E-Paper | August 17, 2026

Warid set to launch 4G LTE services, with PTA approval

Sohail Iqbal Bhatti Published
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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) accepted Warid Telecom’s plea to permit it to launch 4G services in the country.

The PTA had held auctions for 3G and 4G network licences on April 23 - a process in which Warid did not participate. The bids of four mobile operators of Pakistan qualified for the auction of 3G and 4G namely Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone and Zong.

Warid had previously already obtained a spectrum that would allow the roll-out of 4G. The company's existing licence, which was acquired in 2004, is also technology neutral but is not service neutral, which meant the company would have to share all details of its new services prior to their launch.

While Warid planned to launch 4G LTE (long-term evolution) to compete with the 3G/4G licence-holders, the PTA had insisted that the company needed permission from the regulator for the introduction of the new services.

It was earlier expected that PTA may withhold Warid's request for permission to go for the launch of 4G (LTE) considering the interests of other cellular companies who bought the (3G/4G) licences for $1.12 billion.

Zong and other cellular companies have serious reservations over this decision by the PTA, as they paid heavily during the bid and also invested their time.

Read more here : PTA-Warid row over 4G LTE

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Mathew
May 04, 2014 12:55pm
Good decision.Paying money is easy but providing 4G service is difficult. Zong will provide 4G LTE in 2060 and Warid in a month. Zong has no resources to launch 4G LTE and Warid has resources. This is a big difference.
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Mathew
May 04, 2014 12:57pm
Warid is a multinational company and Zong is not a multinational company.
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Mian Anas
May 04, 2014 01:14pm
@Mathew Dear who tell you that Zong is not a Multinational???????????
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owais
May 04, 2014 01:19pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!! Well played by warid like i was totally astonished that why didnt warid take part into this auction? but lately i got to know that have left them behind with their comparative technicality on getting to start 4GLTE. Well this is really good although with in companies it is being considered a smart move but infact its good for pakistani nation that they will be served with best and new technical support to satellite transmission. I WILL COME TO PAKISTAN AND BUY THIS ONE=) and many many congratulations to Warid.
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Arif A.Khan
May 04, 2014 01:55pm
That is not fair competition, one pays nothing while others pay over a Billion Dollars.This will shake confidence of Investors in future.
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ahmad
May 04, 2014 02:02pm
this is really a joke for all the other companies can PTA explain what type of license was issued to Warid in 2004 at the cost which other companies did not. I mean when in 2004 the cellular licenses were issued to these companies all had paid same amount of money but it seems that Warid was allowed some superior technology at same fees. I think that 3G and 4G auction is no longer a transparent process anymore why do we let these companies to play with us. PTA should think again that one company pays 516 million $ to start 4G services and one company is paying nothing and still getting the right to provide services.
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Bilal Khalid
May 04, 2014 02:05pm
HAHAHHAH Good One Warid :D :D
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Mathew
May 04, 2014 02:12pm
@Mian Anas Why then Zong needs one year and Warid within a month.Forget who is multinational and who is not.Come to main point.The point here is while Zong would require at least a year and Warid could easily launch its service within months.What you want? Service immediately or wait for 10 years.What you have to do with Zong or Warid? You need better service.If Warid will provide you better service in 4G immediately than zhong then what's wrong with this decision.Think and think deep.
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JDS
May 04, 2014 02:14pm
@Mathew For your Kind Info Zong is a part of China mobile (Largest Telecom Company in the world)
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Mathew
May 04, 2014 02:15pm
@Mian Anas Don't count trees,climb and eat.I hope that you got my point.
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Waqas
May 04, 2014 02:17pm
Zong and other cellular companies bids billion of dollars and they didnt know warids plan?????they dont seemsthat stupid........
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Junaid Sabir Hussain
May 04, 2014 02:20pm
@Mathew can you please define "resources" ??
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Adnan Khan
May 04, 2014 02:27pm
So as a consumer, really appreciate the fact that there will be competition among providers. However, I must also notice that while the rest of the providers paid 100s of millions of USD for this license, Warid got it for free. How does that work. And while license to provide services is one thing, the auction was to use a particular section of the bandwidth. So does Warid's 2004 agreement cover the specific portion of the bandwidth they will use?
