PTA held the most awaited spectrum auction on 23rd April, 2014. It was a historic day for the Telecom Industry and probably for the people of Pakistan. We can all move forward now in the technology domain and can finally restart the engine that has for years not been operational.The telecom operators that got the 3G spectrum are Zong, Mobilink, Ufone and Telenor, while Zong is the only company that occupied 4G spectrum.
Now as the auctioning process is finally over customers of these respective operators are waiting for the commercial launch of 3G and 4G services. According to sources the operators will be able to provide these services in 2 to 3 weeks time. While we wait for the commercial launch of these services the operators are also providing their customers free trail of 3G. Telenor which has occupied 3G spectrum has publicly announced that its customers can use and try 3G services for free in selected area’s of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. If you are aTelenor customer and reside in one of these cities than you can check if you are in 3G coverage by dialing “*7799#” from your Telenor Sim and can enjoy 3G services for free (Remember this is a limited time offer till 3G is deployed publicly).
Moving on the 3G and 4G packages, till now telecom operators are just advertising their 3G and 4G technologies whereas none of them have announced the 3G and 4G packages. As the operators have purchased the 3G and 4G spectrum in Million of Dollars it is expected that the operators will try to get most of the 3G technology financially. Our neighboring countries are also using 3G services and the prices there are also expensive. For 3G, lets take an example of India the price for 1GB data is Indian Rs. 250 (PKR 405), for 2GB Indian Rs. 450 (PKR 730) and for 5 GB Indian Rs. 750 (PKR 1220).
Finally, let’s estimate the price on which 3G can be offered in Pakistan. It should be kept in mind that the competition in quite very high in telecom sector because 4 operators will be competing each other to attract users to use their respective services by keeping the prices as low as possible.
The table above compares the average 3G package prices in the neighboring countries and the expected 3G prices in Pakistan. It should be noted that these are assumed 3G package prices in Pakistan and till now no operator has updated regarding 3G/4G packages or their prices.
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