KARACHI, Jan 20: As cellular mobile industry of Pakistan achieved 100 million subscription mark in 2010, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) organised an event at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) Islamabad on Wednesday to celebrate the occasion.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was the chief guest while federal minister for information technology Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali, PTA chairman Dr Mohammed Yaseen, federal ministers, federal secretaries, regulatory authorities, IT and telecom industry experts and CEOs of telecom companies also attended the ceremony.

On this occasion, Pakistan Post representative presented a commemorative stamp issued by the Pakistan Post to the prime minister.

Mobile services in Pakistan started in 1995 and three operators Instaphone, Paktel and Mobilink were at that time providing services to only 68,038 subscribers on exorbitant rates.

In order to give choice to the people of Pakistan, Ufone, a subsidiary of PTCL, was given licence to ope-rate mobile services in year 2000.

With the consent of the government, the regulator implemented the Calling Party Pays Regime in 2001 which gave boost to the subscriber base and it crossed 1 million in 2002, and there were 1.7 million subscribers.

In 2003, deregulation was introduced in the mobile sector of Pakistan through Mobile Cellular Policy. Telenor & Warid were awarded two new mobile licences in 2004 against the price of $291 million each and they started their operations in 2005.

There was competition among six operators which gave boost to mobile subscribers base and it crossed 12 million in 2005.

Telecom industry showed signs of maturity with competition in 2007 and operators were providing services to 68 million subscribers. In 2009 subscribers crossed figure of 95 million.

In June 2010, mobile subscribers reached 99.4 million, says a PTA press release.