State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

Guest post by Ali Abbas

It has been a long time since I have blogged which happened due to a number of factors and the most contributing one was lack of time! Well guess what? I am finally back and it is no surprise that the Telecom – Student scenario is still at the exact same spot where I left it. Upcoming telecommunication graduates are all worried and tensed biting nails and spending all their time in cursing the world for being so mean and not generating enough job opportunities! Yesterday I met a university junior after a long time and all he could talk about was the troubling thought of job shortage in Pakistan and complaining about all the options being “saturated” and dried up.

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Ufone and Rozee have partnered to launch a mobile version of the Rozee job portal. This allows user sto get mobile alerts (called U-Job Alerts) and if they have GPRS enabled phone, even apply right there. Users have to setup their profile (city, job category) and subscribe to the service before they start getting alerts. Job alerts will entail Job title, company information and job ID. GPRS Users also have the option to apply for a particular Job by accessing WAP link in the SMS alert.

How useful will this service be?

For some job seekers, getting the right alert on their phone can be very useful, especially in this economy. For others, this could add to the long list of apps which send out sms left and right. From the point of view of employers, it means that they will get a lot of hastily sent resumes. As Mansoor writes, sometimes sending a CV quickly is important but a well-written cover letter is even more important.

Eventually, it all depends on how good is the filtering and personalization — otherwise it will neither help the candidates nor the employers much.

We are talking about the 100 million subscriber mark for mobile telecom in Pakistan. So far in the first 6 months of 2009, we have seen an overall increase of 4.4 million accounts, taking the total to about 94 million. If the current growth pace is sustained, the number should be close to 99 million by end of December 2009. On this Independence day, let’s think how can we make positive contributions to Pakistan’s industry? For instance, what can be done to push the total to the 100 million milestone before 2009 end?

Back to the 100 million subscriber question, here’s a chart comparing January to June growth in 2008 to 2009 (left column is 2008, right is for 2009 for the same period). The first six months of 2008 were great for the mobile companies. Can telecom show a turn around and lead the economy? Let’s see how.

If you look at the economic outlook for Pakistan, there are many challenges such as inflation (12%), falling investment and high unemployment (with layoffs in telecom industry common). There are a few improvements as well, such as drop in imports, narrow trade deficit, bumper crop and increase in remittances from abroad. There’s only so much price cutting that companies can do. What we really need is the overall economic stability driven by better performance from the industry and service sectors. Regarding telecom, data and broadband is where we have a lot of potential to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) while adding value to end users. We need to look at using the telecom facilities such as broadband to create useful work opportunities and to make the knowledge workers more productive. For example, consider Telecommuting and distance learning.

• As more professionals work from remote locations (including those who telecommute or have home offices) there is still need for better and faster (its already reasonably cheap) Internet – both fixed and mobile. And it should be widespread, not limited as it is today.
• Educated women can work from home to create valuable services and content. Pakistanis are spread across the world and many services can be created using connectivity and creativity.
• Students can view lectures and tutorials from desktops. Access to some of the best teachers and educationists can be provided at a low cost.

In upcoming posts, I will discuss other ways in which mobile app development can contribute to our economic growth.

As the recent telecom engineering graduates are facing a hard time in the recession hit industry. This a funny video of a Telecom Engineer Hitler who was rejected a job from an telecom operator.

The video is edited by Saad Rashid. He is a telecom engineering graduate from FAST-NU (Islamabad Campus). It focuses on the frustrations a telecom engineering graduates undergo

Read the subtitles…

Guest Post By Faisal Chohan, TED Fellow 2009, Co-Founder BrightSpyre.com. This is a  cross Post From Faisal’s blog.

TED Conferences are one of the best places to be, and sometimes it comes out to be a life time opportunity. On a journey of spreading ideas and going global TED Long Beach Conference ( TED 2009, The Great Unveiling) is followed by TED Global 2009 July 21-24, 2009 (The Substance of things not seen) in Oxford UK, and TED India (The Future Beckons) November 4-7, 2009.TED fellows program under the leadership of Tom Reilly is focused on getting together the world’s future leaders to get inspiration from current leaders of the world. The TED Fellows program is designed to bring together young world-changers and trailblazers who have shown unusual accomplishment and exceptional courage.

TED India’s focus is to get more and more candidates from Asia. So help spreading this word to as many brilliant doers in this region.Here is the full press release from TED. TED Fellows Program Accepting Applications for 100 TEDIndia FellowsOrganizers of the TED Conference has announced they would begin the search for 100 TEDIndia Fellows to participate in the TEDIndia Conference in Mysore, India, following upon the successful TED Fellows program launch at TED2009 this past February in Long Beach, California. The TEDIndia Fellows program will accept applications for fellowships from April 20, 2009 through June 15, 2009. The TEDIndia Fellows program is a part of the larger TED Fellows Program, a new international fellowship program designed to nurture great ideas and help them spread around the world.

