TelecomHype

SWOT analysis stands for analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of a certain industry or company. This post deals with the SWOT analysis of the Telecom Industry of Pakistan.

Strengths

• Exponential growth.
• Skilled Human Resource at low-cost.
• Access to Infrastructure - optical network and satellite links.
• Favorable policies (to some extent) and regulator.
• Strong international brand names.

Weaknesses

• Quality of Service.
• Low revenue per user (ARPU).
• Customer retention.
• No clear strategic direction.
• Poor organizational structure.
• No research and development programs.
• Employee skill inconsistency.
• Very low employee morale.

Opportunities

• Huge market size.
• Local handset manufacturing.
• Making technology accessible to all (e.g. broadband).
• Adopt latest technologies.
• Removal of international trade barriers.
• Adopting MVNO.

Threats

• Recession in economy.
• Inconsistent and adhoc decisions from regulatory authorities.
• Political Instability - Security issues.
• Adverse shifts in trade policies of government.
• Churn in OPEX.
• Revenue leakage
• Grey traffic

References: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan and TelecomPk.Net.

President Pakistan has recently called to set up a Telecom University in the vicinity of Haripur, which is already the hub of telecom training in Pakistan. The associated press reports:

President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday called for the setting up of a Telecom University, a telecom research and development center and a plant to manufacture and assemble mobile handsets in the country. He said that the government will provide land for the Telecom Varsity in Haripur where the nucleus of telecom training facilities already existed and also offer facilities for establishing an R&D Center in Islamabad and the mobile handsets manufacturing plant. Spokesperson to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the call was made when a delegation of Chinese Telecom conglomerate ZTE called on the President in the Presidency today.

When the telecom industry in Pakistan was booming we had no university offering telecommunication degrees here. At that time the electrical/electronics graduates with some training managed to make their place in the industry. Then with the deregulation paving way for foreign investments in the telecom sector, the boom took a new form and then came the need for qualified fresh telecom engineering.

Many universities both public and private started to offer telecom engineering programs. I myself, graduated in Telecom Engineering from FAST-NU (Karachi). But now when I have the specialized telecom engineering degree the need for fresh engineers have died. Possibly due to global recession and low foreign investment coming in this sector, the companies are reluctant to hire fresh engineers and train them so they prefer the easy way, hire experienced professionals.

My Question: Do we really need more telecom universities?

Mr. President a better approach can be to use the existing resources, our unemployed telecom engineers. We have hundreds of them out here. Realize our core needs. The university establishment should not be the priority. The establishment of mobile handsets manufacturing plant should be the priority. The very much delayed 3G license should be the priority; it will bring in foreign investment. Giving us opportunities should be the priority.

Invest now for a fruitful return in future. We need to understand that present should be our priority because it is what will make our future.