The five existing providers in Pakistan.

A decade ago, cellular service in Pakistan was provided by a couple of companies which operated as Oligopolies and catered only to the elite. However, in recent years, the telecom market has exploded with tremendous growth and has surpassed everyone’s expectations. More than 131 million people use cell phone services in Pakistan which has led Pakistan to rank at number 5 in Asia in terms of mobile phone users.

At one point (2011) , there were 6 providers in the telecom market in Pakistan. What’s important to understand regarding the level of competition is that consumers in Pakistan are not bound by long term contracts to cellular phone companies. All they require is a copy of the national ID card to set up a connection, or switch to another provider. There’s little or no brand loyalty when you as a consumer have so little restrictions and your decisions are more or less based on price. Therefore, there’s cutthroat competition and little room to relax.

The emergence of new players in the market after a horrifying earthquake in 2005 led to a flurry of intense aggressive marketing against each other, price wars which made 2 cents per minute calls to any network possible without subscribing to any special package or deal and an overload of information which has led to a clutter of noise in the media.

The price wars continued for quite a while until they could not lower them anymore and then began the endless charade of unethical marketing campaigns ridiculing each other. As of this moment, consumers can barely distinguish one provider from the other due to the overload of information and no clear PoD between any of the providers.

References:

1. http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=426

2.http://tribune.com.pk/story/218713/pakistan-5th-in-asian-mobile-phone-users/

3.http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=265&Itemid=135

4.http://www.indexmundi.com/pakistan/cell-phone-companies-in-pakistan.html