Vimpelcom, the owner of Mobilink interested in Warid

Russian telecom giant, Vimpelcom the owner of Mobilink, has shown interest in bidding for Warid Telecom, the smallest cellular operator in Pakistan, which has been shelved for sale by Abu Dhabi Group (ADG).

Reuters reports that Vimpelcom is looking for opportunities and for that reason it has decided to off load extra burden by selling Telecel Global that has operations in Burundi and Central Africa to Neil Telecom for $ 100 million.

Although, spokesperson for Vimpelcom denied to comment on a possible bid for Warid Telecom but members of the company were present in the meetings with Abu Dhabi Group that took place in the previous week, sources confirmed.

MoreMag had reported on July 23rd that three telecom operators from Pakistan are keen to bid for Warid Telecom. Officials from all three companies met with owners of ADG to discuss various possibilities.

Vimpelcom, Etisalat and China Mobile are eyeing to buy Warid Telecom, the fifth operator by number of subscribers.

It is very premature to make any kind of guess at this stage, but an official of Warid Telecom hinted that whoever buys the company will run it by its own brand name. The name ‘Warid’ will cease to exist.

In case it is bought by Etisalat or China Mobile, the resulting operation will have almost equal number of subscribers as the market leader Mobilink which is a cause of irritation for Vimpelcom Group. A late entry from them in the buying process suggests that situation is alarming for them.

Following table shows a hypothetical picture of a possible Warid deal with any of the existing operators.

Subscribers in million
	Vimpelcom	Etisalat	China Mobile	Vimpelcom
	Mobilink	Ufone	Zong	Telenor
Existing Subscribers	36.74	23.86	20.19	31.69
Warid Subscribers	12.50	12.50	12.50	12.50
Total	49.24	36.36	32.69	44.19

Read More

Mobilink Partners with Local Firm to Introduce Location Based Mobile Advertising in Pakistan

Mobilink Mobile Internet team with developers from Lahore at the launch of SmartPush

Mobilink and Train of Thought have strategically partnered to launch ‘SmartPush’ – a technology embedded in mobile apps – that will enable customized location based advertising on mobile phones.

‘SmartPush’ works as an intelligent advertising engine. It learns about its users over time and builds on usage history to provide targeted advertising that is customized to the individual user.

On the back-end, advertisers and developers can leverage from the powerful analytics tool that covers campaign analytics and predictive modeling to build a potential customer base.

Seemingly the idea is that smartphone users will be displayed ads based on their locations. These ads will be prompted through various local and international apps.

More details on smart-push can be viewed here: https://smart-push.net/

Moied Javeed, Director Marketing (Mobile Internet), Mobilink highlighted the ideology behind the partnership, ‘Mobilink’s support to ‘Train of Thought’ is in line with our strategy to encourage Pakistan’s youth to bring about a positive change to the society through technological research. The innovative technological platform behind ‘SmartPush’ will introduce a unique experience to the way users see mobile advertising and help in bringing better apps to market. It will bring a revolution in the way we connect and enjoy the everyday mobile experience.’’

Mobilink aims at encouraging smartphone savvy users, entrepreneurs and app developers as a means of working towards a technologically prosperous Pakistan. SmartPush complements Mobilink’s state-of-the-art Mobile internet service in enhancing the overall benefit of the telecom and IT services for customers across the country.

Read More

Ufone, Mobilink Increase Balance Inquiry Charges; Others to Follow!

During a latest development in telecom sector, Ufone and Mobilink has announced an increase of 5 paisas for balance inquiries. Zong, Telenor and Warid are likely to follow the move in coming days.

Ufone said that new balance inquiry charges will be applicable from May 25th, while Mobilink hasn’t mentioned any date for new charges yet. We are sure that other operators will announce similar increase in balance inquiry with-in weeks.

After this increase, balance inquiries will be charged at 20 paisas per transaction, excluding taxes – or 24 paisas per balance inquiry including taxes.

It maybe recalled that idea of paid balance inquires was first introduced in July 2009, and all balance inquires – which were previously free – were charged at 10 paisas plus tax.

Later, in April 2012, operators revised this rate and increased balance inquiry charges to 15 paisas plus tax, which are now again increased to 20 paisas per balance inquiry plus taxes.

It is interesting to note here that customers keep on innovating new ways of checking their balance for free, such as, through web portals or through various USSD codes that aren’t charged.

Read More

Mobilink Posts Flat Revenue Growth During Q1 2013

Mobilink posted a steady increase in revenues in first quarter of 2013 to reach Rs. 27.2 billion, up from 25.9 billion during the same duration a year ago.

Revenues were mainly hit by tough regulatory environment, persistent energy shortage and law and order situation that resulted into government forced network outages.

Mobilink, on other hands, took necessary measures to strengthen its position with given circumstances by mitigating the impact of regulatory restrictions on retail channel sales for new SIMs by changing the distribution structure through direct agreements with selected retailers and focusing on reactivation offers.

Company’s ARPU stood at Rs. 243.9, while mobile data revenues increased by 27%.

Mobilink – in the group financial statement – said that its EBITDA grew 5.5 percent to PKR 11.5 billion from PKR 10.9 billion a year earlier.

Mobilink said that average minutes used per month per user stood at 228, up from 215 during same duration last year.

Read More