Communications in Pakistan
Encyclopedia
Telecommunications in Pakistan describes the overall environment for the growing mobile telecommunications, telephone, and Internet markets in Pakistan
.
In 2008 Pakistan was the world’s third fastest growing telecommunications market. Pakistan's telecom infrastructure is improving dramatically with foreign and domestic investments into fixed-line and mobile networks; fiber systems are being constructed throughout the country to aid in network growth.
(PTA), Pakistan's first independent telecommunications regulator, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
(PTCL), a state-owned monopoly
.
Due to a lack of competition, local telephone call
rates were high and international call
rates were even higher. During the 1990s, a call to United States
cost $5 per minute (300PkRs per minute), which was not affordable for most of the population. In addition customer service
was poor; fixing a problem might take 10 to 15 days. Despite this, consumers had to stick with PTCL, as they had no other options.
This prompted the government to take a series of actions to improve the service by opening the telecommunications market. This was critical, but required a fine balance because opening the market and preserving PTCL were both important for the government.
In July 2003 the government introduced a Deregulation Policy for the Telecommunication Sector, which allowed and encouraged foreign companies to invest in the Pakistani telecommunications market. The centerpiece of the deregulation was the establishment of two categories of basic services licenses: Local loop (LL), for fixed line telecommunication within the 14 PTCL regions, and Long-distance and International (LDI), for connectivity between regions.” Two sets of criteria set by the regulatory authorities must be met before an operator is allowed to start operation: one for the issuance of a license
and another for the maintenance of service quality
.
In 2006, Etisalat International Pakistan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, purchased a 26% stake in PTCL and assumed management control of the company.
Pakistan's telecommunications infrastructure includes: Microwave
radio relay, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, cellular, and satellite
networks. International links include: landing points for the SEA-ME-WE-3 and SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable systems (*AMK) that provide links to Asia, the Middle East, and Europe; 3 Intelsat
satellite earth stations (1 Atlantic Ocean
and 2 Indian Ocean
); 3 operational international gateway exchanges (2 at Karachi
and 1 at Islamabad
); and microwave radio relay to neighboring countries.
(*AMK) :
Now IMEWE of PTCL and TWA-1 of Transworld (Private Operator) also successfully working in Karachi, Pakistan.
's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index summarizes stakeholders’ perception of the regulatory and policy environment and provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Pakistan. The tool measured seven dimensions: (i) market entry; (ii) access to scarce resources; (iii) interconnection; (iv) tariff regulation; (v) anti-competitive practices; (vi) universal services; and (vii) quality of service; for the fixed, mobile, and broadband sectors.
The survey found that in Pakistan the mobile sector
was most active, followed by broadband; while the fixed-line sector remained somewhat static. The parameters that improved compared to the 2006 survey were: interconnection
, tariff regulation, regulation of anti-competitive practices, and universal service obligation in the mobile sector; and market entry, interconnection, regulation of anti-competitive practices and universal service obligation in the fixed sector. Market entry received a low score in the mobile sector due to the perception that the cost of a new or renewal mobile license was prohibitive, thus posing a serious barrier to entry. However, this conclusion may have been incorrect, as the license fee, at least in the case of renewal by Mobilink GSM, was paid in installments over a period of three years. Thus, lack of complete information on the part of survey participants may have skewed the results.
The mobile telecommunications sector is seeing very large year-to-year growth in Pakistan. Approximately 90 percent of Pakistanis live within areas that have cell phone coverage and more than half of all Pakistanis have access to a cell phone. With 108 million mobile subscribers in April 2011, Pakistan has the highest mobile penetration rate in the South Asian region.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
(PTA), Mobilink
continues to lead the market with 32.9 million subscribers, followed by Telenor
with 26.1 million, Ufone
with 20.4 million, Warid Telecom
with 18.1 million, and Zong
with 10.3 million. All telecom companies are working to broaden their networks in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir
and Northern Areas, which were largely ignored until recently. Five of the seven Agencies of the tribal areas
have mobile coverage.
has cited Pakistan to be producing the third highest SMS traffic in the world in 2010.
When dialing on landlines, calls made within cities are considered local calls and you just dial the local number. Calls to other cities (e.g. Karachi to Lahore) are considered long distance calls, e.g., when dialing to Lahore from Karachi you have to dial the code for Lahore then followed by the number of the destination, therefore you dial 042-XXXX-XXXX. For international calls, you dial "00" followed by the country code, e.g., for calls to the UK
from Pakistan you dial 00 - 44 - XXXXXX.
The country code for Pakistan is 92.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
In 2008 Pakistan was the world’s third fastest growing telecommunications market. Pakistan's telecom infrastructure is improving dramatically with foreign and domestic investments into fixed-line and mobile networks; fiber systems are being constructed throughout the country to aid in network growth.
