The Pakistani subsidiary of the world’s largest beverages company successfully positioned itself as a higher-end aspirational brand through its sponsorship of Coke Studio, now five seasons old. Starting in 2008, the music series helped the company’s flagship soft drink gain a significant market share in Pakistan – the world’s sixth largest consumer market, dominated by market leader PepsiCo.

According to a Wall Street Journal report of July 2010, Pepsi has lost significant market share to Coca-Cola because of the latter’s sponsorship of Coke Studio. As of July 2010, Coke claimed 35% of all cola sales in Pakistan while Pepsi’s market share was 65%, down from a dominant 80% in the 1990s that it mainly gained by sponsoring cricket.

Optimistic about future growth prospects, Coca-Cola announced this March that it would invest $379 million in three new bottling plants – one each in Karachi, Multan and Islamabad – that is in addition to another $172 million investment it announced in 2011.

The expansion plans come on the back of a strong growth in the company’s topline and volumes. Coca-Cola’s Pakistan arm earned over Rs50 billion in revenues for the financial year ending June 30, 2012, a 55% increase when compared with the previous year.

The improvement in distribution system and focus on consumer activation as well as promotion resulted in volume growth of 23% in the year 2012, according to Coca-Cola Içiçek, Turkey-based partner that has a 49% stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan – the Pakistani subsidiary of the US-based parent company that sells the product.

Coke Studio has helped the company dent Pepsi’s lead in cola wars, however, the latter still remains the largest player in what it sees as one of the top 10 non-US markets in the world.

“It is safe to say that PepsiCo is Pakistan’s most popular cola brand,” Pepsico spokesperson Mohammad Khosa said. The company has a lot of other exciting brands including Mountain Dew, 7Up, Mirinda, Slice, Sting and Aquafina that are doing wonderfully, he said.

Khosa refused to reveal the exact revenue or market share, but sources confirmed that revenues of PepsiCo Pakistan and its eight bottlers stood at a combined Rs82 billion for the financial year ending June 30, 2012, up 19% compared to the previous year.

Coca-Cola declined to comment on Pepsi Smash. Critics, however, see it as a sign of vulnerability of Pepsi’s lead. As opposed to the critics’ view that PepsiCo is copying its rival’s marketing strategy, Khosa said Pepsi Smash was launched to build on the brand’s longstanding association with music.

“There are a number of brands linked with music in Pakistan, that does not mean that one brand is copying marketing techniques of the other, each programme has its own niche, genre and music philosophy,” Khosa said.

Explaining, the PepsiCo spokesperson said music had been and would remain an integral part of the brand. “Pepsi’s association with music stars from Vital Signs to Ali Zafar, music programming like Pepsi Top of the Pops, Geetar and Pepsi Battle of the Bands and launching various albums is a testament to the brand’s longstanding relationship with the music platform in Pakistan,” he said.

He further said the brand’s partnership with music is truly global with various campaigns run over the years featuring iconic music stars like Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and more recently Beyonce. Additionally, he said, the company sponsored various music-based programmes such as The X-Factor, Pepsi Music and Pepsi Smash.

Launched on May 1, 2013 Pepsi Smash is a digital media-led music initiative that puts the audience in control, tapping the power of this new digital age at its best, Khosa said. It’s too early to comment on sales impact of this initiative, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2013.

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Pakistan’s software piracy rate hovered around 86% in 2011, according to a Business Software Alliance (BSA) Global Software Piracy Study, which was released in May 2012. This is much higher than Asia Pacific’s piracy rate of 60% and more than double of the global software piracy rate of 42%

BSA, a global association of the world’s largest software companies, has yet to compile the data for the year 2012. The aforesaid study, however, estimated the total global value of unlicensed software to be $63.4 billion in 2011 up from $58.8 billion in 2010.

In 2011, the software piracy cost the original software makers in Pakistan $278 million in lost sales, according to the BSA study. This was a 28% increase compared to $217 million, which was the value of unlicensed software Pakistanis installed on their PCs in 2010 – the piracy rate in India fell by one percentage point to 63% but it still cost software vendors $2.9 billion in 2011.

The BSA attributed the rise in software piracy to record shipments of computing devices that went to the emerging markets. Emerging markets took 56% of the world’s new PC shipments in 2011, the report said, now accounting for more than half of all the PCs in use.

