State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

I came across a very interesting research project which aims to make social networking on mobile phones as ubiquitous and easy as it is today on the web. Although many of you already interact with Facebook from your mobile (Telenor, Zong etc provide such services), this research is a way to rethink the whole approach to how social platforms are designed.

From the western world to the third world, the use of handheld devices (cellphones, PDAs) has proliferated. The world of users is becoming both wireless and mobile. Web 2.0 has ushered in an age wherein the web is viewed as a provider of services and not just a repository of documents and/or information. Despite this advance, the web remains just that, a single web with an inherent assumption that a powerful computing and communication infrastructure supports it. Couldn’t mobile wireless devices in close proximity form a web of their own? This is the vision behind this project, the Web on Demand (WoD).

WoD aims at bridging the gap between social networks and ad hoc networking. In other words, it aims to rethink the system software stack all the way from application to networking that would allow the creation and management of social networks without any assumption of infrastructure support. The core of the research is to develop software technologies for mobile devices that would allow the dynamic creation of thematic ad hoc overlay networks empowering (a) mobile people with similar interests (e.g., weather forecast), (b) friends and family (e.g., in a theme park), and (c) participants in mission critical applications (e.g., search and rescue), stay connected. WoD complements the World Wide Web (WWW) and leverages it when it is available, such as exploiting the ambient computing infrastructure to enhance user experience, and managing the dynamic creation of User Generated Content (UGC) by mobile users.

The vision behind this project is to democratize access to services that are currently offered through WWW. In this sense, the results from this research can have far-reaching technological and societal consequences. Most importantly, the research will help breed a new class of computer scientists who are connected with societal causes in addition to advancing technology.

This Economist article, titled Sensors and Sensitivity, talks about the various interesting studies of data collection from mobile phones.

Mobile phones provide new ways to gather information, both manually and automatically, over wide areas.
 

If your mobile phone could talk, it could reveal a great deal. Obviously it would know many of your innermost secrets, being privy to your calls and text messages, and possibly your e-mail and diary, too. It also knows where you have been, how you get to work, where you like to go for lunch, what time you got home, and where you like to go at the weekend. Now imagine being able to aggregate this sort of information from large numbers of phones. It would be possible to determine and analyse how people move around cities, how social groups interact, how quickly traffic is moving and even how diseases might spread. The world’s 4 billion mobile phones could be turned into sensors on a global data-collection network.

They could also be used to gather data in more direct ways. Sensors inside phones, or attached to them, could gather information about temperature, humidity, noise level and so on. More straightforwardly, people can send information from their phones, by voice or text message, to a central repository. This can be a useful way to gather data quickly during a disaster-relief operation, for example, or when tracking the outbreak of a disease. Engineers, biologists, sociologists and aid-workers are now building systems that use handsets to sense, monitor and even predict population movements, environmental hazards and public-health threats.

A good example is InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters), a non-profit group based in California, which promotes the use of mobile phones to improve developing countries’ ability to respond to disasters. Launched with seed money from Google’s philanthropic arm and the Rockefeller Foundation in late 2007, it has just released a suite of open-source software to share, aggregate and analyse data from mobile phones. Its first test-bed is Cambodia, where health-workers can send text messages, containing observations and diagnoses, to a central number.

The sender’s location is determined for each of the messages, which pop up as conversation threads on an interactive map that can be called up on the web. Clicking on this map allows text messages to be sent back to users in the field from the control centre. InSTEDD says this service, called GeoChat, enables “geospatial ground-truthing, as your mobile team works to confirm, refute, or update data”.

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TeleomPk has been providing coverage of Telehealth or mobile health work in Asia. This post is a summary of the various efforts going on but of course, its not comprehensive. It would be great to have a national website where doctors, scientist, technologists, social workers and other stakeholders can discuss, share and publish their work.

Let’s start with research at the Next Generation Intelligent Networks Research Center of FAST University, Islamabad. Their work on Remote Patient Monitoring System with Focus on Antenatal Care (see past post) is funded by the National ICT R&D fund, Government of Pakistan, over the period of 3 years (2008-2010). The primary objective of this project is to develop a reliable, efficient and easily deployable remote patient monitoring system that can play a vital role in providing basic health services to the remote village population of Pakistan at their door step.

