At least two mobile phone operators have shown their discontent over the 3G stats released by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority yesterday, we have learned through sources.
Mobile phone companies believe that competition is mis-reporting their 3G users to gain market position, while there is no check from regulator on the reported stats.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had released stats for 3G users, according to which total 3G base has crossed 5 Million mark in Pakistan.
According to PTA, Zong, Mobilink and Telenor had 1.6 million, 1.4 and 1.1 million 3G users respectively. While Ufone was reported to have 647K 3G users at the end of November.
According to PTA, below table is how mobile companies added their 3G customers for last four months:
If we look at the table, Ufone’s 3G count was Zero till September 30th, 2014, which clearly shouldn’t be the case.
Even if we consider that Ufone didn’t report any 3G subscriber during first three months (which would be very odd in itself and PTA should have made sure about data reporting before making it public), there are some other dis-ambiguities that concern many minds.
For example, according to the these stats, Zong had 947,363 customers at the end of September 2014. However, in one of its press-release Zong had said that it crossed 1 million 3G customers in September 2014.
Here’s excerpt from Zong’s press release:
Lahore – 30th October, 2014: Zong, a subsidiary of China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC) and Pakistan’s first and only 4G mobile service, today celebrated crossing one million ‘Super 3G’ customers, a milestone it achieved last month, at an event in Lahore.
We aren’t sure what exactly to believe, PTA’s stats or the official press release. Both are utterly contradicting.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority should either develop a mechanism for cross-checking these 3G stats, or it should not report 3G stats at all
Not to mention, just two days ahead, on September 28th, 2014, Zong’s CEO in his keynotes at the launch of Zong’s 4G launch had claimed that his company had some 866,000 3G users till then (Link).
Which means, Zong added some 81,363 3G users in just two days, which in itself should be a record.
We just hope that Zong isn’t counting its 2G data users as 3G customers, just because their tariff for 2G and 3G is exactly the same.
The point is that there is no cross-check from regulator on how many 3G users mobile phone companies have.
When asked from PTA, it confirmed that stats were provided by operators and PTA considers them correct without any cross-check.
This essentially means that any operator can report any number of 3G users and generate a lot of buzz and that would be it. No questions asked.
Not to be mentioned, we had similar concerns over reporting of 2G subscribers. PTA couldn’t re-check the number of 2G users as well, and hence only relied on stats provided by telecom operators. But since there used to be an activation fee associated with each new 2G customers, taxes and audits used to cross-verify the stats and hence it was somewhat acceptable to rely on operators for 2G users.
However, now, in case of 3G users — operators just have to tell PTA that this many million customers converted to 3G and that would be it.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority should either develop a mechanism for cross-checking these 3G stats, or it should not report 3G stats at all. As they don’t make any sense.
I’m using ufone 3G since its launch in April. PTA didn’t count me as a 3G user :(
NO 3g count for qmobile users :D
Lol bcz they don’t believe on you
Shouldnt PTA be getting the numbers from Telco’s themselves? I wonder where they get their stats from.
Fro Telcos themselves Saad!
آپ کیا کیڑے نکال رہے ہو، چھوڑو PTA جانے اور ان کا کام جانے۔۔۔
hehehehehe no comment on ufone may se 3G use kr rha hon sep tk koi user e ni haha. Pagal PTA
we are least concerned in users and more concerned about coverage and speed
Numbers are clearly not right, For first three month ufone does not have a single 3g subscriber and than it suddenly gets more than 500K in just one month and next month it adds just over 100K.
I wonder how incompetent these people sitting on gov posts are. I am not ufone subscriber but I still don’t believe they could have this low 3G subscriber base at the moment.
For your second part, what you believe about Ufone I believe exactly opposite that operators really had that number of 3G users which they mention, like more than million in 5 to 10 cities
Subscriber numbers (voice and data) are provided to PTA by operators themselves, and are reported accordingly. I would side with PTA and consider those numbers valid as operators are notorious to pad their statistics in race to be No. 1, 2, …. or whatever.
you are in number games.. what we are still waiting for 3G !! 3G in AJK ?? @AAMIR
It’s been an year since the whole 3G buzz in the country.And 6 months since the operators have started 3G services in the major cities.But “We” here are still waiting for any development regarding Lisence extensions for 3G in AJK and GB.
I had wrote personally to “Amir bhai” to raise the issue, but i guess he has more important things to write about like Googles’s new automated car.
All i can say is we are going to see nothing but “evo” in the name of internet here for another year or two, at least.
Damn true :( #AjkCry
RIP Ufone & PTCL! They think they’re selling 3G/Evo/Data on Mars, where there’s no Mobile Data available, so they can charge whatever they want! Lets see when they wake up..
A very biased article! Clearly shows that the author is concerned about only one company while after another one.
It is obvious that Ufone didn’t report any figs earlier on. It does not mean that they didn’t have any.
Other than that, the Question is, is it possible by PTA to verify these numbers? If not, isn’t something better than nothing?