3G, 4G Roll-out and Data Service Growth in Pakistan

[Riaz Haq]

Mobile service operators enjoyed 24% jump in data revenue in fiscal year 2013-14 ended in June. Meanwhile, Pakistanis signed up for 3G and 4G mobile broadband services at a rate of one million per month over the last five months.

The data revenues of mobile phone service operators reached Rs. 47 billion during the year under review, 47.4% year-over-year growth.
“This is a healthy sign in the wake of 3G and 4G services in the country and shows that the use of internet and data services on the cellular mobile has been increasing,” according to a recent Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) report.

As of June 30, 2014 data revenues account for 19.3% of the telecom sector’s overall revenue, up from 16.4% at the end of FY13 – the number for cellular segment, too, increased from 7.3% to 10.1%.

The increased use of social media messaging apps negatively impacted text messaging growth as the SMS volume declined to 301.7 billion during FY2014, down 4% compared to 315.7 billion in 2013. The average monthly SMS per subscriber volume was down to 180 in FY14 compared to 214 of FY13.

PTA reported that each cellular subscriber in the country has 2.17 SIMs on average, which translates to an actual monthly ARPU (per user revenue) of Rs 432.

Mobile broadband roll-out and double-digit growth in data revenue are expected to enable a whole new Internet-based economy with growth of mobile apps from social media, education, health care,  entertainment, financial services and e-commerce to government services in Pakistan.

3G/4G Subscriber Update As Of January 2015:

Source: Telecompaper.com

Pakistan ended January with over 9.07 million 3G/4G subscribers, up from 5.71 million in December 2014, according to data from Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA). Telenor led the 3G/4G market with over 2.25 million subscribers, followed by Ufone (2.25 million 3G/4G subscribers), Mobilink (2.17 million 3G/4G subscribers), and CMPak (1.85 million 3G subscribers and 5,023 4G customers) Warid had 44,075 LTE network subscribers at 31 January 2015.

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[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan bucks the trend in declining PC sales in MENA region:

PC sales in Africa and the Middle East (AME) will decline by 2% in 2014, with sales remaining flat to slightly negative for the next five years, according to new research by International Data Corp (IDC).

This is despite a positive third quarter in 2014, when the market expanded by 2,1% in volume terms year on year to reach 4,26m units. The grow was spurred in large part by two significant education orders in Pakistan and the revival of the Egyptian market.

Growth on the third quarter was seen across both the desktop and portable PC segments, IDC said. Desktop shipments to AME increased by 3,6% year on year to 1,73 million units, while shipments of portable PCs were up by 1,1% to 2,53m units.

“The market overcame ongoing instability in certain parts of the region to maintain its state of growth in the third quarter of 2014,” said Fouad Rafiq Charakla, research manager for personal computing, systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa. “For example, the Nigerian market was hit hard by the outbreak of Ebola, while the war-like situation in Iraq greatly inhibited shipments to the ‘rest of the Middle East’ sub-region comprising Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Afghanistan.”

PC makers also had to contend with a general slowdown in PC demand across the region due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones, said Charakla. “Indeed, an overall regional decline was only averted by the delivery of 150 000 notebooks into Pakistan’s education sector and the return of relative calm to Egypt, which saw these two countries become by far the fastest growing markets during the quarter.”

The three leading PC vendors in AME remained unchanged from the previous quarter. Hewlett-Packard continued to lead in market share, posting year-on-year unit growth of 14,4% for the quarter. Second-placed Lenovo continued to benefit from strong consumer demand and was again the fastest growing major PC vendor in the region, increasing its shipments by 58,2% year on year. Third-ranked Dell recorded 23% year-on-year growth, with one of the education deals in Pakistan serving as a major driver of sales.

