Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 12, 2008 at 10:51 AM
We have previously discussed the sluggishness in telecom sector of Pakistan. We had concluded that heavy tax impositions on telecom services and equipment including handsets are major factors for decreasing growth rate of cellular subscribers. Along with, we also saw that foreign direct investments that come in Pakistan from telecom sector saw a significant decrement.
Dr. Yasin, Chairman PTA has also derived that this increment in taxes is seriously damaging telecom sector, in terms of growth, revenues and FDI coming into the country. In an Iftar party that was organized by PTA specifically for journalists, he said that authority has asked the government to reconsider the imposition of added taxes on telecom services.
Chairman summarized achievements of telecom sector and said that Pakistan was able to fetch US $ 5 Billion of foreign direct investment into country in last 4 years. Lately Pakistan telecom has witnessed tremendous growth while adding 2.1 million cellar users per month in year 2007-08, added Dr. Yasin.
He also discussed the challenges that are being faced by the sector, which includes overall slow economic trend in the country and decreasing value of Pakistani Rupee.
Via [Daily Jang]
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 10, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Warid Telecom has introduced Warid’s Pocket PCO (a very similar product like we had Mobilink’s PCO), in order to take the wireless communication to remote, far flung and less developed areas of Pakistan.
One can use Zem Pocket PCO as a standard GSM handset as a mobile Pay Phone. The Pocket PCO SIM Toolkit allows the handset owner, individual or PCO operator, to create a PCO business at very low initial investment by using a single cell phone to sell airtime to other users at reduced rates.
Salient Features
- Pocket PCO SIM is a special 128K SIM card that will be having only one application i.e. Pocket PCO. The factors differentiating Zem Pocket PCO from a fixed line PCO are as follows:
- A SIM based solution which allows a user to charge differently for any call or SMS made from a normal Zem connection
- Can set advance amount for a call thereby terminating the call automatically after the amount has been consumed at the set tariff rate
- Customer and PCO owner have the visibility of called units and charges during and after the call
- PCO owner has real time access to sales done from the SIM by clicking option in menu
- Bonus balance is awarded on usage of SIM in Motorola C123 based on Rs.1000 reload of Warid scratch card
- A SIM based solution for scratch card recharge and balance inquiry option
What Comes with Warid Pocket PCO
- A Motorola C123 handset
- A handset chord & receiver for use by the customer to make calls as on a normal fixed line PCO
- A PKR 1000 scratch card
- SIM Toolkit application in both Urdu & English language on a 128K card
- Log book to record sales
- Starter guide to help you understand the product functionality
- A Zem Pocket PCO cap & jacket to identify the PCO owner in a crowd
Pricing
Where to get?
Call 321 for details regarding the availability of Warid Pocket PCO
More Details:http://www.waridtel.com/consumer/product/pocket_pco/faqs.php
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 8, 2008 at 6:49 PM
Federal Board of Revenue has directed the member Direct Taxes to start recovery of income tax from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which values Rs. 9 billion in amount, in response to what FBR had communicated PTA to pay their taxes by August 27, 2008, failing which besides imposition of penalty of u/s 183 additional taxes would also be charged at 12 percent per annum, furthermore FBR believed that tax amount will be recovered by adopting all recovery measures as warranted by Income Tax Law.
It was told by a high level official at FBR that PTA is not paying its taxes for last 10 years, and that the tax amount has reached Rs. 9 billion during this time period. The case has been re-opened after it was settled last year when PTA had paid Rs. 1 billion as an installment, but afterwards telecom authority is using delaying tactics to avoid paying taxes, added FBR sources.
When contacted FBR official, who is responsible to tackle PTA’s case, told us that telecom authority is claiming exception which is not due at all; FBR official further said that exemption from tax is not available to government authorities as it was withdrawn by virtue of overriding provision of section 54 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
FBR Officer further told that PTA has been delaying this payment for more than 10 years now. “Limit is limit; we can’t send them notices anymore. FBR may direct Telecom companies to submit their license fee directly to FBR if PTA will keep on delaying this tax amount”, concluded FBR official.
When contacted a PTA official, he refused to comment any thing on the issue, as he believed that the matter is both in High Court and Appellate Tribunals, and must not be commented until it is not decided.
Financial analysts suggest that PTA must give this tax, as all other government authorities are paying their taxes to FBR. The amount has to reach our national treasury… Either PTA pays it directly or it goes through FBR, then why not to follow the rule…?
