Wateen Telecom Limited

Information Memorandum WAT

2
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

Disclaimer

This Information Memorandum (the “Memorandum”) is being provided to selected prospective underwriter(s) for the Initial
Public Offering of Wateen Telecom Limited (hereinafter referred to as “the Company” or “Wateen” or “WTL”).
The contents of this Memorandum have been compiled by the Company in consultation with Arif Habib Limited (hereinafter
referred to as “AHL” or the “Advisor”). While the information contained herein is believed to be accurate and complete,
no representation or warranty is made by the Advisor and / or the Company, either expressed or implied as to the ac-
curacy or completeness of such information or any other written or oral communication transmitted or provided to
any prospective underwriter and the Advisor and the Company disclaim any and all liability based on such information or
omission thereof.
This Memorandum may include certain statements, estimates, analysis and projections with respect to the an-
ticipated future performance of the Company. Such statements, estimates and analysis reflect certain assumptions
concerning the anticipated results, which assumptions and / or anticipated results may or may not prove to be correct.
The Advisor has not independently verified these estimates, analysis and projections, and accordingly it does not express
any opinion or provide any form of assurance with regard to such estimates, analysis and projections. Nothing
contained in this Memorandum is or should be relied upon as a promise, guarantee or representation with respect to the
future prospects of the Company. This Memorandum should not be considered as an indication of the current state of af-
fairs of the Company, or an indication that there has been no change in the state of affairs of the Company since the date
of issuance of this Memorandum.
The information contained in this Memorandum is to be used for the sole purpose of considering participation in
the underwriting of the Initial Public Offer of the Company. By its receipt, the recipient agrees that the information contained
in the Memorandum will be kept confidential and shall not, without prior written consent of the Company and the Advisor,
be disclosed, copied or reproduced by the recipient in any manner whatsoever, in whole or in part, and shall not be used
other than in connection with the proposed transaction for which this Memorandum has been made.
NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING CONTAINTED HEREOF THE RECIPIENT OF THIS MEMORANDUM MUST MAKE AND WILL
BE DEEMED TO HAVE MADE FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES ITS OWN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION AND ANALY-
SIS, INCLUDING LEGAL, FINANCIAL, TECHNICAL AND TAX ADVICE, BEFORE TAKING ANY DECISION WITH REGARD
TO THE INITIAL PUBLIC OFFER.
For any additional information, please feel free to contact the following:

Shahrukh Zaman Kashif Suhail

Strategy & Planning Division Assistant Vice President
Wateen Telecom Limited Corporate Finance
4th Floor, New Auriga Center Arif Habib Limited
Main Boulevard, Gulberg, 23 M.T. Khan Road,
Lahore. Karachi.
Mobile: 0322-411 6592 Dir. 021-3246 2597
PABX: 042-111-999-919 Ext.: 42562 PABX: 021-3241 5213 – 15
Fax: 042-3838 9000 Fax: 021-3242 9653 / 3241 6072
shahrukh.zaman@wateen.com kashif.suhail@arifhabib.com.pk

3
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

Table of contents
2........Glossary...........................................................................................6

3........Executive Summary........................................................................8

4........The Transaction..............................................................................8
4.1......Term Sheet.........................................................................................11
4.2......Underwriting considerations................................................................12

5........The Company..................................................................................14

6........Product & Services

6.1......Target market......................................................................................16
6.2......Competition........................................................................................17
6.3......Product Portfolio.................................................................................18

7........SALES, SERVICES AND OPERATIONS

7.1......Consumer Sales..................................................................................27
7.2......Corporate & Carrier Sales....................................................................32

8........The Technology
8.1......Wireless Access - WiMAX...................................................................35
8.2......Wireless Access – Satellite.................................................................35
8.3......Wireless Access – DVB-RCS...............................................................36

9........Suppliers & Partners information

9.1......Motorola Limited.................................................................................42
9.2......Huawei Technologies Company Limited...............................................42
9.3......CISCO.................................................................................................42

10......Details of Subsidiaries...............................................................44

11......Strategic Partnerships..............................................................45

12......The sponsors

4
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

Table of contents
12.1....Group Overview..................................................................................46
12.2....Warid Telecom International, LLC.........................................................46
12.3....Bank Alfalah Limited............................................................................46

13......The Management
13.1....Human Resource................................................................................50
13.2....Administration.....................................................................................51

14......Utilization of IPO proceeds

14.1....Retirement of Loan obligation..............................................................52
14.2....Acquisition of subsidiary.....................................................................52

15......Risks and Mitigants

15.1....Regulatory risk....................................................................................54
15.2....Market risk..........................................................................................54
15.3....Interest rate risk..................................................................................54

16......Financial Overview
16.1....Income statement(s)...........................................................................56
16.2....Balance Sheet(s).................................................................................56
16.3....Analysis of Financial statements (historic)...........................................56

17......Annexure A [Pakistan telecom sector overview]

17.1....Growth of telecom sector in Pakistan...................................................63
17.2....Mobile sector......................................................................................63
17.3....Fixed Line sector.................................................................................64

18......Annexure B [Plant & Equipment]..............................................68

19......Annexure C [Wateen’s Licenses]...............................................69

5
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

2 glossary

ADG.......... Abu Dhabi Group NG............ Next Generation

ADM......... Add Drop Multiplexer NGN......... Next Generation Network
AHL.......... Arif Habib Limited NEPL........ National Engineers Private Limited
AP............ Access Point NMS......... Network Management System
ASON....... Automatically Switched Optical Network NOC......... Network Operations Centre
ATM.......... Asynchronous Transfer Mode NTR 1....... Northern Telecom Region 1
BW........... Bandwidth NTR 2....... Northern Telecom Region 2
CAPEX...... Capital Expenditure OEM......... Original Equipment Manufacturer
CATV........ Community Access Television / Cable Television OFC.......... Optic Fiber Cable
CCTV........ Closed Circuit Television O&M......... Operations and Maintenance
C & C........ Credit and Collection OPEX........ Operational Expenditure
CDC.......... Central Depository Company PKR.......... Pakistan Rupee
CNBC....... Consumer News and Business Channel PTA.......... Pakistan Telecommunications Authority
CRM NG... Customer Relationship Management Next Generation PTCL........ Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited
CPE.......... Customer Premises Equipment PDH.......... Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy
CPS.......... Carrier-Pre-Select PLC.......... Private Leased Circuit
CTR.......... Central Telecom Region PBX.......... Private Branch Exchange
CTI........... Computer Telephone Integration PRI........... Primary Rate Interface
DID........... Direct inward Dialing POTS........ Plain Old Telephone Service
DHA.......... Defence Housing Authority PSTN........ Public Switching Telephone Network
DOD......... Direct Outward Dialing POS.......... Point of Sale
DSNG....... Digital Satellite News Gathering PC............ Personal Computers
DTH.......... Direct to Home PRS.......... Premium Rate Service
DVB-ASI... Digital Video Broadcast-Asynchronous Serial Interface PPV.......... Pay Per View
DVB-RCS .Digital Video Broadcasting - Return Channel via Satellite PS............ Professional Services
EDN.......... Enterprise Data Network QOSs........ Quality of Services
EDGE........ Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution RBO......... Re-broadcasting
E-Fax........ Electronic Fax RF............ Radio Frequency
EPG.......... Electronic Program Guide RFI........... Ready for Installation
ESCON..... Enterprise Systems Connection ROI........... Return on investment
Etc............ Etcetera RTR.......... Rawalpindi Telecom Region
EVDO........ Evolution Data Optimized SAN.......... Storage Area Network
FC/FICON.. Fiber Channel / Fiber Connection, SDH.......... Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
FCR.......... First Call Resolution SECP........ Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan
FTR.......... Faisalabad Telecom Region SDS.......... Sales Delivery and Service
FTTx......... Fiber To The ‘x’ (‘x’ can be home, curb, building etc.) SI............. System Integrators
FWO......... Frontier Works Organization SIP........... Session Initiation Protocol
Gbps......... Gigabit per second SLA.......... Service Level Agreement
GDP.......... Gross Domestic Product SME......... Small Medium Enterprises
GHz.......... Gigahertz SMEDA..... Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority

6
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

GPRS........ General Packet Radio Service SMSC....... Short Message Service Center
GPON....... Gigabit capable Passive Optical Network SMTP....... Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
GSM......... Global System for Mobile communications SoHo........ Small Office Home Office
GTR.......... Gujranwala Telecom Region STM......... Synchronous Transport Module
HFC.......... Hybrid Fiber Coaxial STR-1....... Southern Telecom Region 1
HP............ House Passes STR- V..... Southern Telecom Region V
HTR.......... Hazara Telecom Region UAE.......... United Arab Emirates
IP............. Internet Protocol UAN.......... Universal Access Numbers
IPO........... Initial Public Offering UK............ United Kingdom
IPLC......... International Private Leased Circuit USD.......... United States Dollar
ISP........... Internet Service Providers USP.......... Unique Selling Proposition
ISM........... Industrial, Scientific and Medical VoD.......... Video On Demand
ITR........... Islamabad Telecom Region VAR.......... Value Added Reselling
IVR........... Interactive Voice Response VOIP......... Voice over Internet Protocol
KB............ Kilobyte VDV.......... Voice Data Video
KPI........... Key Performance Indicator VPN.......... Virtual Private Network
KSE.......... Karachi Stock Exchange VSAT........ Very Small Aperture Terminal
KTR.......... Karachi Telecom Region VAS.......... Value Added Services
LL............. Local Loop WAN......... Wide Area Network
LTE........... Long Term Evolution WDM........ Wavelength-Division Multiplexing
LTR........... Lahore Telecom Region WiMAX..... Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
MAN......... Metropolitan Area Network WLL......... Wireless Local Loop
MHZ......... Megahertz WOG........ Wateen Online Gaming
MB........... Megabyte WTI.......... Warid Telecom International
MW.......... Micro Wave WTR......... Western Telecom Region
MPLS....... Multiprotocol Label Switching WMM....... Wateen Multi Media
MTR......... Multan Telecom Region

7
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

3 Executive Summary

The Transaction bandwidth services to telecom operators in Afghanistan.

After successful launch and operations, Wateen Telecom Limited has Additionally, infrastructure of Optic Fiber network spanning over more
decided to list itself on the Karachi Stock Exchange (G) Limited. The than 10,000 km (including 3 of the 5 Government of Pakistan USF
sponsor shareholders of the Company have agreed to raise new capi- projects) across all the four provinces of Pakistan including metro
tal of the Company to the tune of PKR 1,100 million by offering ad- connectivity in 22 cities powering 3 of the 5 GSM operators in Paki-
ditional 110 million shares with a Greenshoe option of a further PKR stan. Wateen also has been acknowledged as the largest alternative
900 million by offering additional 90 million both at a price of PKR LDI opertor in Pakistan (with over 1 billion minutes of traffic volume)
10/- per share through Initial Public Offer (IPO) to the general public duly acknowledged by the regulating authority PTA. Such remarkable
and institutional investors (the “Transaction”). performance has made Wateen the fastest growing telecommunica-
tion company in Pakistan, thus, making Wateen an icon in the industry
The Company and presents ample proof of the robustness of Wateen and its potential
Wateen Telecom Limited is Abu Dhabi Group’s latest telecom venture in the future.
in Pakistan. After the successful launch of Warid Telecom (Pvt) Lim- Wateen’s impressive financial performance to date with cumulative
ited, WTL was set up as a leading Telecom Infrastructure, Broadband revenue crossing PKR 32 billion mark and return on equity of more
and Media company with a vision to become a “Carrier’s Carrier” and than 165 percent as of 30 June 2009 represents a strong and tested
usher in a digital / broadband revolution by providing services based potential with even a more lucrative future ahead of it. This is clearly
on quality / reliability and affordability / availability in the communica- evidant by the strong year on year growth, annual return to sharehold-
tion and media sector. The Company was incorporated in Pakistan un- ers and profitabiltiy since inception. After the initial investment by the
der Companies Ordinance, 1984 on 4 March 2005 and commenced shareholders there has not been a single cash call for equity despite
its Long Distance and International Public Voice Telephone (LDI) busi- approved equity by the board. Strong operational performance en-
ness from 1 May 2005 in Pakistan. It is a subsidiary of Warid Tele- abled Wateen to sustain its expansion and grow to new heights of
com International LLC. (WTI) which holds 79.8 percent shares of the telecom achievement in Pakistan and allowed the Company to both
Company and Bank Alfalah has strategic investment of 20.0 percent overperform from budget and surpass all industry expectations. Ac-
in the Company. tual performance has always surpassed budgeted performance and
Wateen’s existing shareholders have been strong supporters of Paki- with one of the best workforces in the telecommunication industry of
stan with a diversified portfolio of investments in banking, real estate Pakistan such positive trends are only to be rewritten with even more
development & hospitality, telecom & media and more recently also in vigor and enthusiasm.
healthcare (Bank Alfalah Limited, United Bank, Taavun, Warid, CNBC ARCH-e’-decon a leading valuer in the telecom indutry was engaged
Pakistan, Arvato and Al-Razi Healthcare). They are one of the largest to revalue Wateen’s existing assets and after a thorough scrutiny of
foreign investor groups in Pakistan. the assets comprising the company’s fiber optic network (long haul
Wateen’s successful four years of operations in the telecom industry and metro) and WiMAX licenses, their independent report suggested a
of Pakistan speak for itself, as it has successfully deployed the larg- replacement value of PKR 17,289 million translating into intrinsic book
est commercial and first nationwide 3.5 GHz WiMAX network rollout value of PKR 52.5 per share. Such a high intrinsic value share is avail-
in the world covering 22 cities and 1,100 sites. Rapid customer take able through the IPO at par value of PKR 10.0 per share.
up has helped Wateen acquire over 150,000 wireless broadband Wateen has many competitors for specific products but Wateen’s
customers representing more than 60 percent of the total wireless portfolio of offerings in the market is truly unique since no other sin-
broadband market. Additionally, 12,000 broadband customers over gular player offers a similar product portfolio. Wateen since inception
fiber with 2,700 corporate links (including 26 of the 31 commercial believed in exceeding customer expectations and providing bundled
banks) and relationship with almost all the major GSM and telecom- services to make a truly unique experience. In other words, Wateen
munication companies in Pakistan as its customers. Wateen Telecom is second to none. The closest competitor in terms of product range
is also proudly the largest operator of Satellite services in the country is PTCL but it does not offer VAR (Value Added Reselling) / PS (Pro-
with 500+ MHz in commercial use and now also providing Satellite fessional Services) that form an integral part of Wateen’s corporate

8
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
product portfolio for the provision of “one window operations” to the Mr. Ahmed Darwish Dagher Al Marar
corporate and carrier market. Mr. Bashir A. Tahir
Wateen also did not face any issues of legacy infrastructure and there- Mr. Parvez A. Shahid
fore built the best NGN (Next Generation Network) allowing it to of- Mr. Abdulla Khalil Mohd Samea Al Mutawa
fer differentiated products at a lower cost of delivery compared to its Mr. Khalid Mana Saeed Ahmed Al Otaiba
competitors. On the other hand, competitors have to think twice before
moving on to a newer technology since they have to weigh in the likely Underwriting considerations
classification of a legacy infrastructure to sunk cost. l High growth / lucrative sector
Wateen offers a balanced portfolio of products and services for both l Fair competition & Regulatory framework
the short and long term. For short term profit generation it has a di- l Strong operational track record and balanced portfolio
verse product range such as LDI, Solutions and Managed Capacity l Strong sponsor profile
(OFC and VSAT). For medium term cash generation, WiMAX is the
major product while for long term shareholder value enhancement, Some of the key achievements of Wateen include:
FTTx (including WiMAX expansion) and Media are being developed Key financial highlights for the last five years are:
to unleash the innovative potential of Wateen’s dynamic team. This All amounts are in 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
well placed portfolio helps Wateen to better manage its operational risk PKR mn (except EPS)
profile as well as achieve optimization of cash flows. Revenue 14.6 2,793.8 4,448.3 9,289.1 16,184.8
Additionally, Wateen benefits from the following synergies from its var- Cost of sales 46.4 1,712.3 2,726.7 5,234.7 10,946.7
ious product segments allowing higher margins over industry norms Gross Profit -31.8 1,081.5 1,721.7 4,054.4 5,238.1
-218 % 39 % 39 % 44 % 32 %
and stability in profits: General & Admin 12.7 564.8 854.2 1,715.8 1,920.6
l Strategic benefit of captive / long term telco customers with high Marketing & Selling - 14.0 82.0 340.5 299.7
volume and lower margin business with 3-20 year contracts Operating Profit -44.5 502.7 785.5 1,998.1 3,017.8
-305 % 18 % 18 % 22 % 19 %
l Tower & Infrastructure sharing agreement meaning lower network
Depreciation 12.5 122.3 67.2 434.6 960
opex, rapid time to market and scalable / flexible network Other income - 5.8 25.8 200 191.4
l Minimal media transmission costs as own fiber optic network Finance cost - 15 165.9 204.7 568.4
PBT -57 371.1 578.2 1,558.8 1,680.7
l 24 fiber network with only 3-4 sold so much more capacity to sell
-390 % 13 % 13 % 17 % 10 %
and make money Provision for tax -19.9 144.3 192.7 474.6 532.1
l 28 percent market share forecasted in Broadband market Non controlling interest 129.9
l LDI market share of 20 percent given Wateen’s historic market PAT -37.1 226.8 385.5 1,084.2 1,018.7
EPS -37.1 1.12 1.85 5.19 4.88
share and outbound retail / own traffic EPS net Mgt fee -37.1 1.81 2.91 7.22 4.88
l Network OPEX savings by changing some vendors

Sponsors & Directors of the Company l Largest alternative LDI operator in the country; over 1 billion
The Company enjoys a strong sponsorship of Warid Telecom Interna- minutes per annum including direct LDI routes / intercon-
tional LLC. (79.8 percent). Warid Telecom has operations in four coun- nects with major incumbents i-e, Etisalat, STC, BT, MOC Ku-
tries and collectively entertains 27.7 million subsribers. Whereas Bank wait etc.
Alfalah Limited, the second major sponsor (20.0 percent), is a leading l Deployed fully redundant fibre optic network in record time
banking institution and has a 6.6 percent share in the overall depos- n 8,000+ km on long haul across the country

its of commercial banks in Pakistan as of 30 September, 2009. The n 1,700+ km metro in 22 cities in record duration

bank has a presence in different cities of Pakistan with 321 branches l Tele-housing / Co-location facilities in 70 cities
in its banking network as of 31 December 2009. Both companies are l Largest operator of Satellite services in the country (c. 500+
backed by the Abu Dhabi Group. MHz in use)
After the success of Abu Dhabi Group’s investments such as Bank l Deployed triple play HFC infrastructure in Pakistan for 20,000
Alfalah, United Bank Limited and Warid Telecom and further to the ex- house passes with 50 percent+ take-up of households with-
emplary performance of Wateen over the past four years, Abu Dhabi in few months of launch
Group has decided to list Wateen Telecom Limited at PAR to share l Largest commercial and first nationwide WiMAX network
in the profits with the people of Pakistan as a growth stock with a rollout in the world covering 22 cities and more than 1,100
strong future even though the current book value per share (if asset sites (900 live)
revaluation activity were to be taken into account) is PKR 52 per share l Major clients include
whereas; book value per share for fiscal year ending 30 June 2009 n Carrier: Warid, CM Pak for dark fibre, Telenor for man-

stood at PKR 20 per share. aged capacity and VSAT, Mobilink for OFC joint preven-
Following directors are on the board of Wateen Telecom Limited: tive measures
H.H. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan – Chairman of the n Corporates: Clients include 26 Banks, 8 Media compa-

Board nies, 13 Telecos & Carrier over 2,700 links in other cor-
Sheikh Saif Bin Mohammed Butti Al Hamid porates

9
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
n Consumers: 150,000+ subscribers on WiMAX and
HFC
l 26 out of top 31 banks use Wateen data network connectivity
with 1,600 of the 5,000 on-line branches connected
l 8 TV Channels
l 13 Telco & Carrier customers
l 150,000+ broadband customers and 2,700+ enterprise
links
l SWAP deal of fibre with the incumbent for alternative redun-
dancy
l On an investment of PKR 2 billion, Company delivered cumu-
lative revenue of PKR 37.5 billion, EBITDA of PKR 5.8 billion
and profit of PKR 2.1 billion since inception to November
2009 including management fee
l Strategic vendor relationships, preferential pricing and ven-
dor deferment of $75 million as a Greenfield project. Wa-
teen has secured $108 million dollars as vendor financing
through reputable organizations such as MCC ($65 million)
and ECGD ($43 million). Futhermore, Company secured lo-
cal funding to the tune of PKR 14 billion and short term facil-
ity of PKR 3.5 billion
l Successfully completed VAR / PS (IP telephony, IP Contact
Centre, Data Centre, Enterprise Data Network) project in
Uganda, Congo and Bangladesh
l Cisco top customer Advocacy partner in the Middle East,
Africa Region in 2006
l Established sales channel network which can be leveraged to
ensure critical momentum
l Well trained Wireless Operation team for installation and sup-
port
l Tested business processes including entire customer life-
cycle management
l Largest ISP call centre – (200 agents capacity)
l Robust pre/post paid billing system
l State of the art Business Intelligence (BI) system in place

10
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

4 The Transaction

4.1 Term Sheet

Transaction Initial Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

Company Wateen Telecom Limited
No. of shares Up to 110,000,000 ordinary shares through IPO
Up to 90,000,000 ordinary share through Green shoe Option
Issue price PKR 10/- per share
Issue amount PKR 2,000,000,000/-
Advisors and Arrangers Arif Habib Limited
Listing Karachi Stock Exchange (Guarantee) Limited (“KSE”)
Participants/Investors Institutional investors and general public
Legal counsel to the Issue Ijaz Ahmed and Associates
Underwriting commission We recommend 1.00 percent underwriting commission of the amount underwritten.
The amount will be payable at the time of execution of underwriting agreements.
Take-up commission 1.50 percent of the amount actually taken up by the underwriters
Transferability In the case of shares inducted into CDC, transfer shall be in accordance with the Central
Depositories Act, 1997 and other applicable CDC regulations. Shares issued in physical
form shall be transferable using verified transfer deeds.
Governing law The Transaction and its underlying documents / agreements shall be governed by the
laws of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

11
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
4.2 Underwriting considerations prices of telecom services have also decreased enormously. PTA
Participation in the underwriting of the IPO is recommended as has never fallen short of ensuring that all the telecom operators
it offers attractive valuation, striking demand outlook and strong including newly licensed should be provided with a level playing
sponsors’ profile. These considerations are briefly discussed be- field.
low: At present though significant entry barriers exist in the telecom
industry as no further licenses are available for LDI/WLL or right
4.2.1 High growth potential of way for deployment of fiber infrastructure thus providing Wa-
A total population of approx. 168 million of which 45 percent teen with enormous potential to leverage its existing infrastruc-
are under the age of 15 years provides a huge untapped mar- ture in ways beyond the reach of any potential new entrants.
ket potential for products catering to the digital revolution of the
21st century with experts anticipating the medium term market 4.2.3 Strong operational track record and
size to be 5m+. Furthermore, Wateen’s Telecom Infrastructure balanced portfolio
allows Wateen to benefit from the current Carrier and Corporate Wateen’s impressive financial performance to date with cumula-
dynamics with ever increasing bandwidth requirements as a di- tive revenue crossing PKR 32 billion mark and return on equity
rect result of the ongoing price war in the telecom arena. Wateen of more than 165 percent as of 30 June 2009 in only four years
with its wireless broadband platform has strategically positioned from a greenfield operation represents a strong and tested poten-
itself advantageously to serve the needs of a rapidly evolving and tial with even a more lucrative future ahead of it. Strong opera-
technology intensive demand. The total investment in the telecom tional performance enabled Wateen to sustain its expansion and
sector stood at PKR 130 billion for the year ending June 2009 grow to new heights of telecom achievement in Pakistan. Actual
and despite the pessimistic outlook of the global economy the performance has always surpassed budgeted performance and
telecom sector attracted PKR 68 billion worth of foreign invest- with one of the best workforces in the communication industry of
ment while generating revenues of PKR 328 billion in the same Pakistan such positive trends are only to be rewritten with even
period with growth of 18 percent over the previous year. Such more vigor and enthusiasm.
financial progress of the telecom sector provides good prospects Wateen’s gain in net worth during 2009 was PKR 841 million,
for a player like Wateen which strives on innovation and creativity which increased the book value of the stock by 22 percent. Over
as some of its core values. the last four years, book value has grown from PKR 1,394 million
A struggling global and national economy is forcing compa- to PKR 4,767 million, a rate of 29 percent compounded annually.
nies to undertake cost rationalization programs for which they This growth has been the best in the telecommunication industry
will seek Wateen’s products and services to reduce cost and in Pakistan
increase efficiency. As part of Wateen Solutions, Wateen adds Futhermore, similar growth has been witnessed in assets of the
value by selling high technology products backed with skilled and Company that soared from PKR 2,322 million in FY2005 to PKR
low cost deployment and support. Some of its products include 26,289 million in FY2009, a rate of 56 percent compunded an-
IP Telephony, IP Contact Center, IP/MPLS, EDN’s and Intelligent nually. Revenues and earnings after tax have followed a similar
Video Surveillance Systems. Wateen has made strategic allianc- trend by posting CAGR of 55 percent and 63 percent respectively
es with global players like Cisco Systems, Alcatel, Microsoft and over four years and profitable since inception.
IBM to expand and evolve on the technological front. Wateen’s Wateen offers a balanced portfolio of products and services for
VAR Products are the foundation for the services and application both the short and long term. For short term profit generation it
needs of any business to realize its full potential in the digital age has a diverse product range such as LDI, Solutions and Man-
of the 21st century. Needless to mention that any incremental aged Capacity (OFC and VSAT). For medium term cash genera-
revenue from the Transmission business including but not limited tion, WiMAX is the major product while for long term shareholder
to Dark Fiber, Lambda, etc. will directly hit the bottom line. value enhancement, FTTx (including WiMAX expansion) and
Media are being developed to unleash the innovative potential of
4.2.2 Fair competition & Regulatory framework Wateen’s dynamic team. This well placed portfolio helps Wateen
Pakistan telecommunication sector had remained a monopoly for to better manage its operational risk profile as well as achieve
a very long time. However, this sector has been liberalized since optimization of cash flows.
the announcement of Deregulation Policy on 13 July 2003 and
exclusivity of PTCL in basic telephony has been abolished. So 4.2.4 Strong sponsors profile
far Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued LDI Wateen’s existing shareholders hold a diversified portfolio of in-
licenses to 14 Operators, LL licenses to 36 operators and in addi- vestments in banking, real estate development & hospitality, tele-
tion to that WLL licenses to 13 operators. New telecom operators com & media and more recently also in healthcare (Bank Alfalah
have contributed over PKR 30 billion in this deregulation process. Limited, United Bank, Taavun, Warid, CNBC Pakistan, Arvato and
With all this, telecom sector of Pakistan is now open for competi- Al-Razi Healthcare). The Abu Dhabi Group is one of the largest
tion. Impact of telecom liberalization has been tremendous with foreign investor groups in Pakistan. The unmatched performance
dramatic increase in access to telecom facilities for the common of Wateen Telecom has attracted strong commitment of its
man. In addition to improvement in quality of telecom services, shareholders over the course of its operations which is further

12
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
cemented by the fact that the existing shareholders want to retain
majority stake in the company and allowing a dilution and list-
ing of shareholding in order to share benefits with the people of
Pakistan.

Name of shareholders No. of shares percent Holding

Warid Telecom International L.L.C 333,292,700 79.84 %

Bank Alfalah Limited 83,494,920 20.00 %
Individual Shareholders 687,000 0.16 %
Total 417,474,620 100.00 %

The Company enjoys the strong sponsorship of Warid Telecom

International limited (79.8 percent) which is already providing
different telecom services in a number of countries other than
Pakistan such as Bangladesh, Uganda and Congo. Whereas Bank
Alfalah Limited is the second major sponsor (20 percent) and has
a share in the overall deposits of commercial banks in Pakistan
as of 30 September 2009. The bank has a presence in different
cities of Pakistan with its 321 branches banking network as of 31
December 2009. Both companies are backed by the Abu Dhabi
Group.

