The ratio of churn (subscribers switching from one service to another) has increased from two percent in the year 2010 to 15 percent in the year 2011. Industry sources informed Pakistan Today that due to poor services on the part of broadband companies in the country the subscriber ratio of moving from one network to another has increased manifold just in one year.
The subscriber wants the broadband service to be up all the time without any disruption, yet the operators have failed to provide the desired service to their subscriber, therefore, the subscriber doesn’t stay subscribed to their services for long, sources said.
In addition to the price war, the broadband network providers have been facing difficulties to maintain their subscription numbers, sources said, adding that increasing CAPEX (capital expenditure) and OPEX (operational expenditure) make it difficult for the companies not to lose their subscription bases.
Currently the level of broadband penetration is just one percent in the population of 180 million, and according to the annual report of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for the year 2009-10, it was expected that the government’s enhanced focus on broadband and telecom deregulation would have synergetic effect on broadband proliferation.
However, the report said, contrary to the expectations the broadband growth did not meet overwhelming results, and there are numbers of economic and technical factors attached to it that include low literacy rate, down beat, absence of computers and allied equipment, inaccessibility of service, non-availability of local content and very litter awareness of ICT innovation. As recent as 2008 the broadband was available only in the three major cities of the country, the report said.
Similarly, Pakistan has not received the kind of investment that could coax robust broadband penetration despite having an existence of colossal demand and supply barrier with large parts sans access to the services, the report added.
One of the prime factors that hamper the penetration potential of broadband proliferation is the cost of service, which has been the main reason behind the sluggish growth of broadband that led the companies to launch wireless technologies. Yet the costly Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) charges for wireless services remain a hindrance for general people to rush into broadband arena.
It is pertinent to mention that PTA claims to keep telecom companies on their toes in terms of quality of service and customer assistance, and expect that Pakistan is to make advancement in this field soon with 13 main internet service providing companies and 50 small and medium ones.
