State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

For a nation, there is no power as constructive as its people’s ideas and their courage to make a difference. Like Allama Iqbal has said;

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We have mentioned the efforts of making telecom infrastructure green many times. The goal is to expand mobile communication to areas not served by electrical grids, as well as to reduce operating expenses and environmental impact. Vodafone Qatar and Alcatel-Lucent announced the deployment of the first hybrid powered Base Station in Qatar, using an integration of solar and wind energy. Vodafone and other companies intend to learn from these trial sites and plans to apply these techniques all over the world.

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The energy crisis in Pakistan is changing the way telecom industry consumes and manages power. In a welcome move, Universal Service Fund has made it mandatory for the telecom operators in rural areas, where USF is providing subsidy, to power their infrastructure through renewable energy sources. This not only makes sense financially but also from an environmental perspective. Telenor and Warid had already taken some initiatives along these lines – see our previous coverage. Read the statement from USF after the break.

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Telecom companies in Pakistan are one of the major power consumers and in addition to the increasing cost of electricity, they also face the challenge of lack of access to the electricity grid in rural areas to supply power to base stations. A few pilot deployments of  solar powered base stations were luanched earlier.Now Telenor Pakistan and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) have signed an agreement that will provide NSN’s off-grid site solutions that use solar energy to power Telenor base station sites in rural and remote areas. This is expected to result in substantial cost savings for Telenor Pakistan along with the social benefits that come with using renewable and clean energy.

Nokia Siemens Networks will design the sites, taking into account local solar mapping, site landscape and other factors to maximize the use of an abundant, clean, and natural energy source. Nokia Siemens Networks’ Green Energy Control will help deliver a sustainable solution while optimizing operating costs.

The solar-powered sites will be implemented using Universal Services Fund (USF) that was awarded to Telenor Pakistan in 2009. USF-based contracts aim to provide access to mobile services for underserved and unserved areas of Pakistan. Telenor Pakistan, till now, has been awarded three USF contracts for Mirpurkhas, Malakand and Bahawalpur region.

“It’s important that we connect the world in such a way that not only maximizes benefits for consumers and businesses, but also ensures the welfare of our planet,” said Saad Waraich, the Pakistan country director for Nokia Siemens Networks. “Providing communications to rural areas will become increasingly important and we believe renewable energy will be the first choice for such installations. In fact, the majority of base station sites installed by us by 2011 will use this form of energy. We are especially proud to partner with Telenor – a definite trend setter for the use of environmental technologies in network expansion.”

The GSMA has estimated that more than 75,000 new off-grid sites will be built each year through 2012 in developing countries. About 80% of the energy in a typical mobile telecommunication network is consumed by base stations. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power offer a reliable alternative to sites with limited or non-existent electrical grid access. Nokia Siemens Networks has already deployed more than 360 sites that exploit renewable energy and has over 25 years of experience in implementing solar-powered sites.

Source: Nokia Siemens Press Release

Though solar-powered phones (both real and concept models) have been around for a while, it is the first time that they are entering the mainstream consumer gadgets in a big way. Two major handset makers – LG and Samsung – started selling solar-powered cell phones this week. Price tag is around $300. Samsung’s model is a touch screen phone called Blue Earth which is made of recycled material and has a solar panel at the back. LG’s phone is called GD510 Pop with solar panel as an optional add-on.

Consumer demand for solar-based phones is hard to gauge, but makers are planning to market them as good for the environment as well as a way to hedge against running out of battery power.

Both the Samsung and LG phones have features that promote walking, such as software that measures distance traveled, and allow customers to calculate how much they can reduce carbon dioxide emissions with physical activities that replace driving.

“It is premature to say whether they will be successful, but overall it’s the right direction because people are increasingly interested in saving energy,” says Park Sung-min, a telecom industry analyst at Kyobo Securities in Seoul.

Samsung is aiming the Blue Earth model at premium customers, with pricing around $300. The phone, which can also be charged with a traditional plug-in cord, is initially available in Sweden; Samsung said it will quickly roll it out elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

G said the Pop phone will also initially be sold in Europe and be priced around $300 with the optional solar panel about $50. The companies said decisions are pending about U.S. sales.

Samsung said the Blue Earth phone can accept enough charge under an hour of normal sunlight to allow for 10 minutes of talk. LG said the Pop model permits about 13 minutes of talk after being charged for an hour under normal sunlight. The companies said the phones will also charge under artificial light, but more slowly.

Nokia Corp., the world’s largest cellphone maker by units and revenue, introduced a solar-based cellphone in 1997 but it didn’t continue in the company’s regular lineup. The company earlier this year demonstrated a concept phone that runs entirely on solar power.

Samsung, the second-largest maker, in June introduced its first solar-based phone, a bar-shaped model with a normal keypad and solar cells on the back. That phone, called Solar Guru in some markets and Crest Solar in others, was aimed chiefly at developing countries and sells for as little as $60. But Samsung also offers it in some wealthy European countries like France.

