Mobilink Infinity has announced that they will no longer offer 256Kbps package. It means that you have to use the upgraded package and pay more. It is great for those who were looking to upgrade but not good for those who are not interested in paying more. The official announcement is below. Somehow the message is not very clear and some people may be surprised to see the extra charge after a couple of months. This is related to our rants about clear messages and billing issues.
We are excited to inform that your 256Kbps Mobilink Infinity Wi MAX account has been upgraded to 512Kbps under a special promotion!!
The Data allowance will be the same as of your 256Kbps package, but with double the speed and performance. You can experience blazing fast browsing, downloads and streaming with this upgrade and enjoy it at *Absolutely No Additional Cost for the Next Two Months*.
This promotion will give you a free speed upgrade for initial two months however, you will have to pay the 512Kbps package monthly charges according to the tariff from the third month onwards.
Here are the results from our most recent poll on billing errors. This matches the results from PTA survey and shows that billing errors are common and a source of problem for consumers. After service quality issues, this is probably the worst that a consumer faces.
Dealing with spam, unwanted calls and stalkers can be very stressful. Here’s some information and links which can help you cope with this. While looking at this issue, we researched on the privacy policies of mobile companies operating in Pakistan. Out of 5 mobile network operators, we found 2 privacy policies which were posted online.
For your reference you can block the user following the guidelines presented in our prior posts about Call and SMS Blocking,here and here. Unfortunately getting rid of the problem is not always that straightforward. For example, see this TGP discussion in which one member’s number was used – spoofed would be a better choice of word – for sending unwanted SMS.
PTA has proposed changes to Consumer Protection Regulations2009 to include service withdrawal. See the announcement and draft document on PTA website. This is exactly what we have written about before. Kudos to PTA for taking this step.
Telenor has extended its two step charging to USA and Canada. With this scheme calls are charged in two steps; regular call rates apply on the first step and after some specified duration discounted rates will apply.
I came across an article in New York Times on advances in shopping technologies. The effort to turn people’s mobile phones into information displays and ordering devices is on. Here’s a quick list of the technologies you could see on a cell phone soon:
Scan and shop (various apps)
Presence (IBM)
Mobile Concierge (Cisco)
Mobile Loyalty Cards
Shoppers will soon be able to stand outside the designer Norma Kamali’s boutique in Manhattan, point a phone at merchandise in the window and buy it — even late at night when the store is closed. How? By using technologies such as ScanLife which allows customers to scan bar codes on merchandise. Other apps allow users to do perform product search and price comparison through barcodes.
Mobilink Jazz has come up with another limited time offer of unlimited (limited to 500) SMS to any network in Pakistan between 12:00am (midnight) to 12:00 pm, for Rs 1.99+tax/day. It is also worthy to note here that Mobilink had earlier taken back its unlimited SMS offer without prior notification. Hope they are clear on the limits of this offer this time and announce before taking it off.
We are conducting a poll to collect consumer feedback on telecom billing errors, resolution process and improvements that can be made. As one example, PTA recently issued a show-cause notice to PTCL for, among other things, a high number of billing error (79 errors per 10,000 bills). Below are some statistics for reference.
These are from a survey conducted by PTA and PTCL in 2009 and represent the average of the nationwide results. We often hear that consumers of other telecom companies have similar issues with billing and we would like to get your opinion about this. We also want to know if the process of resolution of these issues is working well or not.
Here’s the promotion for Djuice ‘Pakka Dost’ international offer. Its one of those “limited time” offers. Note the fine print on the side: 50-paisa is for 30-seconds.
The importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to economic development has been recognized widely during the last decade. The development promises made by the significant growth of ICTs are challenged by the so-called digital divide. The ‘digital divide’ refers to the drastic differences in levels of ICT access between different population groups.
About two weeks ago we asked our readers about their opinion on the “limited time offers” by telecom companies. You can view that post here. An overwhelming majority of 92% responded with dissatisfaction over how companies handle these offers. I think this presents a good opportunity for these companies to improve how these offers are marketed and communicated.
Mobilink Jazz has come up with another limited time offer of unlimited (limited to 500) SMS to any network in Pakistan between 12:00am (midnight) to 12:00 pm, for Rs 1.99+tax/day. It is also worthy to note here that Mobilink had earlier taken back its unlimited SMS offer without prior notification. Hope they are clear on the limits of this offer this time and announce before taking it off.
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