With respect to World Telecom Day, in this post i am going to narrate few indicatros, to summarize Telecom sector in Pakistan.
Enormous growth in Telecom sector has enabled Pakistani customers to get equipped with fastest means of communications; and it has turned things into reality which were even beyond imaginations only few years ago.
Key indicators/facts of Pakistan Telecom Sector that I think should be mentioned
1. Mobile Phone reaches more than 90 percent of Pakistani Population
2. Mobile Phone connections in the country hit 85 million mark
3. Tele-density reaches 57.43 percent
4. 2 million cellular customers are added every month
5. 4 Billion text messages are exchanged daily at cheapest possible ratesWorld Telecom Day
6. Internet users through out the country reach 4.5 million mark
7. Late night and Friend and Family calls are made as low as 2.5 Rs per hour
8. GPRS enabled 55 percent Pakistanis to remotely access internet anywhere in Pakistan
9. Broadband internet users have hit one hundred and thirty thousand limit
10. WiMAX internet users reaches 15,000 mark
11. Broadband rates slipped from 60,000 per month for I MB link to only 2,000 per month
12. More than 84,000 directly and more than five hundred thousands indirectly jobs were created through telecom sector
13. IT imports worth 147 million dollars annually
14. Telecom imports reach $ 1.64 billion (July 2007 to March 2008) whichh is almost same when compared to same period, previous year
15. Mobile Phnoes import reach $ 581.7 Million (July 2007 to March 2008) against $ 661.5 Million during the same period last year.
16. In March 2008 only the Mobile Phone imports hit $ 74.4 Million mark, registering a decrease of 23.19 percent when compared to March 2007.
17. More than 10 billion Dollars FDI came in Telecom Sector, with 2 Billion dollars in last year only
18. Telecom Sector shares 3.7 percent of GDP
Telecom Sector also shares some unpleasant things as well, which are
1. Cellular market ruined Local Loop (Land Line) and Wireless Local Loop market
2. Regulator was unable to conduct Quality of Service survey, and waved for cellular companies that have flaws in their services
3. 20 Million illegal and un-identified SIMs circulating in market
4. Increment in SPAM text messaging and phone calls
5. Over charging
6. Low Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
7. Low ROI (Return on investment) for small to mid sized telecom business
8. CED and GST collection from telecom sector is persistent for last 2 years at Rs. 35 billion, despite of millions of additional telecom users
