Archive for August, 2006

PTCL Slashes Rates For Calls

Published by Babar Bhatti on August 29, 2006 under Telecommunications

With the falling calling costs all over the world it was just a matter of time that Pakistan Telcom changed its complicated and expensive rate structure. Finally this month PTCL decided to reduce rates for local, domestic long distance and international calls. The pricing model has also been simplified by removing the peak and non-peak times. Consumers have welcomed this rate cut.

The competitor long-distance companies have complained about this unilateral rate change by PTCL – they point out that any rate changes should have the blessings of Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA). With the responsibility of regulatory oversight PTA is supposed to ensure that the playing field is level for all players and  PTCL being the incumbent – called Significant Player – does not abuse its position. This seems to be the start of a long overdue price war.

See the details on PTCL website … for instance:

  • Call Type: NWD (Long distance) PSTN to PSTN Time less, Distance Less

  • Charges: Rs 2.00 per minute.

I find it annoying to see the extent of jargon in use at the PTCL website. On the lighter side the simplicity of  the phrase “Time less, Distance Less” is unparalleled!

 

Govt steps in to curb mobile phone snatching

Published by Babar Bhatti on August 18, 2006 under Consumer Rights, Security, Telecommunications

According to recent news the Pakistan government has decided to setup a system to curb mobile phone snatching. Perhaps too many VIPs lost their phones! Anyway this is certainly a good initiative. It has been modelled after similar systems in other countries such as UK.

The idea is to use the unique identifier for every phone – International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) — and setup a database of stolen phones so that these phones can be locked. This is not going to stop the determined criminals but should act as a deterant, at least. The success of this will depend on the implementation and the awareness and education of the users.

For full story: http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=465018

For more on IMEI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMEI

Security and Cell Phones

Published by Babar Bhatti on August 8, 2006 under Security, Telecommunications

With the growing proliferation of technical gagdets the pains of security are being felt by more and more users – it used to be your PC which was often fell victim to hackers or viruses. The next big thing seems to be cell phone – more ubiquitous than PCs, cell phones are subject to fraud, hacking and of course plain old fashioned crime — stealing. Depending on your location one of the above security issue may be a higher priority than others. In Pakistan cell phones have always been popular with street robbers. Even in some parts of London theft of mobiles accounts for 35% of street robberies! Now the trend has evolved to hacking that is cyber robbery – identity theft or prepaid card balance theft. It was reported in the news that “Hackers attack pre-paid GSM connections”. 

SIM (Subscriber Identification Module or Subscriber Identity Module) is a specific type of smart card for GSM systems holding the subscriber’s ID number and other information & settings, thus allowing him/her to call from any GSM device. In essence, it is the subscriber’s authorization to use the network. SIM is also supposed to provide location security and call content confidentiality (encrypting traffic between handset and base station). The SIM has these 3 numbers: