“The multiple SIM ownership stands at 23 per cent among Pakistani customers in Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) category,” shows a recent report by LIRNEasia, a research centre of IT and Telecom. This data shows that the number of actual subscribers is likely to be 20 per cent lower than the reported numbers.
PTA in October last had declared that the number of cell phone users in the country stood at 100.7 million, however, the recent survey has created doubts about the actual strength of these subscribers as well as the authenticity of the PTA’s mechanism of maintaining the data.
According to the PTA, it does not maintain the record of mobile phone subscribers.
The mobile penetration in the country stands at 60.4 per cent with a growth of 5.1 per cent this year. As the PTA is not maintaining the record of “inactive subscribers”, it is difficult to know the `actual` number of cell-phone users in the country, an official of a telecom operator said.
“Since a large number of subscribers have more than one SIM, their actual number in Pakistan is not more than 60 to 65 million,” he said.
In terms of keeping more SIMs by users, Pakistan is followed by Philippine and Sir Lanka where 19 and 16 percent of the cellular phone users have more than one SIM, the Lirneasia report said. Thailand, Bangladesh and India have stood at 13 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent respectively in the trend at BOP level, it added.
According to it, a cellular operator can issue 10 SIMs to a subscriber having a computerized CNIC, a telecom market expert said and added while on the other hand, the customer ARPU (average revenue per user) looks deflated when the same revenue is divided by a larger customer base (100 million), said a telecom analyst.
“This practice has direct impact on PTA`s own efforts to attract further investment in the form of 3G licences. Showing inflated subscribers` base and low ARPU will in fact discourage investors,” he said.
According to the PTA spokesman, there are no international norms to record multiple SIMs being used by the users, therefore, the PTA records no such data. He said 100.7 million subscribers are based on the actual data received from the cellular operators.
He further says since the implementation of active subscriber definition, the PTA believes all figures reported by the operators are based strictly on that.
However, analysts disprove this standpoint casting doubts on the PTA’s figures.
“If actual number of SIMs are announced the value of operators will come down accordingly and this will be very difficult for them in the 2011-2012 when most of the operators will be busy in consolidation because value of any operator is calculated by the number of active customers it has,” they commented.
Experts said that the cell phone users and subscribers are two different things. A user can have ten SIMs but would be considered only one user, but not be considered as ten users. They said that the PTA should avoid mixing these two factors and clearly define the strength of cell phone users and subscribers.
According to them, PTA is trying to escape the situation by issuing such statement just to hold high its claim of 100 million subscriber mark and at the same time it does not want to offend few of the operators who are really facing this menace of dead and inactive SIMs.
http://www.technologytimes.pk/mag/2010/dec10/issue04/pta_emerges_with_flawed.php
No comments:
Post a Comment