Archive for September 19th, 2008

PTA Announces Upcoming Plans: Not Enough To Regain The Lost Momentum

Published by Babar Bhatti on September 19, 2008 under 3G, Broadband Internet, Digital Divide, Economy, Government Regulations, ICT, PTA, Pakistan, Strategy & Policy, Telecommunications, Wimax, Wireless

Chairman Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) Dr. Muhammad Yaseen talked about a number of upcoming telecom initiatives in Pakistan. The list includes 3G, MVNO, Boradband and Rural communications. I consider such announcements as public relation management. I am skeptical. In my opinion, none of these initiatives are likely to have a major positive impact on the telecom industry or consumers. The government needs to stop treating telecom industry in Pakistan as a cow they can keep milking (through insanely high taxes) forever. The need is to address the fundamental issues and problems, most of which relate to the economy and fiscal policies.

Here are my brief reactions on PTA’s announcements:

  • 3G Launch – mobile companies are hesitant to invest.
  • Consumer Protection Cell – long overdue, past performance was dismal.
  • Mobile Virtual Network Operators – uncertain future because of the low levels of interest shown.
  • Strategy and Development Division – how come they did not have a strategy group before? how have they been creating policies till now? Do we need another “Think Tank” ?
  • This one takes the cake: PTA is launching Broadband! Actually this is true. The broadband numbers are so low that we can safely say that broadband was NEVER there and start from zero.

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Google Adds More Features To Mobile Maps

Published by Babar Bhatti on September 19, 2008 under Google, Location Based Services, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Web 2.0

In the last few days, Google has come up with useful improvements to the mobile search, location and maps applications. Here’s a summary of these for the location-based application enthusiasts. The first one is that the size of the blue circle varies and indicates the relative accuracy with which the application pinpoints your location. These are the kinds of iterative and incremental improvements that keep Google a few steps ahead of its competitors. Follow links to official google mobile blog.

My Location: smaller is better!

Your location estimate will be centered closer to your true location, and we have also improved the calculation of just how good our estimate is. When we originally launched the “blue circle” on Google Maps for mobile, the circle usually stayed the same size no matter if you were in downtown Manhattan or rural Iowa. Now, the next time you’re using Google Maps in downtown Manhattan, expect to see a much smaller circle that’s also far more accurate.

Here’s the basis for this improvement.

Mobile operators typically need a lot more cell towers in populous areas to service all the users. This means each individual tower provides a much smaller coverage footprint. On the other hand, in a very sparsely populated area, towers provide much larger coverage footprints. We’ve developed algorithms to try and figure out what the right circle size should be.

Street View and walking directions come to Google Maps for mobile

Now mobile phone app gets the same street-level imagery available on desktop. You can now read business reviews, so you’ll know if it’s actually worth driving across town to that store. And once you decide where to go, you can get there on foot using the same walking directions (beta) we recently launched on desktop.

There’s one more. Mobile Search with my location but it isonly available only for US & UK for now.