Telenor Pakistan

Telenor Pakistan
Subsidiary
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 2004
Headquarters Islamabad, Pakistan
Area served
 Pakistan
Key people
 Irfan Wahab Khan (CEO)
Products Mobile Telephony, Mobile Banking
Parent Telenor
Website www.telenor.com.pk

Telenor Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited[1] (Urdu: ٹیلی نار پاکستان‬‎) is owned by the Norwegian Telenor Group, which is an international provider of voice, data, content and mobile communication services in 13 markets across Europe and Asia and an additional 17 markets through its ownership in VimpelCom Ltd. Telenor Group is among the largest mobile operators in the world, with over 166 million mobile subscriptions (Q4 2011) and a workforce of 33,000. Telenor started out as a public company in 1855.

Currently, Telenor Pakistan has a total subscriber base of 43 million with 29% SIM market share.[2]

History

Telenor Pakistan office in Islamabad

Telenor acquired a license for providing GSM services in Pakistan in April 2004, and launched its services commercially in Karachi, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi on 15 March 2005; it expanded its services to Lahore, Faisalabad and Hyderabad on 23 March 2005. Telenor Pakistan's corporate headquarters are in Islamabad, with regional offices in Peshawar, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Hyderabad, Quetta and Karachi. On 28 January 2005, Telenor established its first call centre in Karachi.

The official opening of Telenor Pakistan was held in Islamabad with former President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf as guest of honor and a Telenor delegation headed by President and CEO of Telenor Group Jon Fredrik Baksaas along with then CEO of Telenor Pakistan Tore Johnsen.[3] The inauguration call was made by former President Pervez Musharraf to the Prime Minister of Norway, who was visiting Australia at the time. The present CEO of Telenor Pakistan is Irfan Wahab Khan.[4]

Operations

Areas

Telenor covers more than 3,500 cities and towns throughout Pakistan.[5] The company has over 8,000 3G-ready cell sites throughout the country. It offers GPRS and EDGE nationwide and HSPA+ services in over 300 cities.[6]

Sales and distribution

Telenor Pakistan's distribution network has over 200,000 touch points across Pakistan that include franchises, sahulat ghars and retailers that offer GSM products and Easypaisa services. Company-owned customer sales and service centers ceased operations in 2017.

Next generation mobile services (NGMS)

Telenor Pakistan is providing 3G services as the company has acquired a 3G licence in an auction that took place on 23 April 2014 in Islamabad, Pakistan, and is expanding services rapidly.[7] Telenor Pakistan has Pakistan's largest 3G coverage currently, in 300+ cities.

Telenor uses Band 5 (850 MHz) and Band 1 (2100 MHz) for its 3G (HSPA+) network in Pakistan.

Introduction of LTE

In August 2016, Telenor Pakistan became the third 4G network of Pakistan. Telenor Pakistan is providing LTE in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Karachi, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Swat. Telenor has added over 3,000 LTE cell sites to its network and Karachi alone has received 600+ LTE sites with special arrangements such as spectrum refarming and LTE availability on Bands 3 and 5. [8]

Telenor is currently using FDD-LTE Band 5 (850MHz) for LTE services, and using both Band 5 and Band 3 (1800 MHz) in Karachi and Islamabad. [8]

Closing of service centers

On January 5th 2017, Telenor Pakistan announced that it will be shutting down all 17 of its customer service centers in the country.

Telenor said it will serve its customers through 289 franchises that are open in various parts of the country.[9][10]

Radio frequency summary

Frequencies used on Telenor Pakistan's Network
Frequency Protocol Band Class Channel width
900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G 4.8 MHz
1800 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G 5.8 MHz (Islamabad) / 3.8 MHz (Karachi) / 8.8 MHz (all other cities)
850 MHz UMTS/HSDPA/HSPA+ 5 3G 5 MHz
2100 MHz UMTS/HSDPA/HSPA+ 1 3G 5 MHz
850 MHz LTE 5 4G 5 MHz
1800 MHz LTE 3 4G 3 MHz (Islamabad) / 5 MHz (Karachi)

As of October 2017, Telenor is not using its entire 8.8 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band for 2G services. It seems that due to heavy demand of 4G Telenor is looking to refarm its 1800 MHz spectrum for LTE. They are using a 3 MHz block of spectrum in Band 3 for LTE in Islamabad, and a 5 MHz block of spectrum in Band 3 for LTE in Karachi, they are also using Band 5 in both cities as well. [8]

Telenor was awarded a 10 MHz block in Band 5, and rather than using the entire block for LTE, it has divided it into two 5 MHz blocks, one for HSPA+ (3G) and the remaining 5 MHz has been deployed for LTE.

