KARACHI – In terms of subscription growth, Zong once again came out on top with 19.7 percent increase since June 2010 in its subscriber base, while the number of subscribers of Ufone, Warid and Telenor also grew by 3.29 percent, 3.21 percent and 2.53 percent, respectively, while Mobilink witnessed a contraction of 2.04 percent in its subscriber base since June 2010.
In annual terms, subscribers of cellular segment have increased by 2.45 million from 99.18 million in June 2010 to 101.6 million in November 2010. Despite a smaller subscriber base, Mobilink continues to lead the pack in terms of market share with 31.04 percent (June 2010: 32.47 percent) followed by Telenor and Ufone with market share of 24.01 percent (June 2010: 23.99 percent) and 19.9 percent (June 2010: 19.7 percent) respectively.
Warid has a market share 17.2 percent (June 2010: 17.1 percent) whereas Zong has a market share of 7.9 percent (June 2010: 6.8 percent). According to the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) released telecom numbers for the month of November 2010, the numbers total teledensity has improved to 64.8 percent in November 2010 from 62.9 percent in November 2009.
This improvement in teledensity is mainly due to a 5.1 percent annual growth of cell phone users, which now stands at 101.6 million. Cellular density in the country has improved by 1.97 percent to reach 61.0 percent in November 2010 from 59.0 percent in November 2009 while the subscriber base of the segment also increased by 4.9 million to reach 101.6 million in Nov-10 from 96.7 million in November 2009, showing annual growth of 5.1 percent.
In November 2010, connections of wireless local loop stand at 2.85 million while WLL density stood at 1.6 percent. With features like voice clarity and easy installation, Vfone (a product by PTCL) is leading the wireless local loop segment. Currently, it holds a market share of 45 percent and its subscribers have grown to 1.29 million, depicting a growth of 4.92 percent on year to date basis. According to data released in November 2010, Telecard has a market share of 24.8 percent and it has 0.71 million subscribers, Worldcall has a market share of 20.7 percent and has 0.59 million subscribers while Wateen has only 0.21 million subscribers and it holds a market share of 7.59 percent.
According to the latest figures the subscriber base of the segment has jumped up to 1.05 million from 0.90 million in June 2010, depicting a 17 percent growth. The DSL continuous to remain the leading broadband technology with a market share of 49 percent; however its share declined from 53 percent in June 2010 as wireless broadband technology begins to establish itself in the local market.
Available at lower rates, WIMAX and EvDo usage continues to gather pace as market shares reached to 29 percent and 17 percent, respectively. It is pertinent to mentoin that PTCL continues to remain major stakeholder in telecom sector and it has presence in major segments of telecom industry through fixed line operations, Ufone (Celluar), Vfone (WLL), DSL and EvDo Nitro (Broadband), said Usman Saeed at Arif Habib Ltd.
