Orascom’s Mobilink commercially launches ‘Mobilink Infinity’ mobile WiMAX service in Pakistan
November 15, 2008
Mobilink, Pakistan’s cellular market leader, and Alcatel-Lucent today announced the commercial launch of Mobilink Infinity, a wireless broadband and telephony service for residential and enterprise consumers based on the mobile WiMAX standard, 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e). [Read more]
Pakistan Sees Lowest Quarterly Growth Rate for 8 Years
October 13, 2008
Pakistan’s quarterly customer growth rate stood at 6.7% in Q2, the lowest level recorded since the first quarter of 2000, when there was a fledgling market of just 0.3m customers. On an annual basis growth fell to 39.4%, down 45.1pp compared to the prior twelve months. The total market stood at 88.05m customers at the end of Q2 with penetration at 51.0%, and one possible explanation for the slowdown is that the market is approaching the natural limit for potential customers at the current price points. Certainly the slowdown is a long-term one, as the graph on the left demonstrates. [Read more]
Mobilink Hunt for Heroes 2008 Edition is back on the Hunt
August 19, 2008
KARACHI: Mobilink, the country’s market leader in cellular communication with over 32 million customers and a subsidiary of the Orascom Telecom group, has launched the countrywide 2008 Edition of the Mobilink Hunt for Heroes campaign targeting the Under-16 age group; it is part of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Youth Development Program. [Read more]
Week In Review: Week ending on Saturday, the 2nd of August, 2008
August 2, 2008
President of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abdul Rauf Chaudary said that E-filing facility for submission of various applications has become a necessity for efficient Governance. He said that if we want to keep pace with modern world, we would have to meet the changing requirements of the time and implement integrated new machineries. He expressed these views on a Seminar, organized by Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce, to promote E-filing system in Pakistan. [Read more]
Mobilink Genie pioneers Mobile Commerce in Pakistan
July 12, 2008
KARACHI: Mobilink, the country’s market leader in cellular communication with more than 32 million customers and part of Orascom Telecom, today launched ‘Mobilink Genie’ a futuristic service of privileges and conveniences heralding the onset of mobile commerce in Pakistan. Partner financial institutions were also present on the occasion.
Mobilink Genie is a mobile payment solution enabling Mobilink customers to use their mobile phones to buy a combination of products of their choice and pay for a mix of utility and general services.
The program is in compliance with regulatory guidelines and safe for transactions; moreover, it has been hailed as a new and innovative chapter in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan.
Bilal Munir Sheikh, Vice President Marketing, Mobilink while talking to media at the launching of Mobilink Genie, said “When it comes to customer care, privileges and services, ours is a continuing journey and not a destination; and therefore, we keep our customers at the top-of-mind at all times, planning and thinking round the clock to come up with unique packages, all these being industry-firsts and working harder to make the best better.”
“Mobilink Genie, a pioneering effort in mobile commerce by the Company in collaboration with prominent financial institutions in Pakistan, is going to be an exhilarating customer experience that will further reshape the lives of people in their day-to-day lives.
Imagine having the freedom to conveniently manage some of the necessary home chores with the click of a finger on your mobile phones,” he added.
The Mobilink Genie includes instant service on all GPRS/Java supporting hand-held devices covering payment of utility bills including electricity, gas, telephone; payment of Indigo bill & load or recharge any Jazz account.
In due course in time, options like ordering your favorite deal from McDonald’s and other eateries, booking airline tickets, confirming and paying for your flights, groceries and home shopping, paying fees of schools, universities, clubs and retail payments of restaurants and fuel will also be available on Mobilink Genie.
As proven by successful deployment of Mobile commerce solutions in developing nations like Kenya and Philippines, Pakistan too is ready to graduate into the future of commerce. With Mobilink, 92% un-banked Pakistani population can have the privilege of accessing financial services from their mobile phones.
Providing services such as the Mobilink Genie to the masses will change lives for the better and fuel the growth and development of our economy.
As quality and costs of mobile communication improves, the customer continues to look for conveniences, value-added services, privileges and perks to enhance their experience of communicating with people.
The advent of mobile commerce by Mobilink Genie, a milestone in the annals of telecommunication in Pakistan, will indeed prove to be loaded with surprises as the range of services gets wider and technologically friendly.
About Mobilink: Mobilink is an Orascom Telecom Group company and is Pakistan’s leading cellular service provider with a subscriber growth of 104% in 2006.
