Posted by: Bites85 on December 17, 2008 at 9:53 AM
Cellular Companies in Pakistan, in order to cut short its advertising expense; they have started promotion their services and new promotions through SMS. As we may see a notable decrease in print and Electronic Media advertisings, number of promotion SMS sent to each customer has dramatically increased.
There are few instances in which a cellular companies sent upto 6 text messages a day to its client.
According to Wikipedia: “Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages”. This definition clearly describes what spam is.
Now companies directly send messages about their new offerings and promotions. Personally I’m a little annoyed by these messages as these promotion messages may arrive at wrong time. By the way, customers may tolerate once a week but upto 6 messages daily, it is surely spamming.
I am a customer of Warid Telecom. And daily I get bombarded with new packages offerings, caller tune activation details, W zone sign up offer and the funniest message that I got today is: Continue Reading This Story
Email
11 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on December 16, 2008 at 5:47 PM
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has apparently not questioned Mobilink’s recent promotion, in which it has offered its entire prepaid base off-net rates same as of on-net.
We have discussed this before that through a recent promotion Mobilink’s Jazz One Package holders can make off-net calls as low as Rs. 1 plus tax per minute which is even lesser than interconnection charges per minute.
Being Significant Market Player, Mobilink can’t offer such an aggressive package which may result in severe damage towards the industry. Telecom market is already witnessing heavy price war amongst operators; however so far this pricing war was confined to on-net tariffs, and this move by Mobilink can ignite off-net tariff competition as well.
Mobilink’s spokesman confirmed us that the company has not received any notice or warning from PTA regarding the said package, while on the other side we are still waiting for PTA spokesman’s comment over the issue, for last 2 days.
Officials from cellular companies while commenting on Mobilink’s package said that it is PTA’s responsibility to bound SMP to notify the details of packages and promotions prior to launching them. “If this is the case, and if Mobilink had notified PTA prior to promotion launch, then I am unable to comprehend how the authority allowed it?” said a cellular company official.
While on other hands, a telecom analyst said that this package will not only damage telecom market but will also act negatively for Mobilink itself. He said, in already very competitive telecom market Mobilink is equally suffering the downfall of the national economy; and in such a situation, halving your revenues is like hitting your head into wall.
Through our sources we know that this package got approved by Rashid Khan, new CEO of Mobilink, despite it was once rejected by Mr. Zouhair Khaliq during his tenure.
Email
4 Comments
Posted by: Reality Bites on December 16, 2008 at 9:08 AM
PTA has quoted 4,416,417 fixed line subscribers in 2007-2008 annual report, which were 4,806,206 just a year ago.
The major challenge for fixed line segment of Telco industry is customer churn on continuous basis, where churn is only occurring in case of voluntary basis, which is massive.
In 2000, when de-regulation in Telco industry was hot topic to relevant personalities , but unfortunately important prospects missed or ignored by experts about it’s long term effects on fixed segment of telco industry. As we have not seen since 2007 end any parallel strategies to manage market equilibrium. No doubt, everyone gives lame excuses that this fixed line churn is being experienced everywhere in the world, but this cannot fulfill the gap between both segments.
Better late than never, as PTCL came back with good customer services they need good Customer Retention & Loyalty Programmes and solutions:
- Churn Management
- Customer Behavior Monitoring
- Loyalty Offerings (Give-Aways)
Continue Reading This Story
Email
5 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on December 15, 2008 at 11:45 AM
After recent reshuffle in Orascom’s top level management, there is a strong rumor out there that Mobilink may undergo some changes in its higher management as well. These changes may surround couple of Vice Presidents and some middle level management.
A high level source has communicated us that Mr. Irfan Akram, who is currently the Vice President Sales may head Administration department very soon. The primary reason for this Change in portfolio is to ease Mr. Irfan Akram from tough sales’ situation in recent months. The decision of course came with the consent of Mr. Rashid Khan, CEO, Mobilink.
Currently Administration and HR department is being headed by Mr. Ali Raza Mehdi; meaning that he will keep on heading HR while administration will go to Mr. Akram.
Mr. Aamir Ibrahim is most likely to head Sales, who is currently Chief Strategy Officer, Mobilink. It is very much obvious that Sale’s is going to be the toughest and most reasult demanding department for Mobilink in coming months.
It merits mentioning here that both Mr. Rashid Khan and Irfan Akram come from ex-Paktel team and bear good acquaintance. Mr. Bilal Munir Sheikh, Vice President, Marketing was part of that Paktel team as well.