13
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

5 The Company

5.1 Wateen Telecom Limited overview growing telecommunication company in Pakistan, thus, making
Wateen Telecom Limited was incorporated in Pakistan under the Wateen an icon in the industry and presents ample proof of the
Companies Ordinance 1984, on 4 March 2005. The business robustness of Wateen.
model of the Company was to initially focus on the wholesale Sales performance has also been quite encouraging and consis-
telecom market by becoming the leading carrier’s carrier by pro- tent with over 20,000 monthly additions to the broadband inter-
viding Long Distance and International (LDI), national transmis- net and telephony subscriber base reflecting acceptance of the
sion network (over fiber and VSAT services) and telecoms in- technology and more importantly of Wateen’s brand value in the
frastructure. After successfully achieving this milestone, Wateen market. Sales growth rate has been far steeper compared to the
then focused on the consumer market through true broadband industry average, evident from the fact that Wateen enjoys over
internet and telephony services as well as multimedia, TV broad- 60 percent share of the wireless broadband market. Wateen has
cast services (through an affiliate) and value added services in an established sales channel network with a well trained wireless
Pakistan. The registered office of the Company is situated in La- operation team for installation and support which together can be
hore. The Company commenced its commercial operations in leveraged to ensure critical momentum. It possesses efficient and
LDI segment on 1 May 2005. effective business processes including entire customer lifecycle
Wateen Telecom is owned by the Abu Dhabi Group, one of the management as well as the largest ISP call centre – (200 agents
leading business conglomerates in the United Arab Emirates capacity) and robust pre/post paid billing system supported by a
(UAE) and is one of the largest foreign investor groups in Paki- state of the art Business Intelligence (BI) system.
stan. All the GSM operators and almost 80 percent of the commercial
Wateen’s successful four years of operations in the telecom indus- banks in Pakistan are using Wateen’s services in one form or the
try of Pakistan speak for itself, as it has successfully deployed the other including but not limited to dark fiber / data connectivity,
largest commercial and first nationwide 3.5 GHz WiMAX network VSAT (Satellite transmission), LDI services, etc. That just shows
rollout in the world covering 22 cities and 1,100 sites. Rapid cus- the reliability and dependability of Wateen’s telecom network and
tomer take up has helped Wateen acquire over 150,000 wireless further compliments Wateen’s vision to be a “Carrier’s Carrier”.
broadband customers representing more than 60 percent of the The current market dynamics of the telecom industry lead to-
total wireless broadband market. Additionally, 12,000 broadband wards a price war between all the players - a natural result of a
customers over fiber with 2,700 corporate links (including 26 of price war is increase in volume that will lead to higher capacity
the 31 commercial banks) and relationship with almost all the demand thus directly increasing business for Wateen’s services
major GSM and telecommunication companies in Pakistan as its to the telecom and corporate industry and majority of these con-
customers. Wateen Telecom is also proudly the largest operator tracts with other telecom and institutional companies are based
of Satellite services in the country with 500+ MHz in commercial on a longer term basis.
use and now also providing Satellite bandwidth services to tele- Over the course of its operations, Wateen has successfully
com operators in Afghanistan. achieved strategic vendor relationships and preferential pricing.
Additionally, infrastructure of Optic Fiber network spanning over Wateen has also entered into long term contracts with major
more than 10,000 km (including Government of Pakistan USF vendors and customers thus securing certainty in future cash
projects) across all the four provinces of Pakistan including met- flows.
ro connectivity in 22 cities powering 3 of the 5 GSM operators Wateen recently closed the largest syndicate financing transac-
in Pakistan. Wateen also has been acknowledged as the largest tion for the year 2009 raising PKR 4.7 billion from leading banks
alternative LDI opertor in Pakistan (with over 1 billion minutes in the industry even in these challenging times showing the confi-
of traffic volume) duly acknowledged by the regulating authority dence of the market in Wateen’s business model and operations.
PTA. Such remarkable performance has made Wateen the fastest Moreover, Wateen also successfully closed one of the largest Is-

14
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
lamic Financing deal in the same period. In addition to the above,
Wateen has secured $108 million dollars as vendor financing
through reputable organizations such as MCC ($65 million) and
ECGD ($43 million).
ARCH-e’-decon a leading valuer in the telecom industry was
engaged to assess the current value of Wateen’s key strategic
assets and after a thorough scrutiny of the assets comprising the
company’s fiber optic network (long haul and metro) and WiMAX
licenses, their independent report suggested a replacement value
of PKR 17.29 billion (current book value of these assets is PKR
1.64 billion) translating into intrinsic value of PKR 52.5 per share.
Such a high book value share will now be available through the
IPO at par value of PKR 10.0 per share - a huge discount for the
people of Pakistan to benefit from.
While Pakistan’s telecom industry continues to take positive steps
towards the development of telecom infrastructure in the coun-
try, the massive boom in the mobile phone segment of telecom
industry has also provided significant momentum for expansion
and development in other segments of telecom as well.

15
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

6 PRODUCT & SERVICES

Wateen’s product portfolio can be broadly summarized as un- a portfolio of products that should not only meet existing demand
der: but should go beyond. Wateen’s strategy was not to sell tech-
• Wholsale: Managed capacity / transmisison media (OFC, nology but to provide the best product line to customers so as
VSAT), VAR / PS, Infrastructure & Telehousing, Hosted / Man- to address their customer need at the right price. With a mobile
aged Solutions phone industry booming, the broadband / data network segment
• Retail: Internet, Data, Voice, enhanced Voice, TV, VAS, Portal growing, demand for access to the internet seeking exponential
By commissioning a ready-to-use nationwide 10,000 km optical growth, and the voice (telephone service) market diversifying
fiber network infrastructure within such a short time, Wateen has from the copper infrastructure to more flexible and conveniently
surpassed expectations and surprised the market by delivering a usable and functionally superior products, the stage was set for
Next Generation Network (NGN) which offers affordability, reli- Wateen. Primarily the market sought and continues to seek better,
ability and convenient scalability. Not much time passed, another convenient, on-demand scalable facility for transporting informa-
first-of-its-kind achievement followed, when Wateen deployed tion, or shall we say Content, from one point to another, with an
the World’s first 3.5 GHz WiMAX Broadband network country- insatiable appetite for capacity i.e. bandwidth colloquially called
wide in 22 cities of Pakistan which represents over 70 percent of speed.
the urban population and where over 85 percent of the national With the market ready to accept change for the better, our strat-
GDP is generated. More importantly, these cities represented egy was to sustain focus on the customer by meeting and ex-
approximately 90 percent of the target market of the 5 million ceeding their expectation, deliver innovative and functionally rich
internet users as predicted by industry experts. Concurrently, products, with rapid time to market. The imperative for sustained
a multiple hub VSAT satellite network was put on air to enable focus warranted a comprehensive understanding the customer.
transportation of information to places where no other telecom- Market intelligence, primary research, and market demand fac-
munication medium could be deployed that was not the end of tored in, identified two large segments namely the Corporate and
the story, a Hybrid Fiber Copper (HFC) network was deployed in Carrier segment and Consumer segment.
DHA, Lahore to deliver Triple Play (TV, Internet, Telephone) ser- Data on consumer needs showed very high demand for internet
vices followed by another ‘first’, a GPON network in Pakistan, access where consistent reliability, 24x7 availability, convenience
deployed in Multan for triple play services. That done, within a of scalability or upgrades in bandwidth, responsiveness to cus-
short span of time, Wateen had accomplished the fastest deploy- tomer service, nomadic or mobility of service i.e. quasi anytime-
ment of a multi-media Converged Network (Optical Fiber, WiMAX anywhere service and the ubiquitous demand for low on price.
Broadband, VSAT, ISM Radio, HFC, GPON) in Pakistan covering Supported by the ever increasing growth of personal computer
the entire country and more importantly – available at affordable penetration in the county and laptops becoming more and more
rates for customer service. affordable, and an estimated 5 million personal computer in use
Yet the challenge remained. What products and services to offer in Pakistan, lifestyle patterns demonstrate a changing pattern
to the target market? Should we fulfill demand and flow with the from talking to messaging and emails, partying out to virtual so-
tide, or should the path be driven by innovation? We chose the cial networking, from outdoor sports to electronic gaming, from
latter, albeit a difficult route. With an incumbent in monopolistic audio to audio-video, from listening to watching, and of course
dominance, and the market yearning for an alternative, the lat- to more serious social aspects of learning, research, and sharing
ter paved the way. Concurrently, Wateen had created an entry knowledge.
barrier for the next entrant, financially and technologically. With The Carrier and Corporate segment is far more complex yet com-
almost every License available for telecommunication services fortably segmented. Mobile phone operators, Internet Service
approved and issued to Wateen by the Pakistan Telecommunica- Providers (ISPs), Long Distance and International (LDI) telephone
tion Authority (PTA), the writing on the wall said – Go Ahead, let’s service operators, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) telephone service
capture the market. The product roll-out commenced. operators, Local Loop (LL) telephone service operators singu-
larly consume the largest chunk of bandwidth capacity in the
6.1 Target market country, approximately 70 percent consumed by 73 companies.
The market space being inherently diverse and vast necessitated Very high consumption of bandwidth, equally high availability of

16
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
network, concurrent utilization of multiple telecommunication 6.2 Competition
medium, international connectivity, high focus on quality of ser- With Wateen’s product portfolio, the biggest challenge is the
vice supported by Service Level Agreements (SLAs), geographi- classification of competition. The breadth and depth of Wateen’s
cally dispersed sites, decision making driven by value addition services often creates a situation where in a customer for one
to business, and financially stable service provider, succinctly product is a competitor for another. On the consumer side, cel-
describes this segments expectations. lular operators, ISPs, LDIs, and fixed & wire line operators make
On the other side are the Corporate and Enterprise sectors of up the competition; whereas on the carrier side, it is the same
the national economy. We call it the Enterprise segment. With entities that comprise the customer base. At present, major play-
57,000+ companies registered with the Securities and Exchange ers offering competition on consumer Internet and entertainment
Commission of Pakistan (SECP), approximately 2,000 classify to products includes PTCL, World Call, wi-tribe, and Mobilink. The
be Enterprises i.e. multiple offices or outlets in the country. The presence of substitute products such as GPRS and EDGE also
Banking and Financial services industry is the largest member of puts the cellular operators in competition. On the business side,
this segment with 9,000+ branches. While another 6,000 outlets in addition to the competition offered by above mentioned play-
are estimated to represent other segment comprising Services ers, Wateen also faces competition from system integrators,
and Distribution, Health and Education, Government and Defence, OEMs and other ISPs such as CyberNet and SuperNet, who have
and Manufacturing and Construction. With this segment’s cus- a strong presence in the enterprise (large and small) segment.
tomers demanding better service levels, and innovative products, Wateen has many competitors for specific products but Wateen’s
business entities have recently made significant multi-million dol- offering in the market is truly unique since no other singular play-
lar investments in sophisticated information systems. It is these er offers a similar product portfolio. In other words, Wateen is
very information systems and the desire to expand their reach to second to none. The closest competitor in terms product range
a larger customer base, generates demand for Wateen network is PTCL but it does not offer VAR (Value Added Reselling) and
portfolio. Secure, reliable, responsive, SLA based service, price/ PS (Professional Services) that form an integral part of Wateen’s
performance, single window multiple medium availability prefer- product portfolio for the provision of “one window operations”.
ence, primary and backup network facility, and flexibility of ser- Wateen also did not face any issues of legacy infrastructure and
vice provider to enable connectivity characterizes this segment. therefore built the best NGN (Next Generation Network) allowing it to
A significant player in the market is the SME/SoHo segment. An esti- offer differentiated products at a lower cost of delivery compared to
mated 350,000 entities make up this segment based on data available its competitors. On the other hand, competitors have to think twice
from SMEDA. The segment primarily demands access to internet and before moving on to a newer technology since they have to weigh in
telephone service with characteristics similar to the Enterprise seg- the likely classification of a legacy infrastructure to sunk cost.
ment with one difference, price is the eventual denominator.
Pakistan currently presents extremely favorable demographics for Long Metro FTTH Wireless VSAT System Hosted
Haul Broadband SCPC & Integration Solutions
broadband proliferation. Over 50 percent of the country’s popula-
tion is between the ages of 15 and 24 with an overall Computer Wateen 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
penetration of around 5 million and 4 million internet subscriptions. PTCL 3 3 X 3 X X X
With such huge opportunity for Broadband proliferation and tra- WorldCall X 3 X 3 X X X
ditional technologies such as DSL showing limitations due to a CyberNet X 3 X 3 3 X X
network of copper lines laid out in most areas around 50 years ago
Supernet X X X X 3 X X
and hence failing to support transfer of heavy data, both wireless
and optical fibre (HFC/GPON) based technologies are clearly going MultiNet 3 3 X 3 X X X
to lead the show for Broadband growth in Pakistan. Mobilink 3 3 X 3 X X X
Wateen with its presence in 22 cities is ideally positioned to take- Nayatel X 3 3 X X X X
over as the runaway leader in the Broadband market; competitors Getronix X X X X X 3 X
in the WiMAX market such as wi-tribe (present in only 3 cities)
Corvit X X X X X 3 X
and Augere/Qubee and Mobilink Infinity (present in Karachi only)
will take at least another 2 years to break into the market. Simi- DWP X X X X X 3 X
larly, with 1,700 KMs of carrier grade metro fibre; Wateen has
set-up a huge entry barrier for any other operator who would
have serious difficulties in securing right of ways to match this
number.
As more and more vendors such as Motorola, Huawei, ZTE and
Green packet enter the WiMAX market in Pakistan, the cost of
acquiring customers is going down which means that the growth
for Broadband and in turn WiMAX is going to be more and more
profitable.

17
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
6.3 Product Portfolio secondary/redundant link for the carrier, ensuring high reliability
Wateen offers a unique product mix allowing depth and breadth in and availability imposed through the Service Level Agreement
its product portfolio to ensure we don’t just cater for customers (SLA).
needs but become part of the customers’ life. As Wateen was Lambda service
building a new company in a highly infant and fragmented market Feature Advantages Benefits
l Nationwide network l Ease of transporting high l Offer affordable products to
it leveraged its infrastructure and its key Unique Selling Proposi- volume traffic, particularly customers
l Available on 5,10,15, and l 24x7x365 availability l Grow market share
tion (USP) namely providing end to end solutions whether triple 20 years IRU
play for households (voice, internet, TV & mobility) or targeted l SLA and O&M support l Scalability without any

additional CAPEX as
corporate solutions across all the business needs for urban and customer base and demand
grows
rural connectivity.

6.4.4 Managed Capacity

Where customers seek lower capacities of bandwidth, Wateen of-
fers managed capacity on its fiber and VSAT networks. Wateen’s
clear channel circuit or Layer 2 MPLS Virtual Private Network
(VPN) also known as L2VPN, is a point-to-point “pseudo-wire”
service. It is used to replace existing physical links based on TDM
circuits. This model is mostly suitable for customers who have
a traditional hub and spoke network topology. All sites are con-
nected to an aggregation site which serves as the regional hub
resulting in a point to multipoint link between the aggregation site
(the hub) and the remote sites (spokes).
6.4 Wholesale Products Managed Capacity
6.4.1 Transmission / Capacity Feature Advantages Benefits
l Capacity available on l End to End network l Save infrastructure costs
6.4.2 Dark Fiber nationwide and Metro and expense
Never before had any telecommunication company in the coun- network from E1 to STM64
(2Mbps to 10Gbps)
try, created a Dark Fiber / IRU product. This entails a long term l Offered in 71 cities of l 24x7x365 availability l Lower network management

of Pakistan through fibre resources and expense

investment by the customer, creating an asset in the books of and VSAT
the customer, supported by a long term contract, with SLA and l Monthly service charge l No CAPEX required l Offer same rates for

Karachi and upcountry sites

Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support, both preventive l SLA and O&M supported
l Secure transmission
and corrective maintenance. Dark Fiber is leased to organizations
seeking dark fiber connectivity on an IRU basis i.e. Indefeasible
Right of Use which varies from 3 years to 20 years; depending 6.4.5 DPLC & IPLC and IP Transit
on customer preference. Wateen only provides the customer with As the demand for consumer broadband grows, the supply re-
a pair of dark fiber and the customer is responsible for ‘lighting’ quired to fuel that growth will also increase. This is where the
it up i.e. making it operational by setting up the required equip- role of DPLC, IPLC, and IP-Transit comes in. DPLC provides
ment. The product is positioned to match the insatiable appetite for domestic transport within Pakistan, whereas IPLC provides
for bandwidth in the Carrier & Operator segment, specifically the transport across international destinations. For DPLC (Domestic
mobile phone operators. With Wateen’s nationwide optical fiber private leased circuit) Wateen uses its own Optical Fiber network
network capacity almost at an unlimited level, Wateen introduced both on the nationwide and metropolitan area networks, whilst for
this product in the market to gain high margins and a quick ROI an IPLC (International private leased circuit) various submarine
from optical fiber network. cable systems are used.
Dark Fiber IP-Transit, simply put, is raw Internet bandwidth which operators
Feature Advantages Benefits and large organizations acquire to have presence on the Internet
l Nationwide and l Ease of transporting high l Addition of asset

metropolitan fiber volume traffic, particularly appreciate net worth backbone. With the growth of consumer broadband, not only has
network voice traffic company broadband proliferation increased, but also the size of average
l Very high capacity l 24x7x365 availability l Offer affordable products

bandwidth customers bandwidth pipe going into consumers households. Due to this
l Available on 5,10,15 l Scalability without any l Grow market share

and 20 years IRU additional CAPEX as reason, IP-Transit has consistently seen triple digit growth in the
l SLA and O&M supported customer base and grows last two years. As per PTA’s forecast of over 4.3 million broad-
band subscribers by the year 2013, IP-Transit will outgrow its
6.4.3 Lambda service current growth rate.
Wateen Lambda service provides 10Gbps connectivity over fiber,
by ‘lighting’ up just a single wavelength from the full optical sig-
nal, stretching up on the nationwide fiber network. The allocation
of bandwidth over the lit-up Lambda is targeted to serve as the

18
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
DPLC, IPLC and IP Transit
Feature Advantages Benefits
l Nationwide and l Can carry data, digitized l Offer affordable products to

International connectivity voice, fax, video or any customers for their domestic
other form of digital and international connectivity
transmission, at bandwidths requirements
from 64 kb/s to 1000 Mbps
l Available in Half as well l 24x7x365 availability l Possibility of interconnects with

as Full circuits various telecom operators

abroad
l Offered on various l Solicits inbound traffic towards

bandwidth levels the customer from

ISPs; and vice versa
l Monthly service charge

6.4.6 Co-location/Tele-housing
For our strategic partners, Wateen provides state of the art facili-
ties for Co-location/Tele-housing, to deploy their infrastructure.
The sites have a provisioning of inter carrier connectivity, space,
security, fire detection/suppression, back up power and band-
width capacity.

Co-location / Telehousing
Feature Advantages Benefits
l Provision of inter carrier l 24x7x365 Technical l Closed Circuit Video

connectivity Support monitoring and Logging at

entry points
l Fire detection/suppression l NOC performance monitoring l Carrier neutral environment
l Back up power and

bandwidth capacity
l Monthly service charge

6.4.7 System Integration

Intricacy of IP and Unified Communication services is experienc-
ing a spontaneous rise. This is the age of policy-based, network-
intensive, and speedy and high bandwidth and business-critical
multimedia applications that bring together secure data, voice
and video capabilities. Yet it is unlikely that companies may find
suitably skilled and specialized people in their own existing set
up.
Wateen has largest team of highly skilled and certified staff, with
international project experience in the products of Cisco Sys-
tems, Polycom, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, DELL, EMC, River-
bed, Axis, McAfee, Globitel, BARCO, Schmid and other mul-
tiple leading technology providers. This has enabled Wateen to be
the leading Solution Provider in the market, offering customised,
cost effective solutions generating quick ROI’s with expertise in
design, swift deployment and seamless integration.
With this approach, Wateen has now the largest market share in
System Integrator in Pakistan for the last three years with its pen-
etration in Services Providers, Financial, Educational, Industrial
Sectors, Hospitals, Hotels and Shopping Centre and SMEs.

19
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

Product Offerings
Value Added Reselling (VAR) Managed Network Services (MNS)
In year 2009, top 500 VAR companies generated a grand total Leading Technology providers have declared the “the future is
of $600b even in the global recession. That enormous number Managed Services”. UK based consulting analyst consulting
includes IT consultants, solution providers, traditional resell- firm, Ovium has declared that Managed Services market has
ers and vendor services arms. Wateen’s Value Added Reselling grown to over $40 billion in year 2009. Wateen Solutions’ with
(VAR) with its vision to be the number one System Integrator in its largest number of skilled and certified resources offers MNS
the region, takes the lead in local market and excels in offering that helps customers to focus solely on their core competencies
customised services for the planning, designing, implementation while Wateen takes care of customer’s key value chain elements.
and optimisation of IT/Telecom solutions including integration of Wateen’s MNS offers services at rates such that our clients end
multiple next generation technologies like: up saving considerable amount of OPEX and CAPEX.

Co-location / Telehousing System Integration (VAR, PS & MNS)

Feature Advantages Benefits Feature Advantages Benefits
l Mobility and Wireless l IP Contact l Data Centre
l Complete suite of IP and l Customer can enjoy all ser- l The only System Integrator
Technologies
Unified Communication, vices under one umbrella with Service Providers
l IP Telephony l IT Solutions Industry Solutions l EDN - Enterprise Data Network
Network and Physical l Easy to choose technology Edge
l Unified Communication l Secure Multi Protocol Label l IP Video Surveillance
Security Product Line exactly meeting their busi- l Improving Gross Margins
Switching Network IP/MPLS l Consultation, Integrate and ness need with Services
l Collaboration l Visual Communication/Video
Managed Approach l Focus on core business l Revenue Assurance
Conferencing l Complete Managed thus l Customer loyalty
Services Support l Quick ROI l Customer Trust with
l Designing Economical l Consultancy with right extended coverage in three
Professional Services (PS) Solutions consultants in achieving continents like, APAC, MEA
l Cisco Solutions Partner of Business objectives. and North America
There is always need of right resources to understand the ulti- the Middle East and Africa l End to End offering under l Global reach in these areas
(MEA) region for Year one umbrella with most
mate business objective. Wateen’s Professional Services deliver 2008.& Customer focus – economical offerings
customized services for the planning, designing, implementa- Winner of Cisco Advocacy l Pr-active monitoring

Award for 2006

tion, and optimization of IT/Telecom solutions based on business l Largest Business in

Advance Technologies,
needs of the customer and the solutions offered in VAR technolo- like Security, Unified
gies. Wateen helps its clients to achieve optimum accelerated Communication, Customer
Voice Portal and IP Video
performance levels by deploying innovative solutions to complex Surveillance.
l Managed NOC
problems. Wateen provides nothing less than the very best to our
clients in;
• Network Consultancy - gathering requirements Hosted Solutions
• Product/Service Selection and Procuring The “Hosted” concept is relatively new to the market and has
• Integrating and deploying solutions – Implementation emerged as a cost saving alternative to traditional premise based
• Transitioning to support & Operations solutions. The Hosted model, a proven model in many western

20
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
Broadband Internet
nations, has injected life into cash flows of thousands of busi- Feature Advantages Benefits
l WiMAX Internet packages l Flexible and affordable l High reach that has brought
nesses all across the globe. Wateen Telecom being the leading ranging from 256 Kbps to packages that focus on in volumes
1 Mbps customer needs l Growth in market share
Hosted Solutions Provider in Pakistan offerings Hosted Data Cen- l HFC and GPON Internet l Service offerings for the l High ARPUs

tre and Hosted Contact Centre, which add value to its customer in Packages ranging from premium (niche) market as l Customer Loyalty
256 Kbps to 4 Mbps well l Differentiation as compared
saving premise based system cost, investment in resources and l Download capped as well l Superior user experience to competitive service
as Unlimited download l Ease of paying bills for the offering
money in building in-house data and contact centres. service offering customer
l Online service and usage l Reliability of service

monitoring through a “Self

Hosted Solutions Care Portal”
l Tripple play services on
Feature Advantages Benefits
l Low start-up cost, small l No Capex at all and cost l Stretching Business for HFC and GPON and Dual
initial cash outlay with low saving model SMEs especially and DRs Play services on WiMAX
l Account recharge through
total cost of ownership l Complimenting other
l Economical Operational Scratch Cards, ATMs and
l Small monthly payments Wateen Products like
that come out of the Model connectivity POS machines
l Saving HR overheads l Home Delivery of scratch
operating budget instead l Ensuring Services with
l Pay as you grow Model cards
of the capital budget high margins
l Flexible for Customer l Trained team of individuals
l Wateen’s responsibility for l Customer loyalty

deployment, integration l Complimenting VAR who specialize in WiMAX

and ongoing maintenance Business and HFC/ GPON deployment
relgardless of application
or network complexity
l Flexible in scaling up and

down
6.5.2 Data Portfolio
l Ease of transition from
With the lack of quality enabled data services due to infrastruc-
a premise-based imple-
mentation, with minimal tural issues generated a large demand-supply gap in the market,
financial or system
impact Simplification of
making Wateen’s existing infrastructure very advantageous. For
contingency planning all our Enterprise customers virtual private network (VPN) pro-
requirements.
vides a secure clear channel circuit , which is offered in Layer 2,
Layer 3 and Any-to-Any configuration to cater to various needs of
different customers. The product is offered on multiple platforms
6.5 Retail Products and on various bandwidths so that various bandwidth require-
6.5.1 Broadband Internet ments could be fulfilled, along with the flexibility of the client to
For a market that demanded reliable, affordable and superior request a change in bandwidth.
Broadband services, Wateen has come in and completely revolu-
VPN
tionized the way Broadband services are offered to the consumer. Feature Advantages Benefits
With service offerings in more than 22 cities and an experienced l Offered on multiple l Scalability without any l Save infrastructure costs

platforms additional CAPEX as cus- and expense

set of individuals who specialize in WiMAX services, Wateen is l Offered on various tomer base and demand l Stringent SLAs deliver

bandwidth levels grows availability of 99 percent or

miles ahead of current WiMAX players who merely learning the l Monthly service charge l End to End network higher
ropes at a time when the whole industry is growing at an explo- l SLA (99 percent or higher) l 24x7x365 availability l One window operation for

and O&M supported l Provide the inroads for all connectivity needs due
sive rate. For the premium seeking market, Broadband services l Secure transmission cross-selling other portfolio to IP-convergence
products once an entry is l Lower network manage-
through HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coax) and GPON (Gigabit Passive Op- made ment resources and
tical Network) in Lahore, Multan and Karachi in the near future, expense

offer the consumer a unique taste of unmatched service excel-

lence. 6.5.3 Telephony - Consumer
There are currently 413,809 broadband subscribers in Pakistan; Wateen’s Telephony service portfolio was developed in order
Wateen and PTCL are major players in the Broadband market to address the unmet needs of the Pakistani consumer - and to
having a combined share of over 65 percent. PTCL added al- bridge the gap between the traditional services presently offered
most 148,000 DSL subscribers in the previous year growing at by various other operators and those that are required in the 21st
a rate of 248 percent. Wateen at the same time added 135,476 century. Wateen’s current services, ranging from basic digital
Broadband subscribers through WiMAX and Optical Fibre (Hybrid voice to enhanced telephony, are a testament to its commitment
Fibre Coax – HFC and Gigabit Passive Optical Network – GPON) to best serve the Pakistani consumer market.
deployments growing at a staggering rate of 349 percent; this The recent growth in the telecom sector has been staggering with cel-
growth is going to be sustainable as depicted by market dynam- lular & local loop operators competing over their share of basic voice
ics presented below services. As a result the current teledensity now stands at 63 percent,
a number that represents an extremely lucrative business opportunity
for extending ‘enhanced’ telephony services to customers.
Owing to the scale of their Long Haul & Metro networks the only
main players in the Enterprise Telephony Segment are Wateen,
PTCL and WorldCall with GSM & other service providers only
operating at the fringe. Unlike the consumer segment, business
users are highly price sensitive, quality conscious and require

