Despite a number of growth inhibiting factors like delays in roll-out, site acquisition and NOCs, activation tax, multiple tariff clutter, Ufone currently enjoys nearly 25 percent of the total market share with 7.5 million subscriber base.
This was stated by President and CEO of Ufone, Babar Khan at the inaugural ceremony of the 6th ITCN Asia 2006 here on Wednesday. He highlighted the latest trends and growth patterns in GSM market along with the problems being faced by the telecom industry of Pakistan.
He said that it took approximately 12 years to reach one billion GSM subscribers world-wide in 2004 but the last two and a half years witnessed a sudden growth to billion. At this rate the overall GSM base was expected to cross 3.3 billion by the year 2010, he added.
Babar further said that the highest growth rate in the telecom sector had been observed in the Asian region with China and India leading in terms of numbers but when it came to growth rate, Pakistan is the leading market in the region.
Lauding the government reforms in the telecom sector, he informed that cellular subscribers' base in the country was crossing 30 million increasing at a rate of around two million subscribers per month. However, he said that there was still a lot to discover, as there remained vast untapped addressable market.
"In such a competitive situation, it is necessary to introduce differentiating offers by continuously introducing the latest technologies and Ufone is relentlessly working on the same lines," Babar observed.