Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 14, 2008 at 9:52 AM
ITCN Asia 2008 was concluded today after running a three day show at Expo Center Karachi. I hope this mega technology event of Pakistan remained superb. It’s a matter of fact that I don’t know much about what actually happened there, either due to my poor googling capabilities or there is actually no material available online about what went on at ITCN Asia 2008.
Unfortunately, few of my previous post (in row) were not with positive views, and now my readers have started asking me to think good instead of just pointing out the bad elements; so I will try to not to criticize the ITCN Management (PR Department in particular) to higher extent, but I just wanted to ask them “Where is the coverage?”
Expos are meant to popularize business entities and the products they launch there, but you may get disappointed to know that there is just nothing available to know about ITCN. Only few links on google’s first page, and all of those have almost the similar stories. Netxpress Media were their online media partner; they have a corner designated where you can watch one video at a time.
There is maybe another reason, that our media men are so busy in political stories that they are no more interested in covering such issues.
And about ITCN’s official website… don’t ask me about just view the image below…!
By the way, here is another video of LG’s Stall ITCN Asia 2008 – You may regret of missing the expo after viewing the video : P
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 13, 2008 at 7:37 AM
I had heard from someone that wholesale computers are sold by weighting them. But now the time has come where this idea is being floated into retail market.
Yea man… now this chap in Karachi is selling Penitum 4 at Rs. 399 per Kilo…That’s really interesting. Furthermore, the banner ad (written in Urdu) mentions that a PC wont be more than 10-15 KG so that count around Rs. 4000 to Rs. 6000 (Less than $100)
Defiantly a very attractive catch phrase, given that this PC would be a Celeron Pentium 4 and with low RAM and hard disk. Anyway, number is there, go and check them
For those who can’t Read Urdu, this banner says as following
Save Thousands of Rupees (Rupee is Pakistani Currency), buy Computers as per weight
Pentium 4 Available in only Rupees 399 Per Kilo
Note: Pentium 4 is Less 10-15 KG for sure…
Al Madina Computers
0300-8258861
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 9, 2008 at 9:49 AM
As we all saw (and some of us were unfortunate enough, but they must had heard) of the most charismatic show on earth from Opening Ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008, online users are seeking website that offers Free Video Stream to watch online Beijing Olympics Games. I am enlisting few online resources, where you can watch online almost all game events of Olympics Games.
YouTube: Youtube has been offering a dedicated page for Olympics Games, that will broadcast majority of events and games from Beijing Olympics for its viewers.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 8, 2008 at 10:09 AM
This is the latest corporate ad by Telenor Pakistan. A very good theme that presents the whole story of a small business and its relation with country’s prosperity. Video is coupled with a very charismatic lyrics and vocals
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 7, 2008 at 9:55 AM
CIO Pakistan Magazine has been launched officially yesterday (August 05, 2007) in Karachi. CIO is considered as the world’s largest business technology leadership magazine, which is being printed in over 35 countries globally and will now be printing locally in Pakistan to help highlight and support our local technology Industry.
Besides the launch the event also included CIO “Technology Pioneer Awards” to recognize the excellence and the achievements of the best amongst the leaders of the local technology and telecommunication industry.
The details of the CIO Pioneer Awards went as following:
Pioneers in Telecommunication: Tariq Malik, CEO Wateen and Salman Ansari, CEO SATC.
Bringing global technologies into Pakistan: Humayun Bashir, Country manager IBM Pakistan and Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager, Microsoft Pakistan.
Pioneers In Local Industry: Khurram Hanif Kalia, President and CEO Kalsoft and Khushnood Aftab, CEO Viper Technologies
Pioneer in Contributing to IT Education in Pakistan: Samina Rizwan, Regional Director Oracle SAGE (West) and Naila Kassim, Manager, Intel World Ahead Program, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Taking Technology Global: Building Pakistan’s Image Abroad: Salim Ghauri, Chairman & CEO NetSol and Dilawar Abbas Syed, President OPEN silicon valley
Pioneer in Governance: Syed Mustafa Kamal, City Nazim, CDGK and Dr.Aamir Matin, Former MD PSEB.
In Special Awards Category :
Pioneers in innovation : Monis Rehman, Chairman & CEO Naseeb Networks.
Inspiring innovation: Umer Saif, Associate Professor, LUMS
Recognizing Special contributions to the Local Industry: Jehan Ara, President PASHA.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 4, 2008 at 5:15 AM
Zong has started a video service (similar to Ufone’s Video News Alerts that they launched 2 weeks ago) that will offer 5 video news alerts and breaking news to be sent to mobile subscribers via MMS.
Zong has partnered Geo News and Geo Super to bring these latest happenings to customers’ mobile phones with its service that Zong calls “Video on Demand”; but actually service is not exactly what Video on Demand services should offer.
How to Subscribe Zong Video on Demand
With Zong’s Video on Demand you can subscribe to two type of news, which is Geo News and Geo Super. Both services should be activated separately and hence they are charged separately too. (Check below for Video on Demand service charges)
To subscribe to GEO NEWS: write an SMS NEWS and send it to 632
To subscribe to GEO Super: write an SMS SPORTS and send it to 632
How to un-subscribe
In order to unsubscribe and stop receiving video clips, send an SMS ‘UNNEWS’ or ‘UN NEWS’ and send it to 636
In order to unsubscribe from all channels send an SMS ‘UN ALL’ or ‘UNALL’ and send it 636
Zong Video on Demand Service Charges
Subscription charges are Rs. 50/- plus tax per month
Note: these charges are per channel, which means you will have to pay Rs. 100 plus tax if you subscribe to Geo News and Geo Super both.
Un-subscription @ Rs.2 + tax
Zong Video on Demand Features
Subscribed users will receive news clips through MMS five times a day between 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 pm
Subscribed users will receive clips of breaking news within the above mentioned time slots
Only for GPRS and MMS Handsets only
GPRS & MMS should be enabled
There will be no charges on receiving the MMS
This service is available to all prepaid and postpaid subscribers of ZONG
If you want single news update but don’t want to subscribe to Video on Demand
If you want a single update on latest happenings and do not want to subscribe to the service; please do the following
For GEO NEWS: sms NEWS to 632
For GEO SUPER: sms SPORTS to 632
Charges for single news update will be Rs. 10/- plus tax per request
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 29, 2008 at 11:22 PM
Latest stats given so far by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (as per end of July 2008) and those which are advertised through media campaigns by Cellular companies say that there are 90 million SIMs in the country.
We all know that NADRA is given the responsibility to verify each SIM of Pakistan, which in opinion of many telecom analysts is not capable of doing so.
Reasons:6
NADRA itself has only 60 millions of registered users in its database (As of July 2008)
Cellular SIMs’ sale started way before NADRA came into existence
First few years of NADRA were a total failure (because they have reached this 60 million registered ID card figure now, it was defiantly not so in earlier years) but SIMs were being sold even then
So there are two possibilities now
Situation 1: Either there are not more than 60 million customers in Pakistan (or even less, due to the fact that many of NADRA ID card holders, especially women and those in far flung areas don’t own mobile phones yet)
Situation 2: Or NADRA can not verify all SIMs
Okay, now we have reached 2 possible situation here, let’s discuss both in detail and what steps should be taken in case of both situations.
I am assuming that Cellular Companies and the regulator (PTA) are familiar with the actual situation, that is either we have only 60 million or less customers or NADRA can’t verify SIMS.
Situation 1: Pakistan has less than 60 million Customers
This is relatively a bad news for telecom sector of Pakistan, in terms of investment and the tempo that the industry has achieved. Let’s check out why Telcos keep on insisting that they have subscriber’s strength that they never bear
To increase their stock value
To Minimize ARPU, that’s called Average Revenue per User. (Higher ARPU is always welcomed, but in case of Pakistan, cellular companies have (maybe) tried to keep the ARPU low. It is like this, if you are earning lot of revenue but you show higher expenses (more subscribers, more operating expenses) to neutralize your revenues (low ARPU) and eventually escaping taxes
And not an important point, but it comes into consideration while keeping in view the performance of individual managers who kept their bosses (investors) happy
Resolution of Situation 1
In case, situation 1 is true, then Pakistan Telecommunication Authority must come into act and play positively so that Cellular companies are not able to steal taxes and help our economy grow, as this is the only sector that can make some big money for our country.
In case situation 1 is true then we may expect new figures in Telco ads such as Call Rs 1 per Minute to 18 million Mobilink friends and family numbers etc.
Situation 2: NADRA is not capable of verifying SIMs
In case, situation 2 is true, then we must not wait any more and we must come up with a better and immediate solution than of what we are practicing now. Stop the current process of SIM verification from NARDA and stop wasting time.
What option we are left if Situation 2 is true?
Alas we have not many options in order to tackle situation 2, but only one that is to re-register each single SIM. There should be given a deadline of like 6 or 9 months, during which each cellular subscriber will have to re-register his/her SIM before deadline. And remaining all numbers should be blocked after this ONE DEADLINE.
I am not kidding, this was done in Bangladesh and they have managed to re-register almost all of their cellular customers. This is even better options for cellular companies to reduce their verification cost (Cellular companies used to pay Rs. 20 earlier on and now Rs. 5 for verification of each SIM)
What if both Situations are true?
Then it’s the worst situation (and there are good possibilities of this) that we have got it, we may need to cater for each situation equally and separately
Conclusion
Most of the people (from PTA, cellular companies, financial experts, and Telecom analysts) I spoke with for the preparation of this report were well aware of the fact that the current mechanism for SIM verification is not going to work.
So who is going to prove that millions of SIMs (8 million that’s what Mr. Talha claims) were really blocked? or they are the only un-registered SIMs? I have spoken to CSRs of Mobilink, Ufone and Telenor and they say they never came across any customer who said that his/her SIM was blocked. So there are good chances that cellular companies blocked already inactive numbers. We all know that cellular companies have not provided the details of 5.4 blocked SIMs (which were blocked couple of months ago).
Dr. Yaseen, our newly appointed Chairman PTA should put more pressure on Telecom companies for more transprancy.
Whatever the case is, we must debug this issue now. As situation is still not out of our hands, and we must pay proper attention in order to leave hassle free environment to our coming generations.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 28, 2008 at 4:21 PM
Protected by President Musharraf, and duly extended tenure of Ex-Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Autority (PTA) Maj. Gen (R) Shahzada Alam Malik at last reached to an end when he was shown the way to home by PPP government through premature termination of their contracts.
Following our national history and democratic culture, merit was assaulted yet another time in the bureaucratic front of Pakistan when Dr. Mohammed Yaseen overtook his senior colleague and member PTA Syed Nasurl Karim Ahmed Ghaznavi and became the chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
As per Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) Act, 1996, Federal Government is responsible for the appointment of Chairman PTA. Government can select from Two Members of PTA board.
Dr Yaseen joined PTA board as member technical in October 2006 while Syed Nasurl Karim Ahmed Ghaznavi is a civil servant from 1974 batch, clearly getting a lead in terms of seniority.
Sources, familiar with the scenario, commented that this appointment can be termed as a true translation of Dr. Yaseen’s affiliation with PPP and his background from Sindh (though Dr. Yaseen was born in Gujranwala but moved to Sindh in his early childhood). Sources further unveiled that Dr. Yaseen joined PTA as 19th grade officer and was promoted to grade 21 in 2006 and now he is the head of a department in just 2 years, where as Mr. Ghaznavi was promoted to 21st grade in year 2001.
When contacted Federal Government, they responded with a justification that PTA is a technical department, hence requires more technical orientation and abilities instead of finance, so Dr. Yaseen was chosen unanimously by the committee.
Telecom analysts are opining other way; they firmly believe that Syed Nasurl Karim Ahmed Ghaznavi deserved this office as Chairmanship is not an engineering slot instead the head is responsible for regulate the telecom sector. Moreover, member technical is always there to look into technical matters if they ever arise. “Whatever the case is, there is no doubt that the supremacy of merit has been compromised” said a telecom analyst.
Mr. Ghazhnavi has been associated with telecom sector since 1992. Who can be a better regulator than him? Being an officer of Pakistan Audit and Account, which are trained in the art of regarding the public sector organization.
It is learned through reliable sources in PTA that authority is making massive changes in PTA in the name of “Reconstruction”, while remove senior and trained officers from their responsibilities and deputing less experiences and new people on a very delicate and important job slots.
Zong has started a video service (similar to