Thanks to millions of 3G and 4G users, the year 2015 has witnessed 12 per cent growth in broadband penetration from mere 2.07 per cent in 2014.
At the end of November 2015, total number of broadband subscribers reached 24.78 million, out of which 21.68 million broadband users were on 3G/4G technology, 1.5 million were on DSL and another 1.3 million were using EvDO.
This huge increase in broadband usage is clearly the result of 3G/4G services but less than 20 per cent mobile phone users out of the total 124 million subscribers have shifted to 3G/4G networks, indicating that there is a huge potential available in the market and that the number of broadband users in Pakistan may continue to grow for several more years.
Experts on Monday recalled the dial-up era of 1990s, when basic email and internet services were introduced in Pakistan but it was only 2001 when broadband services (DSL) were introduced in the country for the first time.
It was Micronet again in 2006 to introduce FTTH services in the country for the first time while Wateen initiated its WiMAX network in 2007 to start offering wireless broadband services. With the variety of broadband technologies available in Pakistan, it was only 2014-15 that saw real growth in broadband sector after the auction of 3G/4G licenses.
The experts said that it was interesting to note that WiMAX operators lost over half a million subscribers – highest since WiMAX started in 2007 – during 2014-15, showing that consumers had started trusting 3G/4G networks for their primary internet needs.
Broadband market in Pakistan has undergone some drastic changes since the introduction of mobile broadband (3G/4G), which has actually changed the dynamics and market rating of operators.
Currently Mobilink, with its 6.8 million 3G users tops the market while PTCL – that had more than 80 per cent share of the market till 2013-14 – now has 2.6 million broadband users or around 10% of the market share of total broadband user base.
As with other trends, data usage also picked up after the emergence of 3G/4G technologies increasing manifold during 2015.
For example, data consumed over mobile broadband networks in June 2015 (9,860 TBs) is six times more than the data usage in June 2014.
The trend of mobile broadband clearly shows that data usage is rising substantially with every passing month, which hints that that potential of mobile broadband is humongous for new avenues of data-centric growth and economic activity.
With expanding 3G/4G coverage, the number of subscribers will also grow, leading to more data usage in the future.
