News Brief – December 22, 2009

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani stated that the telecom sector has made enormous progress as the tele-density, which was just 2.3% in 1999-2000, has risen to 62.4%, recorded as highest in South Asian Region. This was shared in a meeting last week with a delegation of Huawei Technologies headed by its CEO, August Ye, prior to signing an agreement between Comsats Institute of IT and Huawei Technologies. The PM said that in order to cater for the growing needs of telecom industry, quality human resource, especially, IT and Telecom specialists are of vital importance. He added that synergy with Huawei Technologies would strengthen Pakistan’s R&D capabilities and hoped that Comsats Institute of Information Technology in collaboration with other regional universities would make best use of this new facility.

Mobilink Pakistan is all set to launch Mobile Commerce (M Commerce), a new concept of Branchless Banking. It is also planning to introduce in near future the 4G (LT) Technology. Mobilink Pakistan has 40% market share and about 8000 cell sites across the country, the biggest by any operator in Pakistan. According to a Mobilink spokesman: “We have more than 2000 touch points which is the maximum number by any operator.” The company foresees huge potential in the market that is  why it has invested $150 million during the current year.

Wateen has increased its WiMAX services whereby it has doubled its existing customer premises equipment (CPE) volume from 100,000 to 200,000 by year end. Motorola has remained Wateen’s exclusive WiMAX CPE and infrastructure supplier and this latest agreement with Wateen builds on the success of Motorola’s recent announcement of shipping its one millionth WiMAX CPE. Tariq Malik, chief executive officer, Wateen Telecom, said, “We required leading WiMAX technology to provide first-class services and meet customer demand across an extended Pakistani network and after a competitive review selected Motorola to provide next-generation WiMAX CPE units.”

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued show cause to five mobile phone operators of Pakistan as a result of Quality of Service (QoS) survey conducted of mobile phone operators. On the basis of previous quarterly surveys, the mobile phone companies were instructed and given a reasonable time to improve service quality but all companies failed to achieve desired results. . The survey included quality of voice and SMS in 14 cities of Pakistan, AJ & K and Northern Areas including all major highways. PTA Chairman said that the objective of conducting QoS survey is to ensure that the telecom customers are being provided with top quality services.

PTA Chairman Dr Muhammad Yaseen has indicated that the broadband sector in Pakistan is showing a positive trend towards growth and we are looking ahead for more foreign investment in this sector. He said the PTA had always been on the forefront to facilitate the broadband sector. “Now, we have three nationwide and one Karachi-bound wireless broadband/DSL service providers” he added.