Though Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) continues to remain a mainstay in the broadband sector, its market share has declined from 53 percent in June 2010 to 48 percent. It has started to feel the heat from wireless broadband technology.
According to the latest figures released by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for February, the subscriber base of the segment has jumped up to 1.20 million from 900,000 during the same time last year, depicting a growth of 33 percent. But its market share has declined owing to wireless technology available at cheaper rates the WIMAX and EvDo usage continues to gather pace as their respective market shares touched 29 percent and 18 percent.
Wireless Local loop (WLL) connections surged to 2.76 million in February 2011 compared to 2.59 million in June 2010 while WLL density improved to 1.7 percent. Since June 2010, Telecard and Wateen Telecom managed to increase their market share by three and two percent, respectively in WLL segment. According to PTA’s data for the period under review, the connections of Telecard have increased from 580,000 in June 2010 to 720,000 in February 11 showing a growth of 22 percent in annual terms while Wateen connections grew strongly, depicting a growth of 51 percent year-on-year.
In the segment, Vfone retained the highest market share of 48 percent followed by Telecard, Worldcall and Wateen Telecom having market share of 26 percent, 17 percent and eight percent, respectively in February 2011.
On the other hand, cellular density in the country has improved by 7.7 percent since last year to reach 63.2 percent in February 2011 from 58.7 achieved in the previous year. During the period, the subscriber base of the segment marked growth by 8.92 million to reach 105.1 million in Feburary 2011 from 96.2 million in February 2010, depicting annual growth of 9.3 percent. On a year to date (YTD) basis, the number of subscribers have increased by 5.97 million from 99.1 million in June 2010 to 105.1 million in February 2011. In terms of subscriber growth, Zong remained on the top, as its subscriber base increased by 37.2 percent since June 2010. The subscriber base of Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Mobilink also grew by 6.7 percent, 4.5 percent, 4.2 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.
In terms of market share, Mobilink continued to lead with market share of 30.9 percent, in June 2010 the share stood at 32.5 percent. It was closely followed by Telenor with a share of 24.1 percent, which grew by a paltry 0.1 percent since last year. Ufone with a share of 19.4 percent lost 0.3 percent. Warid’s share notched up 16.8 percent while in June 2010, it was 17.1 percent. Zong was the biggest winner with a market share of 8.8 percent, exhibiting annual growth of two percent.
PTCL continues to remain a major stakeholder in the telecom sector and has a presence in major segments of telecom industry through fixed line operations, Ufone (Celluar), Vfone (WLL), DSL and EvDo Nitro (Broadband), said Usman Saeed at AHL.
