State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

You may have experienced difficulties with the telecom network of Pakistan in peak activity days. Pakistan Telecom Authority is responsibilities for keeping a check on the quality of services provided by the telecommunication companies.  For this purpose PTA conducts surveys and the results are posted on its website (see here for QoS of Mobile companies and here for that of ISPs).

In addition to mobile/WLL companies and ISPs, PTA recently asked an outside firm to report on the International roaming service quality. Is international roaming really that important? You be the judge. The study used a methodology based on a globally distributed but centrally controlled automated test call system. Here’s the the paper (pdf) and the link for more information about International Roaming QoS (PTA site does not always work with direct links).

There’s some upcoming changes in the way these surveys will be conducted. Here’s more about the new plans to check the QoS:

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has started an automated country-wide survey to check the quality of service (QoS) being provided by Cellular Mobile Operators to the consumers. The survey is being conducted through QoS monitoring equipment recently acquired by PTA. The survey would be completed by December 2007. After the completion of survey, results would be finalized and action would be taken against the companies not meeting the required quality standards.

Besides, checking Cellular Mobile service quality, PTA is also conducting a survey of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across the country. This survey will cover both rural and urban areas.

PTA, the regulatory body of country’s telecom sector, regularly monitors the QoS of all telecom services by conducting comprehensive surveys throughout the year, results of which are published in the media. In addition, periodic inspections based on subscriber’s complaints are also conducted.

It may be mentioned that the last QoS Survey of Cellular Mobile Operators (CMTOs) was conducted in 2006. In September 2006, PTA conducted Wireless Local Loop (WLL) Survey to check the quality of WLL operators the result of which were published in the press and on PTA website. PTA has also carried out ISP survey in 2006.

A PTA spokesman said that PTA has sufficient experience in conducting QoS surveys, and now with latest equipment acquired, it will monitor the services of telecom operators more effectively. He further said that these checks and surveys have resulted in quality improvement of services being provided by Cellular, Fixed and Wireless operators as well the ISPs.

I am sharing a piece about WiMAX in Paksitan, which I wrote for All Things Pakistan. As this is an overview, some of the information here may already be in my previous WiMAX posts.

Pakistan’s telecommunication industry - mobile communication in particular - has made impressive strides in the last few years after deregulation. However broadband growth in the country has been very disappointing - there are less than 100,000 broadband users in Pakistan. The open competition observed in mobile industry has not been replicated to broadband. Reasons include high prices, control of PTCL over bandwidth resources, policy issues, lack of infrastructure and legal disputes.

Enter WiMAX. Simply stated, it’s a relatively new standards-based wireless technology which is intended for large coverage areas on the order of several kilometers (instead of a few hundred meters, as is the case with Wi-Fi).

With base stations transmitting signals and some equipment at customer location, it promises fast bandwidth for both fixed locations and mobile users. In this backdrop, Pakistan made headlines in 2006 when Wateen announced plans to work with Motorola to rollout Mobile WiMAX, the largest network of its kind in the world.

Is WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) the right technology for developing countries? In other words, will this new technology deliver the promise of broadband at affordable prices?

WiMAX comes with many theoretical advantages but its potential is yet unproven. Without getting too technical, it is purpose-built for Internet (IP) communication and is based on standards (as opposed to other proprietary solutions) endorsed by a respected world standards body, the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE)*.

Read more »

The telecommunication landscape in Pakistan is interesting because of may reasons. For one, after deregulation it allowed both GSM (for mobile service) and CDMA which was described as an alternative to traditional copper line. To avoid direct competition and conflicts about the license fee amounts, CDMA was confined to Limited Mobility.  Lets review the history and outlook of Wireless local loop (WLL) services which is based on CDMA technology.

CDMA operators started in Pakistan in 2004 when PTA auctioned four frequency spectrum ranges - 450 MHz, 479 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 3.5 GHz for each of the 14 of licensed regions of the country - with the necessity of providing services in Wireless Local Loop (WLL) standard. As of this writing, there are 16 WLL license holders (see the full list at PTA site) with licenses in different regions.

This led to some interesting scenarios. First the frequency allocations varied by region. For example, Worldcall Telecom Ltd. won frequencies in all 14 regions, but in Karachi it received the frequencies only in 450 MHz, in 10 regions only in 479 MHz, in 10 other regions only in 1900 MHz, and in 9 regions only in 3.5 GHz. It was also thought that some of the companies just wanted to get a license for future trading purpose and not with genuine intentions of using it.