The company has achieved an unprecedented customer base of over 34 million. Mobilink provides the most extensive network coverage footprint across Pakistan through an integrated technology infrastructure in more than 6,000 cities, towns, villages, and countless remote destinations, including International Roaming in 127 countries through 300 partner operators.
The company directly employs over 5,000 people and has the largest distribution network with 200,000 outlets across Pakistan. Mobilink’s corporate social responsibility program contributes significantly in key areas of health, education, social uplift and cultural development causes in Pakistan.
The company is the official cellular service of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Mobilink is the only corporate in Pakistan to issue a ‘high-yield’ bond worth US$ 250 million in the International Market and has portrayed a positive image of the country as a secure destination for business activity.
Mr. Hasnain Sheikh - CEO Inov8 “Inov8 is extremely proud of exclusively launching the GENIE service with Mobilink; a truly secure, one of a kind, mobile payments / commerce system in Pakistan.
Everything from multiple bill/utility payments, credit card, mobile bill & insurance premium payments, prepaid airtime top-up, selling of new micro insurance products and a number of other services are available from your Mobilink phone, anytime and anywhere.”
Mr. Naeem Siddiqui - Cards Business Head, Citibank “Mobilink Genie brings mobile-commerce and banking services right to the consumer’s doorstep and provides integrated services such as utility bill payments via customer’s credit card.
We believe that the Genie service will transform our customer’s experience, being the first mobile-phone based service of its kind in Pakistan offering instant payment solutions to Citibank credit card customers using their mobile phones.
Citi Pakistan is delighted to be a part of the Mobilink Genie launch and we look forward to providing our customers with innovative services that add convenience to their lifestyle” Mr. Muneer Kamal - President & CEO KASB “Genie represents the beginning of a new era of mobile commerce.
Genie compliments both Mobilink and the member Banks, while providing service excellence to both our customers.
Mobilink Genie will revolutionize the outlook of mobile commerce and KASB Bank is proud to be one of the pioneers bringing about this change”.
Mr. Ghufran Atta Khan - Head of Retail & Consumer Banking, Atlas Bank “Atlas Bank is committed to be at the forefront of delivering innovative solutions to it’s customers.
Our partnership with Mobilink for the launch of Genie, the next generation payments solution, will deliver an unparalleled, secure and convenient service that is the first step towards this commitment”.
Mr. Yahya Hamid - CIO & Head of Product Development, Adamjee Insurance “Adamjee Insurance is at the forefront of innovation of retail products and customer accessibility.
We are proud to be the strategic partners for Mobilink Genie, a technological revolution in the communication industry which will delight the customers in more ways than one.
Now all customers of Mobilink can access our range of new and exciting Adamjee Catch products and get insured instantly.”
Week In Review: Week ending on Saturday, the 5th of July, 2008
July 5, 2008
Another week of regular activity in the IT and Telecom scene in Pakistan. Here’s what’s been cooking across the country:
Perhaps the most surprising news was the re-assignment of Telenor Pakistan CEO, Tore Johnsen, resigning from Telenor and joining TDAC as the Chief Executive Officer. Whereas the announcement for the new CEO of Telenor will be made on first of September 2008, Tore has proven to be a great leader to building Telenor has a strong, reliant brand for the consumer here.
Tore Johnsen had been the CEO of Telenor Pakistan since the inception in 2004. Before moving to Pakistan, Johnsen served four years as Strategy Director and later CEO of DiGi Telecommunications in Malaysia. He joined the Telenor Group in 1974, and he has held a number of managerial positions and international assignments. Johnsen holds a Master of Science in addition to studies in International Business Management. A new CEO of Telenor Pakistan will be announced in due time before September 1st. The Company, operating under “dtac” brand, was founded in August 1989 to provide wireless telecommunication service in 800 Mhz and 1800 Mhz frequency bands in Thailand under a 27-year “Built-Transfer-Operate” concession granted by CAT Telecom Public Company Limited (formerly known as Communications Authority of Thailand-”CAT. We wish Mr Johnsen the very best in his new venture and have no doubt that he will be as good for Thailand as he has been for Pakistan! Sawasdee Krup, Tore!
Senior Executive Vice President HR, Ismail Taha said that PTCL is taking steps to provide prompt, better and state of the art telecom services for its customers and they hope to achieve their goal very soon. The goal, as mentioned before, is to regain a better position in telecom market. He made these statements while visiting the Customers Facilitation Camp (CMC) in F-8 Markaz in Islamabad. A. Khawaja and other senior officers also accompanied him.
