Chinese company to increase investment in 4G, build 5,000 base stations in Pakistan: CEO

BEIJING, Oct 6: A Chinese telecom company will further increase its investment in 4G in Pakistan and would build 5,000 base stations in the next three years.

The company entered in Pakistani market a several years ago, has now over 31 million consumers with a market share of about 21 per cent and ranks third in the industry,” Wang Hua, Chief Executive Officer of CMPak said in an interview published by China Daily on Saturday.

“Our company began with the acquisition of Paktel in 2007. Occupying only two per cent of the market back then, it has seen growth over the past years to increase its market share by a factor of 10,” he added.
Highlighting the company’s 4G service, he said, “We have more than 8 million 4G users, edging out all other operators in this area and taking 75 per cent of the market.”

The company was a forerunner to introduce 4G in Pakistan when the government auctioned the 4G spectrum in 2014.

In the future, Wang said that his company’s investments in 4G will further increase and expected it would build 5,000 base stations in the next three years.

The advanced 4G technology has also helped promote the development of relevant industries. “We’ve collaborated with popular ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Careem to facilitate transportation for people,” Wang shared, citing traffic benefits as an example.

Wang is confident that CMPak still has great potential to grow under the support of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key part of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the company’s 20-year-old experience in technology development, operation management and marketing.

Pakistan currently has the only overseas communications network of China Mobile, a pioneer in Chinese telecom companies’ strategy to go global.

Since its establishment in Pakistan, the corporation has invested a total of $2.7 billion there.

Internationalization for the company also means “cultivating international talent”, which includes sending Pakistani senior and middle-level staff to China for management training.

“CMPak is a localized company. So far, we have 3,100 employees. Among them, only 24 are Chinese,” Wang noted. “Chinese colleagues account for less than one per cent of the staff.”

Thus cross-cultural training has become equally important. “It’s an effective way to promote communication between Chinese and Pakistani colleagues, such as training Chinese employees on local customs,” Wang said.

(APP)