Synergy for Sustainability in the Upcoming Telecommunications Revolution : The Case of a Developing Economy

This chapter examines the merger of two cellular companies (MOBILINK and WARID) for sustainability in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. During 2011-2013, WARID faced the news of the possible sales of the company due to falling revenues,constant poor network quality, and lower network coverage in rural areas. In 2014, all telecom players participated in the auction for 3G/4G licenses, but WARID did not participate due to its technology neutral license (TNL). Important decisions were taken in 2014 like launching of 4G/LTE services in major cities, US$500 million investment, increase of tower sites, opening of new regional sales offices. These decisions along with presence of TNL made WARID an attractive target for merger with MOBILINK. In 2016, the formal merger was finalized for benefits like synergies in CAPEX/OPEX, fastest 4G network, network reach to rural areas, rollout of new services like the internet of things (IoT) and mobile banking. The merger proved successful. During the first quarter of 2017, the company generated PKR 38.7 billion in revenues, up from the same period a year before