Telecom News Bulletin

Land line one of oldest communication mode in the country’s telecom industry. It has witness a decline of over 1.1m subscribers compared to previous year, said the Pakistan Economic Survey 2009-10.

During the current year, the country lost more than one million landline subscribers reaching at 3.4 million at the end of December 2009 as compared to 4.5 million subscribers at the end of June 2009.

The card payphone service, the survey said “tough competition is expected along with noteworthy escalation of cellular industry translated into financial crippling of card payphone companies.”

Over 17,000 public calling offices all over Pakistan went insolvent. A depressing trend of four per cent was reported in the card payphone market due to declining business of PCOs.

The survey also reported a decline in investment in the telecom sector during 2008-09 and was reduced by nearly 47 per cent. The survey said during the fiscal year 2008-09 a total of $1.6bn worth of investment has been made by all operators.

The survey also reported a steady increase in usage of Wireless Local Loop (WLL) but still this year’s growth rate was 17 per cent less than the previous year. During the first six months of fiscal year 2009-10, the WLL subscriber tally reached 2.69 million from 2.6 million during 2008-09.

A total of 78,864 subscribers have been added by the WLL operators showing a growth of three per cent. However, the current growth rate was less when compared to 17 per cent in 2008-09.