Despite this, IDC expects the AME PC market to shrink by 2% overall in 2014. “The market will remain close to flat over the coming five years, and may even experience some minor declines, with demand for both desktops and portable PCs continuing to slow in many parts of the region. However, a number of underpenetrated markets — including Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria and some smaller African countries — will continue to experience growth, preventing the overall region from experiencing any significant declines.” — © 2014 NewsCentral Media

http://www.techcentral.co.za/regions-pc-market-to-slump-by-2/53387/

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan has imported record US$ 544 million of cellular mobile handsets and US$ 682 million worth of telecom equipment during last one year, registering 20.7 percent and 30.3 percent increase respectively.
During the year, both operators as well as cellular mobile customers prepared themselves for 3G and 4G services. The operators upgraded their telecom networks and systems while subscribers opted to shift to smartphones to enjoy such services.
According to latest telecom stats, overall, the telecom imports crossed the mark of US$ 1.23 billion, of which 44.4 percent was for imports of consumer items i.e. cellular mobile handsets.
The telecom experts on Tuesday said there is a dire need for deployment of local manufacturing plant to reduce import bill.
It is now vital to develop local industry for telecom equipments and handsets with cooperation of regional partners engaged in telecom manufacturing.

http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/216923-telecom...$-123bn-mark.html

[Riaz Haq]

Telecom service provider Telenor Pakistan has achieved 2.6 million 3G subscribers in 73 cities.

The company has launched 3G services in Pabbi, Karak, Sheikhupura, Toba Tek Singh, Lakki Marwat, Mianwali, Khyber Agency and Vihari during the current phase of commercial rollout.

Telenor Pakistan will offer free trial of 3G services — 50 MBs of free data every day — to customers in these newly added areas for two weeks.

The company will be charging 2G data services as usual.

Telenor Pakistan is following a two-fold strategy to roll out 3G sites across the country.

First, the telecom operator will increase the number of 3G sites within a city thus expanding the in-city coverage. Second, it will increase the number of 3G cities across the country.

“We will strengthen network reach and stay committed towards building an ecosystem to further facilitate 3G growth in the country,” said Irfan Wahab Khan, chief marketing officer, Telenor Pakistan.

In 2013, Telenor Pakistan invested substantially in modernizing its telecom network including base station equipment, value-added service platforms, among other things. Telenor Pakistan selected telecom equipments which are 24 percent more energy efficient and possessed intelligent power management features with reduced power consumption.

http://www.telecomlead.com/3g/telenor-pakistan-achieves-2-6-million...

[Riaz Haq]

Startups in Asia – or any other developed country, for that matter – often complain of a lack of talent in their respective countries. Yet Pakistan boasts of a massive freelancing population. In 2013, there were reportedly 2 million Pakistani freelancers on oDesk, making it the fifth largest contributor globally. oDesk vice president Matt Cooper told The Express Tribune that the “quality of projects delivered by Pakistani freelancers is at par with our top freelancer countries from around the globe.”

Pakistan is slowly but surely joining the high-speed internet world as well. It was late to the game with 3G and 4G mobile services. The latter arrived only in April last year, but ended 2014 with close to 8 million subscribers – slightly more than Singapore, who first got 4G in early-2013. Meanwhile, another 15 million people access the internet from their mobile phones – that’s half of the total number of internet users in the country. It is expected that the number of broadband subscribers will rise to 45 million by 2020.

There are a number of local startups who have made a name for themselves on the world stage, too. Enterprise social network Convo, who raised US$5 million from a US-based VC firm Morgenthaler Ventures in 2013, is widely hailed as an example of Pakistani ingenuity. Morgenthaler Ventures has invested in big names such as Apple and Evernote.

Fashion-with-a-mission startup Popinjay has produced a series of high-end handbags that have received rave reviews from several national and international media platforms, and even in fashion shows. Online car portal PakWheels also recently grabbed US$3.5 million from Malaysia-based VC Frontier Digital Ventures.

See: Popinjay dreams of making poverty a thing of the past for Pakistani women
More importantly, the high-flying founders of these startups constantly mentor and give advice to the next generation in local startup programs and competitions, of which there are many.

