State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

See keynote at Wimax world 2007 by Motorola CTO Padmasree Warrior . She talks about the impact of Wimax on both emerging (Pakistan) and mature markets (US, Europe) and about the new on-demand applications which will ride the wave of always on mobile broadband. At a time when Motorola is struggling to regain its leadership position, WiMAX has become critical to Motorola’s future. 

Pakistan is mentioned at 5:20, 9:40 and 13:36.

Thanks to Ajit for the original post at OpenGardens blog.

Adnan Siddiqui pointed out that Wateen has opened pre-registration for their suite of products including WiMAX. For those who have suffered through all the digging on the streets (as in Lahore DHA), this should be welcome news. The link on Wateen’s site mentions that the new site will be the portal for all their services.  The site addresses the 3 major sgements of home, business and operators. Some basic information such as the WiMAX coverage area and technology FAQs are provided there. However as the site stands now, it could use some improvements. Some of the issues I noticed:

1. The approach they are using is to get the customer info through registration and then getting back to them. It means that they are still not ready yet. Now why would people leave their CNIC number with Wateen - especially over an insecure connection? Oh yes here’s an incentive: Be amongst the first 10,000 customers by registering online to receive a surprise gift from Wateen. This offer is valid until 30 September, 2007.
2. The product information is not provided on the registration page. For an ordinary person, more information is desirable with the context. You dont want people to wander around the site to figure out what options are availabel for TV - you put that info right there where users need it. 
3. The site does not list information about the WiMAX packages and prices. For example the business WiMAX section greets you with a “coming soon” message.The package rate inforamtoion is likely to be available in 4-6 weeks according to Wateen.
4. Site navigation is not very user-friendly and easy to bookmark.

 Why do companies have a hard time putting together an informative and user-friendly site which will help consumer become their customers? What’s so difficult about it?

This post is first in a series in which IPTV services in Pakistan will be discussed.  First an introduction to IPTV: in simple terms IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional formats and cabling, is received by the viewer through the technologies (IP) used for computer networks. IPTV provides multimedia services via a broadband connection with the help of a set-top box (STB) which resembles a traditional cable box. A single connection (fiber optic, copper or cable) coming to your premise can serve phone, TV and Internet service - terms such as FTTH or FTTP are used when fiber optic cable is being used for higher bandwidth transmission.

Why IPTV? IPTV is an imporant piece of the Triple Play puzzle. Many telecom companies are using it to create a sticky bundle for customers, the idea is that if a customer gets all services from a provider he or she can be offered a better deal and therefore is less likely to switch providers. I, for one, use bundles at home and find it convenient to have one bill and one phone number for customer service.

Triple play is also great for offering enhanced and converged services (not all are feasible, though) such as :

• TV and video services such as video-on-demand (VoD), subscription, live TV channel lineup packaging and scheduling, and network-based digital video recorder capabilities
• Additional “blended” communications applications such as get an alert of phone call on your TV, text chat, live traffic information (even using your cell phone as a remote - seriously!)
• Personal media applications such as uploading of photographs and video clips and sharing of music and video content across multiple in-home devices

What is the situation of IPTV in Pakistan’s market today? It is all about broadband availability and affordability and till now Pakistan has miserably lagged behind on this. I am hopeful that things will change for better in the next 2-4 years. The policy and regulatory framework is set by PTA. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) monitors and regulates the electronic media and it issues IPTV licneces as well.  I know about the following companies which can/will offer IPTV: PTCL, Wateen and Nayatel. There is little information available about PTCL plans (see some discussion here) but it is likely that they will offer IPTV over DSL using technologies from various foreign vendors (see below); for Wateen I’ve previously written here. Recently Brain has also advertised limited launch of IPTV service.

According to some resources PTCL may launch IPTV service on 23rd March 2007 to pilot users -with a broader launch to 20,000 subscribers in the first half of this year. In terms of its strategy IPTV must be a top priority for PTCL. It all comes to execution and creating a value package. PTCL launch is supported by Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei and Irdeto, the Netherlands-based content security company. Huawei will provide the servers and set-top boxes (see Hua wei’s IPTV architecture below) and Irdeto will provide content security solution.

The Irdeto IPTV security solution integrated into the Huawei IPTV system provides for a full video product and service offering, including broadcast TV, video on demand, PVR and Time Shift TV. Within the Irdeto IPTV security framework, content is securely stored and distributed across any broadband IP network and the corresponding content rights can be managed on an individual subscriber and/or device basis.

Read more »

As this post is being written, ITU is hosting TELECOM WORLD 2006 Asia in Hong Kong. It is one of the leading events of the telecom world, “bringing the world’s leading ICT companies, decision-makers, organisations and governments together, Telecom WORLD features a major exhibition, a high-level Forum and numerous opportunities for meeting, discussing, networking and getting business done.”

One of the most interesting part of this event is the Forum where leaders (see a few leading speakers below) get together and discuss the technical, economic, social and policy matters surrounding telecommunications and ICT in general. The theme for this forum is Living the Digital World which seems quite appropriate given the fast-paced changes digital technology is making in the world.

There are many hot topics in the agenda such as broadband triple play, digital content, Wimax etc. While each of the above topic merits in-depth discussions, I’d like to point out to one of the most important subject for the world today: Next Generation networks for Development. The decisions of today will impact how tens millions of people in developing countries with low income levels can join this information revolution. In my opinion, telecommunication related technologies have a vast potential to change these people’s lives.

In the ITU conference the Telecommunication Development Symposium will cover how telecommunication can enhance development. More information about this theme is here. Excerpts below:

Developing countries have made tremendous strides towards increasing connectivity by using fixed, wireless and mobile technologies. At the same time, there is wide consensus that the next phase of networked communications will be based upon Next Generation Network technologies that promise to achieve enhanced connectivity through cost-effective and sustainable infrastructure development and management.

The concept of the Next Generation Network (NGN) covers the transition from current to future packet-based infrastructures, which is essential to take advantage of new opportunities for development and to bridge the digital divide. It spans both the fixed and wireless worlds so that the same services can be delivered no matter what access technology is used — whether it is a mobile device, a fixed network broadband connection or a fixed wireless connection. As a result, NGNs promise to foster the use of communications for greater socio-economic development, including E-education, E-health, and E-government, and enable countries to boost productivity and growth.

Participants and attendees will learn what NGNs look like, which NGN applications can succeed in developing countries, whether existing business and regulatory models will be applicable, and whether developing countries can move beyond existing technologies to a state-of-the-art wireless NGN world. They will also discuss what kinds of handsets and devices will be most appropriate, how end users will pay for broadband services such as IPTV, VoIP and e-health services in an NGN environment, and what kind of NGN policy developing countries should embark upon.

I hope that after this conference a concrete action plan is published and follwed so that we can see some results and its not all talk. The representatives of developing countries need to take the lead on this.