Wi-Tribe plans investment to increase coverage

ISLAMABAD: Wi-Tribe, the erstwhile subsidiary of Qatar’s telecom giant Ooredoo, on Saturday unveiled its plan to pour in millions of dollars to expand its coverage area in the second-tier cities across the country through deployment of new technologies.

“Millions of dollars will be required to upgrade our technology and its exact cost will be determined after finalising which technology we prefer for going ahead with expanding our coverage to more cities in Pakistan,” Ali Fahd Malik, chief executive officer at Wi-Tribe told The News.

Malik said demand for quality internet is increasing manifold and therefore all the internet service providers (ISPs) are required to meet the growing demand for the data usage.

He said the company has not yet decided which technology it would prefer in its second phase of investment. The ISP started its operation in the major cities of the country seven years back and found that the quality of service could ensure loyalty of customers. 

“We are providing services to over 150,000 households in major urban centres and now we are planning to expand our coverage to Gujranwala, Gujrat, Peshawar and other cities in months and years ahead,” he added.

HB Group, a local company having diverse range of businesses in Pakistan, UK and Middle East, acquired Wi-Tribe Pakistan, offering WiMax services, from Ooredoo against nine million dollars.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority recorded 207,000 WiMAX users in Pakistan at the end of December 2015.

“What keeps us ahead of the curve is our ability to adapt to changing trends and provide creative solutions to rising challenges,” Malik said. “We experienced a great success in the previous years with the monthly usage per customer increasing almost five times over the past six years.” 

The company’s investment decision is to maintain an optimum level of service and online experience. “Through our spectrum upgrade, we are now delivering a bigger, better and faster internet experience to improve customer satisfaction and brand loyalty,” said the company’s chief.

“We are actively engaged with key players across the technology, media and telecoms arena at national as well as international levels to further diversify our offerings, leverage our strong industry standing and actively synergise with other partners to increase our portfolio of services.

This will also open up doors for a much aggressive foreign investment coming to our country.”

Malik said Wi-Tribe is specifically targeting the home broadband users.