State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

From Jehan Ara’s blog, In The Line Of Wire. I am glad to see that the concept of privacy has started getting some attention.

Unwanted calls have become a major problem in the fast growing telecom market of Pakistan. Ufone has introduced the 420 service (got to love the name) to block calls from any network (or landline). Only for pre-paid customers, it comes with a Rs. 9.99/month price tag and allows you to block up to 20 numbers. Click here to go to Ufone site for more specifics.

The PTCL website www.ptcl.com.pk is inaccessible as I write this. I can think of a few possible reasons:

a. PTCL came up with a great service offering and people loved it so much that the extra traffic crashed the load balancers (sorry, this is just too much of a stretch)

b. Someone got really upset with all the rate hikes and default pakcage activations and decided to throw a few virtual stones at the ptcl glass building. Hack job it could be.

c. The IT department of PTCL forgot to patch the servers (simple incompetence). Now this is very likely!

Well, we’ll know in a short time about the real reasons. After all if they can take Youtube down, it is much easier to take their own site down :)

PTA has asked for experts to bid on a study (see full pdf here) to evaluate Information and communication technology consumer premises equipment. This rather long title refers to a variety of technical gadgets. I feel that PTA wanted this study to be a generic one and avoided using common terms such as cell phones or dsl modems here and . However it would have been good for PTA to provide a few examples of such CPEs. The last date of submission is July 19. Why the haste?

I hope that the sector experts and consultants already have plenty of data to share with PTA and they will be able to come up with a high quality report. A few items from the scope of this work:

a. Define the current status of the CPE manufacturing in Pakistan
b. How much revenue is being lost by Pakistan due to import of ICT CPEs.
c. Provide proofs that current demand enough to build a dedicated CPE manufacturing industry locally.
d. Provide guidelines/procedures to be adopted on government/regulator level in order to promote local ICT CPE manufacturing concept.
f. Define a minimum amount of capital required in order to start such manufacturing facility profitably.
g. List out the CPEs that can be manufactured. In this regard consultant must also specify the areas of ICT/telecom to be focused in the first step.
h. Suggest steps to counter the threat to such local manufacturing due to low priced Chinese versions of ICT CPEs.
i. Identify the locations where this industry should be developed geographically.
k. Describe the benefits to private (foreign/local) investors, vendors, operators and general public due to this development.
l. Highlight the hindrances on all levels public or private that any stakeholder may face during start-up.
m. Scope of ICT CPE manufacturing market in Pakistan in present scenario and in future. Do we have the required manpower especially skilled needed to run the industry.

This week, it will be 2 years since I started TelecomPk.Net. In these 2 years, there have been a number of significant developments both inside and outside Pakistan. I wanted to take a moment and share some thoughts with you. Through blogging I have come across some very interesting people, learned from the broad community of readers, bloggers and the extended network of other experts. Bloggers thrive on feedback and love when traffic is up on their site. Yes, traffic is important but it is far more important to define one’s goals and to deliver value. There are serious challenges confronting us and we need to focus our energies to do more. I often ask myself: what is the value add of this work for the society?

Let me start by sharing a few observations about the ICT and blogging phenomenon in (or about) Pakistan.

• The ICT industry in Pakistan has come a long way. There is plenty of room to grow. Jehan Ara, president of PASHA has has shown great leadership by blogging about her day to day experiences. Her blog offers a fresh approach to brand building and information sharing.
• The rising interest in entrepreneurship, the birth of startup culture and an emerging support structure. As I wrote before, this is a real welcome change. It is heartening to see many young, bright folks working hard to create innovative solutions. A number of expat Pakistanis have returned home - always a good sign.
• Despite some progress and the influx of funds, the education system still lags behind and that’s where the industry needs to step up its efforts. The training and grooming of fresh graduates is a challenge. Huge gaps exist here.
• Pakistani traditional media has been struggling to come to terms with the rise of citizen journalism. Over time the online channel will certainly become a much powerful source of information.
• Today in Pakistan we have the true first electronic generation (those born during the 80s - G80 as I like to call them). Raised on google, sms, chat, orkut and youtube, this digital generation thinks differently from the earlier ones. The generation gap is destabilizing the society in the short-term.

At the same time, the world is going through revolutionary changes, much of it being driven by technology. Look at all the changes during the last 15 years. Information and telecommunication advances have enabled economic growth and resulted in many other tangible benefits. Unfortunately, the positive impact is not distributed equally across all regions. The inequity in Pakistan and many other developing countries is rising sharply. Our pace of growth is alarmingly low. Look at the basic problems of our country (telecom it is not, I assure you) — food, health, education — the situation is pathetic. Some of us have been fortunate enough to move up in the world. But it is frustrating to see that a massive majority of our country’s population does not even get a fair chance at improving their life. How do we enable them to help? It is almost a crime not to harness and tap into the vast potential of our country.

There have been a few initiatives. Last year, a few of us felt the need for a more interactive way of exchanging telecom related ideas and discussions. A brainchild of Tariq Mustafa aka Tee Emm, Telecom Grid Pakistan is almost 500 members strong and has established itself as a combination of consumer advocacy platform, discussion forum and a thinktank for telecom topics in Pakistan.

A few years ago there was not much information about the technology industry in Pakistan. The situation is a bit different now. With the mushrooming of blogs which target telecom news and new phone models, I feel that there is a need to tackle the next set of problems. I believe there’s a lot more that should be done by the Pakistani bloggers (myself included) to raise public awareness, share information and to guide and develop our next generation.

Over the next few weeks I will share ideas for future projects. Please feel free to share your thougts through comments or by email: babar at telecompk dot net. 