Pakistan’s pirated software is not even one per cent of the global value of the unlicensed software in dollar terms. However, it was ranked 115 out of 116 countries in the world in terms of software piracy as percentage of total software in use, The News reported in May, 2011, quoting a 2010 research study by International Data Corporation.

“Pirated software does more damage to the local software industry and the economy than the software vendor,” Haseeb Shaukat, business manager at the Microsoft Innovation Centre said.

Most software companies – Microsoft, SAP, IBM and Oracle for example – work with a network of local partners for software deployment, Shaukat said. These vendors develop software but they do not give their software, with the exception of few, directly to the end users, he said. There is an ecosystem whereby local partners deploy the software at the customer end and have a higher earnings margin than the software provider itself.

Pirated software affects the whole ecosystem, Shaukat said, thus hurts the local software industry – the network partners.

Commercial value of pirated value of PC software in top 20 economies in 2011               

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.

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KARACHI: With the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz all set to form a new government at the Centre, the telecom industry shows optimism and expects the government to auction third generation mobile spectrum licences and address key issues like mobile service suspension and sale of new SIM cards.

“In their previous two tenures, the PML-N had always had business-friendly policies, which positively affected the corporate sector,” said Atifa Asghar, Director Corporate Communications and Responsibility of Telenor Pakistan. “We hope that their previous positive approach will continue in the future as well and business in general and telecom sector in particular will benefit hugely from their policies.”

The telecom sector contributed Rs133 billion or $1.3 billion to the national exchequer in fiscal year 2011-12, making it one of the highest tax-paying sectors. However, the multi-million-dollar sector has suffered financially from recent blackouts of mobile services and missed opportunities such as 3G auction, which has been delayed more than once.

“The two major issues encompassing the telecom sector that we would like the new government to address are introduction of 3G and network suspension,” Asghar said. “3G is the next natural step of evolution in the telecommunications industry.”

Pakistan is already one of the top performing telecoms markets in terms of reach, teledensity, call rates and product and service offerings, Asghar said. “With the advent of 3G, our country’s telecom performance will be further enhanced and strengthened and it will greatly enrich end-user experience,” she said.

Under the previous government, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority – the telecom regulator responsible for 3G licensing – failed thrice to hold the auction.

However, the PML-N claimed in its manifesto that it will move directly to 4G technology to ensure fast-track introduction of modern information and communication technology (ICT). It also said it will promote and facilitate the software industry to develop applications accessible through 4G and LTE networks.

The frequent mobile service blackout by the government is another major concern besetting the industry that loses millions every time cellphone services are suspended.

Network suspension is a growing challenge in the industry, according to Asghar. “Frequent suspensions during the past nine months have impacted the government and industry revenues, businesses and individual subscribers,” she said. “On the other hand, due to massive dependence on mobile phones, subscribers face huge inconveniences in carrying out daily personal and professional tasks.”

The industry is aware of the security situation in the country but the government should consult all the stakeholders and come up with a strategy that in the long term tackles the security concerns without adversely impacting the economy, the industry and the consumers, Asghar said.

For about five years, the Ministry of IT and Telecom has been without a minister while PTA has been going through a serious internal squabble among senior management recently. The new government will have to tackle this as well.

“The new government should appoint a minister who understands the issues facing the IT industry,” said Sikandar Naqi, Adviser to Zong CEO.

“The new government should have an effective regulator, which can successfully hold the much-delayed 3G auction.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2013.

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Take for example, Babar Market of Landhi. As a consumer goes through the congested and haphazardly constructed streets – better call them alleys – of the market, he can find most of the shops flooded with consumers, bargaining for prices of items ranging from grocery to clothing to home appliances and what not. Shopkeepers often refuse to attend phone calls, especially in rush hours, due to the presence of a large number of consumers.

Located in the heart of Landhi Town, a large industrial area in the eastern part of the country’s financial hub, Babar Market was established more than 50 years ago, according to shopkeepers The Express Tribune spoke to.

There are about 2,500 to 3,000 permanent shops in the market, said Sajid Nadeem, who has been running a general store in the market for about 20 years. In addition to these shops, a fleet of about 400 pushcarts – mostly selling fruits and vegetables – has become a permanent feature of the market.

Every single shop owner in the market claims that it is the largest open-air market in Asia, a claim not verifiable through any data as most of the trade is undocumented. In most cases, the consumers are not issued any receipts for their purchases. However, there are some shops that are worth more than Rs10 million, a strong indication that the market is on the radar of small businessmen.

