During the fiscal year 2007 a record of 28.7 million new subscribers added to the growing customer base of Pakistan’s cellular telephone industry, taking the total cellular subscribers to 63 million in the country.

This means that there are, on an average, 40 cellular users for every 100 people in Pakistan. This testifies to the country’s improving economic conditions and expanding infrastructure growth.

The entry of China Mobile through the acquisition of Paktel would go a long way in the telecom infrastructure development in the country. China Mobile plans to invest $2 billion in Paktel, which would take its share from the existing 2 percent to around 20 percent by 2010, is likely to add fuel to the current mobile telecommunication battle. The recent entry of SingTel by buying 30 percent equity stake in Warid Telecom would not only bring technical synergies to Warid but also help intensify the price and service competition among the cellular companies.

Four years ago, when the telecom sector was deregulated, Pakistan’s teledensity was only 4.3 percent, which now stands at 45.1 percent. This report casts a glance at the unprecedented growth of the cellular sector in (July-June) fiscal year 2007 and envisages the future growth prospects of this sector.

The number of cellular users grew by a massive 83 percent to 63 million in the country, making Pakistan one of the world’s fastest growing telecom markets. Neighbouring country India also had a similar growth phenomenon as it witnessed 73 percent growth in cellular subscribers over the year.

After the arrival of Warid and Telenor, a strong growth and a stressful competetion has been seen in the telecom industry. Telenor and Warid, registered 200 percent and 118 percent growth in their subscriber base in FY07, respectively. They were followed by Ufone and Mobilink with 87 percent and 54 percent growth, respectively. On the other hand, the other two service providers Paktel and Interphone remained laggard.

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