International Communication

Posted: August 7th, 2013

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International Communication

Current telecom polices

            The telecom policies in Pakistan are supposed to be pro-consumer and focused on serving the Pakistanis. The current telecom policies are evaluated and reviewed annually. The Pakistan telecom policies have some main objectives. They aim at increasing the customer’s choice by availing the services at competitive and affordable prices. They also aim at improving the infrastructure and raising the private investment. Some of the telecom policies are the licensing, access promotion contribution and the universal service policies. The licensing policy requires the license to be given during the public hearing. This is because the market entry is unrestricted. The PTCT and the significant market powers are required to use their influential positions wisely. They are prohibited from following the anti competitive ways. Every licensee is required to pay a certain amount to the PTA to cover the regulation cost. The companies are also allowed to have the local loops and the long distance licensees.

The access promotion contribution requires the net incoming international traffic to generate a premium on the costs used in conveying and ceasing the traffic in Pakistan. A fraction of the premium is used to improve the infrastructure development. This fraction is always referred to as the APC. The LCI are allowed to maintain a fixed share of the termination charge. The balance is given to the local loop licensees. This enables them to develop the infrastructure. In addition to this, the cellular operators will not be availed with the APC. On the universal service, the Pakistan government intends to introduce a universal service fund that will aid in financing and promoting the universal service. The universal service fund framework will be made and granted by the federal government. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority will administer it. The USF payments will be made through a transparent, competitive process (Muhammad, Malik & Furrukh, 55).

Current infrastructure

            The infrastructure improvement in the case of limited capital and multiple competitors increase the number of secondary companies. These companies avail talent, infrastructure and the wireless network. The Pakistan telecom market has improved from the regulated state owned monopoly to the deregulated, competitive structure. The Pakistan government failed to increase the fixed-line teledensity from 2.5 percent to 7 percent in 2010. Currently, the fixed subscriber base is reducing. Previously, it had risen to four percent. However, currently, it has reduced to 3.5 percent. Today, the telecom landscape focuses on expanding the country’s mobile market. Previously, the mobile subscribers were fewer. However, they have been gradually increasing, and currently, the mobile subscribers are about 120 million. However, despite the increase in the number of the mobile subscribers, the internet penetration remains limited. The broadband growth has been low over the years. However, with increased competition and adoption of wireless broadband solutions, the broadband subscriptions continue to increase. Currently, the broadband services make great internet subscriptions (Muhammad, Malik & Furrukh, 55).

Top three telecom products

            Some of the top telecom products in Pakistan are the Mobilink. It is the leading Pakistan mobile service provider. It has the best quality brands and the largest portfolio of the value added services. To the consumers, it offers designed tariff plans that meet the communication requirements of the diverse population. WiMAX network is also one of the top products in Pakistan. This product provides broad bandwidth links, and access to mobile. Ufone is another top product in Pakistan that avails simplified tariffs with transparent charges. This increases the number of subscribers improving the telecommunication sector (Mohammad, 16).

Telecom Impact on Pakistan society

            The telecommunication sector in Pakistan has been constant for many years. This is due to the monopoly practiced by the PTCL. However, with time, the investors have decided to invest in Pakistan due to their telecommunication policies. In Pakistan, the telecommunication sector grew to an open market competitive environment. This increased the growth of the telecom sector in the area. With time, the number of the mobile users became more as compared to the number of the fixed-line subscribers. The telecom industry also became the fastest growing industry in the whole region due to the increased number of investors. The success of the telecommunication sector also had a positive effect on the Pakistan society and business culture. The Pakistanis began adapting to the telecom services by communicating and conducting their business. They understood the value of the telecom services and stopped viewing them as luxurious items.

