Assignment of Business Research Methods

Submitted to Dr Qamar Ali

Submitted by Basit Ali(19112)

Section 6th Morning ‘C,

Government College University Faisalabad

Cellular Industry In Pakistan:

The telecom sector is one of the fastest growing segments of Pakistan’s economy
as the number of cellular subscribers in the country have reached 151 million by end
of July 2018, showing reasonable growth with each passing month.
The telecom industry has seen a dramatic increase in mobile broadband as well, as
penetration over the past five years as mobile broadband subscribers reach 57.32
million with teledensity of 27.73. On the other hand, basic telephony subscriber 3
million with 1.30 percent Teledensity.
Mobile broadband users remain significantly higher than fixed broadband user due to
the dominance of the mobile platform in the country.
The statistics issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) showed that
number of mobile phone users reached 151 million by July 2018, as compared to
145.99 million by end of January 2018
Mobilink Jazz’s total count for 3G users stood at 15.03 million by July 2018, as
compared to 14.54 million by January 2018. Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 2.23
by January 2018 to 4.6 million by July 2018.
Zong 3G subscribers decreased to 9.22 million by July 2018, from 9.08 million in
January 2018, while number of 4G users jumped from 5.07 million by January end to
7.76 million by June 2018.
The number of 3G users of Telenor increased from 10.75 million in January 2018 to
10.31 million by July 2018. The number of 4G users jumped from 1.88 million in
January 2018 to 3.3 million by July 2018.
Ufone’s total subscribers reached 7.06 million by end of July 2018 as they were 6.630
million in January 2018.
An IT Ministry official said 4G network roll-outs continued across the country. By
2017, over 30 percent of Pakistan’s population was covered by the 4G network. The
country had seen a dramatic increase in mobile broadband penetration over the past
five years with market penetration increasing from below one percent in 2012 to 24
percent in 2017, he added.
Recent liberalization of the telecom sector has made telecommunications one of
Pakistan’s most promising sectors. Today, four cellular companies are operating in
the country with a customer base approaching 161 million subscribers. The private
sector is now actively involved in the expansion and development of
telecommunication services. It provides cellular telephone services, card payphone,
internet/broadband services, and, with the privatization of Pakistan
Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), it also provides fixed line telephone
services.

Pakistan’s telecom sector has enormous growth potential. A major development in the
sector was the auction of the 3G/4G license by the Government of Pakistan. All
cellular operators participated in the auction and 3G licenses were awarded to
Mobilink, Ufone, and Telenor and the 3G/4G license was awarded to Zong. With
telecom operators rolling out 3G/4G services, the number of its subscription has
grown quickly and stands at 70 million. This surge has created a huge demand for
smartphones, which is the top selling category across all major e-commerce
platforms.
180 MillionCellular Subscribers
84.02%Teledensity

95 Million3G/4G Subscribers
44.54%Penetration

2 MillionBasic Telephony Subscribers

1.13%Teledensity

98 MillionBroadband Subscribers
45.6%Penetration

. Telecom growth potential:

The telecommunication sector has brought signifificant fifiscal, social and economic
benefifits to Pakistan during the last decade. Its subscriber base has skyrocketed,
reaching 137.7 million in April 2014, from only about 0.3 million in 2000 and 34.5
million in 2006.
(Telecom Indicators, 2014).
Pakistan has been an investor’s heaven especially in Telecom sector for the last few
years. The telecommunication sector attracted more than USD 7.14 billion Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) between 2003 and 2012 while the telecom investment was
more than USD 15.14 billion, generating revenue of USD 29.62 billion as well as
thousands of jobs (PTA Annual Report, 2013, page 14). The graph shown in Fig. 2
illustrates the FDI and telecom investment data during the past decade (Telecom
Indicators, 2014).
Telecom sector is one of the highest contributors to the National Exchequer. During
the fifiscal year 2012–13, Telecom sector contributed Rs.124 billion to the National
Exchequer. General Sales Tax (GST) forms the major part of the contribution with
Rs. 57.78 billion collected by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) from Telecom sector.
A huge sum of Rs. 53.52 billion has been paid by the telecom operators under various
heads such as duties, withholding tax, fees etc. PTA has also received Rs. 6.8 billion
from the operators under various regulatory heads and deposited into the National
Exchequer till March, 2013 while Rs. 7.52 billion was collected under the Activation
Tax head (PTA Annual Report, 2013, page 15). The major driving factors for this
development were: & Privatization of Pakistan Telecom Corporation into PTCL. &
Investment of cellular companies like Warid, Telenor and China Mobile.
The international research companies still consider Pakistan as an attractive market
having huge portion of unmet demand in many areas that have business potential.
Content service providers, Banks and Telecom operators are eager to introduce latest
technologies like mobile banking and other 3G services in Pakistan.

Telecom Infrastructure:
Pakistan’s telecommunications infrastructure includes: Microwave radio relay,
coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, cellular, and satellite networks. International links
include: landing points for the SEA-ME-WE-3 and SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable
systems that provide links to Asia, the Middle East, and Europe; as well as the
recently-completed fiber-optic land cable from China to the city of Rawalpindi.