State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

I thought the term ‘Sim Jagao’ was an interesting marketing phrase to ask people to start using Warid’s prepaid SIM again. I have noticed a number of such offers from all the mobile operators. Mobile number portability is one of the reason. Today it is easy for a customer to switch service. This ‘churn’ is an issue for the companies. My advice: pay attention to customer service and customers are more likely to stay with you.

This offer is for Warid prepaid customers who have not used their SIMS Since January 01, 2010. All such customers upon reactivating their SIMS will immediately get Rs.30 in their accounts as free activation balance. And not only this, they can also get free balance equal to 50% of their first recharge for three months. Another exciting feature is that the customer can enjoy facility of two numbers in their F&F list, one of Warid and one of any other network with the charges as low as Rs. 1 + Tax/min. This offer is valid till 15th June 2010.

Mobile devices are increasingly subject to many of the threats that plague personal computers. Now a leading security researcher has presented a new way to detect malware on mobile devices. According to this article, the new approach  can catch even unknown threats and can protect a device without draining its battery or taking up too much processing power.

Researchers have begun to identify ways to protect devices from malicious software. But traditional ways of protecting desktops against threats don’t translate well to smart phones, says Markus Jakobsson, a principal scientist at Xerox PARC and the person behind the new malware detection technology. Read more »

At the time of launch of easypaisa, many people wanted a service they can host from their mobile phone. I see mobile accounts as the service that lets you do that. It is not any over the counter service like bill payments and money transfer but  a virtual Bank Accounts opened for Telenor subscribers to access from their own mobile phones at any time.

Read more »

Research and Market, the world’s largest market research resource have recently published forecast reports of next five years for mobile operators of Pakistan and other countries. The key points of the report as mentioned in its summary give a very interesting picture of the state of telecom industry in Pakistan.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

In the bloggers meetup with Mobile Account, Ali Abbas from Tameer Bank highlighted that it was the branchless banking regulations from State Bank of Pakistan that eased mobile banking in Pakistan. With this I went on my hunt for the regulation document and studied to know its details. In this and coming posts I shall look at the regulatory preservative of Mobile Banking as governed by the SBP’s Brachless Banking Regulations 2008.

Read more »

This WSJ article on Telcordia shows how telecom is also getting caught up in the intense politics of South Asia. Telcordia had helped with mobile number portability and now that has come under scrutiny by Indian government. Quite funny. We had heard the same kind of concerns about Telenor. Is this an isolated instance or does this mean more trouble for telecom vendors who are doing business in South Asia?

Telcordia Technologies Inc. sold its software to several cellphone companies in Pakistan a few years ago, just as it has done in 14 other countries. Now that fact is making life difficult for the U.S. company in Pakistan’s archrival, India. Telcordia makes back-end software for wireless and fixed-line networks.

Millions of Indian cellphone users are awaiting the chance to switch wireless providers while keeping the same phone number. Telcordia, which is based in Piscataway, N.J., was one of two companies the Indian government selected to provide crucial services to carriers in the transition to so-called number portability.

But in recent months, India’s Home Ministry has raised objections that partnering with Telcordia could compromise national security, effectively putting the company’s plans on hold.

The Indian ministry noted its concerns that Telcordia “has presence in Pakistan,” according to notes from a January meeting of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, the government body that reviews foreign investments.

Read more about this after the break.

Read more »

Telenor Weblounge provides a self-service online tool that allows users to sign up for (or port your number to) Telenor services and get a golden number free with it. The wizard based system walks you through 5 steps as shown below – at the 4th step, you can search through available numbers and select one. This is Telenor’s answer to Zong’s Book your Number online. Overall the features and service offered by Telenor Weblounge are comprehensive and the wizard based approach makes it easy to sign up.

Online self-service is the wave of the future and this is the right solution for net savvy customers who want to control their accounts and services from their home or work.

Read more »

Reports are circulating that Microsoft plans to introduce long-awaited new software (Windows Mobile 7) for powering cellphones in Barcelona this week as the company seeks to regain ground lost to rivals like Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the mobile market. Compare Apple which went from zero to over 13% smartphone share, MS only gained 1% more from 2006 till now, its a dismal performance. It has been a rough time. Microsoft acquired a startup Danager along the way, fired most of its Windows mobile team last year and botched up data backups for Sidekick. WSJ reports:
Read more »

Ezetop, an international group focused on international and online mobile phone top-up today. It provides services of top-up to any  phone back home for many countries, including Pakistan.

Read more »

Nokia has made a huge move in the mobile mapping and navigation area: it now offers free global navigation (for drivers and pedestrians) on Nokia smartphones. These free-of-charge navigation services are intended to boost Nokia’s service offerings and sell more phones. This is the same direction which Google was moving in with its free navigation software. The free turn-by-turn directions by Nokia mean that navigation device makers such as TomTom and Gramin will be impacted.

Read more »

Telenor has started online booking for BlackBerry Bold 9700. Delivery is expected in the first week of February 2010. You can also call 111-345-100, 345 or call 200 from Telenor Persona Number. Priced at Rs. 50K, this is one of the high end, stylish phone from RIM.  BlackBerry Bold 9700 would be a lot of fun with 3G rollout.