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 7, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has decided to take conclusive measures against PTCL, in case they fail to resolve “Pakistan Package” issue with the authority and other LDI/LL companies in the country.
High level industry sources have revealed that PTA has decided to take severe and conclusive measures against PTCL that has not withdrawn Pakistan Package, despite repetitive directives from the authority.
Sources said that PTCL’s Pakistan Package had raised serious concerns for LDI/LL operators of the country, who have requested Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to play its role in detaining PTCL from continuing its free nation wide calling package, as it is causing them serious losses to their businesses. In response to which authority has directed PTCL to have meeting with LDI/LL operators to get their consent on Pakistan Package within 10 days, other wise authority will have to take decision to hold up the continuity of Pakistan Package.
On an additional note, PTCL launched other packages such as “Phone N Net” and “International Plus Packages” without the approval of the PTA, told a source. On which PTA has warned landline giant to not to repeat this practice again. It maybe recalled that all telecom operators, especially Significant Market Players (SMP) must inform the authority prior to launch of any package.
It merits mentioning here that PTA had directed PTCL to quit Pakistan Package by August 31, 2008, but those directions were put on deaf ears by PTCL administration. Telecom analysts are unable to comprehend PTA’s defensive mode against PTCL, which has been repetitively violating PTA’s directives and apparently PTCL is bluntly ruling the Telecom Sector of Pakistan without any regulations.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 3, 2008 at 9:30 AM
A month ago or so Interior Ministry of Pakistan came up with a solution to curb illegal sale of SIMs by directing cellular companies to send SIMs directly to postal addresses instead of directly selling them at franchises or other outlets.
This was an extreme action that could be taken, and apparently cellular companies succeeded in not implementing the practice. But now, there comes another directive to stop selling pre-activated SIMs, and this time Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior has passed these directions to PTA to be implemented with immediate effect.
Business Recorder has reported on this and says that standing committee had a meeting with Chairman PTA, Chairman Nadra, Ministry of Information Technology and conclusively directives were passed to PTA to ensure the end of sale of pre-activated SIMs within four weeks.
So now expect deactivated SIMs from stores when you buy them, and you will have to activate SIMs by providing your verification and providing a secret code. Cellular companies are yet to reach a point to follow the practice.
So this was about this particular development that took place. Now let’s discuss current situation of illegal SIMs.
I have previously written about the illegal sale of SIMs and measures taken by the government and cellular companies to resolve the issue. But seems like we are in middle of no where… you would be wondering why I said so? Okay read on to know this
It has been told to media that cellular companies have blocked around 7.1 million unregistered and unauthorized SIM cards of different Cellular-phone Companies issued till April 31, 2008, besides thousands have been verified and registered.
Out of these 7.1 million blocked SIMs, a victim was one of my friends who had been using his SIM for almost three years. He believed that SIM was registered in his name, and there was no good reason for blocking it. Anyhow, he can get a new SIM, not a big deal, but when he called his bank to activate his credit card for shopping online, (you may know that normally credit cards are not allowed to be used online, banks activate this service on request) they asked him to call from the number that was associated with credit card , or they will not activate him the service.
He even spoke to their TL (Team Lead), and told them that his registered number has been blocked and he can not call them from that particular number, but his pleas were put over deaf ears… and the response was “Sir, this is part of our policy, and we can not help you even our bank president asks us to do so”
This is one known complexity out of many unknown, if we kept on blocking these SIMs. I windup my post here, leaving a question open… that is “Is there any Ideal Solution for the situation created other than re-registering all numbers??? “
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 2, 2008 at 6:39 AM
Thanks to Mr. Mudassar Jehangir, Editor-in-Chief, More Magazine, who did this service Review of “PTCL’s Smart IPTV” and allowed me to post it here.
I received two calls in the third week of August from the sales staff of PTCL confirming from me the order of “Smart IPTV connection”. Before the installation, my telephone line was checked by the staff to confirm the signal strength.
IPTV won’t run properly if data downstream and upstream value is lower than 10 in your phone line. In case it is less than 10, the transmission will be jerky.
The installation was just a process of 1 hour. My old broadband modem was replaced by the new modem of Huawei. From the modem you can get two CAT 5 (network) cables for the out put. One goes to the computer for the internet connection and other goes to the set-top box, a device which makes the transmission possible. Technically, set-top box (STB) is a device that connects to a television and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen.
The old PTCL logo was visible on the top left corner of the box which revealed that the smart IPTV project was designed to be launched in the year 2006 and it must have been put on hold due to certain reasons.
To activate the STB, there is a content security IRDETO ZETA smart card which is inserted into the box to unlock the transmission. Basically this is the card that makes possible the desired TV contents and the revenue. For the information, IRDETO is an Amsterdam based company which is into Digital TV content business since 1969.
Once the card is inserted and STB turned on, same old PTCL logo appears on the welcome screen which confirms the project’s roots back in 2006.
At the start, the main menu screen provides options to choose either live transmission or Video on Demand (VOD). The pause and rewind option is available for few of the live channels. Currently PTCL provides a reverse transmission for 2 and half hours which it plans to extend for more hours in the future.
Overall the quality of live transmission is impressive and unlike conventional TV cable the result is High Definition from 1st to over 100th channel. Initially PTCL had announced a free service of IPTV for 15 days which it has extended for one more month just like it did with the broadband services.
The Video on Demand (VOD) section requires more attention as the already saved movies (both Hollywood and Bollywood) on the server are obsolete, it is bearable for a temporary period but very soon PTCL will need to update its database and include new collection because it is a paid section and subscriber is required to pay Rs. 50 every time he/she select and item.
The service also allows parents to lock and unlock any channel, and allows users to search for their movies and TV shows by title and cast listing and then watch them on-demand.
Smart IPTV service is only possible on places where PTCL broadband is already running. Homes or offices where broadband connection is a requirement, Smart IPTV will be a point of attraction. On a 1 MB connection the total monthly fee becomes Rs. 2300 provided you have purchased the Set Top Box for Rs. 9995.
PTCL was smart enough to start selling the broadband connection well before the IPTV launch. According to company’s statistics it has sold more than 50,000 broadband connections so far. The prospects of selling IPTV connections are therefore higher on already installed broadband connections.
Only time will tell how quickly it can become a replacement to the conventional cable which still cost Rs. 100 to 200 and has huge acceptability among masses. The availability of service largely depends on the condition of copper wire that goes to the customer’s premises.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 29, 2008 at 11:10 AM
In a recent development to tackle the economic crisis in our country, the government has decided to impose duties on 380 items (called as luxury items). My focus point is the handset industry that has seen a flat tax imposition of Rs. 250 per handset, regardless of its price or model.
This recent increment in tax is other than the one that was imposed in budget 2008 @ Rs. 500 per mobile phone. Hence the total tax on the import of a mobile handset would be now Rs. 750.
I have discussed before about heavy taxes on Telecom services, handsets and telecom equipment and their bad impact on our cellular growth rate and the revenues that our cellular companies have been earning.
Besides, the worst thing in this flat increment is that it will hit both the rich and poor alike, though the government says that taxes are on luxury items but they need to correct themselves as mobile phone is not a luxury item anymore.
Recent increment in taxes on handset is going to badly disturb the prices of low end phones. And we may see a bad impact on the sales of handset and ultimately the cellular connections.
Via [Pro Pakistan]
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 27, 2008 at 4:18 AM
Many of us don’t own credit card that means we are easily deprived of online shopping. Believe me; at times we find ourselves in deep trouble due to not having a credit card, and life seems impossible without credit card.
I am like many of you, who don’t like the idea of credit card. Just because of tons of service charges they apply for no good reason. So I had no credit card until few months back. Then I decided to start this blog and had to purchase a hosting server. So that was the time, when I came to know how important a credit card can be. Khair it’s a long story about how I managed to get my credit card and leased my server.
So the good news is that, United Bank Limited (UBL) has now started allowing their debit card holders to shop online with their Visa Debit Cards… yea!
So you can now use your UBL Wallet Visa to shop online! UBL is one of the few banks in Pakistan to offer its customers this value added feature, opening a whole new world of choices and convenience for customers.
So guys, go ahead and enjoy the convenience of online shopping. Simply call toll free at 0800-11825 to activate your UBL card.
Note: UBL Debit card comes with every debit account with United Bank Limited. So all you need is an account with UBL to get this facility. For details callL: 0800-11825
Features:
- No activation or annual charges - Facility available FREE OF COST!
- No extra paperwork required
- Nominal per session charges (Call helpline for details)
- Easily activated by calling toll free on 0800-11825
- UBL Wallet Visa card can be used at all international and local websites that accept VISA.
- Customer defined spending limit / duration for enhanced security
- Gold Card Daily Internet Shopping Limits :PKR 100,000
- Silver Card Daily Internet Shopping Limits :PKR 50,000
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