The PTA Ban On BlackBerry Enterprise Services
In a somewhat surprising move, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority published a press statement on Friday saying that BlackBerry Enterprise Services are going to be permanently banned in Pakistan from November 30, 2015. For those who prefer to stick to the simpler things in life - such as the on-again-off-again cellphone service - BlackBerry Enterprise Services is an encrypted email system mostly used for corporate communications.
Important Questions
The first question that the analyst community would ask pertains to the effect the new PTA policy is likely to have on corporate activities in Pakistan; the answer would be: absolutely none. The essence of business communications in the East is the importance of being able to assess a person's intentions & potential from his or her expression. All the encrypted emails, video conferences & phone conversations in the world cannot replace the timeless value of being able to look into the eyes of an ally...or an enemy. As confirmation of this deduction, the KSE hit an all-time high right after the Eid holidays.
The second question would relate to the effect this policy is likely to have on BlackBerry Limited. French anthropologist & ethnologist Claude Levi-Strauss once said, "The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions." The real question is who is BlackBerry Limited's competitor in Pakistan? Everybody knows about the Canadian company's woes at the hands of international competitors like Google's Android operating system & Apple's iPhone, but global assessments are essentially the sum of various national-level statistics. So, who does BlackBerry have to contend with in this country?
A proper understanding of the question would require a brief overview of BlackBerry Limited's company statistics. BlackBerry Limited has been doing very poorly in recent times. The latest figures for its revenue, total assets & total equity have dropped. Its stock price has plummeted a horrifying 30% in the last 3 months alone. The plucky little company that made a splash in Pakistan a few years back by adopting a unique mass marketing strategy - it negotiated bargains with the administration of the leading schools in Pakistan to distribute BlackBerries to the students - is facing a very bleak future.
Identifying The Competition
Sun Tzu wrote in his landmark book The Art Of War, "If you know your enemies & know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one & lose one; if you know neither your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperilled in every single battle."
That means the operative question is who starts investing in new furniture as soon as somebody gets evicted from his house? Only Time will tell what is the correct answer, but Telenor announced a US$30 million investment in a solar energy back-up plan to power its Base Transceiver Stations all across Pakistan, just days before the PTA policy change went public. The winds of change are obviously blowing in favor of Telenor as the appreciation shown by the US-administered Universal Service Fund amply demonstrates.
In general, one wouldn't expect BlackBerry Limited, a Canadian telecommunications equipment company founded in 1984, to be facing competition from Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications services company that opened its doors in 1855. But I guess this story shows that you never know what's around the corner, so always keep your eyes & ears open.
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