Zeeshan Mojib is the President – South Asia Region & Corporate CFO at Teralight Limited. He is a young successful banker who is now shining on the skies of telecom sector. Combination of a banker and a telecom expert gave him an edge to foresee the future trends of technology based on concrete grounds of finance. In an exclusive interview with Technology Times, Zeeshan shares his precise thoughts about telecom scenario in Pakistan
Brief about yourself and your company.
I believe in value creation in the evolving telecoms and ICT landscape and my personal style of leadership makes me clearly aimed at creating an encouraging and friendly quality of work life. We always believe in the fact that “the customer is the boss”, and that’s why our business is enduringly uttered around our clientele.
How do you see Pakistan’s ongoing ICT growth, challenges and remedies?
I would say both the Telecoms and IT industry are making strides. Over the past few years, both industries have been growing at an impressive rate. Country’s IT industry is likely to reach approximately US $ 9 billion showing an average progression of around 50% per annum. I believe IT industry is playing a decisive role in making Pakistan a strategic player in the exceedingly competitive global outsourcing landscape. While on the telecom landscape, in the past few years, the tremendous growth in Pakistan’s telecom industry has attracted several big players from different regions of the world, that Includes China Mobile, Etisalat, Telenor, Warid, Omantel and others. This has resulted in attracting huge FDI in telecom sector of the country.
Nonetheless, various challenges exist in the market. The overall broadband penetration has been quite low in majority of the markets in South Asia, and likewise the situation of broadband availability is even worse in our country as well, particularly in rural areas. The wireless as well as mobile broadband is of great significance in such a situation, as it is a solution towards cost-effective deployment of broadband access. Mobile broadband can prove to be vital enabler of broadband in our country, where traditional broadband access technologies such as DSL and FTTX are limited to the large cities, in general.
The market still has the potential to attract investors, particularly in the broadband sector. What needs to be done is to take effective measures to take the broadband market to the next stage and to provide services capable generating more revenues.
3G another challenge, is going to be pricey in terms of deployments and revenue generation as the installation and network upgrades, license/spectrum costs will require heavy investment and new technology means subscribers will have to spend more in 3G compatible handsets. So, subsidies are essential to facilitate the launch of 3G in the country, particularly in the rural areas where the infrastructure is limited and the cost of deployment is not economically feasible due to the possibly low ROI.
What you think about current scenario and launch of 3G in Pakistan?
We should expect some form of revolution in the telecom market in the country with the introduction of 3G by cellular operators in the near future. This will open a whole new landscape of applications for end users, and opportunities in terms of revenue streams for operators.
This is a fact that the industry is going through a stiff phase at present with operators facing some serious challenges. The introduction of MVNO’s and the possible 3G spectrum auction in the near future that will make the market even more challenging for these operators. Nonetheless, the subscriber base is going up for almost all of the operators, there is a real concern that ARPU is going down.
The major challenge ahead for the operators is to accomplish the size and scale in a market like Pakistan. If we look at the region, majority of the countries have maximum four cellular operators but Pakistan already has six, so looking for more operators is not feasible as per my believe. I think we have a strong business case, and we should expect to see some form of 3G in the near future.
What are your targeted business markets in Pakistan?
In fact there is not a single; we are specialists in a number of areas and hence a wide range of industries makes our target markets. More importantly, Teralight has been the key figure in the development and promotion of telecoms & ICT in Pakistan. We are a management consulting, professional services, and telecom technology products and services company specializing in network monitoring, fraud detection and elimination, international telecoms regulatory matters, Geographical Information Systems, VoIP network design and management, market research, transmission infrastructure due diligence and asset acquisition for leading IT and telecommunications organizations in the region.
Our client base spans telecom sector, oil and gas sector, banking sector, urban development organizations, as well as government bodies.
Why one should select Teralight among others?
We take pride in providing the highest degree of service and value to our clientele in Pakistan as well as in other markets of the region. We are a results-oriented and customer-centric organization. Teralight has some of its products and solutions specifically developed to combat telecom frauds. We are currently working on an innovative product that helps detect illegal call terminations.
What are your core activities in Pakistan?
Since its inception, Teralight has been playing a dynamic role and has come up with a number of solutions, services and initiatives for the development of telecoms and ICT. So far our experience has been great; we are getting positive response from the industry for our innovative solutions and state of the art products. Currently, we are in the process of deploying our state of the art fraud detection solution in various markets. We also have completed some of the largest fiber deployment projects in the history of Pakistan, including the mechanical laying of over 6,000 km fiber optics cable services for backhaul network of a cellular operator in Pakistan.
How do you find the general response from market so far?
We, as a provider of telecoms technology products, services, solutions and professional services in Pakistan, and other regional markets have received great response for our products and solutions and have been quite successful in growing our client base. We are in constant interaction with a number of organizations, for prospective collaboration, certain collaborative opportunities in our core expertise areas.
What major elements played significant role in Teralight’s short term accomplishments?
Well, our expertise is our workforce for it is playing a decisive role in Teralight’s accomplishments. We have a team of dedicated professionals, specialized in the business of telecommunications, management consulting, and technologies.
What are your future plans?
At Teralight we make every effort to provide the highest degree of satisfaction and value to our clients. We deliver comprehensive and expertly managed telecoms services and solutions that maximize work efficiency and investment returns. Moreover, we aim to become a leading employer of top talent in the market. We have always been the leading value-adding resource for our clientele, by providing services; cutting edge technologies and strategic management consulting that improve quality and cost effectiveness.
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