KARACHI, Jan 24: Norway's telecom giant Telenor has planned to invest $1 billion by 2010 in Pakistan's mobile phone operation relating to infrastructure development, network expansion etc.
The company is also likely to hire a new workforce of 400 people in the coming years from the present 350 employees. Telenor has so far invested 60 billion krona in its international operations from 1992-2004.
This was revealed by senior executives of Telenor in their media presentations to 12 Pakistani journalists who visited Telenor's headquarter in Norway besides visiting operation centre, network, coverage, quality, base stations and cell sites from January 16-20, 2005.
The Norwegian company's ownership share in Pakistan's operation is 100 per cent. The mobile phone penetration in Pakistan is 3.8 per cent while fixed line penetration is 2.8 per cent.
Telenor Pakistan Chief Executive Officer Tore Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer Bjorn Taale Sandberg, Communication Director Helge Dietrichson were present in every presentation given to the Pakistani media team besides the senior executives based in Norway.
The top management however did not reveal as to how much market share the company intended to take away in the initial operations and the exact date of launching of its operations in Pakistan. However, these officials said that many things would be revealed after the launch or just ahead of the launching.
"If it goes well, we have a growth expansion plan in Pakistan," they said. The executives said that infrastructure development like establishing cell sites, base stations and boosters' placement was going on satisfactorily in Pakistan.
Even plans were underway to post security personnel especially at the base stations. They added that almost same quality standards prevailing in Norway would be maintained in developing infrastructure in Pakistan from coverage, economic and environmental point of view.
They added that Telenor would bring an investors' delegation to Pakistan ahead of the launching of its mobile phone service. They assured that the company intended to maintain the same standard of connectivity, quality and sales service as prevailing in Norway.
However, they did not mention about their plans of fixing the call rates in Pakistan, saying that this would also be disclosed at the time of launching of cell phone service.
However, the upcoming entry of two new cell phone operators -- Telenor and Warid - have shaken up four current cell phone operators in Pakistan who have been gradually reducing the call rates just to equip themselves from the intense competition from March 2005 besides luring new customers.
It may be mentioned here that Mobilink, Ufone, Paktel and Instaphone have also planned to invest $700 million in 2005 in their network expansion and infrastructure development.
Telenor's Vice-President for government affairs Tom Reige in his presentation on the "government's regulatory approach to competition" said that that a regulatory authority should be independent and transparent in its approach.
He, however, showed his satisfaction over the working of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) by not mentioning any specific issue that was creating problems for the Norwegian company. "Every country has issues.
We have issues but we trust the authority. Being a foreign investor we are satisfied now," he said adding that he did not see any political interference in the working of PTA which was surely a road-map for many prospective investors in the telecom sector.
He said his company had not asked for any favourable terms and conditions for their operations in Pakistan. He was of the view that real competition among the cell phone players would automatically drive prices or call rates down. Telenor has over 20,000 employees and the company is operating in 18 countries.
