Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 2, 2008 at 1:19 PM
Mobilink, second WiMAX service provider of Pakistan, has finally hit the WiMAX surface by introducing its services in Karachi in its first phase of countrywide rollout plan.
Uzair Ahmed broke the story on TGP backed with two official documents that reveal Mobilink’s WiMAX services, pricing and few other details. Named as Mobilink Infinity, WiMAX services would be offered in Karachi only, as a soft launch, until they are successfully tested and taken to other regions of Pakistan as well.
Their official webpage is not displaying anything yet. Also the news is missing in main stream electronic and print media. But there are couple of evidenced on fellow blogs, that confirm the existence of Mobilink Infinity.
Let’s look into tariff details before going into further details…!
- Free Installation is for customers subscribing before September 30, 2008
- Unlimited Internet Access
- Free calls to All Mobilink Infinity and Mobilink GSM Users (for limited Time)
Well prices look stunning, they are far better than any other broadband service provider in Pakistan. Mobilink Infinity has broken the PKR 2,000 barrier for 1 Mbps link (unmetered) that was being offered by LinkDotNet, PTCL and other ISPs, and taken it down to just PKR 1,199; not only this, the package comes with VoIP privileges, and that too with Free calls from WiMax (Infinity) to WiMax (Infinity) and on any Mobilink GSM Subscribers (Defiantly a limited time offer), but this a treat.
But hold on, there is a bad news! With Mobilink Infinity you will have to pay almost PKR 16,000 for installation equipment (CPE) and security. However, for promotional period, this first time payment is lessened to PKR 8,000. Home users may not like to pay this huge amount. Other wise things seemed so well.
Considering the 1 Mpbs pricing, they could have taken 512 Kbps package down to PKR 500 to meet most in-expensive internet available in the world. But PKR 999 is not bad too!
Apart from pricing, services, response time, customer support, reliability and network uptime are other features that would come under consideration in the long run. We know that WiMAX is an evolving technology; hence, like any voice/data network, we should expect issues earlier on, but once streamlined, Mobilink Infinity is going to give tough time to not only Wateen but other broadband service providers too.
Wateen Telecom must be eying the situation very closely, and may revise their packages immediately. Currently they are offering capped packaged with limited download/upload capacity.
I see lot of potential in WiMAX market in Pakistan, specifically when we see than Wateen has acquired 25,000 customers in a short span of time, we will have to see in coming months, what Mobilink Infinity is going to do, which is apparently lot better than of Wateen in terms of monthly rental and coverage.
Mobilink will have to invest some money by subsidizing the WiMAX equipment (which is going to cost a user PKR 16,000), if they really want to get some good subscriber base.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on June 25, 2008 at 7:40 AM
Communications market research firm Infonetics Research has said in one of its recent reports that the worldwide WiMAX equipment market, including fixed and mobile WiMAX equipment, increased 59% sequentially to $363 million in 1Q08.
Infonetics’ report has mentioned that Mobile WiMAX (802.16e) equipment saw a significant hike in sales which jumped 141 percent in first quarter 2008, while overtaking the revenues from Fixed WiMAX (802.16d) equipment for the first time.
This increment in Mobile WiMAX equipment sale was result of number of new network rollouts, while existing networks continued to scale up during first quarter of the current year.
“We expect healthy growth for the evolving mobile WiMAX market, which is seeing strong adoption not only from Tier 2 and 3 carriers, but from Tier 1 nationwide operators as well, like Sprint-Clearwire in the US, SK Telecom and KT in South Korea, Wateen in Pakistan, BSNL in India, and Vodafone and Orange in new territories,” said Richard Webb, wireless analyst for Infonetics Research.
