New mobile phone users mainly from rural areas

The six mobile phone companies operating in Pakistan have added six million new mobile phone users in the first four months (July-October period) of the current fiscal year 2005-06. By the addition of new mobile phone users in the country, the national exchequer has received around Rs three billion as activation tax, an official at the ministry of information technology and telecom told the Daily Times on Saturday. Pakistan Mobile Communi-cation (Mobilink) remained number one by adding 2.832852 million new mobile phone subscribers in its network during the July-October period. The company has deposited R 1,416.426 million in the national exchequer as activation charges during the period. Warid Telecom stood second by booking 1.154202 new subscribers during the July-October period and has paid to the government Rs 577.101 million as activation charges on new connections. Pak Telecom Mobile remained third by netting in 0.999102 million new subscribers in its network during the July-October period and has deposited Rs 499 million in the head of activation tax in the national kitty. Telenor Pakistan stood fourth in the market by adding 0.532659 new subscribers during the July-October period and has deposited Rs 266.3295 million as activation tax to the government for the period. Paktel is at the fifth position by adding 0.436405 new subscribers to its operations during the July-October period. The company has deposited Rs 218.2025 million as cellphone activation tax in the national exchequer for the period. Pakcom has secured sixth position by booking 0.039493 million new subscribers into its network during the July-October period and has deposited Rs 19.7465 million in the head of activation tax in the national exchequer during the period. The government is charging Rs 500 per connection activation charge as federal tax from the mobile phone providers. The fresh addition of new mobile phone subscribers in the country shows that there are still opportunities available for companies that provide quality service on competitive rates. The total numbers of mobile phone users have crossed over 18 million mark in the country and the new subscribers are mainly from rural areas where these companies have been able to establish their network for providing their services. The addition of new subscribers into the mobile phone companies network was due to the continuous reduction in the activation charges and mobile phone call charges during the past few months and expansion of the network in the areas where demand still exists. The mobile phone operators who have recently started their operations in the country are also getting good response from the subscribers. The mobile phone operators were aggressively expanding their networks in remote areas of the country and few million more new subscribers were expected to be added in the next two years taking the total number to more than 30 million in the country, the official said.

Mobile number-switching by April 2006: PTA
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will implement mobile phone number portability by April 2006, said PTA Chairman Maj Gen (r) Shahzada Alam Malik during a press conference on Monday.“Over 50 percent of the groundwork has been completed and cellular phone companies have finalised the terms of reference (ToRs),” said Malik. The equipment needed will be purchased and installed before the deadline, he added.Under the facility, subscribers to a cellular phone operator will be able to switch to another operator without having to change their numbers. The PTA chairman said Pakistan would be the first South Asian country to introduce the facility. He said cellular phone users had demanded the service.Malik refused to comment about negotiations between the federal government and Etisalat over the privatisation of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. “I will not answer any question regarding PTCL and Etisalat but hope that both parties concerned will reach a settlement,” he said.All cellular phone operators are providing satisfactory service according to the latest PTA survey, said the chairman. He said the survey’s results would be made public within 10 days. He hoped Wireless Local Loop (WLL) services would expand in the country because it provided quality telecommunication to subscribers. There are 450,000 WLL subscribers in the country.Malik said the PTA, Kashmir and Northern Areas Ministry and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government were negotiating a policy allowing cellular phone operators to operate permanently in AJK. Cellular phone operators were allowed to operate in AJK for two months to help in relief operations for October 8 earthquake victims. PTA will extend the period for three more months, he added. Daily Times