Synopsis
Pakistan has found transitioning from a regulated state-owned monopoly telecom market to a deregulated competitive structure very challenging. Penetrations of fixed-line and Internet services have remained relatively low. The mobile market, however, did finally take off, achieving high annual growth for a number of years. The growth slowed in 2009/10 but was still looking very much like a sustained development phase, despite a moderating and challenging market. For fixed lines, the government had earlier on targeted a teledensity of 7% by 2010, of which a substantial proportion was to be provided in rural areas, but this turned out to be overly ambitious. The Internet market certainly has huge potential and there are early signs of the expected surge in subscriber numbers, but there is still a long way to go. More recently, there has been good news with a jump in broadband subscriber numbers since 2007. This report looks at the fixed-line, mobile and Internet segments of the Pakistan market and provides scenario forecasts for each of these market segments.
