State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

Wateen, during its recent expansion in southern region, have successfully put RAN sites on-air by sweeping Motorola aside. Internal sources informed us.

Wateen haves a total of 973 RAN sites in Pakistan, of which 243 are in Karachi. The on-going expansion project by the vendor, Motorola, is supposed to add 66 more sites in Karachi.

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Recently my father wanted internet connectivity at his work site in the vicinity of Port-Qasim (Karachi), I suggested him to go for wireless broadband. So, my father asked me to get the best wireless broadband connection. This was not an easy task and above all my finding surprised me even more.

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On my way to Karachi, I got a chance to use internet on Wateen Kiosks set-up at Islamabad Airport. I would have really appreciated Wateen’s attempt to put on the complimentary kiosks for travelers and providing them services. But as I got over with my work and closed the browser, I saw something that can not be expected from a recognized broadband company while promoting their brand.

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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.

Business users have a chance to customize their package on basis of their needs using the qubee tariff planner.

For more information visit their website here.

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.

Monthly Charges
1Mbps: Unlimited Rs.1,399. 10GB Rs.1,099. 5GB Rs.699.
512kbps: Unlimited Rs.1,299. 10GB Rs. 999. 5GB Rs.599.
256kbps: Unlimited Rs.1,199. 10GB Rs. 899. 5GB Rs. 499.

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?

This August everyone is doing the best in their capacity to mark celebrations for the 62nd Independance Day. The ‘Go Green’ campaign is doing a great job, turning the Social Networks (Twitter/Facebook) Green. Not just this but the Nation’s Tweeples aim to get #Pakistan in to Twitter Trending Topics on 14th August.

This post takes a look at how are the major Telcos contributing to the Independence Day Celebrations.

PTCL, the national land-line operator is giving away cash prizes on new land-line connections this August.

At the broadband front PTCL has come up with another Independence Day offer, giving away laptops on new broadband connections.

For Pakistanis abroad, LocalPhone is offering 50% off their regular rate: To mark 62 years of Pakistani independence you’ll be able to call any landline or mobile in Pakistan for just 3.95¢ per minute from 18:00 GMT on Thursday 13th until 18:00 GMT on Friday 14th August (midnight to midnight in Pakistan).

Mobilink has not come up with any offer/promotion but celebrating in its own way, their website have got an Independence Avator. Patriotic song from their last year’s Independence campaing ‘Aye Watan’ plays in the background and the cursor gets green with crescent and stars.

Ufone no offer/promotions to celebrate Independence. Should we expect an Independence TV Commercial from them :).

Telenor, although arranged bloggers meet-up in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to launch the Persona Weblounge, but nothing particular for Independence Celebrations.

They could have scored by launching the Persona Weblounge on 14th August.

Warid, once again nothing special for August Celebrations.

Wateen, well at one end they slashed on their rates but at the other downsized -  reportedly fired around 500 employees. No time for celebrations here.

Zong, the china mobile company could have come up with something on pak-china friendship but ‘SAB KEH DOU’ squad have nothing to say this August.

UPDATE:

Telenor has started on its Independence Campaign on the evening of 13th. The focal points of the activity will be Lahore. You can be a part of ‘Telenor Float’ which will travel on the roads of Lahore. Karachi would be having Telenor’s Azadi Carvan on Tariq road. Hyderabad Gym khana would be having a Family Concert by Telenor. In Rawalpindi touch-up points will be palced in different parts of the city.

Warid has come up with a not so popular offer (not highlighted properly on thier website) is an Azadi Package for Rs. 2999. Offer includes a Trend mobile phone along with an exclusive 0321 Code Warid post paid Sim with 75 free minutes every month and Rs 500 security waiver.

Wateen, Independence gift comes on 14th August, waiving 60 percent on Subscription charges.

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.

Tariq Malik

CEO, Wateen Telecom

[via BR]

I discussed the WiMAX evolution in Pakistan earlier. The recent launch of wi-tribe has definitely elevated the level of competition in WiMAX market in Pakistan. Now the latest news is the expected launch of Qubee an Augere brand for WiMAX services in Pakistan.

Qubee is a new and exciting company providing fast, reliable and competitively priced broadband internet services to residential and business customers across Pakistan. We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy trouble-free access to the internet and the world of opportunities that it brings. Our aim is to make a magical internet experience available to everyone, everyday, without exception.

Qubee is the creation of a group of global telecoms professionals who saw that a new technology called WiMAX could really change the internet experience for millions of people worldwide.

The details of the tariff and packages offered is not yet mentioned on their website, www.qubee.com.pk.

They are starting in Karachi, but quickly plan to expand thier network and cover other cities nationwide. The current coverage area for Qubee can be seen on the following link.

Qubee’s launch right after the launch of wi-tribe reminds me of the year 2005 when at the GSM front we saw Warid following Telenor’s launch. Nevertheless Qubee will bring on-air the fourth WiMAX operator of Pakistan, the other three being Wateen, Mobilink Infinity and the recent Wi-tribe. Will this start a price/data-rate war among the WiMAX operators? This will only become clear with time.

Many Pakistani bloggers and software industry leaders have raised concerns about the lack of a payment processing gateway in Paksitan. Now – there are some indications that PTCL is working with Wateen to offer one in the coming days. Better late than never!

Assuming that this did happen, what are some of the things that will change? Will we see a flurry of innovative solutions? Will electronic and mobile commerce in Pakistan get a big boost from this? It certainly will remove one of the absurd obstacles which should not even have been an issue.

Editor’s Note: Please join me to welcome Arsalan Mir. Arsalan is an undergraduate student in final year Telecommunication Engineering at FAST-NUCES (Karachi). He is the Vice-Chairperson of IEEE student branch at NUCES. Arsalan can be reached at arsalan.tmir@yahoo.com.

WiMAX in Pakistan emerged commercially with the launch of Wateen in August 2007. Recently, Mobilink has come up with its WiMAX brand ‘Infinity” and now it looks like the competition will soon elevate with Wi-tribe and TeleCard entering the WiMAX service race in Pakistan.

Wi-tribe is a joint venture of Qatar Telecom (Qtel) and A.A. Turki Corporation for Trading and Contracting (ATCO) in partnership with Clearwire. Wi-tribe is already offering services in Jordan and in Pakistan it has emerged out of the acquisition of majority stake in Burraq Telecom that occurred more than a year ago. They plan to showcase the real world benefits of Wireless Broadband to Internet community in Pakistan.

We will be offering high-speed Internet that is simple, affordable, and a portable alternative to fixed broadband. The Motorola WiMAX solution frees customers from the fixed line services.
Mohammad Sadiq
CEO, wi-tribe Pakistan.

Motorola has signed a multi-year WiMAX contract with wi-tribe Pakistan limited. Motorola has commenced deploying wi-tribe’s WiMAX network in the 3.5GHz spectrum. Commercial launch is expected during 2009.

TeleCard, a fixed wireless operator renowned for its Go-CDMA service, will also roll-out WiMAX under their current brand Supernet which is already offering internet services.

Newest development at the TeleCard will further enhance the Company’s profitability and will be a significant contributor to stakeholder satisfaction on an ongoing basis.
Aamir Niazi

Vice Chairman, TeleCard

Augere,an European company focused on broadband delivery in emerging markets, has been selected by TeleCard as the principal contractor to design and build the network such as to position a great offering / value proposition for the growing and very quality sensitive internet user community in the country. The equipment deployment has commenced in initial phase and the company expects the offering of service commercially by next year.

References:

[i] http://witribe.pk

[ii] http://daily.pk

[iii] http://www.telegeography.com