Archive for January 16th, 2009

PTCL Broadband on the Go: EVDO Soft Launch

Published by Babar Bhatti on January 16, 2009 under Broadband Internet, CDMA, Competitive Trends, PTCL, WLL, Wireless

We have been discussing the competitive landscape of always on wireless broadband in Pakistan. PTCL has entered this lucrative area with a soft launch of personal broadband wireless service using cdma EVDO technology. Service currently available in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Mirpur.

For customers, its the performance which matters and PTCL is claiming up to 500 to 1,000 Kbps but in reality average speeds are likely to vary from 300Kbps to 700Kbps for downlink and 200 Kbps to 400Kbps for uplink. Here’s a summary of the rates.

Package 1 (no CPE cost) – Unlimited access:
Monthly service charge: Rs.2500 (first year) and Rs. 2000 from second year onwards.
No initial charges required and the charges will be billed with PTCL landline bill.

Package 2 – Unlimited access:
Initial CPE charge : Rs.4000
Monthly service charges : Rs.2000 for unlimited access
Monthly service charges will be billed with PTCL landline bill.

PTCL provides EvDO PCMCIA cards. You need a laptop with PCMCIA slot. EVDO Rev.A offers up to 3.1 Mbps downlink and up to 1.8Mbps uplink. Average speeds vary from 300Kbps to 700Kbps for downlink and 200 Kbps to 400Kbps for uplink. However it varies depending on the physical situation of the user and the network at a particular time.

Beside the initial coverage in the cities described above, consumers can also use internet in other big cities as well where there is 1900MHz network but on dialup speed (153Kbps). PTCL provides a very large coverage area where you can stay connected.

The broadband speed depends on how far you are from CDMA BTS. Either with EVDO network or CDMA 1x, you will get very good speeds if the tower is within 2 – 3 KMs radius

PTCL Trying To Generate Some Buzz Around Its High Speed Services

Published by Babar Bhatti on January 16, 2009 under Broadband Internet, Media, PTCL, Telecommunications

We recently covered the smart tv service recently. PTCL came up with this advertisement with a fast theme about their broadband and triple play services. This is supposed to convey the high speed associated with their broadband. Same concept has been used by many other triple play companies worldwide.

Notice the 100K subscribers in the ad. Honestly 100,000 subscribers is not much of an achievement to boast, given the much larger potential and the time it took to get there. Also note the emphasis on FREE which is misleading. Anyway, coming from PTCL, the ad is not as bad as their other ads. Speed, I am Speed!