Pakistan internet user base

[Inspirex]

Over the past few years, there seems to have a a continuous meteoric rise in the number of internet users in Pakistan, as reported by various sources and the same are often cited in PTA and other policy documents.

These sources include the ITU, The World Bank, and sometimes often the PTA itself.

The latest numbers that seem to be going around is approximately 29 million.

Source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/pakistan/internet-users-wb-data.html

If the ITU's definition of "internet users" is the source of this value, then it seems we are relying on nothing more than a very vague statistical reference that seems to be misstating the real size of internet users that use the internet regularly and face the risk of grossly oversizing the market when planning for products / service development.

The ITU's definition of internet users is:

"4212 Estimated Internet users 

The estimated number of Internet users out of total population. This includes 

those using the Internet from any device (including mobile phones) in the last 

12 months. A growing number of countries are measuring this through 

household surveys. In countries where household surveys are available, this 

estimate should correspond to the estimated number derived from the 

percentage of Internet users collected. (If the survey covers percentage of the 

population for a certain age group (e.g., 15-74 years old, the estimated number 

of Internet users should be derived using this percentage, and note indicating 

the scope and coverage of the survey should be provided). In situations where 

surveys are not available, an estimate can be derived based on the number of 

Internet subscriptions."

Accessed from: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/material/TelecomICT_Indicators_Definition_March2010_for_web.pdf on April 27, 2013 at 11.30 am PST

Would appreciate if someone point me to a contact in PTA that can help me confirm if this is the reference being used and if so, I would like to have a discussion on the surveys used to derive this info.

Help appreciated!

Best regards.

Imtiaz N. Mohammad