Consumer Behavior Based Case Study on the dissatisfied declining

customers of and usage of its Infrastructure.

Group Members

Ali Hussain 09-arid-975

Atif Iftikhar 09-arid-978

Rashid Javaid 09-arid-1004

 Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited

Introduction to PTCL:

Type: Public
Industry: Telecommunication
Founded: 1947
Headquarters: Islamabad, Pakistan.
President & CEO: Walid Irshaid
Products:
• Wireless
• Telephone
• Internet
• Smart TV
Website: www.ptcl.com.pk

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is the largest telecommunication

company in Pakistan. From the beginnings of Posts & Telegraph Department in 1947 and
establishment of Pakistan Telephone & Telegraph Department in 1962, PTCL has been a major
player in telecommunication in Pakistan.
This company provides telephony services to the nation and still holds the status of backbone for
country's telecommunication infrastructure despite arrival of a dozen other foreign Companies
including telecom giants like Telenor and China Mobile .
The company consists of around 2000 telephone exchanges across country providing largest
fixed line network. GSM, CDMA and Internet are other resources of PTCL, making it a gigantic
organization.In the cellular segment, the second largest cellular provider in Pakistan, Ufone.

Despite having established a network of enormous size, PTCL workings and policies have
attracted regular criticism from other smaller operators and the civil society of Pakistan,

PTCL launched its mobile and data services subsidiaries in 2001 by the name of Ufone and
PakNet respectively. None of the brands made it to the top slots in the respective competitions.
Lately, however, Ufone had increased its market share in the cellular sector.
Privatization Of The Company:

In 2005 Government of Pakistan decided to sell 26 percent of this company to some

private corporation. Etisalat, a Dubai based company was able to get the shares with a large
margin in the Profits.The Government of Pakistan retained 62% of the shares while the remaining
12% are held by the general public. Government's plan of privatizing the corporation were not
welcomed in all circles.

Competitors:

Wateen Telecom has launched its WiMAX services in the country. It is the largest and
the first nationwide WiMAX network in the world. Connections are available from 256Kbit to 1
Mbit. Wi-Tribe and Mobilink are also offering WiMAX. Augere has also started its WiMax
services under the brand name Qubee.
There are a total of 4 WiMax operators in Pakistan:

1. Wateen
2. Mobilink
3. Wi-Tribe
4. Qubee

Services & Infrastructure:

Pakistan Telecommunication Company limited (PTCL) maintains a leading position in Pakistan

as an infrastructure provider to other telecom operators with the employee strength of 65,000 and 5.7
million customers and the largest telecommunications provider in Pakistan.PTCL was being
privatized in July 2005 and Etisalat UAE Telecom Company attains its share along the management
control. PTCL was privatized with main objective and hope that it will increase its standards and
reduce its poor performance. However Etisalat, has yet failed to lift the standards of PTCL which it
claimed at the time of privatization.

Position Of its Infra structure:

PTCL has laid an Optical Fibre Access Network in the major metropolitan centres of
Pakistan and local loop services have started to be modernized and upgraded from copper to an
optical network. On the Long Distance and International infrastructure side, the capacity of two
“SEA-ME-WE” submarine cable is being expanded to meet the increasing demand of
International traffic.
Reasons to decline in customer satisfaction regarding PTCL:

Pakistan’s telecommunication industry – mobile communication in particular – has made

impressive strides in the last few years after deregulation. However broadband growth in the
country has been very disappointing – there are less than 100,000 broadband users in Pakistan.
The open competition observed in mobile industry has not been replicated to broadband. Reasons
include high prices, control of PTCL over bandwidth resources, policy issues, lack of
infrastructure and legal disputes.

Actually the problem lies in the matter that PTCL has given the opportunity to other new
competitors for using its band with through the country. The current management of PTCL has
failed to manage the Extensive and most reliable telecom network. It seems that PTCL
management has not yet considered the periodic maintenance of its assets or they are in such
position that they are unable to cope up with increasing demands of Instant connection with a less
Cost. The company now has given its remote underground lines to Wateen and some of its
telecom boosters to U-fone.

For having a strong Brand –loyalty it is necessary to make trust in its competent customers. By
getting its assets hired by other companies it could not deliver and make value in the mind of
customers in Pakistan.Once the company has started serving Customers( B2B ) it started losing
its position in the market and gradually a time came when neither it can completely get rid of
Such contracts nor it can rely on its own revenues.

The situation became very complex when PTCL was at decision making on the table of
government beourocats, Government policy maker. They were caught in a thought that solution
to dissolving assets of company was to privatize it rather than proper management of its
infrastructure along with the employees. Most of critics narrate the late study of the
demographical changes in its market. Due to rapid globalization and with the arrivals of wireless
technology the goverement based company could not cope with it as a result it founded it self in
trouble .reasons for its unstable financial position, it could not pay the salaries of its non-
managerial staff.

The recent strategy made by this telecom giant is to cover up the losses is again an unethical
attempt by reducing call duration from 5 to 2 minutes with effect from 1 st April. This strategy is
expected to add 4.1 billion to annual earnings of company financial year 2009. However, this
short term profit generating strategy will be a severe threat to damage PTCL goodwill
A better choice should be that Top level management of PTCL along with the government
institutions should have formulate a strategy leading to a self- fulfilling and a leading company
for the coming years. But earlier as a monopolist in telecommunication it enjoyed a large number
of customers but was unaware of the fact that a good marketer have to move the gun along with
the changing and upcoming needs of customers.

References:

Pakistan telecommunication authority

Adil Naeem
Manager Admin/Civil
Office G-8/4 Islamabad
Contact Number 0333-5001296

http://www.pakistanlaw.net/law-articles/telecom-
law/telecommunication-laws-in-pakistan/

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