ISLAMABAD, Mar 4 (APP): Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
(PTA) has announced mobile broadband (3G/4G) users’ number has been
increased in the country, reaching 38.269 million by January this year against 37.574 million by December 2016.
All the mobile phone operators providing mobile broadband
services have added 0.695 million subscribers to their network
during a month.
The number of mobile phone users in Pakistan reached 137.095 million by January 2017, up from 136.489 million by December last year, an increase of around 0.606 million new users during the period under review.
The latest statistics issued by Authority have revealed that
total subscribers of Jazz – the merged company formed from Mobilink
and Warid – reached 51.534 million by January 2017. Mobilink had a
subscriber base of 41.253 million by December 2016 while Warid had
10.27 million users a month ago.
Zong and Telenor subscribers reached 27.496 million and
39.586 million by January 2017 as compared to 26.929 million and
39.453 million by December, respectively.
Ufone subscribers decreased to 18.478 million from 18.581 by
December 2016.
As per PTA, Jazz 4G subscribers reached 700,486 by January
2017. Warid LTE had a subscriber’s base of 637,363 by December 2016.
The number of 4G users for Zong jumped from 2,274,157
subscribers during December 2016 to 2,855,336 subscribers by end of
January 2017.
Tele-density for cellular mobile reached 70 per cent and
broadband subscribers reached 40,786,778 by January this year as
compared to 40,147,991 by December 2016.
Zong has picked up its pace in 4G segment during last four
months. At a time when Pakistani handset market is still struggling
with 4G smartphones – as there are not many 4G compatible handsets
in Pakistan – Zong outplayed other operators by selling 4G SIMs
through its Mobile Broadband (MBB) devices.
While we do not have exact numbers but through sources it was
confirmed that majority of Zong’s 4G consumers are on dongles/MiFi
devices. Interestingly, a lot of home users and small business are
now relying on Zong 4G MBB devices, which shows that there is huge
a potential in this segment.
Top benefit for this 4G consumer is that its Average Revenue
Per Month (ARPU) is at least US $ 15, up from usual US$ 2 ARPU for
common Pakistani mobile phone users.
With Zong’s plan for having more than 10,500 4G cell enabled
cell sites by end of 2017, it appears that Zong is all prepared to
captured 4G market even when their users will grow across the
country with time.
It is highly likely that Jazz and Telenor will also get
aggressive in MBB 3G/4G segment. But a lot will depend on how far
and how deep these operators can go in terms of 4G coverage.
Also note that with growing number of 4G users, operators will
have to add more towers in same area to accommodate them. For
instance, if there are 100 4G users served with a single tower, any
additional customers connecting with same tower will result into
inferior service quality for everyone.
To maintain quality and reliability for a wireless broadband
network, operators grow their cell towers to maintain quality of
service for increasing number of consumers.