ISLAMABAD: Cellular teledensity in the country has reached 62.5pc from just 33pc in 2004 while almost 92pc of the land area including 1,000 cities, towns and villages are under the umbrella of cellular services.
From only 2000 cell sites to 30,417 in just six years, cellular services have reached to every nook and corner of the country.
According to official data available, from a mere 5 million cellular subscribers in 2004, cellular subscribers have jumped to 100 million in 2010.
Voice has been the focus of cellular operators since the inception of cellular mobile services in Pakistan but now the focus is shifting towards utilizing the huge potential lying in data and value added services.
Sources in Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told APP they were aware of the situation and constantly pursuing the government to announce 3G licensing policy which is believed to be the right ingredient required to boost up the data services scenario in Pakistan.
Cellular penetration in the country has reached 62.5pc at the end of January 2011 which means that every 6 out of 10 people in Pakistan owns cellular connection.
Cellular penetration had a topsy-curvy trend in the recent past due to continuous data cleaning process by the operators.
According to latest available statistics, there are currently 104 million cellular subscribers in Pakistan at the end of January, 2011 as compared to 99.2 million at the end of June 2010, showing a net increase of 4.8 million subscribers over the last seven months.
Almost all of the cellular mobile operators have contributed in this subscriber addition and managed to maintain positive growth trend during the last two quarters.
Official figures revealed that cellular revenues stood at Rs 126.5 billion during the first two quarters (Jul-Dec 10) of FY 2010-11.
Revenues have been on the rise since the start of year 2010, however, there was a dip in the quarter of Jul-Sep 2010 due to huge loss in revenue reported by two mobile companies.
It is pertinent to mention here that all cellular mobile operators have collectively erected 30,169 cell sites by the end of Dec 2010 as compared to 30,126 by the end of June 2010.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011
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