China Mobile invests another US$500 mln in Pakistan

Jul. 1, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China Mobile Ltd<0941><CHL>, the country's largest telecom operator, plans to invest an additional US$500 million in Pakistan in 2009 to expand its local unit's mobile network capacity for its mobile brand Zong, a Pakistani newspaper reported.

CM Pak Ltd, China Mobile's wholly-owned subsidiary in Pakistan, is now building 4,500 base stations in the country, thus bringing the total number to 9,000 before the end of this year.

The expansion move is expected to offer customers steady and fast signal transition, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said in a statement.

The authority also said CM Pak's user base is the fastest-growing. The company's market share increased to 6.7% this year from 2% in 2008. CM Pak had 6.23 million subscribers as of the end of May 2009.

China Mobile acquired Paktel on February 2007 for US$460 million and obtained a license from Millicom to operate a GSM network in the country. Previous reports said CMPak had invested more than US$1.6 billion in the telecom sector in Pakistan, creating 41,700 job opportunities for the country.