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.
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.
Zong has recently introduced its ‘Family Pack’, by which you, your friends or your family can talk to freely without worry about how long you call and how much its going to cost.
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%.
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.
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.
Just recently Zong has come up with an application based e-mail service “Zong M@il“. The service enables Zong customers to access all their e-mail accounts on their mobile phone through an application client. Customers interested in staying connected to their email accounts can do it through Zong mail without necessarily having to buy high-end mobile handsets.
Earlier I mentioned about the Warid overseas SIM information correction help, a similar service is being provided by all other cellular operators. The process is more or less the same for all.
For Telenor check the details here, for Ufone follow this link, Zong customers can get the details from here and Mobilink the details can be found at this link.
Overseas customers must make use of this service and get all their information corrected at the earliest.
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.
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.
The latest subscriber number update by PTA reveals very interesting results. The last figures of July showed a total subscriber base of cellular services reaching 95.5 million. The latest update takes this number up to 95.9 million showing the lowest growth rate of 0.13% this year. Much of this has to do with the SIM data corrections, as expected.
Telenor and Mobilink both showed increase in subscribers, almost neck-to-neck in numbers. The most interesting figures are of Ufone, which gained very little in July and lost much in two months. Warid and Zong also didn’t see much increase in July-September period.
I was expecting a drop in subscriber numbers after successful completion of the SIM Data Correction (668) Campaign which started in October. However depending on how PTA reported the numbers, some corrections may have started in August. This result shows that in coming months not only the growth rate will decline but the total number may also fall down further.
Telecom industry insiders reported today that Telenor is interested in buying majority (63%) of Warid Telecom. The news has not been confirmed by Telenor or Warid yet. Warid Telecom is currently owned by Abu Dhabi Group and Singapore Telecom (SingTel).
If this deal goes through, it would be a significant development for Pakistan telecom industry. On one hand this kind of chatter or rumors show that Pakistan telecom has reached second stage of maturity where consolidation and deal making has started. On the other hand it ushers a new era of competition. Giants like China Mobile (Zong) were in talks to buy Telenor at one time as well. Also at one time speculations were high of complete takeover of Warid Telecom by SingTel.
It merits mentioning here that telenor is near to launch operations in India along with Unitech under brand name Uninor and if the Telenor-Warid deal gets confirmed, Telenor will be the largest mobile network operator in Pakistan. We will keep you posted as the details of this deal emerge.
Update: Warid Telecomgives official stance on media rumor of merger with Telenor.
Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. is a leading telecom company in Pakistan that is recognized as the most reliable and steadfast telecom operator. Warid Telecom has issued an official statement in response to the rumor on ‘Warid Telecom Merger’. The statement endorses the un-authenticity of the news circulated in the media and it explains clearly that no such information is issued by the company Management. Warid Telecom is a responsible organization that always keep the public update on any developments.
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.
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