Regulatory Environment
The Telecommunications Ordnance of 1994 created the Pakistan Telecommunication AuthorityPakistan Telecommunication Authority
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is Pakistani government agency responsible for the establishment, operation and maintenance of telecommunications in Pakistan...
(PTA), Pakistan's first independent telecommunications regulator, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited is the largest telecommunication company in Pakistan.The company provides telephony services nation-wide and is the backbone for country's telecommunication infrastructure despite arrival of a dozen other telecommunication comanies, including giants like...
(PTCL), a state-owned monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
.
Due to a lack of competition, local telephone call
Telephone call
A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.-Information transmission:A telephone call may carry ordinary voice transmission using a telephone, data transmission when the calling party and called party are using modems, or facsimile...
rates were high and international call
International call
International telephone calls are those made between different countries. These telephone calls are processed by international gateway exchanges . Charges for these calls were high initially but declined greatly during the 20th century due to advances in technology and liberalization. Originally...
rates were even higher. During the 1990s, a call to United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cost $5 per minute (300PkRs per minute), which was not affordable for most of the population. In addition customer service
Customer service
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
was poor; fixing a problem might take 10 to 15 days. Despite this, consumers had to stick with PTCL, as they had no other options.
This prompted the government to take a series of actions to improve the service by opening the telecommunications market. This was critical, but required a fine balance because opening the market and preserving PTCL were both important for the government.
In July 2003 the government introduced a Deregulation Policy for the Telecommunication Sector, which allowed and encouraged foreign companies to invest in the Pakistani telecommunications market. The centerpiece of the deregulation was the establishment of two categories of basic services licenses: Local loop (LL), for fixed line telecommunication within the 14 PTCL regions, and Long-distance and International (LDI), for connectivity between regions.” Two sets of criteria set by the regulatory authorities must be met before an operator is allowed to start operation: one for the issuance of a license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
and another for the maintenance of service quality
Service quality
Service quality involves a comparison of expectations with performance.According to Lewis and Booms service quality is a measure of how well a delivered service matches the customers expectations....
.
In 2006, Etisalat International Pakistan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, purchased a 26% stake in PTCL and assumed management control of the company.
Pakistan's telecommunications infrastructure includes: Microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
radio relay, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, cellular, and satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
networks. International links include: landing points for the SEA-ME-WE-3 and SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable systems (*AMK) that provide links to Asia, the Middle East, and Europe; 3 Intelsat
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
satellite earth stations (1 Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
and 2 Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
); 3 operational international gateway exchanges (2 at Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
and 1 at Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
); and microwave radio relay to neighboring countries.
(*AMK) :
Now IMEWE of PTCL and TWA-1 of Transworld (Private Operator) also successfully working in Karachi, Pakistan.
Perception survey
LIRNEasiaLIRNEasia
LIRNEasia is an information and communication technology policy and regulation think-tank active across the Asia Pacific region. The organization is incorporated under the Sri Lankan law as a non-profit organization. It was launched in September 2004 under the leadership of...
's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index summarizes stakeholders’ perception of the regulatory and policy environment and provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Pakistan. The tool measured seven dimensions: (i) market entry; (ii) access to scarce resources; (iii) interconnection; (iv) tariff regulation; (v) anti-competitive practices; (vi) universal services; and (vii) quality of service; for the fixed, mobile, and broadband sectors.
The survey found that in Pakistan the mobile sector
Mobile network operator
A mobile network operator , also known as mobile phone operator , carrier service provider , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, or cellular company, or mobile network carrier is a telephone company that provides services for mobile phone subscribers.One essential...
was most active, followed by broadband; while the fixed-line sector remained somewhat static. The parameters that improved compared to the 2006 survey were: interconnection
Interconnection
In telecommunications, interconnection is the physical linking of a carrier's network with equipment or facilities not belonging to that network...
, tariff regulation, regulation of anti-competitive practices, and universal service obligation in the mobile sector; and market entry, interconnection, regulation of anti-competitive practices and universal service obligation in the fixed sector. Market entry received a low score in the mobile sector due to the perception that the cost of a new or renewal mobile license was prohibitive, thus posing a serious barrier to entry. However, this conclusion may have been incorrect, as the license fee, at least in the case of renewal by Mobilink GSM, was paid in installments over a period of three years. Thus, lack of complete information on the part of survey participants may have skewed the results.
Mobile telecommunications
In January 2004 the Ministry of Information Technology issued its Mobile Cellular Policy with objectives to:- Promote efficient use of radio spectrum;
- Increase choice for customers of cellular mobile services at competitive and affordable prices;
- Encourage private investment in the cellular mobile sector;
- Recognize of the rights and obligations of mobile cellular operators;
- Provide for fair competition among mobile and fixed line operators; and
- Provide an effective and well defined regulatory regime that is consistent with international best practices.
