By Vanessa D’Souza
Pakistan’s broadband industry is growing rapidly in terms of subscribers and service providers. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), there were over 1.1 million broadband subscribers in December 2010. In terms of service providers, the big names are PTCL, Mobilink Infinity and Wateen Telecom; PTCL is the market leader with a 60% market share.
In a broadband market dominated by telecom giants, two new players launched their services in 2009 and 2010 respectively; Wi-tribe and Qubee. Both have two common characteristics; they are backed by major international telecom companies. Wi-Tribe is a part of the Qatar Telecom (Q-Tel) Group of Companies and Qubee is backed by Augere Pakistan, part of Augere Holdings, UK; and both are dedicated to offering Wi-max technology.
The entry of the two brands was well-timed, and according to Hashim Sheikh, CMO, Qubee, “the industry has grown by an average of 120% year-on-year in the last five years.”
This is expected to continue. Khurram Ali Mehran, Director PR, PTA says that “keeping current growth trends in view, broadband subscribers are expected to reach 4.34 million by the end of FY 2013.”
Thus as part of an industry that seems to be overflowing with potential, Qubee and Wi-tribe have adopted their own individual strategies to compete and create a space for themselves.
To start with, both brands have to provide “consistency of service and value for money,” which, according to Sheikh are the most important attributes as far as customers are concerned. Wi-tribe’s strategy for consistent service is to provide an “always on” internet service, and according to Wahib Aslam, VP Sales & Marketing, Wi-tribe, “We offer a record 99.9% uptime”.
This is endorsed by the fact that Wi-tribe has been rated as Pakistan’s number one broadband service provider for its service quality by the PTA. However, consistency of service depends on the network spread. To this end, Wi-tribe chose to expand early on and launched simultaneously in four cities – Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi; and recently in Faisalabad as well.
As far as Qubee is concerned, it is still too early to tell where it stands in terms of service; however its network expansion strategy has been very “focused”. It initially launched only in Karachi and then spread to other cities.
Sheikh says this was due to the fact that “we didn’t want to make the same mistake as other broadband companies have done in the past, which was to promise more than they could deliver.
Qubee has now expanded its network to cover Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The other important element is value for money, and both Qubee and Wi-tribe agree that this is a big challenge, because according to Sheikh, “Consumers are very demanding”.
Aslam agrees, adding that customers are very savvy at managing their expectations and deriving the best from the various offerings available.
“This keeps service providers in a state of constant self-evaluation, ensuring that we stay ahead with the most innovative products and services.”
Qubee has recently been promoting its prepaid service, and based on the success of prepaid packages, Qubee’s move to provide prepaid broadband is likely to go down well with customers. Although Wi-tribe does not offer prepaid, it has several speed-based promotions that have been widely appreciated by customers.
Beyond service quality and value packages, Wi-tribe and Qubee have some serious competition to contend with. The competition (PTCL, Infinity and Wateen) has plenty of advantages: large telecom-based networks, huge customer bases and value-based package plans. To compete, both companies have chosen to establish themselves as ‘fun and simple’ brands.
According to Owais Hamid, CEO, Ideas Workshop (Wi-tribe’s creative agency), Wi-tribe has been the most consistent. Its fun image is largely derived from the fact that visually the brand has always been communicated as such. However, there are also lots of ‘fun’ promotions, such as the foosball competition in which contestants are invited to play an online game of foosball; the best buddies competition and top fans competition, to name a few.
Qubee’s communication involves illustrated visuals and “simple and fun” lines.
“We have kept things fun with all our promotions and packages as we believe customers are already overburdened with too many things. We want our messages and services to be simple for them.”
This simplicity also factors in Qubee’s service strategy, which involves going to customers “instead of customers coming to us,” says Sheikh.
However, by far the biggest challenge for a broadband company as Aslam points out “is to maintain a high quality of service and network availability at an affordable cost.”
He explains that with the frequent power outages and rising cost of electricity and overheads, maintaining affordable price points is going to be more and more difficult.
However the broadband industry has one huge advantage: its growth is being encouraged by the PTA and Aslam is quick to point out that this focus is “beginning to generate measurable results.”
These favourable conditions have encouraged Wi-tribe to take an aggressive approach in its strategy. According to a broadband expert, “Wi-tribe has done very well for itself and will soon be competing head-to-head with Wateen Telecom, which is the current leader among Wi-max operators.”
Regarding Qubee his verdict is that “it is still early to tell.”
First published in the May-June 2011 issue of Aurora.