Other highlights from the report:
- Motorola takes the lead in overall WiMAX revenues in 2008 after increasing its worldwide mobile revenue share by 10 points, and is the first vendor to exceed $50 million in mobile WiMAX revenue in a single quarter, according to Infonetics’ estimates
- Alvarion continues to lead in worldwide fixed WiMAX equipment revenue share, but is getting a run for its money by Telsima, which increased its revenue in 1Q08
- The nascent mobile WiMAX phone and Ultra Mobile PC segments showed early traction, together increasing 171% sequentially in 1Q08; these devices have appealing, non-traditional form factors and capabilities and will play a major role in attracting new subscribers to mobile WiMAX networks
- The number of fixed and mobile WiMAX subscribers topped 2 million worldwide in 2007 and is expected to triple by the end of 2008
[Via Cellular News]
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on June 24, 2008 at 12:42 PM
After Wateen getting mixed response from market, Mobilink is set ready for the soft launch of its WiMAX operations in the country. WiredPakistan has reported in an un-official discussion that Mobilink is going to start offering WiMAX services in Karachi in coming few days.
Through a friend, the poster learnt that Mobilink is all ready to start offering the beta services for test purpose, mainly to corporate clients, however, few of home users may also enjoy cutting edge WiMAX technology jointly deployed by Alcatel-Lucent and Mototola. This off the record conversation revealed that we should not expect much from Mobilink’s WiMAX, as the investor (Orascom, the parent company of Mobilink) does not see returns on investments (ROI) in Pakistani markets, hence not very generously investing in the country. The poster claims that his resource has confirmed quality and blanket coverage of Mobilink WiMAX in cities like Karachi, compared to poor coverage by Wateen. (I personally back this, as there are many locations, including Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore etc. where you don’t get WiMAX signals)
However, there was another poster who claimed that Mobilink had already launched its test services for their employees in Islamabad. We don’t know how long this test transmission will run, but Mobilink may get advantage of proven technology of Alcatel-Lucent. Based on the latest IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards (also called Rev-e), the Mobilink’s WiMAX network is deployed in the 3.5GHz spectrum.
Obviously, we know nothing about pricing details, but one can expect that Mobilink is going to give extremely tough time to Wateen, just like they did with LinkDotNet.
Any additional information/correction is welcomed in comments
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on June 18, 2008 at 10:00 AM
My God, what this news is saying…around 40,000 call centers were shut down in Pakistan on directions of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. I was able to get couple of evidences of this news on “Daily Post” and “Online News Agency”
I had to double check the number of closed call centers, and also the date; but alas everything seems fine with my eyesight.
According to Online, PTA passed the directions of closing the voice ports of all call national and international centers operating in Pakistan. Agency, citing some resources said that PTA asked CWFAI, a fiber optic communication provider in Pakistan to block the voice ports of all working call centers; consequently thousands of Pakistanis will go jobless who work in these call centers.
Call centre representatives, who were effected by the decision, told that News Agency that their call centers were shut down without any prior notification, while the PTA officials negating the blame, have claimed that they had already informed them about the action through a proper notification.
The PTA officials further said that the call centers owners have not registered themselves and were conducting their business with out license; assuring that all could continue their call centers after obtaining their licenses and registration numbers.
I can recall similar thing happened almost 10 days ago, when PTA had asked TWA to close all voice ports, leaving call centers without any internet means; we know that PTCL had blocked voice ports long ago.
Covered in Daily Times by Romail Kenneth, on June 10th, 2008, claims that PTA had asked ACCO to provide the list of call centers, registered with PSEB. The scenario gets very interesting, see call centers are registered with PSEB, and PTA has been asking ACCO… in another news item published in ‘The News’, (sorry I don’t have its link) claimed that a meeting held at PTA headquarters that involved PSEB, PTA, Call centers, ISPs and PTCL representatives had resolved the issue. Then it was decided that PSEB and PTA will collectively devise a way out to register call centers; hence allowing voice traffic to only legal call centers.
But with-in a week, call centers are again shut down? PTA should have given more time to call centers, the way they are favoring cellular companies in blocking illegal SIMS. I guess there is something seriously wrong with PTA, either its PTA, PTCL, ACCO or PSEB someone is really making troubles for call centers’ industry, hence risking thousands of Jobs, Pakistan’s image and weakening economy
According to an estimate about 40,000 call centers have been shut under the current action of PTA rendering about 1 million peoples jobless through this stance.
Updates Expected in few hours….
NexExpress has just reported that this news was baseless, quoting a press release issued by PTA. According to PR, the news items published regarding the closure of 40,000 call centers do not reflect the actual situation.