This year, organizers will select 100 promising individuals from around the world to attend the very first TEDIndia Conference. At the end of the year, organizers will select 20 individuals from a pool of the TED, TEDGlobal, and TEDIndia Fellows to participate in an extended three-year Senior Fellowship, bringing them to six consecutive conferences. The principal goal of the program is to empower the Fellows to effectively communicate their work to the world.Benefits of the Fellowship include conference admission, round-trip transportation, housing and all meals. Fellows will also participate in a two-day pre-conference with the opportunity to present a short talk for consideration for TED.com, elite skills-building courses taught by world experts, social opportunities and surprise extras.

The TEDIndia Fellows program will have international representation with a distinctly South Asian majority, with approximately 75% of the Fellows representing the South Asian region, and 25% representing other regions of the world. South Asia is defined as including the countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. For the global pool, applications will also be sought from the other five target regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, with consideration to the applicants from other countries.The program seeks remarkable thinkers and doers who have shown unusual accomplishment, exceptional courage, moral imagination and the potential to increase positive change in their respective fields. The program focuses on innovators in technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the NGO community, among other pursuits.

Applicants are generally between 21-40 years of age, though anyone over 18 and over 40 may apply. They must also be fluent in English; though moderate fluency will be accepted on a case-by-case basis. The program was inspired by the TEDAfrica 2007 conference in Arusha, Tanzania, in which 100 fellows participated in a first-of-its kind gathering that featured trailblazing, entrepreneurial individuals vested in creating change on the continent. The TEDAfrica fellows brought with them new perspectives, enormous energy, enthusiasm and ovation-generating talks. Propelled by their energy, TED decided to develop the full-scale TED Fellows program, which debuted at TED2009 in Long Beach, California.“TED2009 was a transformative experience for me, and several of my peers,” said Pragnya Alekal, TED2009 Fellow and now TEDIndia Fellows Coordinator. “For the first time, we were in a supportive community of enthusiastic innovators, all working to make the world better. And after only two months, so many new collaborative ventures and initiatives have come out of it.

There are a number of good industry events for ICT. On the educational side, I also see good activity and wanted to share one event details which looks very promising. A Short Course on CDMA-2000 and EVDO based 3-G Cellular System is being organized at MCS on 23 May 2009. Military College of Signals (MCS) is a constituent institution of NUST and offers education in the field of Telecommunication, Software Engineering and Information Security for last many years. Registration and detailed info is here.

The training will be conducted by Dr. Syed Ismail Shah, PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Pittsburgh, US. Dr. Shah has successfully completed the Qualcomm courses qualification in several areas of CDMA2000. He has given tutorials and training sessions on different aspects of CDMA at workshops and conferences held in various parts of the world. He is the founding member of the Pakistan CDMA forum.

This training will provide a comprehensive converge of CDMA2000 1x RTT and 1x EV-DO based 3-G Cellular Systems. These standards have been adopted for the 3G cellular wireless communication.  This training will provide students and faculty an in depth understanding of the core concepts of these systems; in addition this platform will prove a opportunity to Telecomm professionals to enhance their knowledge and skills on these 3-G Cellular Systems.

Given the state of economy, there is a larger than usual number of upcoming entrepreneurs. Depending on where you are on the journey of your career entrepreneurship may or may not work out for you. A recent Wall Street Journal article sums it quite well by asking 10 pointed questions. I’ll give you a concise list – leave a comment if you are interested in full text. I invite the entrepreneurs among the readers to challenge this list and to provide their views. 

1. Are you willing and able to bear great financial risk?
2. Are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle for potentially many years?
3. Is your significant other on board?
4. Do you like all aspects of running a business?
5. Are you comfortable making decisions on the fly with no playbook?
6. What’s your track record of executing your ideas?
7. How persuasive and well-spoken are you?
8. Do you have a concept you’re passionate about?
9. Are you a self-starter?
10. Do you have a business partner (who complements your skills)?

Leaders of today face complex challenges. Whether you are a telecom executive or a business leader, there is a need for continuing education and leadership training which will refresh your thinking and help you look at problem solving from a structured and practical prespective. Leadership Grid Seminar (LGS) presents a unique opportunity for such training. After successful offerings in previous years it is being offered in Lahore (March 9-12) and Karachi (March 2-5). This seminar will be led by Usman Ghani, a US based fortune 100 executive who has mentored and trained top leaders and best minds in the world. Here’s an introduction – the brochure is available here and the application form is here.