The pieces are in place
Tech in Asia held its first meetup event in Lahore at Arfa Software Technology Park, a grey mass of buildings that we would end up spending most of our time in. Security here is tight – my colleagues and I passed through a grand total of four checks before getting the all-clear, and were asked where we were from multiple times.

Jazib Zahir, founder of games studio Tintash, tells us that it is generally the case for establishments that the government considers to be of national importance. Despite being a regular in the premises, Zahir himself had to show his identification card along for verification purposes, as did other locals.

Much like Singapore’s Block 71, these buildings are home to many local startups, many of which are housed in the resident accelerators and incubators. These organizations account for many of the current batch of budding Pakistani startups, and hence quite literally hold up the local startup ecosystem.

The Punjab Information Technology Board – a governmental body – is responsible for the development of two key programs located here: PlanX and Plan9. As the names suggest, the two are close relatives – PlanX is an accelerator born out of Plan9’s incubation program. While the latter focuses on idea-stage startups, only those who have a product and are looking to expand further can join the former.

A round of introductions at PlanX’s quaint working space reveals startups with raw but fascinating products. Several of them have in fact gone on show and won accolades at international startup events, such as Startup Turkey and Startup Asia – these trips are fully sponsored by the government. PlanX’s BookMe, for example, was one of the finalists at Tech in Asia’s Arena competition in Jakarta last year.

https://www.techinasia.com/pakistan-startup-ecosystem-perceived-vio...

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan clinches Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award 2015 #WorldMobileCongress #3G #4G http://tribune.com.pk/story/847230/pakistan-clinches-spectrum-for-mobile-broadband-award-2015/ …

BARCELONA: In a significant development for the telecommunication sector in the country, Pakistan was awarded the “Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award 2015” at the Mobile World Congress 2015 of the GSM Association held in Barcelona, Spain.

Pakistan was awarded for successfully auctioning spectrum for 3G/4G services in the 850 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands in 2014, and thereafter the rapid uptake of 3G services in the country.

“The award to Pakistan is an indication of the global community reposing its trust in the telecommunication sector policy practices of the Government of Pakistan,” a statement from the Ministry of State for Information Technology quoted minister Anusha Rehman.

The award is one of the two annual mobile excellence awards given as recognition of growth of the mobile industry in the country.

​The minister in her key note address said that in a short span of 6 to 8 months since launch of 3G/4G services in Pakistan, mobile broadband subscriptions for 3G stand at around 10 million.

“The Spectrum auction for next generation mobile services has not only enabled the people to gain access to mobile broadband services but has also encouraged investment in mobile networks in Pakistan,” said Rehman.

The minister added that the introduction of 3G and 4G services in Pakistan was a step forward towards creating an ‘accelerated digitisation ecosystem’ with special emphasis on ‘Bridging Broadband Divide’.

She said the government has accorded the highest priority to the development of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and applications for the provision of quality services, education, employment generation, and women empowerment.

Rehman is currently leading a delegation of Pakistan at the annual GSMA Mobile World Congress, being held in Barcelona, Spain.

[Riaz Haq]

#Facebook, #Telenor launch #Internet.org in #Pakistan, Browse 17 Websites for Free http://propakistani.pk/2015/05/28/internet-org-launched-in-pakistan... … via @ProPakistaniPK

As we told you yesterday, Telenor, in collaboration with Facebook today launched internet.org initiative in Pakistan, with which all Telenor customers — both prepaid and postpaid — will be able to use selected internet websites for free.

Telenor launched the program with 17 websites today, which are available for free unlimited browsing. However, external links, if any, will be charged as per usual tariffs.

Launch event or internet.org was attended by high-ups of Telenor Pakistan, including Michael Foley, CEO, Telenor, Irfan Wahab, Deputy CEO, Telenor Pakistan and Aslam Hayat Khan, VP, Telenor Pakistan.

Facebook officials, lead by Ime Archibong, Global Head for Strategic Partnerships at Facebook, in first of its kind representation from Facebook in Pakistan, were also present at the event.