The Pakistanis began viewing the mobile phones as a necessity. It changed their ways of traditional communication. Today, they prefer communicating through the devices rather than the face-to-face communications practiced previously. With time, they also grew to like the latest mobile phones such as the ones with cameras. This is unlike previously when the mobile phones acquired by the Pakistanis were ones that enabled communication. Today, they do not mind the expensive handsets that have access to the internet and other features. In addition to this, the Pakistan society also finds it easier to conduct their businesses since they are now able to conduct their distant businesses with ease. Therefore, the boom experienced in the telecommunication industry has enabled the Pakistanis to embrace the new technologies and as a result, benefit from it (Hijab, Madiha, Sehar, Muhammad, Zeeshan & Irfan, 33).

Telecom impact on economic growth

            The Pakistan economy is the twenty-seventh greatest economy in terms of dollars. The economy is a semi-industrialized one. It comprises of the chemicals, textile, food processing and agriculture. The technological growth in Pakistan has increased the economic growth. Being a developing country, the telecommunication growth has become a solution for the country’s economic development. Investing in the telecommunication infrastructure leads to the economic development due to the increased demand in its products. These products are the cables and the switches. In addition to this, the telecommunication sector has high economic returns. The returns of the telecommunication infrastructure are higher as compared to the returns made in the telecommunication itself.

When the telephone system is in a bad state, the cost of production increases since the firm has to incur high costs of communication in order to ensure all transactions are conducted efficiently. On the other hand, when the telephone system is perfect, the transactions can be conducted efficiently at low costs. This is because necessary transactions can be conducted in time. Low production cost will be incurred, and as a result, profits will be enjoyed leading to increased economic growth. Therefore, investment in the telecommunication increases economic development since it allows firms to conduct their business transactions effectively and efficiently. The firms are able to communicate despite the distance. In addition to this, it enables production to be conducted efficiently. The communication ability enables the firms in Pakistan to involve themselves in more production activities increasing the economic growth of the country. The telecommunication industry enables other sectors of the economy to benefit from it (N.A “The Economy of Pakistan-2011.”).

Future Prospects

            The telecom sector in Pakistan has improved its overall economy since its introduction. The Pakistan Telecommunication Industry has played a great part to ensure this improvement. Though today only a few numbers of the Pakistanis have access to mobile phones, this organization intends to change this in the future. They intend to introduce more fixed and mobile phones in the future so that more Pakistanis have access to them. In addition, the cellular phones connection is improving at a slow rate every year. This is because there are few subscribers. Therefore, in the future, they intend to increase this. Pakistan also intends to increase the escalation of its text and the multimedia messages. This makes ten percent of its telecom revenue worldwide. It also intends to take advantage of its possible options such as deregulating the broadband growth and increasing its ability to convey the multi megabits services. Being a developing country, these options will be beneficial to them.

The Pakistan government intends to raise the software exports to $5 billion in future. Previously, the amount used in the software exports was low. In addition to this, the telecom and the information technology field also intend to take advantage of its available opportunities in future. It focuses on introducing the Third Generation (3G) technology. The telecommunications authority also intends to introduce the new mobile technologies and the third generation ones, which operate at high frequency bandwidth and large channel bandwidth. This will increase their performance and increase the quality of the information disseminated in future. Therefore, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority intends to modify the mobile technology from the second to the third generation. This has been a challenge to Pakistan since it has always been difficult to introduce the advanced telecommunication methods and technologies (Pervaiz, 78).

Works cited

Hijab Ashraf, Madiha Khalid, Sehar Maqsood, Muhammad Kashif, Zeeshan Ahmad, Irfan Akber Internal Branding in Telecommunication Sector of Pakistan: Employee’s Perspective. Maxwell Science Publication, 2011. Print

Mohammad, Saleem Cost Efficiency of Cellular Mobile Firms in Pakistan. 2005. Print

Muhammad Zahir Faridi, Muhammad Shaukat Malik, Furrukh Bashir. Transportation, Telecommunication and Economic Development in Pakistan. Center for Research Promotion, 2011. Print.

N.A “The Economy of Pakistan-2011.” (2011).Retrieved from http://www.articles.eezzi.com/economics/76-the-economy-of-pakistan-2011.html

Pervaiz, Unzila. 3g Migration in Pakistan. 2009. Print.