Instaphone was

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

's first mobile communication service. It was launched by M/s Pakcom Ltd., a

telecommunications company A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...

and the industry pioneer in the country. The company was jointly owned by M/s Arfeen and Millicom International (Luxembourg) and was acquired later by the Arfeen Group.

History

In 1989, the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

awarded licences to mobile operators. M/s Pakcom Ltd. and M/s Paktel Ltd. won the bids and were granted 15-year licences. A third company (M/s Pakistan Mobile Telecommunication ltd) was among the competitors, but did not meet the bid requirements. The two companies raced to launch their cellular service and "Instaphone" won the race by few weeks, when they launched their service on 16 October 1990 with 3 Radio Base Stations. The following month services were offered in Islamabad. The cellular mobile exchange of both operators used

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

model AXE-10. Services at Peshawar were started in April 1991 as a satellite of the Islamabad exchange, linked via PTCL network. Quetta service began as a satellite of the Karachi exchange (linked via PTCL). Billing was post-paid with Rs.5000/- as an initial deposit. Call data was stored on magnetic tapes that were sent to UK for printing of bills and the bills were then sent to customers, a 45+-day process. This delay led many to default after running up large bills. The call rate was Rs.4/- per minute for local calls charged to both (caller and responder). Such unpaid billing was Rs. 25 Million approx in June 1993. The company's license was cancelled by the

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ( ur, ) is the telecommunication regulator of Pakistan, responsible for the establishment, operation and maintenance of telecommunication systems and the provision of telecommunication services in ...

in January 2008 for unpaid license renewal fees totalling $291 million. Instaphone appealed the decision and filed a petition challenging the national Mobile Cellular Policy of 2004. Both actions were dismissed by the

Islamabad High Court The Islamabad High Court is the senior court of the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, with appellate jurisdiction over the following district courts: * Islamabad District Court (East) * Islamabad District Court (West) Justice Aamer Far ...

on April 14, 2009. The court extended the deadline for payment of the outstanding license fees to 6 May 2009. Instaphone eventually declared bankruptcy.

Market share

Before the company's license was canceled, It was ranked at the bottom in terms of market share.

Technology migration strategy

Instaphone had a unique migration strategy between

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

service in the 1980s to the digital

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

network. Due to a lack of telephone number porting laws in Pakistan, Instaphone kept a large TDMA network from the 1990s up until the middle of the 2000s. Due to this rare TDMA presence, Pakistan was flooded with unlocked American and Canadian TDMA cellphones for Instaphone customers who were mostly business users at the time and needed to keep their established telephone numbers.

TDMA grey market phones

Many North American standard TDMA phones showed up in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

en route to Pakistan, usually bonded by third parties who kept satellite offices there. The majority of these North American phones were sold on the

grey market A grey market or dark market (sometimes confused with the similar term " parallel market") is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorized by the original manufacturer or trade mark proprietor. Grey market pr ...

allegedly laundering money for the

Indian mafia Organised crime in India refers to organised crime elements originating in India and active in many parts of the world. The purpose of organised crime in India, as elsewhere in the world, is monetary gain. Its virulent form in modern times is d ...

. Hundreds of Pakistani immigrants across North America tried to take part in this opportunity and many lost their life savings over fraudulent letters of credit. The average shipment was approximately $30,000 USD of cellphones.

References

External links