THE mobile phone industry grew by 170 per cent during 2005 and the number of subscribers was 23.17 million by the end of January 2006.

According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Wireless Local Loop (WLL) subscribers in the country reached 570,542 by January 2006, covering 160 cities and towns. About 119 cities were added to the WLL in 2005.

A record addition of 2.02 million subscribers was witnessed in the history of the mobile-phone sector in December 2005 while about 1.13 million subscribers added to the number every month. The industry grew by 136 per cent in 2004 while total mobile penetration touched 14.1 per cent in last month of the previous year.

Around 180 new cities and towns were added to the cellular network across the country in the previous year, making the total 451. A total of 3231 cell sites were installed by mobile operators in 2005.

In the WLL, 93 licenses were issued for various telecom regions to 17 companies, including the PTCL. Total growth in WLL subscribers was 52 per cent in the October-December 2005 quarter. In Fixed Local Loop (FLL), the year started with a total of 4.8 million fixed line subscribers which reached 5.35 million by the end of the last year while the total connections of the PTCL grew by six per cent.

The PTA observed that the last year was eventful for the Long Distance and International Services (LD&I). A total of 2,448 million international minutes were terminated by all operational LDIs, including the PTCL.