The march is on for mobile broadband. As of September 2017, subscriptions had reached almost 46 million, a healthy addition of roughly 1.5 million over the previous month, according to latest sector data released by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA). Roughly 85 percent of those subscriptions are on 3G networks and the remaining 15 percent are on 4G.
The pace of subscription growth has slowed in recent quarters. In the Jul-Sep period, about 3.7 million subscribers were added – 2.2 million on 3G and 1.4 million 4G. The 3G subscriptions grew 6 percent since June to reach 39 million in September. There is slowdown in 3G subscription growth, which averaged an addition of about a million new subscriptions per month back in 2016.
The low-base niche that is 4G is growing considerably, though. Crossing 7 million subs, 4G grew 26 percent in the Jul-Sep quarter compared to the Apr-Jun period.
The slowdown in 3G subs is a bit concerning. As per the PTA, the tele-density for mobile broadband (3G and 4G) stood at 21.6 percent as of September 2017. To cater the next 40 million 3G users, operators will need to expand their service coverage beyond the dense urban areas. That will require them having more faith in this market to invest on further spectrum acquisition and network rollouts. That will in turn require the telecoms authorities to look at undesirable aspects of pricing and taxation regime in the country.
The market for mobile broadband has been blooming in recent years (see the chart, sourced from PTA), thanks to inadequacies on the fixed broadband (DSL) network. At best, it will take many years of an amazing amount of hard work before PTCL, the fixed-line behemoth, can adequately fix its fixed access network and bring the quality of its DSL line to a level where customers are able to seamlessly consume data, video and voice (triple play) on the same line.
Until and unless fixed broadband takes its rightful place as the primary Internet connection at a vast majority of Pakistani households, the usage case for mobile broadband would continue to be more than just connectivity on-the-go.
On a side note, it is good to see that the PTA’s website has had a makeover. It’s a much more dynamic interface now, with information on PTA’s mandate and services, graphics on sector statistics, and a menu of consumer support function prominently placed. But there needs to be more on the data menu. Data on ICT usage – e.g., how individuals, businesses and government are interacting with technology – needs to be collected, disseminated and analyzed. Those insights can better inform development policymaking.
Comments
Comments are closed.