Abstract
This paper reports selective results of the study to explore the acceptability and readiness of consumers to switch from existing separate date, voice and video services to a single converged service over a fixed line. Providing a converged service requires effort in three areas i.e. convergence supporting technology, converged (unified) service offering and development of access devices. This study is only about a converged service offering. Market for Cable TV service in Pakistan is more established and mature as compared to that of Internet. Research question of this study was that ‘broadband alone may not be able to create a viable market for itself therefore will a converged offering of broadband and high quality cable TV be more acceptable to consumers?’. The answer is in affirmative. According to the results the acceptability of converged service in Pakistan is going to be based primarily on pricing but there may be some other needs that have to be looked into. This survey based research was conducted in March – April 2007. The survey instrument used had 26 questions. A sample of about 300 respondents was used as a stratified sample of the urban population of Karachi. Primarily the questionnaires were distributed personally by the research team and filled on the spot. Therefore the response rate was very high. A total of 257 valid responses were received. Karachi was selected because it has representation of people from all parts of the country and has a high population density with most of the people having access to data, voice and video services and can be considered as potential consumers of converged service. Pakistan is an upcoming economy with a very high growth rate in IT sector. Thus providing a converged service of data, voice and video on a single fixed line has great potential. Results of this research can provide valuable information about consumers’ preference to companies for making better-informed decisions on strategic planning and investing in converged services. It also provides a direction for further research
Highlights
The term convergence literally means coming together at the same point
With reference to information technology, it is commonly used for the “synergistic combination of voice, data and video onto a single network” (Asian Development Bank – Technical Assistance Report 2006)
The encouraging fact is that during 2006-2007 Asia-Pacific showed an increase of 5.79 % Pakistan increased by 75% showing a very promising increase compared to Asia-Pacific region (Economist Intelligence Unit 2007)
Summary
The term convergence literally means coming together at the same point. Technically, with reference to information technology, it is commonly used for the “synergistic combination of voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video onto a single network” (Asian Development Bank – Technical Assistance Report 2006). The concept of convergence is not new but until recently the three services were considered practically disparate from each other. They used dissimilar medium of communication, different end-user equipment and were regulated by separate regulators for each type of service. (Gillis and Oyedemi 2004). According to Gillis and Oyedemi (2004) “Convergence is the combination of all these different media into one operating platform. It is the merger of telecom, data processing and imaging technologies”
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