Telenor Pakistan, Nokia expand network

In another sign of positive expansion for Pakistan’s telecom industry, Telenor has signed deals worth $750 Million with Nokia and Siemens, as reported here and here. However this rapid expansion is also causing issues especially with regard to how foreign companies execute and transfer knowledge to Pakistan. In a related statement the telecom minister said that Pakistan’s telecom sector had received about Rs 550 billion investment so far while Rs 300 billion were likely to be added to the sector in the coming two to three years.

The minister said that while the pace of growth in the telecom sector had been impressive, it had also raised few issues of concern for the government, with the lack of good implementation service-based companies in Pakistan being a real concern.

He said big vendors such as Nokia and Siemens were merely relying on sub-contracting equipment installations to small local players whereas the sector had grown to a point where they needed to come to Pakistan in a big way by raising companies of scale whose human resource, products and services could also be exported outside Pakistan.

Nokia and Telenor Pakistan have announced that they will be extending their existing frame agreement on GSM radio network equipment and services until 2009. Over this new three-year period, Nokia will deliver +2000 base stations, while continuing to plan, build and manage the radio network in close association with Telenor Pakistan.

Under the agreement, Nokia will provide Telenor Pakistan with its state-of-the art radio and transmission network, including microwave radios. A wide range of services will support the radio network roll-out and operation, including turnkey maintenance services, hardware support services, and services for the deployment of the GSM network, including network planning, site acquisition, civil works and telecom implementation.

The cooperation aims at increasing Telenor Pakistan’s network coverage and capacity in most of Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan- Administered Kashmir and northern regions of Pakistan, including the capital city of Islamabad.