21
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
customized solutions to meet their unique needs – and Wateen, Carrier Pre Select (CPS)
unlike its competition, can leverage its large and robust IP-based In addition to its focus on developing ‘enhanced’ services, Wa-
network to address these needs. teen realizes that significant revenue potential of ‘basic’ voice
Wateen’s Fixed Line Telephony has been designed to meet and services targeting the masses. Carrier-pre-select (CPS) is an in-
exceed the basic communication requirement of every customer novative product providing the end users of different operators
– an affordable and high quality telephone service. Leveraging the flexibility to choose the carrier for calling international, local
Wateen’s longhaul network and its LDI operations, Wateen pro- or nationwide numbers. Wateen provides CPS services to various
vides its customers with reliable and superior services. different LL and GSM service providers, where the end user ben-
Wateen’s fixed line telephony seeks to enrich the ‘Telephony Life- efits from cheaper rates with high quality voice and the operator
style’ of its subscribers by offering them high quality services, enjoys additional revenues and increased subscriber base. This
user friendly call management features and empowering them service generates over 5 million minutes per month, which also
through a self-care portal. contributes to the LDI wholesale margins.
We put our customers first – not only do our competitive tariff Carrier Pre Select
Feature Advantages Benefits
plans allow the customers the flexibility to address his needs, we l Freedom to select a carrier l Ability to use best tariffs l Increase service uptake

also extend the convenience of a ‘one-stop’ solution for all the before calling
l Hassle free dialing
available from the market
l Ease of use
l Increased revenue and

margins through ‘swap’

telecommunication needs of our customers. l A’single’ billing for CPS & l No minimum monthly/daily deals
other usage usage commitment l Increased brand awareness
Fixed Line telephony l 24x7 customer support l Greater customer through joint promotions
Feature Advantages Benefits satisfaction with GSM vendors
l A robust network l High quality of service l Greater customer
l Customer-centric tariff l Flexibility to choose ser- satisfaction
plans vices according to needs l Increased customer
l Self-care portal l Transparency of charging savings Calling Card / Calling Account
l Keep your number for life
l Innovative and user-friend-
l Convenience of managing l Greater customer trust
WCard is a multi function card that enables customers to use
a single number l Increased loyalty

ly value added features l Ability to differentiate l Increased revenue potential it as a calling card from other operators in addition to top up
our offering/ empower
customer to get the most their Wateen pre-paid account. Calling card services received the
out of our service brand of the year award in the first year of launch and captured a
major share of the market within the first 6 months. This service
Wateen Audio Conferencing also contributes to the LDI (Long distance & international) whole-
Growing from the basic human need to interact, Wateen audio sale business, where additional profits are generated through the
conferencing services allow home users with a hassle-free tool wholesale service.
to communicate with anyone and everyone in their social net- WCard
Feature Advantages Benefits
works – speaking to many family members in different countries l Nationwide availability l User convenience l Better service usage

simultaneously or carrying out a group study session without l Easy to use l Increased savings for the l Increased revenues
l Affordable tariffs for NWD. customer l Increased brand awareness
‘actually’ being present together is all easier than it sounds.  Mobile, IDD l No minimum monthly/daily due to massive ‘grass
l Available in multiple usage commitment roots’ level service uptake
Wateen Audio Conferencing denominations l Increased customer
Feature Advantages Benefits l Excellent customer satisfaction
l A high-end Audio l Innovative and user-friendly l Greater customer support
l Ability to use from public
Conferencing solution l Ability to quickly cater to satisfaction resulting in
l Low cost Network increased market demand Increased service uptake phone
Scalability l Service offering can be l Grow market share
l A ‘stand-alone’ service extended to subscribers of l Increased revenue potential

other operators
6.5.4 Telephony – Corporate / Enterprise
Owing to the scale of their Long Haul & Metro networks the only
Wateen Video Telephony main players in the Enterprise Telephony Segment are Wateen,
Leveraging our network, Wateen video telephony seeks to add PTCL and WorldCall with GSM & other service providers only
that ‘visual’ touch to simple voice conversations. An affordable operating at the fringe. Unlike the consumer segment, business
product for the mass consumer market, Wateen Video Telephony users are highly price sensitive, quality conscious and require
will allow users to not only talk to one another but at the same customized solutions to meet their unique needs – and Wateen,
time see each other, all with the convenience of a normal voice unlike its competition, can leverage its large and robust IP-based
call. Imagine ‘virtually’ sitting across each other despite being network to address these needs.
hundreds of miles apart, imagine never missing a smile again. There is an increased predisposition of the business community
to reduce their costs and adopt new cost-effective technologies.
Wateen Video Conferencing
Feature Advantages Benefits
Wateen, through its customer-centric offerings that guarantee
l Video-enabled service l Ability to differentiate our l Increased customer loyalty convenience & savings, is well placed to benefit from this trend.
using video phone sets service & convenience of through a more satisfying
l A robust nationwide usage user experience Wateen is also unique in its ability to quickly meet evolving needs
network
l Multiple Last mile access
l High service quality
l Potential for a large
l Increased revenue due to a

‘larger On-Net family’

of the Pakistani business community and that too without incur-
l Support for Multiple subscriber base l Increased penetration ring significant marginal CAPEX, a benefit that Wateen will con-
end-user devices l Convenience & flexibility for

the customer/ low barrier tinue to pass on to its customers and shareholders.
to entry Similarly, Wateen’s network allows for a reduced time to the mar-

22
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
ket in wake of any potential changes in the regulatory environ- UANs
Feature Advantages Benefits
ment. Wateen’s Enterprise Services portfolio has been designed l Provide a single number l Increase in customer l Complete the enterprise
to address the needs of all our business users – from a large for all incoming calls facilitation and satisfaction telephony portfolio with
l Access to the Universal with a single number to dial the flexibility to cater to all
corporation with offices nationwide looking to reduce communi- Access Number from all l Flexibility to choose from market needs
cation costs to a small business seeking to improve its profes- major cities
l Customized routing
a single location for UAN l Complete customer facilita-

termination or multiple tion and satisfaction with a

sional outlook, all Wateen users will find Wateen’s services tailor options locations. Ensure complete one-window operation for
business efficiency through all support and services
made to meet their needs. customized routing
l Scalability without any

additional CAPEX as
Trunking Solutions customer base and
demand grows
Wateen provides cost-effective & easily scalable trunking solu-
tions to business users currently using a PBX (Private Branch
Exchange) for communication. These trunks will terminate both Hosted PBX
inbound calls and complete external (off-site) calls that originate Hosted PBX is an alternative to the traditional PBX model whereby
from ‘behind’ the PBX. Unlike its competitors, Wateen’s strength a company’s telephone operations reside with and are managed
lies in its ability to provide its services as one of many PBX inter- by the service provider. Wateen’s Hosted PBX solution will be a
faces such as POTS, PRI & SIP. scalable, cost-effective and feature rich solution which will al-
low customers to avail advanced PBX features without having to
Trunking Solutions
Feature Advantages Benefits buy, install, maintain or upgrade PBX hardware. Additionally, this
l Support multiple termina- l Flexibility to choose from l Wider target market, with
service will also allow small businesses to achieve the look and
tion interfaces (SIP, PRI, multiple interfaces without the capability to cater to
POTS) having to invest in ad- exact customer needs feel of larger entities.
l Interoperability with stan- ditional hardware l Complete customer
Hosted PBX
dard solutions & services l One window operation for satisfaction and increased
Feature Advantages Benefits
(e.g. FAX, POS solutions) all telephony needs revenue streams
l Support for Hybrid solution l No additional cost of a l Customer can choose
l Ability to offer add-on l Scalability without any l Complete customer
l Support over multiple trunking interface interfaces that best suit
services, such as UANs, additional CAPEX as facilitation and easy to
DID-DOD Numbers etc. customer base and manage operations trucking interface l Compatible with existing their need
l Customized Self Care PBX in the market to facili- l Advance PBX features
l Single line, single number, demand grows
supports multiple channels portal tate companies in migrating without having to buy ,
to Hosted PBX. install, maintain or upgrade
Direct Inward Dial / Direct Outward Dial (DID-DOD) service adds PBX hardware
l Round the clock support.

to the Enterprise Telephony Product portfolio, by allowing Wateen

to become a one-stop solution for all the business needs of a
customer. Wateen Video Telephony Solutions
In a typical PBX environment, a private numbering plan (or ex- For business users, video communication is no longer a luxury
tension numbers) is used for communication within the office. but a business need. Multi-site businesses can avail Wateen vid-
Direct Inward Dial (DID) / Direct Outward Dial (DOD) numbers eo telephony solutions to not only conduct their business opera-
are logical PSTN numbers that can be ‘mapped’ onto a private tions more effectively but also enjoy significant reductions in their
numbering plan, allowing ‘internal’ users in an organization to travel expenses. The service leverages Wateen’s network to offer
directly receive or make a call; bypassing an auto-attendant or a high quality of service and allows the business users to choose
an operator. the end-user device of their choice – from a low cost ‘soft’ video
Direct inward dial - direct outward dial numbers client to premium quality video phones.
Feature Advantages Benefits
l Provide a separate number l Flexibility to choose any l Complete customer facilita-

to each individual in the Wateen number for DID- tion and easy to manage Wateen Video Telephony Solutions
organization DOD, from the available operations Feature Advantages Benefits
l Choose between DID only lists l Complete customer satis- l A robust nationwide l High service quality l Increased savings to
or DOD only service l Flexibility to select any faction with a one window network l Ability to differentiate our business users due to
extension, regardless of operation l Video-enabled service service a reduction in travel
the DID - DOD number l Provide solutions that cater using video phone sets l Potential for a large expenses
provided to the customers needs l Multiple Last mile access subscriber base l ‘Brand’ enhancement due
l Scalability without any l Support for Multiple end- l Convenience & flexibility for to innovative product
additional CAPEX as user devices the customer/ low barrier offering
customer base and to entry l Increased penetration &
demand grows revenue

Universal Access Numbers (UANs) Audio Conferencing

Universal Access Numbers (UAN) services were initiated to com- Wateen’s audio conferencing services will enable businesses
plete the Enterprise Telephony Product portfolio, to generate an to effectively deal with their internal and external clients espe-
additional revenue stream and to utilize the Wateen network al- cially for multi-site businesses, irrespective of whether confer-
ready in place. UAN are 9 digit numbers that start with the digits ence participants are based in Pakistan or abroad. Wateen Audio
111. UANs enable customers to use a single and easy to remem- Conferencing services will offer easy-to-use, browser based
ber number for incoming calls, while maintaining geographically solution for scheduling, initiating, managing & terminating multi-
dispersed locations. A few of the features, advantages and ben- party conferences. Plus, unlike traditional ad-hoc (3-6 persons)
efits of Wateen UANs are listed below: conferencing facility provided by Cellular or Fixed Line service

23
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
providers, the Wateen Audio Conferencing service would be Wateen Music Portal
accessible from a wide variety of end points including PC soft For the first time in Pakistan, Wateen is providing the largest, legal
phones, IP phones, analogue phones & GSM handsets, thereby selection of songs ranging from classic to techno, rock to heavy-
enabling us to reach out to any and every business, within and metal, with a catalogue large enough to suit everyone’s tastes.
outside Wateen’s network. With a huge selection of music which is backed and supported
Audio Conferencing by its partnership with Arvato under the brand name Getmo, Wa-
Feature Advantages Benefits
l A
teen has been able to bring legal music to Pakistan for the first
high end audio l Innovative and user friendly l Greater customer

conferencing solution l Ability to quickly cater to satisfaction resulting in time. The business model revolves around the fact that end users
l Low cost network increased market demand Increased service uptake
scalability l Service offering can be l Grow market share do not have to pay for legal downloads and the revenues are
l A ‘stand alone’ service extended to subscribers of l Increased revenue potential
generated through advertising sales.
other operators
The first two phases have been successfully implemented and
Wateen’s other planned Enterprise Telephony services include: the third phase is in progress. Wateen also recently launched
Toll free numbers - 9 digit non-geographic numbers that start multiplayer online gaming in partnership with Arvato, which is
with the digits 0800. Callers do not pay any charges for calling one of the world’s biggest content providers and aggregators.
0800 numbers when dialed from anywhere within the country. The product focus cuts across people from all segments and
Instead the called party pays for call charges. both English and Urdu music is available. The marketing strategy
Premium Rate Service (PRS) - a telephone service (0900 for this product has been viral and online/BTL based. The same
numbers) that provides recorded information or live conversation has resulted in making the Wateen portal one of the most visited
for callers similar to 1-900 number service in the U.S. Callers sites of the country.
are charged a higher rate on their phone bill, which is then split Wateen Music Portal
between the service provider and the network operator whose Feature Advantages Benefits
l A dedicated team of media l Largest array of infotain- l Advertising based model
network is used for originating calls to the said PRS number. and VAS professionals ment services including to ensure free content for
l High end servers in a classifieds, music, news customers and focus on ad
Wateen’s Electronic Fax (e-Fax) service will allow its users to world class data centre etc. revenues
send and receive faxes using a Wateen LL number without a fax to ensure reliability and l Superior quality content l Low Capex and direct

uptime unmatched by any other costs/revenues on a rev-

machine. This will allow users to maintain a database of commu- l Collaboration with content competitor in the market enue share basis
nication through fax, allowing for mobility & greater confidential- aggregators for licensed l Free legal music, ring tone l All content supplied on a

and legal content and wallpaper downloads complete revenue share

ity without any CAPEX. l 24/7 round the clock l Latest news, gossip and basis at no additional cost
updating of content entertainment news to Wateen
l Blogs and photo sharing
l Free access for customers
6.5.5 Content & Media
Wateen has taken home entertainment seriously and has brought Wateen has a backing from one of the largest content aggregators
a variety of value added services to its customers. Whether in the world. Given that, Wateen is able to offer high quality music
someone wants online gaming, music, news, TV or internet, Wa- to its customers. There is tremendous opportunity to increase the
teen brings it all to its customers under one roof as a one stop number of hits on the website and thereby increase resultant rev-
shop for world class entertainment. Under this umbrella, Wateen enues from ad sales and sponsorships. Since no other company
brings analogue and digital TV, Online Gaming, Music Portal, In- is offering such a service in Pakistan, there is enough reason to
fotainment Portal and many other first of its kind entertainment believe that this niche market will be captured by Wateen and the
products. The brief description of the same is given below. testament of that is already seen in the ever increasing number of
hits and downloads from the website.
Infotainment Portals
Wateen’s portals are an innovative project, the usability of which Online Gaming
spans through the entire internet user community of Pakistan. Internationally, the gaming industry is worth USD 10 Billion and
They have quickly become one of the most visited sites in the is the fastest growing entertainment sector in the world. Keeping
county. The portal is broken down into the major segments – that in mind, Wateen’s Online Gaming (WOG) service is designed
Wateen Music Portal and Wateen Infotainment portal. to link the gamers together for a richer gaming experience both at
Wateen’s infotainment portal is designed to be the one stop so- domestic and international levels.
lution to all online needs for a home user. The same has been WOG was envisioned as a three (3) phase project, with each
designed keeping in mind the most sought after information on phase targeting a separate consumer segment. The first phase
the internet and in order to improve efficiency most information targeted avid gamers through dedicated servers. The second
has been provided in a single window operation. On the portal, phase targeted the casual market through a comprehensive web
users have access to services and information like the latest gaming portal while the third phase targets the avid segment and
entertainment and business news (both local and international), lays the groundwork for the console market through VPN con-
weather, blogs, classified Ad portal, latest local events, auto nectivity and gamer profiles.
pages, snippets and much more. Users also have access to nu- The first two phases have been successfully implemented and
merous downloads including wallpapers, ringtones and a whole the third phase is in progress. Wateen also recently launched
lot more. multiplayer online gaming in partnership with Arvato, which is

24
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
one of the world’s biggest content providers and aggregators. keeping individual customers in mind. Although the surveillance
Currently on the gaming portal, which forms part of the main Wa- market has been around for a while, all legacy systems are CTV
teen portal there are; Web based games (Flash, Java), PC based based and have an inherent flaw that all camera recordings on
games, Mobile Games, TV based Interactive games, DVR’s are saved at the same place as that is being monitored. In
Multiplayer Online Games. The product is focused on students the event of a security breach, the backup recordings are as vul-
and young professionals. The marketing strategy for this product nerable as the monitored place being compromised. Furthermore,
has been viral and youth-focused to correspond to the tastes and there is no provision for the owner to monitor the place and take
interests of the existing market. Regular tournaments at cafes, preventive or reactive action which could save significant dam-
universities and other youth hotspots and extensive branding at age. With the above said, the needs of the market have changed
these low cost high opportunity venues have solidified our mar- and Wateen’s surveillance solution is a solution designed to ad-
ket presence. dress the shortfalls of the legacy systems.
Wateen’s solution is an end to end internet/IP based system with
Online Gaming
Feature Advantages Benefits the surveillance recordings stored at our secure remote data
l Proprietary gaming client l Largest portfolio of games l Own the largest gaming
centre. This ensures that in the event of a security breach, the
for server based games for all segments community in Pakistan
l High capacity fully l High capacity servers l Increased hits on the portal affected party can readily access the recordings and use them
redundant servers ensure high quality game to ensure greater demand
l High availability and high play for a large number of for advertising space on as evidence in any situation. Currently there is no company that
QoS SLA’s
l Collaboration with one of
players
l Inclusion of latest games
the portal
l Games and content
is offering such a solution in the market.
the largest gaming and from time to time supplied by the vendor on a
mobile entertainment l One stop solution for all revenue share basis
company in the world kinds of gamers Applications
l Best in the market service
l Round the clock tech
Household security and surveillance including monitoring of in-
support door play areas, baby rooms etc. The video feeds can be viewed
l Large number of peers to

play with and games to through mobile phones that have internet and java capability.
choose from Our biggest strength in this product is our ability to connect
Wateen has the largest, round the clock monitored and moder- anything, anywhere & anytime. This means that the market for
ated gaming server farm in Pakistan. With the level of QoS that Wateen’s surveillance solution is not dependent on Wateen’s
Wateen can offer there is ample opportunity for growth and thus platforms only. The entire broadband market of Pakistan is the
to be the leader in premium quality service for all the gamers in target market and with such low levels of penetration, growth
Pakistan. Wateen has teamed up with the only International Gam- outlook is extremely positive. Furthermore, it is an “Un-managed
ing event – The World Cyber Games – to hold contests every Hosted” service for the customer since it removes the need to
year and the winners have participated on international forums. have clumpy and messy looking systems sitting in homes.
This has been a huge success and thus Wateen has established
itself as the primary Gaming service provider in the country. With Wateen SafeNet
the positive indicators and over 12,000 gaming subscriptions in Wateen has teamed up with the world leader in computer security
the last 3 months, the future outlook is extremely positive. McAfee to bring to its customers latest in virus protection. With
the service, Wateen will offer a full, genuine antivirus subscrip-
Surveillance Solutions tion for a full year at unbeatable prices. With the service, users
Wateen’s Surveillance solution for home users is a comprehen- can be sure to have a safe browsing experience without the threat
sive live video capture, monitoring, storage and retrieval solution of malware and viruses.
designed for our customers. Our anytime, anywhere surveillance
Wateen SafeNet
means that users can access live video feeds from anywhere in Feature Advantages Benefits
the world as long as they have access to internet. What makes it l Latest anti-virus in col- l Complete end to end l Potential market of all

laboration with the world protection for consumers internet users in Pakistan
most interesting is the ability of users to view the camera footage leader in virus protection without the fear of virus or l Representation and
l Online distribution and malware attacks partnership with a world
through their internet enabled phones as well. selling via scratch cards or l Cost effective and fully class brand ensures trust
Surveillance Solutions online purchase legal ensures live updates in the service and thereby
Feature Advantages Benefits and support increased uptake
l Removes the need for
l End to end IP based l No need for DVR’s as l First mover advantage

infrastructure recording done remotely l Attractive pricing to ensure extensive logistical and
l Fully encrypted video l Cost effective solution high uptake supply chain changes as
feeds l Easy access through l Ability to provide services distribution to be done
l Media recording at world internet from anywhere in to all broadband users online
class data center the world regardless of their provider
l 24/7, high availability l Access via internet enabled ensures a huge potential The target market is all home users and the pricing is done in
redundant servers phones market
l Dedicated team of l Easy access to recorded l High quality authentication such a way that most broadband users are also the potential
professionals backed by media in case of security mechanisms ensure
one of the best breach customers confidence in customers for the product. The distribution model is envisioned
surveillance companies in l Fully customized and Wateen in a way that with the purchase of a new connection a customer
the world supported by Wateen
would have the option of signing up to an anti-virus account. The
Given the ever increasing need for vigilance and surveillance, the same would be done through a genuine key that would be given
solution is a perfect fit for the market and has been designed to a customer on a scratch card so that the first and genuine acti-

25
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
vation is done in customers name and he is able to download lat- IVR
est patches directly from McAfee’s website. Due to the nature of IVR based services have seen unprecedented success in their
the product, it will be offered to non-Wateen customers as well. deployments in GSM networks. Wateen plans to deploy the same
Our position in the market is very strong since there is no other services on the fixed line platform in order to augment the service
company that is offering a similar service on any scale. This is offerings on its voice platform.
an inherent first mover advantage that Wateen enjoys and being
IVR
the sole local partner for McAfee, it is a winning combination for Feature Advantages Benefits
both McAfee since it gets access to a huge market, for Wateen l Existing high quality Wa- l Cost advantage in terms l Promotes the use of voice

teen’s voice infrastructure of price to customer and services

and most importantly its customers. allows large traffic incentive to use voice l Increase product portfolio

Wateen’s TV Broadcast and Multimedia Services offer high- l Feature set mirroring the services to target the niche IVR
services initially offered l Increased choice in VAS market
quality analogue and digital video channels and interactive TV only to GSM customers without having to switch to l Supplemental revenue
a different line or to switch stream
services to all its subscribers. Currently the service is offering to GSM l Low additional cost as

99 high quality subscription channels tailored to the needs of l Better land line clarity with infrastructure already
GSM services supports IVR
the regional market. To ensure superiority of service; many free
to air channels and channels that are not specific to our market With the IVR solutions, Wateen will be able to offer Music on de-
are excluded. mand, voice chat and a host of other services. The target market
Wateen also airs seven branded channels which provide cus- will not only be limited to Wateen fixed line customers and all
tomers more than 5,000 hours of quality entertainment every GSM customers will also have access to the services. Taking
month. advantage of the difference in interconnect rates, Wateen will be
Currently TV service is available in Lahore and Multan by provid- able to entice GSM customers to access our services at very
ing direct feed through HFC network under the triple play project competitive rates.
umbrella (through an arrangment with an affiliate company hold- The market size is therefore extremely huge whereas the deploy-
ing Cable TV Licenses), as well as through cable/loop operators ment costs are very low. The deployment of the services is seen
and will be expanded to other parts of the country soon. to come around the 2nd quarter of 2010 and the future outlook
DHA Lahore Triple Play project (in collaboration with DHA) pro- looks promising.
vides analogue television service together with telephony and
internet services over a single broadband connection. This proj-
ect stands out by virtue of its superior service, convenience and
attractive packaging by offering its customers top entertainment
at home by using the very latest technology. Electronic Program
Guide (EPG) is being offered at above mentioned locations.

Upcoming services
In addition to the existing services, planned services include Digi-
tal TV with an exciting channel line-up as well as interactive ser-
vices like Video-On-Demand, Pay-Per-View etc. where custom-
ers can watch their favourite programs, movies or any special
events at their convenience.
Other value ads include Parental Control with which users would
be able to disable channels and limit what children can view.
While the Electronic Program Guide will allow users to navigate
their favourite channels and set on-line time reminders on their
favourite programs and much more.

Upcoming services
Feature Advantages Benefits
l High end and latest l Better channel catalogue as l High uptake due to superior

delivery mechanism over opposed to the competition quality

fiber optic cable l Lack of VAS with other l Advertising based model to
l Very high capacity operators makes Wateen attract greater ad revenues
bandwidth TV a better value offering as viewership increases
l Digital TV and satellite l Uninterrupted TV without l Ability to cross sell and

programming distortion and downtime upsell value added services

l Dedicated team of profes- l World class channels in at a premium
sionals to ensure 24/7 one combo deal
availability l More control over viewing

with VoD and EPG

l Lesser number of adverts

as most channels are

subscription based

26
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

7 SALES, SERVICES AND OPERATIONS

7.1 Consumer Sales bandwidth and associated value added services, an option to
The internet phenomenon has contributed towards the evolution pre-pay or post-pay for the service, a portal for rapid response
of new social ecosystems across the world without any element from the service providers’ servers, and of course low price.
of discrimination. Freedom of speech, access to information, ever Lately, Pakistan is also witnessing the discerning users giving
increasing richness in content, undeterred extension of reach, priority to price-performance instead of low price only, at least in
and similar factors have been the frontline drivers for the growth the major towns and cities of the country.
of the internet. Demand for access has placed immense pressure While Wateen offers internet service on all available media in its
on the telecommunication industry globally and in Pakistan. portfolio i.e. optical fiber, VSAT, ISM Radio, WiMAX Broadband,
The single most influencing factor that has troubled the telecom HFC, and GPON the last three are the networks deployed to meet
gurus has been content, as it gets richer day after day, possibly the demand of this customer segment. WiMAX being by far the
with every passing minute. Demand for higher capacity networks
capable of handling such rich content will remain at the forefront
to determine the quality of the network which in turn will influ-
ence the quality of service that a service provider can deliver to
its audience. To accentuate the issue further, the convergence
of telecommunications, information technology, and the media
industries is creating a challenge for the service providers in de-
signing, operating and maintaining their backend equipment that
supports the traffic traversing the internet up to the customers’
personal computer. Robust and scalable technology is the key to
the backend that supports multimedia content and an enabling
network with rapidly scalable capacity that reaches as far as any
corner of the geography where the service providers operates is most pervasive at this time since it provides enablement in the
the key to success of the service provider. shortest possible time.
As reiterated earlier, it is the factors stated above that were key Managing customer expectations is a function of customer edu-
considerations in designing Wateen’s Multi-Media, Multi-Func- cation, and continuous awareness and education. Rendering high
tion, Multi-Layered and Multi-Gigabit network to meet these chal- quality customer service relies heavily on support staff whose
lenges. An additional challenge in Pakistan was to respond to the skill set demonstrates reliability, responsiveness, empathy, are
low purchasing power by making the service affordable. As time assuring, and most importantly know the customer. The last of
has proven that the price point of PKR 1,000 per megabit demon- these requires a multidimensional Customer Relationship Man-
strated an upward skew in product uptake in the Pakistan market. agement (CRM) system.
Researchers predict that exponential growth can be achieved if Since customer retention is crucial to steady revenue streams,
the price point reaches PKR 500 per megabit. And this may well Wateen’s sales and service staff along with business partner
be true since the segment that forms the largest single user base sales and service staff undergo rigorous training to serve the
is home users. customer. Each of these staff functions with established Key
The demand drivers and the maximum time spenders on the in- Performance Indicators (KPIs) and are retained in employment,
ternet are aged between 15 to 35 years. Broadly categorized as based purely on performance
Youth, Young Professionals, and the other two significant seg-
ments categorized as Mature Professionals and Masses. All of Broadband Internet
them desire 24x7x365 availability, convenient access – nomadic The challenge is to reach a large audience of existing 5 million+
or mobility, consistent reliability, freedom of choice to select internet users and bring on board new internet users growing at a

27
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
is observed in last 6 months. Current market share stands at 14
percent.

USP Go to market strategy

l In House channel l SME/SOHO

l Technically trained resource l Corporate Individuals

l Sales & Service delivery at door step l High value individuals.

l Trouble shoot customer end issues l Educational Institutions

l Bulk Deals l Professional Communities

l Account Management / Customer relationship building. l Govt. Institutions

l Direct Access to customer from Wateen’s platform l Tele Sales

l Support Corporate Services sales channel. l Door to Door

l Better team work & management l Brand Activations

Commercial activity hubs

l

Future Vision
l Target the higher ARPU customer base.
l Increase the spread to small cities
l Upto 400 percent growth in next 3 years
l Increase the market share to 50 percent
l Brand activation activities at education & financial intuitions
l Start Selling for surveillance & gaming products.

galloping triple digit rate year-on-year, with last year witnessing a Franchise & Retail
growth of 145 percent as per the PTA Annual Report 2008-2009. Wateen seek Co-Venture participants who contribute capital, en-
Wateen has responded by deploying multiple sales channels to ergy, loyalty & entrepreneurialism in a controlled environment to
create strong retentive market presence. With over 30 Franchise achieve the common business objectives. Franchise and Retail
outlets, a 200+ workforce making the Direct Sales team, Affinity the pioneer channel among other channels is providing services
Partners, and a large 400+ Dealer network (targeted to grow to in 22 cities with 34 Business Units. The venture is a one win-
1,000). Wateen operates internet services for the target audience dow solution for every problem customer may come across. The
in 22 cities of Pakistan. This is supported by a Distribution Channel channel has given tremendous growth during last two quarters
to deliver Scratch Cards for prepaid customers to enable them to both in terms of customer acquisitions and revenue enhance-
recharge their accounts on a monthly basis. ment.
Our push strategy to create awareness and garner the customer
base supported by multimillion dollar advertising campaign in the USPs
electronic and print media has paid off dividends. In a short span, l Reduce cost in providing services under one roof
Wateen has the largest WiMAX Wireless Broadband internet cus- l Product availability at arms reach
tomer base with over 150,000 and the second largest internet l Business Partners having diversified experience
user base in the broadband market, second only to the incumbent l Nationwide presence with 36 zones, 80+ Support Staff and
which started with DSL Wired Broadband services 5 years ahead developing a retail network of 300 further outlets;
of Wateen. From the smallest locality in Sahiwal to the upmarket
locales of DHA in Karachi, Wateen has penetrated households Affinity Channel
with its internet service. This channel involves strategic alliances and partnerships which
The WiMAX USB has established itself as the leader of the pack are based on mutual benefits. Wateen utilize partner’s brand, cap-
enabling users to carry their CPE (Customer Premises Equip- tive customer base, its market reach and expertise in order to sell
ment) for customers possessing laptops. The most demanded its product. This channel helps to serve the gaps in market and
and used WiMAX package is the 1mpbs bandwidth package. The support the company’s multi channel sales strategy. At present
former constitutes over 50 percent of all WiMAX sales while the we have 3 Affinity Partners working with us. In addition, strategic
latter takes a hefty 80 percent+ share of new connections over alliances are being developed with several Head end Operators
the past six months. This fact is supported further by the fact and with some other players with proven market reach.
another reality that most sold Scratch Card is the PKR 1,000 de- Go to market strategy
USP
nomination card.
l A cost effective channel with direct access to l Approaching captive
captive customer base of strategic partners. customer base of partners
Direct Sales l Better customer experience in form of better customer l Telemarketing

retention and satisfaction Nationwide set-ups l Field Sales Teams

Direct Sales team comprising of more than 200 executives is l DTD Selling

build to access the ultimate customer base of SME/SOHO & l Kiosk Activities

corporate individuals nationwide. Certain sales target is given Future Vision

to each individual on monthly & yearly basis. Account manage- l Addition of 3-5 new partners who have proven market reach
Increasing distribution depth of existing partners by both geographically and
ment concept is introduced to maintain the customer relationship
l

infrastructure-wise
building & revenue assurance. Growth of more than 200 percent

28
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

Dealer Network
Wateen Dealer Network has emerged as a continuous expanding
channel with prominent emerging outlets at major cities. Dealer
Network Sales Channel is in a business venture with Intel & non
Intel dealers to channelize Wateen WiMAX sales across Pakistan.
Dealer network is aimed at maximizing company’s visibility and
expanding customer touch points where basic Sales & Services
are offered. It is a cost effective solution where mutual benefi-
cial collaboration is ensured between company and the business
partners. This channel has been effective in making company’s
reach in general public covering major segments in different
markets such as electronics, mobile handsets, computers, cable
operators, house hold etc. Currently around 400 branded dealers
are operational across 22 cities where customers can avail com-
pany’s services in their own vicinities. It is planned to expand this
network to 1000 dealers delivering a bench mark of 5000 sales
per month. Amongst these dealers some focal outlets shall be in a given areas. After having larger area connected to Wateen’s
encouraged to function as full-fledged service centers and some Network we will be able to get good profit from our services i.e.
outlets as Wateen gaming zones. competitive advertising rates for in-house channels, VOD rates
USP Go to market strategy and other additional advertisement gimmicks such as advertising
on RBO’s TV Channels. This will provide us enough revenues to
A Maximizing touch points at customer vicinity.
l l Co branding major
Co-branding opportunity
l computer outlets in generate profitable business out of our CATV services.
commercial areas
Future Vision

AExpansion of dealer network to 1000 outlets

l

Establishment of Mega dealer across the country

l

Distribution Network (Converged Voucher Card)

All Wateen services are available in pre paid and post paid pack-
ages. To facilitate customers, prepaid vouchers can be used as
payment mechanism. The availability of converged voucher card
across the country is ensured through distributor network. Dealer
network has ensured the reach of Wateen cards to nearly 40,000
outlets.
USP Go to market strategy

A Utilize existing strength of distributors to ensure

l l Availability at all major
product availability retail outlets
l Alliances with courier

companies and alternative

channels like banks ( MCB,
Alfalah) to ensure home
delivery and availability of
cards through ATM
channels
Future Vision

Enhance reach of Wateen cards to 60,000 outlets

l

CATV distributors (Strategic Partners)

This business concept revolves around the phenomenon of distri-
bution partners. According to this phenomenon Wateen Multime-
dia is authorizing specific cable operators to transmit the CATV
service provided by WMM on one’s own cable network. Along
with this, we are also involved in connecting Loop operators to
our WMM signal that shall allow us to increase the number of
house passes free of cost. This strategy as a whole will cut down
the building and installing cost of new infrastructure from scratch

29
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
Triple Play including western, Indian, Pakistan and regional Pakistan songs.
As it is akin to Wateen, to create innovative products, the GPON This repository is further complimented by videos of songs. The
and HFC networks (also called FTTX networks) offer Triple Play intent is to sustain the user at Wateen’s portal instead of access-
services i.e. Internet, TV and telephone services on a single ing and downloading from websites like YouTube. Effectively, the
cable. With over 10,000 customers on these networks in DHA user gets faster downloads and a huge variety of entertainment.
Lahore and Multan Cantonment, and with deployment in process The Lifestyle section of the portal, exposes the world of fashion
to expand both networks in Lahore, the demand for Triple Play from the world over. Going forward this portal will be the main-
services is also expected to grow extensively. The combination stay of increasing user presence on the Wateen network and at
of Broadband services, be it wireless or wired, makes Wateen some point in time the services will become chargeable to gener-
the only operator offering access to internet and telephone ser- ate revenue. Going by the industry practices in the developed
vices with both types of networks in this market segment. With countries and India, this new line of revenue albeit small today,
90 TV channels available for viewing, including 8 in-house chan-
nels delivering entertainment 24x7x365, the Wateen TV Network
provides the highest digital quality TV transmission.
Telephone services have been devised around a strategy to pri-
marily win-back existing customers of other operators and create
our own new customers. A potential market in Wateen’s reach will
be over 12 million households. Since simplicity is Wateen’s core
value, the product requires no special telephone instrument, thus
saving the customer the extra expense of a vendor specific and
service provider specific desk set telephone. A Wateen telephone
connection availing customer has to simply disconnect his exist-
ing telephone and connect it to the Wateen telephone network.
Simple as that! The question that comes to mind is why should
the customer switchover, because Wateen’s telephone tariff is
rationalized to meet the wallet of the target segment customers.
Line rent as low as PKR 90 per month and a maximum line rent of
PKR 270 per month. Usage measured at a pulse of 30 seconds.
Supported by prepaid or postpaid billing options, produced from
the state-of-the-art Wateen Converged Billing System makes it
convenient for customers to switchover. An additional attraction
for the customer is free-of-charge calls from a Wateen to Wateen
telephone, also called On-Net calls. Imagine a conservative ARPU
of PKR 100 and an even more conservative market penetration
of 1 million telephone connections, the revenue will exceed PKR
1 billion per annum. promises the potential to become another Amazon Books story
As stated earlier, customer retention is the key to success. The in the future.
challenge is to enable the customer to spend more time in using Entertainment portals attract audience eyeballs. That in turn cre-
the Wateen internet connection. This point is serviced by Wa- ates another source of revenue, the advertising revenue. A whole
teen’s Value Added Services (VAS) via a simple Wateen Portal new industry has been created in recent years and is referred to
interface. by many names, Online Advertising, Internet Advertising, One on
One Marketing etc. This phenomenon is catching up in Pakistan,
Value Added Services and Wateen remains driven to grab the market. Since virtually,
VAS delivers some of the most popular computer games which no one in the industry has created a portal as content rich as
users can play with others anywhere around the globe. Our rela- Wateen, and with the number of Wateen internet users growing
tionship with Arvato, the subsidiary company of Sony BMG, one at the rate of approximately 20,000 per month, the market is up
of the top most owners of digital content in the world, brings to for the taking. Our test marketing efforts have shown that the de-
fore the repository for access by Wateen internet users. Youth mand and desire to advertise on the Wateen portal is very high.
segment is the most involved seeking variety. From cybercafés This opportunity opens up a chain of revenue streams. Starts
to gaming clubs, the industry has started growing rapidly as a with a Portal, attracts the customer, sustains the presence, cre-
source of entertainment. This is a high bandwidth consump- ates opportunity for advertising revenue, and goes up to create
tion market because of the multimedia nature of the content. An another opportunity for online purchases. With the banking regu-
across the board demand exists for the ever popular entertain- lator fully supportive of electronic banking, only technological
ment source of Music. Wateen’s VAS hosts a collection of tens delivery is awaited.
of thousands songs for audiences from diverse backgrounds

30
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
Sales Service Operations retention campaigns. A “Workforce Management” software en-
Sales & Service operations team has been acting as a backbone sures maximum utilization of staff and resources in line with dy-
for the entire Sales division since launch. A dedicated resource namic business needs. An internal Portal which serves as knowl-
at each Walk in center ensures FCR is provided customer walk- edge base for the customer service team enables them to access
ing in. Meeting & exceeding customer expectations is the main information quickly and easily while serving our customers.
objective the entire team is striving for. The foremost customer service team is Contact Center popu-
Following tasks are being continuously performed in order to en- lated with 100 seats, and planned to grow to 500 seats as our
sure Sales as well as revenue targets are consistently achieved. customer base expands. Rendering 24/7/365 service the facility
operates in three shifts with current strength of 100 customer
Sales & Service Operations Team services representatives per shift to meet customer needs. The
l Sales support in terms of commission reconciliation with Fi- Support center provides back end services to not only internal
nance, sales fulfillment with C&C, SDS and Sales forecasting customers but all other divisions of the company in terms of
/ reporting / analysis
l Ongoing support for Franchise/Business Centers in terms of
day to day operations
l Minimizing churn ratio and maximizing First Contact Resolu-
tion at frontend / walk-in service centers nationwide.
l Training of Sales & Service team on effective Sales Pitch,
Objection Handling and Sale Closing techniques as well as
courteous customer services, problem diagnosis, proactive
resolutions and follow ups.
l Development of a dependable regional support team to em-
power sales & service support at the grass root level.
l Process development and implementation for Sales & Ser-
vice functions followed by gauging process efficacy.

Telesales & Quality Assurance Team

l Retention Calls to customers in order to convince them to
recharge their account and help control churn.
l Welcome calls for sales quality & customer satisfaction sur-
vey analysis.
l Targeting the inactive customer base for issue resolution and
device recovery
l Customer data verification calls to support Credit & Collec-
tion

Customer Service
It is great to have technology and content, both of which Wateen
has remarkably well. But customers are all human beings and
that requires the personal touch. Here comes the prolific Wateen
attitude for Customer Service.
Customer Service at Wateen operates 24/7 and consists of a
front-end (Contact Centers) and back-end (Support Center)
teams supported by a Quality Assurance unit, a Resource Devel-
opment team and Business Reporting and Analysis team. complaint and provisioning requirements of customers.
Contact Center is equipped with state of the art, CISCO Hosted The Quality Assurance team is a crucial checkpoint and one of
Contact Center offering multitude of services both for Consumer the most valued at Wateen. Introspection is the key. Monitoring
and Enterprise customers. The channels of communication avail- performance of the customer service team call by call, action by
able to Wateen customers are call, email, web chat, SMS and action, email by email, etc. creates a learning curve that renders
fax round the clock. An in-house, fully customized, to meet the itself in the development of training material hence making con-
demands of our unique product offerings thereby making it pos- tinuous improvement the hallmark deliverable of this team.
sible to quickly introduce new products and value added services The Resource Development team is engaged in providing train-
without dependency on any outside resources. ing to all customer service staff and whenever required to other
Wateen CRM provides complete track of customer and their divisions of the company contribute their knowledge and experi-
account history which is then helpful in planning of loyalty and ences in areas of communication and product knowledge as well

31
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
as training on systems and other resources. This team is also International Carrier Sales
responsible for maintaining skill inventory and custodian of cus- Within the first year of its operations, Wateen established itself as
tomer service process manual with all latest updates and chang- the largest alternative Long Distance & International (LDI) opera-
es. A few words on the processes deployed. The processes are tor in the country. With a very aggressive business development
based in Industry Best Practices and conform to International roadmap, establishing interconnect agreements and relationships
Standards of Contact Center services. Necessary to state that with some of the leading international carriers and four GSM op-
the processes are reviewed and revised to fit local requirements erators in Pakistan, Wateen quickly surpassed it’s competitors
with the remit of the international standards and best practices. in Pakistan in terms of market share, without compromising on
The Business Analysis team is delegated the responsibility of quality. With a network and infrastructure capable of carrying over
generating daily, weekly and monthly reports including monitor- 150 million minutes per month, and end-to-end control over its
ing of internal SLAs with other divisions of the company to en- mission critical assets, the capacity and quality of service offered
sure that customers are served in promised time with Quality of by Wateen was and still is unparalleled. As a result of this, many
Service (QoS) parameters are achieved and with full compliance leading international carriers, including British Telecom, Etisalat,
to corporate governance standards. In addition this team also France Telecom, Saudi Telecom and Singapore Telecom, reposed
generates intra-division OLA/SLA reports and prepares manage- their trust in Wateen’s services. As of today, Wateen has over 60
ment reports at different intervals. international carriers on its panel of customers.
The success story of Wateen’s customer service is measured by Other than focusing on quality alone, great emphasis was laid on
a minimal less than 1 percent call abandon ratio, their high level establishing win-win relationships with international carriers i.e.
of skill set is reflected over 70 percent calls being resolved at FCR conducting two-way, committed business deals. In other words,
(First Call Resolution). This has been achieved with meticulous Wateen entered into bilateral trade agreements with international
planning and execution which is undertaken incessantly on an carriers, which enabled it to capture a higher market share, whilst
almost daily basis. Each customer service representative attends commanding a premium over the prices available in the interna-
over 60 minutes of daily briefing and 8 hours of formal train- tional wholesale market. The young, yet dynamic and dedicated
ing every month. The front door at Wateen, has been equipped, team of account managers ensured seamless relationship man-
trained, and operational and winning kudos from customers. agement with their counterparts across the globe, while Wateen’s
pro-active 24x7 Network Operations Center kept a check and tab
7.2 Corporate & Carrier Sales on network health and stability, in real-time, intervening to resolve
Enterprise & Carrier Sales problems before they even started. Leveraging the company’s
Technology infrastructure creates opportunity to add value to financial strength to provide credit to large international carriers
business when market potential is appropriately addressed. Con- also helped differentiate it from the competition.
verting potential to revenue and profit requires meticulous ex- All the aforementioned success factors helped propel Wateen to
ecution of business processes, adoption of best practices and the alternative LDI operator of choice in Pakistan, commanding a
compliance to corporate governance. Enterprise & Carrier Sales market share of 15 percent at its peak, while maintaining a pre-
strategy is based on four critical elements, namely:- understand- mium in its pricing. Fiscal year 2008 – 2009, showed a growth
ing of customers’ business, market intelligence, territory cover- in traffic of 149 percent.
age, and customer feedback. Since relationship management is
the key to acquiring customers and sustaining revenues, all ac- Carrier & Operator Sales
tions undertaken with customers require a Face-To-Face (F2F) This segment has a small customer base with opportunities for
relationship management workforce. Our ultimate goal is cus- high value, low volume transactions. The smallest opportunity
tomer loyalty. This milestone in sight, we achieve it with support can be as small a tens of thousands of dollars while on the other
from organization clusters of Operations and Support. We follow hand it could be in excess of 30 million dollars per transaction.
a simple principle for strategy execution i.e. more time spent with It is the robust and technologically resilient infrastructure that
the customer, earns more revenue and greater customer satis- catches the eye of the customer. Strong service levels, delivery
faction which ultimately creates loyalty. commitments, dedicated project and account management and
Given one of the finest and cutting edge telecom infrastructure flexible commercial terms are the key differentiators which make
in the region accompanied by a diverse yet complex product Wateen stand out from the competitors.
portfolio, Wateen’s vision to be the ‘Carriers’ Carrier’ envisaged The major breakthrough in this business segment was the Dark
focusing on the market comprising of telecom operators, service Fiber deal for the nationwide fiber network under an Indefeasible
providers, corporate business entities in Pakistan, and selectively Right of Use (IRU) contract with Warid in July 2007, which was
addressing opportunities in international markets. Wateen’s followed by a similar deal with CMPak. Both these deals com-
performance to-date, has been exemplary. The cornerstone of bined brought in revenue that paid back the entire investment in
success is attributed to innovative business ideas exploiting the the nationwide fiber network. Consequently, any additional sale
infrastructure to deliver excellence in customer experience. of dark fiber or managed capacity on this network contributes
directly to the bottom line. The cherry on the cake, is the monthly
revenue that rolls in from Operations and Maintenance (O&M)

32
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
charges generating a multimillion dollar revenue stream annually hauling voice from remote areas of Pakistan as far as Gawadar
and this will continue for the life of the 20 year contract. and base Camp at the K2 mountain, as well as remote rural areas
Likewise, metro fiber has also been a product in demand from of the country. A major source of revenue for Wateen has been
this segment. Collectively, this segment consumes over 1,700km the VSAT business. Bandwidth of 270 MHz over a total of 150
of Wateen’s metro fiber network. Given the backhauling capacity sites have been provided to Warid, CMPak, Telenor and Ufone for
requirements of 3G cellular technology, the licensing of which is coverage in remote locations. Over 550 MHz of satellite band-
on the anvil, will create enormous demand and higher revenue width is consumed by Wateen customers, making Wateen the
opportunities for Wateen. The next big business to look out for largest satellite bandwidth provider in the country. This product
is the metro network which is directly linked with 3G licenses. adds tens of millions of dollars to the company’s revenue.
Nearly 1,000KM fiber network would be required by each opera- As Wateen expands its nationwide footprint to previously under-
tor over the next couple of years. Adding on to the metro fiber served areas under the USF projects, GSM operators are bound
network is the Higher Education Commission, where Wateen has to follow. Another area of high potential is the IP bandwidth mar-
connected 28 universities in Pakistan under the PERN2 Project. ket, which is the next target for the Carrier business. The former
And there are another 26 universities to connect in the next fiscal will create opportunity for Dark Fiber, Lambda Services and Man-
year. aged Capacity business, while the latter will deliver business of IP
Managed Capacity and DPLC services are also heavily consumed Transit for internet access to mobile phone customers.
by these companies. All LDI operators who are Wateen custom- As densely populated areas of the major cities in Pakistan in-
ers are Managed Capacity and DPLC customers. This is a steady crease usage of mobile phone services, the mobile phone com-
revenue line which brings in millions of dollars every year. To panies are actively working with Wateen to deploy Micro-Cell
complete our managed capacity services, Wateen’s ADM Sites backhauling using Wateen’s WiMAX network. This will open up
infrastructure attracts these customers for Co-Location services, a new revenue line for Wateen. The advent of 3G will create an
where customers place their equipment and create interconnects even greater opportunity as Micro-Cell sites grow. Likewise, large
with therir respective Network Operations Centres (NOCs). The ISPs, have expressed interest to avail Lambda services from Wa-
76 ADM Sites in Wateen’s assets are second only to the incum- teen under an IRU contract. This will open up a significant busi-
bent, hence make a convenience offering for these customers to ness value to Wateen. And that is not all, Wateen’s Solutions,
latch on the Wateen’s network with a minor effort from anywhere specifically VAR products, have been another significant source
in the country. Effectively, it reduces their cost of operations. of revenue. Interestingly, PTCL is the largest single customer for
Recently Wateen has entered into an arrangement with Mo- this line of business, while mobile phone operators have sourced
bilink and Multinet, the other optical fiber network operators in routing and switching equipment from Wateen.
the country, to swap managed capacity at one crucial routes at Wateen’s significant advantage over its competition has been and
STM4 level. This in turn creates a double redundancy for Wa- will remain the ability to demonstrate flexibility and take the net-
teen’s customer should a network outage occur due to a double work to where the customer wants us to take the network. This
cut in the specific fiber network ring at any given time. To the cus- is Wateen only trail blazer. Add to this our ability to demonstrate
tomer it ensure an almost 100 percent availability of the network minimum cuts in the industry, less than a dozen in a year, on our
on these routes. Going forward more swaps with possibly higher fiber network, ensuring almost 100 percent availability, thanks to
capacities will be done with these two companies. a near perfect deployment and monitoring of our patrolling teams
Given the tough economic conditions in the country, and difficult and a sophisticated world-class Network Monitoring System
market conditions for mobile phone operators, diversifying to in- (NMS) called Tivoli from IBM, enables our teams to proactively
ternational markets is imperative. With hardly a strand of fiber monitor and maintain the fiber and VSAT network. Last but not
connecting Afghanistan with the outside world, the opportunity the least a market that is perceived to be competition to Wateen,
and attractive margins from mobile phone operators in that coun- and is factually not a competition, demonstrates the industry col-
try have been explored. Wateen only needs to deploy 60+kms laborative model that was another Wateen first in the industry.
of optical fiber from Peshawar to Torkham, establish an intercon-
nect at the border with anty Afgan operator, and all of Afghanistan Corporate Sales
will have access to the world via Wateen’s nationwide network A market segment that is vast, contributes significantly to the
traversing from Torkham to Karachi and the onwards to the sub- GDP, and geographically located in 22 major cities creates a
marine cable system. This opportunity for Dark Fiber, Lambda perfect overlap for Wateen’s network. As large business entities
Service, Managed Capacity, IP Transit and IPLC services can made significant investments in sophisticated information sys-
deliver multimillion dollar revenue to Wateen. Similarly, intercon- tems, supported by falling prices of servers and resonating move
necting with India at Wagah and extending the fiber to China via to centralized processing, since it simplifies business process
the Karakoram Highway, from our Abbotabad is another multimil- and corporate governance, the demand for centralized computing
lion dollar opportunity sitting on the block to capture. resulted in change of network strategy at these business entities.
For Managed Capacity revenue, the 150+ VSAT sites utilized by This computing environment, at a minimum requires, at least two
this segment deliver multi million dollars of revenue every month. Data VPN links per outlet/branch. They have two choices, one to
This infrastructure is utilized by mobile phone operators for back- select both links from Wateen using two different media, or select

33
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
one from Wateen and another from the other service provider. without the customer asking for it in case of SLA slackness,
Either way, it suits Wateen’s business immensely. which telecom company has dedicated Project Management
Strategically, from day one our focus was to capture the lucrative teams to manage deployment of services, which telecom com-
Banking sector. And success has been profound. Today, 26 of pany delivers customized solutions to customers’ business
the 35 commercial banks use Wateen’s network services tak- needs based on designs develop by a dedicated Solution Design
ing advantage of every media in Wateen’s portfolio i.e. WiMAX, team, which telecom company renditions a product and service
metro fiber, nationwide fiber, DVB-RCS VSAT, and ISM Radios. As portfolio so wide and deep to meet customers’ business require-
pr State Bank of Pakistan, 5,100 branches of the 8,000+ branch ments and off load the technology pressure by rendering Telecom
network in the country, are connected online. Wateen has over Systems Integration services. Wateen does and has done it, there
1,500 the 5,100 branches connected. What took others many is no reason why this should stop, and on the contrary this will
years to achieve, we have accomplished in a much shorter span, grow and grow further rapidly. The proof is in the fact that every
and the orders keep flowing in every week. We were there at the customer in this segment has issued repeat orders to Wateen and
right time at the right place and did the right job, almost to perfec- continues to do so to date.
tion. Market research shows that we are the second largest data One crucial element that produces a result as phenomenally suc-
network operator in a PKR 2.5 to 3.0 billion worth total market. cessful as Wateen’s success story is the inherent quality of the
With over 150 prime customers from this segment, and over sales team to adhere to the principle of ‘people buy from people
2,700 sites deployed, imagine the potential of plugging in tele- they trust. And therefore the intense focus on creating value for
phones at these offices to the same network. And even those the customer with a high quality effort on relationship manage-
who do not avail Wateen’s Data VPN and Internet services, are ment with customer audiences at all levels in the organization.
potential customer for Wateen’s telephone services. With the in- The sales team of 40 salespersons split across International Car-
cumbent occupying the largest telephone service market share, rier Sales, Carrier & Operator Sales, and Corporate Sales, works
and customers in this segment seeking lower OPEX, our value in tandem with each other, primarily because the experience of
proposition fits in hand in glove. each member provides a learning curve for the other. Working
around assigned KPIs and sales targets, they deliver results
Wateen Data + Telephone Expense < Current Data month after month, quarter after quarter. An equitable Sales In-
+ Telephone Expense centive Plan drives them to achieve more. Over the three year
Enterprise telephone services launched recently, have clearly period, they have now settled down to be self driven and focus
demonstrated that the above value proposition is true in letter and on the customer. Each salesperson meets a minimum of three
spirit. Just the telephone service expense has shown 27 percent customers every day, equally supported by all other divisions of
to 36 percent savings for customers who deployed it at banks, the company.
hospitals and outbound call centers. Imagine a market that pro- It is the excellence of the service personnel at Wateen that con-
duces over PKR 3,000 ARPU per telephone line, and potential tributes significantly to the success of the sales team. The ser-
350,000 lines in 22 major cities and a conservative market share vice personnel work with their set of KPIs to perform installation,
of 20 percent means to our revenues. support and maintenance services for customers. It is these
After all, telecommunications is just a small piece of an opera- individuals who in collaboration with their Engineering Division
tional business entity’s information processing infrastructure. colleagues ensure high availability of the network to ensure that
There are data centers, both primary and for disaster recovery, the customers’ customer also receives an excellent experience.
routing and switching equipment to support the data network, This staff of professional engineers is trained to be sensitive to
video conferencing for collaborative work environment, lower the needs of the customers’ customer.
cost facility of hosted contact centre, given the security situation
in the country Wateen provides security and surveillance solu-  
tions, and finally Telecom System Integration services for this
segment to avail from Wateen.
As we stand today, we are only scratching the surface of the
market potential, literally the tip of the iceberg. With success in
the Data VPN marketplace, a reputation of a trusted network part-
ner established with dedication and commitment to excellence
in customer service, customer generally query Wateen’s sales
team for more services.
And why should they not do so? Which telecom company up-
grades a 200+ branch bank’s network to twice the bandwidth
capacity in less than 4 hours, which telecom company deploys
more than 150 sites for a single customer in 5 working days,
which telecom company accepts purchase orders on basis of
try-and-buy, which telecom company pays back the customer

34
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

8 The Technology

The purpose of this section is to shed light on the various tech- higher throughput coupled with advanced features compared to
nologies deployed by Wateen. To become the leading “carrier’s other wireless technologies like eVDO. To mention just a few ad-
carrier” to usher in the digital revolution and to provide a variety vantages, per sector throughput in WiMAX ranges up to 25MB
of services with focus on high reliability, scalability and afford- vs. 1MB for eVDO and research is underway to enhance per
ability, Wateen has selected cutting edge, futuristic technologies sector capacity to over 100MB. Smooth convergence with LTE
coupled with time tested infrastructure to compliment its vision. (4G technology) is considered another advantage of WiMAX over
Being a customer centric company it was very important for Wa- other wireless technologies available in the market.
teen to build a network with the capability of offering flexibility, For deployment, Motorola was selected as the vendor of choice
scalability and reliability to deliver what customer wants rather over Ericsson, Huawei, Cisco-Navini, Alcatel-Lucent and Redline
than what the technology features. Wateen has always selected through a multi stage evaluation process. Since then Motorola
the leading international vendors based on open RFI’s to ensure has sold ten thousand access points and nearly one million
the best technical solutions at the best price. WiMAX terminals.
With the objective in sight and vision in mind, Wateen has built Wateen holds license to operate in 22 cities in all 14 WLL re-
a transmission layer on fiber across the country and in major gions with wide frequency bands. In the urban regions, Wateen
metro areas spanning over 10,000 kilometers and with having enjoys over 40MHz band, which is required for efficient Radio
fiber in place it was important to build an access agnostic core Frequency (RF) network design featuring minimum interference
to deliver technology agnostic services. Data centric Wireless and high capacity using 7 MHz - 4 sector access points. The net-
(WiMAX) and wired line (FTTx) mediums were selected with a work comprises 1,081 sites of 4 sectors each. Amongst those,
fiber based backbone having converged core to serve the end around 1,000 sites are already operational while the remaining
customer demand for generations to come. Technology and ca- are in the process of deployment. The overall capacity of the net-
pacity shall pose no constraint for delivering customer needs in work for a typical subscriber profile with applicable contentions is
the time to come. beyond 1 million subscribers with a 512 Kbps profile which is the
largest amongst the Wireless broadband operators in the region.
8.1 Wireless Access - WiMAX State of the art high capacity IP Microwave (MW) links have been
deployed to backhaul the traffic from the Access Point (AP) sites
Region Band Range for aggregation to the hub sites which are further linked to the
CTR 21 3499.25-3520.25 MPLS core network.
FTR 42 3499.25-3541.25 Most of the AP sites have been deployed on shared sites with
GTR 42 3541.25-3583.25 other operators for minimizing capital and operating expenditure
HTR 21 3499.25-3520.25 as well as for reducing the time to market; eventually contributing
ITR 42 3499.25-3541.25 to enhanced availability and affordability for the end customer.
KTR 42 3499.25-3541.25 Hub sites to gather the traffic from the overall network and back-
LTR 42 3499.25-3541.25 haul to the core network have been built at strategic locations for
MTR 21 3499.25-3520.25 a resilient optimized and scalable network design as well as to
NTR-1 21 3499.25-3520.25 enable business to offer flexible corporate solutions.
NTR-2 21 3499.25-3520.25
RTR 21 3499.25-3520.25 8.2 Wireless Access – Satellite
STR-1 21 3499.25-3520.25 Wateen’s Satellite Division provides state of the art satellite based
STR-V 21 3499.25-3520.25 voice, data, video, fax, internet and TV uplinking turn-key solu-
WTR 21 3499.25-3520.25 tions backed by 24/7 all year round professional support. Wateen
WiMAX was selected as the preferred wireless access medium. enjoys a full-time, cross-disciplined skilled team of experienced
The aforementioned technology has the capability of offering and dedicated technical and business professionals who under-

35
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

stand the business and technology issues of different industries

and therefore are fully capable of accurately translating customer 8.3 Wireless Access – DVB-RCS
requirements to viable and reliable technical solutions. DVB-RCS (Digital Video Broadcasting – Return channel via satel-
Satellite technology is best suited for remote areas where con- lite (DVB-RCS, also Return channel over system) is a satellite
ventional transmission layer faces difficulties. Satellite backhaul communication standard with highly efficient bandwidth man-
has particularly established itself as a recognized and efficient agement, making it a cost-efficient alternative in many cases.
medium to deliver services in geographically challenged areas. On top of traditional dedicated VSAT services, Wateen Satellite
Sites connected via satellite provide instant infrastructure on both DVB-RCS product offering forms an integral part of the overall
temporary and permanent basis, enabling rapid deployment in communication solution for its customers. DVB-RCS network
remote and inaccessible locations. Satellite is also the fastest facilitates the corporate and banking sector at over 500 dis-
method of restoring communications in disaster struck areas. It tant locations all over Pakistan enabling customers to expand
is the ideal medium to provide additional capacity for one-time their ATM networks, business applications to remote localities
events, such as cellular coverage to guests on a cruise ship or to while guaranteeing security. DVB-RCS HUBs located at Lahore,
attendees of major sports events. Hyderabad and Karachi are fully integrated with Wateen’s Optical
Wateen Satellite technology features a flexible and powerful ar- Fiber that extends to 77 cities across Pakistan with IP/MPLS core
chitecture that can concurrently support any or combination of back bone for fast routing of data to the desired destination. The
applications focused towards providing networks which are cost- last miles are established on Metro Fiber Rings to the customer
effective, reliable, efficient, and scalable. Wateen through its Sat- locations or through wireless WiMAX connectivity.
ellite services offers products and solutions to support various
applications through top of the line Satellites orbiting the earth 8.4 Wireline Access - FTTx
having footprints in Pakistan, Europe and Africa. Wateen has already launched HFC network of 30,000+ House
Wateen Satellite also provides complete turnkey solutions to its Passes (HP) in DHA – Lahore for offering triple play services.
clients covering planning, survey, design, supply, delivery, instal- In Pakistan, HFC networks have been successfully deployed by
lation, and commissioning, testing, and post-sales O&M sup- cable operators since the 1990’s. In traditional HFC networks,
port. fiber optic network extends to the main head end out to a virtual
Few of the products and services offered over Satellite are: hub and finally to a fiber optic node. Each node is able to serve
l GSM Backhaul houses with and without amplifiers to provide VDV (voice, data
l Carrier class telephony networks and video) services at an optimal quality.
l Broadband Internet, and multimedia access In today’s increasingly competitive and technologically advanced
l Enterprise private networks telecom environment, broadband networks offer telecom opera-
l Rural telephony public networks tors both new business opportunities and challenges. Carriers
l Government and Military Networks are now confronted with many problems such fierce competi-
l TV Up-Linking tion, subscriber churn, lower revenue, high costs of operation
l Direct to Home (DTH) and etc. At the same time, subscribers demand more bandwidth,
l DSNG vans for news gathering better services and cheaper packages, more personalized appli-
Wateen works with industry renowned manufactures which in- cations, and quicker troubleshooting to support a vast array of
clude STM Networks, Comtech EFDATA and iDirect to overcome VDV services. To address all the demand, capacity and financial
the bandwidth challenges featuring turbo coding, 16QAM, drop concerns of this evolving technological business environment,
and insert, CinC, silence suppression, and others. All these tech- Wateen has opted for GPON technology because it can make
nologies are approved and recommended by ITU and all Ameri- a high bandwidth capacity and low OPEX Fiber To The Home
can / European Telecom authorities. (FTTH) access platform for carriers.

