Pakistan ranks world's fourth in broadband growth? (with such a tiny base!)

Pakistan ranks world’s fourth in broadband growth? (with such a tiny base!)

Posted on December 3, 2008 / 3 Comments

Pakistan is ranked fourth in terms of broadband Internet growth in the world, as the subscriber base of broadband Internet has been increasing rapidly with the total base crossing 170,000 in the country.

The rankings are released by Point Topic Global broadband analysis, a global research centre. According to the statistics, there are around 382. 4 million broadband subscribers worldwide by the end of August 2008 as compared with 317 million in August 2007, showing 17 percent growth.

Regional Broadband trend revealed that Western Europe has the largest share of broadband users with 26 percent followed by North America at 22 percent. South and East Asia regional is in the third place with 22 percent share.

In Pakistan operators are offering wide range of technologies like DSL, Cable, FTTH and WiMax. They have added 25,500 new broadband connections in the financial year 2007-08, which is around 150 percent increase compared to the previous financial year, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) statistics reported.

The Internet Protocol (IP) traffic through high-speed access link has become the success factor that have made rapid the transfer of online information and communication services, data, voice and video footage. The easy way of communication owing to highly competitive market of service providers has been penetrating in the country with modest acceleration in the metropolis.

Read the full story in Daily Times here.

3 Comments

Rohan Samarajiva
December 3, 2008, 12:04 pm
What’s the number for Sri Lanka? TRC still reports in the old format (it’s so old it’s funny; they report Internet and Email!!), so I think we have to add the numbers.

SLT ADSL was 89,000 2008 Q3: http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=33863. Dialog WiMAX? Obviously this has to be added. Then what about Mobitel and Dialog HSPA customers? I think Dialog may be reporting this in its investor briefing? Mobitel does not.

Why can we not have simple data collection and reporting by the TRC?
Babar Bhatti
December 3, 2008, 9:16 pm
The penetration rate is less than 1% so the rate of growth is not meaningful. Absolute numbers are.

The interesting thing however, is that mobile technologies and companies are clearly taking over and driving the growth. I have seen some metrics from mobile ad companies which verify this.
Nalin
December 9, 2008, 5:14 pm
We are taking about benchmarking in management.Why can’t sri lanka telecom(SLT) send few people there in pakistan for training and get the exposure and work in sri lanka.we need core competencies.SLT stating in its’ vision statement as “to become a telecommunication hub in south asia”..But it should be more SMARTER than mere words….