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Asif
May 04, 2014 02:31pm
@JDS So Zong is not multi-national. It is solely owned by Chinese and for that reason Americans don't allow them to serve USA. Since sooner or later China will resort to stealing American secrets to whatever means to their gain.
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Faiz
May 04, 2014 02:45pm
One thing is clear - No transparency!! Now Zong will go to court and try taking stay order. The courts, as usual, will take time after the stay order and Zong will benefit from this time and try to complete its 4G structure. PTA should ask Warid to pay the same amount as paid by Zong.
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ibi
May 04, 2014 02:56pm
Its 4G evo technology guyz which wateen is providing...
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irfa
May 04, 2014 02:56pm
need 4g
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tshaikh
May 04, 2014 03:00pm
This is really stupid. Warid has already burned millions of dollars and is not profitable. Launching LTE does not make sense at all, even if they can afford the radio equipment, there are no cheap LTE phones so they will not be able to get very many customers. 3G will be sufficient for Pakistani needs for decades and is supported by a large number of affordable smartphones. Warid already have a disaster with Wateen - I guess this is another attempt to try to pump the price up and scam an investor into buying them as they have done with the Abudhabi Group and the Singaporeans.
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Sanaullah
May 04, 2014 03:03pm
This is not fair at all, If Warid had previously already obtained a spectrum that would allow the roll-out of 4G, what they were waiting for? 4G is rightful right of Zong only.
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AA
May 04, 2014 03:19pm
@Mathew Multinational???? Good joke, in which country other then pakistan??
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ilyas0876
May 04, 2014 03:19pm
Warid is bist sarvise
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AA
May 04, 2014 03:24pm
What is going own? Warid should pay additional amount, its very obvious that why other operators hired consultant and pay heavy amount? Govt of Pakistan should take action against decision?
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Akram
May 04, 2014 03:40pm
This is such a stupid decision, it sums up the mess of governance in Pakistan. The others rightly paid for the ability to provide 4G and Warid is given it for free? They haven't even got the money from the Telecom providers yet, who now is going to bother paying huge sums? Expect court cases and more mud slinging. Whoever allowed this to happen needs to be fired, incompetence at its best.
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Tanzeel
May 04, 2014 03:42pm
@Mathew Zong is owned by China Mobile, a Chinese company, so the very fact that it's operating in Pakistan makes it, by definition, a multinational company.
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Tanzeel
May 04, 2014 03:49pm
@Adnan Khan Warid didn't need to participate in the auction because they decided to launch LTE services on their existing 1800 MHz spectrum. Others could have done that but unlike Warid, their networks were operating at full capacity, leaving no room to launch LTE on their existing spectrum. Warid invested heavily in their network early on but due to their small user base, a good chunk of it was unutilized. If Zong or Mobilink or any other carrier for that matter had spare spectrum lying around, they too could have skipped the spectrum auction and launched services on their existing network, there's no grand conspiracy to unfold here. Something similar happened in the UK's LTE auction where EE, formed by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange, used their existing spectrum to launch LTE services even before the spectrum auction after Ofcom's(UK's equivalent of PTA) approval.
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Minuit
May 04, 2014 03:55pm
In 2004, when License was issued to Warid? their was no 3G or 4G/L at all. How come Warid license was open ended. Govt. of Pakistan , is legally responsible to let others know about this. Of course, it is a trick, Warid can not , go free. Zhong is the only provider for 4G. It is a cheating, hope Supreme court put an end to this. Zhong got the license , according to its term , it is legally bound to provide service -within a year or within a month.
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Muhammad Ibrahim Khan
May 04, 2014 03:59pm
@Waqas hoodwinking by PTA and Warid to Zong Multinational company.
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Minuit
May 04, 2014 04:02pm
@Mathew Did you finish high school or you look alike - " 'degree is a degree' ". Zhong got the license , was their a clause that it has to be Multinational? nonsense ! Now have you ever heard the name China Mobil -- number of subscriber are larger than the entire population of Pakistan -- its budget far exceeds your imaginations.. Think before you ink!
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Mathew
May 04, 2014 04:10pm
@JDS So what? What largest company? I need 4G service within a week,not largest company in the world.If other company will provide me this service,then i'll forget that i was using Warid SIM.Grow up man.
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Mathew