36
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
The IP Core transport layer comprises GSR12800 based core
nodes in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Faisalabad connected
over STM16 links in a ring topology. 16 other cities are being ag-
gregated through Cisco 7609 MPLS routers with STM4 and STM1
level connectivity scalable to much higher bandwidth (BW). The
traffic in the cities with Metro Ethernet rings is aggregated on
Metro Ethernet Hub sites and backhauled over the metro rings to
the MPLS network. The traffic in the remote cities is aggregated
directly to the MPLS core node in the city for onward connectivity
to service platforms and nationwide connectivity.
Internet service is being provided by a Cisco supplied geographi-
cally distributed pair of Data centers in Lahore and Karachi. Wa-
teen partnering with Tier 1 BW providers like Singtel and TWA
is presently the largest ISP in Pakistan with 5xSTM4 of internet
bandwidth and expanding exponentially. The rapidly increasing
Wateen’s FTTx architecture includes GPON (2.4 Gbps down- usage of BW demonstrates great trust of Wateen customers in
stream, 1.2 Gbps upstream). To leverage existing HE of DVBC its network and services. The largest Data centers are deployed
Wateen implemented an overlay for RF video transport: a 1,550 in a geographically redundant fashion to provide high resiliency
nm wavelength multiplexed onto the fiber with the 1,490 nm of services to its customers. The data centers are currently be-
downstream wavelength and the 1,310 nm upstream wave- ing expanded to handle multiples of STM16s to handle the BW
length. growth requirements.
The IP Multimedia Sub System (IMS) based Class 5 VoIP plat-
8.5 Core form supplied by Motorola and Application Server by Sylantro
One of the biggest strengths of Wateen’s network is its highly has been deployed to offer a wide range of Voice features. Pio-
scalable and exceptionally reliable Core Network serving as the neering services like Find me, Follow me and Hosted PBX, Con-
backbone of all the services being offered. The truly convergent ferencing, Wateen stands out from the competition and continues
core comprises of Cisco supplied highly redundant IP/MPLS taking the credit of being innovative in service offering supported
IP transport layer, scalable Class 4 transit network and feature by cutting edge technology.
rich Class 5 VoIP Core which provides the required strength to The nationwide class 4 network supplied by the leading equip-
products ranging from Consumer to Enterprise and Wholesale ment manufacturer Sonus, deployed across the country in 18
to Retail. cities with a capacity to handle multibillion minutes per annum

37
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

provides capability to interconnect Wateen with all other Landline role in meeting capacity demand of major GSM players in the
and Mobile networks in Pakistan for exchanging voice traffic at an domestic market i.e. Warid, CMPak and Telenor as well as band-
exceptionally high level of redundancy for continuity of services. width demand of the corporate sector of Pakistan.
The international presence of Class 4 network in UK, Saudi Ara- The traditional practice of selecting conventional fibre is almost
bia, UAE, Uganda, Congo, Bangladesh and Afghanistan provides obsolete. Instead, designers and users are learning that proper
Wateen a lot of flexibility in interconnecting with international car- planning of the fibre design can save a lot of investment, required
riers and offering them the most reliable means to terminate their to upgrade the network in future.
traffic in different countries of the world. Wateen selected a state-of-the-art 24/36/96 strands optical fibre
transmission network with a vision to provide faster, more reliable
8.6 Transmission and ubiquitous connections at lower costs than ever before. Opti-
8.6.1 Wateen Optical Infrastructure cal fibre, due to its superior transmission capability, forms the
In this emerging era of exponential growth in the telecom sector, foundation for today’s optical networks. In order to unleash the
the need for having an optical fiber cable in telecom infrastructure vast potential of fibre, Wateen has decided to opt hybrid configu-
has increased by manifolds. This growth is manifested not only ration of fibre with upgraded specifications of International Tele-
in the sheer increase in the number of telecom companies and communication Union (ITU) as G.652-D defines a full-spectrum
the coverage area (KMs) of their networks, but also in the amount to support all 5 optical windows with a feature of low water peak
of data they can carry. This rapid growth has also led to fierce with low PMD along with G.655 NZ-DSF for long distance com-
competition. Carriers are now struggling to build and maintain munications to support Multi Tera Bit data rates for current and
networks that will provide a flexible platform from which to offer future applications.
multiple services at the lowest possible cost.
8.6.3 Wateen DWDM/SDH Backbone
8.6.2 Longhaul and Metro Network Wateen has selected Huawei Technologies as an equipment ven-
Wateen’s existing 10,000+ km optic fibre infrastructure across dor to establish its backbone network based on OptiX BWS1600G
the nation covering all major business hubs is playing a pivotal (Type III DWDM scalable upto 160 λ i.e 1.6 Tbps capacity) sys-

38
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
bodies, banks, and other agencies with major security concerns.
The use of dedicated fibers also removes other issues associ-
ated with other networks because the fiber is neither public
nor shared. Wateen has seen a tremendous upsurge in interest
among government and military customers for a network that
can eliminate their Fiber-Optic network vulnerabilities. We believe
that our Fiber Optic Network is truly a breakthrough product that
can provide secure fiber-optic links for a wide variety of target
markets including the military, intelligence community, financial
institutions, and private companies concerned about industrial
espionage. Our network is now available for customer evalua-
tions, and is offered for all transmission applications.
To ensure quality work as well as security of network, Wateen se-
lected Frontier Works Organization (FWO) a Pakistan Army Estab-
tem and OptiX OSN7500 & 3500 for SDH layer. lishment due to its esteem business repute in domestic market
The OptiX OSN 7500 & 3500 is a new generation equipment along with its strong managerial strength in similar projects and
that Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. develops to accommodate commitment towards providing state-of-the-art services to the
the status and future trend of Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) people of Pakistan with excellence and quality. Even during the
and Wide Area network (WAN). It integrates the technologies of execution of project, strict supervision through trained staff of
synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH), wavelength division multi- FWO and Wateen ensured that best quality work was undertaken.
plexing (WDM), Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), To ensure the maximum protection of fibre cable, it was decided
Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH), enterprise systems that the depth of cable must be 5 ft, protected with sand, bricks
connection (ESCON), fiber channel/fiber connection (FC/FICON), and various ducts as per international quality standard.
digital video broadcast-asynchronous serial interface (DVB-ASI).
So it can transmit voice, data, storage area network (SAN), and 8.7.1 Logical
video services efficiently on the same platform without any ad- Wateen’s Network topology is based on 2 fibre bidirectional self
ditional investment as the case of conventional networks. healing rings with ASON empowered platform in order to maxi-
mize redundancy in case of any sabotage or cable cuts to ensure
8.7 Secure network uninterrupted communication needs. The network topology com-
Unlike metallic-based systems, the dielectric nature of optical prises of 8 rings along with few spurs extended from Karachi to
fiber makes it impossible to remotely detect the signal being Peshawar along the National & Indus highways. Keeping in view
transmitted within the cable. Since optical fibre does not emit the current law and order situation of Pakistan, Wateen has also
electromagnetic radiation it is extremely difficult to “sniff traffic” established 3rd, 4th & 5th level redundancy by swapping capac-
on the network. If the fibre is breached, it would create enough ity with Mobilink & Multinet on core routes to enable seamless
disturbances in the system to be detected immediately. These communication for its valued customers even in case of multiple
circumstances make fiber extremely attractive to governmental cable cuts.

39
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
8.8 Telehousing and Co-location facilities
Wateen has 74 carrier neutral telehousing facilities nationwide.
These Tier-III standard Telehousing facilities provide state of the
art facilities to customers for their mission critical applications
and services with a 24x7x365 monitoring of high level function-
ality including alarm, temperature, power trending and multitier
fault notification. Ideal for Disaster Recovery, Data Continuity,
Cross-connects and peering among customers and among car-
riers, said facilities enjoy rich connectivity through microwave,
fiber via dual routes and VSAT links.
Sites are strategically designed and built with a fault-tolerant
power infrastructure of UPSs, Battery Banks and Diesel Gen-
erators with redundant fuel tanks, a redundant 2N Cooling con-
figuration with adjustable distribution and cold/ hot aisle set-up,
fire protection through FM200 dry system, integrated smoke & customer and user management.
heat detectors with early warning alarms, secured via 24x7x365 Major applications being used by CRM NG are the following:
security guards, cameras, recorders and monitoring systems, l Customer Relationship Management System (including pre-
biometric and smart card access control systems and a Build- paid & post paid billing)
ing Management System. These “Telecom Spaces” provide a l Task Management System
carrier hotel to host and operate infrastructure for telecom and l Self Care Portal
media companies, corporate clients and other end users based l Interactive Voice Response Integration
on industry leading SLAs. l Computer Telephone Integration (CTI)
l Notification System through SMSC, and SMTP
8.9 Billing Platform & Customer Relationship Additional modules are being developed in house with additional
Management System (CRM) features for Package Management, Dealer Management, Log
Pre-paid billing with multiple pricing and packaging options is Management, Campaign Management, Inventory Management,
being done on a converged pre-paid platform jNETX with 290K Credit & Collection, Voucher Management System etc.
subscriber capacity. The platform is being upgraded by a more
converged feature rich, scalable and highly flexible pre-paid plat- 8.10 Terminals
form by eServGlobal with a capacity of 1.2M subscribers and Motorola supplied WiMAX terminals (USB, Outdoor and Indoor) are
capability to do both postpaid and prepaid along with support of currently being offered for broadband service over WiMAX. How-
pre-paid billing for Hosted PBX service. The platform is planned ever, considerable efforts are being invested on research on 3rd
to be in place the near future. party CPEs in order to achieve same level of performance at lower
Customer Relationship Management Next Generation (CRM-NG) prices thus making the product more affordable. Wateen is closely
is a term applied to processes implemented by Wateen Telecom working with vendors in this regard and has already identified com-
to handle its contact with customers to meet challenges of better patible terminals of all three types from at least 4 other vendors.

40
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
problems
Service performance optimization includes regular and proactive
improvement activities which are based on trends and forecasts
of network and service performance
When actions/changes to be implemented are decided after a
thorough analysis during the above mentioned activities, the
team manages the implementation and verifies its impact
Wateen has the telecom industry’s most comprehensive Man-
aged Services set up. All the service segments are flexible in
terms of scope and set up and can be adapted to fit customer
needs. Engineering team activities include designing, building,
planning, operating and managing day-to-day operations.
Managed services partnerships with industry leaders such as
Motorola, Huwaei and Cisco by transferring the responsibility
of network management to experienced partners, while ensur-
8.11 Service Delivery & Support ing that Wateen remains in the driving seat bring major busi-
Demand for high-quality services poses unprecedented range of ness benefits including cost savings, improved service quality,
challenges for Network Operations. It is vital to keep business and decreased time-to-market and the ability to free up valuable time
network performance in line with shareholder’s expectations and and resources. This initiative delivers cost efficiencies, without
to help cope with unforseen changes. The next wave of growth in sacrificing Wateen control and intellectual property. Through
the business will be driven by introduction of innovative network these partnerships, Wateen gains access to many years of valu-
quality and enhanced customer experience. able experience in the end-to-end management of networks and
Good and uninterrupted service quality is one of the key deter- business support systems for operators worldwide. This is par-
mining factors in a user’s decision to stay with a particular ser- ticularly beneficial for Wateen having multiple technologies and
vice provider. This fact makes it vital to offer “Always On” network multiple suppliers of infrastructure with an increasing focus on
with excellent quality of service. Only strong service manage- quality of service
ment guarantees quality and efficiency in operations. Service Wateen’s engineering management team is highly experienced
assurance has the potential to make a significant impact on the in managing multi-vendor, multi-technology networks. Extensive
end-user experience. Continuous service quality is delivered over experience has enabled Wateen to evolve strong and mature gov-
time with the required expertise and capacity to cope with various ernance models for the delivery of critical projects, network qual-
end-user service delivery ecosystems. Assured service quality ity, revenue enhancement and improved cost-efficiency.
also helps to reduce churn by improving customer satisfaction
as satisfied subscribers are also more likely to use services more 8.12 Plant & Machinery Information
extensively. Wateen Telecom Limited has acquired state of the art equipment
Wateen’s Engineering team brings with it efficiency in service for providing all its services. For summary of equipment owned,
operations and predictability in costs. As more and more ser- leased and rented by the company refer to Annexure C
vices are introduced with well managed life cycles, the desired
scalability and flexibility is achieved with proven expertise in op-
erations management.
Wateen uses best-in-class tools complemented by necessary
customizations and roadmap development. Service delivery
based on contractually defined service level agreements (SLAs) is
completed with associated key performance indicators (KPIs).
The key activities of the Service Delivery and Support team can
be categorized as follows:

• Define, deliver and integrate a service monitoring and reporting

solution
• Regular monitoring and reporting to make the service quality
visible to everyone and analysis to help better understanding of
issues
• Structured problem solving
SLA bound problem management reacts when quality degrada-
tion and/or faults that could affect a service are identified. The
root cause analysis is done to provide solutions for different

41
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

9 Suppliers & Partners information

Key suppliers of the Company are as follows:

Major products are designed based on Huawei’s ASIC chipset
9.1 Motorola Limited and utilize shared platforms to provide quality and cost-effective
Motorola is a global communications leader powered by a pas- products.
sion to invent and an unceasing commitment to advancing the Huawei’s global R&D centers are located in Silicon Valley and
way the world connects. Dallas in USA, Stockholm in Sweden, Moscow in Russia and
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communi- Bangalore in India in addition to those in Beijing, Shanghai, Nan-
cations. The company develops technologies, products and ser- jing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chengdu in China.
vices that make mobile experiences possible. Company’s port-
folio includes communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility 9.3 CISCO
solutions, digital set-tops, cable modems, mobile devices and Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation
Bluetooth accessories. Motorola is committed to delivering next that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking and
generation communication solutions to people, businesses and communications technology and services. Headquartered in San
governments. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and Jose, California, USA, Cisco has more than 65,000 employees
impact, Motorola had sales of $36.6 billion in 2007. and annual revenue of $36.11 billion as of 2009.
Wateen Telecom selected Motorola’s WiMAX and IMS core tech- Cisco has a proven track record of successfully capturing mar-
nology to build its next-generation wireless broadband network ket transitions. Beginning in 1997 with the reality that Voice and
in 2006. With Motorola’s global experience and services exper- Video would all be one, moving to the Networks of Networks in
tise, Wateen’s WiMAX network was deployed in 17 major cities 2000 and the Network becoming the platform for all related tech-
within a short time span of just nine months. Wateen also se- nologies and the core of customer solutions, and the most recent
lected Motorola’s managed services capability which ensures the market transition of Collaboration and Web 2.0 technologies.
service provider focus on critical resources, helping to increase Over time, Cisco has evolved from Enterprise and Service Pro-
operational efficiencies and match the pace of rapidly advancing vider solutions to addressing customer needs in many other seg-
technologies. ments including Small, Consumer and Commercial. The network
has truly become the platform for providing one seamless, trans-
9.2 Huawei Technologies Company Limited parent customer experience. Cisco is committed to innovation
Huawei is a leading global telecommunications solutions provid- and research and development is a core component of our cor-
er with long-term partnerships with operators around the world. porate culture. Cisco spends nearly $5.2 billion a year in R&D,
Its passionate employees and unmatched R&D capabilities en- making it one of the top R&D spenders in the world.
able them to react swiftly and effectively to meet their customers’
needs with a comprehensive and customized set of end-to-end 9.4 IBM
solutions and products. International Business Machines, abbreviated IBM, is a multina-
Huawei’s products and solutions encompassing: tional computer, technology and IT consulting corporation head-
quartered in Armonk, North Castle, New York, United States. The
l Wireless products (LTE/HSPA/WCDMA/EDGE/GPRS/GSM, company is one of the few information technology companies
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO/CDMA2000 1X, TD-SCDMA and with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM
WiMAX) manufactures and sells computer hardware and software (with
l Core network products (IMS, Mobile Softswitch, NGN) a focus on the latter), and offers infrastructure services, hosting
l Network products (FTTx, xDSL, Optical, Routers, LAN services, and consulting services in areas ranging from main-
Switch) frame computers to nanotechnology. It has been nicknamed “Big
l Applications and software (IN, mobile data service, BOSS) Blue” for its official corporate color. Its business agenda since
l Terminals (UMTS/CDMA) 2008 has been focused on “Smarter Planet”, a vision of using

42
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
distributed and embedded intelligent technologies to make com- 9.7 National Engineers System Integrators
munities and business work more effectively and efficiently. National Engineers Pvt. Ltd (with majority holding of Wateen
IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as Telecom) is a Systems Integration Company specializing in di-
the world’s largest computer company and systems integrator. versified solutions and services to optimize technology for busi-
With over 407,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest and ness needs. Its vision is to become the number one systems
most profitable information technology and services employer in integrator worldwide by providing lifecycle solutions in emerging
the world according to the Forbes 2000 list with sales of greater technologies such as IP Contact Center, IP Telephony, IP/MPLS
than 100 billion US dollars. IBM holds more patents than any core, OSS/BSS and HFC networks. The company’s immense ex-
other U.S. based technology company and has eight research perience and immaculate approach guarantees competitive edge
laboratories worldwide. The company has scientists, engineers, to valued customers within and beyond the region.
consultants, and sales professionals in over 170 countries. IBM  
employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards,
nine National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of
Science. As a chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide
Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years

9.5 Polycom
Polycom provides the most life-like experience for communica-
tion and remote meetings from anywhere to anywhere, instantly.
Today, Polycom is the sole provider of integrated, end-to-end
unified collaboration solutions that help organizations meet both
productivity and cost containment challenges.
Polycom provides the complete suite of a face-to-face meeting
that include hearing each other (audio), seeing each other (im-
mersive telepresence and video) and showing each other things
(content), Polycom makes meeting over distance just as pro-
ductive as being there. Polycom enable rapid and collaborative
decision-making, they shorten chains of communication over
distance, and continuously enable innovative products and ser-
vices. Polycom solutions have become critical to companies and
organizations trying to win in today’s increasingly competitive
world.
As the market leader in unified collaboration solutions, Polycom
leverages the growing organizational demand for collaboration. It
has over 600 patents either issued or pending approval and over
15 million lines of active code across our product portfolio. Last
year we delivered our vision for collaboration with best-of-breed
Voice over IP and Video over IP products. Recently, Polycom
raised the bar yet again, by becoming the only provider of the ulti-
mate high definition solution, Polycom UltimateHD™ technology.

9.6 Microsoft
Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation that
develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range
of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in
Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the
Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office
suite of productivity software among many other user friendly
applications and systems.
MS is committed long term to the mission of helping their cus-
tomers realize their full potential. Just as MS constantly update
and improve our products, MS wants to continually evolve com-
pany to be in the best position to accelerate new technologies as
they emerge and to better serve our customers.

43
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

10 Details of Subsidiaries

Wateen Telecom Limited has the following subsidiaries: Wateen Satellite Services (Pvt) Limited (formerly
Wateen Solutions (Pvt) Limited (formerly known as known as Wateen STM (Pvt) Limited)
National Engineers (Pvt) Limited); Wateen Satellite Services (Pvt) Limited was incorporated on 27
Wateen Telecom UK Limited; September 2005 and was mainly involved in providing VSAT
Wateen Satellite Services (Pvt) Limited; and services to different operators, companies etc. At present 100
Netsonline Services (Pvt) Limited; percent shareholding of Wateen Satellite Services (Pvt) Limited
vests with Wateen Telecom Limited.
Wateen Solutions (Pvt.) Limited
Wateen Telecom holds 51 percent shares in Wateen Solutions Netsonline Services (Pvt) Limited
(Pvt) Limited (formerly known as National Engineers (Pvt) Lim- Netsonline Services (Pvt) Limited was incorporated on 2 No-
ited) [the “Wateen Solutions”]. Wateen Solutions is engaged in vember 2005. The Company has been involved in providing DSL
the business of providing system integration services. The prin- services.
cipal activities of Wateen Solutions are to sell and deploy tele- At present 100 percent shareholding of Netsonline Services (Pvt)
com equipments and provide related services. Wateen Solutions Limited vests with Wateen Telecom Limited.
mainly focuses on three revenue streams:
l VAR (Value Added Reselling); Unifast Management (Pvt) Limited
l Professional Services / Managed Network Services; and Wateen Telecom Limited shall also be acquiring 100 percent
l Commissions and Margins shareholding of Unifast Management (Pvt) Limited (Unifast) pur-
As already disclosed Wateen Telecom Limited will be utilising the suant to the Share Purchase Agreement dated June 2007 upon
funds of the IPO for payment / settlement of deferred consider- achieving the closing as mentioned therein. The closing is de-
ation in relation to the purchase of remaining 49 percent shares pendent on certain deliverables by Unifast. As soon as the said
held by Mr. Jahangir Ahmed in Wateen Solutions. transaction is completed, 100 percent shareholding of Unifast
shall vest with Wateen Telecom Limited.
Wateen Telecom UK Limited This Agreement was entered into with the objective of acquiring
The Company was incorporated on 14 April 2008. The Com- the Right of Ways procured by Unifast in its name for the Wateen
pany’s objective is to provide telecommunication services and Project.
interconnection facilities and to carry on the business, inter alia,  
international routing and termination of direct dial telephony traf-
fic via voice grade switched circuits to international carriers.
The share capital of the Company is £10,000/- divided into
10,000 Ordinary £1 Shares.
51 percent shares are held in the name of Wateen Telecom Limit-
ed whereas the remaining 49 percent shares are held in the name
of Wincom Services Pakistan LLC incorporated in Abu Dhabi.
Prior to the publication of the Prospectus, Wateen Telecom Lim-
ited would have acquired the remaining 49 percent shares held
by Wincom Services Pakistan LLC subject to fulfillment of all
legal formalities including the approval from the State Bank of
Pakistan.

44
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

11 Strategic Partnerships

Wateen Multimedia (Pvt) Limited

Wateen Telecom Limited and Wateen Multimedia (Pvt) Limited
(an affiliate of Wateen Telecom Ltd.) have agreed to form a long
term strategic collaboration for achieving their mutual business
objectives. Under this collaboration, Wateen shall leverage the
Cable TV License(s) of WMM to bundle TV services with Wa-
teen’s telecommunication products to create and offer triple play
services for its customers.
Similarly WMM shall leverage the infrastructure of Wateen to cre-
ate revenue opportunities from TV distribution through carriage
and advertisement sales.
The two companies intend to enter into a contractual arrange-
ment whereby Wateen shall provide an indefeasible right to use
its infrastructure to WMM for a period up to the validity of the
Wateen’s telecom license and any extension thereto for the trans-
mission requirements of WMM.

Defence Housing Authority - Lahore

Wateen has a strategic alliance with DHA - Lahore that allows
Wateen the exclusive right to offer its HFC services in part of DHA
Lahore and also allows Wateen to utilize the frequency under
DHA’s WLL license for its own WiMAX services all over Lahore.

45
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

12 The sponsors
The Abu Dhabi Group (“the Group” or “ADG”) is one of the lead- Warid Telecom International Ltd. Bangladesh 100.0 %
ing business groups in the United Arab Emirates and is one of Warid Telecom Uganda 100.0 %
the largest foreign investor groups in Pakistan. Under the leader- Warid Telecom Congo 70.0 %
ship of its Chairman His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Iranian Sanden Industries PJS Co. Iran 35.0 %
Nahayan, the Group has grown to include diversified business Warid Cote d’Ivoire Ivory Coast 99.0 %
interests ranging from banking and financial services, hospital- KOR Standard Bank Georgia 100.0 %
ity, construction, telecommunication services (Warid Telecom
has operations in four countries and collectively entertains 27.7 12.2 Warid Telecom International, LLC.
million subsribers), real estate development and management, Warid Telecom International LLC. (“WTI”) is the principal sponsor
manufacturing and various other interests in industries such as of Wateen Telecom Limited. At present it holds 79.8 percent of
sugar and healthcare. the Company’s shares, whereas the remaining shareholding is
Over the past 10 years, the ADG has invested over USD 2.0 billion with Bank Alfalah Limited and certain individuals. WTI is spon-
in Pakistan and is one of the largest foreign direct investor groups sored by the following:
in the country. In recognition of H.H. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak l Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan
Al Nahayan’s contribution to Pakistan, he was awarded with the l Sheikh Suroor Bin Muhammad Al Nahayan
Hilal-e-Pakistan, the highest civil award in the country in May l Sheikh Mohammed Bin Butti Hamid Al Hamid
2005. The Government of Pakistan (“GOP”) described the con- l Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahayan
ferment of the award as a “well-deserved acknowledgement” for l Dr. Mana Saeed Al Otaiba
contribution to investment in Pakistan. l Electro Mechanical Company LLC
The shareholding of Wateen is mainly divided between Warid
Telecom International LLC and Bank Alfalah Limited in the ratio 12.3 Bank Alfalah Limited
of 80:20 respectively. The shareholders have contributed a total Bank Alfalah Limited was launched in the year 1997 as a 3-branch
of PKR 2,087,373,100, details of which after issuance of 100 bank after Habib Credit & Exchange Bank Limited (HCEBL) was
percent bonus shares are as follows: privatized by the Government of Pakistan and was sold to the
winning bidder Abu Dhabi Group. HCEBL had been registered as
Name of shareholders No. of shares % Holding
a public limited company on June 21, 1992 under the Companies
Warid Telecom International L.L.C 333,292,700 79.84 % Ordinance 1984. The bank had commenced its operations on
Bank Alfalah Limited 83,494,920 20.00 % November 1, 1992. After privatization, Bank Alfalah introduced
Individual Shareholders 687,000 0.16 % full-fledged consumer, commercial, and corporate banking and
Total 417,474,620 100.00 % related services as defined in the Banking Companies Ordinance,
1962.
Abu Dhabi Group Bank Alfalah is currently operating through 321 branches domes-
Abu Dhabi Group has investments in diversified industry sectors tically and an international presence in Afghanistan, Bangladesh
and geographical regions as listed below (status as on 31 De- and Bahrain, with its registered office at B.A. Building, I.I. Chun-
cember, 2009): drigar Road, Karachi. Some of the main branches are located
in all of the major cities of Pakistan, including: Hyderabad, La-
Name Country Ownership stake hore, Kasur, Islamabad, Gawadar, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta,
United Bank Limited Pakistan 30.4 % D.I.Khan, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Sukkur, Sialkot, Multan, Murree,
Bank Alfalah Limited Pakistan 60.0 % Attock District, Gujranwala, Pirmahal, Mirpur Khas, Mandi Ba-
Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. Pakistan 61.2 % hauddin and etc.
Wateen Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. Pakistan 79.8 % The Bank has a paid-up capital of PKR 13,491 million, with a net
Alfalah Exchange UAE 100.0 % equity of PKR 20,219 million as of 30 September 2009 and in
Warid Telecom International LLC UAE 100.0 % addition to this, Bank Alfalah has recently successfully concluded

46
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
the largest ever Tier-2 Capital raising exercise in Pakistan’s his- Mr. Bashir A. Tahir
tory by arranging for itself a PKR 5,000 million rated, unsecured, Mr. Tahir is a prominent and revered corporate figure who has
subordinated and privately placed Term Finance Certificate is- added tremendous value to the banking, communication and real
sue. estate sectors of Pakistan. He is a Member of the Board of Wa-
teen Telecom, Board Member and CEO of Warid Telecom Inter-
Financial Highlights CY2004 CY2005 CY2006 CY2007 CY2008 national, LLC and CEO of the Abu Dhabi Group which has been a
(PKR million) key proponent in attracting private investment into Pakistan.

