KARACHI: The number of cellular phone subscribers in Pakistan surpassed 123 million at the end of November 2012, according to the latest statistics released by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Overall cellular mobile teledensity increased by one percent to stand at 69.8 percent for the month under review.
The total number of mobile phone users increased to 123,597,202 as the five operators combined added almost 2 million new users during the month, reflecting an increase of 1.64 percent from 121,602,339 mobile users at the end of September 2012.
China Mobile’s Zong once again dominated the industry in terms of net addition to its cellular subscribers by adding close to a million, 978,627 to be exact, new subscribers to its network during November last year.
However, it still finished at number four with 18.930 million subscribers at the end of the month.
Mobilink maintained the top position with 36.600 million subscribers at the end of November 2012, adding 211,306 for the month.
Telenor, the second largest operator in terms of subscriber base, remained number two with 30.809 million subscribers. It added 380,695 new subscribers to its network in November.
Ufone once again stood third by adding 242,358 subscribers to take its overall subscriptions to 24.314 million for the month under review.
Warid Telecom added 181,877 new subscribers and stood fifth with 12.943 million subscribers on November 30, 2012.
It is relevant to mention that Zong has been attracting new customers mainly because of lower cellular tariffs. But November’s net addition to its network could also be a possible reflection of the policy it adopted for the last two weeks of the month.
During this period, the company sold new SIM cards for free until December 1, the PTA’s deadline for stopping sales through retail outlets.
Zong’s sales in the second half of November increased by 200 per cent, according to a November 28 report prepared by more - a Lahore-based magazine that covers IT and telecom-related news.
Zong was not the only operator that reduced SIM price ahead of the December 1 deadline, the magazine reported, other operators also sold their SIMs at throwaway prices and recorded a double-digit increase in their sales.
The operators, however, bypassed all the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in doing that, according to the report.
The latest statistics of PTA still don’t reflect the industry’s current position. The telecom regulator has yet to update data for December 2012, when the industry’s sales had a massive slump of about 80 percent following a ban on sale of new SIM cards from retail outlets from December 1.
Internews