There’s more innovative work in this area by other groups as well. In this interview, Jehan Ara talks with a Pakistani researcher Jahanzeb Sherwani (prior coverage here) who has done doctoral level research at CMU about using speech recognition with local languages to collect information regarding rural health care. In this interview he talks about expanding the work out of the labs and to include more local languages. Excerpt from a post by Jehan Ara.

Jahanzeb has been more excited about the HealthLine PhD project that he has been working on with Hands, an NGO. Speech recognition is, he believes, the equalizer, the ultimate enabler. It doesn’t matter if you are illiterate or if you speak a different language.

LIRNEAsia also publishes work on m-health topic quite often. Much of their work looks at running surveys and working with local communities to gather data and to test out the technologies. They also work with Carnegie Mellon university on Bio-surveillance work.

Of course when it comes to developed countries there’s a lot of emphasis on reducing cost and for providing connected services whereby automation and intelligence can make devices and testing smart. Here’s ATT vision for medical remote monitoring (source: Fast Company). A number of other companies are active in this area. There’s also interest in providing monitoring and emergency services for senior citizens.

Lirneasia also publishes work on m-health topic quite often. Much of their work looks at running surveys and working with local communities to gather data and to test out the technologies. They also work with Carnegie Mellon university on Bio-surveillance work.

Please suggest any other sources which you think should be covered. Here’s another report from Africa about health care improvement.

Cell phones may have changed the way people communicate in the developed world, but in developing countries they’re going far beyond simple communication to bring new opportunities to areas that sorely need them. Case in point: FrontlineSMS:Medic, a new initiative to improve health care in poor, rural villages.

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Interesting research about understanding the background noise of a phone.

Researchers are increasingly using cell phones to better understand users’ behavior and social interactions. The data collected from a phone’s GPS chip or accelerometer, for example, can reveal trends that are relevant to modeling the spread of disease, determining personal health-care needs, improving time management, and even updating social-networks. The approach, known as reality mining, has also been suggested as a way to improve targeted advertising or make cell phones smarter: a device that knows its owner is in a meeting could automatically switch its ringer off, for example.

A group at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, NH, has created software that uses the microphone on a cell phone to track and interpret a user’s activity. The software, called SoundSense, picks up sounds and tries to classify them into certain categories. In contrast to similar software developed previously, SoundSense can recognize completely unfamiliar sounds, and it also runs entirely on the device. SoundSense automatically classifies sounds as “voice,” “music,” or “ambient noise.” If a sound is repeated often enough or for long enough, SoundSense gives it a high “sound rank” and asks the user to confirm that it is significant and offers the option to label the sound.

In recent months the competition for the creation, adoption and stickiness of smart phone applications has escalated. iPhone and Android have emerged as the two top platforms. Recently there were some interesting stats and analysis released by Flurry, a leading provider of mobile analytics solutions for mobile application developers. Tech Crunch notes:

Flurry’s June report harvests data from 1,100 applications running across 4 platforms (iPhone OS, BlackBerry, J2ME, and Android) on over 40 million handsets, and sheds a bit of light on the usage habits (stickiness included) of smart phone users over the past few months. The number of Flurry-enabled J2ME apps has seen an incredible drop over the 3 month period, while the iPhone has seen an equally huge growth.

Here’s where it gets interesting: by taking the two most heavily represented platforms (again, Android and iPhone) and comparing user loyalty on an App-by-app basis, Android wins hands down. As time increases, Android users continue to stick with apps longer.

Flurry has this to say about this trend: one reason we believe retention rates vary is that Android offers far fewer applications compared to iPhone. With applications coming out on iPhone at a faster rate, iPhone users move onto other apps more quickly. For Android users, they make more use of what’s available, with less temptation to move to the next application.

The chart below shows the number of franchises for mobile network operators (source: PTA report 2008).  If you divide the total number of subscribers at the end of 2008 by the number of franchises shown here at the end of 2008, it shows that Zong has one franchise for approximately 33600 subscribers. Telenor on the other hand has one franchise per 81000 customers. Mobilink has 63400 per franchise, Ufone 53500 and Warid 59400. So apparently Zong is at top in terms of offering more franchises for its subscriber base - but is that simple?

Of course more franchises do not equate to better service or higher sales. However it does raise some questions. Does it mean that Zong did an aggressive franchise rollout to gain market share? How does Telenor maintain its subscriber gain with the least density of franchises? There are some interesting comments about which franchise is best from a business owner point of view at this TGP thread.