Despite the limitations imposed on them, Pakistani CDMA-operators sold not only fixed but also mobile phones. According to the details covered in this well-written article about investment in Pakistan telecom: “the regulator limited the subscriber mobility by the zone of operation of one BTS. As CDMA operators do not have one frequency range for the whole country, they are fine with mobility within one region or large city, while some are happy to be limited by fixed or home phones or wireless payphones.”

The payphone market is lucrative - and has higher revenues per user. That’s why the mobile companies (Mobilink, Telenor) have also entered this market with their own offerings.

Market Share & Outlook
After 3 years of introduction where is the market today with WLL? As of June 2007 there are about 1.85 million WLL subscribers in Pakistan. Pakistan Telecommunication Company that works under the trademark PTCL V is the leader with a market share of 59%. TeleCard (GO CDMA) has 23% of the market. Worldcall Telecom (stock performance; also see coverage on its deal with Omantel) has 15% share of the WLL subscribers. Great Bear International Services (Pvt) Ltd (DIALLOG) which is covered here, has 3% share. Even though Diallog is a smaller player, it has been praised in blogs because of its good customer service and it has higher revenue per user (Rs. 600) than other companies.  

One area of growth for the WLL operators is WiMAX as they have the spectrum allocation for it. Actually this is what some of the companies were after from the beginning. PTA chairman was recently quoted in Daily Times as: The Wireless Local Loop (WLL) licence holders in 3.5 GHz frequency have now established their networks using WiMax technology after issuance of commencement certificates by the authority.

According to a KASB analyst, the WLL outlook is positive. Here’s an excerpt*:

While optic fiber would contribute a part, we believe the true growth in fixed line teledensity will come from WLL telephony given its effectiveness, in terms of cost and time, and suitability to Pakistan’s geographic terrain. Not only is WLL more suitable for hilly areas as no digging is required, but it is also comparatively cheaper (US$100-125 vs US$250-275 per line for fixed wire line).

Launched in 2004, WLL has been slow to get off the ground. While growth has started picking up with a 71% increase in connections over 9MFY07, we believe it is still not substantial enough with net adds coming in at only 150,000-180,000 connections per month vis-à-vis the 2-2.5mn additions in cellular subscribers. While cellular companies continue to pose a threat, increased marketing activities by WLL operators and positioning in the right areas should bear fruit going forward, in our view.

In terms of market share, PTCL’s declined from 64% to 59% over the last couple of years but still dominates the segment. Telecard, the first company in the private sector to explore the WLL segment, has a market share of 23% while Worldcall holds 15% of the market. Although competition has begun to heat up in the sector, we believe the market has enough room to accommodate existing operators.

* Source:  Merrill Lynch - Pakistan Pulse, July 2007.

Related Links:
Pakistan Next Generation Issues Blog on WLL

2007 continues to be THE year of acquisitions for telecommunication companies in Pakistan. According to media reports, after months of talks, the deal has been officially announced: Omantel is to buy 65 percent of Pakistan’s Worldcall for $156 million. See our previous related coverage and detailed analysis here and here.

Oman Telecommunications expects to conclude a deal to buy 65 percent of Pakistan’s Worldcall by the end of the month, its chief executive said on Sunday. The deal would be worth 9.43 billion Pakistan rupees ($156 million) at the stock’s closing price of 19.3 rupees on Friday.

“It is a 65 percent stake,” Mohammed al-Wohaibi told Reuters by telephone. Omantel had initially expected to conclude the purchase of a majority stake in the Pakistan-based wireless local loop operator in June, without saying the size of the stake it was seeking or how much it would pay. “We expect to conclude the deal before the end of the month. There were procedural delays,” Wohaibi said.

Omantel, the country’s second-largest firm by market value, is bracing for the end of its fixed-line monopoly this year, two years after the government opened the mobile business to competition.

Shares of the state-controlled company, which reported a 13 percent rise in second-quarter profit on Sunday, have risen more than 3 percent this month.

As the first cell phone company in Pakistan Instaphone has a unique brand presence, even thought it has been losing market share steadily. Many of the top executives at rival companies such as ufone started their careers at Instaphone. Recently I asked a question about Instaphone’s future and TM wrote on Jul 14 that: “According to unconfirmed but reliable news, South Korea’s SK Telecom and the Arfeens Telecommunication Group of Pakistan have finalized a deal in which the South Korean player will acquire 70% stakes of the Instaphone (& Telecard?) along with management control.”