LGS is a comprehensive learning experience in leadership. It is based on behavioral science principles that integrate people development with organization development. It challenges our mental models related to achieving results with people. It develops our knowledge, skills, and attitudes to foster relationship competency, team building, and systematic organizational change.

These are based on the seminal Grid philosophy, a scientific methodology, and emphasis on experiential, shared learning. And, with this seminal Grid® theory1 being continually enriched over fifty years, the seminar provides anintense opportunity to build our foundations for sound leadership and culture on modern methods and to nurture the power to change in the 21st century.

Telenor, an international provider of high quality telecommunications, data and media communication services has come up with a global trainee program, aiming to recruit up to 20 young talents from countries in which Telenor operates. It is a good opportunity for recent graduates who want to join a fast track of career growth.

This program is third of its kinds and its objective statement is

To grow new talents in all of Telenor’s markets and to develop these into future global capacities for the Telenor Group.

The trainees get opportunities to build network, to understand business and markets, and to gain personal development. The trainee program provides an international mindset for the right candidates, and represents a “fast track” to management or an expert position within a certain area.

Details at http://www.telenortrainee.com/. Last date to apply is February 1, 2009.

A while ago I started discussing the downward trends faced by Pakistan telecom in 2008. In the wake of the global economic recession, that conclusion is now true for the telecom industry worldwide as you can see from the sample headlines towards the end of the post.

In Pakistan the inflation is around 25% and prices for necessities of life have skyrocketed. Real GDP growth has fallen to 3.6%. Naturally telecom has taken a hit. In the past few years consumption was encouraged and that resulted in more consumer spending on phones (draining the foreign exchange) and on voice and data. More first time users of mobile services signed up. Now with the rough patch in economy, government has raised taxes on handsets (to discourage import) and the services (to squeeze more revenue).

Even in these times the growth and new services potential remains compelling because:

1. Over 100 million population are less than 30 year of age and they are highly likely to use tecnology and communication services
2. Incomes are rising among certain sectors including middle income
3. Business and investment friendly policies – overall environment determined by political and security situation
4. Regulator (PTA) continues to engage in reforms and is executing well

The conclusion is that if the politics and security situation does not worsen, Pakistan should do fine. Here are a few of the recent announcements from the global telecom media. Other than the voluntary separation plans from PTCL, we have not seen large scale work force reduction in Pakistan.

• AT&T to Slash Work Force
• BlackBerry Sign-Ups Miss Target
• Global Mobile-Phone Sales to Fall
• Nokia Cuts Mobile Phone Mkt Forecasts Again
• Gartner: Smartphone Sales Slowdown To Continue
• Nortel cuts jobs and lowers forecast
• BT British Telecom Lay off Job Cut: fires 10000
• Telecom Italia to Cut 4,000 Jobs

It was only a matter of time. The situation was on slow boil for a while. There are some serious issues such as pay scales and a history of mistrust. This is yet another test for the Middle Eastern management. I find it a bit strange that they are not using their website effectively – but then they had difficulties keeping it up. According to APP:

Commenting on the Unified Pay Scale (UPS), the PTCL spokesman explained that this package is for the benefit of workers and those opposing it are misleading the entire work force without being fully aware of its salient features and benefits.

The PTCL employees are at the gaining end and shall receive a substantial raise in their salaries and pension on the other hand all of their service rights remain protected as according to PTCL Service Rules of 1996 and the Telecom Act 1996, said the spokesman.

The management, he said, held two meetings with the union on the UPS and the union were supposed to give their feedback on the salary issue but they simply did not come back for further talks. The Union, he said, was not in a mood to sit down and it appears that the strike was preplanned irrespective of UPS clarification announcement.

The telecom sector in Pakistan continues its growth and many jobs have been announced recently. As I received many comments on my previous posts for jobs, I am listing some open positions to help those who are looking for jobs. As the job listings for all companies change with time it is best to go each company’s website and look at the latest opportunities.  And please don’t leave your contact info or job application here. This is only a blog which provides information, it is not a place to apply for job!

Huawei

Huawei is looking for engineers (technical and sales), marketing managers, product managers and for many other skills such as Site Acquisition Manager. Here’s how to look for all the open jobs for Huawei in Pakistan:

Please click here and in the country search dropdown Select Pakistan and click on search. Click on the image above to see the screenshot of the search page.

For example Huawei is looking for a Product Manager Mobile Network (CDMA).

Telenor:

Visit Telenor.com.pk/careers/Jobs.php for details and positions available.

A few jobs listed at the above site include:

• Marketing Executive (Budgeting and Reporting)
• Executive – Project Office
• Assistant Brand Manager

Good luck and remember to direct any questions to the above companies and not on this blog. Feel free to leave general comments.