Mobile Phones Industry in Pakistan

Less than one out of five people of the developed world and an even smaller, little percentage of people across the world have broadband access today. Existing technologies such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), cable, and fixed wireless are overwhelmed by expensive installs, problems with loop lengths, upstream upgrade issues, line-of-sight restrictions, and poor scalability.

WiMAX is the next stage to a broadband as well as a wireless world, extending broadband wireless access to new locations and over longer distances, as well as considerably reducing the cost of bringing broadband to new areas. WiMAX technology offers greater range and bandwidth than the other available or forthcoming broadband wireless technologies such as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) and Ultra-wideband (UWB) family of standards. It provides a wireless alternative to wired backhaul and last mile deployments that use Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOGS1S) cable modems, Digital Subscriber Line technologies (DSL), T-carrier and E-carrier (Tx/Ex) systems, and Optical Carrier Level (OC-x) technologies. (Jiffy Networks, 2006)

The general initiative of metropolitan area wireless networking, as envisioned with 802.16, begins with what is called fixed wireless. A backbone of base stations is connected to a public network, and each base station carries hundreds of fixed subscriber stations, which can be both public hot spots and fire-walled enterprise networks. Later in the development cycle of 802.16e, WiMAX is expected to encourage mobile wireless technology specifically wireless transmissions directly to mobile end users, This will be similar in function to the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and the one times Radio Transmission Technology (RTT) offered by mobile phone companies.

New organizations as well as individuals are increasingly adopting broadband, whereas those already using broadband are becoming dependent on it and are demanding better services with added benefits. To support this exceptional new demand, WiMAX has emerged as a feasible solution, because of its inherent features that holds great promise for the future of wireless communications. (Teri Robinson, 2005)

There has been a lot of excitement about WiMAX and the impact that this standards based wireless network technology will have on the broadband access market. All this hype has generated great expectations, and the industry has responded with exceptional aggression and commitment toward taking broadband to the next level with WMAX.

How WiMAX Works:

The backhaul of the WiMAX is based on the typical connection to the public wireless networks by using optical fibre, microwave link, cable or any other high speed connectivity. In few cases such as mesh networks, Point-to-Multi-Point (PMP) connectivity is also used as a backhaul. Ideally, WiMAX should use Point-to-Point antennas as a backhaul to join subscriber sites to each other and to base stations across long distance.

A base station serves subscriber stations using Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) or LOS Point-to-Multi-Point connectivity; and this connection is referred to as the last mile communication. Ideally, WiMAX should use NLOS Point-to-Multi-Point antennas to connect residential or business subscribers to the Base Station (BS). A Subscriber Station typically serves a building using wired or wireless LAN. (Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, June 2004)

Telecom Futures - an initiative of Telenor Pakistan with Nokia-Siemens and TEVTA (Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority, Punjab) has announced a new lab in Lahore. This 2-year telecom diploma program was launched in 2006 and is running at Government Polytechnic Institute Attock and the Government Institute of Technology DG Khan. This is a good example of industry-government-academia collaboration to solve the talent gap problem and to provide skills in areas where there is a huge demand for local training.

Some background from Telenor website:

Telenor Pakistan and its industry partners, Nokia and Siemens, realize that vocational training institutes are building human capital from the lower socioeconomic classes and there is a huge opportunity to help them get their fair share from the Telecom Promise. The Telecom Futures program aims at building on TEVTA’s Higher National Diploma in Telecom by aligning curriculum with industry expectations, providing advanced trainings and rewards to teachers, sharing specialized equipment with students, and offering internships or jobs to suitable diploma holders. The target is to create a scalable model for large-scale implementation, an education and training model that improves the level of human resource created locally, and increases the employability of vocational diploma holders.

The China Mobile has sought the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) consent to swap the Paktel mobile company name as CM-Pak, the name under which the company intends to operate. The China Mobile that took over Paktel from Millicom International after paying dues has now formally requested the regulator for change of Paktel’s name. Officials from PTA have confirmed that it was approached by the China Mobile with the application that it wanted to operate under the name of CM-Pak, but added no decision has been taken so far.

China Mobile has pumped in $700 million in the Pakistan telecommunication sector since taking over the management control of Paktel. The company will invest $2 billion in the next three years (till 2009) to expand its network, an official of the Paktel..

According to China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou, the company plans to spend USD400 million this year to expand its network in Pakistan. This was reported by Telegeography. China Mobile entered the Pakistan mobile market earlier this year when it acquired an 89% stake in Paktel for USD284 million, its first acquisition beyond China and Hong Kong. Wang said that the company had invested USD460 million in Paktel to date, and that China Mobile was hoping to gain experience from the venture that it could apply to further overseas expansion in the future.

According to TeleGeography’s database, at the end of 2006 Warid claimed a 15.7% share of the country’s wireless market, while Paktel had 2.7% of users. Orascom Telecom-owned Mobilink was the market leader with 22.5 million customers and 46.5% market share, ahead of Ufone with 20.9%.

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