Telecom Report for First Half 2015

The first half of 2015 for the telecom industry in Pakistan was full of challenges, the sector particularly faced some tuff situations. Over all the whole industry faced decline in revenues and a slow growth rate is observed, mainly due to nationwide biometric verification drive. The operators also had to make the sales channels limited which hampered the sales of new connections, causing a decline in new subscriptions and revenues alike. The bright side of year 2015 start was the availability of high speed internet for the end users, at an affordable rate. Warid was the last one to launch its LTE services on December, 26th 2015 while Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone and Zone launched their 3G and 4G services. 

The PTA issued a report recently which explains the growth rate (till April 2015) amongst telecom operator’s 3G/4G LTE customer base. Warid gained the highest LTE customer base in Pakistan, securing a total of 79,213 customers and Zong at second secured 61,964 4G customers. Mobilink 3G achieved 3,086,956, Telenor 3,857,265 Ufone 2,540,921 and Zong achieved 3,408,508 3G customers in Pakistan. The PTA report on consumer complaints shows that Warid had the least consumer complaints in the industry, demonstrating the high standards of customer services and the most satisfied customer base. 

BMI Research England issued a report in June 2015 on Warid sharing views as “A stronger commitment to invest in infrastructure and the roll-out of LTE services (which) indicates that Warid Telecom will be a more proactive contributor to the development of Pakistan’s mobile sector than previously expected . A key downside risk is that its above-average ARPUs would be diluted by focusing on lower-value rural areas. 

Abu Dhabi Group-owned Warid Telecom aims to invest up to USD500mn in expanding and enhancing its mobile infrastructure over the next five years. The ambitious plans – which follow the renewal of Warid’s managed services partnership with Ericsson for a further five years – enable us to adopt a more bullish view of the company’s role in the market.” 

Warid came back with a bang and is now at the forefront in the telecommunications industry in Pakistan. With its LTE launch in Dec’2014 it has completely revolutionized the technological advancement in Pakistan, making it a unique example in the world and first in Pakistan to directly transform from 2G to LTE technology. There are several other smart add ons company started with, such as the data sharing plans, which are the first of kind in Pakistan. It also launched LTE Wingle and Mi-Fi devices, bringing the LTE revolution to a new level. 

There are some other key industry breaks that the operator has made providing the first of its kind services in Pakistan such as: balance share, whereby balance can be requested for and transferred regardless of the type of connection (prepaid or postpaid). The provision of such services has brought about an extremely positive change in customer convenience and one step operation. The company has also launched a resourceful mobile app with the name of MY WARID which features a lot of convenient factors. Last year, in the same month of Ramadan Warid also launched its Mobile Banking brand with the name of Mobile Paisa which is offering safe and reliable mobile banking experience to Warid subscribers at their fingertips with the mobile wallet. Warid’s performance has remained unmatched within the first half of 2015.  Warid is Pakistan’s top 4G LTE operator, beating cash-rich China Mobiles Zong.

Warid has achieved 100,000+ LTE customers in less than 6 months while it has gained the largest number of post-paid users in the industry, roughly 0.7 million postpaid users. Having successfully transformed itself from 2G to LTE technology, Warid ended first half of 2015 by being at the top in the technological race, exceeding customers’ and industry’s expectations alike.