The mobile telecommunications sector is seeing very large year-to-year growth in Pakistan. Approximately 90 percent of Pakistanis live within areas that have cell phone coverage and more than half of all Pakistanis have access to a cell phone. With 108 million mobile subscribers in April 2011, Pakistan has the highest mobile penetration rate in the South Asian region.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is Pakistani government agency responsible for the establishment, operation and maintenance of telecommunications in Pakistan...
(PTA), Mobilink
Mobilink
Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited, better known as Mobilink GSM, is a telecommunication service provider in Pakistan. The company is Pakistan's leading cellular operator with a subscriber base of 31.5m and market share of 31% in October 2010....
continues to lead the market with 32.9 million subscribers, followed by Telenor
Telenor (Pakistan)
Telenor Pakistan is a Pakistani GSM cellular service provider, and is a subsidiary of Telenor, Norway.-History:Telenor acquired the license for providing GSM services in Pakistan in April 2004, and had launched its services commercially in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi on March 15, 2005, and...
with 26.1 million, Ufone
Ufone
Ufone GSM is a Pakistani GSM cellular service provider, It's one of five GSM Mobile companies in Pakistan, and is a subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company. After the privatization of PTCL, Ufone is now owned by Etisalat. Ufone has a subscriber base of 20.23 million as of September 2010.-...
with 20.4 million, Warid Telecom
Warid Telecom
Warid Telecom International is an Abu Dhabi based mobile telecommunication firm providing telephony services in Congo, Pakistan and Uganda. Warid is expected to launch in the Ivory Coast and Georgia soon.-Pakistan:...
with 18.1 million, and Zong
ZONG
ZONG is the first international brand of China Mobile, launched in Pakistan in 2008. The company is often cited as China Mobile .In October 2011, ZONG signed a three-year partnership deal with the English football club Manchester United F.C....
with 10.3 million. All telecom companies are working to broaden their networks in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Azad Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir or Azad Kashmir for short, is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-administered part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...
and Northern Areas, which were largely ignored until recently. Five of the seven Agencies of the tribal areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...
have mobile coverage.
SMS
Pakistanis collectively sent over 151 billion text messages during the year 2009. NokiaNokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
has cited Pakistan to be producing the third highest SMS traffic in the world in 2010.
Fixed-line telephones
Fixed-line subscriptions declined from a peak of 5.2 million in 2005-06 to 3.4 million in 2009-10.When dialing on landlines, calls made within cities are considered local calls and you just dial the local number. Calls to other cities (e.g. Karachi to Lahore) are considered long distance calls, e.g., when dialing to Lahore from Karachi you have to dial the code for Lahore then followed by the number of the destination, therefore you dial 042-XXXX-XXXX. For international calls, you dial "00" followed by the country code, e.g., for calls to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
from Pakistan you dial 00 - 44 - XXXXXX.
The country code for Pakistan is 92.
See also
- Universal Service Fund PakistanUniversal Service Fund PakistanUniversal Service Fund was established by the Government of Pakistan to spread the benefits of the telecom revolution to all corners of Pakistan...
- List of dialing codes of Pakistan
- Telephone numbers in PakistanTelephone numbers in PakistanCountry code: +92International call prefix: 00Trunk prefix: 0-Fixed numbers:Area codes in Pakistan are from two to five digits long; the smaller the city, the longer the prefix. All the large cities have a two-digit code....
- List of mobile network operators in Pakistan
- Internet in PakistanInternet in PakistanThe Internet in Pakistan has been available since the early 1990s. According to the International Telecommunications Union there were 133,900 Internet users in 2000 or just 0.1% of the 164 million people in Pakistan. By 2006 use had grown to 12 million users or 7.2% of the population...
- Internet censorship in PakistanInternet censorship in PakistanInternet censorship in Pakistan is government control of information sent and received using the Internet.- Overview :The OpenNet Initiative listed Internet filtering in Pakistan as substantial in the social and conflict/security areas, as selective in the Internet tools area, and as suspected in...
- Information technology in PakistanInformation technology in PakistanInformation technology in Pakistan is a growing and rising industry that has a large potential. Matters relating to the IT industry are overseen and regulated by the Ministry of Information Technology.-External links:*...
- Media in PakistanMedia in PakistanMedia in Pakistan provides information on television, radio, cinema, newspapers, and magazines in Pakistan.-Regulation:The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority was formed in 2002 to "facilitate and promote a free, fair and independent electronic media", including opening the broadcasting...
- Television in Pakistan
- List of television stations in Pakistan
- List of Urdu language television channels
- List of Pakistani radio channels
External links
- Pakistan Telecommunication Coverage Footprint (maps), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority