Archive for January 19th, 2009

Year 2008 Ends With 13M Net Additions. Losses Mounting In Last 2 Months.

Published by Babar Bhatti on January 19, 2009 under Competitive Trends, Mobile Companies, Mobilink, PTA, Telecommunications, Telenor, Ufone, Warid, Zong

PTA released December numbers for mobile subscribers which are consistent with the trend in November. The numbers are shrinking and this rings alarm bells. Mobilink had huge loss - this time losing 1.5 million subscribers in December and going down to 32% of market share from 40% at last year end. Zong showed impressive growth and Telenor was a strong performer. Warid showed resilience and did well. Ufone has some catching up to do. Here are the year end subscriber numbers.

  1. Mobilink 28,479,600.
  2. Telenor: 19,387,956.
  3. Ufone: 19,301,180.
  4. Warid: 16,914,054 and
  5. Zong: 5,503,274.

Total: 89.9M down from an all time high of 90.5M.

The chart below shows the net gain/losscomparison during the 2008 year.

Telecom Billboards And Hoardings – Effective Or Hyped?

Published by Babar Bhatti on January 19, 2009 under Business, Marketing, Media, Telecommunications

Telecom companies are one of the biggest spenders on billboards and hoardings. You can spot these on the most prominent locations and buildings all over Pakistan. These billboards (aka hoardings) are believed to be one of the most effective ways to market new products and to grab attention from the public on the street. People have told me that they discovered a new service through these signboards. A lot of money is involved in this and competition is fierce to find good spots. The renters of the space make good money too. But sometime these hoardings can cause destruction…as in case of storms in Karachi a while ago. This is of concern if these hoardings are not installed properly. What do you think?