The SEVP Commercial, PTCL, Mr. Naveed Saeed in an interview with The Nation has hinted on Life Line service to come in future.

The company has been preparing for offering a bouquet of services in the coming days that it had already launched for corporate consumers so far. The bouquet that would be called the ‘Life Line’ would include security, entertainment, infotainment, and high DSL Internet.

Looks like its time to make IP Cameras popular along with IPTV and DSL.

Telecommunications provider Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (www.ptcl.com.pk) announced on Thursday it has opened the largest data center in Karachi, Pakistan.

The data center is designed to be consistent with international standards and data center certification bodies.

The facility is protected from intrusion and failure with multi-layered security, fail-safe redundancy, diversity measures, and rapid response recovery measures, says the company. See video below.

The new data center is directly connected to PTCL’s global MPLS backbone to offer a range of hosting solutions with unparalleled network performance and features.

PTCL offers capabilities designed to deliver greater efficiencies for hosting customers through the use of technologies such as storage on demand, processing on demand, business continuity and disaster recovery, all of which are integrated with PTCL network services.

Naveed Saeed, senior executive VP at PTCL, says the data center is designed to provide business enterprises in Pakistan with a “reliable, responsive and resilient infrastructure to suit their needs”.

PTCL says it is the only unified service provider in Pakistan and is able to service all enterprise segments with a range of products including fiber optic and wireless connectivity, MPLS, VPN, managed and hosted technology solutions.

The data center will provide enterprises with an application processing environment with connectivity to the fully redundant self healing optical fiber network backbone.

[via The Web Host Industry Review]

Video (courtesy: Khurram Waheed)

PTCL Data Center in Karachi

Wireless Local Loop (WLL) growth slowed down in 2009 significantly. In December, the overall number for WLL dropped after a long time. PTCL which has the major market share, lost 56,000 subscribers in December. Wateen, on the other hand, almost doubled its customer base to 151K . Here are the stats for 2009, from PTA.

PTCL is in the news as it reported earnings: a net profit of Rs. 5.354 billion for the half year ended on 31st December, 2009. This is a 13% growth compared to same period last year. At the same time, PTCL has withdrawn its high-speed Internet discount for students. In a recent press release, it announced that “PTCL is offering special 30% discount package for the students on 1 Mbps connection on high speed broadband services.” The previous connections of 2MBps and 4Mbps offered to students will be downgraded. To me, this business strategy seems odd. Why would you downgrade a popular package at a time when earnings are good?

Here are the PTCL highlights from 2009.

• During last year, PTCL acquired about 336,000 customers spread over 200 cities in Pakistan.
• Evo – the wireless Broadband based on 3G technology with nationwide roaming  expanded to all the major cities.
• Under the USF scheme, PTCL is extending voice and data services to the underserved and far-flung areas of Pakistan using satellite backhaul as well.
• For its Corporate clients, the Company has launched Enterprise DSL, I-Sentry (IP video monitoring and surveillance solution), managed services and also soft launched Tele-presence for the first time in Pakistan.
• Data Centers equipped with latest technologies are being established at Karachi and Lahore with the objective to provide data-hosting as well as disaster-recovery services to our valued corporate customers.
• Another initiative is the on-going project to equip over four thousand (4,000) schools with IT labs under the auspices of Government of Punjab.
• Residential customers promotions include: Free on-nets minutes for new connections, Double-up Unlimited Package with single pricing for voice and broadband services, Bundle deals in Lahore and Karachi and Regional Packages.

PTCL comes with another attempt to create value for its landline services with the ‘Basant Offer‘ (they are getting creative with offer names).

The offer gives 50% Off on On-Net Calls in Off Peak Time (8:00 pm to 8:00 am) and Sundays. It is a seasonal offer (limited) valid only from 1st February 2010 to 28th February 2010. Good to see that the duration is pre-announced with the offer.

Charges:

Local Calls: Rs. 1 for 3 mins. (PTCL to PTCL and PTCL to Vfone)
NWD Calls: Rs. 1 for 3 mins. (PTCL to PTCL and PTCL to Vfone)

This offer may also enhance the on-net usage from PTCL Landlines in Off Peak Time and Sundays. It is applicable for all landline subscribers excluding Payphones and PCOs.

Can you spot what is not right about this advertisement from PTCL?

PTCL is providing devices (router and usb) for WiFi access in the home but they make it sound as if it is a “service”. Check out the official statement below. My take is that they should just make the router+usb free (at least not charge Rs. 200 per month for an indefinite period) and stop calling it a “service”.

PTCL Broadband, now available with new value added WiFi Services

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) has launched a WiFi facility with its fixed line broadband service that will give the PTCL Broadband customers the ability to use high speed and secure broadband services anywhere in the house.

This service will provide wire free connectivity to all WiFi enabled devices like desktops, laptops, PSP, cell phones etc with strong WiFi signals up to 54MBPS, with a secure password which enables protection to avoid any misuse.

PTCL is offering this customer friendly WiFi service at an additional charge of only Rs 200 per month. However, the service has no extra cost for the customers having Broadband with the smart TV service. The package also includes a WiFi USB to enable customer’s desktop pc to be used on the WiFi service.

