KARACHI, Oct 30: The cellular subscriber base in the country witnessed a slow growth in the second quarter, which stood at 2.4 per cent by September 2008, as experts see mobile phone consumers’ market touching the saturation level.
Though the cellular subscriber base crossed 90 million mark by the end of September 2008, figurers compiled by the telecom regulators and cellular companies suggest that the sales of new connections are on the decline for the last few months compared with previous years, as rising inflation has also seriously affected the purchasing power of consumers.
“As we go through figures, total new connections added in August stood at 238,000 while in September they were recorded at 640,000,” said a telecom industry source, citing fresh data.
August and September are the two lowest registered sale months of new connections since monthly reporting began in 2005 by the companies and naturally it directly depends on people’s needs and their strength to acquire that. “We have witnessed both on the decline for the last few months,” said the source.
Blocking of unregistered SIMs (subscriber identity modules) by all cellular companies in line with the directives of the Pakistan Telecom Authorities (PTA) following recommendations of the law enforcement agencies, also resulted in recent decline to some extent, observed the source.
A phenomenal jump in the number of cellphone subscribers has been witnessed since 2004, when two foreign cellular service providers launched their operations in the country.
For more on this article, please click on the following link: Cellphone market touching saturation level: Dawn
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment