Int’l telecom traffic exhibits phenomenal growth

KARACHI: The Long Distance International (LDI) industry has reported the highest number of international outgoing traffic minutes in the Financial Year 2009-10 as a total of 3.2 billion international outgoing minutes have been recorded. In addition, hefty revenue of Rs 47.06 billion was generated. This surge is primarily due to competitive international tariffs offered by various operators.
The annual report of 2009-10 disclosed that a total of 9.43 billion outgoing international minutes have been recorded in the last five years, from 2005 to 2010. The number has significantly increased in the past two years.
Total revenue generated by the LDI industry stood at Rs 139.78 billion in the last five years, out of which Rs 47.96 billion was generated in 2008-09, while a total of Rs 21.98 billion was generated in 2007-08. Growth in the industry is evident as the revenue stood at Rs 15.56 billion and Rs 7.19 billion in 2006-07 and 2005-06 respectively.
Outgoing international minutes were reported at 2.88 billion minutes in 2008-09, while 1.66 billion minutes were recorded in 2007-08. In 2006-07, a total of 1.22 billion international outgoing minutes were recorded, while a meager 405 million minutes were used in 2005-06.
The LDI industry struggled to establish its feet in the market and faced hurdles like the instant setup of illegal gateways, lack of industry coordination, high cost of optical links and unrealistically low tariffs. PTA had to intervene to bail out the industry by taking a number of initiatives like directing all LDI companies to follow the approved settlement rates, deployment of Monitoring and Reconciliation of International Telephony Traffic (M&RITT) system, raids against illegal call termination networks and regular review of Access Promotion Charges (APC). Due to high volumes of traffic being carried by the LDI companies, revenue generation has always been a highlight of LDI operations, yet it is a fact that incoming traffic to Pakistan has always been higher than outgoing. At the time of de-regulation in 2004, a total of 14 licenses were awarded.