Mobile users reach 129.6m as teledensity crosses 75 per cent 
KARACHI: Teledensity in Pakistan including fixed, WLL and mobile phone has reached all-time high level of 75.77 percent while total mobile service subscribers have reached 129.6 million across the country by the end of September 2013, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) revealed on Wednesday.
The teledensity is defined as the number of customers per 100 people. Hence it is roughly said that 75.77 percent of the population own and avail telephony services through different technologies.
Cellular teledensity alone in Pakistan revitalised again after witnessing hitch in the first half of 2013 due to corrective measures against the illegal and unregistered SIMs as cellular teledensity reached 72.27, representing 3.0 percent growth as against the 70 percent mark by end of May 2013, taking the total number of mobile service users to 129.6 million across the country including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas.
It is worth mentioning here that cellular teledensity remained on a sluggish trajectory during this year as millions of illegal SIMs registrations have been cancelled by telecom operators on the orders of government, also revision in SIMs selling mechanism and limitation of only five SIMs on one Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) suppressed growth of cellular subscribers.
However, effective marketing campaigns by the operators stimulating subscriptions of cellular mobile phone companies in urban and rural areas of the country attracted 4.59 million new users to join five telecom operators’ subscribers’ base during the four months (June to September) period of 2013.
Meanwhile, 270,000 new broadband subscribers have been added in broadband family of the country during four months (May to August) 2013 period, taking the total broadband subscribers base to 2.88 million by the end of August 2013 as compared to 2.61 million at the end of April 2013.
Annual fixed local loop teledensity stood at 1.6 percent and annual wireless local loop teledensity settled at 1.9 percent at the end of September.
In keeping view of the upcoming next generation technologies auction, industry experts forecast glowing future of telecom sector of the country saying that it might well cross the 90 percent mark by the end of next year as the fastest communication and without distortion voice calls due to 3G technologies will uplift the country’s cellular teledensity.
After the month of May 2013, when PTA last updated the cellular operators statistics, Zong outshined all other operators in the consumer grabbing race with inclusion of 2.07 million new users during the four months (June to September), resultantly, the total subscriber base of Zong reached 22.27 million by the end of September 2013.
Ufone, running vibrant advertising campaigns attracted 930,000 new users during the said period while its total users base stood at 24.80 million by the end of September 2013.
Telenor managed to sell 640,000 new connections during the period under review, consequently its total subscribers’ base reached 32.34 million by the end of September 2013.
Mobilink adding 610,000 new users in four months remained the market leader with 37.36 million users by the end of the said month.
Warid stayed last as it included 290,000 users to its total subscribers’ base of 12.79 million till the end of September 2013.