Telecommunications in Pakistan describes the overall environment for the mobile telecommunications, telephone, and Internet markets in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Regulatory environment

The Telecommunications Ordinance of 1994 created the

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) () is the telecommunication regulator of Pakistan, responsible for the establishment, operation and maintenance of telecommunication systems and the provision of telecommunication services in Pakis ...

(PTA), Pakistan's first independent telecommunications regulator, and the

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd., commonly known as PTCL, is the national telecommunication company in Pakistan.State ownership, state-owned

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

. Due to a lack of competition, local

telephone call A telephone call, phone call, voice call, or simply a call, is the effective use of a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party. Telephone calls are the form of human communication that was first enabl ...

rates were high and

international call An international telephone call is a call between the origination and destination located in different countries. In the public switched telephone network (PSTN), these telephone calls are processed by international gateway exchanges (switches). ...

rates were even higher. During the 1990s, a call to

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

cost $5 per minute (300PkRs per minute), which was not affordable for the majority of the population. In addition,

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those who buy or use its products or services, either in person or remotely. Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm, and ...

was poor; fixing a problem may have taken an average of 10 to 15 days. Despite this, consumers had to stick with PTCL, as they had no other options. This prompted the government to take a series of actions to improve the service by opening the telecommunications market. This was critical, but required a fine balance because opening the market and preserving PTCL were both important for the government. In July 2003 the government introduced a ''Deregulation Policy for the Telecommunication Sector'', which allowed and encouraged foreign companies to invest in the Pakistani telecommunications market., Bilal Sarwari, Pakistan Law website, 24 October 2009 The centerpiece of the deregulation was the establishment of two categories of basic services licenses: Local loop (LL), for fixed line telecommunication within the 14 PTCL regions, and Long-distance and International (LDI), for connectivity between regions. Two sets of criteria set by the regulatory authorities must be met before an operator is allowed to start operation: one for the issuance of a

license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

and another for the maintenance of

service quality Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

. In 2006, Etisalat International Pakistan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, purchased a 26% stake in PTCL and assumed management control of the company. In 2008, Pakistan was the world's third-fastest growing telecommunications market. Pakistan's telecom infrastructure is improving dramatically with foreign and domestic investments into fixed-line and mobile networks;

fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

systems are being constructed throughout the country to aid in network growth. The major growth in mobile telephony was triggered by two steps taken by Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman FRS when he was Federal Minister of Science & technology. These were to introduce a "Calling Party Pays" (CPP) regime under which no charges are paid by the call receiving party on mobile phone calls. The second was the launching of UFone as a government owned mobile phone company that competitive call rates that led to strong market competition. The impact of these two measures has been the expansion of mobile telephony from 0.3 million mobile phones in 2001 to 160 million mobile phones in 2018. Pakistan's telecommunications infrastructure includes

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300&n ...

radio relay,

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner Electrical conductor, conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting Electromagnetic shielding, shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (Insulat ...

fiber-optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with p ...

, cellular, and

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

networks. Pakistan is connected to the rest of the world through nine submarine cable systems (SEA-ME-WE-3, SEA-ME-WE-4, SEA-ME-WE-5, I-ME-WE, AAE, TW-1, SRG, PEACE and Africa-1) that provide links to Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe; 3

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

satellite earth stations (1

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

and 2

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

); 3 operational international gateway exchanges (2 at

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

and 1 at

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

); and microwave radio relay to neighboring countries.

Perception survey

LIRNEasia LIRNE''asia'' (Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies ''Asia'') is an information and communication technology (ICT) policy and regulation think-tank active in the Asia Pacific region. The organization is incorporated under Sri Lanka ...

's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index summarizes stakeholders’ perception of the regulatory and policy environment and provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Pakistan. The tool measured seven dimensions: (i) market entry; (ii) access to scarce resources; (iii) interconnection; (iv) tariff regulation; (v) anti-competitive practices; (vi) universal services; and (vii) quality of service; for the fixed, mobile, and broadband sectors. The survey found that in Pakistan the mobile sector was most active, followed by broadband; while the

fixed-line A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

sector remained somewhat static. The parameters that improved compared to the 2006 survey were

interconnection In telecommunications, interconnection is the physical linking of a carrier's network with equipment or facilities not belonging to that network. The term may refer to a connection between a carrier's facilities and the equipment belonging to its ...

, tariff regulation, regulation of anti-competitive practices, and universal service obligation in the mobile sector; and market entry, interconnection, regulation of anti-competitive practices and universal service obligation in the fixed sector.

Market entry Market entry strategy is a planned distribution and delivery method of goods or services to a new target market. In the import and export of services, it refers to the creation, establishment, and management of contracts in a foreign country. F ...

received a low score in the mobile sector due to the perception that the cost of a new or renewal mobile license was prohibitive, thus posing a serious barrier to entry. However, this conclusion may have been incorrect, as the license fee, at least in the case of renewal by Mobilink GSM, was paid in installments over a period of three years. Thus, lack of complete information on the part of survey participants may have skewed the results.

Mobile telecommunications

Instaphone and Paktel were the pioneers in mobile communication in Pakistan during the 1990s. They were joined by Mobilink in 1998 which was owned by Motorola until its sale to ORASCOM. The trio offered AMPS services before switching to GSM in the early 2000s.

Ufone Pak Telecommunication Mobile Limited, doing business as Ufone, is a Pakistani wireless network operator headquartered in Islamabad. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. Following PTCL's privatization, ...

joined the mix in 2001. The sector was highly regulated which led to high call rates and poor service quality. A new addition in Pakistan telecommunication, th
Onic SIM
made its debut in Pakistan on the auspicious date of August 14, 2023, during

Pakistan Independence Day Independence Day (), observed annually on 14 August, is a national holiday in Pakistan. It commemorates the day when Pakistan achieved independence from the United Kingdom and was declared a sovereign state following the termination of the ...

. Onic SIM number serials start from 0339. In January 2004 the Ministry of Information Technology issued its ''Mobile Cellular Policy'' with objectives to: # Promote efficient use of radio spectrum; # Increase choice for customers of cellular mobile services at competitive and affordable prices; # Encourage private investment in the cellular mobile sector; # Recognize the rights and obligations of mobile cellular operators; # Provide for fair competition among mobile and fixed line operators; and # Provide an effective and well defined regulatory regime that is consistent with international best practices. The deregulation bore fruit as international companies

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

(Norway) and Warid Pakistan set up operations in the country in 2005.

Subscriber base

The mobile telecommunications sector is seeing very large year-to-year growth in Pakistan. Approximately 90 percent of Pakistanis live within areas that have cell phone coverage and more than half of all Pakistanis have access to a cell phone."Pakistan Country Report"
''The World Factbook'', Central Intelligence Agency, United States, 14 June 2011 With 194 million mobile subscribers in June 2022, Pakistan has the highest mobile penetration rate in the South Asian region. 3G/4G subscribers stood at 115 million in June 2022. According to the

(PTA),

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

leads the market with 75.00 million subscribers, followed by

with 49.19 million, Zong with 44.80 million and

with 23.47 million. All telecom companies are working to broaden their networks in the

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir ( ), is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger ...

and Northern Areas, which were largely ignored until recently. Five of the seven Agencies of the tribal areas have mobile coverage.

SMS

Pakistanis collectively sent over 151 billion text messages during the year 2009.

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

has cited Pakistan to be producing the third-highest SMS traffic in the world in 2010."Tech Society: Generation Text"
Yasmin Malik, ''The Express Tribune'', 15 November 2011

Telecom Tower Company (TowerCos)

Engro Connect has acquired all 10,500 telecom towers owned and managed by

in a landmark $560 million deal. This transaction marks the first time a major telecom operator in Pakistan has divested its entire tower infrastructure. Pakistan currently has around 50,000 telecom towers. The tower company model is gaining popularity globally, allowing multiple telecom operators to share infrastructure and reduce costs. Other tower companies in Pakistan include Engro Enfrashare, Edotco, and Saudi-based TAWAL Pakistan.

Fixed-line telephones

Fixed-line subscriptions declined from a peak of 5.2 million in 2005–06 to 3.4 million in 2009–10."Telecom Indicators"
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, (Wednesday, 9 May 2012) When dialing on landlines, calls made within cities are considered local calls and you just dial the local number. Calls to other cities (e.g. ''Karachi'' to ''Lahore'') are considered long-distance calls, e.g., when dialing to ''Lahore'' from ''Karachi'' you have to dial the code for ''Lahore'' then followed by the number of the destination, therefore you dial 042-XXXX-XXXX. For international calls, you dial "00" followed by the country code, e.g., for calls to the UK from Pakistan you dial 00 - 44 - XXXXXX. The country code for Pakistan is 92.

References

External links

Pakistan Telecommunication Coverage Footprint (maps)
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority {{DEFAULTSORT:Communications In Pakistan