KARACHI – Qubee has planned to introduce advanced internet technology to reach millions of customers in new cities with a planned investment of $150 million by the end of 2011, Augere Holdings Chief Marketing Officer Alistair Johnston has claimed.
Briefing a group of journalists, he revealed the future plans of Qubee, a 100 percent shareholder subsidiary of Augere, to be executed during the year. In January 2008, Augere raised $125 million in the first round of investment from France Telecom, while it raised an additional $107 million from harbinger funds, he added.
He said the company plans to adopt Long Term Evolution (LTE) as it would constitute more attractive technology that will allow operators to achieve even higher peak throughputs in higher spectrum bandwidth. When asked, he said 3G is inefficient in terms of data usage. He stressed Qubee is currently in an ‘evaluation stage’ and his organisation is evaluating locations with expansion in certain cities under consideration for potential service launch.
He pointed out that Pakistan is a very competitive market for broadband with nine operators offering services in the sector. However he discounted the possibility that Qubee will consider merger a viable option. He added that distribution is the toughest part of the business in Pakistan and that Qubee is actively searching for third party selling of products.
He asserted that a roadmap had been outlined to tap millions of customers in developing countries including Pakistan, with broadband internet technology within a very short timeframe. The expansion in operations will offer business ventures and employment opportunities to the local people in this highly advanced technology field, Johnson said, adding that the number of employees in the company will increase to 1000 by year-end.
He focused on the fact that Qubee is not the only Wimax company and his company endeavours to tailor suitable technology for each country it invests in. However, he was of the opinion that Wimax is suitable technology for Pakistan with the industry recording growth of 196 percent with a market share of 28 percent in 2010.
Qubee holds nationwide license and it plans to start its services in other cities of the county with Pakistan fielding the best broadband infrastructure in South Asia, he said. He refused to disclose the total number of Qubee subscribers in Pakistan. To a question, he said equipment costs are a persistent problem, yet the corporation refuses to charge for installation. He stressed that the global digital divide is narrowing rather than growing.
He asserted that there had been rapid growth of both services and the Qubee network since its inception, saying that the broadband operator has commenced operations in Karachi with four sales centers situated in different areas which have enhanced services in four cities with 45 customer care centers during last year.
