Smartphones takeover 2G sets in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: According to PTA, the number of smartphone users has overtaken old-school 2G sets for the first time in the country. 

Several other achievements, including broadband subscribers crossing the 100 million mark, which played a major role in uplifting the telecom industry’s revenue, were highlighted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authoritys’ annual report.

According to the report, the telecom industry paid Rs179 billion in general sales tax, withholding tax, customs duty and other taxes in the fiscal year 2020-21 compared to Rs148.9bn in the last fiscal year.

The country’s success in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and strategies to facilitate the industry and consumer protection opened avenues for all-inclusive connectivity and overall growth of the sector, the report said.

The PTA statistics show that for the first time smartphones, capturing 52 per cent market share, have taken over 2G cellphones, which have 48pc of the market.

2G sets had a market share of almost 60pc in the country In the financial year 2017-18.

IT and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haque said policies made in 2020 have started producing results. He expressed his confidence in the success of the government’s Digital Pakistan.

“Certain policy relaxations and the initiative to start mobile phone manufacturing in the country has led to a major change in the overall telecom scenario,” he said.

As the number of locally assembled phones reached 24.65m, mobile sets’ imports dropped from 24.51m in 2020 to 10m in 2021.

The report shows that including the world’s biggest smartphone maker Samsung, 30 companies have been granted licences for mobile set production locally.

The number of broadband subscribers reached 102.7m subscribers in 2021, the report said.

Telecom and ICT services have a nationwide spread of 89pc of the population, while up to 49pc Pakistanis have mobile broadband connections. With the expansion of 3G and 4G services, broadband data usage increased 52pc during 2020-21 to 6,855 petabytes (one petabyte equals 1,000 terabytes).

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The telecom sector’s revenue touched its highest level of Rs644bn during the financial year, as a result of increased internet usage.

Active mobile wallets also grew by 72% and went from Rs26.7m to Rs46m in the last year.  As a result, with an increase of 35%, the number of active mobile wallet users reached 246,280 over the last year.

Jazz remains the market leader with Rs69.79m mobile subscribers and 38.45m mobile broadband subscribers. Telenor has the second-highest number of 49.27m subscribers, followed by Zong (40.49m) and Ufone (23.11m).

The PTA says that in the fiscal year 2021-22, their primary focus will remain on monitoring the quality of service and its coverage. While they are also eyeing launching additional spectrum and initiating the rollout of 5G and increasing the network area of fibre optics across the country.