May 04, 2014 04:15pm
@Junaid Sabir Hussain They gonna provide you service within a month and Zong within a year or more.So what you want?Largest company in the world,resources or 4G service.I need 4G and if Warid will provide me,i'll use their SIM card.Thank you very much.
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rashad
May 04, 2014 04:18pm
@Arif A.Khan : you have to understand the dynamics first. warid already had bought the required spectrum hence indicating their long term interest in the paki markets. whereas others chose to play safe and only for profits and buying lower spectrums for lesser costs. warid truly invested in the future whereas others invested only for the short term profits and then sell out programs case in point ufone, mobilink etc. there is nothing wrong with investing in a 10 year program. that's all that warid did whereas the other companies wanted to make short term investments.
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andygator
May 04, 2014 04:22pm
yoo man now warid have power of mobile internet service in his company why you not try to get warid sim
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Engr Zohaib Ahmed Mengal
May 04, 2014 04:30pm
Great Job. Warid will start 4G service if they get permission from PTA and i think PTA will not grant them the permission of starting 4G LTE at first.
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mohammad
May 04, 2014 04:39pm
i dont like the decision of the PTA. why don't PTA ask warid " why you were sleeping all these 10 years and didn't start the 4G or 3G''. if license was given why PTA didn't force warid to start the services. Warid should be fined for the previous 10 years for not starting the service.
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mohammad
May 04, 2014 04:40pm
@Mathew why warid was not starting the 3G or 4G all these 10 years?. bad decision.
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mohammad
May 04, 2014 04:43pm
@ahmad I agree with you. the auction is not transparent now. warid was sleeping and didn't start the 3G or 4G for 10 years.
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mohammad
May 04, 2014 04:44pm
@ibi no its not evo or evdo
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mohammad
May 04, 2014 04:46pm
@Faiz I will demand a fine for all these years when warid had the license but was not starting the service, its just like playing games with Pakistanis and pta looking and smiling.
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asgher
May 04, 2014 04:49pm
Warid or any other company who can provide the fastest solution would be best to serve the public and business of Pakistan. This is not a question of fair unfair, if they have a license to operate on a neutral technology grounds and also they can deliver then its their cake! Pakistan must have a better infrastructure regardless of who owns and operates it.
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mohammad
May 04, 2014 04:49pm
warid cant compete with the ZONG or the other 3 with the small frequency bandwidth they already have. they will start 4G at the cost of killing its voice services
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Technologist
May 04, 2014 05:15pm
I would like to add that a few facts to the bickering in the comments. Pakistan was one of the first countries in the world to get 4G like technology when Wateen introduced WiMax. That also explains why Warid has a technology neutral license and can use LTE legally. Unfortunately, very few phone owners in Pakistan have phones that have LTE enabled chipsets. By the time LTE is widely available and people in possession of enabled phones, the market will already have been stabilized and prices reasonable and Zong's 4G will also be running.
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Muhammad
May 04, 2014 05:35pm
Why Zong is pissed off , Warid paid for the capability when they launched in 2004 and all they need is permission to offer the LTE service in a spectrum they already have allocated to them in 2004. Zong can just plan in a years time how to market its service and grab the market share they may have lost but Warid should be allowed to offer LTE asap if it can.
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faisal
May 04, 2014 05:39pm
@Mathew typical pakistani I answer. Think about yourself only. Forget about morals, ethics and the future of trust by foreign investors in pakistani government.
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ORI$
May 04, 2014 05:55pm
Wateen has already working on WImax spectrum using Warid's Towers. They has all the technology and expertise already. Where is the Business development teams of zong, ufone, Telenor to handle such situation except crying..!! because Abu-Dubai group has holding foots in Pakistan since 1994 in telecom... Cheers and see what they will bring... !!!! its better to put Wimax Sims in market like in developed countries ..!!!
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Saad
May 04, 2014 06:25pm
@Mathew Zong is a multi national company..... it is the biggest company in the world by the name of China Mobile....At least look for the facts before commenting on something
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Blitzer
May 04, 2014 06:34pm
Giving Warid a technology-neutral license in 2004 was a very stupid thing to do. Letting it go ahead and deploy 4G LTE technology without getting a license is even stupider on part of the PTA and the Federal Government. Besides its unfair to other telecom operators especially Zong. What kind of a message does our short-sighted gov't want to send to foreign investors? It's a given that the Sharif Private Ltd enterprise is very close to their Arab overlords, still, skewing the playing field in favor of one company or another is wrong and potentially illegal. I would not be surprised if Zong (China Mobile) refuses to pay the license fee at all for its winning 4G bid.
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ahmad
May 04, 2014 06:43pm
@rashad there was no 10 year investment at that time there was no 3g/4g
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A Khan
May 04, 2014 07:08pm
Mera Payara Pakistan. Obviously Warid knew who and how to pay the fees?
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Bystander
May 04, 2014 07:10pm
This has happened in the UK: Ofcom approved an application by the mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere (EE) to use its existing 1800 MHz spectrum to deliver 4G services. Please read: http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2012/08/21/ofcom-allows-everything-everywhere-to-use-existing-spectrum-for-4g/
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Shabbir
May 04, 2014 07:36pm
corruption..
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wanghai
May 04, 2014 07:51pm
@Mathew who said zong has no resources?Do you know zong is subsidiary of china mobile which is largest cellular company of world by subscribers
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Malik
May 04, 2014 08:01pm
Its good news for warid users, but its going to be much high cost than 3G or 4G. Let's see what happens in next couple of months.
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ayesha
May 04, 2014 08:29pm
thy must go to court for justice
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riaz
May 04, 2014 09:23pm
Our Arab masters always win in Pakistan........
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junaid
May 04, 2014 09:36pm
this is called double crossing
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zafar
May 04, 2014 09:57pm
If this is true, then this is a very bad call on behalf of PTA. Spectrum is not free for anyone. It also throws the whole process of spectrum auction in question, and could open legal challenges on behalf of the other players who participated in the auction, and paid a hefty price for it. What if these parties go to the courts and obtain stays against launch of any services by Warid. The courts will have to grant those stays. In such a scenario, the real loser would be the people of Pakistan who have been waiting for these services for long, and would have to wait further. I would urge PTA to make the process completely transparent and not to make any adhoc decisions under any political pressure to throw off the adoption of this technology in Pakistan.
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Faisal Tanveer
May 04, 2014 10:34pm
The 'hidden Link' is the Link between the Arabs who own Warid and the Sharif Family who dance to their tune in return for cash gifts.
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jahanzaib
May 05, 2014 01:15am
I'm happy zong went through a process not like warid.
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Kammi Kameen
May 05, 2014 01:42am
@Blitzer In which case, the GOP can simply disallow their 3G license too :-)
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Hassan
May 05, 2014 02:00am
@owais Why are you so excited? We are nothing but a consumer society. They are becoming millionaires and how much do they spend on community service? Are they bringing revolutionary changes in Pakistan? They charge way too much for their services, and will never leave you but constantly bug you to subscribe for packaged and mere excuses to snatch money out of your pockets. Its just internet at high speed. We should be focused on nation building, alleviating the pain around, rather then being a mere spectator witnessing corporate fun show which only safeguards their interests.
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ali
May 05, 2014 02:01am
@Mathew i think u have.. nd at the end of all talk its pakistan .. every thing happens
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Communications Guru
May 05, 2014 07:35am
This is Pakistan. One rule for 4 companies and other for another. You can still get a license from the same PTA (that made participation in the auction for the licence mandatory) with out participating in auction and on a much lower price.
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Mian Anas
May 05, 2014 10:48am
@Mathew hahahahaha Dear, 1 Year ho yah 12 months baat same hai . . . Dear Kindly Check ZONG is the biggest Network of 4G in the world. I am not a user of Zong or Warid but try to tell that which is more strong (Warid or ZONG) in terms of 4G Experience or financially. Thats it.
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Habibi
May 05, 2014 10:49am
I smell something fishy fishy perhaps due to the fact that Warid is owned by Abu Dhabi Group (An Arabian entity) and Pakistan is being governed by Mian NS. Hope you people get my point.
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Adeel
May 05, 2014 11:08am
PTA had already played it safe. Check the TOR available on PTA website http://www.pta.gov.pk/media/queries_010414.pdf
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Karim Momabni
May 05, 2014 11:13am
@ahmad Warid was given this extra privilege because it is owned by the ABU DHABI group which works under Sheikh Nayan...... and PTA does not have the guts to disapprove anything that Sheikh Sahab and its company wants........... Already turmoil ridden Warid will definitely get into more turmoil........ This is the actual and real background behind this premium 4g license.............
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Karim Momabni
May 05, 2014 11:17am
@Mathew .... Its cheating if Warid already had a privileged license due to Sheikh Nayan's label then why auction such a thing to other cellular companies and deceive other companies the point is this.................. So you need to be clear about the point not others.............. Zong in a transparent way won the bid and got the 4G license but Warid used its back door to initiate the same service............This is wrong ........ and if Warid already had this technology then why didn't it share it with the public before.........
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bashir
May 05, 2014 01:15pm
4G covrage kab on ho ga
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Telco Expert
May 05, 2014 04:00pm
It's very simply a matter of how much spectrum you have available to ensure quality 4G services. Warid has spectrum, Warid has a license. Other operators didn't have spectrum, nor a license. Ergo, Warid can launch services without participating in the auction. Simple.
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Awais
May 05, 2014 04:16pm
the actual culprit here is PTA, not warid! warid got the 9MHz technology neutral spectrum license in 2004 and HAD BEEN PAYING FOR THE SPECTRUM FOR ABOUT 10 YEARS WITHOUT EVEN USING IT! zong's question is also legitimate. They should have been kept enlightened as to what kind of licenses were issued earlier. If PTA had given any such licenses earlier, the whole 3g auction process is to be questioned
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Awais
May 05, 2014 04:20pm
@Mathew FYI zong (China Mobile Company) is among world's top three big telecom companies and they have a lot of resources for investment, as we saw from the auction and also that they won't be paying license fee in 5 year instalments but "all at once"
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Awais
May 05, 2014 04:23pm
@Arif A.Khan the "one" (warid) had been paying for the spectrum since 2004. i wonder why people don't understand that warid is not to be blamed but it is PTA which has played foul game by keeping other companies in the darkness
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Awais
May 05, 2014 04:30pm
@Faiz the actual culprit here is PTA, not warid! why should warid be asked to pay the same amount as zong when they got the spectrum in 2004. Thats smart-play/fore-sightedness, not foul play! blame PTA not warid. Warid had been paying for the spectrum since 2004.
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umair
May 05, 2014 05:10pm
@Arif A.Khan Warid bought this license in 2004 (4G LTE).....i.e they paid PTA 10 years before ZONG, Mobilink, Telenor and Ufone even made a bid!!! Plus, Warid upgraded their network equipment in 2012.....no other service provider has done that, it will take them atleast a couple of months to roll out service
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umair
May 05, 2014 05:12pm
@AA its owned by China Mobile!!!
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Khurram Baig
May 05, 2014 06:15pm
@ahmad They just bought a more expensive frequency back then, more than they had to. It helped them provide better call quality and connectivity. In other words they opted for better technology because they wanted to provide better service, and because they knew that one 3G or 4G would come. This was not lying vacant, they were using this to provide voice, chat, GPRs etc. Now that Warid's userbase has fallen, they have this bandwidth lying vacant and can use it for 4G. That is all.
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Adil Farooq
May 05, 2014 07:04pm
After this, who would feel comfortable and confident of investing in Pakistan. One party pays hundreds of millions to get something that the other party goes ahead and gets approval for doing for free. Not sending a good message.
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Adil Farooq
May 05, 2014 07:07pm
Can someone explain why Warid didn't launch 4G LTE before if they already had the license and the infrastructure to do so?
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Ayesha
May 05, 2014 11:45pm
Now you are talking, Warid is the only reliable company which the public can trust, moreover, their services are much better than any of the others. Warid are professional people, and the rest were all focused on minting money, and as a result this huge project would have been in the trash can within no time.
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Ward
May 06, 2014 03:19pm
How cam Warid provide the 4G when their GPRS/EDGE is running at snail pace?
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Sam
May 06, 2014 10:27pm
@Sanaullah: I assume that you dont know about the deal with PTCL/Ufone deal with Etisalat. It was agreed that no now technology or telecom company could obtain a new license to operate in Pakistan. Why do you think, even Afghanistan switched to 3G before Pakistan? Because of the agreement of sale of PTCL. China Mobile saw potential growth in Pakistan so they bought Paktel, since this was the only way they could enter Pakistani Market.
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