Telecard has been in licensing disputes earlier and is now again as PTA suspends the WiMax commencement certificate of Telecard Limited. This takes Qubee’s future at stake as Qubee (brand name of Augere) for operating WiMax services uses Telecard’s spectrum and licenses. Daily times reports the details.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Monday suspended the commencement certificate of Telecard Limited.
The PTA took interim action in respect of their WLL licences, which were being used in conjunction with the 3.5GHz wireless spectrum by Augere Pakistan for supporting their new wireless broadband service launched in Karachi by the name of Qubee.
There has been a lot of debate and discussion about LTE and WiMAX standards. The battle has been played at different levels: geography, countries, telecom equipment makers, network operators etc. LTE has certainly picked up a lot wins but as this WSJ report shows both LTE and WiMAX are widening their foothold.
Though WiMax does have some momentum, LTE is expected to be the broadband standard of choice for most wireless-service providers. The two technologies have similar capabilities, but LTE has less upfront costs for carriers since it can be built on top of existing network infrastructure.
Now that Long Term Evolution is shaping up to be the wireless broadband standard of choice for the U.S. and most developed markets, start-ups building silicon for wireless consumer devices are pushing out chips for the standard. Read more »
When compared with cellular phone growth, Broadband has been slow to take off in Pakistan. However the last two years show some progress in terms of growth (a little over 20K subscribers per month), more choices of services in more places and most importantly a significant drop in cost for broadband access (~Rs.1200 per month on average). Another welcome trend is to move towards unlimited broadband.
According to PTA, “broadband subscriber base grew by 146% adding 245,727 subscribers during July 2008 – June 2009, while broadband connection charges for 1Mbps connection dropped below Rs. 1000. There were 413,809 Broadband subscribers in June 2009 as compared to 168,082 in June of 2008.”
At the current rate of broadband growth we can cross the half-million mark by December 2009. We need to get to 1 million much faster.
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s (SDPI) Study Group on Information Technology and Telecommunication in its 56th meeting discussed the problems that hinder broadband growth in Pakistan. Relevant stakeholders participated in the meeting. Wahaj ul Siraj of NayaTel and Zamir Bhatti of Wi-tribe reviewed the existing policy and infrastructure sharing issues.
Wateen and Naksha.pk have partnered to provide an interactive WiMax coverage map at www.naksha.pk/wateen. You can choose a city and available point of interest (POI) from the drop-downs at the very top right. You may also click on the map to choose the POI. Once you have made these selections, the site will give you coverage info at the top in terms of availability indoor or outdoor. Neat but a few quick fixes are needed.
I have 2 suggestions for improvement. The interactive map page should have links back to the Wateen site. Second, the WiMAX availability information is displayed towards the top without proper context and help text. At first glance, it is hard to tell where the results are and what is their meaning. There should be annotation to explain the meaning of terms listed below. USB: Available/Unavailable
Ground Floor: Available/Unavailable
1st Floor: Available/Unavailable
Outdoor: Available/Unavailable
Here are two sample views from www.naksha.pk/wateen, showing coverage in cities of Lahore and Quetta. I’d suggest playing with the site and observing how the WiMAX coverage varies from area to area. You might find some interesting patterns!
SNR Labs develops technology to solve Quality of Experience (QoE) issues seen in the fast-growing segment of mobile devices with multiple radios, such as, cellular, WiFi, WiMAX. The software also handles power management. Today I talked with the co-founder of SNR Labs who informed me that SNR Labs has recently signed an agreement to provide Advanced Connection Management Suite for Intel’s next generation platforms. Watch this demo video.
Qubee – ‘An Augere Brand’, we discussed earlier, have now been officially launched in Karachi. Qubee has become the fourth player offering WiMAX services in Karachi, the other three being Wateen, Mobilink Infinity and Wi-tribe. The website says that services also are expected to be launched in Lahore, Islamabad, Hyderabad and Quetta in 2009.
Qubee Packages
Qubee offers variety of packages to home users.
Package
Speed
GB
PKR/month
Discover 6
512
6
750
Discover 12
512
12
1,000
Explore 8
1024
8
1,000
Explore 12
1024
12
1,250
Explore 16
1024
16
1,500
Business users have a chance to customize their package on basis of their needs using the qubee tariff planner.
