The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) earned Rs105 billion or $1 million (based on yesterday’s exchange rates) in fees from all licensees as total investment in the telecom sector crossed $1.8 billion during fiscal year 2014 (FY14), the telecom regulator revealed in its annual report.
According to the data, figures for telecom investment rose three times from $600 million, the level it achieved in FY13.
Almost half of the $1.8 billion was in the form of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow to the telecom sector that spent over $903 million on purchasing 3G and 4G licences and upgrading their infrastructure during the review period. FDI in the telecom sector alone accounted for more than half of the country’s total FDI ($1.6 billion in FY14).
Telecom sector revenues for FY14 clocked in at Rs465 billion, as it contributed Rs243.84 billion to the national kitty in that year – an all-time high in tax contribution by the sector.
Overall, the telecom imports in FY14 crossed $1.23 billion, of which 44.4% was for the imports of consumer items, such as cellular mobile handsets, according to the data.
As cellular operators and the consumers geared up for 3G and 4G services, the country witnessed record imports of $544 million of cellular mobile handsets and $682 million worth of telecom equipment, registering growth of 20.7% and 30.3% respectively, the report said.
Revealing statistics about the market share of cellular mobile operators (CMOs), the report added that Mobilink led the market with 27.7% subscriber share as of June 30, 2014 followed by Telenor (26.1%), Zong (19.4%), Ufone (17.4%) and Warid (9.3%).
