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Telenor Pakistan

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Telenor Pakistan
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
FoundedApril 2004; 20 years ago (2004-04)
HeadquartersIslamabad, Pakistan
Area served
Pakistan
Key people
Khurrum Ashfaque (CEO)
ProductsMobile Telephony, Internet, Devices, SIM operator
RevenueDecrease NOK 4,411 million[1] (2023)
ParentTelenor ASA
SubsidiariesTelenor Bank
Websitewww.telenor.com.pk

Telenor Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited (Urdu: ٹیلی نار پاکستان) is a Pakistani wireless network operator headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khurrum Ashfaque is the current chief executive officer (CEO).[2]

Telenor started its operations in Pakistan in March 2005. Over the years, Telenor invested more than $2 billion in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan.[3] In December 2023, Telenor ASA decided to sell its subsidiary, Telenor Pakistan, to PTCL for $385 million.[4]

As of August 2024, Telenor Pakistan has a total subscriber base of 44 million in Pakistan, among which 25 million are 4G/LTE subscribers. With a market share of 23%, it is currently the third largest mobile phone network in Pakistan.[5]

History

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Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications company, 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.[6] Telenor Pakistan's corporate headquarters are in Islamabad, with regional offices in Peshawar, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Hyderabad, Quetta and Karachi.[7]

In November 2017, Telenor Pakistan inaugurated its new headquarter named 345. The new headquarter was built at a cost of $80 million.[8]

Acquisition by PTCL Group

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After Telenor ASA announced in November 2022 that they would leave the Pakistani market,[9] it was announced that PTCL Group would acquire 100% of Telenor Pakistan on 14 December 2023, subject to regulatory approvals. The Business Recorder reported that the sale was settled at 108 billion Pakistani rupees (US$385 million),[10] while Dawn and NRK reported a price of 5.3 billion Norwegian kroner (US$493 million).[11][12]

Operations

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Coverage

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Telenor Pakistan covers more than 80% of Pakistan's population in urban and rural areas with a network of over 12,000 cell sites of which 80% are 3G and 70% are 4G enabled. The company has been awarded a number of projects under Universal Service Fund (USF) of which the one currently in progress in the Broadband for Sustainable Development (BSD) program under which more than 100 new cell sites will be established to bring connectivity to 1.7 million in Dera Ismail Khan and Mohmand Agency.[13] In the past, Telenor worked on USF Projects for cell site installation in Bahawalpur-Cholistan district in 2009 and provision of 3G services in Kohistan district in 2017.[14][15]

Radio Frequency

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Frequencies used on Telenor Pakistan's Network
Frequency Protocol Band Class Channel width
900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 8 2G 4.8 MHz
2100 MHz UMTS/HSDPA/HSPA+ 1 3G 5 MHz (Mainland)
4G/LTE-A 4G 15 MHz (AJ&K/GB)
1800 MHz 4G/LTE-A 3 5 MHz
850 MHz

(Mainland)

4G/LTE-A 5 10 MHz

Sales and distribution

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Telenor Pakistan's distribution network has over 220,000 touch points across Pakistan that include franchises, sahulat ghars and retailers that offer GSM products and Easypaisa services. In 2017, company owned customer sales and service centers were converted to Digital Customer Touch Points that include Self Service Booths, IVR, web and social media customer services.

Next generation mobile services (NGMS)

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Telenor is the first to officially launch 4.5G (LTE Advanced) in Pakistan. It has done so by aggregating two 4G bands, FDD-LTE Band 5 (850 MHz) and FDD-LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz), a portion of which has been re-farmed for 4G, it was previously used on the 2G (GPRS/EDGE) network. Telenor's LTE-A network was initially available in all major cities of Pakistan.[16]

VoLTE

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After conducting trials and internal testing, Telenor Pakistan launched Voice over LTE (VoLTE) on 29 January 2019. This makes it the first network in Pakistan to launch VoLTE.[17] Telenor's VoLTE in Pakistan is based on an open source platform and has been developed in-house. Initially, support for other smartphone OEMs was not enabled despite claims of it being supported.[18] Recently, Telenor's VoLTE services were enabled for select smartphone models, such as Oppo and Realme.[19]

5G Trials

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On 13 March 2020, Telenor had successfully conducted 5G Trials, achieving connectivity speeds in excess of 1.5 Gbit/s. This also marked 15 years of its operation in Pakistan.[20]

Easypaisa

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Main article: Easypaisa

In 2008, Telenor acquired majority shares of Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited for its mobile financial services project.[21] They named the branchless banking service "Easypaisa" and launched it in October 2009.[22] Easypaisa was Pakistan's first branchless banking deployment.[citation needed] Later 'Mobile Wallet' was introduced where normal Telenor Pakistan subscribers could now open a mobile account and make transactions themselves using their cellphones. Easypaisa was cited by CNN as the "model to follow" in launching mobile banking services.[23]

Easypaisa is Pakistan's first and largest mobile money service and third largest in the world (according to CGAP), catering to over 18 million customers. It currently has over 75,000 agents across Pakistan. In October 2014 Telenor Easypaisa introduced several types of accounts at different levels.[24]

Tameer Bank was acquired by Telenor Group in 2016 to become Telenor Microfinance Bank and Easypaisa became a part of the bank. ANT Financial Group which owns the global payment platform Alipay, acquired 45% stake in Telenor Bank for $184.5m in March 2018.[25]

