LAHORE, Nov 5: The mobile phone penetration rate in Pakistan and other countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam is less than 10 per cent, which indicates their tremendous potential for growth.

"There are 700 million people in these four countries, thus low mobile penetration shows tremendous potential for growth in these economies," Ericsson (South East Asia) President Kristian Tear told a press conference here on Friday.

He said there were 1.5 billion mobile phone users around the world, which would grow to two billion by end-2006. Some 80 per cent of this growth is expected to be in the emerging markets.

The press conference was arranged to launch a new initiative in Pakistan by the company to lower the cost of site build for mobile communication networks, thereby reducing the overall cost of network rollout by its customers.

"The initiative is aimed at addressing operators' need to reduce overall capital expenditure (CAPEX) in high-growth, low ARPU (average-revenue-per-user) markets," Mr Tear said.

"The initiative will benefit countries like Pakistan, where the mobile penetration rate stands at less than five per cent, and there is an urgent need to make communications available to a wider population," he said.

He said it was imperative to minimize costs in order to enable operators reach a larger population base for high-growth and low ARPU markets. "Our Expander Solutions have to a large extent already addressed the need for a lower number of sites by focussing on the total performance of the radio network."