The healthy competition in telecom sector has consolidated market where shares of different operators changed significantly and helped record reduction in mobile phone call charges, ultimately benefitting the subscribers.
As mandated under the Act, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is playing active role to maintain healthy competition in different segments of telecom sector while safeguarding interests of consumers and investors. The market consolidation has now moved towards mergers and acquisitions where only competitive operators will be able to survive in future.
A latest report of regulator on Monday revealed that due to Mobile Number Portability (MNP), customers can easily switch from one operator to other according to their best suitable tariffs and packages. These developments in market have resulted into reasonable market shares of individual Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs).
The report said the effective price of cellular mobile calls has witnessed a substantial reduction to Rs 0.60 per minute in Pakistan during 2015 which about Rs 1.68 per minute five years back. The price per minute of cellular mobile call in the country is now almost one third of the price in 2010-11.
Cellular Mobile Operators are offering one of the lowest mobile call charges in the world and the affordability of services has contributed to phenomenal growth in mobile adoption.
All CMOs are involved in aggressive marketing campaigns and promotions. Therefore, the cellular mobile segment needs a thorough review so that financial viability and health of the segment can be assured.
The CMOs are offering two to five standard prepaid packages with pulse durations of one second, 20 second, 30 seconds and 60 seconds. The operators are offering aggressive promotions which include unlimited on-net calls as well as free calls to off-net mobile and fixed-line networks.
Source: http://nation.com.pk/business/08-Nov-2016/competition-in-market-benefitting-telecom-users