Baithak - A place where Pakistani Bloggers get United.
Alcatel-Lucentis one of the major infrastructure vendors in telecommunication Industry. Alcatel has supplied WiMAX related gear to Mobilink Infinity for its first commercial deployment in Karachi this October. Some of you may have heard that Alcatel-Lucent has supplied a comprehensive WiMAX Rev-e solution including both fixed and nomadic terminal devices …
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By Baithak.Net
According to reliable resources, Verizon has quietly started providing data services in Pakistan. Its customers include large banks. Verizon had announced the undersea cable called Trans-Pacific Express earlier and as this video shows, it has plenty of capacity to expand.This press release mentions that Verizon (to be exact it is …
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Editor’s Note: Please join me to welcome Omar Aijaz. Omar is an undergraduate business student who has a keen interest in technology and telecommunication and he will be contributing to this blog on a regular basis. The trend of open mobile Internet on mobile phones is relatively recent, even more so …
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Just like last year, P@sha took the winners of their ICT awards to participate in the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA), held in Jakarta, Indonesia this year. There were 134 applications in the running for awards with only 16 trophies were awarded. Pakistan won 3 of them and it is …
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Exchanging online SMS with friends & family in Pakistan is fun and useful, especially for expatriate Pakistanis. I have written about the free services available today but none of them meets my standard for reliability, quality and usability. I was wondering if there are any premium services for sending/receiving online text messages to Pakistan. …
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Zong has unveiled wireless broadband for computers via a USB device with a special Internet (data) enabled SIM in it. It is not cheap. The one time cost of the USB modem is Rs. 10K (zong insists on calling it Rs. 9,999) and the monthly charge is Rs.400 for unlimited downloads. The real questions are: …
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Spotted this interesting advertisement at Karachi aiport … this company does not have WiMAX or DSL but still feels very confident about its Internet (data) offerings. Guess who?
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A quick roundup of the major market news and trends from the Indian telecom market. Japan’s DoCoMo pays $2.7 billion for 26% stake in Tata Teleservices iPhone not doing that well in India - Nokia and others are too well entrenched in India and China. Getting ready for 3G licences - but at …
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Technology Review magazine has published an interesting article on mobile phones and banking in developing countries. It presents a good summary of mobile banking opportunities and challenges in emerging telecom markets. Its about providing financial slack to the vast population (base of the pyramid) through micro-credit schemes, delivered digitally through …
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Pakistan market reached the 90 million milestone at the end of September 2008. A review of mobile subscriber (SIM) numbers from January to September of 2008 shows some interesting trends. Telenor added over 3.8 million new SIMs. Zong added 3.2 million. Mobilink scored some gains but then lost subscribers …. …
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Here’s an interesting piece from the national media about WiMAX technical issue and problems with the customer service. The title is “Customer Disservice” and it appeared in The News and in Spider magazine. According to the latest update, this particular issue got resolved. There was a huge disconnect between the …
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Telenor has signed an agreement with PTCL to enable backhaul of GSM traffic via satellite technology branded by PTCL as Skylink. Telenor is the fastest growing mobile phone company in 2008 and from this news it is clear that they want to go after the rural areas as well. Perhaps …
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After years of managing Pakistan market from Middle East, Nokia established local presencein Pakistan in April of 2008. Imran Khalid Mahmood, Country General Manager Nokia Pakistan & Afghanistan, said that the opening of this locally centralised office reflects Nokia’s strong commitment to Pakistan. The Nokia website still includes Pakistan …
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With the push for broadband adoption in Pakistan and younger people being a dominant demographics for digital services, a positive trend is emerging: telecommunication companies are offering discounts to students for broadband access. I hope that students are aware of this opportunity. Please forward this information to others so that no …
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Take any application, any product and the success boils down to the usability. If the customer experience is not good, it does not really matter that the product has great features. Whether working on a corporate website, blog or a mobile phone application, usability tops my list of priority. Why? …
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The huge influx of imported mobile phones in Pakistan has spawned a whole industry around mobile phone repair work. The trend of mobile repair as a small business in Pakistan has taken off rapidly in the last few years. One reason for this could be the increase in handset prices caused by …
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A recently published report (4Q 2008 Pakistan Mobile Operator Forecast, 2008 - 2010) by Research and Markets forecasts that Pakistan’s average revenue per user will continue falling. By 2010 the wireless penetration level is likely to be the highest in South Asia. The report predicts that in 2010 Mobilink will still be …
