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WLL shows 100pc growth,
reaches all major parts
PTCL covers over 11,500 cities, towns, villages
Islamabad—The best suited service for rural and congested areas,
Wireless Local Loop (WLL) is growing at a rate of about 100 per cent
per annum with quarterly addition of around 0.14 million subscriber
on an average. The tele-density of this wireless service has now
reached 1.4 per cent and it is expected that by the mid 2009 the WLL
operators will be able to provide coverage in all major areas of the
country. According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)
here Sunday, a consistent but lower rise in international traffic
has been witnessed on WLL networks, which is mainly attributed to
its low tariffs compared to fixed-line and cellular mobile services.
International outgoing traffic during the quarter ending December
2007 has increased by about 30 percent when compared with last year
of the same period.
Similarly, during the same period last year total 7.9 million
minutes were generated for international traffic by four WLL
operators while during second quarter of this year all these four
operators have generated 13.3 million international outgoing
minutes. Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is
leading in terms of traffic on WLL in Pakistan, which has about 54
per cent market share of total traffic of WLL segment. Two major
players, PTCL and Telecard have lost market share in WLL traffic in
quarter ending December 2007 when compared with the same quarter of
the last year.
PTCL share came down to 54 per cent from 57 percent while Telecard
share in total traffic has come down to 22 per cent from 30 per
cent. WorldCall has gained 100 per cent and its share reached to 22
per cent at the end of 2007 compared to the same quarter last year.
PTCL, the incumbent operator in fixed line in Pakistan has also
emerged as market leader with 57 per cent market share followed by
Telecard and Worldcall with 19.6 per cent and 20.2 per cent market
share at the end of December 2007.
Great Bear International share is reported to be 3 per cent, while
Wateen Telecom share is 0.2 per cent, which started their services
during the quarter. PTCL has gained over 1 per cent market share
compared to the same quarter of last year while Telecard added over
5 per cent market share during this period. Great Bear International
though a smaller shareholder in WLL market but its share is
increasing due to its quality of service as it reached to 3 per cent
as compared to 2 per cent in December 2006.
It is believed that fixed-line tele-density will recover with WLL
taking off due to its cost effectiveness and in particular this
technology suits for the hilly areas and far-flung regions in the
country. The estimated WLL per line cost is around US$ 100-150 in
comparison to wire line cost which still remains to be more than US$
250-350 per line. PTCL has already covered over 11,500
cities/towns/villages while other major operators like Worldcall,
Telecard and Greatbear are increasing their coverage too.
Punjab is leading in terms of WLL subscribers, having 52 per cent
(1.1 million) of total subscribers as compared to 39 percent last
year same quarter followed by province of Sindh which has currently
724,745 subscribers. The province of Balochistan has 78,941
subscribers only. However, the growth of WLL subscribers is 15
percent in the province.—APP
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