Digital ecosystem

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Telenor Pakistan started off as a cellular service provider in 2005, but has diversified its offerings. Telenor Pakistan offers a number of 4G-enabled handsets including Telenor Infinity E3, Telenor Infinity E2 and Telenor Infinity A2.[26] The company also provides its customers branded mobile handsets from Samsung and Motorola, in addition to 4G MiFi and 4G Wingle[27] and 3G broadband devices such as 3G Wingle.[28] The company launched Digital Customer TouchPoints in the form of kiosks.[29]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Telenor Annual Report 2023" (PDF). Telenor ASA. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  2. ^ Yu, Alice (18 August 2023). "Khurrum Ashfaque appointed CEO of Telenor Pakistan as Irfan Wahab Khan joins leadership team in Telenor Asia". Telenor Asia. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  3. ^ "Telenor Pakistan is the fastest growing mobile operator in Pakistan" (PDF). www.invest.gov.pk.
  4. ^ Shahid, Jamal (15 December 2023). "PTCL acquires 100pc shares of Telenor Pakistan for Rs108bn". DAWN.COM.
  5. ^ "Telecom Indicators | PTA". www.pta.gov.pk. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Telenor". Telenor. p. 13.
  7. ^ Research, B. R. (14 December 2020). "Interview with the CEO, Telenor Pakistan". Brecorder. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  8. ^ "PM inaugurates new Telenor Pakistan Campus '345'". The Nation. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  9. ^ Nair, Dinesh; Chan, Vinicy; Baigorri, Manuel (9 November 2022). "Telenor Kicks Off Sale of $1 Billion Pakistan Business". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 14 December 2023. Telenor ASA is pushing ahead with plans to sell its operations in Pakistan, which could be valued at about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
  10. ^ "PTCL to acquire 100% of Telenor Pakistan". Brecorder. 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  11. ^ Sadozai, Dawn com | Irfan (14 December 2023). "PTCL to acquire Telenor's Pakistan operations". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  12. ^ Mjaaland, Ola (14 December 2023). "Telenor selger datterselskap i Pakistan for 5,3 mrd: – 18 vellykkede år" [Telenor sells daughter company in Pakistan for 5,3 billion [NOK]: – 18 successful years]. NRK/NTB (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023. Det er klart at det har vært krevende 18 år, ingen tvil om det. Men på den andre siden har vi gitt 45 millioner mennesker en mobiltelefon. Vi har også greid å bygge en kultur som har gjort at vi har blitt lagt merke til. [...] [Brekke] nevner blant annet at selskapet innførte svangerskapspermisjon 6 måneder som den første noen gang i dette markedet, og at ingen andre selskaper i Pakistan har så mange kvinner som jobber hos seg. [It clearly has been 18 demanding years, no doubt about that. But on the other hand we have given 45 million people a mobile phone. We have managed to create a culture which has caused us to be noticed. [...] Brekke mentions among other things that the company was the first in the [Pakistani] market to implement a 6 month maternity leave, and that no other company in Pakistan employs as many women as them.]
  13. ^ "USF awarded the Broadband for Sustainable Development Program to Telenor Pakistan - PhoneWorld". PhoneWorld. 13 January 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  14. ^ "Telenor and USF to Provide 3G Services in Kohistan - Rs 4.6 Billion Project Launched". PakWired - Latest Startup and Technology News from Pakistan. 24 February 2017. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  15. ^ TeleGeography. "Telenor Pakistan completes USF project". www.telegeography.com. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  16. ^ "Telenor Launches Pakistan's First 4.5G Network". 6 December 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2018 – via propakistani.
  17. ^ "Telenor Becomes Pakistan's First Network to Launch VoLTE". 29 January 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  18. ^ Pakistan, Telenor [@telenorpakistan] (4 June 2019). "Telenor becomes Pakistan's 1st VoLTE technology enabled network! Now experience HD voice quality & instant call connectivity with Telenor VoLTE!pic.twitter.com/7zcFOUts3S" (Tweet). Retrieved 6 June 2019 – via Twitter.
  19. ^ "OPPO becomes first phone brand to support Telenor's VoLTE services". The Nation. 4 November 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  20. ^ "Telenor celebrates 15 years in Pakistan with successful 5G trials". PakistanToday Profit. 13 March 2020.
  21. ^ "Breaking: Telenor Pakistan acquires 51% of Tameer Microfinance Bank". propakistani.pk. 21 November 2008. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  22. ^ "About Easypaisa". www.easypaisa.com.pk. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  23. ^ Steve Mollman (15 January 2010). "Cell-phone banking offers financial help to Third World". CNN.com. Retrieved 28 October 2018 – via Digital Biz.
  24. ^ "Solutions Suite for Technology, Industry, or Business Needs". Cisco.
  25. ^ "Telenor Group and Ant Financial in strategic partnership to deliver inclusive financial services in Pakistan - Telenor Group". www.telenor.com. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  26. ^ "4G Mobile Phones". www.telenor.com.pk. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  27. ^ "4G Mobile Broadband". www.telenor.com.pk. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  28. ^ "3G Connect". www.telenor.com.pk. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  29. ^ "My Telenor App". www.telenor.com.pk. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
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