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Good career opportunites in general are scarce in Pakistan. Internship opportunities in particular are quite limited. Internship programs take some effort to set up and not all companies support the internship programs. In my opinion good interns bring fresh ideas, perspective and energy and create goodwill and are well worth the effort. I asked a telecom student at SZABIST about his views on internship. His response:

It is very difficult to get opportunities in top notch mobile companies in Pakistan. Companies like Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone and Warid visit quite regularly or at least once a year in top notch institutions of Engineering and Business Administration like IBA, NED, UET (Lahore), LUMS and CBM and take evaluations tests. Later the short listed candidates are interviewed and the few lucky ones get through. Not to mention, there are always few candidates who use back door entry through good PR and other links with some1 in the management of that company to get in but by and large merit prevails in most of these companies. Its true that there are many talented individuals in Pakistan but not many opportunities exist for them so many go abroad.

On the TGP forum, another recent graduate of FAST-NU shared his internship experience:

I was lucky to secure an internship in the O&M dept of Telenor Pakistan comprising of six weeks last year, but a heavy majority of our first batch passed out without any “proper” internship where they could groom themselves professionally. There is another problem, that is of relative closeness of the Telecom sector. There maybe a lot of vertical growth in various organizations but there is less horizontal growth. We need right direction from the industry. More structured recruitment and internship programs shall be a great step in that direction.

Ufone and Telenor have ‘formal’ internship programs advertised on their site. Other job sites such as Mobilink, www.rozee.pk and www.finaljob.com.pk are also good places to search for internships and jobs. What about multinational companies such as Huawei and ZTE? These companies are popular with job seekers so it would be nice if someone can share information about internships or jobs there.

The excerpt from Ufone’s site below talks about a well-structured internship and leaves a good impression. The real question, as mentioned above, is how do we extend these opportunities to more talented students?

Ufone offers paid 6-8 weeks internship programs to fresh graduates, college students from various disciplines in all the major departments. This program is designed in such a way that it ensures maximum learning in your chosen career area and provides you an insight into our company, work and people. You will receive valuable on-the-job training, opportunities to learn, coupled with challenging projects and assignments.

The internship at Ufone is objective/assignment based. These are reviewed and evaluated at the end of internship. In addition, interns are paired with a mentor for further guidance. A project summary is required to be submitted to the supervisor and HR at the end of your internship.

My previous posts about Zong received a lot of queries about how to get a desired number from the new Zong series. For all of those who  are still looking for that special number, Zong has started offering Book Your Number feature online. You can check the availability of numbers online and if the number is available, fill out the form, attach your CNIC and then pick up the SIM from Zong office. The site also gives ideas on what numbers to get:

Update: Comments are closed – please go to Zong website for more information about how to book your number.

There are many ways to get in touch with mobile phone user in Pakistan. One of the option is to send and receive text message through the Internet. All you - the sender - needs is a web browser with Java. It works well for Pakistanis abroad who often have broadband and who want a quick chat with friends or family in Pakistan. Here’s how.

Let’s start with the example of the case when you want to send a text message to a Telenor user. Below is a screenshot from Telenor web to sms page where you enter the recipient’s phone number and your name and message. It is free for the sender and Telenor charges Rs.2 to the mobile user per message.

Note that the mobile user will receive the first message e.g. “Atif has sent you a Web 2 SMS chat message. If you wish to receive the messages from Mak, please reply Y. To reject, please reply N”. In case of reply with Y the session will start – otherwise it won’t. Once a session starts you can send and receive messages.

For those mobile users who do not use text messaging often this may be a surprise! This may not work with all handsets and this service can be blocked by the mobile users.

This functionality is available at many websites which connect to the mobile company’s gateway. I prefer going to the mobile provider site as much as possible so that I may avoid the clutter and ads at the other sites. Here are the links for sending such messages for other providers.

This page is a compilation of list and links for Telecommunication Services Providers (mobile, wimax, wireless local loop and voip – excluding fixed line) in Pakistan, with links to related posts on my blog and additional references listed at the end.

1. Market Overview Of Mobile Companies in Pakistan
The Pakistan market reached the 90 million subscriber mark in September 2008, almost double from 2006 numbers.The growth slowed after that and at the end of November 2008 the total mobile subscriber number was 90.5 million.