Total income 7,140 14,515 24,416 31,822 36,292 Mr. Parvez A. Shahid
Operating expenses 2,679 4,344 5,918 8,289 10,623 With over thirty years experience in the financial and telecom-
Profit after taxation 1,092 1,702 1,763 3,130 1,301 munication sectors, Mr. Shahid is a distinguished name in the
Shareholder’s equity 4,369 6,738 10,573 13,767 14,609 corporate sector in Pakistan. He is one of the key individuals who
Total assets 154,835 248,314 275,686 328,895 348,991 have helped instill best practices in quality assurance, strategy
Investments 35,503 57,416 56,502 88,492 75,973 and innovation in the financial, communication and real estate
Deposits & other income 129,715 222,345 239,509 273,174 300,733 sectors of Pakistan. Mr. Shahid is a member of the Board of
Capital adequacy 8.16 8.66 9.48 9.85 8.03 Wateen Telecom as well as Warid Telecom.
Return on equity 26.89 % 30.65 % 20.37 % 25.72 % 9.17
Return on assets 0.86 % 0.84 % 0.67 % 1.04 % 0.38 % Mr. Abdulla Khalil Mohd Samea Al Mutawa
Advance/Deposit ratio 68.56 % 53.46 % 62.63 % 62.67 % 64.07 % Having sound financial background and business expertise, Mr.
Book Value per share 21.05 24.88 24.48 24.95 21.32 Mutawa holds extensive experience in the field of financial and
incl. Rev. of Assets investment management. He is on the board of Bank Alfalah
Earnings per share 3.9 3.92 2.91 3.92 1.63 Limited and also serves as Advisor to the government of United
Arab Emirates. He has a substantial business interest of his own
12.4 Profile of Board members both in UAE and abroad including commercial and residential real
H.H. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan – Chairman of estate assets.
the Board
His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan – Member of Mr. Khalid Mana Saeed Ahmed Al Otaiba
the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi‚ Minister for Higher Studies and Mr. Otaiba is the General Manager, Al Otaiba Group of Companies,
Chancellor of the University of Al Ain. Abu Dhabi. He also serves on the board of Bank Alfalah Limited
His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan is the Chair- and Alfalah Insurance Company Limited. Mr. Otaiba is a Masters
man of the Company and takes keen interest in the management in Arts from Suffolk University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA.
of Wateen Telecom.  
His Highness Sheikh Nahayan is the Federal Minister for Higher
Education and Scientific Research for UAE and is also Chairman
of Union National Bank‚ Abu Dhabi‚ and Chairman & Director of
United Bank Limited‚ Pakistan. His Highness is also Chancellor
of the Al Ain University and President at the Higher Colleges of
Technology‚ Abu Dhabi. His Highness is also the Founder Chair-
man of Bank Alfalah Limited‚ Pakistan.

H.H. Sheikh Saif Bin Mohammed Butti Al Hamid

H.H Sheikh Saif Bin Mohammed Butti Al Hamid is the Vice Chair-
man and Managing Director of Al Hamid Group of Companies,
UAE.

Mr. Ahmed Darwish Dagher Al Marar

Mr. Ahmed Darwish Dagher Al Marar is the Vice-Chairman and
Managing Director of “Al Ain International Group”, which is the
holding company owned by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin
Zayed Al Nahyan. He is a member of the Committee supervising
the expenditure of Abu Dhabi International airport, and also the
director of “Presidential Flight”. Mr. Marar served at various key
institutions including Bank of Bosnia, Sudan Emirates Bank, Abu
Dhabi Islamic Bank etc. He has done his Bachelors in Business
Administration from Richmond University, London.

47
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

13 The Management

Tariq Malik - Chief Executive Officer She had the opportunity to participate and voice her opinions at
Mr. Malik has a proven track record at the Director level in diversi- various forums including the SAARC Law Conference at Kath-
fied areas of finance, corporate banking and TMT (Telecommu- mandu, Nepal in September 2000. Furthermore, she has drafted
nication, Media and Technology). As an EMC member of Warid the Ordinances for the Establishment of the Tajdeed-e-Punjab
Telecom, he was responsible for Strategy, Commercial, Sales Board for the preservation, maintenance and restoration of the
and Marketing. Earlier, in the capacity of Managing Director at buildings, heritage and monuments and prevention of Domestic
WorldCall Pakistan, he handled the task of overseeing existing Violence.
telecom operations and creating new businesses focusing on Ms. Aziz had been a part of Warid since August 2004 and in her
deregulation opportunities. new role as Company Secretary and Legal Head of Wateen, she
Previously, he served as Director of Consumer Communities has used her years of experience to help Wateen grow into a
(Marketing) at Three (Hutchison 3G), UK. He also played the role strong and viable entity, including the introduction of best prac-
of Director and Project Head with his role covering 3G, Broad- tices in Corporate Governance.
band UK VAS, and Mergers and Acquisitions in British Telecom-
munications PLC (BT)/O2, UK and Asia Pacific. He also has a Shahid Miah – CTO & Head of International Business
background in Corporate Finance at Granville Baird PLC, UK, and One of the first employees of Wateen Telecom, Mr. Miah suc-
practiced Accountancy at Arthur Andersen, UK. cessfully launched LDI services across Pakistan with internation-
al connectivity to UK and the Middle East. He is an accomplished
Muhammad Aqib Zulfiqar - CFO telecommunications professional with expertise in operations of
Muhammad Aqib Zulfiqar has been associated with Wateen Tele- Next Generation Networks as well as Legacy TDM Carrier net-
com since 2005. Chartered Accountant by profession, he is a works.
creative and result oriented financial leader. He has fifteen years A graduate with an honors degree, Mr. Miah started his telecom
of vast experience mainly in telecom industry. Prior to Wateen, career in GSM in 1995 with Ericsson UK providing support to
he was heading a similar position in Global group of companies; Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile. In the decade that has passed, he
a diversified business concern engaged mainly in telecommuni- has gained a wealth of experience in telecoms working for ven-
cation, distribution of telecom related products and real estate. dors, operators and systems integrators in the UK and Europe.
At Wateen Telecom, his responsibilities and expertise entail spe- In 2000, Mr. Miah started focusing on technologies based on
cific focus on Strategic Business Planning, Treasury and Cash the convergence of voice and data and spent 6 months working
Management, Budgeting and Forecasting, Accounting & Report- with Cisco Systems testing and evaluating their solutions based
ing, Tax Planning & Management, Risk Management, Credit & on soft switch architecture. Before joining the group in November
Collection, Audit and Supply Chain Management. 2004, he was a director in a consultancy firm offering services
to customers such as Cable & Wireless for convergent applica-
Naila Aziz - Head of Legal and Company Secretary tions and VoIP solutions. One of Mr. Miah’s key achievements at
After completing her Bachelors in Law, Ms. Aziz joined Mand- Wateen has been the formation of a highly experienced, highly
viwala & Zafar, and worked on various key national and inter- skilled and dynamic engineering team with a focus on delivering
national transactions and cases for more than six years. In her services of the highest quality.
role, she was directly involved in diversified legal matters such
as International Arbitration, Joint Ventures, Project Financing, Amir Munsif Khan - CIO
Corporate Finance, Telecommunications, TFC Issues, Securities, Over 15 years of experience in Global Telecoms / IT (USA, Saudi
Floatation of Modarabas, Mergers and Acquisitions, Construction Arabia, Pakistan and West Africa), during this period he has done
and Engineering. comprehensive study of the corporate networks, managed inter-
During her significant legal experience, she advised many leading nal, external and remote teams to achieve business goals.
international and national financial institutions and companies. He started his career back in 1992 with United States Postal

48
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
Service, and later served many renowned organizations such was responsible for 300+ franchises which were pivotal in tak-
as Texas Instruments, Northern Telecom, TELLABS, Inc. CISCO ing Warid to the 10 million subscriber benchmark. He also led
(San Jose California), Getronics, DVCOM and Warid Telecom the Project office of Warid Congo and played an important role
(Congo SA). in the successful launch of Warid Congo, an operation where he
was later re-assigned as the Director Commercial. In this role he
Furqan Qureshi - General Manager Enterprise & Carrier established the Commercial Department pre-launch, with daily
Sales operations covering all core functions – Products, Sales, Market-
Furqan Qureshi is the General Manager of Corporate Solutions at ing, Customer Services and International Business.
Wateen Telecom and brings with him experience of over 25 years Previously he has been associated with Cybernet which was the
in the technology industry. He is a graduate from Institute of largest ISPs and independent data operators at the time. His dual
Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, Pakistan and started his qualification in the fields of Engineering and Business Administra-
career with IBM in 1981 as a Systems Engineer for the banking tion give him the benefit of understanding the technical aspects
industry. He moved to marketing in 1985 and worked for many of the products along with appreciating the strategic elements of
years specializing in public sector and manufacturing industry the business, making his contributions insightful and relevant. He
applications. He has also served IBM in the senior management is a certified ISO 9001:2000 lead auditor and has keen interest in
team in various capacities including Product & Communication Quality Management Systems and Business Processes.
Manager, Marketing Manager and Branch Manager. He left IBM in
1999 and has since held various senior management positions in Salim Bokhari - General Manager News & Content
the financial services industry. Before joining Wateen, he was the Mr. Salim Bokhari joined Abu Dhabi Group as Editor-in-Chief of
Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Marketing at Si3, Amoon Media Group. He is a journalist of high stature both in
an IT integrator company. Pakistan and International media. He has been in the profession
Among his personal achievements are various consulting roles, for over 37 years. He graduated from Punjab University in 1969.
and he has also been responsible for the development and imple- Since then he has been working on very senior positions in Edito-
mentation of an IT strategy for two banks in Pakistan. He has also rial departments of many renowned newspapers. He has to his
been a consultant responsible for architecting the E-Government credit launching of many newspapers including The Muslim and
Strategy for the Federal Government of Pakistan. He has also The News.
consulted for various textile groups in Pakistan as well as for One of Mr. Bokhari’s key achievements in journalism has been
some private sector and public sector organizations. He has been the Pride of Performance Award given to him on 14 August 2004
an active member of the E-commerce working group of the Min- for his excellent work in journalism. He was also conferred the
istry of Science & Technology and has served as a key member Best English Reporter Award by APNS in 1985
of the State Bank of Pakistan Taskforce on Electronic Clearing
House (ECH). Mian Omer Shah - General Manager Customer Service
Mr. Mian Omer Shah started his working career with Pakistan’s
Syed Jibran Ali - General Manager Consumer Sales oldest GSM operator and specialized in Customer Services man-
Syed Jibran Ali is heading Consumer Sales & Services at Wa- agement. He worked as a Quality Supervisor and got ISO certi-
teen and brings with him over 22 years of diverse experience fication done for a Contact Center, which was amongst the first
comprising of Retail Sales, FMCG, Cellular and WiMAX. Holder of few in the country to get certification. He has more than 12 years
a Masters degree in Marketing, his experience includes 3 years of experience across the subcontinent.
with LEE Jeans (USA), 10 years with Coca Cola and 9 years He transformed the operations of a large Contact Center by es-
with Mobilink GSM. He has been part of multiple platforms which tablishing a pay for performance model and was given an assign-
include trainings and workshops by London Business School, ment to establish a Contact Center in Karachi. After successfully
Harvard Business School, Insead, MIT, Telecoms Academy (In- establishing a 400 seat Contact Center he moved on to Warid
forma), LUMS, Coca Cola etc. He was also nominated for partici- and established 2 more large Contact Centers with full multime-
pant’s page at London Business School for the year 2007/08 for dia capabilities. His next assignment within the same group was
the world renowned training “Essentials of Leadership”. to work on another green field launch in Bangladesh, where he
As a part of the ever-changing world and evolving technolo- established 12 Business Centers, 2 Contact Centers, 1 Support
gies he was given task to Launch Mobilink Infinity in Karachi, Center and 4 training Centers. He possesses in-depth knowledge
a WiMAX technology. The launch is still considered to be one of of recruitment, training and development, project management,
the most successful ever; the Brand Activation Campaign has sales management, service excellence and team building. Re-
become norm for many. cently Mr. Omer has been transferred to Wateen where he will be
heading the Customer Service division. He would be working to
Ali Khan - GM Telco Products & Solutions ensure service excellence and exceptional service levels.
Ali Khan has been associated with the group for over 5 years
and has contributed in various roles in the sales and marketing
divisions. As Franchise and Retail Head for Warid Pakistan, he

49
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
Muhammad Mazhar Qayyum Butt - General Manager He did his MBA from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
Government Regulations & Regulatory Affairs with specialization in International Business. He completed his
Muhammad Mazhar Qayyum Butt holds a Graduate Engineering dissertation, as part of his master’s program on Telecom sector
Degree in “Telecommunications” from the University of Engineer- from EAP, Oxford, UK.
ing and Technology (UET), Lahore. From 1982 till 2000, he re-
mained closely associated with a variety of telecommunication Amer Riaz Khan – Senior Manager Marketing
facilities and spectrum management systems of couple of pub- Amer Riaz Khan is heading the Marketing Department at Wateen
lic sector departments. During this period, as Project Director, Telecom Limited. He brings with him 10 years of marketing and
he also handled two large scale projects spread over the entire brand management experience of FMCG and Telecom sector.
country. Between years 2000 and 2008, he served in Frequency He has done a Masters in Economics from Punjab University
Allocation Board (FAB) as Executive Director/Vice Chairman of and later MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences
the Board and in Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) as (LUMS).
Director General/Secretary to the Authority, where he remained He started his career as Marketing Services Manager with Pepsi
actively involved in various commitments of “Deregulation/ Bottling Co. and worked there for one year. Later he moved to
Liberalization” process of the Telecom sectors of Pakistan and Tapal Tea (Pvt) Ltd. and worked on Tapal Family Mixture brand.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) / Northern Areas (NA). He has After working there for two years, he moved to Nestle Pakistan
represented Pakistan in various Meetings/Seminars/Workshops and worked on NESCAFE for more than three years. In 2006
at forums of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Asia when telecom sector was booming, Amer Riaz moved to Telenor
Pacific Telecommunity (APT), African Telecommunication Union Pakistan with an objective to diversify his experience where he
(ATU), World Bank, Administration Countries and Telecom /Me- headed the Djuice brand.
dia/Spectrum Regulatory Authorities. His major achievements include successful launch of various
At present, he is serving as a General Manager in Wateen Tele- brands, which include Tapal Family Mixture at a national level,
com since 1 December 2008 facilitating internal stakeholders Nescafe Gold and Nescafe 3in1. He was also the key lead behind
with respect to their assignments relating to Government Depart- the successful launch of Djuice new brand identity in Pakistan,
ments, Telecom Operators and Regulatory Authorities. making it the only youth segment brand of the GSM market.

Zafar Iqbal - General Manager Human Resources & Administration 13.1 Human Resource
Zafar Iqbal is heading Human Resource, Administration & Infra- One look at the business model of a service organization will
structure Division at Wateen Telecom and brings with him an ac- clearly demonstrate the single most vital pillar supporting the
complished Management career; which reflects over 40 years institution and its customers i.e. its employees. That is why at
of multifunctional experience in Human Resource Management, Wateen our priority ahead of our plans, products, profits, is our
Administration Services, Real Estate and Government Relations. people. It is our firm belief that together people create and sustain
His diversified experience includes 10 years with Intercontinental an organization’s growth and determine success or failure. That
Hotels Corporation, more than 10 years with Lyton, Electrolux, is why we promote the culture of a family within the company – A
Sheraton and pharmaceutical solutions (KSA), 5 Years with Mar- Wateen Family.
riot (Islamabad), 8 Years with Mobilink GSM, 2 Years at Dillard Given the complexity of the infrastructure, the expanse of our
Corporation (USA) and almost 5 years with Warid Telecom. product lines, and diversity of our customers, we can safely
A professional who has the ability to address business challeng- stake claim to the fact that Wateen has the best ensemble of
es of (streamlining and redefining workflow roles and respon- people under a single roof in the industry. Wateen has brought
sibilities) compensation structures, employee retention, building together individuals with international and domestic experience
employee relations and translating resource productivity into ac- from world class companies like Sprint, Hutchison, IBM, British
celerated business growth. Telecom, Ericsson, CISCO Systems, Texas Instruments, General
Electric, QTel, Etisalat, Orascom, etc.
Azmat M. Khan – Deputy General Manager Enterprise Office Our 1,500 employees are populated across eight divisions.
Azmat M. Khan is a Deputy General Manager at Wateen and These are Sales, Products, Customer Service, Information Sys-
heading the Enterprise Office. He is looking after enterprise wide tems, Engineering, Finance, Human Resources and Administra-
Quality Assurance, Business Process Re-engineering and Pro- tion, Legal and Government Relations & Regulatory Affairs, and
gram Management of Wateen Telecom. He is a telecom profes- all are closely supported by the Enterprise Office of the Chief
sional with over 12 years of experience. He bags over a vast, rich Executive Officer. All divisions work in harmony to deliver ser-
and multidimensional experience in domestic and International vices as promised to the customers. Each employee is sensitized
telecom related assignments. Prior to joining Wateen Telecom, to value the customer. At the other end, HR views and serves all
he was head of Strategic Planning and Business Development employees as customers.
at Warid Telecom, Bangladesh. He has also worked for Warid Wateen is an equal opportunity employer. Our hiring philoso-
Telecom Pakistan and Mobilink, an Orsacom Telecom group phy and practice is to employ individuals who are competent
company. for the specific position and have the right attitude for the job to

50
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
be performed. Strong soft skills for communication, teamwork, facilities at all offices and locations are aptly served to ensure
and respect for individual makes the difference between the one smooth operations. From office administration to transport man-
employed and the one not employed. Being a people focused agement, safety and security of employees and assets, healthy
company, it is of immense value to Wateen that every employee and hygienic work environment are the primary responsibilities
strongly believes and performs with integrity, discipline and pas- of this team.
sion. Hence long work hours are not a bother at Wateen, each With corporate offices in 3 cities including the 80,000 sq. ft. head
employee is motivated to seek satisfaction from completing a office in Lahore, and 76 ADM sites around the country, these
task and not count work hours. employees serve the company 24x7x365. Meticulously they pro-
Crucial to our success is the comprehensive HR service of Em- vide support to ensure all logistics are accomplished to provide
ployee Skills Inventory. The database maintains a comprehensive electrical power and associated supplies at all locations across
profile of each employee’s professional and personal skill set. Pakistan, a difficult task given the state of power generation and
The database is continuously updated with trainings and skill de- distribution in the country. Yet they deliver on the promise.
velopment accomplishment of employees as well as any special It is their responsibility to acquire or lease property to deploy
achievements on the job or off the job including sports, societal Wateen’s telecommunication towers, facilitate negotiations and
services, etc. manage contracts with owners of rented property. Their scope
Investment in people is the cornerstone of Wateen’s employee covers over 100 building premises and over 1,000 telecommu-
retention policy. We firmly believe that our operating business nication towers. Hence they work closely with Customer Service
environment requires that all employees are kept abreast of de- since their relationship management and business skills come
velopments in the industry, master the technologies that we use to fore to help the Engineering teams ensure that all assets are
and pursue, improve business skills that makes them productive, operational and functional at all times. A team that works relent-
communication skills that makes them effective. Therefore our lessly to keep the candle burning when other are asleep. They
training budget is not limited to the figure in the business plan. may be called the unsung heroes in most organizations, not at
Importantly enough, employee surveys also show that training Wateen. They too relish the Wateen family culture.
and development programs are high on employee motivation and
employees believe that they would not receive as many oppor-
tunities for skill enhancement in another organization within the
industry in the country.
If the input is good, and properly harnessed, performance to meet
and exceed expectation should come as a natural consequence.
The balance scorecard approach to performance measurement
at Wateen illustrates that spirit. Every employee undergoes a
Performance Evaluation and Counseling (PEC) session with his
immediate Manager at least once a year. Objectives for the year
are set at the beginning and evaluated at the end, of each year.
Counseling focuses on understanding and listening to the em-
ployee. The employee receives appreciation on achieving or ex-
ceeding assigned objectives and advice on areas of improvement
both for professional and for personal improvement. The input
for employee skill improvement from these sessions creates the
annual Training and Skills Development plan for the company and
is recorded in the Employee Skills Inventory database. A compre-
hensive Reward and Recognition system has been implemented
to ensure that money does not remain the only motivator. Wateen
salary structure ensures that the employees are paid better than
the average of the industry.
The work environment provided to employees is maintained at
a level that they find it comfortable and conducive to meet the
productivity expectation of the job. Friendliness and family culture
is encouraged in the company. A Wateenite, as we call ourselves,
is a friendly, conscientious, dedicated employee who will always
thinks customer first and is equally caring for his peers, superiors
and subordinates. Human values are paramount at Wateen.

13.2 Administration
These are individuals who quietly yet religiously ensure that all

51
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

14 Utilization of IPO proceeds

The Company has planned to raise funds through an Initial Public 14.2 Acquisition of subsidiary
Offer in order to achieve its hard line business plan. This inter alia Wateen Solutions (Pvt.) limited (formerly National Engi-
includes: i) repayment of up to PKR 1.49 billion to financial insti- neers (Pvt.) limited)
tutions as against its financial obligations arising out of payment Wateen Telecom acquired the System Integrator (Value added
of LCs, and (ii) payment for acquisition of its subsidiary company reselling, professional services and managed / hosted network
i.e. Wateen Solutions (Pvt.) Limited (formerly National Engineers solutions as defined under section 4.4.4) from National Engi-
(Pvt) Limited) of PKR 490 million neers through its wholly owned subsidiary Microtech Links (Pvt.)
Limited (currently, known as Wateen Solutions (Pvt.) Limited
14.1Retirement of Loan obligation “WSPL”) in January 2007 whereby initially Wateen purchased
The Company, while foreseeing growth perspectives, decided to ex- 100% of the assets and then sold 49% of the shares in Wateen
pand its operations by introducing more equipment to its fleet. The Solutions to the founder Mr. Jahangir Ahmad through a business
equipment has been procured through well known suppliers both lo- purchase agreement dated 30th December 2006 and a supple-
cally and abroad. The orders for the equipment were awarded to some mentary agreement no. 1 dated 18th April 2007.
of the key suppliers including Motorola and Huawei Technologies. To- Wateen Solutions has provided excellent financial returns posting
tal cost of the equipment was PKR 1.469 billion. The Company has a profit after tax of PKR 362 million on a revenue of PKR 1 billion
opened LCs with two banks namely Atlas Bank Limited and Standard in 07/08 (with a dividend payment of PKR 345 million) giving Wa-
Chartered Bank Limited. Currently, all the LCs have been opened and teen a 254% return on net investment. In 08/09 Wateen Solutions
shipments for the required equipment have been made to the Compa- again provided strong financial return with profit after tax of PKR
ny. Details of the LCs which were retired (bank wise) are as follows: 265 million on revenue of PKR 1 billion and as at 31 Dec 2009
With Atlas Bank Limited the company had retained profits of approx. PKR 357 million for
S. LC# Beneficiary Equipment Amount USD/PKR Amount Notes potential distribution of dividend.
No USD Parity PKR Based on the strong performance to date, management forecasts
(‘000) (‘000)
for the business, the potential for leveraging this business line for
1 ABKIMP104/451/08 Realcom Int’l C-band Antinnas 3,635 82 299,524 1 both product expansion and geographic expansion internationally
2 ABKILC104/008/09 Premier Industries OFC - - 10,578 2
3 ABKILC104/011/09 L T Engineering OFC - - 27,780 3 and a unique positioning for Wateen to bundle traditional telecom
4 ABKIMP104/220/09 Comtech VSAT Equipment 418 83 35,130 4 services with systems integrator / VAR / PS / MNS it was decided
373,013
to purchase the balance 49% from Mr. Jahangir Ahmad to con-
With Standard Chartered Bank solidate a 100% ownership as approved by the board during the
S. LC# Beneficiary Equipment Amount USD/PKR Amount Notes board meeting dated 19th November 2009.
No USD Parity PKR
(‘000) (‘000) Shareholder Shares Amount (PKR) percent
1 451010019967-A Motorola Inc. CPEs 811 83 67,707 5 Wateen Telecom Limited 413,212 41,321,200 50.99 %
2 451010019271-A Motorola Inc. MW Equipment 309 83 25,836 6
Mr. Jahangir Ahmed 397,027 39,702,700 49.00 %
3 451010003402-A Huawei Technologies DWDM Equipment 2,641 83 221,751 7
4 451010011689-A Motorola Inc. Eltek Battries 684 84 57,456 8 Others 20 2,000 -
5 401010002672 Motorola Inc. Eltek Cabnits 458 84 38,550 9 Total 810,259 81,025,900 100.00 %
6 451010021231-A Huawei Technologies WiMAX BTS Site
Equipment 102 84 8,568 10
7 451030000109 Huawei Technologies DWDM Equipment 1,522 84 127,862 11
8 451010023033-A Motorola Inc. CPEs/USBs 3,813 84 320,319 12
9 451010024185-A STM Networks INC VSAT Equipment 559 84 47,023 13
10 451010004777-A Motorola Inc. Sun Servers 83 84 7,041 14
11 451010022150-A Huawei Tech.
Investment Co. Limited ONS/NMS/BWS 1,063 84 89,355 15
12 451010013231-AP Huawei Technologies DSL Equipment 1,014 84 85,245 16
1,096,717
Grand Total 1,469,731

52
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
14.2.1 Financial highlights

2009 2008
Rupees Rupees

Revenue 996,834,189 1,019,668,776

Gross profit 299,689,174 435,624,408
Operating profit 243,175,381 366,565,422
Profit after taxation 265,202,783 361,589,074

Total assets 1,181,504,766 655,849,718
Total liabilities 815,178,481 209,758,447
Paid up capital 81,025,900 81,025,900
Shareholder equity 366,326,285 446,091,271
Return on Equity 72.40 % 81.06 %
Breakup value per share (PKR) 452.1 550.6
Earnings per share (PKR) 327.3 446.3
 
The following considerations applied while negotiating and final-
izing the value and deal structure:
l Retained profits as of 31st December 2009 stand at circa
PKR 357 million which in effect would otherwise be payable
as dividend in due course under agreed 100% dividend pay-
out practice
l A well reputed external valuer was engaged to advise on
potential valuation ranges. Their report suggested a range
of PKR 912 million to PKR 2.1 billion based on comparable
earnings multiple and a range of PKR 5.6 billion to PKR 8.4
billion while using DCF valuations
l Wateen’s own evaluation of ‘payback period’, return to in-
vestors, earnings multiple / EPS impact to Wateen on 100%
consolidation and performance to date
l This transaction will have a positive impact on Wateen’s
EPS

53
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

15 Risks and Mitigants

The Company wishes to highlight the following risk factors, which may Mitigant:
affect the returns on investment in the Company: With a teledensity of approximately 4 percent and a population of 168
million, the broadband telecom market of Pakistan shows tremendous
15.1 Regulatory risk potential for growth. Research estimates suggest broadband penetra-
Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) or other regulators / government tion to reach 8 percent – 10 percent within the next five years. Thus,
bodies may modify regulations, which would have an impact on tele- in terms of addressable market, Wateen’s projections are in line with
coms / media operators including Wateen. PTA may introduce tariffs research recommendations.
and fees that may have a financial impact on the Company. In the financial model, overall weighted average ARPU assumptions
The regulatory environment is still opaque. The GOP on occasions has have been made on a conservative basis.
been unable to implement prior regulatory decisions. After 2004, the Wateen has projected the average churn rate to increase during the
success of the industry, signaled by high rates of revenue growth, at- initial phase of operation, taking into account subscriber’s switching
tracted the attention of the GOP, which imposed a tax on the sector, tendency. However, average churn rate is conservatively projected to
affecting the profitability of the sector as a whole. The new framework drop as Wateen intends on providing innovative products, high net-
of MOIT (Ministry of Information and Technology) is also upcoming. work quality bundled with excellent customer service which will re-
Mitigant: duce the churn rate.
Successive governments in Pakistan have taken a very positive Although Wateen is the first entrant in the WiMAX market in Pakistan,
stance to the telecommunication industry. PTA has established itself its network quality as provided by two top class vendors, Motorola and
as a strong independent regulator introducing a number of initiatives Hauwei, is expected to be superior to other potential operators in the
to facilitate growth of the industry. Wateen is fully compliant with all country. Wateen will also aim to provide better products and customer
licensing terms as set out by PTA including service quality. There has service than the other operators.
historically never been any incident of dispute or imposition of penalty
or fine on Wateen. 15.3 Interest rate risk
PTA and the GOP’s positive stance towards the telecom industry has Wateen will have substantial amount of FCY and LCY debt. The finan-
resulted in the industry attracting record foreign direct investment (“FDI”) cial expenses will be a function of the LIBOR and KIBOR interest rates
of USD 4.2 billion during June 2004 – June 2007 period, representing over the tenor of the loans. An increase in interest rates would ad-
over 40 percent of total FDI in the country. The GOP strongly believes in versely impact Wateen‘s ability to service its debt obligations and also
the development of communication infrastructure of Pakistan and is ex- its ability to meet the financial covenants.
pected to fully support Wateen’s endeavor to make telecommunication, Mitigant:
especially broadband, easily available and affordable in the country. Various scenarios have been run on the financial model for Wateen to
assess strength of the business model. In order to hedge interest rate
15.2 Market risk risk, Wateen will also be evaluating the merits of derivate instruments
There is a risk that Wateen’s subscriber base may be lower than pro- to mitigate this risk.
jected. This may be a result of:
(a) Pakistani ISP market growing at a rate lower than projected 15.4 Technology risk
(b) Lower than projected market share for Wateen The global and local telecommunications industry is one of the fast-
(c) Greater competition may result in higher subscriber churn rates to est growing industries in the world. As a result, the operators run the
other operators risk that the equipment used to provide services may become obso-
ARPUs from subscribers may also be lower than projected, resulting lete rather quickly. Furthermore, there are various other competing /
in lower revenues and EBITDA. It is imperative to realize that price war emerging technologies available with similar capabilities to WiMAX,
as well as subsidy war regarding connections governs the acquisition such as HSDPA (3G).
strategy of most of the operators in Pakistan. Mitigant:
Accurate and timely decision making and financial ability to meet sub-

