PTCL: Fixed line subscribers continue to decline

[LRE]

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited: Fixed line subscribers continue to decline

By Muhammad Yasir

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecom-munication Company Limited (PTCL), the country’s biggest fixed line telephony company, has lost 27,1043 customers on its network in 2007-08, Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) reported on Saturday.

Growing popularity of the cellular phone on the falling call rates has been giving tough time to the fixed line operator that not only stopped its growth but also dropped its number of customers during the last three years, analysts said.

As per absolute number released by PTA, PTCL fixed line customers have stood at 4,405,161 by the end of 2007-08 whereas it was providing telephony services by fixed line to around 4,676,204 customer till the last financial year 2006-07.

In 2005, the number of landline phone subscribers on PTCL network had reached to around 5.19 million in the country, but the subscribers have been declining with the entrant of other market’s competitors of fixed line, wireless local loop (WLL) and cellular phone.

Analysts said that PTCL is facing brisk competition with its rivals in the fixed line sector.

The other five fixed line operators providing services in country have posted subscribers’ growth on their network in 2007-08. However, the overall sector posted declined of 5.4 percent in 2007-08 as compared with its past year. The overall number of landline subscribers is 4.54 million in the country from 4.8 million of the last year, PTA revealed.

Analysts said the recent imposition of withholding tax could affect adversely the utility of fixed line phone services in the future. They said the number of subscribers paying over Rs 1,000 monthly bills have increased manifold since April when this leading telephony service had decreased its pulses duration from five to two minutes.

The bills of residential and commercial consumers have almost doubled since PTCL has reduced its call duration. The PTCL, later increased call duration by one-minute, they added.

However, they said that PTCL has introduced attractive value-added services and call packages that can broaden its customers’ base in the future because of its widespread nationwide infrastructure.

PTCL’s WLL customers also decreased on its network by 61,832 in a year but it has retained the biggest number of customers with 1,126,584 connections in the sector.

However, the increasing popularity graph of cellular phones has affected the subscribers’ base of WLL, which has continued to decline in the country.

Data compiled by PTA reported the WLL subscribers have decreased by 1.6 percent in the country to reach 2.22 million by July-end. It reported that users around 36,630 have disconnected their WLL services only in a month.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg5_3