Nationwide mobile use at 63.5pc in December

Mobilink users up 320k
Raza Baqar
KARACHI: The total teledensity has reached 63.50 per cent as on December 31, 2009, according to the data released by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The phenomenal growth was once again seen in cellular segment as its teledensity surged to 59.6 per cent as compared to 59.03 per cent at the end of November 2009.
During December, 870k subscribers were added in which Mobilink added 320k subscribers followed by Telenor and Ufone with 221k and 129k new subscribers respectively. Warid and Zong could lure 129k and 51k new subscribers respectively.
During the Calendar Year 2009, a total of 7.7 million subscribers were added in which Telenor attracted the most number of new customers, i.e. 3.11 million, to overtake Ufone followed by Mobilink and Warid which added 2.32 million and 1.93 million subscribers respectively. Zong added 1.4 million subscribers during CY09.
At the end of December 2009, Mobilink was still enjoying a market share of 31.56 per cent, followed by Telenor and Warid with market share of 23.06 per cent and 19.31 per cent respectively. Zong and Ufone increased their market share to 7.09 per cent and 18.97 per cent respectively.