State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

PTA yesterday released the subscriber numbers for January 2010. The year begins with a drop in overall subscriber base to 95.4 Million as compared to 97.6 Million at December end dropping the mobile density to 58.20%.

The operator suffering the most loss was Warid, losings 2.6 Million subscriber and making its market share 16.97% which was 19.4% in December 2009. Tough time for the new CEO.

All other operators showed some growth with Mobilink still leading the market and Telenor following it. As a result of drops in Warid, Ufone now ranks at third position.

With Telenor bringing innovations to the mobile banking and Mobilink also planning to penetrate with the same soon, the competition will definitely elevate as the year unfolds.

The Board of Directors of Warid Telecom have appointed Mr. Muneer Farooqui as company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mr. Farooqui is a 20 year veteran of telecom industry, who started his professional journey in the telecommunication arena in 1993. In May 2004 at the time of inception of the company, Mr. Farooqui joined Warid Telecom as part of the core team in the capacity of GM Customer Service. In January 2006, Mr. Farooqui was given a challenging task of leading and creating the team and operations for Warid Bangladesh. Read full story »

It looks like e-wallets and mobile commerce are on top of agenda for large telecom companies. China Mobile agreed to buy 20 percent of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for 39.8 billion renminbi ($5.8 billion) to expand its electronic payment business.
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UExaminer is a unique and first of its kind VAS from Ufone. This focuses on use of cell phone for educational purpose and targets all students studying in 9th, 10th, 1st Year, 2nd Year and even from O/A Level education system, to get themselves prepared for final board examinations.

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For a nation, there is no power as constructive as its people’s ideas and their courage to make a difference. Like Allama Iqbal has said;

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The success of iPhone has not only changed the way phone companies and handset makers operate but also impacted other media channels. For instance, companies are now racing to build marketplaces for TV programs that act much like iPhone apps, able to interact with social-networking services, play games, call up movies and other Web content—all using a remote control, rather than a computer equipped with browsers. With PTCL and Wateen in the smart TV game, its only a matter of time before we see more of this.

I previously wrote about some initial steps that Verizon took. with social apps as widgets. Yahoo was also an early contender with a technology for TV applications it calls widgets. The TV applications are designed to exploit new consumer electronics devices with Internet connections that are beginning to appear in homes in significant numbers. More from this article:

Vudu, a startup that offers a streaming movie service; DivX, known for a popular format for storing digital movies; Boxee Inc., which offers software that lets users view Internet content on TVs; Roku, which sells a set-top box for receiving Internet content; and Syabas Technology, which announced a set-top box at CES.

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At the time of launch of easypaisa, many people wanted a service they can host from their mobile phone. I see mobile accounts as the service that lets you do that. It is not any over the counter service like bill payments and money transfer but  a virtual Bank Accounts opened for Telenor subscribers to access from their own mobile phones at any time.

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Dealing with spam, unwanted calls and stalkers can be very stressful. Here’s some  information and links which can help you cope with this. While looking at this issue, we researched on the privacy policies of mobile companies operating in Pakistan. Out of 5 mobile network operators, we found 2 privacy policies which were posted online.

• www.telenor.com.pk/privacy/privacy.php
• www.waridtel.com/privacy_policy.php

For your reference you can block the user following the guidelines presented in our prior posts about Call and SMS Blocking, here and here. Unfortunately getting rid of the problem is not always that straightforward. For example, see this TGP discussion in which one member’s number was used – spoofed would be a better choice of word – for sending unwanted SMS.

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• Mobilink’s video which is a tribute to employees. Also give some figures on 2009 performance. http://bit.ly/aQ5soc #
• A Faster Wireless Web with fasp-AIR Protocol: Transfers of large amounts of data across the… http://goo.gl/fb/RKlb #
• Ufone has extended the Solid offer, it will remain available till 31st March 2010 for existing users. #Pakistan #
• Anti-Pakistan SMS Alerts in India: In the era where communication panorama is changing fast… http://goo.gl/fb/cCLb #
• Telenor – Two Step Charging for USA and Canada http://ow.ly/1pD6gp #
• http://bit.ly/9SyMtx #
• Easypaisa – ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Certification: Easypaisa gets ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification… http://goo.gl/fb/XB2q #
• PTA to Update Regulation to Protect Consumers from Service Changes: PTA has proposed changes… http://goo.gl/fb/r3vt #
• [Pictures] EP Mobile Account Meet-up: Here is a pictorial coverage of easypaisa Mobile Account… http://goo.gl/fb/zNVb #

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Transfers of large amounts of data across the Internet to wireless devices suffer from a major problem: The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) used to send and receive that data can be unnecessarily slow. Aspera, a new company, has now announced an alternative protocol designed to accelerate wireless transfer speeds. Called fasp-AIR, it includes new proprietary approaches to addressing problems of data transfer that are unique to wireless communications.

This story appeared at Technology Review.

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In the era where communication panorama is changing fast and furious and have made distances ever shorter this news about the Indian authorities alerting mobile subscribers to avoid calling Pakistan comes as a distress. The Daily Mail gives out the details.

At a time when revolution in telecom is bringing the world together by providing instant communication access over long distances, Indian Government has launched an SMS (Short Massages Service) campaign to discourage its population from making calls to Pakistan.

The information collected by The Daily Mail indicate that since Jan 21, 2010 an SMS is being received on the mobile phones to exercise extra care while calling anyone in Pakistan. Whenever a call is made to Pakistan, the caller receives an SMS; “You just made a call to ISD Code 0092 (Pakistan’s international dialing code). We urge you to exercise caution while calling unknown number and sharing personal details as it can be misused”.

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Easypaisa gets ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification for Information Security Management System (ISMS) for mobile banking services. The PR received from Telenor Pakistan give the details.

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