Telenor Pakistan has announced that it has expanded its 3G footprint to 55 cities in the country to enable its one third of customer base to have mobile broadband access while on the go.
Telenor, in a press briefing, said that its 2,797 cell sites (out of total 7,500 cell sites that Telenor has on its network) are now 3G enabled with over 1.7 million customers who are currently using company’s 3G services.
Irfan Wahab Khan, Chief Marketing Officer, Telenor Pakistan, during the briefing said that more than 33% of Telenor customers have now access to 3G services.
Commenting on the uptake of 3G in Pakistan, Mr. Khan said that there has been a continuous and strong surge in adoption from all areas of launch with exponential growth in data volume every month. He said that the average data volume usage of a 3G customers almost doubles every month, hinting that customers are data hungry.
While explaining about the timeline of Telenor’s 3G network stretch, CMO said that Telenor started its 3G services with four cities in June this year. 10 More cities were added in July, 5 in August, 13 in September, 12 in October while another 10 in November to take the total count to 55 cities till date.
We know that Telenor’s 100% cell sites are 3G ready, thanks to a network modernization project that company completed last year. After this one-time network-wide up-gradation, Telenor now requires minimal investment and effort to convert a 2G cell-site to 3G network.
Irfan, while commenting on company’s strategy for expanding network in rural and urban areas alike, said that Telenor’s growing 3G footprint, comprising both urban and rural areas, is yet another testament of our ambition to bring ‘Internet for All’. Ifran said that his company strongly believe that internet is something for the mass population of Pakistan, and not just the select few.
Below is the list of cities (in month-wise order) where Telenor has stretched its 3G network so far:
June:
July
July
August
October
November
In areas where Telenor launches its 3G services, customers are initially offered free service trials for two weeks. Subscribers are notified about the end of free 3G trial service via SMS and Telenor Pakistan’s official website. Under the free 3G trial offer, customers can enjoy 50 MBs of free data every day. Data services on 2G will be charged as usual.
