“Pakistan has world’s largest WiMAX network – Will America catch up?”, wonders TMCnet

The under construction Sheikh Zayed complex in Lahore

Doesn’t that headline just put a smile on your face? You’re not the only one. It’s great to see that the significant human effort augmented by billions of dollars invested in Pakistan’s IT infrastructure and skill-development are bearing tangible fruit. There are several areas where Pakistan is leading the pack already, and others where it is threatening to.

1. Pakistan is the most connected country in South Asia, with the highest teledensity
2. Pakistan’s communications costs are lower than any other country in the region
3. Pakistan has the world’s largest biometric database (NADRA); this system (not the data)  is now being provided to allied countries
4. Pakistan has the world’s largest WiMAX network
5. Pakistan has one of the world’s most aggressive Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) rollouts
6. Pakistan has one of the highest rates of cellular connectivity growth in the world (According to PTA 2007’s report the rate of growth in Pakistan’s mobile sector is fourth highest in the world)
7. Pakistan was the winner of the 2007 GSM industry association award

The TechLahore/Gartner saga

TechLahore is not known for mincing his (or is it her?) words. The piece we wrote on analyst Frances Karamouzis’ take on the prospects for Pakistan’s IT industry was ample proof thereof. But, the Internet is a wonderful thing and Frances chanced upon what we had to say and responded in a rather civil way. She explained that Garther’s stance on Pakistan has been re-evaluated and in fact, Pakistan is now listed as one of the hottest technology outsourcing locations in their latest literature. Bravo!

In light of this, we rescind our declaration of war and announce immediate cessation of blogular hostilities. On Frances’ request, we have made generous use of the strikethrough tool on the original post.

“GoP has spent $67 Million promoting the Pakistan SW industry”: Gartner

The Gartner publication we reported on earlier that places Pakistan in First-tier outsourcing destinations, also contains some other interesting factoids concerning the industry. One of them, picked up by this article at HiPakistan, suggests that so far the Government of Pakistan has spent $67 Million promoting the Pakistani Software Industry. It’s great that the Government is sponsoring business trips, presence at major tradeshows and other activities, but we might be at the stage where it now makes sense to launch an image ad campaign in US publications and network TV channels. Clearly, the biggest impediment to closing new business is a lack of awareness in the US about the very positive ground realities in Pakistan. 

Gartner places Pakistan in “First Category” countries for IT

A survey article covering the IT industry in Pakistan appeared in the Business Recorder on January 6th, 2008. Among other interesting factoids, this article talks about a growth target of $11 BN by 2011 for Pakistani IT exports. Somewhat cryptically, the article mentions that the “Global Community” has placed Pakistan in ‘First Category’ IT destinations for 2007, but after doing some further research, we discovered that this is actually a Gartner Group classification. Gartner released a report titled, “Analysis of Pakistan as an Offshore Service Location” which placed the country in the First Category destinations and also acknowledged that Pakistan’s labour costs were 30% lower than India’s, while Telecom costs were the lowest of any outsourcing destination.

TechLahore and Gartner’s Karamouzis are now friends

Here’s a happy ending to what started off as a rather strained relationship; between Gartner’s Frances Karamouzis and the Pakistan tech industry. To make a long story short, back in 2001 Frances wasn’t, shall we say, too positive on Pakistan’s prospects as an IT outsourcing location. The tech industry in Pakistan disagreed vehemently, and we gave voice to those sentiments with a blog post. Now, things have come full circle and Gartner has recently published a fine report on Pakistan as one of the world’s top 30 technology outsourcing destinations. We wholeheartedly agree with their assessment and appreciate the balanced reappraisal.

In the spirit of rapprochement, the (somewhat emotional) things we said earlier stand nixed:

They say time is the great healer. But time is also many other things; it is also the great exposer. And Gartner’s Karamouzis is on the receiving end this time. Back in 2001, Karamouzis, who gets paid to be right about trends peered into her crystal ball and proclaimed, “countries once thought to be safe to do business in have taken a hit. Pakistan is no longer on the list for offshore outsourcing”. It was only later we found out that the crystal ball was a cheap knockoff acquired from Wal-mart and her prediction was complete crap. In the last 6 years, outsourcing to Pakistan has boomed! The PSEB estimates the IT industry at about $2BN and growing fast. The last two years, in particular, have seen Pakistani companies win awards such as the VMWORLD Gold for 2007, get shortlisted on TechCrunch’s 40 hottest companies, experience skyrocketting stock and get funded by US VCs. So, Ms. Karamouzis, you got it WRONG! Master Yoda says, “Bet against our tech industry, don’t. Everytime lose, you will!” Some more quotes after the fold and a link to the article…