State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

PTA yesterday released the subscriber numbers for January 2010. The year begins with a drop in overall subscriber base to 95.4 Million as compared to 97.6 Million at December end dropping the mobile density to 58.20%.

The operator suffering the most loss was Warid, losings 2.6 Million subscriber and making its market share 16.97% which was 19.4% in December 2009. Tough time for the new CEO.

All other operators showed some growth with Mobilink still leading the market and Telenor following it. As a result of drops in Warid, Ufone now ranks at third position.

With Telenor bringing innovations to the mobile banking and Mobilink also planning to penetrate with the same soon, the competition will definitely elevate as the year unfolds.

UExaminer is a unique and first of its kind VAS from Ufone. This focuses on use of cell phone for educational purpose and targets all students studying in 9th, 10th, 1st Year, 2nd Year and even from O/A Level education system, to get themselves prepared for final board examinations.

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Research and Market, the world’s largest market research resource have recently published forecast reports of next five years for mobile operators of Pakistan and other countries. The key points of the report as mentioned in its summary give a very interesting picture of the state of telecom industry in Pakistan.

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Telecom companies in Pakistan are seen working towards the social improvements in the society under their CSR activities.

The popular ones from last year include:

• Telenor Khuddar Pakistan initiative for the persons with disabilities.
• Ufone Child Healthcare Initiative which will revamp Children Ward and Children OPD in major hospitals nationwide with the goal of making it more hygienic and comfortable. Ufone has started with a revamp of Children Ward/OPD at the Federal Government Services Hospital, Islamabad commonly known as Polyclinic.
• Warid’s GIVE and National Polio Immunization Drive with Rotary Club.

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Telecom companies have started using  Twitter and other social media platforms for effective customer service and brand promotion. The quality of how companies use these new media channels varies a lot. I wanted the readers to take a look at how customer service should be done - as shown by T-Mobile -  and the mistakes that Mobilink and Ufone are making.

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Ufone has come up with their version of talkMail, Awaz Email. Like talkMail, Awaz Email lets you record a voice message and send it directly to someone’s email. By calling the Awaz Email IVR 4412, you can just do that.
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There is a lot of talk about the news that Punjab Government has unanimously passed a resolution banning late night offers/packages by mobile phone operators. Daily times reports it as follows:

Members of the Punjab Assembly (MPAs) on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution banning late night packages offered by mobile networks at cheap rates in keeping with “moral and social values” and to “maintain the youth’s health and prevent vice”.

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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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Ezetop, an international group focused on international and online mobile phone top-up today. It provides services of top-up to any  phone back home for many countries, including Pakistan.

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Ufone has been launching new services quite rapidly in the last few months, perhaps in response to all the subscribers it lost in the SIM recounts. Most recently Ufone launched Background Music through which subscribers can create a unique ambiance for every conversation they have. It would be interesting to see how this service plays up in comparison to a number of other music related services.

To subscribe SMS ‘SUB’ to 770 or dial 770 from Ufone. After subscribing and selecting the back ground music the subscribers will simply dial 77 before the recipients number e.g. 7703335199942 and can talk to their friends or loved ones with the song playing in the background of the conversation. A Back Ground Music call can be made to any number, any network in Pakistan.

Call charges are not that simple – take a look. Read more »

Here comes another unique offer from Ufone ‘Solid Offer‘, free talk time after 3 minutes of the call. Talk for just 3 minutes and get the rest of your call is free. No time window, this offer is valid 24 hours a day but for for Ufone to Ufone calls only.

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We wish all stake holders of the Pakistan Telecom Industry a Very Happy New Year. At the beginning of December 2009 we started a poll about Your Favorite Cellular Operator – 2009 and with the end of 2009, the poll has closed.

We are here with the results of the poll where readers had to choose their favorite out of the five. From a total of 1060 votes Ufone stands out the most favorite and Warid being the second favorite with a difference of  just 1%.

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