A Press Release posted by APP claims that PTCL has revised it local call timing pulse of 2 minute to 3 minutes. Which means that the local call tariff on PTCL landline phones of PKR 2 for two minutes has been changed to PKR 2 for three minutes.This tariff will be in effect from July 1, 2008.
Press Release says that this improved package comes along with promotion that started on June 01, 2008 through which PTCL subscribers are already enjoying free local calls at night.
This move may relieve PTCL customers a bit, but they are not in good trends after getting tons of benefits from cellular companies.
The main discussion that i wanted to get into was if PTCL is now in a phase where it is worrying to acquire and retain its landline customers? The answer is, most probably yes they are! Well there is no doubt that all landline operators, globally, are facing tough competition from wireless communication providers. The scenario in Pakistan is not different, specially with the emergence of WiMAX broadband service providers coming into play, a landline number is not considered as a must have thing for high speed DSL.
After PTCL was acquired by Etisalat, the company failed to leave a positive impression through repetetive attacks on the consumers (Babar Bhatti has summed up the miseries of PTCL customers here). But we have been witnessing a change in company’s mood for last couple of months, as far as the consumers are concerned. This change reflects a thought that company is now trying to show/pretend a positive aptitude towards the customers.
PTCL management would also be eying their dropping revenues and increasing operating expenses. In such a situation, we may see couple of hefty moves from landline giant of Pakistan. Possible moves can be free landline call on a smooth but increased monthly rental.
In any case, they will have to carry their postitive business plans in future too, to relieve the customer and saving their revenues (without decieving custumers) at the same time as well.
[Graphs are carried from PTA's Quarterly Report for Jan-Mar 2008]
The far-flung Northern areas have been a major beneficiary of the changing telecommunication landscape in Pakistan. Ignore for a long time, these areas have been getting attention from the mobile phone companies. After Mobilink and Telenor, Zong has also launched its services in the beautiful cities of Gilgit, Hunza, Skardu, Besharn and Sust. I am sure the residents of the region are enjoying this increase in competition and the choices they have now.
According to the press release, Zong has about 3000 cell tower sites today and the plan to have 10,000 sites by the end of 2009. I found it interesting that Zong’s COO referred to their experience of working in mountainous regions. Most of the time we tend to think about Zong’s huge size and deep pockets, but there’s more to it!
“We believe Zong will have a clear edge over the competition in the Northern Areas especially, as China Mobile has huge experience of network operation in similar high mountainous areas in China itself,” stated Zafar Usmani, the COO of CMPak Ltd. The region now being covered by Zong borders with China, with the Karakoram Highway (old Silk Route) playing a vital role in freight transportation. ZONG is also working towards ensuring the Highway’s coverage.
As a regular BlackBerry user myself, I am pleased to see that Pakistani consumers now have much better choices for using BlackBerry. Warid has started offering BlackBerry and that too - unlocked. This year has seen two new entrants for BlackBerry service in Pakistan: Ufone and Warid.
Both Ufone and Warid are hurting with subscriber growth and low ARPUs and could use more business subscribers. The introduction of BlackBerry service should definitely help them. With more competition for BlackBerry the rates and services are going to converge to a stable point.
It is going to be a lot less painful for foreigners and expat Pakistanis to bring in their BlacBerries to Pakistan.Telenor is the only remaining telco without a BalckBerrry offering - as I wrote in my last BlackBerry post and other bloggers are asking too - but its only a matter of time as they are probably busy with handling their fast pace of growth.
This brings me to the big picture view of Smart phone market in Pakistan. So the guys at RIM have done a good job with the otherwise Nokia dominated Pakistani market. I guess this is their global plan: get people hooked on to BlackBerries before Apple starts invading their territory. Good work. Now we need to see some cool apps customized for Pakistani market - how are we doing there?
Since last month Ufone has started BlackBery service in Pakistan (see my previous post on this topic). Ufone had been working on it for a while and it must be a big achievement for them to make this milestone. So Mobilink is not the only one and Ufone rates are a tad better (monthly rates are Rs. 900 for individuals and Rs. 1350-1500 for business). What is Telenor waiting for?
