Trends, Pakistan, Smart Phones, Telecommunications, Trend Watch, Wireless

Editor’s Note: Please join me in welcoming Shariq Syed. This post was originally published at Shariq’s blog: Artistry Of Branding.

Handset market has played the most pivotal role in the overall growth of Pakistan’s telecom industry. For me the handset market has played a kind of un-sung hero role in-comparison with the local Telco’s who have taken much of the limelight in the phenomenal growth of Pakistan’s telecom industry during these 6 years.The 1st H of 2008 was a difficult period for telecom industry in general with plenty of political uncertainty, negative economic indicators, ever rising inflation & unfavorable budget policies played their role in restraining the growth pattern of previous years.

The hardest hit area in this declining growth pattern has been the handset market of Pakistan. Till Dec, 2007, the growth of handset market was excellent with around 1 Million handsets were being sold on monthly basis. However in July, 2008 the figures came down to 600 K units per month (depicting 40% decline in volume during 6 months). While the picture looks grim, i am pretty sure that volume will start to pick once the clouds of uncertainty settles (positive indicators including decline in inflation & Pak rupee getting strong against $).

Handset Market - Current Scenario

Pakistan’s handset market is primarily a low-end market with majority of volume comes from low-end mobile phones. Another important aspect is that our handset market is extremely price sensitive just like any other handset market of a developing country.

To comprehend the local market dynamics, below is the price segmentation analysis along with the market share each price segment comprised upon.

Read more »

Report On Telecom Opportunities In Pakistan

Published by Babar Bhatti on August 29, 2008 under Broadband Internet, Business, Call Centers, Digital Convergence, Economy, Emerging Markets Telecom, Government Regulations, ICT, Infrastructure, Investment, Mobile Companies, PTA, Pakistan, Telecommunications, WLL, Wimax, Wireless

I am pleased to share a report on Telecom Opportunities in Pakistan. It was prepared by Salman Ansari in Aug 2007 for Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA). I am thankful to Ansari Sahib for sharing this useful report with all of us. I believe that reports like this which present the facts and highlight the progress made in the telecom sector of Pakistan are extremely valuable - especially for those who are from outside Pakistan and are looking for a compact summary of Pakistan telecom sector.

The report provides a concise and fact-based overview of the economy, telecom road map, regulatory environment, telecom infrastructure (broadband, international connectivity), licence and spectrum situation, investment landscape, mergers and acquisitions and of course - the opportunities, as the excerpt below shows:

All this signals opportunities in the Traditional and Value Added sectors for not only creating new businesses by riding on these systems but also to be a part of new licenses which are being reviewed. These include MVNO, Regional Hosting, Call Centers, Telecenters, Video Conferencing, Content aggregation, Converged networks, etc. On another plane, the Regulatory environment permits spectrum trading, Mergers and Acquisitions as well as entry via Private equity arrangements. The market opening has nearly doubled the sector revenues and this trend is expected to grow.

The annex has a list of licensed operators as well. Obviously this an evergreen document and one should keep in mind that the numbers represent Aug 2007 and have changed during the last 12 months.