State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

Have you noticed the common elements between the telecom industry of Pakistan and Bangladesh? Three of the top 4 telecom companies in Bangladesh are also doing business in Pakistan. Telenor is present in all of sub-continent. Regulatory authorities in Bangladesh (BRTC) and Pakistan (PTA) have also worked together and shared best practices. Here’s a short review of the mobile telecom companies in Bangladesh.

1. Telenor Bangladesh – Grameen Phone
2. Bangla Link
3. AKTel
4. Warid

According to BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission), the total number of Mobile Phone Active Subscribers has reached 52.43 million at the end of December 2009. Note how Mobilink (13.87 million) is trailing behind Telenor / Grameen which has 23.26 million – the opposite of their situation in Pakistan. Warid (2.99 million) is at number 3 both in Bangladesh and in Pakistan – however in Bangladesh, Warid has sold its majority stake. In Pakistan, Warid is still in “talks”.
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PTCL is in the news as it reported earnings: a net profit of Rs. 5.354 billion for the half year ended on 31st December, 2009. This is a 13% growth compared to same period last year. At the same time, PTCL has withdrawn its high-speed Internet discount for students. In a recent press release, it announced that “PTCL is offering special 30% discount package for the students on 1 Mbps connection on high speed broadband services.” The previous connections of 2MBps and 4Mbps offered to students will be downgraded. To me, this business strategy seems odd. Why would you downgrade a popular package at a time when earnings are good?

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PTA has just released 2009 December mobile subscriber stats. Though it would have been nice if  the industry could hit 100 million mark in calendar year 2009, we are content about the overall progress (7.6 million net additions) of the telecom segment. Mobilink had a good last quarter, ending with 30.8 million susbcribers and retained its market share of 32% from the beginning of the year. Telenor is firm at second spot. Ufone also showed good progress (18.5 M) towards the end of year but overall it fell behind Warid (18.8 M) which became the number 3 in terms of total subscribers.

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We had written about the issues holding up $800 million payment from Etisalat. Pakistan’s Minister of Privatisation has stated that Pakistan will receive a payment of $800 million by the end of March from the UAE’s Etisalat for a stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Co (PTCL). Read more »

Venturebeat – a popular blog about high tech startup companies  – published a post about Help Me, a startup which provides affordable support to mobile app developers. The company behind this is Next Generation Innovations, based in Karachi, Pakistan. CEO of Next Generation Innovations, Farzal Dojki is very active and well know in Pakistani ICT circles. Great work Farzal!

Here are a few excerpts from the post by Saad Fazil.

Mobile app support is currently non existent, and a niche where we can help provide affordable support, says Farzal Dojki.

Currently Apple doesn’t have a very good after-sale support mechanism for the apps in its AppStore: Users click on a “Report a Problem” button, and are then prompted to go to the developers website, where they can directly contact the developer. Developers working with Help Me would link their contact information (email or phone) to Help Me so that Help Me can then take over the support.

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USF has been active in extending ICT access to under-served areas of Pakistan. Now its the turn of South Punjab to get  Broadband Internet, funded by Universal Service Fund (Ministry of IT), worth Rs. 1.95 billion. This project will be implemented through PTCL and Worldcall and will providebroadband facilities in un-served urban areas of Southern Punjab. This covers a population of 4.4 Million in 38 cities located in districts of Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan, Khanewal, Leyyah, Lodhran, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar khan, Rajanpur and Vehari.

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We have covered the positive role played by telecom industry to help genuine causes of the social and civil society. The land slide which occurred in a remote area of Hunza recently caused damage and the lcoation of the incident made it difficult to provide relief and rescue effort through normal land. Telenor stepped in quick and contributed Rs. 2 million in an effort to augment government’s efforts for those impacted by  land-sliding in Attabad, Hunza. Telenor Pakistan’s Chief Strategy Officer & VP Corporate Affairs, Aamir Ibrahim presented the cheque to the Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Governor of Gilgit-Baltistan, Qamar Zaman Kaira.

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The energy crisis in Pakistan is changing the way telecom industry consumes and manages power. In a welcome move, Universal Service Fund has made it mandatory for the telecom operators in rural areas, where USF is providing subsidy, to power their infrastructure through renewable energy sources. This not only makes sense financially but also from an environmental perspective. Telenor and Warid had already taken some initiatives along these lines – see our previous coverage. Read the statement from USF after the break.

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Growth of Pakistan telecom industry took a hit in recent months because of economy and regulation of SIMs. Even though the number of new subscribers slowed down and the revenues per user remained low, Pakistan telecom industry has shifted to a whole new set of services which provide value and convenience in ways not possible before.  One of the interesting trend of 2009 was the rush to offer financial services via mobile phones aka mobile financial services (MFS). These services include transactions such as remittances (person-to-person payments), payment of bills and others commerce enabled by mobile/cellular technology. This post provides an overview of MFS in Pakistan.

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We hope that you enjoyed the information presented on TelecomPk.net this year. Here are the top 20 posts from over 550 posts from 2009.

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After a tumultuous year,  the Pakistan telecom industry is back on the road to recovery. Its good to see November 2009 show some healthy growth of about 800K new subscribers. Total cellular subscribers are 96.7 million (with ~285K for SCO and AJK). Here are the month-to-month gains with the most successful operator at the top:

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Taimur Sikander has written an interesting article for Dawn about the long way that telecom has come in Pakistan and the impact of mobile phones and telecommunication on Pakistan society. I particularly like how he provides snapshots of the early days,  and the way politics, arts and culture were shaped by telecom. It talks about Nazia Hassan’s hit song, ‘Telephone pyaar’ which was one of the first pop songs in Urdu about phones. Excerpts follow.

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