The number of mobile phone users in the economic year 2007-08 has increased to 34 percent and a Government report says that during the economic year 2008-07, the number of Zong’s connection has increased with 208 %. In June 2008, the number of mobile phone users was 6.32 billion, which has exceeded 8.5 billion.
Mobilink still stands as number in telecom sector with a user ship of more that 3.19 billion. This year, an increase of 20 percent has been recorded in Mobilink’s users.
Ufone is facilitating 1.75 billion whereas, Telenor, which was at number three a few weeks ago, has acquired a user circle that is even bigger than Ufone. Telenor has the second position in Pakistan Telecom Industry and this increase has proved itself a big shock for Ufone. Other than the top three, Warid is still doing a good business but its on the fourth number. The officials of Warid Telecom say that their company is focusing more on its infrastructure and availability than other issues.
Zong Telecom has attained more than 3.2 million users in just a couple of months. It is progressing efficiently and it is being expected that very soon, Zong will have it’s own place to call home, in the Pakistan Telecom industry.
Nokia announced the launch of its latest handset, Nokia N-78 that is equipped with latest features and graphics. The media event took place at Sheraton Hotel, Karachi where Nokia Country Manager, Imran Khalid Mehmood and the Product Manager Khurram Pradhan briefed the audience about the latest handsets and upcoming projects of Nokia.
Nokia N78 is amongst the first handsets with the integrated FM transmitters that allow the tones through car stereo. It is a sleek multimedia computer that fuses map reading, photography, music and mobility in a way that gives convergence a new meaning.
The handset also has a 3.2 mega pixel camera, multimedia player, picture browser and a powerful range of technologies including high-speed connectivity via WLAN and HSPDA 3.g. Additionally, geo-tagging becomes easier with Nokia N-78. This phone has got every thing that you need (and then some!)
Dr. Lian Jeog Seok and Cybil Yoo, members of an IT organization in Korea, visited University of Karachi. They visited Umair Basha Institute of Technology (UBIT)/ Department of Computer Science. The delegation met the Vice Chancellor of KU, Professor Pirzada Qasim and the Chairman of the department. The delegations discussed the development of IT services in Pakistan as well as the academia.
The launching ceremony of two technical books, “Quality Assurance in Higher Education: A Global Perspective” and “Safety Management and Engineering: An Integrated Approach” took place at the Institute of Quality and Technology Management (IQTM) of Punjab University. The book on Quality Assurance is based on 15 research papers that have been edited by Dr. Abdul Rauf and Dr. Niaz Ahmad along with the second book which was has been written by Dr Abdul Rauf.
Quality Assurance Advisor at Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr. Riaz Qureshi, PU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran, Dr. Abdul Rauf, Dr. Niaz Ahmad, Dr Javed Ahmed, Dr. Mehar Saeed and a large number of faculty members and students participated in the launching ceremony.
The Syndicate of University of Engineering and Technology approved the university’s annual budget for the year 2008-09. The budget comprises of two categories, recurring budget and development budget. Total income from recurring budget is Rs 1.559 billion while expenditure is Rs 1.610 billion.
The Higher Education Commission and Federal Government has allocated Rs 480 million and the Punjab government allocated Rs 24 million for the four ongoing development projects of the university.
DHL has provided access to its unique electronic services DHL Emailship with the help of Microsoft Office Online. Now, this service is downloadable in Asia Pacific. This service was not available in this region but now, customers can easily access shipping services using DHL Emailship.
The collaboration of Wateen and Motorola is the hottest topic of this month. The agreement, which has been signed by Wateen and Motorola, has got international acknowledgement, as the world’s leading technology magazine CIO has covered this story.
Wateen has been providing WiMAX services in Pakistan and recently it signed the biggest agreement for CPE devices with Motorola.
The ratio of Fixed lines and Wireless line (WLL) are showing a declining trend as the whole nation has moved to mobile phone services. A report issued by PTA for March 2008 says that the number of fixed line users has decreased by 6.1 percent quarter-over-quarters along with WLL subscribers, which has dropped by 4.4 percent month-on-month in May 2008.
Omair Chughtai, a telecom analyst at BMA Capital said that the decline was obvious but the data showed a massive decline, which is beyond expectations. According to him, it will take some years to stabilize landline position in telecom market.
