A survey conducted by LirneAsia, a Sri Lanka based think-tank, in 2000 households among a sample population aged between 15-65 years revealed evidence contrary to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) claims of high teledensity in the country.
“The 152 million active cellular subscribers mentioned on Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) website, despite a good SIM registration system, tell nothing about the subscribers – whether they are men and women, rich or poor and does not really help understand access and usage gaps,” LinreAsia CEO Helani Galpaya is quoted in the report.
Of the target population, only 30% is aware of what internet actually is while 17% claim to use it. Only 22% have smartphones, while 25% have phones with an active data connection. 53% of mobile phone users do not have internet functionality.
However, Pakistan seems to perform better than its peers as 57% do have a mobile phone of some sort. It also has a lower gender-based gap, 43%, and a low urban-rural gap among users, 13% between internet users than other South Asian countries.
