State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

This is a quick recap of the year for Telecom industry in Pakistan. Here are some of the positive developments of 2009.

1. Broadband shows signs of improvement with more subscribers, competition and lower rates.
2. Easypaisa paves the way for mobile financial services.
3. Online SIM checking service 667 and 668 for overseas Pakistanis
4. Better online maps and navigation become available for Pakistan.
5. Social media use among mainstream Pakistanis keeps growing.
6. Telecom companies actively use Facebook & start tweeting.
7. Plenty of ICT events and opportunities for networking.
8. PTA pushes to get SIM issue resolved.
9. Mobi2weet introduced.
10. Zong catches up and launches Blackberry.

Read more »

Here are the results of the poll from October about smart phone data usage. As you can see a majority of users who participated in this poll are power users. This is to be expected as people who read blogs tend to be early adopters and thus more likely to be mobile data users. Also see the results from my own usage as of today. The very obvious trend is that wireless data usage is on the rise and mobile phones are fast becoming the most common device for accessing information. Network operators and service providers need to adjust their business models to take this into account. The pace of this acceleration of data usage varies by geography but its only a matter of time before this becomes a global phenomenon.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll.

InMobi is a fast growing global mobile advertisement network. InMobi has been a sponsor to Telecompk.net for a while and we had the chance to sit with InMobi CEO and ask a few questions about the future of mobile advertising and opportunities in this exciting space.

How is InMobi different from its competitors?
Instead of focusing on being different we’d much rather focus on doing things better. What has helped us grow to this point is our focus on solving real customer needs and our value proposition to our partners. InMobi has consistently focused on providing higher quality and monetization levels for our publishers and greater return-on-investment (ROI) for advertisers, many of whom are trying the mobile internet medium for the first time, or for the first time in our region.

Read more »

Posting an excerpt from Flurry blog post which provides a unique perspective on mobile apps usage and retention.Flurry is the leading mobile analytics provider and has access to the data from a large pool of mobile apps. Application developers should take note of the insights offered here.

Mapping categories by usage frequency and retention also provides insights into pricing models. Quadrants I and IV (the right-hand side) are better suited, on average, to subscription (if supported by the respective app storefront) and advertising-supported models. The main reason is that these apps have perceived enduring value by consumers over a long period of time, and therefore more successfully retain their user bases. For ad-supported apps, this high repeat usage translates into more ad impressions served. Categories on the left-hand side, Quadrants II and III, are better suited for one-time download fees. Those apps may provide higher immediate satisfaction to users but their content, once consumed, rapidly loses their value.

The data in this report is computed from a sample size of over 2,00 live applications and over 200 million user sessions tracked each month across Apple (iPhone and iPod Touch), Google Android, Blackberry, JavaME platforms.

Femtocells, small boxes that act like miniature cellular towers, have long been held out as a solution to spotty cellphone service and dropped calls. But the devices, which plug into broadband Internet connections to provide improved coverage inside homes, have been slow to catch on with consumers since they hit the market late last year. An obvious reason is their high price, around $250.

Support among big wireless carriers has been uneven around the globe. Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel offer the devices, though mostly as a stop gap in areas of poor coverage. Femtocells are sold by a few carriers in Japan and Europe, including Softbank and Vodafone Group.

The first wave of devices offered by Verizon Wireless and Sprint are mostly designed to boost voice reception, since they run off of second-generation, or 2G, technology. Samsung is planning to launch a 3G-compatible femtocell early next year. The device will allow the carriers to offer more wireless services and programs to consumers through the speedier connection. Ubiquisys, meanwhile, already has its 3G devices in Japan and in Europe.

Femtocells are the latest in a long string of devices intended to extend or enhance cellphone service, from stick-on boosters that attach to handsets to portable antennas. Deutsch Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA offers a in-home service that uses a Wi-Fi router and special handsets that can hop back and forth between Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

While the companies haven’t made sales numbers available, ABI Research analyst Aditya Kaul estimates 100,000 femtocell units were sold world-wide last year and 790,000 units will be sold this year.

“I think there is a lot of promise, but we’ll have to wait a year or two before the mass market femtocell takes off,” he said.

Via WSJ.

The latest numbers from PTA reveal that the total subscriber base of cellular services has reached 95.5 million, and the trend between Moblink and Telenor as discussed earlier continues.

The neck to neck race of subscriber acquisition continues between Mobilink and Telenor as Mobilink gained 414K in July 2009 and Telenor added 406K.

A significant increase as compared to May 2009 in subscriber base of Warid can also be seen, possibly due marketing comeback from Warid and introduction of the Glow prepaid package.

