Posted by: Bites85 on October 10, 2008 at 3:20 AM
Post by Bites85 of Newz on Fire
Mobile Phones surged into Human beings rapidly, and soon they got addicted to this technology marvel. There are almost 2.7 billion mobile users around the world, ranging from teens to tycoons. Every single person loves to hang out with this device – or say, they simply can’t think of life without it.
In Pakistan cellular industry has shown rapid growth, especially in last few years… As per PTA stats, there are 89 million mobile users in the country, which were only couple of millions some years ago. This clearly depicts that how gigantic Telecom Industry has become.
Every company is trying to beat its nemesis – and efforts are clearly seen to beat each other in this corporate battle. Where these cellular companies brought tons of investment into country, and played constructive role in bettering lifestyles, at same time the tussle between cellular companies has actively spoiled our youth. Every single boy and girl has a mobile phone and they are found texting and talking on their cell phone all the times.
Let’s discuss the impact on youth of various services and packages that cellular companies offer
Night Packages:
These days every company is providing very inexpensive (or even free) calls at night. These calls are like Rs. 5 and, hence are affordable for even an average teen. They talk all night long with their (girl/boy) friends. Use their pocket money to buy credits. At times, even they cheat their parents, and use mobile without their permission. Many boys and girls also talk to their so called lovers. Which can be basically termed as a teen crush?
A study done by a British institute revealed that late night mobile chatting makes teens tired and mentally distorted - as they have to wake up early. Consequently they can’t concentrate on their studies and are often found sleeping in their classes.
Sms Craze:
Messaging, messaging and messaging is what the teens do these days. It’s a symbol of being cool. The one who got more messages is considered the cool one. Teens forward jokes, romantic lines, riddles and even immoral adult messages. SMS Craze in teens can be judged by the typing speed and their accuracy to type messages on little dial pad. They just thumb the mobile and don’t stop.
Pedia Services:
Ask any question through sms is the newest service especially for the teens. Thanks to this service teens can now more efficiently cheat in their papers and quizzes. Zongopedia and ASK Telenor are two services. You can easily send a question through sms. Soon you receive answer and get good marks. It’s just another way to make money for these companies by ruining the careers of teens.
Wap/EDGE:
Now days you don’t need to turn on your pc on to use internet. Internet is just a click away thanks to wap/EDGE enabled mobiles. This service is good for the people who really need it. But teens normally use it to waste their time. First are the messengers which don’t let teens sleep at night, then comes the facebook and other social websites to keep them awake.
Un registered Sim cards:
The last thing which is the biggest menace is the un-registered sim cards. It gives you the passport to do all the wrong things because no one can catch you. I can bet that every single teen has a un-registered sim card. Our government tries so hard to block them but our teens are much smarter. You can talk to anyone, black mail them, do what ever you want.
Let me tell you a shocking thing about un-registered sim cards. I am doing my 2nd year from Army Public School & College, Ordnance road Rawalpindi. Yesterday there was a bomb blast threat at our school. Administration evacuated all the classes and asked the children to run to ground, and latter they were asked to leave for their homes earlier than routine time. Afterwards, they searched the school but it was just a rumor. Today through my close sources I got to know that it was a prank call made by a 7th class student from Saint Mary’s school Tulsa road Rawalpindi… He used an-unregistered sim card. Sadly he was caught by the authorities and God knows what they would have done with him.
MMS/Videos
There are hundreds of examples, where MMS and Videos of their lovers were captured by teenagers and what happens next is a topic that i am feeling is not good to touch… but one can imagine the seriousness of the issue!
Conclusion:
So who is responsible for all this? Cellular companies? Or we ourselves? Cellular companies are just doing their business. There goal is to make more and more revenue. As a business entity they don’t need to care about anything. In fact mobile companies encourage teenagers to call their lovers, for example in one of Telenor’s TVC, one guy asks another “Itnay minutes Aaliya ko mananay kay liye kafi hain na?”
So its we who let them spoil us. We are getting addicted to this device. Our parents should keep a check on us, at the same time we should save ourselves by controlling our desires. Think about it
Email
7 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 5, 2008 at 1:44 PM
Data Solutions (Pvt) Ltd and Tracking World (Pvt) Ltd are offering Pakistan’s very first in-car GPS system. Initially in detail maps are available for major Pakistani cities (including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Wah Cantt) and all major national highways.
Streets are labeled and searchable for Islamabad, Lahore and some parts of Karachi. In addition there are close to 40,000 POIs (point of interests) such as fuel/CNG stations, banks, ATMs, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, shops, etc. You may find address and phone number information for most of POIs.
In-Car GPS is made possible through Garmin GPS units. These navigation units range from in-car dash mounted devices to devices for motorbikes. There is also a unit which can be integrated with the vehicle’s LCD and displays the navigational information on it.
Initially in-detailed maps would be available for selected cities They say that they had been developing maps for Pakistan for last two years, and now they are ready to launch GPS services next week through an
Lahore based Tracking World say that, customers can pay one time fee for these navigation units and map to use GPS service for life time. They won’t charge you any monthly subscription fee or data transfer fee afterwords, thanks to their partnership with cellular companies.
Users will have to purchase one navigational device and map to kick going.
Once configured, users can input for POIs or location addresses in navigation device, which will speak out or guide drivers through screen to reach destinations.
Devices’ price: Ranges from $399 to $599
Map Price: $120
For Device pricing and features click here
Your input regarding service experiance (in comment box) will greatly help others
Email
33 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 5, 2008 at 12:37 PM
Mobilink in collaboration with Singapore based TenCube has brought this service called “Mobilink Call Secure”, which was initially developed for Singapore Police and Military use.
Mobilink CellSecure is Mobile phone security software that allows you track down the thief, get alerted when your mobile phone is stolen!. Remotely lock your phone or disable access to Messages, call log and phone book in case your phone is stolen – At same time, you can auto backup your data on Mobilink servers and also remotely delete your data from phone – That’s perfect security.
Mobilink CallSecure can auto lock your phone in case SIM is changed (You can associate multiple SIMs with your phone so that it is not triggered if you use more than one SIM).
How to subscribe?
Before subscribing, you need to make sure that your phone is supported. Click here to check list of supported phones. Also you need to have GPRS activated for your number. (This is an application based service still you must be using Mobilink connection to acquire this service)
Afterwards, it’s simple! Just SMS “REG” to 50007, and you should receive a SMS with a link.
From this link, you will have to download Mobilink CellSecure, follow the simple installation process and get done!
Charges
A monthly subscription charge of Rs.36.3 (including taxes) apply
For further reading and FAQs click here
Email
5 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 30, 2008 at 6:14 AM
As prices for telecom services’ have reached their bottom limits, cellular companies and PTCL keep on offering even better packages for limited time. These special offers keep on appearing every other week from telcos, with a tagline “Limited Time Offer”. We see plenty of print and electronic advertisements for these special offers, and they get popular very quickly and easily.
In my opinion (others may not agree) this “Limited Time Offer” tagline is excessively used to practice “Try and Implement” model. I can count several ongoing Limited Time Offers, which were introduced months ago - and they are still available, because they performed good.
It’s really fine, until these offers last, but what happens when they are taken back? For withdrawing these offers, there can be two models
- Announce ending date of package at time of its announcement or
- Publish advertisements well before (a week before) the ending date of Package
Unfortunately, we rarely see any announcement/advertisements, when (for some reasons) Limited Time offers are taken back. For instance, late night free local call offer by PTCL is going to end tonight (September 30, 2008) at 12:00 AM. But PTCL made no public announcement for this. Yea, there was a news item reported yesterday in newspapers, which said that PTCL is withdrawing this package. But that’s not the way; because, do they publish only news when package launches?
At same time, I am impressed with Ufone’s Ramadan offer, as it was very clearly told that this package is only for the month of Ramadan; plus they published advertisement saying thanks to their customers and informing (reminding) them that offer is over. We hope and want other companies to practice this too.
But I am worried for PTCL users who will come to know only after they will receive next bills - that free night calls were over long ago.
Email
3 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 29, 2008 at 3:30 AM
I have done plenty of posts regarding privacy issues related to cellular phones, and how they can be crucial if your personal information is handed over to undesired hands. Today, I am going to discuss another very sensitive issue that can add un-ending miseries to your life.
Problem
Problem is very simple, that is, if I am a postpaid customers, anyone can call my cellular company’s helpline, and can alter my billing address’ information after providing my CNIC number, home address and other basic information.
Now what will happen if my billing address is changed? Very simple, my bills will be delivered at new (and undesired) address. Hence, any one can have my call details.
In case you are getting e-statement for your postpaid bill, then scenario can get worst.
Offender can change my billing address again, after he/she has received my previous one month’s calling record. And this way, I will not even know the privacy breach that just happened.
Case Studies
Recently I met this person (I am not disclosing his identity on his request). He is a lawyer by profession and had a Mobilink postpaid number. His wife wanted to spy his phone activity. She achieved this by changing his billing address information to a new address where she had easy access.
She used to call several times a day to Mobilink helpline to figure out most inexperienced (innocent) CSR in the team, which she found one. After few days, she called again and asked for that particular CSR by name, on which she came online with her. Here, she asked this CSR (who was a lady too) to change the billing address of this postpaid number. She provided all information that was required. And her mission was achieved.
All of you can image about what would had happened next…
In another case reported to me was a person whose email (that was associated with Ufone postpaid number) got changed. And offender kept on receiving his bill via email for several months.
Continue Reading This Story
Email
8 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 28, 2008 at 2:01 AM
We have discussed before about how important is to protect your data stored on phone; especially those files which are confidential and of very personal in nature.
In case your phone is stolen, or it is temporarily in someone’s hand, you are at great risk of loosing this private data. The situation may lead you to a very depressing state leaving you with no option but to regret. So this is the right time to better plan your personal data storage strategies.
Second best practice is to protect your files with passwords (obviously the best thing is to not keep private files on your mobile at all). For this, unfortunately, our mobile phones don’t come with folder lock options. Let me review this software for you which can hide your files and folders from others.
This software, named as “File hide” can hide your files and folders. This is a JAVA application, meaning that its compatible to variety of phone models available these days.
After downloading “File Hide” application, you will be asked to set a master password after you run the application on first place. Just select a password and restart file hide to start using it. By the way you can change this password in anytime you want.
To start protecting your files you can click on an option named as “hide” in the option menu and the file will then not be listed in the phone and can be seen only through file hide.
Good thing about “File hide” is that it is a freeware and user friendly as well.
Please note that your files will be visible when connected to computer. So this is not the ultimate solution, obviously not a desired feature, but still a good tool to hide your files on mobile phone.
Download “File Hide”
Email
No Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 21, 2008 at 6:20 AM
As the headline clearly says, it’s a rumor… hence no official confirmations are there about this offer from Ufone. But we are told by reliable sources that Ufone will start giving Rs. 500 handsets to those who will port-in to Ufone from other networks through Mobile Number Portability (MNP). Speculations are that this Rs. 500 handset is going to be Huawei T206, exactly the same handset that comes with Ufone’s Bundle offer (Handset and Ufone connection in Rs. 999)
This offer will impress those customers who are on other networks but currently they are deprived of handsets. Being a low end Huawei handset, this is going to be a perfect match for those who need the basic telephony options. Click here to know specifications of this phone.
Even, if this offer doesn’t turn reality, I suppose cellular companies may think about similar offers to grab customers from other networks. Furthermore, these handsets are likely to be of locked nature; meaning that they could be used on Ufone network only.
Email
2 Comments
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 14, 2008 at 5:27 PM
Banking transactions made over internet (known as E-Banking) are rapidly getting very common amongst businesses entities and masses in Pakistan. This was reflected in a recent report prepared by State Bank of Pakistan, which read that E-Banking has grown as high as 32 percent growth last year (2008).
This report that got published in print media today, said that, a total of 124.6 million e-banking transactions were recorded valuing Rs 13.9 trillion during the last fiscal year (2008), showing a growth of 25.4 percent in numbers and 32.3 percent in amount when compared with the fiscal year 2007.
This significant growth in e-banking is due to massive use of internet, especially high speed internet in Pakistan. Along with come the factors such as increasing number of free launce workers in the country who work for overseas companies tend to use E-Banking instead of paper banking. Furthermore, those who are living abroad are also increasingly interacting with their bank accounts back in Pakistan from internet.
We also see that E-Banking standards maintained by Pakistan banks are not bad; though some may have bad experiences, but largely, systems are stable and reliable. This reliability and benefits, such as, time saving with E-Banking are fetching more users by each passing day.
With this rise in E-Banking usage, there are certain restrictions too, such as daily and monthly transaction limits are insufficient; which actually hinders business entities and individuals to make E-Banking as their primary banking mode. Bankers say that this low limit is to increase security and allowing least chances for fraudulent activities, but on other hands, consumers require more luxury though with safety.
On the same note, I would like to see e-commerce activities in Pakistan. We see that E-Banking is already given good feedback, along with total number of credit and debit card holders reach 6.7 million, there is a dire need of E-Commerce infrastructure layout in the country, and that too in quick time.
More details on this report titled ‘Retail Payment Systems of Pakistan (paper-based and ebanking), are covered in following news item taken from Dawn’s edition of September 14, 2008.
Continue Reading This Story
Email
4 Comments
Loading ...