ISLAMABAD, March 4: The Mobilink cellular phone company here on Tuesday signed an agreement with four other telecom companies to expand its network for another million subscribers at a cost of $130 million.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Naguib Sawiris, visiting chairman of Orascom Telecom Company, which owns 88pc shares in Mobilink, with the representatives of Siemens, Alcatel, Motorola and Paktel companies.
Earlier, speaking at a news conference Mr Sawiris said his company would spend $130m during the year 2003 to increase the number of subscribers from one million to two million by greatly improving its network and services in Pakistan.
However, he pointed out that Mobilink’s another $130m investment in 2004 will only be made provided its licence was not cancelled by the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) on account of poor service.
He assured that wireless functions will be improved to have better Mobilink service. But he claimed that poor service was due to various other factors, including problems at the international gateway and connectivity with the fixed lines. He said there had been 90pc compliance and the remaining 10pc objections of the PTA would also be removed shortly.
The Orascom chairman said that all the concerns of PTA would be removed by accelerating the installation of new equipment with the help of its suppliers. “As commitment with the PTA, Mobilink is all geared up to provide a fully equipped network of enhanced capacity within four weeks.”
He also announced that his company will be investing in other sectors, including infrastructure, information technology, tourism, building material and fertilizers. “Initially we plan to purchase or set up a new fertilizer plant in Pakistan,” he said. His company, he said, had also invested $100m in Afghanistan for undertaking some of the infrastructure projects.
Mr Sawiris, who earlier met the president and the prime minister during the day, said that he was encouraged by the Pakistani leaders to make new investment in the country.
He termed the investment environment in Pakistan as very good and said that investment friendly policies were attracting foreign investment in Pakistan.
Responding to a question he said that Orascom was very much interested to take part in the privatization of PTCL. He expressed the hope that the Privatization Commission, which wanted maximum price, would also succeed in finding out more foreign bidders for the PTCL.
About the competition in the market, he said four telecom companies were already operating and that there was no need to encourage more companies to invest in the field.
He opposed the idea of reducing tariff to have more subscribers and said the foreign companies should be allowed to have due profit to continue their operations in the country.
He told a reporter that the present government in Pakistan was providing all possible support to the foreign investors. “I appreciate the president and the prime minister for encouraging transparent policies aimed at increasing the overall growth of the country,” the Orascom chairman said.
To a question president and chief executive of Mobilink Al F. Barry said that his company was also engaged in the social development projects in Pakistan. He said SAF games were also financially assisted by Mobilink.
Mr Sawiris said that till December 2002, capital investment in Mobilink was recorded at an approximate level of $300m. The company plans to increase its investment by $130m in 2003 and the total capital investment during the next five year by $600m. Mobilink has contributed around Rs5.4bn ($93m) to the national exchequer in the last two years in the form of corporate taxes and tax/duty collection from the customers on behalf of the government.
He said that in Sept 2001, Orascom Telecom reached more than 3.5m subscribers in 20 countries. By the end of 2002, the company’s subscriber base continued to grow to reach 5m in Pakistan, Tunisia, Congo, Jordan, Algeria, Chad and 12 additional countries in the Sub-Saharan region.