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Yaser Awan posted this consumer alert about a new way of balance transfer scam. Balance transfer has been a favorite for con artists. In the first phase of balance transfer scams, the fraud was carried out through misleading text message and when one replied to such sms, that person would …
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Recently a lot of stories published here have been about customer service issues. Somehow the service issues get more coverage in the media including blogs. To be fair, there are plenty of helpful employees in telecom companies who go out of their way to resolve issues. Some of them even contribute …
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Special Post By Tariq Mustafa The second commercial Wimax network went live in Pakistan (Karachi) recently. For the South Asain nation of 160 million (half of which are young adults), these cutting edge WiMAX networks are a cause for celebration. Mobilink (one of the most successful ventures of the international telecoms …
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By Baithak.Net
The 2008 P@SHA ICT Awards ceremony was held at Marriott hotel in Karachi on Oct 31. A number of ICT companies and individuals were awarded the prestigious P@SHA award. Some of the companies which received the award have been covered at TelecomPk earlier.This was an excellent and upbeat ceremony which …
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Pakistan’s traffic for AdMob ranks number 18 in the world. Not bad, given the limited number of mobile data users in Pakistan. See this post for the background of these statistics. In September 2008 the requests recorded from Pakistan were 28.9 millions, up 3.5 times from September of 2007. Note …
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By Baithak.Net
PTCL recently announced that it will offer free dial-up Internet service to its phone customers. From PTCL point of view, they can offer the excess capacity to users and claim it as a sticky factor and a valuable service for its customers. However this free offering is worrisome for the …
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AdMob, one of the largest mobile advertising company, released their Mobile Metrics Report for September of 2008. AdMob gathers and analyzes data from thousands of publishers spread over the globe. AdMob served over 5 billion ads in September 2008.The table below shows the change in handset popularity from Sep 2007 …
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One wonders if mobile companies needed any more marketing. They are already all over the media and the commercial scene: tv, magazines, newspapers, billboards, banners. Now retail stores and shops have also “adopted” the mobile brands. I have seen Jazz, Ufone and Telenor. It is amusing to see fabric stores, …
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We may call it the exaggerated form of complaint or seriously disturbed customer. The picture was taken in Lahore. Its quiet a show from the person who hung this banner. This shows the customer service and ignorance of PTCL towards their customers. The picture speaks for itself and is an …
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By Baithak.Net
Pakistan and US based PixSense has scored another deal, this time in Philippines which is one of the major Asian market for mobile technologies adoption. For example, mobile banking and commerce solutions have been very popular and successful in Philippines. Via P@sha News.PixSense, a global leader in multimedia and web convergence solutions, …
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As covered here before, the process to get a new SIM has undergone many changes. The franchises are following the PTA guidelines strictly as well. You need to provide the original NIC and a thumb print to get a SIM. The franchises are connected online (and via their mobile phones) to …
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I have mixed feelings about Telenor’s free text messaging service for Pakistanis on Hajj. Should we be happy for the free messages for those on the pilgrimage or concerned that we are turning important life events in text messaging rituals? I definitely don’t want to sound ungrateful for the free text messaging offer by …
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Short answer is: No, especially if you are afraid of commitments. As you may have noticed in the newspaper ads or billboards, Ufone has partnered with Habib Bank to offer free handsets to new or existing customers of HBL credit card who agree to get a Ufone post paid connection package for a two …
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Mobile and related modern information and communication technologies are making a big impact on how you and I receive information. Whether its breaking news, some interesting piece of information, a consumer tip or opinions and views, we are no longer dependent on the large media organizations.I have written previously about …
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By Baithak.Net
See this great tutorial about wireless technologies, via Communications Blog. The pdf file is over 6MB and registration is required for download.This comprehensive tutorial is designed to benefit both the technical and general telecom audience. Brough Turner reviews the history and evolution of mobile radio, evolving network architectures, services, applications, and business …
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Recently I switched DSL broadband service at my home in Defence (DHA) Lahore from Wateen to Link dot Net. I wanted to share the reasons for making the switch and my experience with Wateen over the last few months. I am quite happy with my current experience with link dot net but I …