On a slow day, the retail stores earn about Rs5,000 while sales can go up to Rs20,000 on a good business day, Nadeem said. The worsening law and order situation in the area often hurts their revenues, he said, the market remained closed for three days last week alone.

Babar Market has a large customer base because it mainly caters to the lower-income and labour classes that reside in large numbers along the large industrial state of Landhi, said Nadeem. The market is geographically well-placed for it also attracts customers from Malir, Shah Faisal Colony and Korangi.

The high competition forces shop owners to sell on low profit margins, making it one of the most affordable markets in the city, he said.

“The business is growing and there is demand that’s why we have been in the business for 24 years,” said Nadeem Ahmed of Mashallah Optics. It’s not only lower-income class but also those who are financially strong that do their shopping from the market.

“We sell third copy of a famous brand of glasses for Rs250 while the same pair is sold for Rs500 in air-conditioned malls,” he said. “We sell the first copy for Rs1,800 while shops in an upscale mall sell it for Rs5,000 or more.”

While the market still enjoys a high volume of consumers, it has lost some of its professional customers to a much better competitor – large retail stores and supermarkets.

“The businesses in general are growing, but they have lost some business customers – hoteliers, restaurants, caterers, canteens, factories and small and medium-sized retailers,” said Asif, a green grocer.

They have moved to bigger stores such as Metro, he said. They don’t have to deal with fatigues such as bargaining and parking at these stores, he said, and still save some bucks on their purchases.

The case of Babar Market shows that the supermarkets may be witnessing a high growth in their sales but they are far from meeting the consumer demand at large.

“Only a few supermarkets can’t meet the city’s demand, which is much higher than the supply,” according to Muzammil Aslam, Managing Director at research firm Emerging Markets Research.

The economist explained that Pakistan’s population is growing at around 3% while migration growth is even higher. “More than 10% of the population lives in Karachi and the city is expanding rapidly, especially on its outskirts,” he said.

As long as the population is growing, Aslam said, businesses in general won’t be stagnant.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.

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On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan and National Database and Registration Authority have earned more than the five CMOs combined from the same service.

“If we look at our White Label Services, the company’s SMS-based traffic has increased 22% month-on-month and 1,000% year-on-year in May,” said a telecom company official who wished not to be named.

White Label Service is a short code-based service, such as ECP’s 8300, provided by government agencies through mobile networks.

“This increase in data traffic will certainly lead to a surge in revenues for May,” the official said, thanks to general elections.

The company has also recorded an increase in person-to-person SMS traffic – one of the highest revenue sources for the telecom industry – but by a very small percentage.

“The P2P SMS traffic increased a mere 1.5% MoM between May 1 and May 8, but it rose 90% when compared with the first eight days of May 2012,” the official said.

The 90% YoY increase, in part, reflects the impact of election season, but it is also due to the expansion in the subscriber base in the last 12 months, he said.

These numbers reflect the surge in traffic for only one operator, but it also highlights the overall industry trend. However, the ECP and NADRA have earned more than the five operators combined from the ECP’s 8300 service, based on revenue-sharing formula.

For each SMS sent to 8300, according to the official, the network provider gets 30% of the revenue while the ECP and NADRA share 35% each from the remainder – the SMS costs Rs2.50 plus tax.

The 2013 general elections are historic in many ways for Pakistan, which is all set to see the first-ever democratic transfer of power since its inception. Elections are taking place at a time when the country’s mobile teledensity is touching 70% – it was under 55% in previous elections. The CMOs have been introducing election services to boost revenues while politicians are using the technology to grab every single vote they can.

The telecommunications infrastructure is well placed this time and the focus of CMOs on value added services is higher than ever, said the telecom company official. It’s because of the mobile penetration that the ECP has focused on short code services to facilitate voters, he said.

In addition to government agencies, the official said, there are several other services of similar nature that are also contributing to their revenues.

For instance, Geo News has started a service for election news updates and registered their short code on all networks, he said. But in that case, the revenue sharing formula may vary from operator to operator.

“An operator with a large customer base may charge higher commission on each SMS than a small operator,” he said.

In addition to benefiting the CMOs and the ECP financially, the mobile penetration seems to have increased political awareness among voters, the official said. “The response to the ECP’s service reflects the interest of voters and may result in a higher turnout,” he said.

Responding to a question about the geographical breakdown of SMS traffic, the official said, “The highest traffic was observed from central Punjab.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2013.