Telenor has said that its internet.org initiative is aimed for first time internet users. Company has said that its currently not looking at any business proposition, instead the whole initiative is targeted to convert more users to internet.

Here is the list of websites that can be browsed for free:

Facebook, Telenor Mobile Portal, AccuWeather, Babycenter & MAMA, BBC News, Bing, ESPN Cricinfo, Facts for Life, Girl Effect, IlmkiDunya, Malaria No More, Mustakbil, OLX, Telenor News, UrduPoint Cooking and Wikipedia

Telenor users, in whatever city they are or whatever package they are on (postpaid included) can go to internet.org from their cell phones to access these websites. While accessing internet.org website, users will be presented a list of websites they can access for free.

Alternatively, if you are smartphone user, you can download internet.org app from your respective app store an use it.

Any usage with-in internet.org website (or the app) will be free.

Both 3G and 2G users can access internet.org for free, and there is no need to subscribe or activate anything. You can start browsing internet.org for free, right away!

http://propakistani.pk/2015/05/28/internet-org-launched-in-pakistan... 

[Riaz Haq]

The mobile phone imports into the country increased by 13.06 percent to US $539.583 million during first nine months of the year 2014-15 over the same period of last year’s imports of $477.255 million. On month on month and year on year basis, the cell phone import in March also increased by 1.05 percent and 64.94 percent when compared to the import in February 2015 and March 2014 respectively, according to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The mobile phone import during March 2015 stood at $73.929 million against the import of $73.161 million in February 2015 and $44.822 million in March 2014. Similarly, the overall telecom imports also increased by 14.70 percent during July-March (2014-15) over the same period of last year. The imports of telecom into the country during first nine months of current fiscal year were recorded at $1.071 billion against the imports of $933.543 million in July-March 2014-15. On year on year basis, the telecom imports telecom imports in March increased by 8.46 percent from $100.144 million in March 2014 to $108.619 percent in March this year whereas on month on month basis the telecom imports decreased from $115.454 million in February 2015 to $108.619 million in March 2015 thus showing 5.92 percent decrease.

 http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/05/02/business/cell-phone-impo...

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan #smartphone sales jump 124% year-over-year. #3G #4G http://www.cellular-news.com/story/Handsets/67770.php …

Shipments of smartphones in Pakistan increased by a massive 124% year on year during the first quarter of 2015, with shipments up 21% when compared with the previous three month period. That's according to the latest findings from global technology research and consulting firm International Data Corporation (IDC), which attributes the shifting dynamics of the Pakistan mobile market to the deployment of 3G 4G networks across the country and the subsequent rise in demand for devices that are compatible with the new infrastructure. Pakistan has traditionally been a feature phone market indeed, just three years ago (2012), 93% of all mobile phone shipments in the country were feature phones since there was no network to support smartphones. Even those consumers that did own smartphones had to be content with only using traditional voice and SMS services. In the last year, however, the market has experienced a drastic shift to the smartphone form factor. According to IDC's Global Mobile Phone Tracker published in Q1 2015, smartphones now account for about 30% of all the devices shipped to Pakistan, up from 25.3% in the previous quarter and from 14.7% in the corresponding period last year. This shift is set to continue, as IDC expects the proportion of smartphones to overtake feature phones by the end of 2017. The Shift to Smartphones in Pakistan The rapid shift to smartphones began in 2014 following the deployment of 3G 4G networks in the country. Inevitably, there is now a scrum of vendors trying to get a share of the pie, and as telecom operators deploy infrastructure to the whole country, the level of competition is only expected to increase. Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) shows that only about 10% of all subscribers in the country are using 3G 4G networks, so the shift to smartphones will gather even more pace as the numbers of 3G 4G subscribers increase. Another important factor to consider is that mobile phone penetration currently stands at around 75% in Pakistan, meaning there is a sizeable share of the population that has yet to acquire any type of mobile device. Uptake among these first time buyers is sure to spur the smartphone market's development even further. Meanwhile, dual device ownership is expected to rise, with consumers increasingly acquiring a smartphone in addition to their existing feature phones, not only so they can capitalize on the added benefits of smartphone ownership, but also so they can leverage the on net savings that telcos may provide for both voice and data usage. Vendor Specific Trends As the above shift is taking place, the market is witnessing an increase in the number of vendors offering different SKUs of devices. QMobile continues to dominate the market with an overall unit share of 58%, leading in both the feature phone and smartphone segments. Nokia and Voice are the other key players, with shares of 17% and 5%, respectively. The market is also witnessing an influx of new vendors. Despite QMobile's strong lead, IDC expects competition to intensify as other players like Voice, Samsung, Huawei, and Lenovo make inroads into the market. "We expect to see fluctuations in the market's vendor shares as large global players start to establish a stronger foothold in the market and new players try to gain a slice of the action," says Nabila Popal, IDC's research manager for handsets and display solutions in the Middle East and Africa. "Samsung, for example, initially had a hard time in the Pakistan market, but recent changes to its product mix and target price bands have helped it to finally gain traction in the market, recording a 6% share of smartphone shipments in Q1 2015." ......

