Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is the Pakistan's most reliable and largest converged services carrier which provides all telecommunications services from basic voice telephony to data, internet, video-conferencing and carrier services to consumers and businesses all over the country.
Whether it is an office in the largest city of Pakistan or a home in a small village, the company is present in every corner of Pakistan to serve its valued customers.
President's Message
I have taken immense pride in assuming the duty as President and CEO of PTCL, which is a great opportunity for me to execute my responsibilities as a team leader. To me Pakistan and PTCL are synonymous with an opportunity for growth. The potential of this growth is visible to me as it is about the human capital we have in the form of talented and experienced employees. I can assure you that with the traditional dedication and determination of PTCL workers we will transform this company into a world class ICT company. I am proud of my fellow colleagues who have been leading the market so far and have been adapting to changing technological advancements. After the deregulation in the telecom sector of Pakistan, PTCL is now again ready to face new challenges in a competitive environment. We are poised to retain our leadership position by giving PTCL a new and improved look. The new colors of the Logo are in context with every Pakistani’s sense of identity and patriotism; green and white being the colors of purity and honesty, the colors of trustworthiness and integrity, the colors of Pakistan’s flag and the colors of every Pakistani’s passion. Be assured that PTCL will remain the people’s first choice of communication in the future. Promising you the best of our services, at all times.
Best Wishes
Walid Irshaid
President & CEO
Vision
To be the leading Information and Communication Technology Service Provider in the region by achieving customer satisfaction and maximizing shareholders' value'.
The future is unfolding around us. In times to come, we will be the link that allows global communication. We are striving towards mobilizing the world for the future. By becoming partners in innovation, we are ready to shape a future that offers telecom services that bring us closer.
Company Profile
PTCL operates in one of the most dynamic, deregulated and competitive markets in the world; Pakistan with a population of 165 million people is a fast growing economy with relatively low penetration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) services.
PTCL intends to be the leading ICT provider in the region by achieving customers' satisfaction and maximizing shareholders' value and as such PTCL perceives its future as a customer centric organization enhancing its infrastructure and investing in people.
History
Having its origin in the Post & Telegraph Department established in 1947, the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) was established in December 1990, taking over operations and functions from the Pakistan Telephone and Telegraph Department under the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Act 1991. The Pakistan Government's policy to promote competition encouraged private sector participation and resulted in the award of licenses to cellular companies, card-operated payphones, paging and, lately, data communication services. Pursuing a progressive policy, the Government in 1991, announced its plans to privatize PTC, and in 1994 issued six million vouchers exchangeable into 600 million shares of the would-be PTCL in two separate placements. Each had a par value of Rs. 10/- per share. In 1995, the Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Ordinance paved the way for the establishment of an independent regulatory regime. A milestone was crossed in 1996 as the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) was formed and formally listed on all Stock Exchanges of Pakistan. Since then, PTCL has been working vigorously to meet the dual challenge of telecom development and socio-economic uplift of the country. In keeping with the convergence of technologies in the telecom sector PTCL’s mobile and internet subsidiaries were created in 1998. Ufone, the country’s second largest mobile service provider, boosted its operations by rolling out the country’s largest ever expansion of its network, worth US$ 525 million. The new investment aims to expand capacity and coverage in existing and new cities, as well as providing high speed cellular mobile and wireless data services. By mid-2008 the two major expansions will give Ufone coverage in over 4,500 cities, towns and villages, and all major highways in the country.
Etisalat and PTCL
In 2006, Pakistan's Privatization Commission held open bidding to sell 1.326 billion shares, along with management control of PTCL. The Etisalat International Pakistan, a 100 % owned subsidiary of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation - Etisalat was the highest bidder for a 26 per cent stake in PTCL with a $1.96 (116 rupees) per share offer. Etisalat takes pride in being a partner in progress wherever it goes. To realize the dream of human progress, Etisalat is ever ready to harness new technologies, build new partnerships and embrace the future as it comes. This is the vision that drives Etisalat and directs the Etisalat-PTCL interaction. Subsequent to the takeover of management control by Etisalat International Pakistan, PTCL continues its drive to transform into a modern, customer-focused communication and information provider with a new vigour and commitment. By focusing on customer satisfaction, partnering with innovation, investing in training and human resources and enhancing its infrastructure, PTCL is evolving continuously. PTCL is one of the largest employers in the country with its work force spread all over the country to provide an essential service to the people of Pakistan. The changed telecom environment requires PTCL to bring about changes in its corporate culture to thrive more in the new environment.
