Pakistanis spending $ 1 bn a year on imported mobile phones
Cellular phone-crazy Pakistanis are spending about one billion dollars a year on imported mobile handsets, with 20 per cent of users changing their phones up to three times a year.
By PTI |
ISLAMABAD: Cellular phone-crazy Pakistanis are spending about one billion dollars a year on imported mobile handsets, with 20 per cent of users changing their phones up to three times a year.
Most markets in major cities are chock-a-block with shops -- ranging from plush showrooms to small kiosks -- offering the latest handsets and a variety of services, including the "unlocking" of handsets smuggled in from abroad for as little as Rs 700.
Apple's iPhone, brought in illegally and hacked for use in Pakistan, goes for about Rs 40,000 in shops here, which also offer a wide array of cheap handsets aimed at people living in areas not covered by fixed phone services.
Like their counterparts across the border in India, cellphones with cameras, MP3 players and all the other bells and whistles are a trendy fashion statement with Pakistani youth.
"All my friends have flashy mobiles and most of them change handsets at least once a year," said teenage college student Ozair Usman. "That's why I convinced my parents to get me the latest Nokia handset."
Mobile phones also played a key role in protests over the past few days against the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf. Student leaders and rights activists, fearful that their phone conversations were being eavesdropped on by security agencies, organised "flash protests" by sending out the venue and time of demonstrations on SMS.
The total number of mobile subscribers in Pakistan is expected to cross 77 million by the end of 2007-08 and some 2.5 million new users sign up every month.
Most markets in major cities are chock-a-block with shops -- ranging from plush showrooms to small kiosks -- offering the latest handsets and a variety of services, including the "unlocking" of handsets smuggled in from abroad for as little as Rs 700.
Apple's iPhone, brought in illegally and hacked for use in Pakistan, goes for about Rs 40,000 in shops here, which also offer a wide array of cheap handsets aimed at people living in areas not covered by fixed phone services.
Like their counterparts across the border in India, cellphones with cameras, MP3 players and all the other bells and whistles are a trendy fashion statement with Pakistani youth.
"All my friends have flashy mobiles and most of them change handsets at least once a year," said teenage college student Ozair Usman. "That's why I convinced my parents to get me the latest Nokia handset."
Mobile phones also played a key role in protests over the past few days against the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf. Student leaders and rights activists, fearful that their phone conversations were being eavesdropped on by security agencies, organised "flash protests" by sending out the venue and time of demonstrations on SMS.
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The total number of mobile subscribers in Pakistan is expected to cross 77 million by the end of 2007-08 and some 2.5 million new users sign up every month.
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