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“There are two major advantages of this [network upgradation] exercise: the first and the most obvious one is being ready for 3G technology,” Telenor Pakistan’s Chief Technology Officer Gyorgy Koller told The Express Tribune. “Secondly, there will be an overall benefit from using modern equipment that is energy-efficient and less taxing on the already scarce energy resources of Pakistan,” he said.

With the deployment of a state-of-the-art network infrastructure, reduction in energy consumption will be close to 20%, Koller said. The modern network, according to him, will also allow a smoother transition to 4G/LTE when required, which will obviously be superior in quality due to the use of the latest technology and optimised bandwidth provision.

The Telenor Group, a Norwegian telecom company, has mobile operations in 11 markets around the world, of which Telenor Pakistan is a major equity stake. In total, the Telenor Group has close to 150 million subscribers, out of which 30 million subscribers reside in Pakistan, making it the second largest cellular service provider in terms of consumer base.

Telenor Pakistan’s network modernisation project, according to Koller, is the largest-ever undertaking by the Telenor Group and ZTE – a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment company, which is also the world’s fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer by volumes.

Telenor Pakistan, according to Koller, contributes to about only 5-6% of the Telenor Group’s combined revenues. Telenor Group reported 26 billion Norwegian kroner, or $4.4 billion, in revenues for 2012. “We [Pakistan] are a low ARPU market with low mobile data consumption,” he said.

While expecting to complete the network upgrade by the end of 2013, the company is hoping to benefit from high speed mobile internet by improving its average revenue per user.

“Our experiences with high speed mobile internet across various markets around the globe have shown that there is a lot of potential to serve our consumers and enrich the lives of people,” Koller said. “It will allow us to open new horizons in communication, especially in areas such as e-learning and mobile health,” he said.

It may be added here that frequent suspension of mobile phone services in Pakistan also dampens the industry’s revenues. “The industry loses around Rs1 billion for every day the network is suspended countrywide, with the government itself losing 33% in taxes due to these suspensions,” Koller said.

Network glitches

While the company upgrades its network, its customers have at times experienced low quality services. The company acknowledges the fact, and says they may continue till the project is complete.

While responding to a question about the compromised service quality, Koller said their emphasis remains on establishing the future benefits that customers will receive if they stay with Telenor during this challenging period.

Explaining the difficulty of the task, he said: “We call the project ‘highly complex’ because live network equipment modernisation with 30 million active subscribers is not an easy task, and it requires extremely efficient processes and very competent teams.”

The scale of this network modernisation activity, Koller said, envelopes almost all components of the Telenor network: ie, core, radio and transmission. “A network upgrade of this nature involves meticulous planning to avoid any potential degraded user experience,” he said, adding: “Keeping in view the complexities involved in such major network upgrades, the standard timeline is around 1.5-2 years.” Telenor Pakistan has been consistently working to make sure that customers are aware of network modernisation activities, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2013.

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With this in mind, and with the 2013 manifestos of mainstream political parties already published, The Express Tribune performed a comparative analysis of their respective IT policies, in a bid to understand exactly how these parties plan to contribute to the growth of this sector.

The results illustrate a mixed bag of ambition, dedication, and apathy.

While all parties express a strong commitment to the industry, especially to the right to access information, none of them specifically address how they plan to tackle internet censorship. Most manifestos, unfortunately, are rather generic in this regard.

Parties that dedicated considerable space to e-governance include the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP).

The PML-N, in particular, seems to have done its homework. Its ICT policy, four pages long, hits all the right notes. The party plans to move directly to 4G technology, to ensure fast track induction of modern ICT technologies and facilitate the software industry to develop applications accessible through 4G and LTE networks.

Moreover, it professes to create a pool of world-class IT workers by revising the IT curriculum in higher education institutions. It also pledges to generate annual exports of at least $10 billion by 2020. This, the manifesto says, will be done by promoting the local software industry and providing start-up assistance to new software houses.

Furthermore, PML-N also plans to pin a new ICT regulator, framework to create over 1 million new jobs, directly and indirectly. It also expresses support for automating all citizens’ databases to document the economy, and creating an autonomous body to investigate and prevent cyber crimes.

PTI’s manifesto reiterates many of these points, especially the plans to document the economy, and digitise the judicial system to deliver justice at the grassroots level.

