Saarc's Mobile Revolution

The communications industry in Saarc is growing thanks to the mobile revolution. India contributes the maximum with 811.59 mn connections followed by Pakistan which has just achieved its 100 mn landmark. On the other hand, Bangladesh is at 72.96 mn, Sri Lanka at 17.3 mn, Afghanistan at 12.5 mn, and Nepal at 10.3 mn. Maldives and Bhutan have small contributions of 0.5 and 0.4 mn, respectively.

Afghanistan

The telecommunications development activities began in the country after the 'Bonn Agreement' in 2002. At that point of time, telecom infrastructure was not in good shape. It was a daunting task to restore the telecom infrastructure and services Presently, Afghanistan has a teledensity of 50%.

The growth which the country saw after the crippling of telecommunications industry is quite phenomenal. At present there are 5 cellular operators running at national level out of which 4 provide services on GSM platform while 1 operator provides services on CDMA. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of Afghanistan (ATRA) has even framed Telecommunications Development Fund which is financed by 2.5% of gross income of the telecom operators in the country, to provide telecommunications services in rural areas.

Mobile services was first established by Afghan Wireless, and the company boasts of being the only one to cover the entire country with its network. Recently another mobile operator Roshan took the initiative and joined hands with Lotus Solutions and Services to reach extremely rural and remote areas of the country. The only fixed phone operator Afghan Telecom provides DSL internet services starting from 128 Kbps to 1 Mbps, and is even providing services in wireless internet because of which it holds the highest number of internet subscribers. Almost all banks are dependent on Afghan Telecom for internet services.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a population of about 16.5 crore and had a mobile population of 7.2 crore in FY11. The country has 6 operators in mobile services-Grameenphone (GP), Orascom Telecom Bangladesh (Banglalink), Robi Axiata (Rob), Airtel Bangladesh, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom (CityCell) and Teletalk Bangladesh.

Grameenphone stands at top with the largest number of subscribers touching 31 mn lines followed by Banglalink which is at 20 mn as of march 2011. Grameenphone boasts of being the largest mobile operator not just in terms of subscriber base but even in revenue and coverage. Operating a digital mobile telecommunications network based on GSM standard, it serves both rural and urban customers in Bangladesh. The company's network covered 99% of the population and about 89% of the total land area as on December 2010. The company has 13,000 base stations and 7,200 operational sites in the country. The company has recorded a revenue growth of 14% in 2010 from the voice and handset services as well as achieved a remarkable growth of 64% from the data services compared to 2009.

Bhutan

A landlocked state in South Asia, Bhutan is among the world's smallest economies with GDP growth rate of 6.8% which is impressive and even telecom industry is not untouched by it. The mobile subscription rate in Bhutan grew by 10% in FY11 as compared to FY10. The total number of cellular subscribers has reached 4 lakh.

Fixed phone has shown flat growth, and has grown by 1% since the number of connections increased to 26,621 as compared to 26,226 in FY10. Internet services have grown by 73% taking internet subscribers to 16,846 in FY11 as compared to 9,697 in FY10.

On the operator front, the country has 2 large players-Bhutan Telecom and Tashi Infocomm. Bhutan Telecom is the major service provider with maximum market share and is the only company which provides fixed phone service in the state. The company provides internet services in 40 districts of the country and is in the process of expanding its coverage. The company is offering internet bandwidth between 256 Kbps and 2 Mbps. Recently, the company has installed BTS at Silambi (Sekhar) to boost up its network coverage.

Tashi Infocomm, the other operator has an edge over Bhutan Telecom since it has more number of subscribers in 2.5G/3G services. The company provides services in 13 districts. Apart from voice services, the focus is on SMS based services and value added services like CRBT, push mail, internet browsing, and MMS. In mobile services, the company has acquired a customer base of 84,000 in just 2 years of its commencement of services.

Maldives

Maldives is an island country and is interspersed with 1,190 small islands out of which only 194 are colonized. It does not lag behind in the telecom space with any other developing nation. The country has more number of subscriptions than its total population thereby indicating that teledensity is more than 100%. The country has a total mobile subscriber base of 501,805 as on January 2011. The launch of 'one service, one tariff' concept by the Communication Authority of Maldives has played a significant role in amalgamating all isolated islands of the Maldives.

The country has 2 operators-Dhiraagu also known as Dhivehi Raajjeygi Gulhun and Wataniya Telecom. Dhiraagu is 48% owned by the Maldivian government and 52% by Cable&Wireless. It is the leading provider and has 78% market share. The company has over 328,000 subscribers. To increase the internet bandwidth, the company has signed $21.7 mn contract with NEC to formulate a fiber optic submarine cable network system connecting North to South of the Maldives. The plan is to lay 1,017 km long fiber optic submarine cable which will significantly upgrade the quality of service and will also facilitate e-health, telemedicine, e-government, and many such online services in the country. The company has even invested $70 mn for upgradation of the entire broadband infrastructure as the rising economic growth rate is leading to an intense pressure for a seamless internet connectivity.

