WiMAX in Pakistan: What are they doing wrong?

Posted by thetechturtle in Articles on 30. June 2009

I have been following WiMAX advancement in Pakistan for the last 2 years and it seems that apart from a big hoopla and hype, there is not much in offering here. Wateen being the first mover and the largest network owner of WiMAX in Pakistan, has yet to impress the market and attract the consumer segment. Mobilink is the second major player in the industry but they too are facing issue with their network. Whatever the cost maybe, Pakistanis tend to join the bandwagon without thinking the result and impact on themselves.

The Problem

Simple, the problem is that we are a nation of zero R&D and shit loads of money for investment. I fail to understand why don’t these companies put up a small division only for R&D. GSM took 10 years to actually start using the actual potential of the network and services in Pakistan where as in other countries, the services were in the offering way before that. I am not an expert in R&D but common sense, which is not really that common, is something I posses in abundance and it helps me understand things which normally people do not.

Ever since the WiMAX was launched, there was a common issue faced by people, i.e., network coverage, sales without identifying the coverage, billing, customer services. Without all of the above ready, how can one company launch a service. Even in a beta phase, all of the above should be tested before the launch and should be improved upon after it. If you think that customer is stupid then you are sadly mistaken as now the customer is more informed then ever with the availability of broadband or at least easy to get Internet services. You can find virtually everything about anything if you search it or what is commonly said, “Google it!” So please stop try to take advantage of the customer with lame excuses for covering up your own mess.

Mobilink is the biggest example of covering up with lame excuses for their, now dying, GSM network. Remember the famous call center conversation between a customer and CSR where the customer was driven to the extent due to poor network that if you censor his conversation, all you would hear will be “beep”.

Solution

I suggest the following should be done by any company coming with WiMAX in Pakistan in order to avoid or at least prevent major disasters to happen.

1. Do your research: Please do a proper research before actually launching. Following other company’s packages (like Mobilink copying Wateen’s packages) is not something which requires brains (which means you should fire your strategy and pricing people). Ask for what people actually want, performance versus reliability or price versus quality. These questions should be answered before hand. Every Market is different but every market also follows more or less same principals.
2. Do not over staff: In order to get the best resource, at times companies tend to hire people left and right. The idea behind is that more people will do work in less time thus will save time to market its products and services. Okay, so when the product is launched, what will become of those extra helping hands. Simple, they will become load on the cash flow of the company. So think before you hire people. Have a more efficient approach. Hire experienced people at start, there is no room for a fresh grad in a new company.
3. Focus: It is the most important thing you should have. If you want to launch WiMAX, then see which services your network can support. Start with broadband, stabilize it and then introduce new services one at a time. If you jump into launching a bouquet of services then chances are that most of them will fall flat on their faces resulting in company incurring heavy losses.
4. Have Value Added Services: The best example for Pakistan is World Call. Although they launched Internet only but they offered movies, music, gaming as a value added service through their local network thus keeping the load off the International IP connectivity. Content is king and more the content, more people will be willing to join your services. For Pakistan, Bollywood content is very important but so is the frequency of update and quality. You must also watch out for legal issues regarding pirated content. VAS is one of the most important features for the companies in the west but its the opposite story here in Pakistan.
5. Define your segments: Do you really want to target all the segments at the same time just because everyone else is doing so? If yes then I suggest you should rethink and reevaluate your strategy. It should be clear what you want to achieve, market share or profitability? Normally the strategy is simple, do what your competitor is doing, you don’t want them to succeed and in result of your efforts, the whole market is screwed. Take time, give each segment a phased approach with quality and reliability of service rather then launching in hap hazard in all segments thus not satisfying a single one.

The above 5 points should be very clear in the minds of a new company coming up with WiMAX in Pakistan (for that matter any Internet service in Pakistan), as I know that if implemented properly, the bad name on the technology can be washed off very easily.