Guest Post: Telecom Action in Pakistan

Posted on July 7, 2006
Filed Under >Babar Bhatti, Economy & Development, Science and Technology
9 Comments
Total Views: 23334

By Babar Bhatti

Recently the telecom sector in Pakistan has attracted a lot of attention from international investors – and for the right reasons: it is one of the fastest growing sector with a huge potential market.

Looking at the billboards and media advertisements of mobile phones in Pakistan it is hard to believe that until a few years ago there was no one else except for a PTCL monopoly. The government seems determined to make use of this opportunity to attract foreign investment. For example, The International Herald Tribune recently reported:

Overseas investment in Pakistan’s telecommunications industry is expected to hold at $1 billion a year until at least 2009, said Shahzada Alam Malik, head of market regulator Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. As many as 50 percent of Pakistan’s 160 million people are expected to use telephones by that time, up from 23 percent in March this year and 4.3 percent in 2003, he said… Pakistan, South Asia’s fastest growing telecommunications market, added as many as 2.6 million cellular users in April, according to a report by the regulator released that month.

The increasing competition should theoretically be good for the Pakistani consumers as well, but only if the regulatory framework does what it is supposed to do. There remains some concern from the consumers about service and rates. The question is: Is Pakistan Telecommunication Authority doing a good job of looking out for the consumers in Pakistan?

Babar Bhatti is a Telecom professional based in Dallas, Texas. See more at Babar’s blog: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan.

9 responses to “Guest Post: Telecom Action in Pakistan”

  1. ye joshua kon hay bhai idher?

    May i ask a simple question? Why can’t we have good broadband offerings in Pakistan? we are still dependant on 256kbps dsl while in India they offer muchfaster net in cheaper rates. Rs.500 for DSL in delhi.

  2. Babar says:

    For more about investment in Pakistan’s mobile market see my post:
    http://telecompk.wordpress.com/2006/11/03/investin g-in-mobile-phone-companies-in-pakistan/

    Joshua – I hope this answers your question.

  3. sabizak says:

    You are right Mr. Siraj, but the point is the kind of music that the Indians produce they should indeed be clamouring for plagiarizing Pakistani songs all the time, at least we will get to hear SOME decent music in their movie that way.
    And i dont quite see your point about them giving credit wherecredit is due? First they rip off n artist’s intellectual property rights and then if someone somewhere has the decency to acknowledge its original source, we should jump up and cheer wildly for their ‘fairness’

  4. Naveed Siraj says:

    Sabizak – Yes, once you have made it to bollywood, you would be treated as a commercial success….this is a recent phenomenon in which Ali Zafar, Jal/Atif Aslam and Strings have benefitted commercially

    for most Pakistani artists who have got their work stolen and plagiarized and have not got any credit for it either for lack of flamboyance a’la Ali Zafar & Atif Aslam, the history of plagiarism is documented at http://www.itwofs.com/hindi-opn.html

    credit ofcourse to indian connoisseur of music to give credit where credit is due

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