Telecom sector has become one of the major industries in Pakistan, contributing to revenue and leading in foreign investment.
Telecom brands have become part of the daily lives of Pakistani people. The sector has been responsible for USF and ICT R&D Fund. Not only the telecom sector has shaped the way corporate social responsibility is perceived in Pakistan but it has also played a vital role when disaster has struck Pakistan.
Competition in the Telecom Sector: The top 3 mobile network operators have 75% of the market: Mobilink, Telenor and Ufone are under going a battle for winning over consumers over the last 5 years. Every survice probider is bringing new offers like low call rates, night offers, bulk sms packages etc. to attract the mobile users to subscribe to their network, which has made consumers get more than one SIMs.
Time to Change Approach: If we want to benefit from this initial growth and make it sustainable then we need to change our approach and step up our efforts to make better use of information and communication technologies. Even though the telecom sector of Pakistan has come a long way, it faces a number of challenges, such as: degradation in quality of network and customer service, aggressive price cutting and low ARPUs have made voice and text messaging a commodity, saturation of voice and not enough uptake on data services, over-emphasis and spending on advertisement rapid shifts in communication modes have impacted our culture in ways which are not always positive, imports of mobile phones has caused a strain on foreign reserves and digital divide in the country remains an issue. The private companies, schools and government has fallen short on supporting research, innovation and creativity which could truly make a difference in the lives of people. In other words, we have reached the first milestone where a significant number of our population can make calls and send text messages.Its surely the time to take this technology and create further value from it. Pakistani youth has grown up using mobile phones and we should show them the productive ways to use communication technologies. The sector should thus focus on two things: provide economic benefits and to support education for the masses.
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