According to a press release issued here Wednesday the PTA said in fact, it has never issued any directive to close call centres. The PTA has only asked backbone operators to allow voice to legitimate stakeholders i.e. LDI operators and Call Centres registered with Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), which is in line with government rules & regulations.
“As far as the figure of 40,000 call centres is concerned, it may be clarified that the total number of call centres registered with PSEB is just 516 so blocking of 40,000 call centres is out of question.”
Interesting scenario this is. Now what i drive from these news items and PTA’s press release is, that they directed to block the voice port of all those call centers which are neither registered, nor they were given time to get themselves registered. Another thing, that number of call centers in Pakistan is still not confirmed by any of authority
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on June 17, 2008 at 1:19 PM
Pakistan’s broadband market has been slothful despite the fact that broadband services have been made available since five years. Currently there are a total of approx 131,871 Broadband subscribers, which provide dismal picture when compared with other similar economies.
Cost of service (Tariff) has been the major reason behind this slow growth. However a major development for broadband market is the introduction of DSL services by the incumbent (PTCL) itself. PTCL has started offering its DSL services since June 2007 in various cities e.g Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi. PTCL offered low tariffs for home users with free installation service. This has affected tariffs offered by other DSL operators as they have also lowered DSL tariffs in order to remain competitive. According to PTCL sources, since they started of DSL service, 35,000 subscribers have subscribed to their Broadband. It is believed that such competition will lower the tariff and eventually will flourish the broadband market.
Coverage / Provision of broadband services is another factor as main emphasis of broadband operators have been to cover urban areas specially large cities, leaving a major part of population leaving in small cities, towns and villages forbidden of broadband services.
One can expect that PTCL having the largest data network will soon start offering DSL services in other cities and towns. WiMax Services will play a vital role in proliferation for broadband services to rural areas of the country in near future as the figure show that since introduction of first ever WiMax service
(December 2007) in Pakistan Wateen Telecom has captured 10000 subscribers in a short span of four months.
Apart from above Literacy Rate, Computer Penetration, Broadband Investment, QoS Level, Policy execution including the issues such as (Local Content Development, Countrywide Broadband Awareness Campaign and Provision of low Interest Loans for purchase of Computers) has also affect the development of broadband in the country, however It is expected that steps taken by PTA in collaboration with Industry players will ensure better and economical broadband services in Pakistan. Latest developments like reduction in tariff, steady rise in disposable income per capita, extensive infrastructure rollouts (especially fiber), introduction of triple-play services, rural tele-center project to educate rural population, Deployment of Fiber and WiMax Networks and growing bandwidth demands from businesses will help Broadband proliferation in urban as well as rural areas. It is estimated that there will be 0.5 Million Broadband subscribers in Pakistan by 2010.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on June 2, 2008 at 4:18 AM
Increasing number of immature Mobile phone users in the country, ratio of unwanted calls has increased enormously. Due to technical and financial reasons, maybe, it’s not possible for cellular companies, to block unwanted calls or to allow only wanted calls.
To tackle this issue Mobile phone manufacturers are trying hard to get this issue resolved by introducing a feature through which uses will be able to block any un-wanted numbers. ‘Daily Times’, citing an official of a telecom company has reported that PTA has urged all cellular companies to introduce such a feature through which one can block those unwanted calls. However, cellular companies simply denied due to inability.
In parallel, ‘Trend Mobiles’ a UK based mobile phone manufacturer, who has been distributing handsets in Pakistan, claims that their Device named as T-103 is capable of blocking those calls that you don’t want to answer.
Trend, and all other mobile phone manufactures are using software based solutions to block such obnoxious calls. Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and others allow you to block/filter any selected set of numbers added in a group.
To Block a group in Nokia Handsets follow below steps
- Go into Profiles
- Click on General Profile
- Select Customize
- Go into ‘Alert for’
- Leave any one group unselected, and select all other Groups and save profile
- Now add any number in that particular group, which you had unselected
- Calls from this number will be ignored, and your handset will not ring
Another simple fun way to block unwanted calls is to use ‘Not Responding’ mobiTunes/Utunes. However, it must be noted that cellular companies do not offer such “App ka matlooba number iss waqt band hay” type of tunes, as these tunes may cause them heavy losses.
