Telecom sector – anchoring Pakistan’s economy

Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) covered a wide gamut of upgradation measures to enhance the quality of its services in the year 2011. These measures are shaped up to not only help the Authority in its individual quest for perfection; they would also cater the national interests and the development of national economy as a whole. Ever since the inception of PTA in 1996, it has been active in vying to bolster the national economy by doing its best to contribute in every way possible. The actions taken in 2011 are touted by the experts as going a long way in making the previously unfathomable targets; achievable.

LUCRATIVE NUMBERS

In synchrony with its vision, business feasibility has always been at the apex of any priority list that PTA conjures up. This coupled with the interests of the consumers, forms the foundation of the PTA structure, and its goals. And of course, with such an unambiguous approach towards, the impressive numbers posted in 2011 were a fitting outcome. Pakistan’s teledensity touched 68.39 per cent – a 6.7 per cent rise from 2010. Mobile subscribers at the tail-end of 2011 were estimated to be around 108.9 million – flaunting a growth rate of 10 per cent; which is twice as much as that of the previous year. There was a precipitous ascent in mobile penetration as well, as the numbers rose to 65.4 per cent – from 60.4 per cent last year. Number of Cell sites has also increased from 30,126 in June 2010 to 31,303 when the data was collected at the end of last year. Cellular industry’s ARPU also depicted a healthy increase from $2.41 in the previous fiscal year to $2.45 this time round. Mobilink continues its unrelenting presence at the top of the pile as far as mobile subscribers market is concerned, with a 30.7 per cent share, followed by Telenor (24.5 per cent), Ufone (18.9 per cent), Warid (16 per cent) and Zong (10 per cent).

BROADBAND MARKET

Despite wireless technologies taking over the lion’s share of broadband market, the number of broadband users crossed the one million mark by rising up to 1,491,491 at the end of FY2011 from 900,648 previously – showcasing a 66 per cent jump. The broadband spread rose from 0.55 per cent to 0.89 per cent as well. PTCL was at the top of the broadband clientele with 848,379 holding 57 per cent market share. PTCL was followed by Wateen in the aforementioned stat with 218,506 customers and 15 per cent of the market share.