Stakeholders target 5m broadband subscribers: The News

ISLAMABAD: Broadband Stakeholders Group, in its first meeting, has decided that 256 kbps would be considered minimum broadband functional definition and has set a target of five million broadband subscribers for next three years.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has constituted the Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG) in continuation of various recommendations discussed during the Broadband Open Dialogue session.

The Group’s meeting was held at the PTA headquarters. It was presided over by PTA Chairman Dr Mohammed Yaseen and attended by representatives of the Ministry of Information Technology, Universal Service Fund, Pakistan Software Houses Association, PTA, broadband service providers, cellular mobile operators, telecom vendors and academia.

In his opening remarks, Dr Mohammed Yaseen highlighted the vision behind establishing the Broadband Stakeholders Group. He said the primary objective was to improve coordination among various industry players, provide them a common platform to share their ideas and draft recommendations for improving proliferation of broadband services in the country.

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Pakistan ranks 4th in broadband Internet growth: Daily Times

By Muhammad Yasir

KARACHI: Pakistan is ranked fourth in terms of broadband Internet growth in the world, as the subscriber base of broadband Internet has been increasing rapidly with the total base crossing 170,000 in the country.The rankings are released by Point Topic Global broadband analysis, a global research centre. According to the statistics, there are around 382. 4 million broadband subscribers worldwide by the end of August 2008 as compared with 317 million in August 2007, showing 17 percent growth.

Regional Broadband trend revealed that Western Europe has the largest share of broadband users with 26 percent followed by North America at 22 percent. South and East Asia regional is in the third place with 22 percent share.In Pakistan operators are offering wide range of technologies like DSL, Cable, FTTH and WiMax.

They have added 25,500 new broadband connections in the financial year 2007-08, which is around 150 percent increase compared to the previous financial year, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) statistics reported.The Internet Protocol (IP) traffic through high-speed access link has become the success factor that have made rapid the transfer of online information and communication services, data, voice and video footage. The easy way of communication owing to highly competitive market of service providers has been penetrating in the country with modest acceleration in the metropolis.

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Robust growth forecast for telecom sector: The News

Thursday, June 19, 2008
By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: Mobile companies in many regions of the world have not enjoyed the phenomenal subscriber growth witnessed in Pakistan propelling the telecom sector to the stature of a powerhouse in a short span of time.

With mobile penetration at 52 per cent, there is still great potential to be capitalised upon in this market. It must be noted that the overall environment has changed significantly in the last five years where aggressive competition within the industry has translated into benefits for the overall consumer and economy of Pakistan.

An analysis of the telecom industry of Pakistan showed that telecom companies in Pakistan had effectively used a mix of strategic marketing and technological advancement to push their growth and become one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the region.

Until 2001, a few telecom players were providing basic services to a small elite customer base, however, after subsequent deregulation and investor-friendly policies of the government, we are now witnessing a highly competitive market, where telecom services are accessible to all.

With six cellular operators working in Pakistan providing network coverage of almost 90 per cent, significant advantages are being passed on to the end consumers.

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