Teledensity falls by 3.24pc

KARACHI: Pakistan’s total teledensity, including Fixed Local Line (FLL), Wireless Local Loop (WLL), and cellular decreased to 76.65 percent from 79.89 percent in the year 2013-14, said a statement on Thursday.
FLL and WLL subscriber density in Pakistan, at the end of February 2015, stood at 1.73 percent and 1.69 percent, respectively. Cellular density reached 73.2 percent in February 2015, after touching its peak of 76.5 percent in June 2014, according to PTA’s indicators.
The decline is primarily due to government’s initiative on biometric verification of Subscriber Identity Module (SIMs) so that illegal or unregistered SIMs could be blocked. It is estimated this will fall further to 70 percent, since the SIM verification deadline expired on April 12, 2015, said Tahir Saeed, analyst at Topline Research.
Broadband subscribers including 3G, 4G and Long Term Evolution, surged 273 percent to 12.5 million during the last 12 months. Excluding next generation technology subscribers; however, the base grew just by three percent to 3.5 million during the aforementioned period.
Within Broadband, the Next Generation Technology 3G, 4G and LTE, after its license auction on April 23, 2014, has been well received by the market. The cellular density within this segment has reached 5.5 percent, or 10.3 million subscribers, in just eight months of its launch. To recall companies launched these services in July 2014.
In the cellular segment, Telenor (unlisted company) increased its market share from 26 percent in February 2014 to 26.9 percent in February 2015, while China Mobile Zong Telecom (unlisted) share rose from 18.4 percent to 20.3 percent. Mobilink, the market leader, maintained its market share of 28.1 percent.