54
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
stantial capital expenditure required to upgrade equipment is consid- instruments to mitigate this risk.
ered imperative to sustain growth and to ensure continued profitability.
In this respect, Wateen’s relationship with its vendors and sponsor 15.7 Political risk
financial strength has placed the Company in an advantageous posi- Political instability has been one of the major impediments for the de-
tion. velopment of Pakistan. Although Pakistan follows a democratic form
It should also be noted that WiMAX technology is becoming a widely of Government, electoral problems have persisted in the past and have
acceptable digital system worldwide. WiMAX brings the most ad- affected the general public.
vanced developments in wireless broadband access technology at a Mitigant:
reasonable cost by spurring severe competition among manufacturers Regardless of the government in power, it is expected that importance
and driving down the cost of equipment; thus, the technological risk is of the development of the telecom sector will be recognized, as it is
largely mitigated. one of the major contributors to the success of the nation, with its op-
erators being amongst the largest tax contributors to the government.
15.5 Management risk Additionally, successive governments in Pakistan have enjoyed very
The risk that Wateen’s management team may not have necessary cordial relations with the royal family of UAE, and this carries signifi-
skills to manage the typical risks inherent in successfully operating cant weight since Wateen is a significant investment of members of
WiMAX services as the first entrant in a market like Pakistan. the royal family of UAE.
Mitigant:
Wateen has one of the most diversified, professional and experienced 15.8 Competition risk
teams in Pakistan. The members of the management team have the Competition in the telecom sector is fierce and this is evident from
relevant experience both in the local as well as international telecom the various marketing activities of the existing telecom operators in the
markets and have worked for premier organizations across the globe. country. With the entry of Orascom and Qtel into the broadband tele-
Wateen has the best quality resources in all functional areas therefore com market, competition has escalated to a new level.
management risk is minimized. Mitigant:
Furthermore, the management of Wateen has had the experience of Although Wateen is the first entrant in the wireless broadband sector in
establishing Warid telecom operations in Pakistan, which is a market Pakistan, the management of the company is fully aware of the competi-
with similar characteristics. It is anticipated that Wateen will have very tive pressures that might stem from the existing and potential operators.
few issues in adjusting to the business environment in Pakistan, as it The business plan for Wateen is based on realistic assumptions and
would be able to transfer best practices from past experience. sensitivities have been run. The projected market share has been set
On Wateen’s Board of Directors, there is a good representation of tele- based on the operations of the new entrant. Wateen plans to deliver
com sector experts who bring with them vast experience that will be innovative products and services based on an efficient distribution
beneficial to Wateen. Overall the sponsors also remain committed to system with excellent promotional activities. Customer satisfaction,
ensuring the success of the Company given that they have already which is the core to the success of the business, will be managed by
invested USD 35 million in equity and have committed to inject further providing the very best of customer services.
equity in the future. Furthermore, the management of Wateen has been involved in launch-
ing Warid Pakistan where the company has experienced phenomenal
15.6 Foreign exchange risk growth in a market which has many similarities to this segment. The
Wateen has arranged debt from a local syndicate of banks in paral- Wateen brand already has a recognizable recall in the market. Manage-
lel to the offshore facility. This debt is denominated in PKR whereas; ment is confident that, having sustained the competitive pressures in
the offshore facility is denominated in foreign currency i.e. USD. Given Pakistan’s cellular market, they have the experience to compete with
that majority of Wateen’s revenues will be in PKR, the operations of the other operators in the market.
Wateen are therefore highly vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations.  
Substantial depreciation of the PKR against USD may lead to cash flow 15.9 OPERATIONS RISK
constraints which may affect the Company’s ability to deliver desired The Company may face operational risks which arise from inadequate
objectives. or failed internal processes and systems, human factors, or from ex-
Mitigant: ternal events.
Wateen currently has a natural hedge given that revenues from inbound Mitigant:
LDI operations & VSAT are USD denominated and these currently con- The Company has stringent in-house business intelligence systems to
tribute approximately 50 percent of revenues. However, going forward ensure smooth operations, timely indications on the malfunctioning of
LDI contribution to total revenues will be significantly lower as rev- processes, human resource management, etc. In addition Wateen has
enues from expansions in WiMAX, FTT(x) and Channels businesses one of the most diversified, professional and experienced teams and
come into effect. would be able to introduce best practices. Through these measures
Wateen is fully aware of the prevailing currency risk associated with the Company is fit stand to safeguard its operations from internal and
its business in Pakistan. Several sensitivities have been run in the fi- external operational risks.
nancial model and currency rate variation has been assumed on the
conservative side. Wateen will also be evaluating the merits of derivate

55
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

16 Financial Overview

16.1 Consolidated Income statement(s) 16.2.1 Interim Balance sheet

All amounts are in 2005* 2006 2007 2008 2009 All amounts are in 2010*
PKR mn (except EPS) PKR mn (except EPS)
Revenue 14.6 2,793.8 4,448.3 9,289.1 16,184.8 Share Capital & Reserves 3,587
Gross Profit -31.8 1,081.5 1,721.7 4,054.4 5,238.1 Long Term Liabilities 11,547
Gross Margin -218 % 39 % 39 % 44 % 32 % Deferred Liabilities 1,170
Operating Profit -44.5 502.7 785.5 1,998.1 3,017.8 Current Liabilities 11,356
-305 % 18 % 18 % 22 % 19 % Total Shareholders’Equity & Liabilities 27,660
Finance cost - 15 165.9 204.7 568.4 Non-Current Assets 19,828
PAT -37.1 226.8 385.5 1,084.2 1,018.7 Long Term Investment in subsidiary companies 369
Net Margin - 8.1% 8.7% 11.7% 6.3% Current Assets 7,463
EPS -37.1 3.35 1.86 5.19 4.88 Total Assets 27,660
EPS net Mgt fee -37.1 1.81 2.91 7.22 4.88 *audited half yearly accounts for FY2010
*only 3 months in operation in FY2005
16.1.1 Interim Income Statement 16.3 Analysis of Financial statements (historic)
All amounts are in 2010* Wateen’s gain in net worth during 2009 was PKR 841 million,
PKR mn (except EPS) which increased the book value of the stock by 22 percent. Over
Revenue 4,915.6 the last four years, book value has grown from PKR 1,394 million
Gross Profit 865.9 to PKR 4,767 million, a rate of 29 percent compounded annually.
Gross Margin 18 % This growth has been the best in the telecommunication industry
Operating Profit -95.3 in Pakistan
Finance cost 963.7 Revenues during 2009 have witnessed a 74 percent growth over
PAT -1,215.3 last year, duly reflected in Return on Equity (ROE) which stands
Net Margin -24.7% at 165 percent till FY2009. EPS for 2009 is PKR 4.88 on an an-
EPS -2.91 nual compounded basis and suggests a growth rate of 63 per-
*audited half yearly accounts for FY2010 cent over the last four years. Year-on-year growth in operating
earnings has been reported at over PKR 1 billion in 2009. Since
16.2 Consolidated Balance Sheet(s) inception, the company has delivered profit, year after year.
All amounts are in 2005* 2006 2007 2008 2009
PKR mn 16.3.1 Top line; exhibiting staggering growth
Share Capital & Reserves 1,394 2,210 2,663 3,747 4,767 Top line of the Company surged to PKR 16.2 billion in FY2009
Long Term Liabilities 22 243 1,142 1,681 9,450 as compared to a modest PKR 2.8 billion during FY2006, mark-
Deferred Liabilities - 125 327 770 1,449 ing tremendous improvement at a 3 year Compounded Annual
Current Liabilities 906 1,880 4,000 9,352 10,622 Growth Rate (CAGR) of 79.6 percent. This turnaround in the top
Total Shareholders’ line was mainly on the back of exhilarating growth in the Long
Equity & Liabilities 2,322 4,458 8,132 15,550 26,289 Distance and International (LDI) segment of the Company that
Non-Current Assets 587 1,971 3,936 9,474 17,913 witnessed tremendous growth from 324,000 minutes to 1.3 bil-
Long Term Security Deposits lion minutes, taking the total revenue from the segment to PKR 6.5
and Deferred Cost 71 97 36 226 378 billion, constituting 42 percent of the total revenues in FY2009.
Current Assets 1,664 2,390 4,160 5,851 7,998
Total Assets 2,322 4,458 8,132 15,550 26,289 16.3.2 Cost of Sales
* Only 3 months in operation in FY2005 Cost of sales, on the other hand, increased in line with revenues

56
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
with major increase witnessed in the international outbound cost the period, taking total long term debt to equity at the end of
that surged to PKR 3.5 billion during FY2009 as compared to a FY2009 to 70 percent as compared to 34percent in FY2007.
modest amount of PKR 324 million in FY2006.
16.3.9 Asset growth
16.3.3 Gross Margin In order to maintain its leadership position in the market, the
Primary margin of the Company squeezed a bit during FY2009 to Company invested aggressively in its assets which jumped
32.4 percent down from 43.6 percent during FY2008, mainly due from PKR 3.9 billion in FY2007 to PKR 17.9 billion in FY2009,
to increase in cost of international outbound that rose to PKR 3.5 improving at CAGR of 114 percent during the past three years.
billion as compared to PKR 1 billion a year back due PTA’s deci- The main focus of the Company was network equipments in
sion to increase in Access Promotion Contribution (APC), marking which the Company invested PKR 3.7 billion and PKR 8.1 bil-
an out whelming increase of 238 percent during the year. As LDI lion in FY2008 and FY2009, respectively. This heavy invest-
constitutes the major chunk of the cost of sales that resulted in ment in the network equipment has been paying the Company
drop of more than 1200 basis points in gross margin. Despite the off, which is evident from above mentioned improvement in
cut in the gross margin, the Company managed to bag 35 percent net sales and eventually in the bottom line.
YoY growth in the gross profit from PKR 3.6 billion in FY2008 to
PKR 4.9 billion during FY2009. 16.4 Financial Overview (current year with future
outlook)
16.3.4 Operating expenses Wateen to date has had a phenomenal track record both op-
Operating expenses of the Company increased at a CAGR of erationally and financially and management has prepared a
54 percent during FY2007-09 period from PKR 936 million business plan in light of the current infrastructure deployed
to PKR 2,220 million, mainly on the back of a rise in salaries and prevailing market landscape over the foreseeable future.
and wages expense which increased from PKR 263 million in l Revenue for 08 / 09 stood at PKR 16 billion repre-
FY2007 to PKR 1,219 million during FY2009 as the Company sen ing a 74% year on year growth and cumulative rev-
strengthened its work force to penetrate the market. However, enue crossing PKR 32 billion over 4 years represent-
despite the contracting operating margin, the Company man- ing a 3 year growth of 479% which equates to 160%
aged growth at a CAGR of 95 percent from PKR 785.5 million per annum or 80% compounded annual growth rate;
during FY2007 to PKR 3,017 million. l Since inception, the company has delivered profits year
after year. Furthermore, Wateen has posted PKR 1 bil-
16.3.5 Finance Cost lion profit after tax for two consecutive years i.e. 07/08
Finance cost of the Company increased to PKR 568 million and 08/09. In addition to that profitability stands at an
during FY2009 from PKR 166 million during FY2007, marking average Gross Profit of 39%, Operating Profit (EBITDA)
CAGR of 85 percent, mainly on the back of 189 percent CAGR of 19% and profit after tax (PAT) of 9% over last 4 years
rise in the long term finance that increased from PKR 1,347 l Return on Equity of more than 165%, with an earnings per
million in FY2007 to PKR 11,255 million in FY2009. However, share (EPS) (including management fee proceeds) averaging
with interest rates in the economy cooling off, we expect fi- PKR 4.2 per annum over the last 4 years on a fully diluted basis
nance cost to lower soon. l Gain in net worth during 2009 totaled PKR 841 million,
which increased the book value of the stock by 22%. Over
16.3.6 Bottom line; tremendous turnaround the last four years, book value has grown from PKR 1.4
Bottom line of the Company witnessed astounding growth dur- billion to PKR 4.8 billion, at a growth rate of 29 percent
ing the last three years as the Company earned profit after tax compounded annually. ARCH-e’-decon a leading valuer in
of PKR 1,019 million during FY2009 as compared to a modest the telecom industry was engaged to assess the current
PKR 386 million during FY2007, marking an overwhelming value of Wateen’s key strategic assets, their independent
CAGR of 63 percent during the period. report suggested a replacement value of circa PKR 17.3
billion (current book value of these assets is PKR 1.64 bil-
16.3.7 Shareholders’ equity lion) translating into intrinsic value of PKR 52.5 per share
As a result of consistent growth in the bottom line, the Com- l Strategic vendor relationships, preferential pricing and
pany managed to increase the shareholders’ wealth. Over the vendor deferment of $75 million as a Greenfield project.
last four years, book value has grown from PKR 2,209 million Wateen has secured $108 million dollars as vendor fi-
to PKR 4,767 million, a rate of 29 percent compounded an- nancing through reputable organizations such as MCC
nually ($65 million) and ECGD ($43 million). Furthermore, the
Company secured local funding to the tune of PKR 14
16.3.8 Long term financing billion and short term facility of PKR 3.5 billion, repre-
Long term financing of the Company increased to PKR 11,255 senting confidence in Wateen and Wateen’s prospects
million at FY2009 as compared to PKR 1,347 million on
FY2007, marking an increase at CAGR of 189 percent during
* From PTA 2008-09, the total broadband market turns out to be around 550,000. Out of which Wateen’s share is 160,000.
57
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
This exemplary growth has been the best in the telecommuni- 131% 172% 89% 35% 15%
cation industry of Pakistan representing a strong and tested Managed Capacity 1,244 4,953 1,522 1,598 1,677
track record with even a more lucrative future ahead of it. By -73% 298% -69% 5% 5%
leveraging the current infrastructure / network Wateen believes
it can create significant shareholder value as the leading al- 16.4.3 LDI, VSAT & Solutions
ternative telecommunications provider of Pakistan. Wateen Growth in mature businesses comprising LDI, VSAT and Solu-
decided to list its shares after addressing the turmoil created tions is restricted to a compound average growth rate of a mere
by the International and Pakistan economies for the past 18 19% against an impressive historical growth of 56% and 84% for
months. It should be noted Wateen’s year end is 30th June LDI and VSAT. The solutions division was a recent addition and
and the current year 2010 relates to the 12 months ending 30th is showing a strong revenue contribution of approximately PKR
June 10 which is 7.5 month actual and 4.5 month forecast. 1 billion per annum.
As per PTA’s annual report for 2009, the LDI industry posted a
16.4.1 Revenue 119 percent growth in revenue. Wateen’s growth in traffic vol-
Wateen has shown consistent revenue growth to date with a com- umes has been significantly greater than the industry average,
pounded annual growth rate of 80%. With similar growth rate, particularly for its international outbound traffic which grew at
Wateen can launch new projects and believes it can achieve the 145 percent compared to 73 percent for the industry in 2009. A
targeted compound annual revenue growth rate 21% from 10 / 11 similar trend has been witnessed in VSAT, where Wateen has a
to 13 / 14 and other financial key performance indicators (KPI’s). tremendous advantage in being the larg¬est satellite bandwidth
provider in Pakistan enjoying over 65% market share (500+
MHz in commercial use). This gives Wateen enormous bargain-
ing power for securing the best possible rates for bandwidth to
maintain a leading position in market share. Additionally, a great
potential still lies in provision of International connectivity to
countries like Afghanistan, where a few telecom companies are
already using Wateen’s Satellite services
The current year 09 / 10 revenue decline was based on Wateen
working with many of its major wholesale customers in respect
of both deferment of some of the large projects to 10 / 11 and
short term discounts to assist them during the financial turmoil in
return for future business commitments to ensure a win-win situ-
16.4.2 2009 / 2010 Performance ation. Furthermore a major reduction in revenue was noted in the
Inflation, trade deficit, balance of payment, foreign exchange LDI business line due to the current APC regime and grey traffic.
reserves, circular debt, liquidity issues, irratic performance of This issue has been taken up with PTA to regulate this irregular
stocks as well as the Karachi Stock Exchange coupled with po- competitive practice and PTA has issued a notice for decrease in
litical instability have remained the key highlights of FYE2009. APC from 7.5 cents to 5.5 cents effective 20 July 2009. PTA and
Despite all of these and the international economic and finan- the industry are working together to implement the one country
cial crises, Wateen has shown resilience during this period. This one rate policy which will increase traffic, reduce grey / illegal
remarkable performance has been driven by one of the best routes and dramatically improve profits for all.
workforces in the telecommunication industry of Pakistan com- Wateen has shown (and will continue to show) resilience to the
plimented by an arsenal of a diversified product portfolio. international and local economic climate in these business lines.
The Company holds reputation of both over performing from Some the key contributors to further strengthen the revenues go-
budget and surpassing all industry expectations. Keeping the ing forward will include
economic climate in mind, Wateen’s Business Plan for the next l Most revenues are contracted in US $ denomination giving a
five years is based on a relatively conservative outlook of the natural year on year increase in PKR denominated revenues
market especially for FYE 2010 where a dip in revenues is pro- l Many contracts are frame 1 – 20 year term contracts
jected with a loss after tax. Moving forward, revenues for FYE with annual year on year price escalations of 10-15%
2011 are expected to grow at 80% to PKR 19 billion vs. PKR l Organic growth and current business opportuni-
10.7 billion in FYE 2010 and a modest growth of 19% vs. PKR 16 ties for natural growth of existing business lines
billion in FYE 2009. l Introduction of several additional product lines / revenues
09 / 10 10 / 11 11 / 12 12 / 13 13 / 14 streams like Transit for LDI, extending VSAT services to
Total Revenues 10,706 19,729 23,374 29,427 34,913 neighboring countries and hosted services under Solutions
-33% 84% 18% 26% 19% will further strengthen revenue growth in the years to come.
LDI, VSAT & Solutions 7,432 9,258 11,430 13,746 15,657
-29% 25% 23% 20% 14% 16.4.4 Broadband
Broadband 2,030 5,517 10,422 14,083 17,597 Phenomenal growth has been witnessed so far, where monthly
* Wateen in-house research puts the total data connectivity market around 18,000 links
58
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
sales hovered around 20,000 per month against an industry av- 1. As highlighted earlier that 09/10 was year Wateen grew its
erage of around 30,000 suggesting over 65% share in the pie infrastructure e.g. 4,500 KMs and 10/11 will be the year to
depleting Wateen’s stocks. Forecast for the period is based on monetize what we built
the fact that Pakistan’s overall broadband market, driving these 2. Revenues realized from the IRU of 3 pair out of 12 on 5,500
product lines, is undergoing exponential growth; the mar¬ket KMs was $ 96 million. Suggesting a huge potential exists
has grown by 146 percent in 2009 and at the same time, Wateen through the sale of the remaining pairs or capitalizing on the
has grown by 346 percent attaining a market share of 29 percent additional length deployed
and 65 percent plus market share in the wireless broadband mar- 3. ARCH-e’-decon a leading valuer in the telecom industry was
ket. As per PTA, the market is going to grow to nearly 5 million engaged to assess the current value of Wateen’s fiber optic
subscribers by 2014. network, their independent report suggested a replacement
This revenue is further supported by several value added ser- value of circa PKR 13.5 billion against a book value (record-
vices such as Wateen’s gaming service is the second largest ed at cost) of about PKR 1.45 billion
gam¬ing portal in Pakistan with more than 12,000 registered 4. New business opportunities like telehousing, powering 3G
members acquired in only 3 months. At present, Wateen has one networks, extending fiber to the neighboring countries, offer
of the top 20 sites in Pakistan and a partnership with Getmo; an redundancy to the other fiber network operations are to name
online distribution company of Sony BMG group. Wateen’s origi- a few which are yet to be capitalized
nal content portals, coupled with captive audience of Wateen’s 5. Wateen has also been granted a subsidy by USF amounting
customer base will quickly make Wateen portal one of the top 5 to approx. PKR 1.81 billion for OFC expansion of 2,672 km in
sites, thereby bringing huge online advertising revenue even with Baluchistan and Sindh.
a modest market share of 5 percent. On the profitability side, as the aforementioned table suggests
Wateen’s revenue run rate in Jul 09 was PKR 96 million (annual- that gross margins historically and forecasted are fairly stable
ized revenue of PKR 1.15 billion). For February 10 the revenue having an average gross profit margin 44% over ten years. A dip
for the same is expected at PKR 173 million (annualized revenue in profit after tax is observed in 09 / 10 due to the following:
of PKR 2.1 billion) and for Jun 10 based on current track record 1. Revenue decline in 09 / 10 due to
Wateen will surpass a monthly revenue of PKR 300 million (an- i. time to deploy new networks
nualized of PKR 3.6 billion). Based this track record Wateen has ii. deferment of projects and support for major wholesale
already achieved a 8 month growth in revenue of 80%+ which on clients
an annual basis is 120%+. This puts Wateen in a very strong po- iii. APC regime realignment
sition to hit the 10 / 11 target revenue of PKR 4.9 billion (monthly 2. Pre launch / launch costs of WiMAX / Broadband. Not only
average of PKR 400 million) which is only a 33% growth from has Wateen supported the entire network rollout and opera-
June 10 revenue forecast. Additionally, new CPE’s for WiMAX are tions during this period but also seen CPE prices start from
forecasted to cost as low as $50 to $70 as result of extensive $200+ and now $50 to $70 for future CPE’s as a result
vendor selection and negotiations as well as economies of scale. of extensive vendor selection and negotiations as well as
Moreover, Wateen has been granted a subsidy by USF amounting economies of scale
to approx. PKR 1.12 billion for 4 telecom regions and 102,250 3. Increase in finance cost due to the tight monetary policy be-
additional customers. ing practiced by the central bank since 2008 took its due
share from the profit after tax. Profits will soar to as low as
16.4.5 Fiber network - OFC -19% in FYE 2010 due to the operational cost for WiMAX and
Wateen’s revenue in managed capacity was PKR 3.9 billion and depreciation that will start yielding results in years to come.
PKR 4.9 billion for 07 / 08 and 08 / 09, respectively. During 09 Furthermore, due to diversified portfolio that ranges from re-
/ 10 the optical fiber network of the Company grew from 5,000 tail to wholesale, this loss is restricted to one year only vs.
km to around 10,000 km suggesting that by FYE 2011 Wateen loss spanning over three to four years for companies having
shall reap the benefits of deploying additional 5,000 km during single line of business.
the period and is expecting a windfall payment of PKR 2.2 billion Operating margins (ebitda margins) follows a steady trend and
through the sale of dark fiber to the neighboring countries and hovers around 32% as the broadband starts maturing. In 2012
some strategic customers - with successful dark fiber and lamb- operating margins declines to 28% vs. 32% in the preceding year
da deals as a first by Wateen, it will be uniquely positioned to be due to the fact that revenue contribution from OFC will drop to 7%
an ideal choice for such requirements. With most of the growth vs. 25% of total revenue in FYE 2011.
in infra¬structure coming through a subsidy from USF, Wateen Operational cost for WiMAX, dip in revenues, drop in revenue
will have the second largest, if not the largest OFC network in contribution from OFC to the total revenues, short term discounts
Pakistan. The roll-out along almost all of the national highways and support to the major wholesale customers to assist them
will make it an ideal choice for operators to shift onto dark fiber during the financial turmoil in return for future business commit-
for backhauling from existing microwave media which is com- ments are the variables that can be classified as reasons for lower
paratively less reliable. Following are some more comments on operating profits in FYE 2010. Despite the international economic
this segment of the business: and financial crises Wateen is on the trajectory of posting operat-

59
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
ing profits by FYE 2010. Wateen has grown by 346 percent attaining a market share of
In summary Wateen’s management believes the business plan is 29 percent* and 65 percent plus market share in the wireless
a highly achievable plan given the current infrastructure deployed broadband market. As per PTA, the market is going to grow to
by the Company, the current market landscape, industry / com- nearly 5 million subscribers by 2014. With traditional broadband
petitor backdrop and Managements track record. technologies based on copper facing challenges due to aging and
  poor quality, the growth in broadband will be led by Wireless and
16.4.6 forecasted income statements optical fibre (HFC/Fiber) based technologies which will ensure
PKR mn 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 5 Year a healthy growth in market share by Wateen. Due to this, the
Revenue 10,745 19,729 23,374 29,390 34,865 118,104 WiMAX segment has promising potential of generating revenue at
Growth 83.6% 18.5% 25.7% 18.6% a CAGR of 80 percent in the five year period starting 2009 from
Gross Profit / (Loss) 3,750 9,899 10,469 13,686 16,476 54,280 PKR 0.7 billion to PKR 14.1 billion by 2014.
Gross Profit / (Loss) % 34.9% 50.2% 44.8% 46.6% 47.3% 46.0% On the profitability side, Wateen has considerable competitive ad-
Ebitda 30 6,332 6,450 9,173 11,511 33,496 vantages which will ensure long term sustainability of better than
Ebitda Ratio 0.3% 32.1% 27.6% 31.2% 33.0% 28.4% industry EBITDA and net profitability. By having its own metro
Ebt (3,364) 2,001 2,488 5,486 8,136 14,747 fiber, FTT(X) and long haul network (revenue centers, as opposed
Ebt ratio -31.3% 10.1% 10.6% 18.7% 23.3% 12.5% to cost centers), Wateen has virtually no media costs compared
Eat (2,071) 1,301 1,617 3,566 5,290 9,703 to competition. Similarly, site sharing arrangements with Warid
Eat ratio -19.3% 6.6% 6.9% 12.1% 15.2% 8.2% at fractional costs compared to other wireless access providers
EPS -2.7 1.7 2.1 4.6 6.9 ensure considerable reduction in OPEX. In addition, presence in
Dividend 2,302 3,070 22 cities with the highest on-air WiMAX site count and comple-
Dividend per share 3.00 4.00 mentary product lines (voice, Internet, data, and VAS) provide
Wateen both economies of scale and scope enjoyed by none
16.4.7 Profitability margins other. However, pressure on EBITDA margin shall be felt till 2010
Wateen is expected to strengthen its margins from FY2011 on- due to heavy subscriber acquisition that is expected to be re-
wards as the Company is expected to achieve staggering top line leased thereafter. Margins are therefore expected to hover around
growth. With a business model where sales play the major role in 46 percent by 2014, which is 2 percent to 5 percent higher than
shaping the profitability as fixed cost is reduced dramatically, the the industry average.
effect of an increase in the top line is expected to reach right to On VAS side, Wateen has a price advantage over GSM operators
the bottom, improving margins considerably. because of asymmetric termination rates on voice. SMS services
with low cost of installation will be able to add incremental rev-
FY2010E FY2011F FY2012F FY2013F FY2014F enues. In addition, Wateen’s gaming is the second largest gam-
Gross profit 34.9% 50.2% 44.8% 46.6% 47.3% ing portal in Pakistan with more than 12,000 registered members
EBITDA 0.3% 32.1% 27.6% 31.2% 33.0% in just 3 months. With the exponential increase in gaming cus-
EBIT -31.3% 10.1% 10.6% 18.7% 23.3% tomers, the largest library of games in different genres and 24/7
Net margin -19% 7% 7% 12% 15% support the customer traffic is expected to increase dramatically.
Similarly, the current online advertizing market in Pakistan is es-
16.4.8 Debt servicing capacity timated to be over US$10 million. At present, Wateen is one of
Debt paying ability of the Company is likely to strengthen going the top 20 sites in Pakistan. Our original content portals, coupled
forward as the operating profit of the Company is likely to im- with captive audience of Wateen’s customer base will quickly
prove, keeping interest coverage in the comfortable zone. make Wateen portal one of the top 5 sites, thereby bringing huge
online advertising revenue even with a modest market share of
FY2010E FY2011F FY2012F FY2013F FY2014F 5 percent.
Interest Coverage 0.02x 2.83x 3.45x 6.34x 11.41x To complement WiMAX, metro fiber and GPON platforms have
been rolled-out in selective areas throughout larger cities to cater
16.5 financial overview (forecast) for growing bandwidth needs in the enterprise market. In a short
Wateen’s Business Plan for the next 5 years is based on a rel- span of 2 years, Wateen already has 26 out of 31 commercial
atively conservative outlook of the market. By segmenting the banks on board for data connectivity (70 percent). As businesses
market in terms of wholesale versus retail, we can have an in- are getting more reliant on Information technology for everyday
sight into the growth potential for a TMT company such as Wa- operations, applications are getting more bandwidth hungry and
teen ideally positioned to ride future growth wave. the need for a one-window and reliable service model has in-
Retail creased substantially. Wateen’s current market share in this end
On the retail side, Wateen’s business includes the WiMAX, FTT(X) of the market is estimated at 17 percent. As broadband prolif-
and VAS platforms. Pakistan’s overall broadband market, driving erates in this market for data connectivity* (banks are already
these product lines, is undergoing exponential growth; the mar- upgrading their infrastructures from legacy dial-up and DXX to
ket has grown by 146 percent in 2009 and at the same time, broadband), Wateen is ready to reap the benefits of its timely in-