This post does not address many important points such as the partner model followed by each company varies (the franchises counted by PTA are not the only ones). The the geographical distribution of franchises can be quite different when it comes to urban and rural areas and from one province to another.

To all the web developers who want to become mobile application developers, this may be good news for you: Palm’s new operating system webOS will allow mobile applications to be written using common web technologies. Will Palm apps be able to compete with the rich apps on iPhone or Blackberry? Sharing some snippets from Technology Review:

Palm will launch what some are calling a last-ditch gamble: its new smart phone, the Palm Pre. The media has been buzzing with speculation about another iPhone challenger, and Palm loyalists see the Pre as the best hope for their favorite underdog to regain its former glory. But behind all the hype and hoopla, the real innovation is a brand-new operating system based on widely used Web technologies.

The Pre’s new operating system, webOS, runs on top of Linux. But rather than requiring applications to be written in a high-level coding language, the way that other smart-phone platforms–and Palm’s previous operating systems–have done, webOS lets Web developers use tools like HTML, CSS, and Javascript, which should be more familiar to anyone who has programmed for the Web.

In the past, application developers have often had to familiarize themselves with a new language in order to build programs for mobile systems. To make an app that is compatible with Apple’s iPhone, for example, developers have to use the relatively obscure programming language Objective C. In contrast, according to information released by Palm, developers should be able to manage data storage on the Pre using HTML5, in addition to having access to data from the phone’s Contacts and Calendar. A software development kit (SDK) for the Pre called Mojo will also include tools to extend Javascript to access hardware features on the device, including the accelerometer, the camera, and the phone itself.

The advantage to this strategy is that more developers already speak the language.

“Anyone who can program for the Web can potentially build apps for webOS,” Yu says. That could also make it simpler, Yu adds, for developers to translate existing Web apps to webOS. The ease of writing Web code could open up a developer pool of millions, rather than the tens of thousands who already know languages like Objective C and Java, the language used to write applications for Google’s Android platform.

There is some evidence that Web developers will be eager to try their hand at mobile development too. For a year after the iPhone first launched, there was no way to develop a native application–one that would run on the phone itself. So instead, many third-party developers created Web programs that ran inside the phone’s browser. It wasn’t until Apple released its SDK that app developers could write real native apps, taking advantage of the phone’s underlying hardware like the accelerometer and touch screen. The interface layer for webOS, on the other hand, acts like a browser itself, with multiple applications running in separate windows–what Palm calls “cards,” because of how they’re displayed on the screen

Technology Review reports about an interesting concept in development: a cell phone that never needs recharging. Nokia says it’s developing technology that could draw enough power from ambient radio waves to keep a cell-phone handset topped up. The target for the prototype is to harvest up to 50 milliwatts of power–enough to slowly recharge a phone that is switched off. Current prototypes can harvest 3 to 5 milliwatts.

Ambient electromagnetic radiation–emitted from Wi-Fi transmitters, cell-phone antennas, TV masts, and other sources–could be converted into enough electrical current to keep a battery topped up, says Markku Rouvala, a researcher from the Nokia Research Centre, in Cambridge, U.K.

The Nokia device will work on the same principles as a crystal radio set or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag: by converting electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal. This requires two passive circuits. “Even if you are only getting microwatts, you can still harvest energy, provided your circuit is not using more power than it’s receiving,” Rouvala says.

To increase the amount of power that can be harvested and the range at which it works, Nokia is focusing on harvesting many different frequencies. “It needs a wideband receiver,” says Rouvala, to capture signals from between 500 megahertz and 10 gigahertz–a range that encompasses many different radio communication signals.

Historically, energy-harvesting technologies have only been found in niche markets, powering wireless sensors and RFID tags in particular. If Nokia’s claims stand up, then it could push energy harvesting into mainstream consumer devices.

As the growth returns and total subscribers reach 93 million plus change, one trend has emerged:  the main battle for subscriber acquisition is between Mobilink and Telenor.

As you can see in the chart above, in the month of May, Mobilink gained more than 430K subscribers (or SIMs) and Telenor added 374K. As of May end Mobilink holds about 30.9% of the total market. It will be interesting to see the shift for the rest of this year.

A while back we took a sneak peak at Nokia’s latest offering, N97. The set was officially launched on 12th June at a grand launch ceremony held at Marriott Karachi. Along with a tilting 3.5″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customizable home screen, the Nokia N97 promises to offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services. The N97 is expected to be sold in Pakistan at a retail price of PKR 58,000 only.

