Mobilink is still leading the pack with 31 per cent market share in overall subscriptions of cellular companies, followed by Telenor which holds a 24 per cent share, while Warid’s share stands at 17 per cent, according to the Economic Survey.
The survey states that the cellular market was moving towards maturity, stability and intense competition as competitors were dedicating their best efforts to achieve higher stakes in the overall market. Over the last one year, the cellular market share had not changed significantly.
According to the survey, as the market matured and tariff rates declined, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) stood over $3 in 2008. However, 2008-09 and 2009-10 saw deteriorating security and economic conditions in Pakistan and financial crisis across the globe, which put pressure on the mobile sector and ARPU dropped below $3.
Later on, like many emerging markets, Pakistan experienced increasing growth due to competition and with the passage of time, the sector began to settle down and tariffs were further reduced, thus companies received marginal returns. The declining exchange rate also played a critical role in declining ARPUs. Analysing company-wise scenarios, ARPU of Ufone and Zong improved by 20 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively as compared to 2008-09.
According to the report, the main players in telephone services were Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), National Telecommunication Company (NTC), Special Communication Organisation (SCO), Worldcall, Telecard and Wateen.
There were a total of 6.08 million local loop subscribers – 3.42 million of those were fixed local loop subscribers and 2.66 million were wireless local loop subscribers.
Fixed and wireless local loop subscribers did not show improvement during the year, rather a drop of one per cent was witnessed in the growth of these subscribers.
According to the survey, the telecom sector continued to actively contribute to the national exchequer through a steady rate of revenue generation, increase in subscribers and boost in teledensity, despite a difficult economic situation.
Telecom companies invested heavily in aggressive marketing techniques and infrastructural expansion in a number of areas. In terms of statistics, the industry showed a positive growth of 3.5 per cent during 2009-10. Cellular industry had a 94.6 per cent share in telecom teledensity, followed by fixed local loop at 2.9 per cent and wireless local loop at 2.5 per cent.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2011.
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