State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

Unwanted calls have become a major problem in the fast growing telecom market of Pakistan. Ufone has introduced the 420 service (got to love the name) to block calls from any network (or landline). Only for pre-paid customers, it comes with a Rs. 9.99/month price tag and allows you to block up to 20 numbers. Click here to go to Ufone site for more specifics.

I heard about this at TGP and followed a chain of obscure links to get to the pdf version of the Mobile Banking (including Money Transfers and Remittances) policy directive issued by Mr. Baqai, member (telecom). The five page document defines the main concepts and lays down the ground rules for technical implementation of banking applications on mobile devices (see a sample excerpt below). The policy directive seems to be a formality as it does not contain enough details. How does this change things for all the companies who already are active in mobile banking?

Since last month Ufone has started BlackBery service in Pakistan (see my previous post on this topic). Ufone had been working on it for a while and it must be a big achievement for them to make this milestone. So Mobilink is not the only one and Ufone rates are a tad better (monthly rates are Rs. 900 for individuals and Rs. 1350-1500 for business). What is Telenor waiting for?

BlackBerry is particularly valuable for mobile companies as it brings high arpu business accounts which are sticky … it is called Crackberry for a reason. I can’t tell you how many people I see walking around in office hallways with a BlackBerry in their hand. Yeah, it looks funny when you see others but seems perfectly fine when you are doing it!

 

 

Recently I stumbled upon Mobile Marketing Association website. I found the information there to be quite useful. One of the report on their site was about consumer guideline and best practices for marketing to consumers. The context is US market but the principles mentioned in the report are applicable anywhere. I hope that the designers and implementers of mobile marketing programs in Pakistan and Asia pay attention to these. Otherwise mobile advertising may be looked upon as another form of annoyance.

The complete report in pdf: Mobile Marketing Consumer Best Practices

Some of the topics covered in the report include:

• Unsolicited Messages
• Opt-in Mechanisms
• Privacy
• Sweepstakes and Contests
• Free to End User Programs
• Billing (charges related to marketing)
• Customer Care
• Dispute Resolution

Telenor and Mobilink have started offering in-flight cell phone. These services are roaming with and come with a few conditions. For those who find long flights boring or unproductive this can be a great way to pass time and be productive. But there’s a down side to this. I’m sure you have been noticed what happens moments after when a plane lands? Most people ignore the requests from staff to stay seated and quiet. Instead they whip out their phones and start calling their friends and families.  Usually this gets over quickly as people are in a hurry to get out. Now extend this scenario to a long flight. Imagine a chatty person sitting close to you talking for hours during your flight. I tell you, it can be an absolute nightmare!

Here’s a bit of description from the companies about their service:

Mobilink
Partnering with Air France and Emirates through our partner networks OnAir and AeroMobile, Mobilink offers GSM network onboard aircraft; providing not only voice calls and text messages but also data over GPRS. Currently, this service is being provided on one Emirates and one Air France aircraft with plans to roll out across fleets and other airlines in future.

Telenor
Telenor Pakistan proudly launches In-flight mobile phone services onboard International flights collaborating with AeroMobile exclusively on Emirates Airline.

In the US this stirred up plenty of noise — Congress even considered passing a law to ban voice calls on the plane. Then FAA clarified that it was not going to allow cell phones aboard the planes in near future. It is clear that airlines want it and the phone companies want it too. However some powerful consumer groups (read politicians) loathe the idea of a noisy flight. It is the ultimate conflict between businesses and those who don’t like technology intrusion in every aspect of life.

In Pakistan it is less of an issue. People may not even think of it as an issue at this point. But it will be interesting to see the proliferation of cell phone use in Asia and Europe and how people react to it.

Here is a very interesting post about mobile video from Brough Turner, whose blog I close follow. Brough makes a very good point that mobile video on demand is what makes sense for most cases - not live TV. It also provides one more reason why mobile TV offering from Telenor did not take off (in addition to the fact that it was pricey).

I have an article, Going Mobile TV(pdf), that’s recently been published by MobileIN, a wireless and mobile information site. In it I basically argue that major investments in mobile TV broadcast capability are less likely to pay off than investments mobile video-on-demand.

The biggest trend in commercial television viewing is personal video recorders like TiVo. People want to watch TV content when they want, not when broadcasters schedule it. The only exception is major sports events (the Superbowl or World Cup matches). Even the evening news is frequently rescheduled for later in the evening.

The second relevant trend is growth in YouTube and similar web-based video content. Broadcast TV went from 2-3 channels in the 1950s to hundreds of channels on a typical cable system today. But consumers are also interested in the long tail of millions of videos that can only be served over the Internet today and, potentially, over the mobile Internet in the future.

Finally, survey’s of early adopters of mobile video show music videos, movie trailers, weather, sports action clips, comedy videos, cartoons and amateur video shorts – typically a few minutes long at most – are the most popular content. In addition, it appears 85 percent of mobile video viewers watched viral videos (content sent or pointed out by others) rather than content they found themselves.

All and all, mobile consumers are looking for video -on-demand, not pre-scheduled broadcast TV.

So what’s the logic for massive investments in spectrum, followed by even more money in new wireless infrastructure, followed by the need to sell everyone new handsets that can receive the new broadcast mobile TV channels?

Hear what Big Blue has to say about the future of mobile phones. This discussion of a IBM mobile learning executive and a Motorola director touches upon some interesting directions such as text to speech and location based technologies. Technology companies realize that this is the time to define their territory and are eager to share their visionary thinking. One of the point worth mentioning from this conversation: phones have to fit well with people’s lives and not the other way around.