60
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
vestments in infrastructure to capitalize on first mover advantage ponential growth as Wateen makes terrestrial interconnects with
and its unique position in the market as a one-stop shop. With Afghanistan, Iran and India. In addition, as large government,
these steps, Wateen’s growth in market share will not only be defense and private organizations upgrade their infrastructures
fueled by customer churn to Wateen, but also overall adoption of and move on to a paradigm where distributed applications are
broadband in place of legacy systems. Furthermore, year on year serving business needs and the importance of transport media
reduction in ARPU already budgeted will ensure Wateen does not outgrows currently available capacities on the market, lambdas
become uncompetitive in the market. will increasingly become popular. With successful dark fiber and
Wholesale lambda deals as a first by Wateen, it will be uniquely positioned
LDI to be an ideal choice for such requirements.
On the wholesale side, Wateen’s business includes LDI, Man- The current projected business plan for Managed Capacity is
aged Capacity (on OFC and VSAT), and System Integration therefore based on a very conservative outlook where the rev-
product lines. The recent growth in the Pakistani LDI sector has enue is expected to decline at a negative growth rate from PKR
been consistently strong. As per PTA’s annual report for 2009, 4.6 billion in FY2009 to PKR 1.7 billion in FY2014. Compounded
the industry boasted a 119 percent revenue growth. Wateen’s growth is not the best predicator of revenue performance for this
growth in traffic volumes has been significantly greater than the business segment since revenue is expected to peak in FY2012
industry average, particularly for its international outbound traffic where it is projected at PKR 4.9 billion. This will be in synch with
which grew at 145 percent as compared to the 73 percent for the completion of fiber deployments under USF expansion.
industry. Despite a temporary flux in the market owing to the one- Managed Capacity (VSAT)
off readjustment in the exchange rate, PTA predicts this growth to On VSAT, Wateen has a tremendous advantage in being the larg-
remain strong over the coming years due to its ‘concerted efforts est satellite bandwidth consumer in Pakistan. This gives Wateen
to curb grey traffic’. enormous bargaining power in securing the best possible rates
LDI revenues are therefore expected to grow at a CAGR of 5 per- for bandwidth. Since bandwidth prices have been consistently
cent in the period 2009 to 2014 from PKR 7.8 billion in FY2009 rising over the last few years due to DTH operators in the re-
to PKR 9.9 billion in FY2014. After achieving the high of PKR 7.8 gion, Wateen has and will have a cost advantage over others,
billion in FY2009, LDI revenues are expected to surpass this fig- which will make it an extremely profitable platform. Additionally,
ure in FY2013 where revenue for the year is projected at PKR 8.7 a great potential still lies in provision of International connectivity
billion and growing to PKR 9.9 billion in FY2014. Growth in gross to countries like Afghanistan, where some telecom companies
profit and EBITDA is projected at a CAGR of 9 percent and 15 are already using Wateen’s Satellite services.
percent, respectively for the corresponding period. Gross profit With such positioning, revenue from VSAT is expected to grow at
and EBITDA margins remain within the range of 11 percent - 13 a CAGR of 15 percent from PKR 1.7 billion in FY2009 to PKR 3.4
percent and 7 percent - 12 percent in the period 2009 to 2014. billion in FY2014. Gross profit and EBITDA in the corresponding
MoU’s are only projected to decline in FY2010 from 1.2 billion in period also projected to grow at a decent CAGR of 27 percent and
FY2009 to 1.1 billion and then experience a year on year growth 33 percent, respectively. The gross profit margin remains within
reaching the mark of 2 billion by 2014 at a CAGR of 11 percent. the modest range of 29 percent - 38 percent while the EBITDA
Wateen is collaborating with the rest of the LDI industry to sta- margin increases from 17 percent in FY2009 to 35 percent in
bilize the rates and further improve profitability of the market. FY2014.
According to industry experts, this will inevitably allow the opera- System Integration
tors to charge higher rates and return to the significantly higher As the largest system integrator in Pakistan; Wateen has the ex-
EBITDA of yester-years, by squeezing out illegal operators. Pres- perience as well as the technical capabilities for small network
ently, Wateen has a robust network and is currently operating at upgrades to building multimillion dollar data centers. Glob-
excess capacity and with its relations to the leading LDI operators ally, both premises and hosted solutions are seeing exponential
in the world; it is uniquely placed in the sector to gain the most growths. Value Added Reselling was responsible for over $600
from the promising market prospects. billion dollar business last year. With 2000+ service providers
Managed Capacity (OFC) & enterprises and 350,000+ SMEs; the potential for growth is
Managed Capacity is a cash cow for Wateen since any increase huge in Pakistan. Also, the margins in this business are not just
in revenue directly hits the bottom line as evident from the high dependent on first sale; but also on services and Warranties
EBITDA margin which ranges from 35 percent - 81 percent for which are a big strength of the Wateen solutions team.
the period 2009 to 2014. Wateen’s total OFC footprint will span Cloud computing is called the future of business and Wateen with
10,500+ kilometers of fiber. With most of the growth in infra- the only Tier-2 data centre in the country has the infrastructure
structure coming through USF at subsidy, Wateen will have the to provide low capx low opex managed solutions. With our large
second largest, if not the largest OFC network in Pakistan. The nationwide infrastructure and established relationships; these
roll-out along highways will make it an ideal choice for GSM solutions have generated a great interested and at present we
operators to shift onto dark fiber for backhauling from existing are expanding our data centre capacity to coup with maturing
microwave media which is comparatively less reliable. Along- demand. With minimal incremental cost; hosted business is just
side, revenue from IP Transit and IPLC business will undergo ex- short of pure margin and continues long-term revenue stream

61
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
for Wateen. improve the quality of service of the existing operators. Also, as
With this potential, VAR and HS are expected to generate steady part of its aggressive infrastructure development plans, the Com-
revenue streams over the five year period 2009 to 2014 together pany plans on connecting neighboring countries over Optic Fiber
posting year on year growth of 22 percent and a CAGR of 28 Cable networks.
percent taking the revenue from PKR 1.1 billion in FY2009 to
PKR 2.3 billion in FY2014. EBITDA is projected to grow at an 16.6 FINANCIAL OVERVIEW (SYNOPSIS)
even steeper rate of 36 percent compounded annually over the In summary the main points covered in this note are
corresponding period. EBITDA margin remains within the range l Current year revenue shortfall is mainly attributable to
of 13 percent - 21 percent. l Deferment of projects and special discounts given to major
customers due to change in economic climate and cash con-
16.5.1 Future prospects straints during 09 / 10 which we see reversing in 10 / 11
Wateen aims to be perceived not only as a telecommunications l 09 / 10 was the year of expansion for Wateen growing its
operator but also as a universal provider of comprehensive com- OFC network from 5,000 km to 10,000 km and launch of
munications services for both residential and business custom- Wateen’s WiMAX / Broadband network with revenues com-
ers. Wateen Telecom’s corporate identity seeks to help custom- ing in the following year (s)
ers keep pace with rapidly changing technology in the field of l Even though Wateen is forecasting a 35% gross profit margin
communication. in 09 / 10, profit after tax is negative, mainly attributable to
Wateen is planning to invest with the objective of providing qual- l Above revenue impacts
ity, reliability and affordability in telecom services, thus becoming l Change in Interest Rates and Foreign Exchange Impact
a dependable ‘Carrier’s Carrier’ and fulfilling varied communica- l 09 / 10 saw the launch of WiMAX / Broadband and expan-
tion needs of a wide spectrum of customers including but not sion of networks. Pre launch / launch costs and deprecia-
limited to: tion charges impacted the bottom line
l Existing telecom operators (including cellular operators, local l The future business plan till 13 / 14 have the following main
loop service providers, fixed-line operators and LDI opera- assumptions
tors) l Compound annual growth rate in revenue of 19% which is
l Other Media, Communication and Technology companies well below historic performance and industry forecasts
(Cable-TV operators, ISPs, Hosting Service providers etc.) l Long Term profit margins of: Gross Profit margin of 47%,
l End customers (MNCs, large local enterprises, SME’s, Operating Profit (EBITDA) of 33% and profit after tax margin
banks, call centers, individuals etc.) of 15% in line with Wateen’s product mix
Wateen plans to build a complete infrastructure comprising (Lo-
cal Loop Services (Wireless/Wireline), National Transmission
Network (Optic Fiber), DWDM Network, Metro Fiber Rings) to
provide end to end telecom services. This state-of-the-art infra-
structure will allow Wateen to provide ‘standard’ services as well
as ‘future’ broadband services which other existing operators will
not be able to offer due to capacity limitations, third party depen-
dency and legacy technology.
In this emerging era of telecommunications, Wateen’s Long-
haul Optical Fiber Transmission Network will play a key role to
overcome bandwidth limitations of domestic and international
market by providing Quality of Service to the fullest satisfaction
of its voice and data customers. This backbone will provide an
infrastructure platform for Wateen’s IP/MPLS based LDI & WLL
networks by providing them 10Gbps transparent channels. More-
over, the network will be capable of providing redundant media to
call centers, DNOPs, and software houses.
Within the major cities of Pakistan and connecting to the long
haul fiber optic backbone, Wateen has a metro fiber optic net-
work spanning over 1,700 KM which will be extended to other
cities subject to commercial viability, thus providing widespread
coverage and penetration. Wateen Metro Project would be instru-
mental in overcoming the telecom frequency/bandwidth limita-
tions currently being experienced by existing operators who have
no option but to use microwave transmission of aggregated
traffic. Metro Area Networks are thus expected to substantially

62
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

17 Annexure A [Pakistan telecom sector overview]

17.1 Growth of telecom sector in Pakistan
Despite slow down in economy, telecom sector continued to
grow positively in terms of subscription, revenue and teleden-
sity. However most of the operators took cost cutting measures
including optimization of human resources, cut in employees’
perks and freezing employment temporarily to avoid negative
impact of economic slowdown on the sector. Teledensity of the
country jumped to 62 percent in 2008-09 showing a growth of
over 5 percent over the previous year. During the year 2008-09
the sector’s financial health could not be improved in accordance
with the expectations owing to heavy taxes and falling exchange 17.2 Mobile sector
rates, which placed unprecedented burden on the operators’ im- Pakistan mobile market hosts some of the world’s largest and
port bills. Despite these difficulties, the sectors revenue grew by most experienced telecom companies including Orascom, Tele-
19 percent in 2008-09 which pose confidence in Government nor (Norway), Warid Telecom (Abu Dhabi Group), China Mobile
and regulators’ policies. Due to new emerging services, opera- and Etisalat, a UAE based company. These companies have
tors continued making investment in infrastructure expansion. heavily invested in Pakistan to lay down the infrastructure and
Among cellular mobile operators, Ufone was the only operator take mobile services to every nook and corner of the country.
reporting a profit while the rest landed with negative earnings. With the encouragement of Government of Pakistan and best ef-
The leading mobile operator, Mobilink slipped from green to red forts by the regulator as well as the determined mobile operators,
in earnings because of the falling exchange rate and rapid drop in the sector has recovered from slow growth of past few months.
the subscribers’ base. Nonetheless, there is escalation in mobile penetration up to 57.4
A dismal situation in fixed line penetration is the major area of percent, as the total mobile subscribers have reached to 94.3
concern for the policy makers and the regulator in Pakistan. Af- million, with more than 90 percent of the country having mobile
ter issuing a number of licenses to the fixed line operators, the service access.
regulator believed that the market forces would play their due As for competitive environment in the sector, there is intense
roll for its expansion, but unfortunately, this could not happen. competition among all 5 operators. Since the market shares of
Unlike the expectations, most of the fixed line operators could all the operators have marginal difference and the gap between
not roll out the infrastructure maintaining the incumbent operator the market leader (Mobilink) and the rest of the operators is rap-
still the dominant player with its old copper based infrastructure idly narrowing, the companies are now getting into a price war,
a main hurdle in the sector’s growth. It was also expected that a whereby undercutting each other for Voice and SMS services is
rapid roll out by wireless technology (WLL) would compensate resulting into higher financial burden on the companies. The op-
the declining fixed line penetration, which too did not happen due erators have come to launch a range of value added services like
to lack of investment by WLL operators. Furthermore, the WLL Mobile banking, Mobile Internet, Music Library, Utility Bills Pay-
operators like Wateen and wi-tribe have smartly diverted their ment, Stock Market Updates, Voice Messaging, GPRS services,
resources to Broadband expansion in 3.5 GHz and invested on etc. that would help industry to improve ARPUs.
new technology like WiMax. This too caused slow growth in the Mobile operators kept on expanding their service areas, and new
fixed line sector. Issues like Right of way and lack of unbundling subscribers also continued to join the networks. Today, the total
also proved as major hurdles in the fixed line sector’s growth. mobile penetration stands at 58.2 percent, showing a growth of
A huge investment is required to roll out new generation of fiber 6.4 percent this year. As the companies had been aggressively
networks in Pakistan. expanding their networks and offering attractive packages during
This gives a major opportunity to large scale investors to secure the past two years, the average growth remained more than 50
their investments in Pakistan in this segment of the industry. percent. In the reported period, however, international financial
turmoil and saturation in metropolitan areas caused less increase

63
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
in penetration. Nevertheless, if the mobile penetration in Pakistan Decrease in VAS share in the total revenue of telecom services
is compared to that of the regional countries including India, Sri was primarily due to VAS facilities, now being offered by WLL
Lanka and Bangladesh, Pakistan remains far ahead of them. and Mobile operators as well e.g. Internet.
PTCL still maintains its virtual monopoly in the fixed line sector
Cell Sites by Operator
2006-07 2007-08 1008-09 despite introduction of many new FLL companies. Huge invest-
Mobilink 5,522 7,339 7,903 ments are underway for fiber deployment in rural areas of Paki-
Ufone 1,644 3,471 4,893 stan. In contrast, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) has been able to
Instaphone 211 211 211 make its mark on the telecom industry by winning the customers’
Zong 1,163 2,328 6,688 trust. Wireless service providers such as PTCL, Worldcall and
Telenor 3,255 5,017 6,088 Telecard have been able to penetrate into the market by offer-
Warid 1,930 3,152 4,341 ing viable business solutions in the form of PCOs. With a small
Total 13,725 21,518 28,124 investment and a suitable place, any common man could buy a
Intense competition, minimum tariffs and reduced investments wireless PCO and start business especially in rural areas where
by the operators could have resulted into less network expansion cellular revolution is yet to make a mark. Although WLL revenue
in the country; however, contrary to that, all the operators con- share is the smallest in the basic services chart, it is a major
tinued to increase the number of cell sites and extend coverage contributor in the overall local loop subscriber base. With strong
across the country. Although there were some areas in the NWFP focus of companies on triple play services, the basic services
and Balochistan almost prohibited for the operators to install their will hopefully grow over time, especially in rural areas.
BTS, but the companies quite courageously kept on increasing Long Distance & International (LDI) operators have been in
their cell sites by sending their vendors to install BTS in high risk quandary for the last few years due to high settlement rates
areas for the provision of telecom services to the locals of those and alarmingly high grey traffic. However, PTA took control of
areas. By the end of the reported year, there were 28,124 cell the situation initiating a number of steps in close coordination
sites in the country, while the previous year, the number stood with LDI stakeholders. As a result, LDI sector experienced truly
at 21,518, thus showing a growth of 31 percent. Mobilink has exceptional growth last year, as revenues increased, illegal traffic
maximum cell sites (7,903), followed by Telenor having 6,088 reduced and call rates improved. During 2008-09, revenue share
cell sites all across the country. In a short span of time, Zong of LDI in basic services jumped to 39 percent as compared to the
has erected 4,341 cell sites. With a strong encouragement by last year’s 23 percent. The project of Deployment of Monitoring
the PTA, the operators have now started sharing the cell sites, & Reconciliation of International Telephony Traffic (M&RITT) has
which helped the operators to install maximum cell sites during streamlined the traffic record, billing and detection/ blocking of
this period, ending up at 7,903 cell sites erected in a year’s time, illegal IPs which had a huge influence in increasing the traffic
followed by Telenor (6,088) and Ufone (4,893). volumes on LDI networks.

17.3 Fixed Line sector 17.4 Wireless Local Loop

The figure below shows that Fixed Local Loop lost its stake in Wireless local loop is an important part of Pakistan’s telecom
total basic services revenue by 14 percent this year, whereas LDI sector as it provides a feasible last mile solution for rural tele-
increased its share by 16 percent. Comparing to that of 2007-08, phony due to relatively low cost of deployment and maintenance.
WLL market share slightly increased from 7 percent to 8 percent, Pakistan opened the WLL market in 2003 by awarding 93 licens-
while VAS decreased from 8 percent to 7 percent. es to 16 operators for 14 telecom regions across the country.

64
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

The emergence of new operators has proved as an important previous year to 189 for new installations of DVCom and expan-
factor development of WLL sector, as they are pushing the ex- sions by Multinet, wi-tribe and 4B Gentle. Most of the companies
isting giants like PTCL, Worldcall and Telecard to improve their have met the license condition of 14 POP’s with Worldcall having
coverage and service standards. The falling quality of fixed line 24 POP’s.
services is also paving the way for wireless solutions to capture The LDI operators carried a record amount of international traffic
the local loop market. Prepaid billing, SMS, wireless internet and to and from Pakistan during 2008-09. Total international traffic
variety of handsets are the main advantages of WLL companies (incoming and outgoing) reached 8.9 billion minutes in the year,
as rural subscribers can enjoy these services as a viable alter- which is 25 percent more than that of the last year.
native to fixed line services, which still lag behind in terms of International Outgoing traffic increased by 73 percent from last
rural penetration. Currently, 9 WLL operators are providing ser- year and a total of 2.9 billion minutes were originated from local
vices to over 11,669 cities/towns/villages including AJK & NAs. networks. All operational LDI companies showed positive growth
WLL is a big success, especially in rural areas where PCO is in 2008-09. PTCL achieved a remarkable growth rate of 145 per-
the easiest and cheapest way to start a business. Companies cent adding almost 600 million more minutes this year. wi-tribe,
like PTCL, Telecard, Worldcall and PTCL have established their Wateen and 4BGentel indicated significant growth rates of 189
mark as major players in WLL market with Wateen, GreatBear, percent, 145 percent and 109 percent respectively. In terms of
Link Direct and MyTel gearing up to stage a tough competition market share of new LDI operators in total international outgoing
in the coming years. Wateen has launched its wireless business traffic, Wateen, LinkDirect, wi-tribe and 4B Gentel were the major
with strong marketing campaigns and attractive tariffs for triple players with a combined share of 81 percent.
play services. The incoming traffic to Pakistan stabilized due to massive crack-
down against illegal operators across the country, and a steady
17.5 Long Distance & International (LDI) rise is expected in the coming quarters in this regard. Figure–28
LDI is an essential component of Pakistan’s telecom structure as shows volume of total international incoming traffic terminated
it has the responsibility of providing affordable and reliable media on fixed and mobile networks during 2008-09. Total international
for worldwide telecom access. During the telecom sector’s liber- incoming traffic reached 6 billion minutes, as compared to 5.5
alization in Pakistan, 14 LDI operators were awarded licenses to billion minutes in 2007-08. This shows growth of 9 percent in
carry international traffic to and from Pakistan. It was expected 2008-09,which is negligible when compared to 163 percent
that LDI market would flourish because of a large number of Paki- growth of 2007-08. Deployment of monitoring facility at PTA re-
stani nationals working abroad, there would be a heavy traffic duced the illegal traffic to a considerable extent this year but the
from the countries like Saudi Arabia, the UK, the USA, Europe high settlement rate balanced out the positive effects of reduc-
and Middle East and the offshore IT business would also grow tion in gray traffic. Therefore, the overall incoming traffic volumes
with availability of reliable media on cheap rates; however, high
competition, deteriorating economic conditions and illegal traffic
hampered the growth of this important sector. PTA took notice of
the situation closely working with LDI operators to improve the
scenario. The Authority launched “Monitoring and Reconciliation
of International Telephony Traffic (M&RITT)” facility, which could
automatically detect IP addresses involved in illegal termination
and also block them. These initiatives combined with the PTA’s
successful raids against illegal operators all around Pakistan
gave a new life to the LDI sector as revenues and traffic volumes
reached a record high this year. Currently, there are 09 compa-
nies providing LDI services via 163 Points of Presence (POP’s)
all across Pakistan. The POP’s have increased from 178 in the

65
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
were kept at bay. PTCL leads the share in traffic by a clear margin vice. Another benefit of this competition has been the reduction
in both mobile and fixed line termination of incoming traffic while of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) charges which shall be a
World Call and Wateen proved to be leaders among new LDI huge factor in wireless broadband proliferation in Pakistan.
operators. Telecard and wi-tribe are also emerging as important
players in the total international incoming LDI market. 17.6.2 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
DSL is a family of technologies that provide digital data transmis-
17.6 Broadband Internet sion over the wires of a local telephone network. It is a powerful
It is estimated that there are approximately 19 million internet tool for fast information transmission; however, its popularity is
users in the country. PTA estimates that by end of 2013 there will highly dependent on the quality of wire line infrastructure in the
be 4.35million broadband subscribers in Pakistan. Pakistan has country. Poor QoS standards and customer services are hamper-
been experiencing astounding proliferation of broadband in the ing the growth of DSL and clearing the way for other technolo-
past two years. Broadband subscriber base grew by 146 percent gies.
adding 245,727 subscribers during 2008-09. There are currently In accordance with the global trend, DSL leads the market share
413,809 broadband subscribers in Pakistan as compared to of Pakistan as well. Out of 413,809 total subscribers, DSL has
168,082 in June, 2008. PTCL, Wateen and WorldCall are major a colossal 64 percent market share with 262,661 subscribers.
players in the Broadband market of Pakistan having a combined The main reason for this enormous success rate is due to PTCL’s
share of over 79 percent. PTCL leads the race by adding almost domination in fixed line service. DSL technology has been offered
148,000 DSL subscribers showing 248 percent growth rate in by PTCL for a long time and more than 76 percent of DSL sub-
the previous year. Although Wateen added 46,804 subscribers scribers belong to PTCL. Link dot net and Worldcall are catching
in the previous year, its growth rate is almost similar to PTCL up by offering affordable tariffs and attractive packages.
which proves the success of wireless broadband technologies.
This growth trend depicts the fierce competition among the DSL 17.6.3 Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC)
and wireless technologies which is a healthy sign for broadband HFC is a telecommunication technology being utilized mostly by
proliferation in the country. With the expansion of fixed line and CableTV providers. It allows optical fiber cable and coaxial cable
wireless technologies, it is believed that the broadband penetra- to be used in different portions of a network to carry broadband
tion levels of Pakistan will increase over time as well. An estimate content, such as video, data and voice. HFC share has been
by Business Monitor International reveals that Pakistan’s broad- declining over the past years due to introduction of better tech-
band subscribers will reach up to 21 million by end of 2013. nologies like WiMAX, EvDO, FTTx and no significant competition
in the market. HFC holds a 9 percent share in the broadband
17.6.1 Broadband Penetration market as compared to 25 percent in the 2007-08. Worldcall has
Broadband is still an emerging technology rather than an estab- been major the player in CableTV with almost 30,000 subscrib-
lished industry in Pakistan, therefore, its penetration level is very ers while Wateen also jumped in with its own HFC network and
low. Currently, Pakistan stands at only 0.26 percent in terms of added 6,562 subscribers till June 2009.
broadband penetration. It may seem a negligible number but it
is encouraging to see that the broadband adoption rate is rising 17.7 Telecom Sector Investments
exponentially. The reasons for low penetration include the focus Owing to economic slowdown, saturation in the market and
of operators on big cities rather than rural areas, low literacy rate, global financial crisis, the total investment in the telecom sector
lack of local content and applications and deteriorating standards during 2008-09 reduced by nearly 47 percent. Despite the fact
of fixed line parameters. PTCL owns the biggest broadband cov- that the operators have speedily rolled out their infrastructure,
erage area with DSL available in more than 167 cities. Resultantly, reaching out to most of the population, there still remains huge
PTCL has the highest share in broadband market. It is imperative areas like Broadband, WLL and manufacturing etc, where invest-
from this example of PTCL that broadband penetration is directly ment opportunities exist. During the current year, a total of US$
related to the network expansion of broadband operators. The 1.6 billion worth of investment has been made by all the opera-
more the coverage, the higher the penetration level. tors, of which the cellular mobile share is about 75 percent. The
Broadband companies are investing heavily in product marketing WLL has marginally increased investment from US$ 52.8 million
and promotional campaigns to attract more customers. Broad- in 2007-08 to US$ 82.11 million in 2008-09. However, the rest of
band connection charges for 1Mbps connection dropped below all of the sectors have reduced the level of their investment.
Rs. 1000/- for the first time in history which is a great incentive 17.8 Taxes
for new customers. Mobilink has also started broadband servic- The telecom sector contributes 1-2 percent in the total GDP, mak-
es via its brand “Mobilink Infinity” in Karachi which has been an ing its share in total tax revenue as 6-7 percent per annum. During
instant hit in the city. Emerging companies like wi-tribe are even the year 2008-09, the sector continued to contribute handsome
offering free trial periods of up to seven days to catch the atten- amount in national kitty through various taxes and regulatory
tion of potential customers. Intense competition in the market is charges. Telecom sectors’ contribution to national exchequer
also compelling the companies to broaden their scale of adver- rose to Rs. 112 billion in 2008-09 compared to Rs. 111 billion
tisement in print and electronic media and improve quality of ser- the previous year.

66
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT
The sector has been overburdened with taxes by contributing Activation Tax by 50 percent i.e. from Rs.500 to Rs. 250 per new
over 31 percent of its revenue through GST and Withholding Tax. connection. This will certainly enable the sector to contribute
Resultantly little space has been left to spend on infrastructure more to GST collection in the next year.
expansion. Following major tax measures were introduced in the
budget for the fiscal year 2008-09: 17.9 Telecom Revenue
1. GST/FED rate was revised from 15 percent to 21 percent for The telecom sector revenue showed a 19.8 percent growth dur-
telecom sector while this raise was only 16 percent for rest ing 2008-09 compared to 18.2 percent in previous year. During
of the economy the year 2008-09, the telecom sector generated revenue to the
2. Import duty on mobile handsets was imposed @ Rs. 750 tune of Rs. 333.9 billion compared to the last year’s Rs. 278.5
per mobile hand set (Rs. 500 custom duty and Rs. 250 billion. The cellular mobile sector continued to be the leader in
Regulatory duty) telecom revenue, whose share came out to be 64 percent in the
3. Activation Tax on cellular Mobile Sector continued @ Rs. total telecom revenues. The cellular mobile sector showed about
500/ per new connection 17 percent positive growth during the fiscal year 2008-09.
The enhancement in taxes along with economic slowdown had
an adverse impact on telecom sector. PTA took cognizance of
the situation and suggested to the tax authorities and the Prime
Minister that Government of Pakistan should reduce taxes on the
sector. Particularly it was emphasized that FED/GST that was
raised from 15 percent to 21 percent for telecom sector needs
to be reduced and take par with rest of the economy i.e., 16
percent. Further it was apprised to the Government of Pakistan
that imposition of Rs. 750 tax on import of mobile handsets has
increased the mobile acquisition cost in Pakistan which needs to
be reduced. Further it was suggested that Activation Tax @ Rs.
500, which is liable on every new connection, is a hurdle in the
growth of the mobile sector and it should be abolished.
PTA’s efforts, however, proved fruitful, as the Government pro-
vided the following relief in taxes to the operators in the budget
2009-10:
1. GST /FED rate on telecom sector was brought down from 21
percent to 19.5 percent
2. Activation Tax rate was reduced from Rs.500 to Rs. 250 per
new connection
3. Custom duty on import of Mobile handset was decreased
from Rs. 500 to Rs. 250 per set while the Regulatory duty on
import of handsets @ Rs. 250 was withdrawn
4. Initially Rs. 0.20 tax per SMS was proposed, however it was
later on abolished.
The tax measures introduced in this budget were welcomed by
the regulator as well as the operators as they would have far
reaching impact on the sector. The FBR is expected to collect
extra revenue from the sector during 2009-10.
GST is one of the main taxes collected from the telecom sector
and cellular mobile leads in paying this tax, contributing nearly
82 percent of the total GST annually. The sector has contributed
over Rs. 49 billion as GST in fiscal year 2008-09, which is 11
percent higher than the previous year. However, the rate of growth
of FED/GST collection from telecom sector declined in 2008-09
compared to previous years due to high rates. There was only 9
percent increase in FED/GST collection from cellular mobile sec-
tor in 2008-09 compared to 30 percent growth of last year and
50 percent growth in the previous year.
Keeping view the difficulties being faced by the sector, the gov-
ernment has reduced the GST/FED rate from 21 percent to 19.5
percent, besides providing relief to cellular mobile operators in

67
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

18 Annexure B (Plant & Equipment)

68
 Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

19 Annexure C [Wateen’s Licenses]

69
Wateen Telecom Limited
Information Memorandum WAT

70