Wateen Telecom, the largest WiMAX operator in Pakistan has stopped selling new connections and instead opted to retain its old customers who are churning out consistently since the re-launch of company in November 2011.
In December 2011, Wateen Telecom gathered its Franchises in Lahore and announced that company will follow customer retention policy instead of going for new customers. In compliance with its decision, Wateen stopped issuing new Consumer Premises Equipment (CPE)/Modems to its franchises all over the country.
As per retention policy, entire sales force including the franchises have been assigned the task to recover the old equipment from the default customers so that if a new customer plans to join Wateen network, he/she could be provided with a WiMax modem. In APril 2012, management communicated to its sales force that aprt from indoor modems, outdoor customer equipment was also not available for facilitating the customers.
AS a result of recent policies and weak customer services, many of Wateen customers churned and opted for other broadband services.
Wateen officially claims that it has 300,000 WiMax customers all over the country whereas sources reveal that actual active customers on the network are less than 160,000. In Lahore, where company has a massive coverage, 35,000 WiMax customers are active.