Wateen has launched the WOW Packages. As reported by industry insider at TGP, here are the detailed new prices. These prices, if correct, are quite impressive. It looks like no cap, unlimited Internet is becoming an affordable reality in Pakistan. I am sure people will debate the download speeds and performance but offers like these give consumers a chance to compare and choose. Package details are below.
One Time Fee (Including CPE)
1 Mbps: Rs. 1,000/- with zero security
512 kbps: Rs. 1,000/- with zero security
256 kbps: Rs. 1,500/- with zero security
Notes:
1. Available both on pre-paid and post-paid.
2. In case of post-paid, security against credit limit of Rs.2000 will remain the same.
3. The promotion (mentioned here) will start from August 14th, 2009 and end on August 31st, 2009, both dates inclusive.
4. The new upfront will be applicable on rental model only.
Wateen is also offering UPS (750va) in Rs. 1000/- with new connection.
Wateen Telecom is a sister concern of Warid Telecom and a fully owned venture of Abu Dhabi Group. Wateen, with the collaboration of Motorola, deployed nation-wide WiMAX network in Pakistan and pioneered its deployment globally (actually this was the very first post on this blog in 2006). I remember attending the ITCN in August 2007 when it was launched with a zeal of making Broadband a reality and promising exceptional quality over WiMAX. Now, after two years, it is rather sad that Wateen has laid off around 550 employees.
What went wrong with Wateen that it had to let go of around 50% of its employees?
Few of my friends had an opportunity to do internship at the RAN Department of Wateen. When they joined on day 1, they were handed a some vendor manuals to study. At the end of the day I called them up to ask how did their day go? They told me that Wateen has more people than work. I said that you can’t decide this in just one day.
Now with this 50% slash in number of employees the picture is clear, they did have more employees than needed. This could be because they hired more manpower during the initial network roll-out. Now what they have on their lists is some upgradation and O&M of the current network. The O&M is outsourced to the vendor and upgrades generally requires less manpower . So the ‘more manpower’ was just not needed.
I leave here for the reader to decide. Did this happen because of the global recession or mismanagement by Wateen’s senior management?
Wateen has signed a contract to set-up a Wateen WIFI Zone including a state of the art online gaming facility at the prestigious Royal Palm Golf and Country Club, which is spread over 140 acres of land and offers a serene backdrop for business, pleasure and social interaction and can now keep members connected to online media through high speed internet connectivity over WIMAX.
Through this first-of-its-kind collaborative effort, Wateen will enable Club members and guests to seamlessly connect to the Internet through Wateen’s Wifi deployment there allowing professionals to remain connected to their business and workplaces, remotely.
Some of Pakistan’s most distinguished professionals frequent the Royal Palm Golf Club and it is important that they can stay in touch with their businesses on a regular basis. The Internet plays a critical role in our lives and by enabling the Wateen WIFI zone at this Club, we are only advancing our commitment to increasing the accessibility to the Web and ease of communication for everyone across Pakistan.
A recent study by Alcatel-Lucent concludes that broadband is recession proof. In other words, people’s attitudes towards broadband have shifted from a nice to have service to one which is a necessity for their information-based lifestyle. The study surveyed more than 3200 participants from Europe, Asia, Latin America and the U.S. to determine consumer spending priorities for specific network-based services – such as Internet, television, data and voice services – against their spending priorities for services that don’t require a wireline or wireless connection. Let me know if you’d like more information about the study.
Another study – see the chart below – looks at the growth of mobile or wireless broadband in the context of new standards and technologies (LTE, HSPA) and the apps which are driving the growth.
Stacey of GigaOm thinks that the trends will continue from Internet to mobile apps. More here.
Social networking has been another beneficiary of faster speeds and greater adoption. With 1 Mbps connections (or better yet, 5 Mbps) checking in on Facebook or even Twitter is a quick and easy process. Faster speeds have resulted in more video online as well, leading to the creation of companies such as YouTube, Hulu and even Skype. We’re going to see a similar trend emerge in the mobile world, with companies that use the faster network plus mobility as the platform on which to build their businesses.