BlackBerry is particularly valuable for mobile companies as it brings high arpu business accounts which are sticky … it is called Crackberry for a reason. I can’t tell you how many people I see walking around in office hallways with a BlackBerry in their hand. Yeah, it looks funny when you see others but seems perfectly fine when you are doing it!
There was plenty of recent discussion about Zong launch and what will it mean for mobile companies in Pakistan. Let’s start with the net increase to Zong’s subscribers in April 2008. According to recently released numbers by PTA, Zong added 1,004,298 subscribers in April. and finished up with 3.15M total. Pretty good but certainly they have a long way to go. By the way that report about 12M users for Zong in a month was obviously incorrect. Here are the total subscriber numbers (excluding Instaphone) at the end of April 2008:
31,935,624 Mobilink
17,539,457 Ufone
17,323,169 Telenor
14,760,593 Warid
3,146,763 Zong
A good write-up from PTA on mobile number migration work
Pakistan follows International Telecommunication Union (ITU) -T standards E.164 for geographical national numbering plan that includes local loop & cellular mobile operators. The cellular mobile numbers are identified by means of 4-digit separate access code which is known as NDC (National Destination code) i.e. 03xx (x=0-9). The first 50 codes are reserved for Cellular mobile operators. Each access code has the capacity to accommodate 8-million subscribers excluding level “0” & “1”. This means that subscriber number consist of 11-digits i.e. NDC & 7-digit number starting from 2 to 9. In Pakistan cellular mobile numbering plan is based on geographical boundaries that limit the utilization to 50-60% of the numbering space available against each NDC. In this scenario, each cellular mobile operator requires multiple NDCs to accommodate their growing subscribers.
To provide more numbering space, a public consultation process for 7 to 8 mobile number migration was started in 2007. The consultation paper was circulated to all stakeholders and it was decided that the current mobile numbering plan i.e. 0300-xxxxxxx will be changed into new mobile numbering plan i.e. 030-0xxxxxxx. The mobile number migration is planned to alter minimum changes in the existing mobile subscriber numbers, as there is shift of 1-digit from mobile NDC code to the subscriber number. Except CMPAK [031], Instaphone [036], & SCOM [035] the numbering plan of remaining cellular mobile operators will remain the same from subscriber point of view. The dialing format of Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, & Warid will remain the same but the changes are implemented in core network. This will increase the current numbering capacity by 10 times which is enough for next two decades in Pakistan.
The implementation of 7-8 digit mobile number migration will be carried out in four stages as per the international practices which include Public awareness campaign [Jan-March 2008], parallel operation [April-June 2008], announcement phase [July-Sep 2008], & sterilization process.
During parallel operation the subscriber shall be able to dial both old & new codes and the facility of dialing of both codes (parallel operation) would be available from all telecom service providers. During parallel operation new numbers of CMPAK, Instaphone, & SCOM shall appear on called party’s CLI and this will enable the subscriber to memorize & store the new numbers. The old numbers of CMPAK [0304], Instaphone [0320], & SCOM [0335] will be inaccessible from 1st July 2008 and the standard announcement shall be run by all operators when the old code is dialed.
The ported out numbers of CMPAK & Instaphone under Mobile Number Portability (MNP) system, will also change from 0304 to 031-4 & 0320 to 036-4 respectively. The necessary changes are made in the centralized database that is maintained by Pakistan Mobile Database Guarantees Ltd. Furthermore, only new numbers of CMPAK & Instaphone will be ported out from 1st April 2008. The modification of existing databases inline with new mobile numbering plan was carried out in all Fixed line, Wireless local loop, Long distance International, & Mobile networks for the successful implementation of 7-8 digit mobile number migration plan.
The 7 to 8 Mobile Number Migration Plan has number of advantages. Each single NDC (one per operator) has a capacity of 100 million numbers. The NDCs of only three mobile operators i.e. CMPAK, Instaphone, & SCOM (AJK & NAs) have changed effecting only 2 million subscribers out of an existing more than 80 million. The four digit codes of all mobile operators have been reduced to three digits. Dialing format remains the same 11 digit dialing as before. The capacity expansion in mobile numbering plan is sufficient for next two decades.
