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 tariff details.

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.

This is definitely an area where telecom companies can strive to make a difference. Our advice is to keep the packages simple and not make it too hard for customers and also for your own billing systems.

Poll results are based on a sample size of ~150 votes.

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.

• www.telenor.com.pk/privacy/privacy.php
• www.waridtel.com/privacy_policy.php

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.

We thought its worthwhile to share excerpts from Telenor’s privacy policy:

SMS/MMS is a very useful means for persons/companies who wish to send information on their products/services quickly. Unfortunately it is also improperly used by some who send mass advertisements to people with whom they have no contractual relationship.

Spamming is the unsolicited dissemination of mass advertising/information via telecommunications. When mobile owners receive such SMS/MMS messages, it must be assumed that these messages are sent systematically via the internet to entire blocks of numbers.

What responsibility does Telenor bear?

Telenor is responsible for transporting information across its network and cannot monitor messages sent by private individuals or companies. Telenor only ensures that these messages are transported without being aware of their contents. Telenor cannot filter the SMS/MMS received by its customers because this would mean checking the content of the messages, therefore violating the confidentiality of telecommunications.

Telecommunication companies are not in a position to monitor and prohibit the transmission of unsolicited messages because they cannot know if a commercial relationship exists between the sender and the recipient of the advertising message. They are only aware of spamming after complaints are received from customers, whose responsibility it is first and foremost to take action against the spammers. Depending on where the spam has come from and following unsuccessful interventions by customers against spammers, the companies can then intervene with the spammer to demand that they stop this practice, and if the offence is repeated, the spammer can be prohibited access to the network. Unfortunately this is not possible in every case.

What can You do if spamming continues?

Please contact Customer Care in writing, including all the details of the SMS/MMS message(s) including the number of origin of message, content of the message, date and time of receipt etc. Unfortunately, Telenor cannot guarantee that you will not receive messages of this sort in future, since anyone who has access to the mobile network can send advertising SMS/MMS messages without Telenor being able to monitor this.

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.

Operators may withdraw the provision of any Service, limited time offer packages for value added services from Consumers, provided that such withdrawal is approved by the Authority, if required and thirty (30) days prior notice is given to Consumers:

Provided that the Operators shall inform Consumers through any of the following means:
(i) Short messaging service;
(ii) Website; and
(iii) Print media.

There is an explanation provided with this. For the purpose of these regulations ‘packages for value added services’ shall include but not be limited to Short Messaging Service, Universal Access Service, Toll Free Service, Premium Rate Service, Content Based Services, Internet Service or as determined by the Authority from time to time.

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.

SMS to any number in USA-Canada will cost  Rs 3 + tax.

Notes:

• This offer is Not Available on FNF Numbers. All IDD numbers entered as FNF will continue to be charged as per Price-plan.
• The offer is open to all Prepaid and Postpaid subscribers by default and they don’t need to subscribe for it.
• This is again a limited time offer.

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.

Ms. Kamali is at the forefront of a technological transformation coming to many of the nation’s retailers. They are determined to strengthen the link between their physical stores and the Web, and to use technology to make shopping easier for consumers and more lucrative for themselves.

Some supermarkets intend to offer real-time coupons while people shop. For example, a promotion for milk may be sent to a shopper’s mobile phone the moment her cart rolls into the dairy aisle. Drugstores will offer loyalty programs on cellphones, not on plastic cards. And specialty chains will allow shoppers to breeze through the aisles compiling a wedding registry, just by pointing at merchandise.

Privacy concerns are of course a barrier to all this. Not everyone would trust these apps and download them. So it remains to be seen how many shoppers will embrace such aggressive merchandising, which will generally require them to consent to being tracked electronically while in a store.

But many stores are betting they will go along. After all, people already wander city streets guided by maps on their mobile phones. Why shouldn’t the same technology lead them to the toilet paper in Aisle 3?

Hoping to use the technology as a competitive advantage, some big chains are reluctant to discuss their plans. The Sam’s Club division of Wal-Mart, Crate & Barrel, Kerr Drug of North Carolina and Disney stores are among the retailers that confirmed they were testing various mobile technology or planned to do so soon.

Other retailers have begun testing a product from I.B.M. called Presence. Shoppers who sign up can be detected as soon as they set foot in a store. That enables Presence to offer real-time mobile coupons. And tracking shoppers’ spending habits and browsing time in various departments can help the system figure out who might be moved to suddenly buy a discounted item.

Presence can also make product recommendations. If a shopper was buying cake mix, Presence might suggest buying the store’s private-label frosting and sprinkles, too.

“We’re also able to do predictive analytics — predict what we think you might want based on what we already know about you,” said Craig W. Stevenson, an I.B.M. executive who oversees Presence.

Cisco Systems, the supplier of networking equipment and services for the Internet, is also a leader in the field. The company’s Mobile Concierge system is capable of connecting customers’ smartphones to retailers’ wireless networks — so a shopper could type “Cheez Whiz” into a cellphone, then pinpoint its location in the store.

“We see the smartphone being used more and more in the shopping experience,” said Dick Cantwell, Cisco’s vice president for retail at Cisco’s Internet business solutions group

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.

*Govt. taxes apply on above price

The good part is that if the customer doesn’t have sufficient balance at the time of automatic re-subscription, then he would be unsubscribed from the offer. An SMS notification would also be sent to the customer at the time of un-subscription. Customer can re-subscribe to the offer after recharging.

Subscription Process
Dial *106*1# on mobile screen and press send.

Status Inquiry
Dial *106*2# on mobile screen and press send.

Un-Subscription Process
Dial *106*4# on mobile screen and press send.

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.

Rohan Samarajiva of LIRNEAsia has published a post titled “Pakistan Competition Commission appears to have mobile telcos on the ropes“. The post describes how evidence emerged on price fixing for balance inquiries and steps taken by Competition Commission of Pakistan. The details of this case are quite interesting and offer many insights into the minds of telecom decision makers.

It started with something innocuous. Within a very short period of around a week all the mobile operators in Pakistan announced they would charge 10 Paise for balance inquiries. The Competition Commission of Pakistan naturally initiated an inquiry. The mobile operators said there was no price fixing and that this move was intended to reduce the overuse of this service.

But then someone turned up with copies of emails showing the existence of a CEO Forum and details on discussions of prices, not only for balance inquiries, but for other services as well. Having completed the preliminary inquiry the CCP has now issued formal show cause notices.

Wake up call to the region’s mobile operators. Competition is intense, we agree. But do not violate the law. Even if not all South and SE Asian countries have general competition law and agencies in place, many operator licenses include prohibitions against price fixing. What Pakistan is doing now, could well happen in other countries too.