Via Tawanai.com

Green is in these days. The US cellular company Sprint has come up with an “Eco-friendly” phone which it thinks will help it with winning over those who favor green products. The phone is said to be made up of 80% recycled material and also offers quick access to eco-friendly applications. Sprint has been facing a decline in subscribers and is looking for ways to regain market share. See their marketing approach below. Will you go with a phone company because of their approach towards environment or for that matter, that company’s business practices? or do you care about their service and price above all?

An inspiring news article on how students are developing cell phone applications which can have a large impact on the billions of people in the developing world.

NextLab is based on trying to answer the question “can you make a cellphone change the world?” says its instructor Jhonatan Rotberg, director of the Media Lab’s Next Billion Network – a group, of which NextLab is a part, formed to examine potential applications for the next one billion people expected to become cellphone users over the next three years. With cellphones now in the hands of four billion people worldwide, he says, “we’re at the threshold of something important in history.”

See below for an excerpt related to the use of mobile applications, including those for literacy. Also note the work of Adnan Shahid. Also check out the lectures at Nextlab.

A variety of other applications for cellphones in remote areas are also being developed, including some aimed at improving coordination in areas where transportation both for people and goods is often unpredictable. One such system, called Transport Link, also developed in NextLab, is a way for people who rely on infrequent bus service to get timely updates on when the next bus will come through their area, or to arrange informal transportation with others in the area who have private vehicles.

For commercial transport, a company called Hammock aims to provide a way for shippers to connect with truckers, allowing for a better coordination of resources so that trucks are less likely to travel half-full, and farmers, for example, can get their goods to market without fear of spoilage. Hammock, which includes MIT graduate students Douglas Jardine, Nitin Gulati, and Natalia Maya, won this year’s NextLab Technology Innovation Award.

Legatum Fellow Adnan Shahid of the Sloan School hopes to bring his previous experience as director of IT strategy for MobiLink in Pakistan, to the business of recycling cell phones in that country. Worldwide, only 10 percent of cell phones are recycled each year, resulting in wasted natural resources and higher greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental savings could be significant for Pakistan, whose cities consistently rank among the most polluted in the world.

But there’s more to life than good health, economic empowerment and mobility. Another project aims squarely at ensuring a better future by improving literacy for impoverished people, especially young people, in developing countries where education is often a luxury that remains out of reach for millions of people.

The project, called Celedu, is starting its work in some rural villages in India, but hopes to expand far beyond that. Its initial offerings include cellphone-based games and quizzes that can teach basic literacy skills. For example, a child in India can play a game of Snakes and Ladders on the phone by answering multiple-choice questions about which words begin with a particular letter in the Hindi alphabet. Each correct answer allows the child’s marker to advance through the game board, providing a fun and competitive approach to learning the written language.

OPEN Forum is widely recognized as the biggest and most distinguished gathering of Pakistan-American business leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals from across the US and Pakistan. OPEN Silicon Valley’s sixth annual conference is on June 13, only 1 week away. Don’t miss this once-a-year opportunity to build your network. Visit opensiliconvalley.org for registration and details. I will be going there too, let me know if you want to meet.

OPEN Forum ‘09 presents the richest program to date in the conference’s six year history. 55 top executives, thought leaders and industry influencers will speak in conference tracks on Technologym Media, Cleantech, Healthcare and Finance.

The event will be headlined by two extraordinary leaders: Tom Campbell, former Dean, Haas School of Business, economic adviser to Gov. Schwarzenegger and a Candidate for California Governor; and Masood Jabbar, former EVP of Global Sales at Sun Microsystems.

Entrepreneurship as a Stabilizing Force: Given the challenges in Pakistan, OPEN Forum ‘09 includes a special emphasis on how entrepreneurship can play a role in stabilizing the region and furthering Pakistan’s socio-economic progress. Join us and engage on how you can play a role.

With effect from February 2009, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has decided to introduce a new billing system for its customers.

This decision was taken to ensure that PTCL moves towards adopting environmental-friendly and customer-friendly policies in line with the government of Pakistan’s efforts which urges companies and institutions to go green.

This initiative of PTCL also coincides with the Government’s decision to celebrate 2009 as the “Environment Year”. PTCL’s decision to reduce the number of billing pages focuses on the environment-friendly initiative and moving towards introducing a paperless environment.

The previous bills, comprising multiple pages, would be replaced with this new one-page bill, condensing all the necessary billing details on a single page. This initiative of issuing a single page compact bill will help in saving 12 million papers every month used for printing bill details.
Customers can still get itemized details of their bills by visiting any customer centre of PTCL. Besides, customers can also get details of their bills by dialing 1200.

PTCL is committed to providing world class telecom products and services to its valued customers, and striving to meet their expectations.

Dr. Sadik Al-Jadir

SEVP Commercial PTCL

Let’s see how the customers respond to a single page bill…

Via PTCL Press Release