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Cellular Sector
Cellular Mobile segment of the industry is considered an engineof growth for telecom sector in Pakistan. Cellular Mobile sectorcontinued to add 2.1 million subscribers per month during theyear 2007-08. Cellular mobile operators continued theiraggressive marketing and network expansion. Competitionamong operators became more intensive with aggressive entryof CMPak, a China Mobile subsidiary in Pakistan. CMPak withtheir brand Zong and Telenor have added significantsubscribers very rapidly. Several cellular operators offeredvarious Value Added Services at lower rates to attract morecustomers.The sector exhibited slow growth than year before. CellularMobile teledensity jumped from 39% in 2006-07 to 54.7% in 2007-08. Collective Revenues of the sector have grew by 35% in theyear 2007-08 against a record growth of 48% in the year 2006-07.Cellular subscribers grew by about 40% in the year 2007-08, asagainst 82% in 2006 -07 and more than 100% during 2005-06.Main reason for its slow growth could be the rising inflationwhich affects the affordability, higher taxes, saturation of theurban markets and low tariffs.Regulator remained vigilant in resolving all sector relatedissues. The most significant development was the shift from 7 to8 digit numbering plan, which was completed during 2007-08. Itwas a huge task and PTA took it as a challenge. Not only allcellular MSC but also all fixedline switches have been enabledfor 8 digits. It is consider as a great success of the regulator forimplementing it in short span of time. Verification ofunauthorized SIMs was another herculean task wheretremendous progress has been made. In collaboration withNADRA and mobile operators, PTA has devised acomprehensive mechanism to verify the SIMS. It was observed
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Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
Annual Report 2008
 
that approximately 7 million SIMS have not been registered properly who were warnedby PTA and operators were directed to register immediately otherwise face disconnection. PTAlaunched a media campaign in this regard along with strong warning has been issued tounregistered user if they failed to register their connections, it will be blocked. Besides, PTAordered closure of various Franchises who were not implementing the proper procedure forissuance of cellular mobile SIMs. PTA continued its IMEI system where it blocked number ofmobile handsets stolen or reported theft by users.Cellular Mobile sector has shown an impressive growth over the years. Pakistan has been one of thefastest growing mobile marketsamong the emerging telecommarkets. Subscription ofsubscribers remained impressivefor another year and all companiestogetheradded more than 25million subscribers to theirnetworks. Total subscriberscrossed 88 million at the end of2007-08. During the year 2007-08,Telenor added about 7.4 millionsubscribers as compared to 7.1million in 2006-07. Mobilinkcomessecond with the addition of 5.7million subscribers during thesame period. Warid telecom succeeded to add another 4.8 million subscribers this year. Ufoneadded 4.0 million subscr-ibers in 2007-08 as compared to its addition of 6.5 million in previous
1
year. CMPak entered the cellular market with aggressive marketing and infrastructure roll out. Itsgrowth was negative previous year but this year it added 2.9 million subscribers in last few months.Cellular Mobile penetra-tion in Pakistan reached 54.7% at the end of 2007-08, which is 15.3percentage points higher than the last year.Despite impressive addition of cellular subscribers by operators during 2007-08, Cellular Mobilemarket could not maintain its growth patterns of the last 3-4 years. Generally, the growth ofsubscribers has declined considerably in 2007-08, which is evident in Table - 7. Total subscribersgrowth has been reported 40% in 2007-08, which has declined from 82% in the year 2006-07.Growth of cellular subscribers has declined by all major companies. Mobilink growth declinedregistered
Subscribers Growth and Penetration
1
See Annex–
3
Net Addition of Cellular Subscribers
Cellular Sector
2.45.012.734.462.989.688.01.63.38.355.654.723.739.4010203040506070809010020032004200520062007'2008'Aug-08
    S   u    b   s   c   r    i    b   e   r   s    i   n    M    i    l    l    i   o   n
0102030405060
    P   e   r   s   c   e   n    t   a   g   e
Cellular SubscribersPenitration
32
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
Annual Report 2008
 
Regional comparison
Growth of cellular mobile sector in Pakistan has placed Pakistan among emerging East Asianeconomies like Malaysia and Singapore. Cellular Mobile penetration of Pakistan surpassed all itsSouth Asian counterparts.Pakistan Cellular Mobile penet-ration in 2007-08 was over 54.7%which is 34.4 percentage pointshigher than India and 31percentage higher than Bang-ladesh.This tremendous growth isattributed to many internal andexternal factors starting fromderegulation down to implem-entation of Mobile NumberPortability. The Government and Regulator are facilitating the sector and making every effort toprovide mobile access to every corner of the country. Today almost 91% of population of Pakistan iscovered with mobile, fixed and WLL networks. All operators are expending their networks to numberof cities/towns/villages. By 2007-08 more than 9,369 cities/ towns and villages have mobile networkscoverage by one or all operators.
Mobile Penetration of Regional Countries (%)
Countries
 
2004-05
 
2005-06
 
2006-07 
 
2007-08
Hong Kong
 
123.1
 
124.4
 
137.2
 
140.9Singapore
 
93.7
 
100.7
 
109.5
 
121.9Malaysia
 
60.1
 
76.8
 
-
 
87.8Pakistan
 
14.0
 
22.4
 
40.1
 
55.6Sir Lanka
 
17.1
 
17.4
 
21.5
 
-India
 
6.8
 
8.1
 
11.3
 
20.7Bangladesh
 
3.9
 
7.8
 
19.83
 
24.9Nepal
 
0.98
 
1.5
 
5.26
 
-
Note: 2008 Latest Available
from 53% to 22% while Telenor growth has declined from 199% in 2006-07 to 69% in 2007-08.CMPak has entered the market recently and has shown positive growth.Cellular Mobile Penetration in all provinces has increased in last one year. The province of Punjabtoped in numbers though its total teledensity is second to Sindh. Total subscribers in Punjab at theend of June 2008 reached 52 million compared to 37 million in 2006-07. Growth of cellular
Cellul
 
ar Sector
2
See
Annex- 4
Mobile Subscribers by Province (2005-08)
 
Mobilink Ufone CM PakInstaphone Telenor Warid Total
1997-9858 52 24 451998-996 17 103 351999-0031 15 4 152000-01171 20 96 1422001-02159 200 126 50 1292002-0339 57 46 27 422003-04188 46 47 28 1092004-05132 222 97 (15) 1542005-06130 190 13 (26) 228 856 1702006-0753 87 (2) (1) 199 118 822007-0822 29 286 (4) 69 46 40
Percentage
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Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
Annual Report 2008
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