Internet usage Trends In pakistan

[Farhad Taimur]

Pakistan has some what become the test bed for lot of pilot projects. a  lot of vendors get their products matured in pakistan. more or less same happend with Wimax technology however it seems that wimax is now in a far better position than a year back). the recent announcement by mobilink in brinign 15 K users on board wihtin 120 days is really a silver lining. Wateen with their 50 K + customer and having network in 20 + cities is also re launching their wimax.

Another couple of players Wi-tribe and Augere are supposed to be launching their service in 2nd quarter of 2009. which is definately going to play a vital role in broadband penetration. Now the more i think about this the more i realize that the DSL operators finding it hard to survive. one exampel of this is the recent news of the acqusition of LDN by mobilink. Although its a known secret that the parent group owns both mobilink and LDN 100% but it seems that its more of consolidation rather than expanding the produc range into one umbrella.  They might have realized that DSL is not going to be a successful technology as customers are adopting the Wireless technologies in a faster pace than of wire line. And this includes all sort of wireless like evdo launch by wordcall and now ptcl is also launching it.

Is DSL really going to die that fast ? is there any investment happening on DSL in paksitani industry (other than wateen - which is really strange as some what both technologies have emerged as competing rather than complementing.

The advantage which i see for dsl is that many operators are offering unlimited packages whereas wimax operators are using per byte charging .... BUT what if wimax operators go unlimiuted ( can they ?) does this make commercial sense ??  and if that happens is there any futur for DSL operator ???

[Khurram]

I don't think wimax will be able to replace DSL anytime soon in
Pakistan, specially because of the quality of service issues with the
wimax operators here. DSL (where available) still remains the first
choice of customers. I am using wi-tribe these days and have used
wateen earlier, but have kept my Micronet DSL active because of its
stability, reliability and always-on connectivity.

Regards,
Khurram

[Rehan Jafry]

Agreed with Khurram,

 

Wireline is always preferable if compared to Wireless and Wimax will be more realiable and mature after 2012 or 2013.

 

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Rehan Jafry

[Moz]

DSL is a stable, reliable and fastly expanding service where as
services are WiMax are unreliable and unstable. DSL is here for the
long term - whereas it is possibly only Pakistani market which has
been chosen as the lab rat to test WiMax. No where else in the world
has it been made available like in Pakistan. And that's not entirely a
good thing. Just look at Wateen's service and customer's satisfaction
rate with it.

As far as LDN is concerned - the news of a merger with Mobilink are
simply rumors as top management has denied any such effect of a
decision in LDN Egypt affecting LDN PAKISTAN so the speculation is
premature and unnecessary. LDN has shown growth and promise in the
face of extreme odds presented by the very fact of providing service
on PTCL infrastructure - and everyone is full aware of how PTCL
monopolizes its assets and market share. So let's not even go there!!

Regards,
Moz.

[Ahmad, Shakeel]

An off topic but have any one herd PTCL doubling the speed on all
current packages in same amount ?

thanks,
Shakeel

[Abdul Azeem]

Any Company/ISP could not offer CIR BW on Wimax even its technically possible but financially not. It's totally shared media & BW availability depends upon subscriber registration ratio on Base Station while DSL service is have no reservations like that even we also have options of serial connectivity using G.SDDSL & some sort of DSL Flavored Stuff.

 

GOD BLESS TO MUSLIMS & PAKISTAN...!

[Haris Shamsi]

I beg to disagree

I think the customer adoption will decide that which technology will
stay. I know for a fact that this from 2003 struggling on DSL platform
to get the penetration however for both user and operator, dependency
on the PTT the turn around times and user freindliness remaind the
major barriers for 5 years or so this industry struggled really hard
to even achieve 100,000 customers in pakistan.

I wonder why we try to evaluate the market with our "power user"
approach. 95% of the market does not really care wheather it a wire
line or a wireless solution. No one in pakistan really bothers about
the mobility even. They just require a working internet conenction for
which their upfront cost remains low. so in my personal opinion it
wouldnt be wise to evalaute the wimax service maturity with "mobility"
and set the target of 2012 or 2013. If LTE kicks off by that time in
2013 the dynamics will be totally different.

lets also not evaluate the market with CIR type of services because
the segment which requires such type of service is less than 5%. As
far as i know ( please correct me if i am wrong) there is no
limitation in terms of offering such services through wimax.

i tend to agree with taimur that wireless could take over DSL (if
thats what he meant). Moving forward i think copper will be eliminated
and Fiber to the home and Wireless solution like Evdo and Wimax will
take over.

