Mobile ccompany Ufone

From Wikpidia

Ufone GSM is a Pakistani GSM cellular service provider. It is one of six GSM Mobile companies in Pakistan and is a subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company. It has a subscriber base of 20.05 million as of July 2009. It is currently owned by United Arab Emirates based Etisalat.

Introduction

The company commenced its operations under the brand name of Ufone from Islamabad on January 29 2001. Ufone expanded its coverage and has added new cities and highways to its coverage network.

Company profile

PTML is a wholly owned subsidiary of PTCL. established to operate cellular telephony. The company commenced its operations, under the brand name of Ufone from Islamabad on January 29 2001.

During the year, as a consequence of PTCL’s privatization, 26% of its shares were acquired by Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (Etisalat). Being part of PTCL, the management of Ufone has also been handed over to Etisalat. During the year July 2005 to June 2006, further expanded its coverage and has added new cities and highways. Ufone has network coverage in more than 750 cities, towns and across all major highways of the country.

During the year Ufone completed the network expansion of Phase 4 in existing as well as in new cities and towns which amounted to more than US Dollar 170 million. As a result the asset base of the Company has increased from Rs. 20 billion to Rs. 27 billion.

During the year Ufone adopted the policy of simplified tariffs with no hidden charges, which resulted in positive impacts on the usage trends of subscribers as well as total subscriber base, which has increased from 2,579k in June 2005 to 7,487k in June 2006. Ufone currently caters for international roaming to more than 195 live operators across 119 countries and introduced International roaming facility for Prepaid subscribers in Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Portugal and Kuwait with lowest rates, featuring no security deposit and activation charges. GPRS Roaming facility is available with more than 75 Live Operators across 59 countries.

The company has also been awarded a new License for providing cellular services in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and the Northern Areas.

Operating Performance

Ufone’s operational performance has been very encouraging. Despite the stiff competition in Pakistan telecom market which has led to reduction of prices to bare minimum level, due to its aggressive policies and exercising strict control over expenses the Company managed to improve its revenue and after-tax profit by 87% and 54% respectively, as compared to last year.

Future Plans

In order to extend cellular network to new cities, towns and highways and enhance its current installed capacities in existing cities, Ufone has finalized a huge network expansion contract amounting to about USD 550 million, which will enhance the subscribers’ capacity by 10 million. This is the largest ever expansion project of Ufone.

Network upgradation

Under the agreement, Huawei will provide its future-oriented EnerG GSM solution to expand Ufone's network to cover over 2200 cities, towns, villages and all major highways in the country. The network also allows Ufone subscribers to have high-speed wireless data service.

The GSM contract for Ufone also include Huawei's new generation GSM dual density BTS that feature high integrated and receiving sensitivity to improve the network performance and lower the cost of network construction and O&M expenditure. In addition, Huawei will provide Mobile Softswitch solution based on the advanced R4 architecture to satisfy Ufone's network expansion requirements, enables the telecom service provider to evolve into 3G.

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 contro

l 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.

Key accomplishments

Ufone has played a limited but significant role in the development of the cellular market in Pakistan. It was first to launch the GPRS services and Multi-media Messaging Service (MMS) and prepaid roaming in

Pakistan.

Performance

As mobile users in the country have reached over 76 million^[2] at a very rapid pace, Ufone has maintained itself as the 2nd largest cellular operator in Pakistan with a subscriber base of around 20 million and a market share of nearly 25%. Ufone has seen a subscriber growth rate of over 200% in the last year, an

d since the start of 2005 Ufone added nearly 5 million subscribers onto its network. Subsequently the growth in subscriber base caused a healthy trend in revenues which have doubled.^[3]

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 in

creased 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. This marketing boost has been much credited to the humorous and light advertising, presenting the brand itself in a light hearted fashion, setting a new trend in the market.In other words, Ufone has created a "Blue Ocean" fo

r advertising in Pakistan.

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 pro

Customer S

ervice

Ufone has 21 company-owned Sales & Customer Service Centers and nearly 250 franchisees across the country.

Postpaid

Service

Postpaid services are marketed by the name "Postpay". These services are mainly targeted towards the business community of the country.

Ufone

Type	Private
Genre	Subsidiary
Founded	January 29, 2001
Founder(s)	Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
Headquarters	Islamabad, Pakistan 13-B, F-7 Markaz
Area served	2336 cities of Pakistan, GT Road, Super Highway & Motorway
Key people	Abdul Aziz, CEO
Industry	Telecommunication
Products	Pre Pay, Post Pay
Revenue	▼ Rs.5.1 billion PKR (first quarter 2006-07).[1]
Parent	PTCL Pakistan
Website	www.ufone.com