Despite macroeconomic difficulties, Jazz maintained its market dominance by investing more than PKR 52 billion in FY 22 to further its “4G for all” ambition.
Revenue of Jazz decreased 2.6% in USD terms during the fourth quarter of 2022 despite a 24.3% YoY growth in total revenues in local currency.
This decline was primarily caused by the devaluation of the Pakistani rupee, while the margins were constrained by an exponential rise in operational costs, including fuel, electricity, interest rates, and foreign exchange. Fuel and electricity price increases of 71% and 53% YoY, respectively, were countered by a one-time impact from the provision’s reversal.
Despite macroeconomic difficulties, Jazz maintained its market dominance by investing more than PKR 52 billion in FY 22 to further its “4G for all” ambition, bringing its total investment in Pakistan to US$10.4 billion.
Jazz also continued to focus on advancing digital inclusion and improving the quality of services for its customers. Jazz had 73.7 million mobile subscribers overall during the reporting period, with 41.3 million of those using 4G and 10 million using Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), which provides a more immersive communication experience.
Due to the success of its digital services during the quarter, Jazz has cemented its status as the preferred lifestyle choice for Pakistan’s 123 million mobile broadband users.
With 16.4 million monthly active users and 186,000 active merchants, JazzCash is the most widely used mobile wallet in Pakistan. In FY22, it recorded 2.1 billion transactions with a gross transaction value of PKR 4.2 trillion.
The self-care app Jazz World, on the other hand, continued to experience strong levels of consumer adoption, with 12.7 million monthly active users. Tamasha, Pakistan’s biggest in-house OTT platform, has 4.3 million active monthly users right now.
Jazz’s CEO, Aamir Ibrahim, said, “We are working tirelessly to improve and enhance the customer experience through consistent network investments and our strong portfolio of digital services, despite an unprecedented rise in operating costs and limitations on the import of necessary telecom equipment. Increased user engagement with digital services and Ookla’s recognition of Jazz as Pakistan’s fastest mobile broadband provider further demonstrate our dedication to providing our clients with top-notch services.”
The declining value of the rupee against the dollar makes telecom equipment more expensive, he continued, even though Pakistan’s telecom sector has a dollarized cost structure in terms of spectrum fees, capital expenditures, and fuel. Furthermore, the cost of financing it has doubled due to rising interest rates.
For the services to continue to get better over the next 12 months, the average revenue of Jazz per user in this case needs to increase from $0.75, which is the lowest in the world right now, to at least $1.5 per user. For its part, Jazz will use disciplined inflationary pricing and an accelerated growth mindset to help manage this digital emergency.