[MAA]

KARACHI: “Mobilink has invested over $2.5 billion in infrastructure, network rollout and the largest franchise, retail and customer services network across the nation. We plan to inject an additional $500 million in 2008 to meet the growing demands of our services and the needs of our customers,” said Zouhair A Khaliq, President and CEO of Mobilink in an exclusive interview to Daily Times.

He further said that Mobilink has progressed from voice to carrier-class nationwide services by completing its own 6,500 kilometre redundant fibre optic backbone network across Pakistan. It now plans to provide high-speed data connectivity in the urban and rural sector of Pakistan through WiMax services.

Being a developing country, the expansion of broadband networks and services is of high importance to the Pakistani economy. Broadband connections in the country currently stand at around 0.1 million. With the population figure at over 165 million, this will clearly place Pakistan’s economic development into the next stages of progress.

Zuhair said that in WiMax services Mobilink is planning to enter the data arena by deploying a state-of- the-art WiMax network offering high speed internet to its customers.

WiMax is the latest global technology for delivering broadband services to the end user.

With Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei and Motorola amongst its list of renowned network vendors, Mobilink’s WiMax infrastructure is in good shape to foresee a commercial launch very soon.

WiMax is bound to bring a broadband revolution in the country with subscriber growth in multiple folds. This would not only bring Pakistan in par with technologically advanced nations but will also stimulate data use in the country. Data services are expected to flourish and demand in new arenas of data handling will be generated.

In addition to this, Mobilink recently entered into an agreement with four companies viz. DVCOM, DanCom, Zarco and WOL to consolidate its operations aimed at providing better wireless and broadband facilities for its customers. Leveraging on the assets and expertise of these acquired companies Mobilink plans to provide state of the art data services in the country in 2008. With the basic infrastructure in place, keeping pace with technological advancements will be one of Mobilink’s key priorities.

In fibre optics, Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) had been the only company that owned an optic fibre backbone. Mobilink has successfully introduced competition through the introduction of a nationwide network. Mobilink’s optic fibre backbone provides the perfect platform to Mobilink for connecting its customers nationwide with highest level of voice and data quality with more reliability.

Deployment of the national backhaul stands completed with full protection, making Mobilink’ optic fibre backbone fully protected/redundant. By providing last mile connectivity Mobilink has positioned itself as a one-stop shop for meeting all communication requirements of enterprises and individuals. The optic fibre network currently covers 6,500 kilometres and will be increased to cover another 2000 kilometres very soon.

“We are envisaging sustainable growth in Pakistan. With mobile penetration still at around 43 percent, the room for growth is immense. The growth is not only limited to mobile telephony, as there are huge opportunities in other fields like broadband (optic fibre, DSL, WiMax), LDI etc. This coupled with the enabling environment being provided by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority ensures an excellent future for this sector,” he said when asked to comment on the company’s future plans in Pakistan.

He added that the company plans to maintain its market leadership in all areas from market share to network footprint and coverage. In this regard, the company has aggressive plans for the future to ensure that communication services are provided to each and every Pakistani no matter where he or she lives.

In reply to a question on poor connectivity and frequent call drops he said that, there was a time when this problem existed. “However, with intensive investment in our network, we have now successfully achieved over 98 percent call connectivity throughout our network. Hence, call connectivity issues are a thing of past and I do not see this as a problem anymore.”

The recent surveys done by the PTA show that Mobilink is actually better than any of the other networks, he added.

In 2006 Mobilink issued an international bond for $250 million, which was oversubscribed by 16 times at four billion dollars. The success of this bond reflected the awareness in international capital markets of the company’s current strengths and prospects for continuing its leadership in Pakistan’s telecommunication market.

Mobilink Genie is the first truly secure mobile commerce solution, launched by Mobilink, where mobile subscribers can make financial transactions via their mobile phones.

The company is also the first to launch a voice portal 555 which is an IVR service providing users easy access to a host of value added services such as ring tones, greetings, news, jokes, cricket services, contests, horoscopes, recipes and a lot more. Speech browsing is a unique feature of this service where customers can browse the menu and access content just by saying it aloud. They are able to select the language, desired category content and download options as well as browse the menu via the voice recognition system.

The company is also assisting the nation in meeting its Millennium Development Goals.

“Access to broadband networks and services can make important contributions to the quality of life, in terms of education, health services and social inclusion.”

ICT Industries, public administration, financial intermediation, business services, media, R&D, healthcare, manufacturing and the like involved in various economic activities, have been witnessing growth stagnation due to the untapped broadband infrastructure which needs a major uplift.

Mobilink, with a subscriber base of over 29 million finds itself perfectly placed to help fulfil this need, by playing a vital role in bringing broadband to an unconnected Pakistan.

The way the regulator is facilitating the telecom industry we see positive growth. The last few years have seen a phenomenal expansion in the telecom sector and the future is no less exciting. The market demand is going to get more and more sophisticated. There is going to be a significant demand for data and value added services. The mobile phone has already become a need rather than a luxury. With the BlackBerry solution it has become an office-on-the-go and a personal companion. Such services are going to grow even further as new segments of society come online.

source: http://www.dailytime...-12-2007_pg5_11