KARACHI: Warid and Ufone have faced a slump in the financial year 2009-10, as their market share has dwindled 1.9 points and 1.3 points respectively, while they have lost 1.3 million subscribers. Ufone and Warid reported a loss of 0.4 million and 0.9 million subscribers respectively during the FY09-10, while Mobilink, Telenor and Zong added new subscribers to their networks.
Warid’s revenue slid by approximately one percent compared to the previous year, while subscriber’s decreased by five percent. On the contrary, Ufone’s revenue improved despite a three percent drop in subscribers.
A 24 percent decline in the net addition of subscribers to the mobile operator’s network has also been observed since last year. This is primarily due to the data cleaning activity as the standard definition of active subscribers was implemented by all the operators.
Furthermore, SIMs verification and dampening economic conditions played a vital role in the hampered growth of subscriber numbers. It is pertinent to note that prepaid subscription stands at 97 percent, while the postpaid subscription lies at a meager three percent.
Pakistan’s telecom industry is currently saturated as too many players are struggling to gain a share in the market despite the slow cellular growth in FY09-10.
The fact that the industry added only nine million users as compared to 25 million users in FY 2008-09 cements the aforementioned claim.
A declining trend in the Average Revenue Per User (APRU) has also been observed for last couple of years mainly because the operators were initially adjusting to amplified fixed investments (rolling out network, predatory pricing). Falling exchange rates have played a significant role in pushing the Average Revenue Per User downward, as the APRU of Pakistan’s mobile industry stands at an average of $2.46 during the last quarter of the FY 2009-10.
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