 

In the last few months I have observed a steady increase in the number of comments at TelecomPk.net in the category of “I want this zong/ufone number.” Some of the commentators also gave an offer price for the specific number they wanted. And of course there are comments from sellers who want to advertise the availability of numbers. So I ran a small poll (closed now) to see what is the affordability range for a mobile number of choice. Notwithstanding the unscientific nature and the small sample size, the poll gave a decent idea of the average price for a desired phone number.

Two-thirds (66%) said that Rs.15000 is the pricethey will pay for a phone number they like. One-fourth (25%) were willing to shell out Rs. 50K for a number. And the remaining 9% selected Rs. 25K. The results are not surpising at all. In a few days I will write about the options available for buying/selling numbers (that is SIMs) and the process.

Push email is the strong selling point for BlackBerry but there are plenty of other free BlackBerry applications which are quite useful, given the unlimited data plan which comes with BlackBerry.There are three major platforms to watch out for: BlackBerry, iPhone and Android. The interesting trend is that BlackBerry is coming up with applications for iPhone and Google has some great features for BlackBerry and iPhone users.  Just this week Google announced major enhancements for search on BlackBerry.

I came across this video from CNet with the accompanying article in CIO magazine which features 6 free applications for BlackBerry: Viigo mobile RSS reader, Beyond411 local search, Travel companion WorldMate Live, Google Maps (now with voice search on Pearl), Facebook for BlackBerry and TwitterBerry. Some of these are for the US such as 411 local search. I am quite sure its only a matter of time that such hyper local services will start appearing everywhere. Of course everyone has their own favorites and I would love to hear about which apps are popular with BlackBerry users in Pakistan.

I found it amusing that Warid is giving away a McDonald’s meal with Zem recharge or new SIM. It is one of the amazing marketing techniques that a freebie sounds so tempting, even if you have to spend 500 Rs to get it. Given the popularity for McDonald’s in Pakistan (even though commonly regarded as junk food in developed countries),  I assume it must be a popular promotion for Warid. Whoever said that cell phone se peit nahi barta (cell phones don’t feed) probably did not hear about this one!

The soft launch announcement about Mobilink Infinity, Mobilink’s Internet and telephony service, is out. This is another milestone for WiMax in Pakistan. Unlimited data usage and voice for Rs. 1200 at 1 Mbps! For the residents of Karachi these are good introductory rates, valid till October 2008. There’s the initial cost of Rs.16K for CPE etc.

Full information and details about this offer is not available so its hard to say if it is just a teaser offer or will it be around for a while. From a marketing point of view it seems that the official media campaing and website were not launched first. Perhaps Mobilink has learned a thing from Wateen’s product launch mistakes. According to the announcement, “Mobilink Infinity is now an operational business arm of Mobilink. Mobilink Infinity will provide high speed and reliable internet connectivity along with access to a landline through VoIP.” Thanks to Uzair for posting the info on TGP!

Also see the welcome letter.

CIO Magazine has covered Wateen’s WiMAX launch and its partnership with Motorola in Pakistan. The article is very brief and falls short of mentioning link dot net and WiTribe.

Wateen has placed an order with Motorola to provide more of 198,000 more CPE units for the accelerating markets. This order has been recognized as one of the largest orders for WiMax CPEs in the world.

The CPE, or Customer Premises Equipment, enable consumers, small businesses and Pakistan’s largest enterprises to access wireless services — a vast range from basic telephony and fast internet access to high-end data services such as virtual private networks.

Whether or not the solution is something that the Pakistani market is ready for, is yet to be seen. however the ‘proof of concept’ of the subscribers in Pakistan is right here, and has already opened the door to two other competitors launching services in the market in the past two months.

As a regular BlackBerry user myself, I am pleased to see that Pakistani consumers now have much better choices for using BlackBerry. Warid has started offering BlackBerry and that too - unlocked. This year has seen two new entrants for BlackBerry service in Pakistan: Ufone and Warid.

Both Ufone and Warid are hurting with subscriber growth and low ARPUs and could use more business subscribers. The introduction of BlackBerry service should definitely help them. With more competition for BlackBerry the rates and services are going to converge to a stable point.

It is going to be a lot less painful for foreigners and expat Pakistanis to bring in their BlacBerries to Pakistan.Telenor is the only remaining telco without a BalckBerrry offering - as I wrote in my last BlackBerry post and other bloggers are asking too - but its only a matter of time as they are probably busy with handling their fast pace of growth.

This brings me to the big picture view of Smart phone market in Pakistan. So the guys at RIM have done a good job with the otherwise Nokia dominated Pakistani market. I guess this is their global plan: get people hooked on to BlackBerries before Apple starts invading their territory. Good work. Now we need to see some cool apps customized for Pakistani market - how are we doing there?

Related Posts:

Blackberry in Pakistan/

Ufone joins blackberry club in Pakistan

The far-flung Northern areas have been a major beneficiary of the changing telecommunication landscape in Pakistan. Ignore for a long time, these areas have been getting attention from the mobile phone companies. After Mobilink and Telenor, Zong has also launched its services in the beautiful cities of Gilgit, Hunza, Skardu, Besharn and Sust. I am sure the residents of the region are enjoying this increase in competition and the choices they have now.

According to the press release, Zong has about 3000 cell tower sites today and the plan to have 10,000 sites by the end of 2009. I found it interesting that Zong’s COO referred to their experience of working in mountainous regions. Most of the time we tend to think about Zong’s huge size and deep pockets, but there’s more to it!

“We believe Zong will have a clear edge over the competition in the Northern Areas especially, as China Mobile has huge experience of network operation in similar high mountainous areas in China itself,” stated Zafar Usmani, the COO of CMPak Ltd. The region now being covered by Zong borders with China, with the Karakoram Highway (old Silk Route) playing a vital role in freight transportation. ZONG is also working towards ensuring the Highway’s coverage.