Corporate and Commercial Initiatives
As part of the transformation of PTCL, the management initiated work on the re-branding of the Company as a modern and customer-centric national carrier. Externally changing the logo was carried out to reflect the commitment to the customers and the modernizing of the infrastructure. Internally it gave employees a new zeal to stimulate the mindset change from a technology and operations focused company to a competitive carrier that has customer services as its hallmark. PTCL made several investments in infrastructure development and added network capacity to enhance services and expand its reach across the country. The market in Pakistan is extremely competitive and PTCL has the largest nationwide installed network infrastructure capability including switching, transmission, fibre optic backbone, co-location and international capacity. This gives PTCL a unique position in terms of providing to carriers and individual consumers alike. With the introduction of Vfone, the new CDMA-based WLL platform of PTCL, is poised to become the largest fixed wireless telephony network in Pakistan. On the wireless broadband front, a major upgrade of the WLL CDMA network was rolled out in order to provide wireless broadband services in 17 major cities. Broadband Pakistan offers DSL services with unmatched reliability, affordability and connectivity. Customers have the option to packages with varying speeds from 512Kb to 2Mb with unlimited downloads. Broadband customer service is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week at 1236 with highly trained and professional representatives. As part of offering converged services, expanding its service portfolio and improving customer retention and acquisition, PTCL initiated the multi-channel Inter Protocol Television (IPTV) project during 2006-07. This will be a landmark addition to the PTCL service portfolio and will enable the company to provide Triple Play (voice, video and data) services over a single fixed line connection. With IPTV the customer will be provided with a single interface to satisfy his communication and entertainment needs along with single billing. Keeping in mind customer convenience, PTCL is actively engaged in bringing an array of bill payment options to its customers. PTCL customers now have the flexibility to choose between dropping a cheque in a drop box at a location near them to sending their payments through mail at a nearby post office. PTCL has also offered a dedicated service to provide billing information to its valued subscribers who can simply dial '1200' to access instant billing information of the required PTCL service. With the introduction of this service, customers no longer need to personally visit customer service centers to find out what their bill amounts are and the automated service is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to further facilitate customers. Moreover, PTCL has introduced a variety of valued added services for its customers while a number of others are in the pipeline. Alongside the many packages and services PTCL is continually seeking ways to facilitate its customers of which payment cards and electronic modes of payments are just a part. On the technical front, PTCL has laid an Optical Fibre Access Network in the major metropolitan centres of Pakistan and local loop services have started to be modernized and upgraded from copper to an optical network. PTCL has invested in the capacity of two SEA-ME-WE submarine cables to meet the increasing demand of international traffic. Additionally, PTCL is also part of a consortium that will put in place a high-capacity fiber-optic submarine cable that stretches from India to Italy and France via the Middle East, named I-ME-WE, to provide effective resilience to the existing cable systems (SMW3 & SMW4). PTCL has also signed an agreement with Huawei Technologies Pakistan and Hewlett Packard (HP) to jointly launch the ‘Network Operation Center’ project which has state-of-the-art fault detection and resolution technology. This project would establish one main network operation center and three regional ones with the implementation of an alarm management system across the entire PTCL network in an integrated manner. Beyond improved packages and new products, PTCL, as a socially responsible corporate entity, has been pursuing different social causes touching on areas of culture, sports, music, environment and general welfare by supporting different initiatives.
As such, PTCL's CSR activities and new ventures are warmly welcomed.
Subsidiaries
Ufone (Pakistan Telecom Mobile Ltd) a wholly-owned subsidiary of PTCL commenced its operations on 29th January 2001 as a GSM 900 service provider. Since the outset, it has expanded its coverage and customer base at a rapid pace and established itself as one of the leading cellular service providers in Pakistan. Ufone is now considered to be one of the most active, aggressive and innovative players in the mobile sector of Pakistan.
The growth of the cellular industry is a direct result of the successful implementation of the telecom deregulation and cellular mobile policy by the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications (MOIT&T) and the support, guidance and timely enforcement of regulatory process by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Privatization
The growth of the cellular sector in Pakistan can also be attributable to good governance policies of the government of Pakistan and the Privatization Commission. In April 2006, Emirates Telecommunication Corporation, which is commonly known as Etisalat, has assumed management control of Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Ltd – part of the $2.6bn deal to buy a 26% stake in PTCL. The successful privatization of PTCL, and consequently Ufone, is hailed as ushering in a new era for telecommunications in Pakistan.