Mobilink’s spokesman denied any such organizational reshuffle in near future.
Email
6 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on December 13, 2008 at 8:25 AM
Much Hyped third generation services surfaced Indian Capital yesterday when government-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) launched first Indian 3G network it presence of Mr. Manmohan Sing, Prime Minister of India. We are told that this is a soft launch with limited coverage even in New Delhi. MTNL’s statement said that commercial launch, tariffs and registrations will open in 2 months or so.
Featured Services MTNL will Offer includes
- Video Telephony – Customers will watch and talk simultaneously through Video Call.
- High speed internet for smart-phones and Laptop from 256 Kbps to 2 Mbps.
- Mobile TV
- Location surveillance
- Streaming Video on Demand
- Gaming and so on
So this was about India; now let’s get back to Pakistan, and discuss what prospects and challenges we have got when it comes to 3G network and its implementation in our country.
3G Network Prospects For Pakistan’s Market
Service with better value is always welcomed by the masses. In 3G services, customers can get data speed of up to 2Mbps, while the highest possible speed in GSM is only 50Kpbs and EDGE is 387Kbps (this max speed on GSM and EDGE can vary depending on network).
With emergence of 3G it will be something like transiting from Dial-up to Broadband; means no question, what’s so ever, for comparison, but the answer that “3G will rock”. Continue Reading This Story
Email
4 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on December 13, 2008 at 6:01 AM
ZONG has introducing an advanced service of its kind TakeOne that lets subscribers share videos, pictures etc with just a click to anywhere in the world.
Through this GPRS backed application based service, the subscribers can share their memorable moments with friends and family using multiple channels such as
- Any Cell Phone
- Facebook, You Tube, Flickr, Picasa and many more
- Any Email Address
How to Subscribe
- Write a message “TAKEONE” and send it to 343 (it will cost you Rs2+tax)
- User receives SMS with WAP link to download application
- User clicks on the WAP Link
- If user’s phone is supported he is shown the download link
- After the installer is downloaded, the installation starts
- Once the installation is complete, the application starts
- When the application starts – it sends ACTIVATION SMS to 223 (Rs. 25+tax for one month)
- When system receives ACTIVATION SMS, the user is activated at the backend and he can start sharing his photos and videos – user will also receive a Welcome SMS.
- Your subscription will renew every month, if sufficient balance is found in your account.
Continue Reading This Story
Email
12 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on December 12, 2008 at 4:31 PM
Guest Post by Nayni
Year 2008 is offering its last days to color it either with sorrow or joy. Everyone has a lot to talk about his experiences of this very year at all social, political and personal level. Like all other sectors, telecom sector is being viewed from different angles. I humbly accept that I know least about this sector. I am just a ‘user’, a person who is only interested to know about which company is the best service provider, which offers inexpensive calling rates and attractive packages.
I am sure that much professional analysis about the progress of Telecom Industry must be in queue. I, here, want to record my analysis, observation and concerns as a user.
In 2008 I never showed any regret about having a mobile phone. With each passing day I kept on hearing ‘great’ news about more and more reduction in calling rates. My bill cut to half as the result of growing competition in different companies. Inbox of my mobile always kept me smiling - of course my family and friends were also enjoying the ‘generosity’ of Ufone, Warid , Mobilink, Telenor and Zong. Second half of this year amazingly showed a considerable decrease in ‘wrong’ calls – Thanks to PTA that managed to have a check on SIMS with no ‘guardians’. I also observed better customer service, though I still hate to hear the ‘promotion packages’. Last but not least, who can forget the ‘sophisticated’ and ‘colorful’ war of these companies through advertisements on TV? Continue Reading This Story
Email
No Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on December 11, 2008 at 8:16 PM
China’s ZTE has announced the signing of a US$100 million contract with China Mobile’s Pakistan subsidiary (CMPak) to help them expand the capacity of their GSM infrastructure as part of its Phase 2 project.
The project covers central Pakistan, where the highest GDP in the country is produced and more than half of the country’s population resides, hence becoming the main source of most operators’ voice data service profits. The central Pakistan territory comprises of eight cities and regions, including Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city.
Under the GSM infrastructure extension project, ZTE will provide CMPak with its latest 8000 series of base stations using a unified total IP hardware platform. The solution allows operators to smoothly evolve their telecom infrastructure into total IP integrated mobile broadband networks helping them reduce network evolution cost, lower their TCO, and continuously enhance their profitability. Continue Reading This Story
Email
No Comments
Loading ...