Given the reliable nature of the source above, some kind of deal with SK is likely to go through. If this happens - and I hope it does - it will make the telecom situation in Pakistan a most interesting one. My only concern is that will Pakistan be able to play a good host to all the international investors? There are a number of infrastructure and political issues which can make a big difference. It will be interesting to track the stock price of Telecard.

A couple of points from TM’s post which I recommend reading in entirety.

• In anticipation of a possible cash injection and to reduce time-to-service, Instaphone’s management had already finalized a hardware supply deal with Huawei for an all IP CDMA EvDO Rev A earlier this year.
• Arfeen Group manages three major voice and data brands in Pakistan (Instaphone, Telecard and Supernet) with Telecard’s being listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange.
• The last un-taken group of Arfeens Telecom represent a power-house of telecommunication with all licenses tied to a single ownership flag - from the super-duper cellular to the mundane dialup ISP license.

In Part 2  I am presenting additional news and views about growth and competition in the mobile industry of China, India and Pakistan. As you will read below, India and China are directly competing to dominate the handset markets of the world. Pakistan is not in the picture as it does not manufacture mobile phones and rakes up big import bills.

First, an analysis by Brough Turner, Comparing Telecom growth in India and China in which he compares the teledensity and growth rates for the two countries from 2006. This is one of the few direct analysis using data available from different sources. He also touches upon the blurry line between mobile and wireless local loop about which I wrote as well.

 
Top 10 Emerging Mobile Markets - Source: Unstrung.com

Second, I am sharing an article titled Tale of two cell phone markets: India and China by Mike Clendenin, published at Electronic Engineering Times. The focus of the article is on mobile handset and electronics industry. Here’s some selected  text, with my comments in italics:

The buzz these days is that India is the “new China” of the cellular world. All the big multinationals have piled onto the subcontinent, chasing trendsetters in Mumbai as well as first-time buyers in remote villages. “They are the key drivers for the marketplace,” said David Taylor, India-based director of strategic operations in Motorola’s High Growth Markets unit.

Expansion in India now rivals China, the world’s largest cellular market. At least 5 million to 6 million Indians are signing up each month and about 7 million in a hot month. China? close to 5 million (6 by some estimates).  The number for Pakistan is 2.5 million based on 2007 data. Overall, China still trumps India for subscribers, at more than 480 million. India is on fire, though. Subscribers nearly doubled last year, to 149.5 million, and should hit 484 million by 2011, according to market researcher iSuppli Corp.

India is adding fuel to an already hot global trend. Since 2002, handset sales in developing countries have jumped threefold, compared with 62 percent in developed countries, according to Strategy Analytics Inc. It forecasts that 65 percent of handsets sold this year will be bought in emerging markets.

Yet the rapid ascension of India shows that not all emerging markets are alike. Beijing and Bombay may both be supersized cities in gigantic markets, but there are probably more differences than similarities in the way these places are growing, especially in the supply chain.

China has a relatively large chip industry, targeting local growth in communications; India does not. Pakistan’s chip industry is relatively insignifcant. China has more than 75 companies making handsets; India has only a few. China develops globally competitive telecom gear; India does not. The list goes on.

This is a relief to multinationals, although they may not publicly admit it. As things stand, global chip and handset makers won’t see a new crop of margin-destroying competitors rise as quickly in India as they did in China.

Read more »

Oman Tel the fixed monopoly which ranked 1st this week among Oman’s top 20 listed companies posted impressive numbers like total revenue of RO 323.6 million during 2006,  a hefty increase of 20% over 2005, and a net profit of RO 81.1 million. So what do you do when your pockets start to get deep… well…. 

First you overhaul your network backbone by migrating to NGN since competition is staring you in the eyes (whisper from the rumor mill is that Nawras, the second mobile operator in Oman is next in line to become the second fixed operator also). OmanTel recently shelled out close to 7 million O.R. when it selected Huawei to beef up its network, which was a repeat of 2005 when, Huawei provided WLL to OmanTel as the sole vendor; ever since both have enjoyed a very warm relationship. It is anticipated that Oman Mobile the mobile ‘semi-arm’ (it’s a long saga) of OmanTel is also riding on the coat-tail of its parent and plans to upgrade soon. The three way tug of war between Ericsson, Huawei and the newly wed – Nokia/Seimens is on for the LAST slice (for now) of Omani Telecom pie. 