China’s Huawei Technologies said that it has been selected by Mobilink to deploy a commercial WiMAX 16e Network in Pakistan. After Wateen, Mobilink will be the second company to provide WiMAX services in Pakistan, which will be benefiting for the country.
A representative of Huawei Technologies said that the company is going to provide its services to Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot. Huawei is one of the leading WiMAX providers in the world and until now, it has won 19 overseas commercial WiMAX contracts.
A week ago, a news item in one of the dailies said that PTA has banned the imports of handsets from china but a PTA’s spokesperson has clarified that PTA has not taken any such action. He said that PTA had nothing to do with the imports of mobile handsets or type approval of handsets, and rather blocks stolen/snatched sets through International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number when reported by a complaint.
SAMENA Telecommunications Council recently concluded Telecom 2008, which brought together top industry executives from Pakistan and the MENA region in Islamabad to share their insights on key areas of importance to the telecom and ICT industry.
PTCL, PTA, The Summit Patronage, Symbia, Cisco, CRPL, Com Info Systems, Inmarsat, Blue Ridge Networks and Satcom collaborated to organize this two-day long event. Closing day guest of honor was Mr. Qamar Zaman Kaira, Federal Minister of Information Technology.
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd announced that it has withdrawn the controversial circular of price hike in domestic leased line circuits used for internet and data services.
Representative of ISPAK, Wahaj us Siraj, said: “We appreciate the decision of PTCL management to withdraw the price increase which could have led to doubling the prices of internet for the customers”.
Intel Pakistan and Ministry of Education (MOE) recently announced an ICT for Education that aims to provide knowledge of computers and latest technologies of Information Technology to common citizens.
Under the agreement, Intel Pakistan will provide 4,500 computers to Government Schools across the country over the next five years in a continued effort to enhance the capabilities of next generation. Intel Pakistan has already donated 750 PCs to Government schools to date. It intends to provide 1,080 more computers during the year 2008.
Mobile phone operators are planning to launch their services in rural areas, which are far away from modern world but its surprising to see that the is almost no connectivity of any mobile phone operator in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad. The patients and their relatives have to face sever kind of troubles in emergencies.
The mobile network is not available inside the PIMS’s boundary. The mobile phone companies stated that they had suggested installing micro-towers inside PIMS’s boundary but the Administration opposed and no progress was made.
The Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) has introduced ‘Talent Farming Scholarship Scheme’ (TAFS) for academically bright students who have completed their Secondary School Certificate examination significantly from the cities where CIIT’s campuses are located.
The scholarship scheme acknowledges the scholastic talent of these young boys and girls through a scholarship award of Rs1, 000 per month for 24 months to enable them to complete their intermediate diplomas.
Until next week, this it the team, signing off!
Pakistan’s IT sector progressing rapidly: PSEB
June 27, 2008
Pakistan’s IT industry is progressing rapidly at more than 50 per cent annually for each last four years, with many local IT companies winning huge contracts from domestic as well as international market, an official of PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board) said in a statement issued here. [Read more]
Week In Review: Week ending on Saturday, the 14th of June, 2008
June 14, 2008
Wow! What a great week for Karachi! The City Nazim Karachi, Mustafa Kamal, has announced the establishment of world’s biggest call center in Karachi. Presently, Sydney has world’s biggest call center that has 8,000 call seats but the Nazim said that the IT Park that will take two years to establish and will be designed to accommodate 10,000 call seats under one roof. The CDGK, in true Mustafa Kamal style, has also arranged trainings for call centers with foreign instructors and a cost of 60,000 rupees is being allocated [Read more]
All that Jazz!
June 9, 2008
The trend shift of cellphone users in the past year or so has been an interesting one - not only does almost everyone HAVE a cellphone, companies are trying to figure out ways how they can get them to continuously USE the phone too! [Read more]
Pakistan Calling!
June 1, 2008
There are a couple of things which you are certain to see when walking down the street in Pakistan; hundreds of men chewing paan, smoking cigarettes, talking about movies/politics, women buying shoes/clothes/unnecessary hand bags, dhobis cycling to their next destination, sweepers talking to their girlfriends on the phone, youngsters roaming the streets/going out for a bite to eat and a lot of other things will shall remain unmentioned here. The similarity amongst this diverse sample of people is that each person will have the latest cell phone (or two) in their hand so they can stay connected around the clock. When a Pakistani citizen is asked which mobile connection he/she has the answer will always be from a range of 6 mobile connections. These connections include Mobilink, Ufone, Paktel, Instaphone, Warid or Telenor. [Read more]