Interview: Aamer Ejaz, Pakistan Telecommunication

At Carriers World Asia 2015, Aamer Ejaz, Pakistan Telecommunication gave the below interview to express his thoughts on a few key subjects relating to the telecom industry in Pakistan. We hope you find this interview of interest.

What is the current state of the industry in Pakistan for wholesale carriers? 

The telecom industry in Pakistan is definitely evolving. There are certain ups and downs in the industry. Recently the LDI market has been completely deregulated. This is the result of bringing in bigger volumes in terms of voice and data. But it has certain downsides because of the tough price war and strict competition. Profit margin is certainly decreasing, and it’d be difficult for certain operators and carriers — who would previously make good money during the regulatory regime — in such an environment.

The other thing is, 3G and 4G ha ve opened a huge door of growth for carriers and operators.

Figure 1: Aamer Ejaz, General Manager Business Development, Carrier Services & Wholesale, Pakistan Telecommuncation:

What is your view on voice? Where do you see the future growth opportunities?

Voice is still a core product for Pakistan Telecommunication but its revenue is decreasing. The carriers are targeting the data side and investing more in capacity. 

I think the future growth opportunities lie in capacity. PTCL has signed to be one of the official partners in AAE-1, which is the new cable system coming to Pakistan with targeted completion in 2016. There will be huge growth opportunities in banking, OTT, app development, and fibre backhaul.

What can the industry expect from PTCL this year?

Firstly, PTCL is currently renovating our colocation facilities not only to increase our capacity but also to enrich our service portfolio. Secondly, we have aggressively taken up the fibre backhaul. We are building the BTS hub sites and offer solutions to a number of MNOs. Thirdly we’ve launch 10,000 strong access points (APs) for WiFi hotspot projects for data uploading. It will go along with MNOs to conserve their spectrum and seamless offering of their services. Finally, with the new cable system coming, it will greatly increase the capacity for our customers.

What is your next investment?

In the short-term, we’ve already invested in fibre backhaul and are in the progress of improving our colocation facilities. In the long term, we will be investing more in cables.