Furor of WiMAX Technology

Furor of WiMAX Technology
Qubee Leading The Way?

In business in Pakistan for less than a year, Qubee currently holds a presence in four major cities of Pakistan with coverage in few rural areas as well. Topping it all, a total investment of $150 million dollars is expected to be brought in by end of the year this year. Excluding the error of commission, this surely does indicate a successful encounter of Qubee with the local market.

At a Press Conference on January 27th, Alistair Johnston, Chief Marketing Officer at Augere Holdings, U.K., the parent company of Qubee, detailed Qubee’s plans for the local market based on the growth trends and the state of competition. Accompanying Alistair, were M. Noman Sheikh, Manager Marketing Communications, and Hasnain Khan, Manager Products and Segments amongst others from Qubee’s Marketing Team for Pakistan.

Tracking Trends
With 60% of the world’s population on internet half of it on broadband exceeding the literacy rate, it is only logical to believe that advancements in telecommunications have experienced an exponential growth in a matter of few years institutionalizing ICT as a star sector in developing countries especially. Although DSL and Wireless Broadband have been leading the way in Pakistan, WiMAX technology is slowly gaining a foothold.

WiMAX, a telecommunications protocol for fixed and mobile internet access, competes with Fiber Optics, a platform for fixed internet access in developed countries with an extensive infrastructure. The deployment cost of the latter is also higher accordingly, justifying the growth rate of developing countries outpacing developed countries in mobile internet telephony.

A ready market of an internet literate audience is often deprived of high-bandwidth internet access over the World Wide Web due to a channel clutter on broadband and DSL, which is a gap area plugged in by WiMAX.

Townstorming – Marketing Lingo for Qubee in Pakistan!
Investing resources to build an affordable and reliable infrastructure in the local market, Qubee aims to stronghold itself via a third-party network. Holding workforce strength of approximately 200 within less than a year of business, Qubee has been able to sustain healthy relations with the existing partners that are the drivers to a large chunk of sales in the region.

Preferring to sidetrack itself from aggressive marketing, Qubee prefers to activate the sales process during sales. Binding to the agreement reached between Qubee and its client, sales are often declined if the customer service delivered does not meet the promised quality standards. Opting for it as the last resort when all other attempts at bringing quality assurance to the customer have failed, the marketing team at Qubee looks up to it as a mark of endless commitment to customer service,

Although the PTA has nodded in favor of an infrastructural development of 3G and the likes in Pakistan, an issue raised time and again is the systemic readiness of the Pakistani market. Addressing the question, Alistair compared accessibility of international bandwidth in Pakistan which is essentially free-of-cost locally as compared to other countries in the South Asian region, making it scalable and efficient. 3G however, stands in no comparison to WiMAX as the former is not geared to facilitate VoIP.

Although WiMAX does facilitate internet access that is mobile, it is not a mobile phone technology. Complying with PTA and other regulatory bodies to grow Qubee’s presence in the local market, Alistair feels confident of Qubee’s local market penetration in the years ahead.

“With a solid set of institutions in place, Pakistan is a great place to do business”, comments Alistair bringing the Press Conference to a close.