Cellular subscribers cross 132 million mark

KARACHI: The total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the country crossed 132 million at the end of November 2013 – the latest month for which data is publicly available, according to the statistics released on Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) website. The overall cellular mobile teledensity reached 73.5% at the end of November, increasing by more than one percentage point from 72.3% as of September 2013 – the last time PTA published telecom statistics. The five telecom operators combined added 1.9 million new users in the first two months of the fourth quarter of calendar year 2013. The industry’s total subscriber base reached 132.3 million at the end of November, up from 130.4 million at the end of September. The new additions to the industry didn’t change the market position of any of the five telecom operators. However, Telenor Pakistan and China Mobile Pakistan (Zong), in terms of net addition, led the industry in the first two months of the last quarter of 2013. Telenor added 674,106 new subscriptions to its network that reached 33 million at the end of November while Zong sold 626,802 new connections to reach 23.7 million subscribers. photo 27_zpsb8dcddae.jpg Similarly, Mobilink added 352,866 new subscriptions to its network in October and November to finish at 37.7 million users. Meanwhile, Ufone added 201,335 new subscribers to its network to finish at 25 million users. The industry added these new subscriptions at a rate of more than 30,000 connections a day during October and November. However, this rate is likely to slow down in December and onwards as all the operators are bound to sell new connections through the biometric verification system. PTA had directed all mobile operators to complete the deployment of biometric devices at their Customer Support Centres and franchises in Karachi by November 30 and all over the country by December 20, which they already did. Published in The Express Tribune, February 8th, 2014.