ISLAMABAD: One of the mobile phone operators in the country – Telenor Pakistan has made a fiscal contribution of US $ 339 million to national kitty through taxes and other regulatory payments such as license fees, frequency fees and numbering fees in year 2015.
The operator, making endeavours to switch over 75 percent network to 4G in coming months by adding a site every hour, has planned heavy investment to further enhance its 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) footprint.
The capital investment and role in public financing by Norwegian Group has also touched US $ 179 million mark in 2015.
Chief Executive Officer, Telenor Pakistan, Irfan Wahab Khan while enumerating different initiatives and achievements on Sunday said after company’s 4G license acquisition in June 2016, it has rolled out over 3,000 LTE sites across more than 110 cities.
Karachi alone has received more than 600 LTE sites with special arrangements – such as spectrum reframing and dual band usage – made for enhanced user experience of the city’s LTE customers.
Recently, he said, “We received substantial investment from Telenor Group for LTE infrastructure enhancement reiterating our commitment in Pakistan. This investment will enable the company to have additional LTE sites as well as reframe the existing sites.”
Highlighting the other initiatives and services, Irfan Wahab said a digital lifestyle app WowBox which was launched last year has now become Pakistan’s leading free lifestyle app on Google Play Store with one million active users.
The App has a whopping 2.6 million authenticated users who can enjoy interactive and engaging content such as daily trending news, sport results, in-built games, free music, lifestyle articles, bundle offers, weather updates and much more.
Moreover, he said under Velocity’s programme startups have reached out to millions of potential customers from 40 million customer base of Telenor Pakistan, connect with more than 30 mentors, and collectively enable them to raise funding.
Another initiative was Mobile Agriculture under which Khushaal Zamindar (Prosperous Farmer) service was launched for smallholder farmers that made up to 89 per cent of Pakistan’s 30 million farmer base. The service provides localized, contextualized and customized information which includes weather forecasts, timely agronomic and livestock advisory through text messages and outbound voice calls.
Currently, more than 4 million small scale farmers subscribe to this free of cost service covering a range of cash crops, fruits and vegetables, fodders and livestock and out of this, 20 percent are females.
The CEO said the company has launched its mobile agriculture advisory service in Punjab and Gilgit – Baltistan in collaboration with Market Development Facility (MDF).
Under Connected Agriculture Platform Punjab (CAPP),
Telenor Microfinance Bank has joined hands with Agriculture Department of Punjab and Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB). As part of programme, interest-free loans to small holder farmers will be disbursed through Easypaisa Mobile Wallets.
As per estimates, Punjab has over 10 million farmers out of which approximately 2 million are already using smartphones and the number is growing every day. As part of CAPP Programme, more than 500,000 eligible farmers will also get 3G/4G-enabled smart phones along with free SIM cards and data bundles.
The other initiative was strengthening birth registration system in Pakistan through usage of digital technologies. The aim was to digitally enhance system of registering and certifying vital events such as births and deaths to better leverage healthcare, education, social welfare, intervention, and other programs for larger demographics. The project is being implemented in more than 60 Union Councils of districts Sujawal and Tando Muhammad Khan in Sindh and district Chiniot in Punjab.
Another step is iChamp – a knowledge-based initiative which includes a nationwide competition for school children. The iChamp 2017’s goal is to touch secondary schools on a mass scale across Pakistan to educate youth on benefits and safe use of internet. Covering 76 districts across all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, an estimated 600,000 students will be trained by experts through Free Basics with free handbooks and other resources.
Telenor also generated US $ 7.8 billion worth of Easypaisa transactions in 2015, equivalent to 3 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP.
Over 140,000 direct/indirect jobs were also generated. The operator generated over US $ 1,793 million of Gross Added Value (GVA) for Pakistan’s economy in 2015, accounting for 0.7 per cent of Pakistan’s total national GVA. Moreover, with respect to enabling wider economy, Telenor Pakistan’s increased 3G penetration and contributed US $ 14,996 million to country’s GDP.
Irfan Wahab said Telenor, set to expand 4G/LTE footprint, will also initiate building towards a 4.5 G network rollout to cater ever growing needs of subscribers and bring them benefits of digital technology.
