Cellphone subscribers cross 46 million

ISLAMABAD—The number of cellular phone subscribers in Pakistan has crossed the 46 million mark and officials as well as operators see it touching 50 million within next couple of months for the first time ever on continued popularity of the service across the country.
The latest figures compiled by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) suggest cellular phone connections stood at 46.45 million by November, which had crossed 41 million by the end of the first quarter of 2006-07. "By November 30, total number of cellular subscribers stood at 46.45mn," said a PTA official. "It reflects almost a 12% growth in total cellular subscriber base from October 1 to November 30."
The official said during first five months, more than 12mn new connections were sold out on the back of comparatively cheaper tariff offers due to rising competition among the cellular service providers. "So there was over 27% mobile density rate by November," said the PTA official.
"Almost all the four major companies Mobilink, Ufone, Warid and Telenor grabbed better market share during the first five months of 2006-07, which also brought different tariff packages for the subscribers." The figures gathered by the telecom watchdog, shows by November 2006 Mobilink led the market share with 22.03mn subscribers followed by Ufone, which was serving to 9.6mn people across the country. With the arrival of UAE-based Warid Telecom and Norwegian Telenor both competition and subscriber base grew at much faster pace, as the last year's entrants attracted 7.3mn and 5.8mn subscribers respectively by the end of November 2006.
The PTA data say by November Paktel services enjoyed 1.4mn subscribers and the only AMPS service Instaphone had a share of 0.25mn by November.—Agencies