KARACHI: The growth rate of cellular subscribers’ has been returning to upward trend after witnessing two-month contraction in overall users’ base. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) latest figures made available to Daily Times
the five cellular operators have posted a modest increase of 0.38 percent users in February this year despite the introduction of the new SIM verification system last month. The overall subscriber base has increased by 1.547 million in February 2009 as compared with 1.541 million growth in February 2008. However, the subscribers’ growth has witnessed 0.9 percent increase in January 2009. According to PTA’s data, the overall base has crossed 90 million subscribers during the last two months. Subscriber’s growth has been witnessing negative growth during November and December 2008 with 0.1 and 0.6 percent, respectively. The cellular firms have added only 0.581 million connections on their network in the 1HFY09 against massive subscriber growth of 1.12 million in 1HFY08. Industry analysts were of the view that users addition on various networks of cell firms became visible as the cellular operators reduced their rates last month to attract customers. They added subscribers who lost their connections on non-registration and non-verification of SIMs. On the other hand, the number of users has been growing modestly in the rural areas of the country as the operators have been running their sales campaign in these areas. Last year, around 11.25 million connections were abandoned from the companies’ network. staff report
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