Over the coming years, mobile phones are expected to get “smarter”, adjusting to our usage patterns. Innovations such as larger projectable screens and other e-commerce and social networking features will enable the phone to provide much more value to our lives.

Future Of theMobile Phone - IBM

Here’s a peek at some of the interesting upcoming mobile phone technologies. These include next generation voice-recognition which allows you real hands-free control of phone, 3D maps, sending streaming video to cell phones, games (mobile second life), digital storage of documents for mobiles, surveillance, social applications which allow you to locate buddies using GPS and location-aware apps which provide personalized suggestions about attractions like restaurants as you’re walking around the neighborhood.

This post coincides with one of the biggest wireless event: CTIA, which opens today. Many of new mobile and wireless technologies are announced there. I’ll cover that soon.

Video courtesy of Wall Street Journal. Let me know if you are interested in the full article.

Ufone is back with another interesting feature, Ur Name Ur Number. It is on Ufone website but without much details for now. This is a common feature used by businesses around the world. In Pakistan I think this will keep many people happily busy. Thanks to Tee Emm for pointing out this!

One of the premiere events of mobile and wireless industry, GSM annual meeting is a place to watch for trends. In the event hosted at Barcelona last month, Yahoo got the award for mobile portal, Grameenphone for social cause (note the familiar logo) and SonyEricsson got the award for mobile device. The full list of winners for 2008 can be viewed here.

Best Mobile Handset or Device
SonyEricsson: W910 Walkman Phone
3UK: 3 Skypephone - Highly Commended

Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development

Grameenphone: CellBazaar

Best Mobile Game

Cellufun: Call of the Pharaoh
Glu Mobile: My Hangman

Best Broadcast Commercial
Safaricom: M-PESA ‘Send Money Home’ campaign

Best Mobile Advertising
Crossmedia Avenue: AMF Pension – the MMS campaign

Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development
Grameenphone: CellBazaar

Best Network Quality Initiative
RAD Data Communications: LA-130 Cell Gateway - Cost-Effective HSPA Backhaul

Best Service Delivery Platform
Aepona: Aepona Telecom Web Services Platform

Best Billing and Customer Solution
Bharti Airtel: mChek on Airtel – Mobile Payments Service

Best Mobile Music Service
Omnifone: MusicStation

Best Mobile Video Service
mywaves

Best Mobile Social Networking Service
BuzzCity: myGamma.com

Best Mobile Infotainment Portal for News/entertainment
Yahoo! Connected Life: Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0

Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service
Microsoft: Windows Mobile 6

Best Mobile Messaging Service
Seven: System Seven 7.0

The GSMA Chairman’s Award
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder, Chairman & Group CEO Bharti Enterprise

Navigation, traffic and location based services on mobile phones are one of the hottest value-added data services. Where available, they are one of the largest money makers for wireless carriers and content service providers (traffic, search, other information). However only a handful of countries have high resolution digital map data to support the full suite of these services. Nevertheless traffic information can be very useful anywhere in the world and location aware mobile marketing is supposedly the next big thing. Some of the companies and services in this field include TeleNav, Networks In Motion (used by VZ Navigator), TelMap, MSN Live and Google maps. Most services require GPS capability on the handset but other technologies are also used to estimate location.

Here’s how these services work. I’ll share TeleNav GPS service description from InBabble to give you an idea of how these services work. I have recently tested the Networks In Motion product and found it to be both useful and user-friendly.

TeleNav GPS Navigator is a subscription-based application which can be downloaded to more than 200 different types of mobile phones and devices. The service provides turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving directions with 3D moving maps (just like an in-car navigation system or standalone personal navigation device). Addresses can be inputted into the phone via the keypad or using voice recognition. Alternatively, a customer can preplan trips online via MyTeleNav. If a driver makes a wrong turn, they are automatically rerouted. TeleNav GPS Navigator also includes features like traffic alerts with one-click rerouting, updated gas price listings, more than 10 million business listings, location sharing and restaurant reviews.

Location Based Services (LBS)  are one of the hottest new emerging growth area and battlefield in North America, Europe and parts of Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, among others). With the sale of personal navigation devices at an all time high and with increasing number of mobile phones with GPS capability, it will be an interesting area to watch. Some of the recent events such as Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas provided ample evidence of this.

There are many pieces of technology which make up this: better/cheaper devices, new value added services based on connected navigation devices, alternatives to GPS for location determination on the phone, CDMA vs GSM technologies and advances in mapping technologies.

Maps have come a long way in the last few years and the need for real time location-based information whether it be traffic or product inventory is acting as a catalyst. For a view of the situation of maps technology in Pakistan see this recent entry at Green&White.

Here’s a bit more on the recent industry events related to maps and navigation from TheDeal.com.

U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. built up its arsenal in the battle against Google Earth with the acquisition Wednesday, Dec. 12, of U.K. online mapping service Multimap Ltd. for an undisclosed sum.

Microsoft’s purchase is the latest in a series of deals in the digital mapping industry. In October Nokia acquired U.S. car navigation software provider Navteq Corp. for $8.1 billion. Last month Dutch navigation device maker TomTom NV snared Tele Atlas NV, the Netherlands-based digital map maker, for $4.3 billion.

Seattle-based Microsoft said the acquisition would enhance its existing offerings such as Virtual Earth and offer future integration potential for a range of other services and platforms.

As more and more cellular phone makers incorporate the technology into their handsets, demand for digital navigation devices is expected to explode. California research group iSuppli Corp. valued the market at about $4 billion in 2006 and projects $16.5 billion in revenue by 2013.