Archive for October 13th, 2009

Banking For The Unbanked – Mobile Banking Steps up!

Published by Arsalan Mir on October 13, 2009 under M-banking, Pakistan, Telenor

Guest Post by Ammar Faheem

I have been talking about mobile commerce and mobile banking for quite some time now. My recent article on the topic had been on the possibility of the telecom companies posing a challenge to the traditional banking industry in the mobile domain.

This week, we will be witnessing mobile banking taking a new turn. This week, we will see heads joined together to figure out innovative ways to cater to the mobile banking needs of today’s tech-savvy customer and easy to use services for the unbanked populace of Pakistan.

I spoke of stats earlier: Pakistan has 20 million bank accounts as opposed to over 90 million mobile subscribers. All of whom are potential mobile banking customers. There seems to be a race to tap in to this market.

This week, we will witness the launch of “EP” by Telenor Pakistan. EP will be a unique experience altogether. We might also be seeing something coming in from one of the leading banks in Pakistan in collaboration with one of the most famous telecom brand-names in Pakistan.

Read more »

3G/4G – What/When?

Published by Arsalan Mir on October 13, 2009 under 3G, Data, HSDPA, LTE, Long-Term Evolution, PTA, Pakistan, Telecommunications

We have been debating a lot on 3G here, its upgrade paths and benefits. We also looked at the other side of the picture, how we can grow on our data services. At once it seemed that the 3G license was just on the edge with PTA conducting workshop on it and promising to support the technology. Now its almost a year now, nothing have happened and the licenses are still not auctioned.

Read more »