Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 17, 2008 at 7:57 AM
Ufone has partnered with Mango, a Mobile Social network system that allows you to send message to a group of friends with a single message (and cost of one SMS) - somewhat like twitter. In this partnership, Ufone will serve as SMS service provider, while Mango will manage the application part.
This service was actually pioneered by chopaal.com, and there is a good chance that other cellular companies partner with them to come up with similar or even better service.
Ufone SMS Buddies is an SMS-based social network that lets you easily update a group of friends by a single message. This single message is then broadcasted over the whole group - meaning that it will cost you one SMS to send this message to a group of friends.
That’s not all; in fact you can also update your Facebook Status and let your friends know what you are up to, at any time, through a single SMS!
How do I register to Ufone SMS Buddies?
You can register to this service through SMS or Ufone SMS Buddies Facebook application.
To register through SMS: Simply type Register <Your Nickname/ Your Name> and send it to 9393.
For example, Register Sana87 Or Register Alikhan Or Register Devil45
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 16, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Ufone becomes first to offer BlackBerry Bold in Pakistan. Blackberry bold comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi along with a rich set of multimedia capabilities - supporting tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world. This ultra elegant BlackBerry model featuring a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and a stylish leatherette black plate is a symbol of both accomplishment and aspiration.
Another conspicuous feature of this device is that through integrated GPS, the handset can pinpoint its exact location, supporting BlackBerry maps and other location based applications and services. From providing wireless access to email, phone, calendar, web and multimedia it covers almost every business and lifestyle application.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 9, 2008 at 4:47 AM
Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd (PTCL), UFone and Microsoft have entered into an Enterprise Agreement for Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure Optimization that will enable PTCL and Ufone to benefit from the Microsoft’s innovative products.
Walid Irshad, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PTCL while addressing the signing ceremony said that agreement would provide comprehensive software-support, which would realize the full potential of personnel at both PTCL and Ufone. “I am very optimistic that the deployment of Microsoft’s latest technology to enhance its capabilities and would lead to improve company’s operations” Irshad added. He said that through efficient communication, co-ordination and follow up mechanisms allowing us to enhance our service and quality.
CEO, Ufone Abdul Aziz said that this winning collaboration between us and the Microsoft would certainly be a key driver for our own development and for imperative growth of our valued customers. He said that this coalition with a world-renowned company would provide comprehensive software-support, which would enable customers for innovative telecom solutions and services.
Aziz also stated that we are confident that this alliance with Microsoft would support us in faster decision-making through the use of unique and most up-to-date software, facilitating us in transforming our IT infrastructure into a strategic asset. Addressing on the occasion Sherif Seddik, Regional Director, Microsoft North Africa, East Mediterranean and Pakistan said that this alliance is testimony of our long-term commitment to enhancing business operations in Pakistan.
After complete deployment in both the organizations, the IT infrastructure of PTCL and Ufone can be compared with the best companies in the world, he added. He said that training and Premier Support Services are also part of this agreement. Kamal Ahmed, the Country General Manager Microsoft Pakistan commenting on the alliance, said: “Our mission and values are to help the people and businesses to realise their full potential.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 6, 2008 at 1:50 PM
We have seen Mobilink’s declining sales in previous months, which maybe didn’t jolt experts’ mind due to their size and weight of customers. It’s very obvious that a company with subscribers’ base of 31 million can not attain growth rate of even 1 percent or so, also given that cellular subscribers’ teledensity has hit 56 percent mark.
But following figures of international outgoing traffic for cellular companies (through PTCL) for the period of April, May and June 2008 may wide open many eyes. A very reliable industry source has given us these stats (however these stats can’t be considered official – but we are likely to see them in coming PTA’s annual report) which reveals that Mobilink is almost disappearing from the graph.
May 2008 can be considered most shocking month for Mobilink, as they were able to generate merely 56,142 minutes for international calls compared 64,371 in June 2008. For all of three months, Mobilink earned total of 1,581,309 international minutes. Even Zong scored more international traffic than Mobilink with 5,356,917 minutes in the same period.
While on other hands, Ufone’s skyscraper is seen very firm standing at 81,340,900 minutes for three months. Warid is heading Telenor with 18,533,756 minutes, where Telenor gained 12,504,509 minutes. Instaphone seems contented with their 5,438 international outgoing minutes in three months.
This traffic information for international outgoing is just a depiction of market situation. However, we can’t actually assume this international traffic (through PTCL) as directly proportional to local or national traffic these companies have; but due to a fact that international traffic contributes major part in revenues (due to very low local call rates), it is considered vital. We are awaiting official comments from Mobilink on this.
We are not sure about how well Mobilink’s international call half rate offer played for them, but we hope that cellular giant is going to do enough in coming months to retain its position.
Note: These stats represent traffic carried away from PTCL Gateway for International outgoing calls only.
Update: In response to a question that If Mobilink uses any other gateway for international outgoing traffic other than PTCL?? If yes then what proportion of international traffic is routed to PTCL’s gateway? and what share goes to other resources?
Mobilink official replied: ” We use our own LDI (Long Distance International) in addition to PTCL”
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 5, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Ufone has been offering this service (for the first time in Pakistan) known as Push to Talk (PTT) or also called as Waklie Talkie. Before going into service details, let’s dig out what really this PTT service means?
What is Push to Talk Service?
PTT or Push to Talk is a feature similar to walkie-talkie that is provided over a cellular network. It means there is created a group of callers, who can connect to each other - their voice is broadcasted to whole of group members just like wireless handsets – and they don’t need to call again and again.. just press a single button and broadcast your message and release button to hear others.
In simple words, PTT is just like children playing with their Walkie Talkies.
With Ufone Walkie Talkie service voice groups are created that can have up to 20 members. All these members of a certain group can communicate with each other through a data network (GPRS or EDGE) with always-on functionality.
Unfortunately not all mobile phones support PTT services. However, selected Nokia Mobile phones are equipped with Push to talk software. Once you have PTT feature in your handset, you can subscribe to Ufone’s Push to talk communication service.
Pushing a specific button on the mobile phone opens a voice channel to all selected participants of a group, whose phones will automatically play the caller’s voice through the phone loudspeaker - release the button and hear others talking back to you.
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.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 29, 2008 at 5:53 AM
By the way, i didn’t find any search button on Ufone’s official website. (let me know if there is, but in case they dont have it, then) either they just forgot to add search feature or they think websites are mad who invest thousands of dollars for search capabilities.
Telenor’s homepage is also missing Search Bar, which i guess should be embedded somewhere in its layout.
Ufone need to keep this thing in its mind that plenty of its subscribers are not good at navigating websites, hence in such a scenario, search feature is a must have element.
Ufone has partnered with Mango, a Mobile Social network system that allows you to send message to a group of friends with a single message (and cost of one SMS) - somewhat like twitter. In this partnership, Ufone will serve as SMS service provider, while Mango will manage the application part.
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