Business Recorder has reported that Ufone will spend US 200 million dollars on its network expansion in current financial year to further expand its network.
We know that cellular companies are currently in phase of heavy network rollouts in un-served parts of the country. In given scenario, one may feel that this 200 million dollars may turn out to be too little amount especially when compared to other cellular companies’ ongoing investments in the country.
Ufone has carefully invested in Pakistan; their previous investment of US 550 million dollars was tactfully tackled by Mr. Babar Khan, CEO Ufone then, who closed the deal with Huawei with very good conditions. However, the network up-gradation then had caused Ufone severe service issues and network jams.
This carefulness has caused Ufone a defeat by Telenor, who crossed their number of subscribers recently.
Now let’s check what Mr. Abdul Aziz is saying regarding their latest investment announcement
This nation-wide expansion was an ongoing process and the company would continue its practice of investing more to facilitate subscribers, said Ufone President and Chief Executive Officer Abdul Aziz while talking to a private television channel.
He said the expansion programme was being carried out technically in a way that the quality of network was not disturbed. He said “the quality of service is Ufone’s motto and it would never compromise on it for which we were continuously conducting surveys to get feed back from our customers. I himself monitors the process of surveys to ensure better services.”
He said the company also planned to attract more than six million new subscribers during this financial year. This programme also includes upgrading of existing infrastructure with strong focus on coverage and high network quality of service, massive expansion of cell cites nation-wide and enhancement of existing GPRS capacity and service.
About some complaints on quality of service in some areas including Islamabad, Ufone possesses a huge network and if there were any complaints, company’s dedicated staff responds promptly to address the problem. “I think currently there was not any congestion in the network anywhere in the country,” he added. Answering a question on new telecom policy, he said the policy formed in 2004 was a good and comprehensive document but we would propose some suggestions in the new policy, keeping in view our telecom sector experience.
