Or anywhere for that matter! In fact, check out EnglishCentral, a service that Google Ventures has invested in. Watch videos while you learn English.   Most of the telecom companies in Pakistan are focused on the voice only market, and do not do not do anything innovative that will set them apart with the value added service, namely Internet.

Serious marketing issues:

The marketing team of almost all the GSM seem to have no idea on how to sell what they have. All you see are musical or a comedy videos, but not really telling the benefits of the service. They assume that everyone in the world knows what can SMS, phone call, and Internet can be used for; whereas, I believe that most of the world does not really understand the benefits and how to use each of these separately and in combination with each other to meet their personal and business goals.

What can the Pakistan telecom market can do?

International Voice:
Pakistan has the cheapest international calling rate, in comparison to anywhere else in the world that I have seen in the 45 countries that I have traveled.

Cheap international call is the basic ingredient of international trade, commerce, innovation collaboration, outsourcing, etc.

How many telecom companies do you know who have conducted seminars and training programs alone or in conjunction with the local trade bodies, i.e., export promotion bureau or Chamber of Commerce? Our company vice president even suggested this at the 2007 ITCN Asia show during the keynotes.

Do you think it will not make an impact on the usage patterns when traders in Pakistan start to use their phone left and right for trade because they finally how to use it and what it will do for them?

The voice prices that the telecoms offer is now almost at same price as wholesale price of international calls, They can promote remote jobs, where people can hire staff from Pakistan, who can then make and receive calls for them as assistants, accounts, or any back office operations.

Internet:
When you see an ad on tv, that you are offering now Internet everywhere, or internet @ price of xxx rupees a month, how many %age of the people are you actually targeting the ad to? Facebook as of today has only 1.2 million people from Pakistan, and the other 155 million people who are watching these ads are unable to understand these ads.

The ads need to be targeted to the mass market, the people who do not know the power of the Internet.

Example: Youtube works fine now on Nokia phones. With the Youtube application, anyone who does not know how to read or write, can watch the images and click on the Youtube icons, and watch videos of their choice, can learn how to read and write in different languages, can learn how to fix their problems and really fix anything.

If there was an ad showing that a non-educated person started to read and write watching Youtube, or a person who fixed his motor bike engine problem, or a person who learned how to cook something, or a person who learned how to make a cupboard, then that would attract more to use their cell phones, smart phones, make phone calls, and send SMSs. 

You are directly now targeting to the masses of a country which before did not know how to read or write. YES , you can now sell Internet to a person who is unable to read or write.

You now have a market of over 100 million possible users, not just 1.2 million people.

Written by EMEA Editor and CEO of Techistan Rehan Allahwala and edited by Suzanne Bowen, Editor in Chief and VP.