Mobile phone users exceed 98 million mark

KARACHI: The number of cellphone users in Pakistan has exceeded 98 million, according to data released by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) on Friday.

The data showed that 697,000 new cellphone users have been added in May alone, while cellular density has reached 59.8 per cent. This means that 60 out of every 100 people have at least one mobile phone connection.

Among individual service providers, Warid Telecommunications added 265,000 new users in May, making up almost 40 per cent of the entire pool of new subscribers.

On the flipside, Zong witnessed a fall in its subscriber base for the third month in a row. Its customers dropped three per cent in May compared to April. That means the company lost 211,000 users in the past month.

With a 1.18 per cent growth in subscriptions, Ufone was the second biggest gainer in May. Telenor and Mobilink followed, with 0.85 per cent and 0.7 per cent growth month-on-month.

In the wireless local loop (WLL) market, the number of subscribers increased by an impressive four per cent to reach 2.77 million in May.

WorldCall posted the most impressive growth of 14 per cent during the month, reaching a total subscription of 661,000 users. During the same time, Wateen, PTCL, Link Direct and Burraq all posted increases of between two and four per cent in their WLL subscriber base.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2010.