The device was announced at a glamorous press event where two European models brought the phone at the venue and the Finnish First Secretary, Deputy Head of Mission H.E Miia Rainne handed over the phone to the GM Nokia Pakistan Imran Khalid Mahmood. Also present at the ceremony was Henri Mattila, Head of Category Marketing, Nseries Middle East and Africa.

Delivering on Nokia’s vision and thought leadership based on mobile convergence, Nokia Nseries has aimed to present the best in class mobile computers to its internet savvy consumers. Today, we take great pride in introducing the newest addition to Nokia Nseries – Nokia N97. We have combined the most-advanced smartphone capabilities in this device to enhance the internet entertainment for our consumers and at the same time ease-of use with one-touch access to their favourite online content.

Imran Khalid Mahmood

GM Nokia Pakistan

The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s first device to feature a personalizable home screen, which can be customized with a range of widgets which bring live information directly to the device. These widgets include key social networking destinations like Facebook and Hi5, news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information.

The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, which offers easy access to applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, and much more. Ovi Store has paid and free content from a range of global and local content providers and developers, including Paramount Pictures, Facebook and Qik, as well as a selection of Twitter applications.

The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience. Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.

Henri Mattila

Head of Category Marketing

Nseries Middle East and Africa

Entertainment Ensured

The Nokia N97 also has direct access to the huge catalogue of music in the Nokia Music Store. With multiple high-speed connectivity options and 32GB of storage (up to 48GB using a microSD card) it is possible to directly download and store tens of thousands of songs on the handset. And you can listen to your favourite music on the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which Nokia also launched today. This headset brings crystal clear sound, eliminates background noise, and is the ideal accessory for listening to music and making calls on the Nokia N97, as well as being compatible with a diverse range of other mobile and music devices.

High-quality images and video clips at 30 frames per second (fps) can be captured using the 5 megapixel camera with integrated Carl Zeiss optics. Images can also be geo-tagged to specific locations and shared instantly with friends or uploaded online via Ovi Share, Twitter or Flickr.

Google recently announced the release of Google Mobile App for S60 (3rd Edition), which allows quick access to Google search and offers shortcuts to a number of Google’s other services. Features include a homescreen shortcut and automatic location context, via GPS or cell positioning, for searches. Incidentally Google’s S60 YouTube application was also silently updated to version 2.0.17. Read on for more details.

Note: Thanks to Saleem Khan for sharing this useful link.

Google Mobile App for S60

Google Mobile App for S60 is, effectively, an update from and an extension to the Google S60 Search application announced last year.

The homescreen shortcut uses either ‘c’ key or the ‘pencil’ key depending on which device you are using. There’s an optional prompt that pops up a reminder of the shortcut (see first screenshot - it used just be the pencil key on supported devices), but this can be turned off if you wish.

Above is an example of a basic Google search for ‘pub’. With ‘My Location’ enabled an appropriate set of local results is offered automatically. The My Location feature ties in with and uses ‘My Location’ from Google Maps (Latitude). Either the device’s GPS or cell-positioning can be used to obtain current location information.

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Becoming aware of online comments and learning how to use the information can avert potential downturns in sales and can help companies fine-tune their marketing. In a recent article at the Kellogg business school site, a cell phone case study is used to make a point about the value of social conversations for business.

The researchers examined online word-of-mouth for the cellular phone industry. They focused on five specific brand models from five leading cell phone companies in the United States. Using data from an online forum with more than eight million posts, they explored the conversations of individual posters over time and analyzed how the nature of these posts related to individual customer behavior. From there they examined how the nature of online conversations relates to corporate performance.

In a working paper based on their research, Krishnamurthi and his colleagues report that they developed the data set by identifying keywords in the posts that expressed an attitude toward a cell phone and usage experience. He explains, “We classified people’s comments in these posts in three ways. One is an action-type statement, such as ‘I’m going to buy it.’ Another type expresses emotion, such as ‘I hate it.’ The third category is made up of attribute-type statements that have to do with quality, things that relate to the functionality of the product, such as ‘It has great reception.’” Each type of rating can be positive or negative.

Using specially designed software, the researchers rated the action, emotion, and attribute statements on a scale. According to Krishnamurthi, “It’s a little bit like artificial intelligence. You take a large number of posters and look at all the words they use, and create a classification of these words as highly negative through highly positive. The software has a dictionary, and when these posts are made the software automatically classifies them on this continuum.”