“There is a possibility that simultaneously with 3G licenses, Pakistan might also auction the license to operate the fourth generation mobile phone services (4G),” Khosa said talking to The News.

“We will take stakeholders on board and their reservations will be cleared before the auction,” he said. “All telecom and cellular operators will be called for a meeting in this regard in the first week of July.”

“We don’t expect our target to be as high as India’s $15 billion, but it will generate good revenue for Pakistan.”

The government in its 2010/11 Budget proposals has revealed non-tax revenue target for Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) at Rs51 billion compared with just Rs1 billion in FY10.

The hefty amount is likely to come through the issuance of licenses for operating the third generation mobile phone technology (3G) to cellular operators, industry officials said.

However, cellular operators remain reluctant to opt for the 3G Spectrum license, the issuance of which already been delayed by at least one year, they said.

Vice President Corporate Affairs Telenor Pakistan Aamir Ibrahim said that his company maintains a favourable outlook towards 3G technology. However, several factors need to be considered for it to be a success. “The price of 3G handsets in Pakistan is still high resulting in a low single-digit penetration in the market.”

Read full story at The News

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The country cellular phone sector has been forefront introducing advancement in voice and Value Added Services (VAS) across the world but it has been on the back bringing up high-speed data service for customers, he said.

Wassay said the operators are reluctant to spend inordinately large amounts acquiring new technology keeping in view the high customers’ acquisition cost and the low Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) in the market. But it is high time for operators to launch a lucrative service for Pakistan’s market as well. “The subsidiary of China Mobile Company has offered a broad spectrum on packages that allows us to appeal to the untapped markets and those segments of the existing subscribers who were not satisfied with what others were offering” added Wassay. The key to the market strategy is to know the customers’ demand. Zong tries to understand the customer from the data it has. Every telecom company has a lot of data on their customers – who they call, when they prefer to call, the duration they speak for and so on.

Zong will invest $300 million in 2010 and is committed to investing in Pakistan and developing a network that is known for excellence. It is determined to expand mobile services to the untapped segments of the market giving people access to communication technology at affordable prices, Wasay said.

If we look at the numbers as defined by sector where SMS is bracketed as Value-Added Service, Zong makes 15 percent of its revenue through VAS, while some operators barely make 10 percent, he further said. “I see immense potential in the businesses of cellular phone sector particularly with the introduction of mobile banking, mobile advertising, social networking and other domains.” “We feel that Telenor has done a very good job of raising consumer awareness on this subject and now the entire industry can benefit from this awareness. Mobile Commerce is a huge challenge and great opportunity in Pakistan where a large proportion of the population does not have bank accounts. Bringing those people into what would be the formal financial sector has immense potential.

“The emerging trend of the telecom sector is to enhance the usage rather than cutting service prices. It is time to look at the mobile from a different perspective. That is how we position ourselves and because of that ZONG has been the market leader in the SMS market for a long time as we have captured the majority of customers who are looking for SMS-based packages,” he said.

On the present challenges of cellular sector, he was of the view that the biggest challenge is to focus away from pricing and to develop new products and services in accordance with the needs and demands of the customers.

Another issue for the sector is to maintain quality of rapidly growing network with the constant increase in subscriber numbers. As new cell sites, which are radio sites, are erected a lot of optimisation is required. Thus, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction while expanding rapidly is something we are deeply concerned with, Head of Marketing further elaborated.

Wasay suggested that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) should focus to framework market’s strategy for new Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), which have potential to drive the market more rapidly toward development of telephony services.

In this regard, the license fee, which should certainly be enough to be a deterrent for non-serious player but it should also be low enough so that small niche players can enter the market. The MVNO provides its particular niche with exactly the service it is looking for. The product diversification is not cost effective for big operators because MVNOs will satisfy and attract more customers from all segments of the market, he said and added the real success of MVNOs would be achieved when smaller and smaller MVNOs are present in the market and able to focus directly on their niches.

Daily Times Report

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