Pak Government looking to expand into non-voice

The Pakistan government is working on policy making and is taking
initiatives, especially for broadband proliferation and moving beyond voice
services in the country.

The government is targeting far flung areas of Pakistan for providing
broadband services; and very recently the President of Pakistan has inaugurated
a broadband project in an underserved district-Pak Patan. A number of fiber
optic projects are also underway and recently services like easy payments and
IPTV for local telecom users are also being introduced, according to Sardar
Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa, Minister In-charge, MoIT.

He said that the Asian telecom sector has shaped in such a way that it has
become exemplary even for the West; however, there remains a dearth of research
and learning activities. He said it is hoped that such efforts would go a long
way in building stronger relationships among countries and providing a platform
for sharing each other's experiences and learn from them.

Khosa said that the Government of Pakistan has been taking keen interest in
the development and growth of the telecom sector and is taking every possible
step to take it to a better position. He was speaking at a two-day international
event, Expert Forum on Mobile 2.0 Applications and Conditions in Islamabad
organized by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaboration
with LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka.

Prof. Rohan Samarajiva (PhD), CEO, LIRNEasia, speaking at the session

The Minister In-charge, MoIT was the chief guest in the opening session while
Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, secretary, Cabinet Division; Naguib Ullah Malik, secretary
MoIT; Dr Mohammed Yaseen, chairman, PTA; Syed Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi, member
(finance), PTA; Dr Khawar Siddique Khokhar, member (technical), PTA were also
present on the occasion. Dr Rohan Samarajiva, CEO, LIRNEasia gave the welcome
speech. Dr Yaseen, in his welcome note, said that mobile 2.0 conditions and
applications is an appealing subject, especially in the case of Pakistan where
the local mobile sector has been revolutionized in less than half a decade. From
less than a million subscribers in 2004 today the country stands at 97 mn
subscribers and would be hitting the 100 mn mark in another three to four
months, he said. He further added that the revenues of mobile companies have
grown tremendously and today stand at Rs 212 bn (2009). The total foreign
investments that poured into Pakistan since 2007 have been more than $4 bn
maintaining an average share of 28% in total FDI of Pakistan. ARPUs of the
industry have become more stable and stand at $2.5.

Conditions for Mobile 2.0 (Quality of Service Experience) session was attended by Chaunka Wattegama, LIRNEasia, Wasim Tauqir, Director General (Strategy & Development), PTA (Pakistan's experience with Mobile Quality of Service); and the Chair, Baburajan K, Executive Editor, Voice&Data

The chairman said that the mobile sector is one of the major contributors in
tax collection in Pakistan, and in 2009 itself Rs 112 bn have been submitted to
the government's kitty which is more than 7-8% of the total tax collected. He
said that Pakistan is one of the few first countries in the world to implement
mobile number portability (MNP). He said operators are introducing world-class
value added services to its customers including mobile banking, mobile Internet,
music libraries, utility bill payments, GPRS services, voice messaging and stock
market updates, to name a few. However, they are at the moment facing lower data
revenues in the sector, he added.

Conditions for Mobile 2.0 (Quality of Service Experience) session was attended by Chaunka Wattegama, LIRNEasia, Wasim Tauqir, Director General (Strategy & Development), PTA (Pakistan's experience with Mobile Quality of Service); and the Chair, Baburajan K, Executive Editor, Voice&Data

In reference to the Expert Forum, Dr Yaseen said that this meeting mainly
concentrates on the topic-beyond voice, an area, where globally countries are
working in order to increase their revenues. He said that since Pakistan's
mobile voice market has become quite mature we are also looking towards beyond
voice zones now. "I expect that through this forum's sessions, we would
certainly gain from experiences and researches of the fellow foreign
participants. We would like to utilize the work of participants while devising
our own strategies for improving data services and beyond," he said.

The event focused on the opportunities for delivery of 'more than voice
services' (such as m-payments, m-government, m-commerce) through mobile
platforms and explore the possibility of using mobile as 'triple play' in the
developing world. It called upon a serious dialog among participants by using
the extensive research already done by LIRNEasia in emerging areas of Asia and
Pakistan's experience of successful growth in the telecom sector.

Team V&D

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