Pakistan’s broadband segment is making rapid progress and posted steady growth during the year 2012, said the annual report of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The segment is led by country’s leading integrated telecommunication services provider, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL), which further strengthened its position by claiming more than 60% share in the broadband market, the report stated. The telecom service provider has strengthened its position in the broadband market, up from 57% the previous year. The report also stated that PTCL has more than 1.26 million broadband subscribers (as of June 2012), depicting a growth of 49% during the last fiscal year. Sources said the total number of customers served by the company has increased significantly over the last few months as statistics in the report are till June 2012. PTCL broadband network currently covers more than 2,000 cities, small towns and rural areas and this proliferation of broadband internet is driving ICT growth in remote areas of the country. PTA report further stated that the country has 5.87 million Local Loop subscribers and PTCL remained the most dominant player in both the Local Loop Teledensity (LLT) and Wireless Loop Teledensity (WLL), with more than 74% share in the overall LLT subscriber base. The total broadband internet subscribers in Pakistan reached 2.35 million till December 2012, and broadband penetration rate by June 2012 stood at 1.2%- up from 0.89% in 2011. Since 2007, the broadband industry has maintained a growth rate of 127%, and coincidently, it is the same year that PTCL started its broadband operations. Overall, a record 0.6 million broadband subscribers were added in 2012, a major chunk of which went to PTCL.