The chart below shows the market share of mobile phone companies of Pakistan, as of September 2008. Compared with July, the market share changed little. Mobilink lost 1% share (35%), picked up by Zong which cash rich and has a ready-to-invest attitude.

The ARPU in Pakistan remains low and is not projected to go up. The year 2008 was marked by changes in SIM sales and registration process, enforced by PTA, the government regulator.

If you are interested in the actual numbers, see the July data (source: PTA).

Now let’s review some recent history. At 2006 year end the total subscribers were 48.2 million. In June 2007 the total mobile users reached over 63 million. Based on numbers published at PTA website for 2007, the total number of subscribers (technically it is the number of SIMs issued) was 76.6 million, a teledensity of nearly 49%. In 2007 the average growth rate was about 2.5 million new subscribers each month! After second half of 2007 it seemed as if the growth had slowed down but overall it was fine. One remarkable achievement was by Zong (formerly Paketl) which launched very successful campaigns towards 2007 end completed rebrand launch in April of 2008. See this chart for a breakdown of market share by mobile companies at the end of Q1 of 2007.

For detailed one-page tarrif information for all the packages (pre-paid and postpaid) offered by the mobile companies, refer to the consumer notice from PTA below - posted as of August 4, 2008.

Here’s a brief description of the top mobile companies in Pakistan.

At the top is Mobilink, the Pakistani unit of Egypt-based telecom company Orascom. It has been operating in Pakistan since 1994. Subscriber share is 35% at the end of Sep 2008.

Ufone, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Co. Ltd (PTCL), is now under the control of Etisalat group of UAE. It has 21% of subscriber share and added the most lines (2.4 million) from 2006-07. For those in Pakistan it is the one company where they can easily invest locally.

Warid, owned by the Abu Dhabi group of the United Arab Emirates and sister of Wateen group is number 4 with 18% market of subscribers. Recently it sold 30% share to SingTel.

Norway’s Telenor, a recent entrant with about a billion US dollar investment in Pakistan has been doing well, based on its recent earning report. It has about 20% of the market share. Telenor stock is listed in the Oslo stock market (TEL) and in US(TELNY.PK).

CMPak (Zong brand), formerly Paktel, was the latest target of foreign acquisition. After it got acquired by China Mobile it was rebranded as Zong and launched one of the most successful and aggressive campaigns. Within a matter of few months, Zong has achieved a 6% market share.

2. Fixed Wireless (WLL)
Please see this post for an overview of the WLL operators and technology. Wireless local loop services are based on CDMA and are considered an alternative to copper lines. Recently rebranded Vfone service by PTCL is the market leader and recently there have been many intersting marketing and pricing moves. You may also follow this link for a list of WLL providers from PTA site.

3. WiMAX
This post provides a summary of WiMAX situation in Pakistan. Wateen has emerged as the largest player and has started advertising for its WiMAX services though as of Sep 2007 the pricing had not been announced. Mobilink Infinity also started commercial WiMAX service in Karachi. Dancom used to be an independent provider but it was acquired by Mobilink. Wi-tribe is another player.

4. Voice over IP
Companies providing VOIP and call forwarding services. In other words: International calls, local rates. See my posts about VOIP related issues for Pakistan.

• Vonics (more about Vonic’s Pakistan Plan)
• BRAIN TEL (Lahore only)
• CallPakistanDirect
• Rebetel - not specific to Pakistan
• FreeCallPlanet – not specific to Pakistan

References and Resources

1. Information of providers from PTA site
2. Mobile phone tariffs available at this PTA page.
3. Wikipedia – Communication in Pakistan

PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) has announced an Outstanding Project Award and Competition of Research Projects for students if Telecom and IT. An opportunity for final year under-graduate students to present their research projects.

I must say a great inniative taken up by PTA to promote the industry and academia relationship. Not only this, it would also motivate students to take up research projects at undergraduate level, which shall promote research culture among them.

The last date to submit projects to PTA is April 27, 2009. The Criteria for Gold Medal and time-line and Topics for competition of Best Research Projects can be found at www.pta.gov.pk.