I am a user of Wimax from last 1 year or so and live in an apartment
block , almost 5-8 hundred meter away from the base station. i have
not seen any issue in terms of any internet protocol delivery through
that connection. I really am surprised that what people refer to as
"unstable service" when they talk about WiMax as technology.

I think that consumers have shown great interest in Wimax Services in
Pakistan and the adoption rate is far higher than of DSL. I think if
some how operators can bring an unlimited package DSL will face a
major blow. However there will remain a segment (mostly SME or lower
corporate) which will keep dsl as preferred connectivity BUT thats not
the mass market. Operators wil always invest where they see volume
coming in

/HS

[Abdul Azeem]

It's means that this is only consumer product on shared medium & for corporate/enterprise this must be CIR according to market/customer needs even none of service providers preferring more then 1Mbps BW for one subscriber due to Channel/Frequency alteration/adaptations & DSL services is not dependent like this, As per my experience, if we compare the Wimax with DSL, then DSL is the best for Excellent outcomes/results oriented & might be Wimax will mature with better outcomes in future.

GOD BLESS TO MUSLIMS & PAKISTAN...!

[Haris Shamsi]

CIR is a reference term of Frame relay, in wireless its UGS and there
is no limitation in offering such TYPE of service.

There could be commercial reasons of not offering packages more than 1
MB. However as far I know technology itself doesn't restrict you

--
Sent from my mobile device

[Babar]

I have mixed feelings about DSL vs WiMAX. I believer that both will
continue growth as they have their advantages. A lot depends on
execution and technology is not the only factor.

> On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Abdul Azeem <azeem...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Any Company/ISP could not offer CIR BW on Wimax even its technically
> > possible but financially not. It's totally shared media & BW availability
> > depends upon subscriber registration ratio on Base Station while DSL service
> > is have no reservations like that even we also have options of serial
> > connectivity using G.SDDSL & some sort of DSL Flavored Stuff.
>
> > GOD BLESS TO MUSLIMS & PAKISTAN...!
>

> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 4:18 PM, Ahmad, Shakeel <shakeelah...@gmail.com>

> > wrote:
>
> >> An off topic but have any one herd PTCL doubling the speed on all
> >> current packages in same amount ?
>
> >> thanks,
> >> Shakeel
>

[Atif Wajid]

Inspite of services and packages like shared/CIR, look at the ease in
gettingthe services. No matter it is Wateen or Mobilink, the normal
delivery time is less than 24 hrs. With preactivated CPEs, it is even
now less than 4 hours.

While in DSL, we all can imagine.

I belive as the market/ applications matures, more wimax products will
come and in my opinion, it would then be a touh time for DSL to
servive, especialy in consumers

Regards/Atif

--
Sent from Google Mail for mobile | mobile.google.com

[Aftab Siddiqui]

DSL mainly struggled because of dependencies on last mile copper owned
by PTCL and since PTCL has made many deliberate attempts to keep the
competition in their hand it will remain a monopolized technology.
Apart from all the issues in DSL the best part is the reach. PTCL is
offering broadband in many small cities.

Where as WiMax is still the urban technology in Pakistan, many
companies doesn't even have license to operate in cities other than
KHI, LHR, ISB. Not sure about the plans of wateen and mobilink but it
won't be financially feasible to provide WiMax in small cities even if
they get license to operate.

Could be wrong but still WiMax has a long way to go. Yes, you can get
WiMax pre configured CPE but what if there is no coverage in your
residential block. I have tested both Wateen and Mobilink and returned
it back coz of coverage :)

Seriously speaking as Mr. Haris said, mostly ppl r not interested in
mobility or CIR, who cares if your 512kbps internet is always on.