Since 2006, WiMAX in Pakistan has been the topic of news, articles and blogs. The views range from optimistic and positive to those who think that WiMAX will not survive against competing technologies. Regardless, the number of companies offering WiMAX based broadband has increased. At the same time, foreign press has also started noticing this trend. Here’s a recent article in Wi-FiPlanet magazine about WiMAX and its possibel role in online and distance education in Pakistan. I provided some information for this article as well. Here’s the link to the article.
At least three companies already have WiMAX networks up and running. In major cities, such as Islamabad, the capital, there is even some competition. Prices as a result have come down recently. KZO is only paying about $21 a month for 1 Mbps service at the two schools in its pilot, Cruver says.
Wateen, part of the Abu Dhabi Group based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is offering its Wateen Home service in 22 Pakistani cities, including Islamabad, Karachi and Rawalpindi. It was first to market, launching service in 2006.
Since then, the country’s largest cellular operator, Mobilink, a subsidiary of another Middle East company, Egypt’s Orascom, has launched its Mobilink Infinity service in Karachi. It has plans to roll the service out to other cities, including Lahore and Islamabad.
Wi-tribe, a wireless broadband-only company, again with roots in the Middle East, launched this year in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi. All three use mobile-capable 802.16e WiMAX technology in the 3.5 GHz band.
WiMAX in Pakistan appears well on its way to becoming a key component of the country’s telecom infrastructure, one that leap-frogs it over better developed countries. But WiMAX still faces challenges, says Babar Bhatti, the U.S.-based chief editor of TelecomPK, a blog covering the industry in Pakistan.
I am sharing a paper I came across at Cisco mobility community site. This site, sponsored by Cisco, aims to provide a venue for education and to encourage conversations about mobile technologies such as 4G, WiMAX etc and related business, policy and social aspects. Anyone can join the site and participate.
The paper is titled “Expanding the Reach of Health Care in Developing Nations with WiMAX.” Here’s the direct link to the pdf. It talks about various case studies of using WiMAX connectivity to expand and improve health care in developing nations. However there are no details about the costs and the infrastructure hurdles which are so critical to WiMAX.
The paper mentions a project in Pakistan.
In Pakistan, Cisco is working on a trial that combines satellite and WiMAX connectivity to mobile units that provide earlier oncological screening to rural patients. Female patients feel more comfortable seeking care in a familiar environment, close to their homes. Earlier screening allows doctors to detect breast cancer in women when it is still treatable.
As illustrated below, WiMAX may initially be used mainly as a backhaul technology to provide basic data and voice connectivity to clinics. At a later stage, mobile applications will take on a larger role as network coverage, low cost devices, and mobile telemedicine applications become available.
The paper lists the key benefits WiMAX brings to telemedicine as:
True broadband connectivity (2–4 Mbps in the downlink, 0.5–1.5 Mbps in the uplink) to enable transfer of large data files and video applications. In cellular networks, uplink speeds are typically substantially lower, slowing down transmission from the mobile workers back to the hospital. WiMAX performance is achieved by using a new wireless interface with high spectral efficiency, and by using wider channels that can increase the overall network capacity.
IP based technology, which brings lower complexity and costs in managing the network, facilitates the development of new applications or the adaptation of existing applications, and can be easily integrated within existing networks.
Carrier grade reliability and security, due to the use of licensed spectrum and IP core network technology. WiMAX supports multiple Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) methods, Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS), Diameter, Advanced Encryption System (AES), and Privacy Key Management Protocol Version 2 (PKM v2). Security is crucial to ensure protection of patient and epidemiological data.
Quality of Service (QoS) and traffic prioritization mechanisms, to give priority to latency sensitive applications such as voice and video. This increases the robustness of numerous telemedicine applications that rely on voice and video traffic.
Lower cost?per?bit than cellular networks. This makes the technology affordable for network operators to deploy and for health care providers to use for telemedicine applications.
A wide range of devices with WiMAX chipsets embedded along with WiFi, at a very low additional cost. This gives health providers greater flexibility in choosing the best?suited devices that are within their budget.
Telecard has been in licensing disputes earlier and is now again as PTA suspends the WiMax commencement certificate of Telecard Limited. This takes Qubee’s future at stake as Qubee (brand name of Augere) for operating WiMax services uses Telecard’s spectrum and licenses. Daily times reports the details.
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