The party also intends to frame a right to information law, and offer public scrutiny of governmental records and actions, through the ICT platform.

However, one shortcoming worth noting is that the PTI’s plans seem to be focused almost entirely on e-governance.

In a different vein, not all parties paid particular attention to the sector.  Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid hardly mentions ICT in its manifesto, while the Awami National Party spares a mere four lines, simply stating that it will make blocking and censorship policies transparent.

Moreover, Jamaat-e-Islami’s manifesto does not take a direct stance – it says the party will formulate a policy regarding the positive use of the internet, and that it will upgrade IT infrastructure to encourage skilled human resource.

These points are also reflected in Muttahida Quami Movement’s manifesto.

MQM mentions plans to set up research-based IT universities in major cities, and to introduce the ‘smart cities’ concept in metropolitan areas.

According to industry sources, the PPP failed to deliver on the ICT front during its five-year tenure. However, in the current manifesto, it pledges $5 billion to the IT sector. It also commits to the proliferation of broadband internet services.

Regardless of which party comes into power, there is no doubt that ICT policies outlined within the manifestos will affect the future of this crucial industry. According to industry experts, a national broadband policy and human resource development are needs of the hour. These needs must not be ignored.

Where do we stand?

According to a recent World Bank study, a 10% increase in broadband penetration can yield an additional 1.3% in GDP growth for middle and low-income economies. While standing at 70% teledensity, Pakistan had only over 2.4 million broadband subscribers as of January, 2013.

However, in terms of overall networked readiness, Pakistan ranks at a very low 105 in the list of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global IT Report 2013. The report finds that in some developing economies – Pakistan included – national policies have failed to benefit from ICT investments in terms of competitiveness, development and employment.

The past few years have mostly been a bumpy ride for the multimillion dollar sector, which contributed at least Rs471 billion to the national exchequer since July, 2008. In fiscal year 2012 alone, it contributed Rs133 billion or $1.3 billion to the national kitty – enough to make it one of the highest tax paying sectors.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2013.

LAHORE / KARACHI: Beygairat Brigade’s new song Dhinak Dhinak, touching on the power of the armed forces in Pakistan, has been banned by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across the country, confirmed telecom sources on Saturday.

An email sent by the Enforcement Division of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed the ISPs to block the video available on websites including Vimeo and Facebook.

The band confirmed the development and said that the video was completely banned on internet services and a disclaimer saying “This video is not suitable for viewers inside Pakistan” appears every time the video is accessed on Vimeo.

Ali Aftab, the band’s front man, said that the internet providers were simply helping the bands’ cause and any attempt to band the video would backfire.

“They are helping us and making this video controversial,” said Aftab.

“Our video is asking for across-the-board accountability,” says Aftab. He also emphasised that the no television channel is airing the video, due to apprehensions that it may be too critical of the armed forces.

Several online activists and supporters of the band also expressed disdain over the video’s unavailability. Columnist and writer Tazeen Javed also wrote a blog titled “The Ultimate Beyghairti”.

“The Dhinak Dhinak video came back online after a few hours of ban. May be it was the cheeky message at the end of the video where the band asked their fans to not like the song – “No need to like the video, we will be dead any way” – that saved them,” she wrote.

KARACHI: Internet users are likely to face a slowdown in browsing speed once again as an important submarine cable that manages 40% of the country’s total bandwidth (internet traffic) will undergo maintenance and repairs from April 28, industry sources say and suggest that given the undersea cables’ vulnerability to damage, Pakistan needs to increase its internet landing points.

South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4, also known as SMW-4, is one of the four submarine cables that connect Islamabad globally via the internet. The 18,800-kilometre long fibre optic cable developed fault in its western segment between Alexandria (Egypt) and Marseilles (France) on March 27.

The breakdown came at a time when India-Middle East-Western Europe, another internet landing point for the country, was being repaired and the country’s internet traffic plummeted over 60%.

According to updates, the internet service providers (ISPs), which received bandwidth from SMW-4 Network Operations Centre, the repair work of the affected segment will start on April 28 and might continue into May. The centre, however, did not give an estimated time the repair will take.

“The damaged cable is pulled to the surface by divers or robots and is then repaired,” Convener of Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, Wahajus Siraj, said.

“Sometimes the damaged part is replaced by a joint of up to three kilometres depending on the damage done,” he said. Once repaired, the robots replace it well under the seabed.

