Telecom investment slide continues

Telecom investment in the country is on a continuous decline, remaining at $634.9 million during 2016-17 compared to $722.3 million in 2015-16, a decline of over $87 million, revealed Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Telecom investment stood $1.815 billion in 2013-14 and $1.001 billion in 2014-15, it added.
The country attracted $486.1 million investment from cellular mobile companies in 2016-17 against $659.4 million during the same period of previous year, registering a decrease of over $173 million. Long Distance International (LDI) attracted invested $11.3 million in 2016-17 compared to $8.9 million in 2015-16 and fixed line $137.5 million in 2016-17 compared to $54 million during the same period of last year.
Net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) remained minus $91 million during 2016-17, as inflow in the telecom sector remained $116.4 million and outflow $207.4 million. The telecom sector's total revenues for fiscal year 2016-17 stood at Rs 467.64 billion, slightly up from Rs 457.024 billion reported during the previous year, revealed the PTA annual report of 2016-17. Revenue from cellular operators stood at Rs 369.11 billion against Rs 345.537 billion a year ago.
At the end of fiscal year 2016-17, total telecom contribution to the national exchequer remained at Rs 161.43 billion against Rs 160.18 billion during the same period of previous year, but this contribution was Rs 235.76 billion during 2013-14.
By the end of March 2017, 3G cellular mobile signal covered more than 70 percent of the population in Pakistan. Similarly, 4G LTE services are accessible to more than 30 percent of the population. Now, Pakistan has set its eyes on launching the 5G technology by 2020 and preparations have started to test 5G cellular connectivity that will be the first of such test in the South Asia.
According to the report, it is estimated that the size of Pakistan E-Commerce market falls between $60-100 million and expected to grow up to $1 billion by 2020. Pakistan is generally a cash driven economy as the number of debit/credit card holders is small and m-wallet accounts are also very low due to which more than 95 percent of the ecommerce transactions are done by cash on delivery system.
Pakistan is also making good progress regarding business to business (B2B) front as the software industry aims to achieve the goal of $5 billion export mark by the year 2020. Furthermore, the IT industry has various medium-sized IT firms earning nearly $530 million, mainly in software development and service outsourcing. However, Pakistan's share in the global IT sales is just $2.8 billion out of the global $3.2 trillion global market.
The consumers buying trend in Pakistan is not just limited to buying products online, there are also websites for cars, property and travel and this shows that the consumers in Pakistan are using internet to experience a wide range of economic activities. Some of local portals have emerged as leading online businesses in Pakistan. The auto portal PakWheels has emerged as the leading online car buying and selling website in Pakistan. It has reached a listing of over 160,000 cars and over 24,000 motorcycles and is accessed by more than 100,000 visitors every day. Zameen.com is the leading online real estate database that connects real estate dealers, developers, estate agencies with general buyers, sellers and renters in Pakistan.