General Overview
Industry analysis requires careful examination of four basic things i.e. type of industry, nature of the technology, customer requirements/expectations and product life cycle (Porter, 2008). The cell phone sector of the telecommunication industry is of high velocity, technology of the sector is rapidly changing, customer expectations are high and fast evolving and product life cycles are short in terms of new packages and services.
The telecom sector is one of the fastest growing segments of Pakistan’s economy and is a key driver to the growth. There are an estimated more than 100 million cellular8 users and the sector directly or indirectly employs approximately 1.36 million people. Due to high growth rate, this industry has become back-bone of Pakistan’s economy. It is providing many employment and investment opportunities due to high revenues generated via huge number of users of telecom services. Along with opportunities, this industry also provides vast facilities to communicate and connect globally in better, reliable and modern manner. Today, the telecommunication sector is one of the best developed technology sector of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s telecommunication market is one of the hottest in the emerging economies. Pakistan is still an unsaturated market and with the falling cost of handsets there are plenty of new subscribers to go for. But eventually as in saturated markets, if mobile operators want to avoid simply competing on price, they will have to compete on superior services, innovative features and ease of use. Due to current developments of market convergence among Internet, cable and telecom industry there is a need of regulatory restructuring for creating a platform for timely relocation towards next-generation-networks (NGNs) like 4G9 and beyond (Xia, 2011). For a country like Pakistan, it is necessary to analyze its market regulations and policies and other technological advancements for sustainable development. In developing countries like Pakistan, market analysis yields many factors creating an impact on 3G10/4G networks including the institutional aspects as well as indirect aspects that have impact on regulatory policies (Xia, 2012).