Cellphone systems fail to meet quality: Race for new customers
By Sher Baz Khan
ISLAMABAD, Nov 4: A race for oversubscription among the mobile phone operators beyond their service capacity has generated the issues of connectivity, poor quality of service, distortions and delayed response by helplines in Pakistan.
In its annual report for 2006, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has said that 15 per cent of the total complaints it received against the country’s telecom sector were related to mobile operators. The number of such complaints is constantly increasing.
Mobilink has the biggest share in the complaint basket with 45 per cent followed by Ufone with 23 per cent. Fourteen per cent of the complaints were against the services of Warid, 8 per cent each that of Telenor and Paktel and 2 per cent were about Instaphone.
The disturbing factor for consumers is the fact that the number of complaints against all the mobile operators have increased significantly this year than last year except Mobilink, the percentage of complaints against which fell to 45 per cent in 2006 from 61 per cent in 2005.
But, the percentage of complaints against every company should be considered in the background of the number of its subscribers. For example, Mobilink and Ufone have achieved 17 and 7 million subscribers base, respectively. So, their percentage in the complaints basket should naturally be higher than other competitors.
The new operators, Telenor and Warid, launched their services in March and May 2005, respectively, and have increased the number of their subscribers considerably. Telenor added 2.7 million and Warid acquired 4.4 million subscribers in a short period of one year.
Instaphone, however, maintained a decreasing subscriber trend this year despite the fact that its license was renewed in April last year.
Paktel GSM has shown below average growth in subscribers. However, the operator has proven to be innovative leader in introducing new commercial concepts to the market, such as credit on incoming calls, low international tariffs, per second billing, monthly flat rates etc.
In Pakistan, the trend of mobile telephone has gathered immense pace due to innovative marketing strategies of the operators. Every month an average of 1.7 million new subscribers are added to their network by companies during this year that is 400,000 more compared to the 1.3 million every month last year.
Mobilink continues to be the leader in terms of market share by subscribers in 2006, although the company lost its share of 8 per cent in the market this year as it dropped from 58 per cent to 50 per cent.
Warid acquired 10 per cent market share in 2006 and has 14 per cent of the total mobile subscribers in Pakistan. Ufone and Telenor also gained some market share, while Instaphone lost its market share of 3 per cent.
In terms of revenue, Mobilink maintained the highest market share of 59 per cent in 2006 followed by Ufone, Warid and Telenor.
The mobile sector paid a total of Rs3.875 billion in activation, GST, withholding tax etc during 2005-06. The sector contributed 65 per cent towards the total revenue raised by the government through tax collection compared to 31 per cent in last year, showing more than 100 per cent increase.
But, despite their extending coverage and contribution to government’s kitty, these operators have to do more to gain the confidence of their subscribers and provide quality services in the far-off places and mountainous region of the country and on special occasions as their counterparts do in the developed world.
