Mobile phone users cross 6 million mark

The number of mobile phone users has gone up to over 6 million as compared with fixed phones which stood at more than 4 million in the country.
According to documents made available by telecom watchdog agency Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), mobile phone connections tele-density has also increased to 4.12 percent as compared with fixed line at 3 percent.
Two of four mobile phone service providers have crossed one million mark. Mobilink has so far provided 3.8 million connections, followed by state-owned Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (PMCL) commonly known as Ufone which has over 1.3 million connections. Instaphone has so far provided 0.544 million connections and Paktel 0.488 million connections.
The number of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) fixed connections subscribers stood at 4.46 million, registering a tele-density of roughly 3 percent up to June this year.
According to the figures, up to August 2004, cellular connections stood at 6.138 million in whole country as compared with 3.394 million connections in December 2003.
In the year 2004, the growth of cellular connections witnessed a boom which is evident from the highest number of new connections to 2.744 million subscribers.
In 2005, two new mobile phone operators, Warid and Telenor, are scheduled to launch their services in the country. In addition, several long distance international and local loop operators will launch their services to compete with the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).
Presently, the telecom companies enjoy the status of Significant Market Powers (SMP) and the watchdog agency has barred telecom operators who enjoy the status of SMP from reducing tariffs and indulging in other prejudicial practices without its prior approval.
So far, the PTA has accorded SMP status to PTCL and Special Communication Organisation (SCO) in landline telephone and Mobilink in mobile telephony.
The mobile operators enjoying the status of SMP have to fulfil certain obligations, including tariff regulation, publication of the reference interconnect offer (RIO), carrier pre-selection, accounting separation and unbundling of services.
The PTA took such decision after seeking comments from various stakeholders and in line with the telecom deregulation policy to create a fair and competitive environment and to restrain dominant operators from abusing their position through anti-competitive practices.