On the way to my kids school at the unearthly hour of 7:00am today, i couldn’t help but notice the massive banner campaign launched all across Karachi by China Mobile, ala their Zong plan for our market. I have been following China Mobiles purchase of 88% of Paktel recently but was surprised with the speed of their services launch. Obviously being the worlds largest Cell Phone carrier has its advantages.
This is the latest international carrier to enter the ever expanding cell phone market here in Pakistan, after Mobilink, Telenor and then Warid. No wonder all the cell phone carriers have slashed down their rates from the 1st of this month in anticipation of this behemoth.
Just a quick googling of China Mobile is enough to understand what is ailing our cell phone carriers in the terms of this monsterous competitor now entering the fray.
First of all China mobile has more subscribers( 274 million) than the entire population of the U.S. Which in turn means massive revenue generation and rates like you would not believe. Plus and this is the best part to me, this Telco will create 5000 new jobs for Pakistanis!!
After a quick call to their 111 number i am quite sure this baby will blow a lot of the competition straight out of the muddy waters in Pakistan. The Zong packages announced so far not only provide TOTALLY FREE OUTGOING CALLS to one zong number from midnight to 7am(cue late night romance is now free) but call rates of 75paisa per minute to anyone anywhere in Pakistan!!! They even have other plans like choose a happy hour of the day and so on.
I definitely saved some money when i switched from my clunky Mobilink connection to Warid, basically half of my cell phone bill. Thus i now look forward with glee to another reduction of my cell phone expenses and am ready to welcome ZONG to my life!! Wooohooo
P.S ( i may have missed a paisa or two, in my excitement so don’t get anal)
Can u tell me what are the subscription charges or we can get the sim free???
I bought a prepaid sim today to try it out.
cost me Rs 150 with a balance of 70 Rs inside. Most of the current paktel franchises are undergoing a facelift so you will have to find a general store or cell phone store with a Zhong sign.
Post paid plans will not be available till the franchises open up i think.