Ufone despite their intense marketing gained less than Zong in July.

The month to month subscriber change for the first half of 2009 shows a consistent increase in subscriber base over the past three months.

If the current growth pace is sustained, the subscriber number should be close to 100 million by end of December 2009.

Many global research firms have large R&D laboratories in India, covering areas such as information technology, energy, life sciences, and agriculture. In a way, India provides a place to experiment and then export the results to other countries, both developing and developed. Here are some interesting points about Microsoft Research India, posted at the Harvard Business Review blog.

It is interesting to see that Microsoft has adapted to the emerging market culture and is working hard to bring in a diverse group of scholars and researchers. Looking at the research and achievements of companies like Nokia, Apple, Samsung and HP, Microsoft has a long way to prove their strength in original research. The approach is include social scientists and economists in your teams as well. This is a worthwhile approach and we need to adopt this broad thinking within our research initiatives in Pakistan as well.

We were expecting this lab to look like other multinationals’ Indian R&D outfits, i.e., staffed with hundreds of engineers and scientists. But we were in for a big surprise.

Read more »

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.

Twelve recent, noticeable telecom and technology trends from Pakistan.

• Popular: iPhone 3G, Book your number by Zong, Mobile Internet with USB modems
• Success Stories: Zong brand launch, Telenor strategy
• Survivors: Ptcl, Warid
• On the defensive: Mobilink
• Wrong Turns: Tax increase on telecom, charging for customer service call
• Defying the odds: Entreprenurship continues to thrive and inspire
• Becoming mainstream: Social networking
• Getting noticed: bloggers and Internet users by Google
• Shift in business model: User generated content threatens traditional media
• Challenges: economy, energy & power shortage, political instability 
• On track: WiMAX with second commercial rollout
• Policy issues: Enforcement of new SIM registration policy, when to rollout 3G

This is getting really interesting; a new rumored device from HTC has now been surfaced out of no-where code-named HTC TOUCH HD. It looks like HTC is now going full device touch screen with the amazing screen size of 4 inches & astounding resolution of WVGA (800X480).

The HTC Touch HD is all poised to be the ultimate device in the much hyped TOUCH phone segment with all the making of the real I-Phone killer. The phone is rumored to be based on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional & will be running HTC Touch Flo 3D (just like Touch Diamond).

Below is some known specification highlights of HTC TOUCH HD, meanwhile the Touch HD is said to be due in Christmas means we can expect its announcement really soon. Read on for specifications.

Read more »

Editor’s Note: Please join me in welcoming Shariq Syed. This post was originally published at Shariq’s blog: Artistry Of Branding.

Handset market has played the most pivotal role in the overall growth of Pakistan’s telecom industry. For me the handset market has played a kind of un-sung hero role in-comparison with the local Telco’s who have taken much of the limelight in the phenomenal growth of Pakistan’s telecom industry during these 6 years.The 1st H of 2008 was a difficult period for telecom industry in general with plenty of political uncertainty, negative economic indicators, ever rising inflation & unfavorable budget policies played their role in restraining the growth pattern of previous years.

The hardest hit area in this declining growth pattern has been the handset market of Pakistan. Till Dec, 2007, the growth of handset market was excellent with around 1 Million handsets were being sold on monthly basis. However in July, 2008 the figures came down to 600 K units per month (depicting 40% decline in volume during 6 months). While the picture looks grim, i am pretty sure that volume will start to pick once the clouds of uncertainty settles (positive indicators including decline in inflation & Pak rupee getting strong against $).

Handset Market – Current Scenario

Pakistan’s handset market is primarily a low-end market with majority of volume comes from low-end mobile phones. Another important aspect is that our handset market is extremely price sensitive just like any other handset market of a developing country.

To comprehend the local market dynamics, below is the price segmentation analysis along with the market share each price segment comprised upon.

Read more »

An important aspect of true internationalization of the Internet involves support of major languages such as Urdu. Dr Sarmad Hussain of National University has recently achieved a big success with the inclusion of Urdu on the Internationalized Domain Names evaluation site. A big kudos to Dr. Sarmad and his team for getting to this milestone.

Urdu is on a tier 2 list of languages that are being evaluated. Dr. Sarmad has asked people to visit the Urdu Wiki pagesfor Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and give feedback on the points requested.

I was able to browse to the original link which has the Urdu alphabet in IE and Firefox. However I could not use it directly in this post because I need to set wordpress up to support Urdu. Follow this link to go the wiki page.

Read on to see the list of few thing that you can do to test the behavior based on your own working environment. Read more »