A World Bank study shows that in developing countries 10% growth in broadband access results in 1.4% growth in the GDP. In terms of employment, every 100 new broadband internet subscribers result in the creation of 80 new jobs. Clearly, broadband is a significant multiplier of progress and development for any country in today’s increasingly integrated national and global economies.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) reveals that the total broadband subscribers in Pakistan as of April 2014 were over 3.6 million. Of this, the major shares go to DSL subscribers at over 1.3 million, EvDO user base at over 1.7 million, WiMax users at over half a million and the rest of the one hundred thousand distributed amongst miscellaneous others.
A significant observation is that broadband user trend shows a movement towards wireless broadband. While DSL, which is a fixed broadband service, accounts for over 36% of broadband subscriber base, the wireless EvDO and WiMax subscriber base boast over 61% share in the broadband subscriber base. Further analysis reveals wireless broadband EvDO subscriber base with 1.7 million customers accounts for over 77% of the wireless broadband base.
The major players active in broadband proliferation in Pakistan utilise different telecommunication technologies. The PTA report 2012-13 indicates that DSL and EvDO are two major broadband services that have contributed the most to the expansion of the broadband network across the country. The report reveals that as of end June 2013, PTCL’s lion share in broadband market stood at 70.9% with over 2 million subscribers far ahead of competitors with Wateen at 10.3%, Worldcall at 6.6%, wi-tribe at 7.3% and Qubee at 2.7% market share. Comparatively, the PTCL has the major share in broadband and further product-line extensions has enabled the company to exponentially expand its market reach and take the lions share in an area which it entered later than competitors.
The impact of this broadband proliferation by the PTCL has been diverse and progressive. Broadband has accelerated the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) across social, economic, governance and legal systems and enabled digitization of traditional knowledge and service aspects of the society.
Given the subscriber base calculated on one-subscription-multiple-user format, the PTA estimates the total broadband user base to be around 10.88 million. The benefits of ICT enabled knowledge access due to aggressive broadband penetration in the country are also visible in e-education, e-health, e-government, e-banking and more accessible to the masses.
A few references of the initial signs of this transformation are already evident in the national context.
The government of Pakistan through its Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom (MoITT) had taken measures for automation of government services in order to streamline and improve the functioning in wider public interest. The electronic government directorate under the MoITT umbrella designs and implements measures to utilise ICT solutions and broadband to increase the government’s efficiency. The most widely relatable example of this transformation is perhaps in the shape of the NADRA issued Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC). A process taking days or even weeks has been reduced to a matter of minutes and hours. Millions of citizens from remote and rural areas are perhaps the biggest beneficiaries. This is made possible with broadband and ICT solutions.
National universities providing distance education opportunities are increasingly transforming their programs through e-learning enabled by broadband internet. Institutes that serve masses across Pakistan like the Allama Iqbal Open University and the University of Peshawar are examples of the benefits of e-education enabled with ICT and broadband. The successful and well-paced transformation from convention print-matter based distance education to easily accessible and updatable content online can witness a boom in further expansion and a rise in educational delivery and assessment standards.
The financial sector has also been making steady progress in e-banking services. Specifically more literate urban customers are gradually and steadily moving from conventional branch-based banking to branchless banking. This shift is slow due to the sensitive nature of transactions and sense of security and privacy in Pakistani society. However the trend is positive and is already lead by a major corporate shift towards e-banking.
Conclusively broadband internet has been a vehicle of transformation in various aspects. The Government must also formulate policies and effect regulations that help the broadband companies to expand their networks. More important is perhaps the factor of the cost of access to broadband services including the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) and installation charges. In this aspect, PTCL and Wi-Tribeand other operator providing the services at very marginal and also at affordable charges.
The government and the major players must team up to cater to tap the tremendous economic and social potential of the Pakistani people and make the nation more competitive at the international arena.
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