Admitting that undersea cables are vulnerable to damage, Siraj said, “these cables are usually damaged by the anchors of fishing trawlers, which can penetrate the seabed and strike the undersea cables.”

The high-end users, according to industry sources, had switched to more expensive satellite-based connections, but a majority of internet users faced myriad of problems as a result of this breakdown.

The operators should increase the number of undersea links to avoid major outages in the future, they said.

“Given the frequent outages and risk of damage to the undersea cables, we must double our landing points,” suggested Haroon Rashid, Director of Interconnect Partners, who also works for the Broadband Commission of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations specialised agency for ICTs based in Geneva.

The ISPs operating in the country, especially multinationals, can initiate this, Rashid said. “We can achieve a broader objective by serving the landlocked countries through our fibre optic network,” he said, adding in that case, ITU may be able to help them because it promotes ICT and broadband development in least developed countries.

Siraj also supported the idea of increasing the number of country’s internet links.

“Having more landing points will increase reliability of services,” he said. But he maintained that the ISPs have diverted internet traffic to alternative routes and the repair work should not have any significant impact on browsing.

Despite internet outages, the ISPs have billed full amount to their customers. The Ispak chief, however, was quick to defend the ISPs on that front. “We don’t get any credit from our bandwidth provider, how could we pass it on to the end users,” he asked.

By contrast, the country’s largest broadband provider has a different take on that matter.

“As per the SOP, customers are charged for the bandwidth package, and not on a daily basis,” Senior Manager Corporate Communications, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Aqeel Shigri, said. If a customer is unable to use the internet the whole month, he can be compensated, he said.

The telecom giant, which accounts for more than 60% of the broadband market, checks the customer’s data usage when a complaint is made, Shigri said, and decides if the customer needs to be compensated. “We recently adjusted a couple of bills where the complaints were justified,” he said.

Responding to a question about the SMW-4 repair, the PTCL spokesman said, “Overall it is the Middle East and Europe that’s more dependent on this cable, it will not affect our customer base.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2013.

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The latest example, reflecting the reliance of CMOs upon important events is their election-related services.

Ufone is running an ad campaign – Election Service for U – which offers subscribers to get election updates for three of their favorite constituencies. The subscribers for this voice and SMS-based service can also access speeches of politicians and political analysis.

Zong has also launched its election-related service by the name ‘Election Campaign 2013’. It will cover election news, election reviews, poll results, party information and voting information.

From commercial standpoint, SMS-based traffic is the highest revenue source for CMOs globally, according to a telecom official. The increasing use of chat-based mobile apps such as WhatsApp and Viber has hurt SMS-based traffic, he said. CMOs, therefore, find such campaigns useful to make up for that loss, he said.

“Event-based value-added services always help out because they engage consumers very quickly,” said Farooq Niaz, Zong’s Manager Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility. The election 2013 services are information-based, Niaz said, and that is what people need.

It merits mentioning here that cellular teledensity – that stands around 70% – has certainly facilitated that information flow. The CMOs are not only able to reach masses but also benefit commercially by launching information-based services.

Telenor’s Angootha Chalao campaign is one example where a cellular service provider is creating awareness about the importance of voting and at the same time offering services such as election encyclopedia that provides subscribers with answers to election related questions. The Election Halqa Information, according to Telenor, provides users information regarding their constituency and SMS alerts provides them with breaking news and motivational sayings.

The main idea of the campaign is to raise awareness about the importance of voting, encouraging the youth to vote and providing the necessary election related information, Asghar said.

Increased teledensity definitely played a role in shaping the dynamics of elections this time around, Atifa Asghar, director corporate communications and responsibility of Telenor Pakistan. Some campaigners have fully integrated the mobile phone as a critical medium in their overall political campaigns, she said. “Having a mobile phone has made the flow of information very easy and people feel more opinionated and empowered in elections,” she added.

Pakistan’s telecommunications industry earned Rs12.4 billion through 237.6 billion SMSs during 2011, data from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority shows. The SMS-based traffic grew 35% during 2011 when compared with previous year with a single mobile phone user consuming an average 175 person-to-person texts messages per month.

The SMS-data for 2012 onwards is not available but industry sources told this correspondent that the use of WhatsApp and Viber had increased among users. These apps run on Wifi for which users are not charged, an official said, while SMS bundles are paid for.

With consumers shifting to chat-based apps that reduce SMS-based traffic, he said, event-based services such as election 2013 come in handy for the industry.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2013.

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