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.
As we figure out explanations to which city has the best service (and there could be many ways this could be decided) there are other questions that one wonders about. According to these results performance of all operator is below the benchmark set by PTA. Was the bar too high or do we have really bad speech quality??
Dawn News has reported today that PTA in its recent QOS survey have found that operators have failed to meet the set standards despite being asked to improve on it. PTA have issues a show-cause notice to all cellular operators over this issue. I wish PTA gives out the details of the survey to general public like they did in 2007, so that we can judge operators on basis of their QOS.
The latest PR affirms State Bank of Pakistan and PTA are closely working on a unified policy for mobile banking that will connect all banks of the country with cellular mobile operators for mobile transactions. No mentions about where the existing mobile banking framework will stand with it.
As the number of mobile applications increase its important for developers to understand the shifts in the mobile app development ecosystem. They need to know the best ways to capture value and to make money. Recently I came across a good presentation by VisionMobile called Mobile Mega Trends 2010, which among other things talks about the monetisation models and revenues. The first diagram from VisionMobile shows the 4 quadrants (device/cloud and pre/post-sales) which are important. The second diagram talks about the value and revenues in each quadrant. One of the key point is the value after sales which can come from inventory leasing, analytics, service distribution and service management. Read more »
Mobile banking has undoubtedly taken the lead with the collaborative mobile banking model, where collaboration takes place between the carriers and the banks who can distribute the roles of the value chain amongst themselves. An example of this is ‘easypaisa‘ from Telenor Pakistan and Tameer Bank.
Last but not least, comes Zong with it BlackBerry Solution in Pakistan. All other operators are already offering this service making competition tough for Zong. Recently Warid came up with its Smart Bundle offer to attract in users for the BlackBerry, Zong also will have to do more than just the launch. For now, the official PR has the details.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is doing great in its 668 Campaign to wipe-off illegal SIMs, but what about the illegal mobile handsets? When I say illegal cell phones, it means cell phones without a valid IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity usually China made.
The year 2009 have been very competitive for our cellular operators. New packages/offers, products, ads, counter ads, quizes, social media use etc. have taken competition to a new level. But of all their efforts the most important thing yet to be known is which cellular operator was customer’s favorite – YOUR Favorite?
Take sometime out to vote and leave comments on why you like your operator. The poll will be open till 31 December, 2009.
Vote and make your friends vote and lets find out the Favorite Cellular Operator – 2009.
After all is said and done – Mobile number portability, Zong launch, SIM correction, political upheavals and economic recession – where do we stand in terms of mobile telecom market growth and future? Remember that Pakistan saw a tremendous speed of increase in subscribers, going from ~34 million to ~94 million in 36 months from June 2006 to June 2009. That is no small feat and as we celebrate the Eid holidays, lets keep that accomplishment in mind.
The story has been the same for many years. The surge in network activity at Eid time is accompanied by service issues. And recently some companies have withdraw certain popular packages, SMS in particular. My thinking is that if a company can’t offer these packages during the peak times, then don’t bother offering it at all. Otherwise it sounds like switch and bait and hurts the brand reputation. Read more »
Obnoxious calls/missed calls or SMSs are sometimes very disturbing. In this post I will do a round-up of the Block Services being offered by our telecom operators.
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