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Pakistan has 72.89m mobile phone users

* Telenor now is the runner-up in the battle of cellular operators

By Romail Kenneth

KARACHI: Telenor Pakistan has elbowed Ufone to become the second biggest cellular network provider in terms of subscribers, Daily Times has learnt.

Since the year 2005 Ufone had retained its second position and was considered to be the second biggest mobile phone operator in Pakistan. And this was so until last month when Telenor, with 15.46 million users, overthrew it to claim the second position for itself. Ufone with 15.42 million subscribers now holds the third position.

Sources in the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told this scribe that the way competition is proceeding, some more interesting happenings may be expected in the coming years as all the companies are putting all their efforts to be the number one mobile phone operator of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s mobile phone market has passed 70-million user mark. Latest figures compiled by the PTA suggest cellular phone connections reached 72.89-million mark by September 2007. Within a period of one month, September 2007, Pakistan’s fast growing telecom industry managed to add 4.89 million subscribers.

According to a PTA official, since January 2007 more than 22.21 million new connections have been sold on the back of comparatively cheaper tariff offers due to the rising competition among the cellular service providers.

Mobilink continues to remain the leading operator in the sector with maximum market share both in terms of subscribers and revenues.

The figures gathered by the telecom watchdog show that by September 2007 Mobilink led the market with 28.57 million subscribers followed by Telenor, which was serving 15.46 million people across the country. Ufone now holds the third position 15.42 million subscribers and Warid is at the fourth position with 11.86 million subscribers. Meanwhile, the aggressively marketed Paktel has managed to grab 1.23 million subscribers.

Among all the new entrants, Telenor has shown its strength by capturing a good market and has left behind its closest competitor Warid within one month’s time to claim the second position. While Paktel, now owned by CMPak, has still been unable to add fuel to the current mobile operators’ battle.

Telecom industry in Pakistan attracted $9 billion foreign investment in the last three years, and another $ 4 billion are expected during the next 3 to 4 years. Around 1.5 million new subscribers are being added each month.

According to some analysts, the mobile phone industry has reached its take-off level and has entered a new phase where investors are keen to invest and subscribers are happy to avail quality services at reasonably competitive prices. Much of this credit goes to the telecom regulator that has created a conductive, and investor and user friendly regime in Pakistan.

The four major companies Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone and Warid have earned better market share during the last fiscal year. These days, the cellular operators are spending huge amounts on advertisement campaigns to introduce different packages for their customers with different tariff packages and incentives.

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