Newly announced 3G services are being used by around 2.5 million cellular subscribers in Pakistan till to date, told me a senior official of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
This number is grossly close to 3.35 million broadband users that were available in Pakistan before 3G services. If uptake remains the same, the number of broadband subscriptions in Pakistan is soon going to double in just 4-5 months after the auction of 3G and 4G licenses.Not to mention, it took ISPs around 8 years (if not more) to take broadband subscription to 3.35 million mark.
While asking me to not to name him, the senior PTA man said that 3G adoption has been tremendous during early months considering the limited coverage from telecom operators in the country, the subscribers’ size of 2.5 million in short span of time is more than what they were originally expecting.
Regulator hopes that magnitude of 3G usage to increase exponentially with-in one year or so.
Official was skeptical about the active 3G subscribers and said that the figure of 2.5 million subscribers is derived through a definition according to which a cellular subscriber who has carried out a paid 3G data activity during last 90 days is considered a 3G user.
He said that this definition of active 3G user might change with time to come but for now — for a start — anyone with one 3G data activity with-in past 90 days should be considered a 3G user.
Just to add, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority will make public the stats about 3G users in few weeks.
In a related news, PTA is also in the process of finalizing its annual report for publication. We are not sure if we can get hold of the report before its official release, but we are definitely going to update you as soon as we get any update on it.
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