[Riaz Haq]

In a sign that the rising demand for portable broadband will continue to drive mobile phone imports to Pakistan, the country imported $630 million worth of cell phones in fiscal year (FY) 2015, up 11.6% compared to $564 million of FY2014, according to statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan.

The year-on-year (YoY) increase in mobile phone imports of FY2015 is 120 basis points higher compared to the annual growth recorded in FY2014. The country had imported $511 million worth of mobile phones in FY2013, which increased by 10.4% to $564 million in FY2014.

The overall telecom imports, however, recorded a meagre 0.7% YoY increase in the latest fiscal year. Overall telecom imports, including mobile phones, clocked in at $1.22 billion in FY 2014 compared to $1.21 billion of the corresponding year.

The demand for smartphones, as well as basic internet phones, has been on the rise since last-year’s auction of mobile broadband technology: third-generation (3G) network and the advanced long-term evolution (LTE) or 4G network.

The five mobile operators converted nearly 1 million users to their next-generation mobile network in April, the latest month for which data is publicly available.

The number of mobile broadband users (3G and 4G combined) increased by 8% to finish at 13 million at the end of April compared to 12 million of the preceding month. The country now boasts 12.8 million 3G users and 140,000 users subscribed to 4G technology.

As a result of the recently concluded biometric verification drive, the overall telecom user base has declined by 15% or 20 million to 115.4 million at the end of FY 2015 compared to 135.8 million of December 2014, but it is likely to pick up again on the back of aggressive marketing and branding by cellular operators to sell their 3G and 4G connections.

The latest data for mobile phone imports indicate that the taxes imposed by the government in recent budget have not yet affected imports. Market sources, however, say the newly-imposed taxes will likely discourage users and lure them towards the grey market.

It may be recalled that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, while unveiling the federal budget for FY 2016, proposed a 100% increase in GST on various categories of imported mobile phones.

As per the aforesaid proposal, the GST on mobile handsets has increased from their current level of Rs150 (low-end handsets), Rs250 (mid-range handset) and Rs500 (high-end handsets) to Rs300, Rs500 and Rs1,000 rupees, respectively.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/926484/fy15-mobile-phone-imports-clock-...

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan nears 12.5 mln #3G #4G subscribers in June 2015. Adding over 1 million users per month. #mobile #internet http://www.telecompaper.com/news/pakistan-nears-125-mln-3g4g-subscr...

Pakistan ended June with over 13.49 million 3G/4G subscribers, up from 9.83 million in May, according to data from Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA). Telenor led the 3G/4G market with over 4.16 million subscribers, followed by Mobilink (3.65 million 3G subscribers), CMPak (3 million 3G/4G subscribers, and Ufone (2.57 million 3G subscribers). Warid had 106,211 LTE network subscribers at end-June.