The telecommunication plays a vital role in development of a country As the economy grows, demand for telecom services increases

The telecommunication sector in Pakistan has done remarkable work in the past few years The share of telecom sector in GDP has increased from 1.5 percent to 1.8 percent in the year 20042005.

In the start , the telecommunication service was Available at higher costs and the quality was poor These services commenced in the 1990s when Government of Pakistan awarded two cellular Mobile Telephone Licenses to Paktel and Pak Com (Instaphone) With the introduction of Calling Party Pays, the subscriber jumped from 306,493 to 742,606 in just one year, the growth rate calculated to be 142%.

Government reduced the royalty for mobile operators from 4% The introduction warid and telenor mobile operators gave a boost to the mobile phone subscriber in Pakistan which increased by 182%, as shown in the following Graph:
20000000 10000000 0 Paktel Mobilink Instaphone

At present there are six cellular operators providing 29.6 Million mobile connections.
Mobilink has the highest market share of 55% followed by Ufone with 20%, Warid and Telenor with 8% each, Paktel 5% and Instaphone 4%

Mobilink, with largest coverage has provided coverage to 95% of urban and 10% of rural population.

Mobile Phones are firstly introduced in Pakistan at the end of 90s by Paktel (now Zong) and InstaPhone Initially, having a mobile phone was a luxury because connection charges, call rates, SMS Charges, handsets etc were very much costly Within few years other companies (Mobilink, Ufone) also got license and started their services Ufone is a government company

Within few years other companies (Mobilink, Ufone) also got license and started their services Ufone is a government company In Musharaf regime, two more licenses were granted to Warid and Telenor to offer their services in Pakistan Over 75% population of Pakistan is using mobile phones now a day. Connection charges are as low as 1$ and in some cases connections are free

According to survey, cell phone usage is 35.4 percent in Sindh about 44 percent in NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and highest in Punjab at 51.5 percent Close to two-thirds of Pakistanis (60.8pc) have their own prepaid mobile phones Pakistan has a mediocre but improving domestic telephone system.

Supply and demand is the basis of the world economic system In Pakistan, mobile phone sector has increased at a rapid pace recently Half of Pakistanis including women have access to a cell phone together with rural areas and urban areas While more than 86 percent of men have their own cell phone, 40 percent of women do

In 2006 the sector contributed a total of PKR312 billion to the economy, over 5% of GDP Mobile sector employed 210,000 Pakistanis in 2006 Gain in productivity. PKR94 billion to domestic economy in 2006 Consumer surplus increased by PRKR42 billion between 2003-06 Pakistan has one of the highest tax burdens on mobile services in Asia Pacific.

The telecommunications industry in Pakistan has expanded a lot The segment of society which has benefited the most by this process is the consumer Now they have a wide variety of telecommunication services to choose from Telecom rates have reduced and communication has become easier for millions of people using latest technology at affordable price