PHOTO: WARID TELECOM
The four companies that took part in the 3G/4G auction of the next-generation technologies had expressed concern over Warid advertising 4G services.
PTA Chairperson Dr Ismail Shah briefed The Express Tribune about the complex issue on Sunday.
“The existing Warid license is technology neutral but it does not mean that it is service neutral,” Dr Shah said.
He said that all newly launched services require proper consent from PTA, for which Warid will have to send a proper request to the authority.
PTA will then consider such a request based on the license conditions and on the greater interests of the cellular industry, specially the bidders who had participated in the 3G/4G spectrum auction.
The offer of 4G/LTE services by Warid will have to go through a process as per their license and PTA’s requirements of assurance of proper coverage, quality of service, enhanced monitoring requirements and commencement permissions.
“Warid should provide details about how much spectrum would be carved out from the 8.8 MHz in 1800 band for LTE services and its impact on the existing GSM/GPRS/EDGE customers,” Dr Shah said, adding that not all releases of LTE are 4G.
Specific information about the version of LTE to be deployed have to be provided by Warid Telecom, the PTA chief said. “No plan has been shared with PTA yet.”
Without these details being made available, the claims made in Warid's advertisement cannot be endorsed in any manner, he added.
The PTA on May 3 had accepted Warid Telecom’s plea that it has no need to obtain a new licence to launch 4G services.
The PTA chairperson had said that Warid Telecom had approached the authority to start 4G service without obtaining any new licence. “However, we have asked the company to share its detailed work-out plan with the PTA,” Shah has said.
COMMENTS (16)
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@Haris:
Please go through the engineering of the systems. Warid has free Bandwidth as it has the lowest customer by number. It is utilizing its free bandwidth thus did not bet for more bandwidth in the auctions. Off course it needs a licence for 3G/4G and thatz wht the PTA chairman tried to explain.
Now after going through this step can warid get new customers is another issue which warid has to deal with...!!!!
@Haris:
Please go through the engineering of the systems. Warid has free Bandwidth as it has the lowest customer by number. It is utilizing its free bandwidth thus did not bet for more bandwidth in the auctions. Off course it needs a licence for 3G/4G and thatz wht the PTA chairman tried to explain.
Now after going through this step can warid get new customers is another issue which warid has to deal with...!!!!
what is difference between 4g and 4g LTE ?? are they same ?
Worldcall Telecom Major Triggers Ahead: 1- Worldcall telecom recently hired Marketing Executives in Lahore and Karachi in the quest of enhancing Market share in its Strongest areas of past. That is a visible move toward topline growth
2-Worldcall signed with Walter Pakistan to Handle Communication and Marketing compaign, a visible move toward topline growth
3-The parent company Omantel currently owned by government is in a process to divest its 19% stake for fund raising from public With the intention of 'Sharing Opportunities & Spreading Ownership" Its being reported that this IPO is a bit Oversubscribed. This translates an addition of 204million Omani Riyal Capital to Omantel's pocket giving it an opportunity to re-structure or expand, thanks to Sultanate People. Although its too early to predict but possibly some good news for Worldcall in the form of liquidity injection from the Parent, afterall banks are banks and Parents are Parents
4-WorldCall 1Q14 results ended in net profit, though declined topline revenue, but
better other income diluted the operational loss
5-Public liking of Worldcall is still better than its Peers (as word of mouth in Lahore in Karachi)
6-WorldCall telecom is still in list of Meezan's Shariah Complaint Index, and it trading quite lower to its Book value
7-WorldCall was purchased by Omantel in 2008 at a price of nearly 25PKR per share, and its Omantel's biggest investmet outside, what does that means; company has lost 90% of its principle and now Omantel must be Hungary enough make profit out of it.
8-Omantel recently got 35m dollars loan from Pakistani Banks on gaurantee of the Parent company, The management has started to use this lifeline for expansion and restructuring.
9-Advent of 3G means more Mobile internet users on roads and more Broadband users in homes, Offices. Can be positive for Worldcall as well
All this research from internet and company reports; To the Best of My knowlege; Please verify each point yourself before investment.
I am not Prof analyst, so sorry for any error.
Best of Luck
The concern is not that warid existing setup is capable of providing these services but the fact is every company will invest in the equipments and has to pay for license. I personally think that PTA and warid has discussed something under tha table.Pta's chairman did not gave cler stance on the issue which means something fishy in it
This is pathetic
Warid should pay full amount if it wants to launch 4G, this backdooring should not be allowed by PTA at the cost of service quality to warid's customer (both 2G and 4G).
What about 800 million dollars unpaid dues pending of PTCL privatisation by the |Etisalat| the same group who own Warid ???
This is back-door entry and trying to deprive the Country of higher bidding value.
LTE uses different technology than regular 3G or 4G and uses more channels. so even if Warid's LTE is 5MHz I think it might be faster than Zong's 4G. Personally, I want to see new technology emerge in the country. PTA and Warid must work together to bring LTE this would open Pakistan for huge investment from companies like Microsoft and Google, both of which rely heavily on fast internet speeds.
Available Bandwidth options for LTE are 10MHz or 5MHz. If they use only one 5MHz Channel ( compared to multiple 5MHz channels of 3G) It would roughly provide the same speed as 3G and would require further spectrum if they want to provide truly 4G services. Secondly, would Warid have enough 2G spectrum for devices that do not support 4G.
So, ZONG would be the fastest network in Pakistan.
What Geo is to Pemra, Warid is to PTA.
i.e. Pain in the Backside.
PTA should request warid to pay for a permission to launch LTE services