Now, under the management of Etisalat, Ufone will concentrate on customer needs and benefits and is more determined than ever to be the leading cellular player in the market. Ufone has been known for providing superb propositions and quality service to its customers. With the new expected investment, Ufone can now aggressively expand its network coverage.
Key Accomplishments
Ufone has always played a pivotal role in the development of the cellular market in Pakistan. For the most part, it has been a step ahead in introducing innovative products to the market. Ufone was a pioneer in launching the GPRS services and Multi-media Messaging Service (MMS) in Pakistan, and lead the way in introducing GPRS international roaming and prepaid international roaming for these services in the Pakistani market.
Performance
As mobile users in the country have reached over 28 million at a very rapid pace, Ufone has maintained itself as the 2nd largest cellular operator in Pakistan with a subscriber base of around 6.5 million and a market share of nearly 25%. Ufone has seen a subscriber growth rate of over 200% in the last year, and since the start of 2005 Ufone added nearly 5 million subscribers onto its network. A remarkable achievement indeed, especially considering the fact that two new international players also entered into the market in 2005. Subsequently the growth in subscriber base caused a healthy trend in revenues which have doubled.
Brand
While keeping its tradition of being the trend setter in the industry, Ufone changed the image of mobile phones from a luxury only affordable by the elite, to a necessity affordable by the common man. Since its inception, Ufone has positioned its brand for masses. In keeping with the upcoming competition and market dynamics, Ufone increased its focus on the youth segment (which comprises 50% of the population), with the Prepay brand. By designing market focused products, Ufone’s brand team launched aggressive campaigns, which further increased the brand equity. The new brand image gained huge popularity amongst the targeted market. A recent marketing survey conducted by a prominent marketing research company showed that Ufone has considerably increased its brand visibility and image. Ufone’s Prepay brand is now considered to be one of the most favored brands by the youth market and is followed by other mobile operators launching their respective brands for the youth market.
Product and Pricing
Since the recent telecom de-regularization and the issuance of two more GSM licenses, the Pakistan telecom market has become very competitive and is changing at a very fast pace. Remaining competitive has now become a challenge. Ufone once again set a trend in the market by introducing simplified tariffs. The company has two main product lines (prepaid and post paid) for all its valued customers. To capture every segment of the market, Ufone has further customized its packages. Postpaid is further differentiated into 4 plans including a very competitive Zero Line Rent package. Ufone has introduced a very simplified tariff structure for its customers with a flat rate of Rs. 2.50/ minute to any operator all over the country. The on net off peak rates also remain amongst the lowest at Rs. 1.50/ minute. Similarly Ufone has the most competitive SMS, GPRS and MMS rates having the lowest international SMS rate at Rs. 1.50. These simplified tariff plans and user friendly packages have greatly helped Ufone in becoming the fastest growing operator in the country.
Ufone understands the need to communicate effectively and efficiently at all levels of society and its various products are catering for the needs of the Pakistan corporate market. It offers services such as mobile office and the Virtual Private Network (VPN) which have revolutionized communication.
International Coverage
Ufone provides International Roaming facility with more than 150 international operators across 79 countries. Ufone has GPRS roaming agreements with several international operators and also provides prepaid roaming facility to selective destinations.
Customer Service
Ufone is proud to have an efficient and friendly customer service through 21 company-owned Sales & Customer Service Centers and nearly 250 franchisees across the country. The outlets are able to service the customers with innovative solutions, and are empowered with Web based franchise management systems. Ufone is poised to face the ever increasing challenges of the market and is confident it will attract new customers. It has the ability to retain its existing customer base with a high level of customer satisfaction via optimum network service and a 24 hour call center facility.
Network Coverage
Ufone has always believed in a solid commitment to growth, security and reliability. Therefore, Ufone has always balanced its expansion efforts and quality of service. With a total current investment of $400 Million, Ufone has network coverage in more than 260 cities and towns and across all major highways of the country.
Ufone has been instrumental in the growth of the cellular market in Pakistan. It is a company committed to excellence. Under the new vision of Etisalat and with the support and collaboration of its employees and vendors, Ufone aspires to be the best in the market by offering customer focused products and a quality service and sales network.