Howver, Ufone offers customized Utunes, called DIY (Do it Yourself). Record the not responding message by record feature of your phone-> then Customize your Utune by uploading that recorded message here
So now, everyone will get a “App ka milaya howa number iss waqt band hay” message, when they will call you. On other side, you will get a ring; so pick it up or ignore it : - )
I have not tried it, but I hope it may work.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority says that you can register complain against anyone who has been disrupting you. Call on your help line (111, 333, 345, 321 etc); give them the number who has been calling you without any reason. After investigation, cellular company will warn him/her once, and on second complain they will block that number.
I have heard couple that cellular companies have blocked various numbers on users’ complains. So try complaining someone if he/she is really disturbing you.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on June 1, 2008 at 8:27 PM
Today, PTCL has offered its customers with two blessings, one is, free local call (only fixed line to fixed line) from 11:00 PM to 6:00 AM and other is Free Dialup internet for its broadband customers.. Previously PTCL had also offered free late night calls, which didn’t go for long. PTCL, as an SMP, offers all packages as limited time offer but it seems this time the late night package will prolong for a good time.
‘The Post’, citing Dr. Sadik Al-Jadir, SEVP (Commercial), has reported that this offer of seven free hours is to add value to company consumers. This long awaited free local call package would be appreciated amongst the masses.
On other hands, an advert in ‘Daily Express’ and in other print media, revealed that PTCL is going to offer Free, round the clock, dialup internet facility for its PTCL broad band customers.
The question is, “Why a broadband user will go for dialup internet? Even if it’s free… Many may disagree with me, but this offer is not going to give a good impression. Many ISPs, for instance, Micronet Broadband Limited offers its customers with free dial-up as backup, but advertising th
is free dialup feature through a quarter page advertisement didn’t make any sense to me. Thing that came in my mind, straight away, was that this free dialup internet is maybe due to ordinary quality of PTCL Broadband internet. I saw a news item in ‘The News’ published lately, that reported the rapid disconnections of PTCL Broadband users. Maybe, it is just an additional treat that could save some of their customers.
Another point that I focus is that PTCL is Significant Market Player (SMP), which is not supposed to offer packages without Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s approval. PTA has defined here the Regulations for revising the tariffs for LL, LDI and WLL operators.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on May 30, 2008 at 4:07 AM
Note: This Trick is not Working anymore…
A very amazing offer for Ufone users, which is that they can use GPRS over their Ufone numbers for FREE. Remember it’s a trick, not an official offer from Ufone…
A user has found this bug in Ufone’s GPRS network, and claims that it works fine. I personally tested it and found it working…
To enjoy FREE GPRS follow below steps
- First of all activate your GPRS (if your GPRS is already active, then skip this process and start from point 5)
- Send a SMS in following Pattern [manufacturer(e.g.nokia)<space>model] and send it to 222
- You will get the GPRS setting through an SMS
- Save this SMS – Until now, your GPRS is activated and you can use GPRS, but it won’t be free. You will be billed as PKR 15 per 1 MB download
- Now the trick starts
- Go to tools> settings> connections> Ufone GPRS> Edit Ufone GPRS and write APN(Access Point Name) ufone.pmms – Previously it would be ufone.pwap
- You are ready and can start using FREE GPRS
- To use messengers go to Tools> Setting> Connection> Ufone GPRS> Options> Advance Setting and Change DNS
- primary 172.16.13.21
- 2ndary 172.16.13.119
This hack works perfectly fine, so start enjoying the FREE GRPS Internet. If you are a postpaid user, better give a try on prepaid number before start using it on your postpaid number.
If you get server timeout message, don’t worry; that just a temporary down time, in such a case wait for couple of hours and your free internet will be available again.
Let me know if someone faces problems, so i may update the post; remember, its a hack and may stop working anytime.
Keep enjoying FREE GPRS INTERNET
Update: (July 15, 2008): This trick does not work anymore. I am trying to find out any new way for Free GPRS Internet on Ufone. If any one knows, then please share the trick with us. Thanks
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