Second you start searching for greener pastures beyond your border; and that is exactly what OmanTel is doing. Granted it is a bit late, since most of the new licenses have evaporated despite the huge price tags that they carried and a lot (not all) markets are facing saturation. A number of Gulf operators headed south to Africa but the latest trend has been north to Afghanistan (etisalat), Bangladesh (warid tel), Pakistan (etisalat & warid tel),  and the likes.  

So why now and why Pakistan? 

- The ‘Etisalat’ factor: With a local population of less than 4 million,
Oman has generally followed in the foot steps of its neighbor, UAE, but in a cautious way. Hence, the tourism, real estate projects etc and now the plans of getting into Pakistan, after all following in the footsteps of Etisalat can’t be that bad! Emirates Telecommunications Corp. which bought a 26 percent stake in Pakistan Telecommunications Co. Ltd. for $2.6 billion in 2005 is working on expanding its share to 51%. OmanTel currently commands a subscription base of 1.6 million, a growth of 15% compared to 2005. It’s more like; if Etisalat is the biggest (and yes it wants to be in the top 10 by 2010), OmanTel is the biggest little TELCO in the region. The name of the target is not mentioned but it is believed to be Worldcall, which runs long distance and international as well as wireless local loop services. 

- Proxy Wars: Qatar Telecommunications Co. which coincidently the same week said that it had completed the purchase of a majority stake in Pakistan’s Burraq Telecom, hoping to tap Asia’s fourth-most populous country, is the parent company of NAWRAS, the second mobile operator in Oman and a thorn in the side of Oman mobile, (the mobile arm of OmanTel). Word on the street is that NAWRAS will also become the second fixed operator on OmanTel’s turf. May be Omantel feels that it is time to counter Qtel at both fronts; is Pakistan going to witness the start of ‘Telecom proxy wars’? 

- Yemeni adventure: This is NOT the first time that OmanTel has flexed its muscles. However, their Yemen affair turned sour and they decided to bow out of the third GSM license. UNITEL, a combination of Yemeni and Chinese partners, in addition to some Gulf state investors, came in first in the bid for US$ 149 Millions as license fees, against US$ 100 Millions by the Omanis.May be they feel its time to get up, brush off the dust and saddle up again. 

As this is being posted, OmanTel has stated its desire to grow in the Gulf region as well. 

A very good coverage of Pakistan telecom is given by a Russian site called COMMNEWS in its Emerging Telcom Markets section. I’d seen the headline on a telecom news feed but after TM recommended it and KO posted it on WiredPakistan forum I paid more attention to it. Here’s what the Pakistan overview page on COMMNEWS says:

In liberalization of its telecom market Pakistan is ahead of many other world countries, let alone their regional neighbors. However, the lack of full and objective information about this country led to cautious behavior by foreign investors, who appeared only recently on the local telecom market, and rather in single cases.

Here’s the first recommended article:

The Last Train: Foreign investors still can jump on Pakistan’s telecommunication market

This article has lots of useful information and talks about the alliances, mergers and financing activities going on in Pakistan. A key point it makes about low valuations in Pakistan must be an eye-opener for investors:

It can be expected that in a year or year and a half the value of telecom assets in Pakistan will grow significantly, equaling the prices that are set by international investors in neighboring India. Therefore, the winner will be that company which gets to Pakistan’s telecom market within 2007, right before the market overheats.

I believe that the political situation remains the biggest barrire to Pakistan’s economic progress.

Here are the other interesting stories on the site.

Success Story: DIALLOG with Pakistan

Interview with Tore Johnsen, Telenor Pakistan (Pvt) Limited, Chief Executive Officer

Opinion: Igor Khulak, Head of the Business Development Department at Sitronics Telecom Solutions

This post examines the challenges faced by PTCL and its future prospects.  As we know the Etisalat owned PTCL has been engaged in battles with new competitors and regulatory body (PTA) on one hand and faces internal organizational issues on the other. Its profits have been sliding. Notwithstanding the grand claims by its executives, Will PTCL be able to reverse the trend and prove to be a good investment?