My opinion, DSL will continue to grow exponentially in small cities
and WiMax will grow in large cities ONLY n ONLY if both Wateen and
Mobilink resolves their Billing issues. :)

--
Regards,

Aftab A. Siddiqui

[Farhad Taimur]

Thank you all for your feedbacks

@ MOZ - are you working for LDN ? can i take this as official word of LDN also can you please share with me the statement of LDN denying this merger. this will really help me in correcting my perception.

On answer which i am still looking for is the details about any oeprator (other than wateen) which is expanding its DSL infrastrcutre? i heard that Micronet is now more focused on their FTTH via nayatel rather than DSL conenctivity? Also LDN has stopped ordering new DSL ports. Cybernet is also not very aggressively buying new ports and same is the news from MAXCOM.

Farhad Taimur

[Rehan Jafry]

@ Mr Harris,

 

                     Wimax  have problems..... am amazed that you have not been gone thru any problem while using Wimax over the last one year.It is  actually the distance which you have mentioned 5-8 hundred meters from the base station helping you to stay connected all the time. What about dense populated areas with high rise buildings??. You are right that  by 2012 LTE will hit the market as  most of the vendors have now started working on this new technology, but still DSL leads in terms of  stable connection.

 

Almost every corporate customer have used Fiber from the HUB site as a last mile for the aggregation to their HO because of the so far unstabe behavior of wimax ( whether wateen or mobilink)  which cannot be used as a primary connection.

 

Mobility is the real game of wimax and  consumer are waiting for that thing. If it is only about using internet at home  then  a local cable operator is the best choice. Nobody is offering CIR  services through Wimax (correct me if i am wrong) and i personally think that this is because of the technology limitations and more work needs to be done to give  CIR or  UGS  through wimax.

 

 

Regards,

 

Rehan Jafry

 

                 

 

 

 

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 9:25 PM, Aftab Siddiqui <aftab.s...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Rehan Jafry

[Haris Shamsi]

Dear Rehan

Technology doesn't have limitation related to qos cos. With difserv
bits you can have it end to end. For dense areas you increase BS
density also femto and pico cells can manage lot of limitations in
terms of coverage.

Again Let's not evaluate the market or technology with corporate
connectivity. 3G is also not :)

[Shahzad Alam]

Dear Rehan,

Every technology can fail if its not properly implemented. The adoption of one technology over other doesn't reflect success or failure. There are many variables involved in these sorts of decision. Business interest, forums political maneuvering, financial backing, size of the market all are equally important facts to consider. CDMA vs GSM is one good example. Both are good technologies but there are other variables associated for operator to prefer one over other.

Corporate and residential markets are two different segments. Both require different level of planning and investment. Today when cellular companies have deeply rooted all across Pakistan, their services in so many high rise buildings in major urban areas are quite questionable. It doesn't reflect the failure of GSM tech....its planning. Technology provides most of the tools to provides SLAs.

Do we have any precedence in DSL, that its subscription touched to 15K subs within four or five months of launch even in presence of  tough cut throat competition and atlernatives?

Please note by license Mobility is not allowed in Pakistan but nomadicity is available today which is not the case in DSL.

CIR services are available but definitely rates are different....

There are lot of other pointers...but let me close here....

I hope it helps.

Regards
Shahzad

[Waqa]

Both of the technologies have their advantages/disadvantages as of
today but eventualy wimax is the future of broadband technology in
Pakistan. How soon is the question in everybody's mind??
DSL broadband subscribers are around 125k (with Ptcl, MultiNet,
CyberNet, LDN and many other operators) all over pakistan in last 6
years as compared to WImax subscribers are more than 50k (with Wateen
all over pakistan & Mobilink in Karachi only) in just 2 years with new
technology. Trends of both technologies are very much clear and Wimax
penetration is moving very quickly to the winning stand.
Although pakistan is being used as a test bed for this technology but
Mobilink has proved it a success by 15k in just 4 months which means
60k in One Year. Waow. Wateen has its own credit as a pioneer in this
technology. I am seeing the Wimax with more than 50% market share as
compared to DSL at end of this Year-2009. Don't forget about Wi-tribe
& Augere here.
PTA should start monthly/quarterly/yearly ranking like GSM operators
by now.

End of the day its all about Happy Pakistan!!!

Waqa