Archive for September 2nd, 2008

Has The Clock Struck 3G In Pakistan?

Published by Babar Bhatti on September 2, 2008 under 3G, Broadband Internet, Business, Companies, Consumer Rights, Digital Convergence, Emerging Markets Telecom, Foreign Investment, GSM, Government Regulations, ICT, Investment, Networks, Pakistan, Strategy & Policy, Telecommunications, Wireless

This interesting title comes from a recent conference about 3G timing and readiness in Pakistan. It was organized by South Asia Forum in Islamabad. We have previously written about the different point of views from the regulator, network operators and infrastructure vendors. This is a classic text-book technical policy case study where each stakeholder is coming from their view point. We believe that the next 6-8 months will unfold the interesting transition to 3G and will keep the telecom industry busy. Increase in ARPU is something which needs more creative efforts and 3G is not a silver bullet for all the challenges.

This seminar was attended by many telecom celebrities of Pakistan including: the new PTA chairman Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Telenor CEO Jon Eddy Abdullah, Saad Muzaffar Waraich, Country Director, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Lasse Makinen, Member Global 3G Team - NSN, Irfan Wahab Khan, EVP & CEO LDI, Telenor Pakistan and representatives of MOITT, Warid, Huwawei & Deloitte.

By the way - can you name the personalities in the picture above (left to right)? Answer to be provided here in 2 days.

More about the conference from the press release:

The seminar was jointly sponsored by Telenor Pakistan and Nokia Siemens Networks with the PTA and Huawei Technologies co-sponsoring the event. The seminar was inaugurated and chaired by the Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen. He assured all present of the PTA’s cooperation and support towards the introduction of new technology and said that the PTA would soon be inviting applications for the 3G spectrum.

The industry strongly felt that in light of the extremely low Average Revenue per User (ARPU), a limited market for 3G and cut-throat pricing only a lowered 3G license fee and restriction of auction within the existing telecom operators would support a successful roll out.