Wataniya Telecom is the other operator which provides broadband and 3G services in the Maldives. It was the first company to launch 3.5 HSDPA network in the country in 2008. Wataniya Maldives has made further strategic advances this year, pressing ahead with its strategy to serve the needs of both the local population as well as the demands of the many tourists who visit this island nation every year. The company's strategy is to increase its coverage of leading tourist resorts, with additional resorts now 'on air' and connected to Wataniya's network. The strength, quality and capability of its network have also continued to improve in 2011

Wataniya Maldives' 3G optimization program has continued its rollout efforts to expand coverage in key resorts, extending the speed and reliability of 3G connectivity to international guests and local employees. These new network enhancements have also enabled Wataniya Maldives to augment its service offering, with particular focus being placed this year on popular expansion of broadband services across the country.

The Maldives has done well on mobile but has a lot to do on internet as only 25% of country have access to internet and even internet penetration is low. The country lacks broadband penetration because of its geographical structure being water locked and vulnerable to natural disasters like tsunami. Both the operators are trying their best to curb this problem.

Nepal

About half of the population in this Saarc region lives below the international poverty line however the telecom space has grown comparatively well. The mobile subscription increased by 59% in FY11 with total number of subscribers reaching 10.36 mn with the majority being GSM subscribers. In Nepal, number of fixed phone subscribers reached 0.843 mn registering a growth of 2%.

The combined teledensity has reached 41.51% and mobile penetration stands at 36.27%. On the other hand, internet growth was highest in Saarc at 221%. The total number of subscribers reached 2,426,357 in FY11 compared to 755,437 in FY10 with majority of subscribers coming from GPRS.

On the operator front, the country has 6 major players-NDCL, UTL, SNPL, STM, NSTPL, and SMART. NDCL leads the group with major slice of the subscriber cake. NDCL holds the major market share with 6,346,808 users in the telecom market and has the tag of the only operator providing CDMA 1x and ADSL services in the country. SNPL leads in terms of GPRS users.

SNPL now known as Ncell is the first private operator of cellular services in Nepal. The company has launched 3G services in the Mount Everest region and has established the world's highest 3G base station at an altitude of 5,200 m. The company plans to provide mobile coverage to about 90% of the Nepalese by the end of 2011.

Pakistan

Pakistan was the world's 3rd fastest growing telecom market in 2008. and the country's telecom infrastructure is upgrading rapidly with the foreign as well as domestic investments. The total number of mobile subscribers in Pakistan stood at about 104 mn in FY11.

The country owned PTCL leads the telecom market share in the country with the largest number of subscribers at 40 mn. The company also has the largest copper infrastructure in almost every city, town, and villages of the country and has about 3 mn fixedline phones across the country. The company is offering EV-DO services in about 18 cities with a speed of 3.1 Mbps. The company also provides CDMA 1X services across 1,000 destinations in Pakistan. Recently the company introduced innovative 3G EV-DO Wi-Fi cloud which is a combination of the best of 2 available technologies- 3G and EVDO, which is a boon to users looking for Wi-Fi connectivity on the move.

Mobilink with more than 31.6 mn subscribers is the leading cellular and BlackBerry service provider of Pakistan and focuses on integrated and innovative technology and abundant VAS. The company has no match in terms of countrywide network and international roaming in 140 countries.

Other operator PTML, also known as Ufone, Started its operations in january 2001 has focused more on providing affordable services without compromising on services, it has a network coverage in 10,000 locations and gained a subscriber base of over 20 mn in less than a decade.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has witnessed a well-sustained economic growth in the past few years and so has the telecom industry in this Saarc region. Mobile subscribers in FY11 increased by 23% and the total base stands at 17.4 mn which makes the majority of the population connected with mobile services. The fixedline numbers increased by 4% with total number of fixed phones reaching 36 lakh.

There are 5 operators providing mobile telephony service. These include Hutchinson Lanka, Mobitel, Dialog Axiata, Etisalat Lanka and Bharti Airtel Lanka. Hutchinson provides GSM prepaid services and even provides value added services like hello tunes, news alerts, live scores etc.

Mobitel is a national mobile service provider. After its acquisition by Sri Lanka telecom, it became the first mobile operator to launch 3.5G HSPA services in South Asia.

On the internet front, the number of subscribers has shot up to 574,000 with a 3-digit growth of 129% compared to FY10. This indicates that there is a broadband boom in the country with thousands of subscribers being added per day. With more investments coming in Sri Lanka, the telecom industry will only see a rapid growth in all spectrum of services.

Saarc countries have done well on mobile services and evidently a good growth in terms of internet and broadband is visible. It seems the Saarc countries have a long way to go in terms of broadband connectivity which will help them in economic development. So the commitment of Saarc nations should be to replicate the mobile success story in broadband.

Rimit Singh
rimits@cybermedia.co.in