Background
In the last couple of years the impact of deregulation and increase in competition in telecommunication industry in Pakistan has been increasingly felt by PTCL. This phenomenon is not unique to PTCL - incumbent providers all over the world have gone through this difficult transition from being a monopoly to a free market competitor.

Let’s take a look at 2006 financial results of PTCL (As of Sep 30, 2006). The following is based on the information posted on PTCL web site and as reported on Business Recorder.

- During the period under review, PTCL added net 108,000 new working connections to its network. Overall, PTCL’s sales revenue for the first quarter was Rs.16.9 billion as compared to Rs.17.7 billion during the corresponding period of last year.
-The company announced net profit of Rs 8.4 billion translating into an EPS of Rs 1.64 for the first half of 2007, a decline of 23 percent over the corresponding period’’s net earnings and EPS of Rs 10.8 billion and Rs 2.12 respectively. The major factor for the decline in the top line was six percent downfall in the revenues from Rs 34.9 billion in first half of 2006 to Rs 32.7 billion in IH/FY07 owing to rapidly declining market tariffs
- Slide in profit is a continuing trend … question is when would it be stable? Investors do not welcome this uncertainty.

Threats and Weaknesses
* Increased competition in long distance continues to exert pressure.
* VOIP use is increasing despite ambiguous and discriminatory policies - this will eat into its profits (example: international outgoing calls). Note that PTCL itself is also utilizing VOIP technology (from iBasis) and as a result it has reduced its international rates drastically in 2007. Rs 2/min call to US is cheaper than Rs 2.5/min call to mobile phone.
* Bandwidth rate dispute with PTA is been dragged in court: if PTCL loses it will be a major cost, EVEN IF PTCL wins the case their artificially high bandwidth rates cannot be sustained.
* Paknet, the Internet service provider arm of PTCL continues to incur losses due to poor managment and lack of network optimization.
* PTCL-V, the fixed wireless phone service is poor.  They should use some their marketing Rupees and use it for better service delivery, correct billing and competent customer service.
* Recent censoring fiasco  and its poor handling exposed deep problems with administration and bureaucracy at PTCL. It was yet another major public relations disaster.

Strengths and Opportunities
o Made large capital expenses on network improvement to stay competitive.
o Ufone is performing well though Warid and Telenor are tough competitors. PTCL, Ufone’’s profitability increased by 49.2 percent to Rs 977 million in 1H/FY07 as compared to Rs 655 million in the corresponding period last.
o IPTV rollout can change the game, if done right it will tilt the odds in PTCL’s favor. It will make sticky bundles possible (tv+pohne+mobile) with say a single bill for convenience.
o With over 2 million lines PTCL is the largest WLL provider. 1134 base stations cover 720 cities and capacity is being added.
o Local service revenue is ok, paying bills through phone is a commendable start.
0 Has vast infrastructure and real estate assets which can be leveraged further.
0 Global connectivity reliability has been improved. PTCL is expanding the long distance and infrastructure side through spreading out two SEA-ME-WE submarine cables.

Conclusion & Recommendations

I have written about Business Monitor International’s coverage of Pakistan Telecom before here. In the past BMI has made interesting projections about growth of Pakistan’s telecom industry. This time they have extended their forecast to 3G services in Pakistan. A subscription is required to view the detailed reports but here’s a summary as reported by Business Recorder. I think their forecast of 6% handsets by 2010 is a bit high.

According to BMI’s 3G forecasts for Pakistan, a difficult exercise given that no licences have yet been awarded to other operators. The PTA is eager to kick-start the process in 2007, which would mean that there are unlikely to be any active paying 3G subscribers until well into 2008.

With GSM the main mobile technology in use in Pakistan, as accessed by Mobilink, Ufone, Warid Telecom, Telenor, and local group Paktel (since its emigration from AMPS in 2004), the preferred 3G technology would be UMTS.

It is likely that the PTA will stage an auction in mid of 2007. It is even possible that licences could be awarded later still. It is improbable, therefore, that any commercial 3G launch would happen before H1 2008.

The introduction of EDGE services (such as the one by Telenor) and popularity of WLL may hinder the development of 3G, but BMI forecasts that by the end of 2010, about 6 percent of all mobile subscribers in Pakistan will have a 3G handset. This, however, remains very much in the hands of the PTA, the operators themselves and, of course, Pakistan’s consumers.

Affordable connectivity in remote and rural areas in developing world remains one of the top telecommunication challenges. In recent years a lot of  research has focused on solving this problem and options include Mobile wireless networks,  Fixed wireless technology such as Wimax, Wireless local loop and Satellite networks. Wireless Mesh Networks have also been proposed as a viable solution. 

There are a few organizations in Pakistan working on this - one leading research group is DRITTE which is an initiative for leveraging Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for developing countries. For those interested in research work do take a look at this upcoming workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions. There is a blog at DRITTE site as well … the latest post there talks about Meraki, which is aiming to provide consumer wireless mesh Internet network designed to “unwire the world,” and bring Internet access to the next billion.

Talking about billions, I came across another interesting website NextBillion.net which also includes articles and resources about rural connectivity. Read this post titled “Wireless Mesh as a Transforming Tool” by Al Hammond. See the Wikipedia wireless mesh networking page for an overview. Al’s post talks about a pilot program in Vietnam and there is a link to a pdf paper titled “A New Model For Rural Connectivity“. Very informative, also includes an appendix about Wi-Fi phones.  Al has travelled to Pakistan as well and also written about mobile commerce. Here is an excerpt from the paper:

“The components of a community-based telecommunications network include:
1) an Internet Protocol (IP) network in lieu of a circuit switched network,
2) voice services that are provided through VoIP in lieu of custom hardware-based switching,
3) wireless distribution, be it Wi-Fi or WiMAX or, for the more remote locations, VSAT links for connecting the rural system to the Internet.

In this model, the local network is easily deployed, provides multiple telephony access points for both inter-community and long distance calling in addition to supporting data. There are several options for providing these services to the local community. One obvious approach is to upgrade an existing telecenter to become a true “last mile” solution provider by focusing on voice services, and delivering expanded access into the community through selected businesses or even homes that serve as “phone shops” for the immediate neighbors. Another approach is to turn an existing satellite ground station into a local community telco by adding Wi-Fi/WiMAX distribution capabilities and WiFi phones.”

According to this news item Pakistani mobile companies are going after the WLL operators - yet again. Since deregulation of telecom started in Pakistan the GSM based mobile companies and CDMA based WLL operators have been pitched in a battle. This is ironic as the WLL operators are not known for their quality of services. A quick look at Pakistani forums here shows many messages about wrong billing, poor performance and lack of customer service.

Wireless Local Loop (WLL) it is a fixed wireless access technology through which phone and internet service is offered through a wireless device (see the Huawei WLL phone on the right) but only within a limited location.

The idea of “limited mobility” was to avoid direct competetion with mobile phone but that’s not how mobile industry looks at it. Paktel, Telenor, Warid and Mobilink signed and sent a formal complaint letter to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority pointing out the violations of regulated policies by the WLL operators. This complaint was followed soon after PTA announced results of its WLL quality of service (QoS) survey.

The PTA QoS Survey was conducted in 8 major cities including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad and Hyderabad to gauge the quality of WLL service. The Limited Mobility aspect of WLL service was also surveyed. The operators checked include PTCL V Wireless, Telecard (Go CDMA), Great Bear and World Call. Survey was conducted within the network of the operators and with other networks that included PTCL, Mobile Operators and all other WLL.

PTA site says that: It was also observed in the survey that WLL operators are not strictly following the determination on limited mobility. Therefore, they have been asked to take immediate action to implement the same and submit a compliance report to PTA by 15 December 2006.

A few words about PTA policy on WLL. PTA had decided to restrict mobility in CDMA-based WLL networks to so-called “home-cell”. The resolution limits mobility of WLL subscribers in Pakistan to within 1-2 km in urban areas and up to 25 km in rural areas, a far cry from total mobility available to CDMA subscribers in India. The policy also known as fixed-line policy proposes two types of licenses, which includes local loop fixed-line and long distance and international (LDI) fixed-line.

More from the news article: “The complaint, in fact, defines overall violation by the WLL operators for effectively providing cellular services, which amounts to clear violation of the determination on implementation of limited mobility issued by the PTA,” said a source citing the complaint text. “It is important to keep in mind that the aim of the WLL was not to provide mobility to the customers, rather it was to provide fixed wireless access, which is an alternative to fixed line or Plain Old Telephone Service” he said.

The government awarded some licenses to 30 companies for fixed telephony; sixteen companies have been given licenses for WLL while 14 licenses were issued licenses for LDI.

Lets see what happens this year - poor consumers are losing anyway.