Zouhair A. Khaliq, President and CEO of Mobilink claimed that the company being a market leader with 60 percent market share and having the largest coverage footprint in Pakistan, was poised to overtake the PTCL subscriber base this year.
The company was consolidating its operations and strengthening its market leadership by pumping in an additional infrastructure investment of US $275 million, which would pave the way for an increase in its customer base from 2 million users currently to 4 million subscribers by the end of 2004.
In a candid presentation to senior members of the media in Karachi recently, Khaliq, a qualified Chartered Accountant from the UK and who has served in several senior management positions at Motorola, Mobilink, Millicom, ICI Pakistan and Price Waterhouse; said, "By far we are well placed to cater to the growing demands of our customers in Pakistan and with additional investments we are determined to offer cost-effective connectivity to customers throughout Pakistan."
With a strong operational experience base that stems out from Egypt and which spreads to the rest of the world through direct and indirect partnerships, Mobilink as an Orascom Telecom Company has reiterated its commitment to the industry by flexing its financial muscle in Pakistan in the wake of the arrival of two additional cellular companies in the market who were issued licenses by the Pakistan Telecom Authority recently at US $291 million apiece.
With an operational market capitalisation of US $1.7 billion and world wide human resource strength of 10,000 employees, Mobilink - a venture of the Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited - started operations here in 1994 giving Pakistanis its first taste of GSM technology and in the process leading the way to become Pakistan's largest cellular company.
Khaliq eloquently informed the media personnel that as the market leader in the cellular sector, Mobilink has had a major role to play in the development of the cellular industry in Pakistan.
The company has helped grow the market when no other company was investing in this sector and brought coverage and mobility to people from all walks of life and in all parts of the country.
He opined that although the company offers connectivity to almost all parts of the country, still there are many such places where connection will always be a problem, for everyone.
With only 2.5 percent of Pakistanis having cellular connections and large parts of the country remaining un-served, the cellular industry in Pakistan is poised for a mammoth growth at the macro level.
Meanwhile, it is expected that the two new licensed companies Messrs. Telenor from Norway and the UAE's Al-Warid Telecom, will launch their products with aggressive marketing tactics and offer attractive packages for the growing demand for connections. However, it would easily take up to eight months or even a year before customers will be able to taste of what's to come from the new entrants.
Mobilink on the other hand is comfortably placed with a 60 percent market share but Khaliq cautions that there shall be no complacency and the company will strive to give maximised advantages to its customers with a complete range of improved and sophisticated services. It has aggressive plans and the ambition of bringing cost effective cellular connectively to ever-increasing numbers in all regions.
The company has assumed leadership in network coverage where it leads the field with over 1,000 cell sites throughout the country. Moving ahead in leaps and bounds and with an aggressive marketing campaign, the company plans to double this number by the end of 2004 with a promise to keep expanding to the farthest corner of the country.
The focus here has been two-pronged. Firstly, the company has committed to providing better coverage to existing areas through network improvement and additional infrastructure; and secondly, extend coverage to new areas. While the Mobilink network reaches over 250 cities today, this number is expected to go up to above 350, it was revealed.
The chief of Mobilink also acknowledged that in the recent past customers faced difficulty in getting connected and said adequate measures have been taken since to improve it to a level of complete satisfaction. Realising the fact that as coverage increases, the responsibility for customer service and improvement in the customer experience also increases, the cellular company has announced the opening of two of its state-of-the-art Customer Services centres in Karachi and Lahore.
At the same time the company has ambitious plans to support its network of service providers by investing heavily in a network of 12 customer service centres and 157 franchisees across Pakistan - and plans to almost double these numbers by the end of the year.
Khaliq was of the view that the winning formula for Mobilink has been its absolute advantage in GSM technology, its undisputed coverage throughout the country, especially on highways and motorways; customer service with a network of empowered franchisees and world-class call centres; and value benefits that includes competitive charges and attractive packages.
Mobilink also aims to move beyond providing cellular services. It is in the process of acquiring a long distance (LDI) license and aims to become a single point of contact that fulfills all the communication needs of its customer. The importance of anytime, anywhere, any medium communications can hardly be over-rated in today's world and the company aims to provide just such an experience to its subscribers where they can concentrate on the message and not have to worry about the medium.-PR
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