Pakistan’s broadband industry is growing rapidly in terms of subscribers and service providers. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), there were over 1.1 million broadband subscribers in December 2010. In terms of service providers, the big names are PTCL, Mobilink Infinity and Wateen Telecom; PTCL is the market leader with a 60% market share.
In a broadband market dominated by telecom giants, two new players launched their services in 2009 and 2010 respectively; Wi-tribe and Qubee. Both have two common characteristics; they are backed by major international telecom companies. Wi-Tribe is a part of the Qatar Telecom (Q-Tel) Group of Companies and Qubee is backed by Augere Pakistan, part of Augere Holdings, UK; and both are dedicated to offering Wi-max technology.
The entry of the two brands was well-timed, and according to Hashim Sheikh, CMO, Qubee, “the industry has grown by an average of 120% year-on-year in the last five years.”
This is expected to continue. Khurram Ali Mehran, Director PR, PTA says that “keeping current growth trends in view, broadband subscribers are expected to reach 4.34 million by the end of FY 2013.”
Thus as part of an industry that seems to be overflowing with potential, Qubee and Wi-tribe have adopted their own individual strategies to compete and create a space for themselves.
To start with, both brands have to provide “consistency of service and value for money,” which, according to Sheikh are the most important attributes as far as customers are concerned. Wi-tribe’s strategy for consistent service is to provide an “always on” internet service, and according to Wahib Aslam, VP Sales & Marketing, Wi-tribe, “We offer a record 99.9% uptime”.
This is endorsed by the fact that Wi-tribe has been rated as Pakistan’s number one broadband service provider for its service quality by the PTA. However, consistency of service depends on the network spread. To this end, Wi-tribe chose to expand early on and launched simultaneously in four cities – Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi; and recently in Faisalabad as well.
As far as Qubee is concerned, it is still too early to tell where it stands in terms of service; however its network expansion strategy has been very “focused”. It initially launched only in Karachi and then spread to other cities.
Sheikh says this was due to the fact that “we didn’t want to make the same mistake as other broadband companies have done in the past, which was to promise more than they could deliver.
Qubee has now expanded its network to cover Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The other important element is value for money, and both Qubee and Wi-tribe agree that this is a big challenge, because according to Sheikh, “Consumers are very demanding”.
Aslam agrees, adding that customers are very savvy at managing their expectations and deriving the best from the various offerings available.
“This keeps service providers in a state of constant self-evaluation, ensuring that we stay ahead with the most innovative products and services.”
Qubee has recently been promoting its prepaid service, and based on the success of prepaid packages, Qubee’s move to provide prepaid broadband is likely to go down well with customers. Although Wi-tribe does not offer prepaid, it has several speed-based promotions that have been widely appreciated by customers.
Beyond service quality and value packages, Wi-tribe and Qubee have some serious competition to contend with. The competition (PTCL, Infinity and Wateen) has plenty of advantages: large telecom-based networks, huge customer bases and value-based package plans. To compete, both companies have chosen to establish themselves as ‘fun and simple’ brands.
According to Owais Hamid, CEO, Ideas Workshop (Wi-tribe’s creative agency), Wi-tribe has been the most consistent. Its fun image is largely derived from the fact that visually the brand has always been communicated as such. However, there are also lots of ‘fun’ promotions, such as the foosball competition in which contestants are invited to play an online game of foosball; the best buddies competition and top fans competition, to name a few.
Qubee’s communication involves illustrated visuals and “simple and fun” lines.
“We have kept things fun with all our promotions and packages as we believe customers are already overburdened with too many things. We want our messages and services to be simple for them.”
This simplicity also factors in Qubee’s service strategy, which involves going to customers “instead of customers coming to us,” says Sheikh.
However, by far the biggest challenge for a broadband company as Aslam points out “is to maintain a high quality of service and network availability at an affordable cost.”
He explains that with the frequent power outages and rising cost of electricity and overheads, maintaining affordable price points is going to be more and more difficult.
However the broadband industry has one huge advantage: its growth is being encouraged by the PTA and Aslam is quick to point out that this focus is “beginning to generate measurable results.”
These favourable conditions have encouraged Wi-tribe to take an aggressive approach in its strategy. According to a broadband expert, “Wi-tribe has done very well for itself and will soon be competing head-to-head with Wateen Telecom, which is the current leader among Wi-max operators.”
Regarding Qubee his verdict is that “it is still early to tell.”
First published in the May-June 2011 issue of Aurora.
No comments:
Post a Comment