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Recently I switched DSL broadband service at my home in Defence (DHA) Lahore from Wateen to Link dot Net. I wanted to share the reasons for making the switch and my experience with Wateen over the last few months. I am quite happy with my current experience with link dot net but I …
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Picture taken at Lahore airport. Interesting idea to promote their brand but I think that Warid is not using this as effectively as it could be used. It was kind of quiet and for a minute I thought that there was no one inisde. Knocked on the window and there was a …
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By Baithak.Net
Wireless broadband is the ultimate connected service. With the recent commercial launch of Mobilink Infinity–Mobilink’s WiMAX Internet and voice services – folks in Karachi have one more choice. For Mobilink this is an important milestone: they started off as a GSM telecom company and now they provide complete telecommunications services. Obviously the service coverage …
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By Baithak.Net
A few aspects of modern Pakistani culture are as prominent as the practice of intentional missed call. The calling party pays rule has defined the communication protocol: if you need to talk to me, you better return that call and pay for it. In brief - the rich guy pays. I’ve noted …
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I spotted this while travelling through UAE last week: a special plan for those who are visiting UAE. Offered by DU, the first competitor to Etisalat’s stronghold in UAE. This kind of “visitor mobile phone plan” can make life easy for Pakistanis who live abroad and want the same number …
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Chanuka Wattegama writes about his presentations to World Bank about disaster risk management and the role played by information and communication technology. Via LirneAsia Site.“We must realize the fact that disasters threaten sustained economic growth of the society and the country.”These were the words of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza …
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There has been a lot of discussion around the customer service quality and the fact that now some phone companies charge you a nominal amount when you call for service. I believe that it is not a good trend for consumers that they have to pay for a genuine service …
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I wrote about the Legatum center before, where research on Pakistan telecom is being carried out. Here I share view of some of the world’s top economists who got together for the one year anniversary of Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship. The topic: how entrepreneurship can help poor countries …
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As mentioned in the comments to my last post about smart phones, HTC is on a roll, drawing great reviews in Europe and Asia. This picture is of a poster of TyTN II, from Hafiz Center, Lahore.
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BW has an article on how “Nokia Aims to Be No. 1 on the Mobile Web”. Well, so does Apple, Google and to some extent Blackberry. Microsoft is out of the race. It will be interesting to see the numbers after one year. Let the race begin.Nokia will sell nearly …
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While many numbers and policies have been floating around for the unverified SIM issue, PTA has issued a new statement which I am sharing here. As we know this has been one of the most difficult issues for the industry. A few big changes announced: The control of sale /verification will …
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By Baithak.Net
There are many other telemedicine projects and companies in Pakistan. Few of them get coverage outside Pakistan. I found this story, which appeared at MarketWatch and other sites, to be interesting, though it reads a bit like marketing for IBM and Wateen. In an upcoming post I will share related work being carried out …
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This is the third and last part of the interview series with Universal Service Fund CEO. I hope that the three posts gave a good overview of the initiative. We will track and share the progress on this project. I would like to express my thanks to Mr. Parvez Iftikhar …
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Universal Service Fund is a relatively new organization which has been established by the Ministry of IT to overcome digital divide in Pakistan. I have previously written about USF and find this work to be very interesting and transparent. There is detailed information posted on the USF website. This is …
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I received this update through one of the technology mailing lists. A quick check on naqsha.net showed the google-powered interactive maps on naqsha website (map display did not work in firefox). There is limited capability for searching POIs (points of interest) as well. I tried KFC and Governor house in …
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By Baithak.Net
Here is part 2 of the 3-part series of interview with the Chief Executive Officer of Universal Service Fund, Pakistan. In this part Mr. Iftikhar explains about subsidies, financial allocations and the criteria/data used to select the region where USF will invest.What is your budget and how do you apportion …
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PTCL financial results have been reported in the foreign media. PTCL has not officially announced the result yet.Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), has reported net losses of PKR2.8 billion (USD325.99 million) for its financial year ended June 30. Dow Jones is reporting this, citing a statement to Karachi Stock Exchange by the operator. …
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