Mobile banking and Easypaisa

In 2008, Telenor acquired majority shares of Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited for its mobile financial services project.[11] They named the branchless banking service "Easypaisa" and launched it in October 2009.[12] In a country of over 190 million people, with only 10,000 bank branches and approximately 15 million bank accounts, Easypaisa was Pakistan's first branchless banking deployment aimed to increase access to financial services for the people of Pakistan, with over 25,000 Easypaisa shops across the country[13] who perform the money transfers and bill payments. Later 'Mobile Wallet' was introduced where normal Telenor Pakistan subscribers could now open a mobile account and make transactions themselves from their cellphone. Easypaisa was cited by CNN as the "model to follow" in launching mobile banking services.[14][15]

Easypaisa is Pakistan's first and largest mobile money service, and third largest in the world, catering to 6 million customers every month. It currently has over 40,000 agents in 750 cities and towns across Pakistan. In October 2014 Telenor Easypaisa introduced several types of accounts at different levels. They have named them as Level 2 Basic Account, Level 2 A Type Account, Level 2 B Type Account and Level 2 C Type Account, each with its own deposit limit and distinct rules.[16]

EasyPaisa split up with Telenor Pakistan

EasyPaisa Mobile banking announced it was parting ways with Telenor Pakistan in March 2017. It is now being managed by Tameer Bank, which is fully owned by the Telenor Group. EasyPaisa's operations, PR and marketing will now be handled by the Telenor Group.[17][18][19]

Awards

Telenor Pakistan has won a number of awards. In 2011, it won the Prime Minister of Pakistan Trophy for Largest Foreign Direct Investment (Telecom Sector) which was awarded by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries.[20]

Telenor Pakistan & Tameer Microfinance Bank's Easypaisa was awarded the Shaukat Khanum Social Responsibility Award 2011 by Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Lahore.[21] Easypaisa also won the Best Mobile Money Transfer Entrant of the Year Award at the world's first Mobile Money Awards in 2011. In 2012, Easypaisa was declared as the third largest mobile money service in the world by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a global partnership of 34 organizations housed in the World Bank whose goal is to advance financial inclusion.

In previous years, Telenor Pakistan has been presented with the "Best Place to Work Award" by Pakistan's HR associations; and the Best Practices Award, presented by the Data Warehousing Institute.[22]

Telenor Pakistan also won the "Superbrand of the Telecom Industry Award", a recognition supported by the international brand arbiter Superbrands that operates in 55 countries.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Telenor Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited: Private Company Information". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  2. ↑ "Telecom Indicators | PTA". www.pta.gov.pk. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  3. ↑ "Telenor Pakistan History. - STOP.PK - One stop for every Pakistani!". stop.pk.
  4. ↑ "Press Releases". www.telenor.com.pk.
  5. ↑ Telenor's coverage statistics Archived 8 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ "Telenor Pakistan's EDGE and GPRS services". Archived from the original on 19 August 2012.
  7. ↑ "Telenor 3G Daily, 3 Days, Weekly and Monthly Packages 2016". www.telezonepk.com. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 "4G for Everyone: Telenor is Adding One 4G Site Every Hour". 2017-10-25. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
  9. ↑ "Telenor to shut down all 17 customer centres across Pakistan - The Express Tribune". The Express Tribune. 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  10. ↑ "Telenor is Shutting Down Its Service Centers, Will Layoff Employees". 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  11. ↑ "The acquisition of Tameer Bank".
  12. ↑ The launch of Easypaisa.
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  14. ↑ Subohi, Afshan Subohi (27 September 2010). "Towards a quiet transformation". dawn.com.
  15. ↑ Highlights of BCG Report on "Socio-economic impact of mobile financial services".
  16. ↑ Portal, Telecom News/Review. "New Telenor Easypaisa with New Rules".
  17. ↑ "Easypaisa Parts Ways with Telenor Pakistan". 2017-03-07. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
  18. ↑ "Telenor Pakistan to part ways with its brainchild Easypaisa". Retrieved 2017-03-12.
  19. ↑ "Easypaisa to part ways with Telenor Pakistan". TechJuice. 2017-03-08. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
  20. ↑ "Telenor Opens Sales and Service Center in Islamabad". 22 August 2011.
  21. ↑ "DailyTimes - Your Right To Know". www.dailytimes.com.pk.
  22. ↑ Corporation, Teradata. "Teradata Customer Telenor Pakistan Recognized as a 2010 Best Practices Award Winner in the Enterprise Business Intelligence Category by TDWI". www.prnewswire.com.
  23. ↑ "Telenor Declared as the Superbrand of the Telecom Industry". www.propakistani.pk. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
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