According to reports in Pakistani local media, China Mobile plans to double the number of its base stations in Pakistan from the current 4,500 to 9,000 before the end of this year.
Previously this year, China Mobile announced that it would invest USD500 million in CMPak, China Mobile's subsidiary in Pakistan, in 2009 to expand the company's mobile networks and to enhance the coverage of its "Zong" brand.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said that this capacity expansion of China Mobile mainly aims to provide smooth and fast signal traffic to CMPak's users. At the same time, the authority revealed that with the quickest growth among all telecom operators in Pakistan, CMPak's current market share has risen from 2% in 2008 to 6.7%. By the end of May 2009, it had gained 6.23 million users in the country.
So far, China Mobile has invested USD1.66 billion in Pakistan since it acquired its Pakistani subsidiary in 2007. Its latest investment in CMPak is a GSM/EDGE network expansion provided by Alcatel-Lucent, involving USD53 million.
