Business

PTA annual report 2016: Telecom sector revenue remains flat

Number of internet users on 3G/4G LTE networks doubled to 32.29m

Salman Siddiqui October 07, 2016

Number of internet users on 3G/4G LTE networks doubled to 32.29m. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: The availability of advanced mobile phone internet - 3G,4G and LTE - has helped the otherwise struggling telecom companies maintain their revenue and the sector earned Rs452.8 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016 (FY16), only 1.4% higher than Rs446.2 billion earned in the preceding year, said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) annual report 2016.

PTA said cellular companies earned revenue of Rs98.82 billion from sale of data on 3G, 4G and LTE networks in the year under review. This is 27% higher than Rs77.94 billion on sales of the data in the previous FY15.

The number of internet users on 3G/4G LTE networks doubled to 32.29 million in the year from 16.88 million last year.

However, the revenue earned by the telecom sector as a whole in FY16 remained 2.3% lower than the historic one at Rs463.5 billion earned in the fiscal year 2013-14.

The decline in revenue in the year under review against the one earned in FY14 may be linked with suspension of millions of SIMs in the aftermath of biometric verification.

Experts have been linking the slow recovery in revenues on year-on-year basis with high rate of tax and levies on use of mobile phone voice and data services. According to different studies, a mobile phone user pays on average Rs45 in taxes for every Rs100 spent on mobile phone voice and data services.

The regulatory authority added that telecom companies have invested another $719.9 million in fiscal year 2015-16. This was, however, 28% lower than $1,001 million invested in the previous year. Moreover, the telecom sector attracted a foreign direct investment (FDIs) of $286 million, which is 14% of the country’s total $2.1 billion FDIs attracted in the year, PTA said.

PTA Chairman Dr Syed Ismail Shah said in the annual report that the data centric services spurred new consumer experience and alternative revenue streams for operators in a short span of time.

The demand for mobile broadband has increased tremendously and “there arose a need to allocate more spectrum for such services,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2016.

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