We had written about the issues holding up $800 million payment from Etisalat. Pakistan’s Minister of Privatisation has stated that Pakistan will receive a payment of $800 million by the end of March from the UAE’s Etisalat for a stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Co (PTCL). Dawn reports:

In 2006, Etisalat, the Gulf Arab region’s second-largest telecom firm, signed an agreement to purchase a 26 per cent stake in PTCL for $2.6 billon, but so far only $1.4 billion has been paid, due to problems linked with a transfer of 3,000 real estate units.

Under the contract, the government agreed to transfer the properties before Etisalat made the full payment.

“We have agreed on a framework with Etisalat by which the transfer of $800 million will happen by the end of March … the property issues will be resolved soon,” Waqar Ahmed Khan told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

In December, Etisalat said the remaining $1.2 billion would be paid in equal instalments over a period of 4.5 years in consideration for “certain corresponding deliverables by the Pakistani counterpart.”

In the process of making its image better PTCL’s “ek tar faiday beshumar” is by far the most vibrant commercial coming from them. Hear it on radio or watch it on TV, its the best at both.  Take a look at it yourself.

PTCL – feel the difference

I beleive such advertisements backed by service quality will definilty make the difference felt, create value for the customers and capture the value in return.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) has re-launched voice mail service with remote login feature to keep its valued customers informed about their incoming calls. The re-launch with a new feature of remote login will enable customers to receive their messages from any landline, Vfone and all mobile services within the country or internationally, just by dialing 1277 followed by a four digit pin code of their mailbox.

The SEVP Commercial Naveed Saeed, while commenting on the re-launch of the voice mail service said, “It reinforces PTCL commitment to provide our customers value added services and projects PTCL image as a customer focused organisation”. He added, “Our customers can also personalised their mailbox settings like adding their greetings, out dial notifications, busy hours and absence greetings.”

The key highlights of the service are:

• Voice Mail Remote Access i.e retrieval of messages through remote login
• Simple Access from all domestic networks i.e by just dialing 1277
• International Access with just country code of Pakistan followed by 1277
• Out Dial Notification : System will also call twice a day to deliver unheard messages to customers in case customer did not retrieve the message
• Mailbox settings
  • Greeting settings
  • Out dial Notification settings
  • Busy hours settings
  • Absence greeting settings etc.
• Password Reset through password refresh service
• Free of cost
• Easy subscription through 1236
• Easy de-activation procedure ( just dial #06# from your landline)

Via Business Recorder

The Etisalat-PTCL deal has been controversial since the days when privatization talks began. In the 4 years after the deal, PTCL went through a transformation with many changes impacting its employees including layoffs. But the issues associated with Etisalat-PTCL deal are not over yet. Recently news has surfaced that Etisalat is still in dispute with Pakistan Government over US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) payment. Etisalat agreed to pay $2.6bn to the government in installments for a 26 per cent stake in PTCL in January 2006. But it has withheld payments for more than a year because of a dispute over the ownership of several properties in Pakistan that were part of the deal.

“Transfer of land is part of the contract. It says if it doesn’t happen we can stop the payments,” said Mohammed Omran, the chairman of the UAE’s largest telecoms operator. A committee that is led by Waqar Ahmed Khan, the Pakistani minister for privatization, and includes two other federal ministers has been established to negotiate with Etisalat.

“The Pakistani premier has assured the Etisalat delegation of his full support, but at the same time he has expressed concern over the payments owed to Pakistan’s government,” Mr Khan said.

“We will do all we can to assist Etisalat but we want this issue resolved and cash transferred to the exchequer as soon as possible.” Mr Khan added that formal negotiations would start “within days”.

Mr Omran said in April that Etisalat was considering plans to raise its shareholding in the Pakistani operator by another 25 per cent, giving it a controlling stake.

Etisalat hopes to boost its customer base in the country by expanding into rural areas, where most of Pakistan’s population of 170 million lives. It also hopes to bid for a coming 3G licence in the country.

“There are a lot of opportunities with PTCL,” said Irfan Ellam, a telecoms analyst at Al Mal Capital in Dubai.

“PTCL, when Etisalat bought its stake, was overstaffed but things changed after they gave voluntary redundancies to reduce their cost base. The revenue line has been impacted by the competition but it’s still a very good growth story.”

Etisalat has recently stepped up its involvement on the subcontinent. This month, it became the controlling stakeholder in its Indian subsidiary, Etisalat DB, with an additional investment of 3.8bn Indian rupees (Dh298.4 million). It also bought the Sri Lankan operator Tigo for $155m in October.

Mr Omran said his company’s future investments in Pakistan would hinge on a satisfactory resolution to its existing disputes.

“We have informed the Pakistan government that we are interested in the next licence and are willing to work with them on a majority stake,” he said. “But we need to resolve the issues before we could think of more investments.”

PTCL is Pakistan’s third-largest mobile operator, with more than 20 million mobile subscribers, and also offers broadband and landline services. But increased competition within the market has affected its earnings.

The company reported third-quarter revenues of 14.5bn Pakistani rupees (Dh632.6m), a decrease of 13 per cent compared with the same quarter last year.

Via National, AE