LAHORE ( MEDIA )
Warid Telecom will roll out its 4G/LTE (long-term evolution) services by September 2014, This seems to be the company’s last resort effort to retain its corporate customers who are switching to telecom operators, which are offering 3G/4G services. The News reported on Thursday.
A Warid official confirmed some of its corporate clients are switching to other operators. The churn rate is not significant, he added. Recently, Warid Telecom issued a letter to its around 2,200 corporate customers, telling them that the company was in full swing to install the LTE technology and working on upgrading its network accordingly. The Warid official said the company owns half a million postpaid customers out of which 250,000 are corporate and the half are postpaid. “We have communicated to our corporate customers about the availability of the LTE/4G services in September 2014,” he added. “We are currently upgrading the network to 4G/LTE, which is the most advanced mobile communication technology available globally,” stated the letter.
“The 4G/LTE technology evolution will be able to provide the most advanced data services and a richer data experience will be available to our customers by September 2014,” it read. Warid has contracted Ericsson, the leading global vendor in provision of 4G/LTE infrastructure, as its technology partner to ensure steady and the quick roll-out of these services. “Through this network upgrade, we will further improve what is already considered to be an enjoyable network experience by our customers to complement our seamless voice connectivity,” according to the official letter.
However, telecom engineers believed that Warid will have to achieve a big milestone for the successful launch of the LTE/4G services in Pakistan.
Muhammad Umar, working with an international telecommunication network deployment company, said that re-framing the existing telecom network for a LTE/4G remains an uphill task.
An other news is that Warid Telecom of Pakistan has contracted Ericsson for deployment of its 4G LTE network in Pakistan.
Network up-gradation and 4G LTE rollout contract was award to Ericsson after successful lab tests in which Warid scored considerably well.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority isn’t happy with the situation, as Warid didn’t buy any (3G or 4G) license but is still forging its way to 4G service offerings.