Mobilink is currently the largest mobile phone network in Pakistan and they are offering a number of good devices too. They recently announced Nexus S in Pakistan and now they are planning to bring BlackBerry Playbook to Pakistan. The tablet is just launched in USA and Canada, and now Mobilink Pakistan is looking to grab it. The news came from Mobilink Twitter account, where they are saying that Mobilink Indigo exclusively launches Playbook in Pakistan. No words on the release date but I think it will be out next month. About the price, the tablet is available for Rs. 62,000.
If you are a Mobilink Indigo customer, then you can pre-order the tablet from nearby sale and service centers or you can contact your sale account manager if you are a club Indigo member. In case you don’t know about the specs of the tablet, then have a look:
-7" LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
-BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
-1 GHz dual-core processor
-1 GB RAM
-Memory: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions to be available
-5300mAh battery
-Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
-Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
-Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
-HDMI video output
-Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
-Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
-Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
-Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
-Ultra thin and portable:
-Measures 5.1″x7.6″x0.4″ (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
-Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
-Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail outlets.
So who’s getting the tablet in Pakistan, anyone? or you are happy with your Motorola XOOM or iPad2?
Telenor Pakistan, presumed to be o of the most sought after employer and so claimed by the company, has fired its whole Network Security and Maintenance Department, insiders said.
The decision of the management was sudden and without any prior notification, sources said adding that it appears that Telenor did not want its other employees to feel insecure about their jobs – who, as a matter of fact, should feel insecure – that’s why no internal memo was circulated.
When we asked Telenor the details about the incident, Aamir Izhar, a company spokesperson confirmed that company recently outsourced its network maintenance and security contract to a vendor.
“As part of the contract Telenor Pakistan’s network security team has been absorbed by the vendor to ensure the existing high standards of network security for Telenor Pakistan infrastructure”, added Mr. Izhar. This apparently means that whole Network Security and Maintenance Department was given away to Huawei, and employees will have to work under new employer and of course with new contracts, terms and maybe the pay scales.
This has happened amid the mist of recent vendor change. Telenor Pakistan’s contract with Nokia Siemens Networks ended this month and now its Huawei that will be looking after Telenor’s Network Maintenance and Security across the country.
Some of the terminated employees, including Babar Ghayoor Khan, Network Security manager, is not joining Huawei as a protest against sudden termination, said a report.
Even after repeated attempts, we could not establish a direct communication with Babar Ghayoor to know his viewpoint. This is not only unprofessional and unethical on Telenor’s part, but also bears a testimony to the unstable and uncertain culture perpetuating in the private sector too. One can concatenate this to the earlier incidents of the strike by PTCL’s employees, the outburst of KESC’s employees and later the bout of PIA’s workers. It is indeed a sad moment.
The number of migrated subscribers from one operator’ network to another has witnessed a substantial increase in the last year with more than a 100 percent growth, showing in a year to reach 10.642 million benchmark by March 2011 end.
Pakistan Telecommu-nication Authority (PTA) statistics showed an increased of 7.2 million subscribers who switched over their network from other with the facility of Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The number of subscribers migrated from one cellular companies’ network from other has been reported to reach 3.44 million in March 2010.
MNP is a system that facilitates mobile phone users to switch over their mobile phone network without changing personal number and code. The cellular phone users carried out change of network because of service quality, affordability of tariffs, choice of bundle packages and value-added services offered by different service provider.
The average number of subscribers, who shifted from old to new network have been recorded at 600,000 in the last 12 months period that showed a tremendous success of the system and its usage.
MNP is an important mechanism to enhance fair competition among different Cellular Mobile Operators (CMO), which improves quality of service offered by them.
Pakistan is the first country in South Asia to implement the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in March 2007 within a record time period of two years.
In Pakistan, MNP is regulated under provisions of “Number Portability Regulations” and “Porting Process Guidelines”. Normal porting time for both Pre-Paid and Post-Paid subscribers is 4-days after the subscriber settles his contractual obligations with concerned donor operator.
Pakistan Mobile Number Portability Database (Guarantee) Limited (PMD) was established by the six cellular mobile operators to act as a centralised clearinghouse for MNP.
“As it is becoming difficult to acquire new customers in the highly saturated market, cellular phone operators are engaged in intense wrestling of gaining each other’s subscribers on their networks by MNP,”.
The cellular phone operators are left with no option but to attract each other’s customers in the deeply saturated market of the country. Therefore, they are aggressively working to promote portability service through attractive packages to customers.
“Operators with comparatively small subscribers’ base are more actively engaged in offering attract packages to pluck the subscribers of each other’s network,”.
Mobile phone operators’ full-fledge advertisements and marketing campaigns have become fruitful for them for broadening of subscribers’ base. Also, the operators are now more cautious for improving their services and offering new packages in order to retain their subscribers.
The subscribers can migrate from their existing network to another with the same code and number more than one time with a gap of three months. The migration is completed within a couple of days by the operator against minimal charges.
By the end of December 2010, there were more than 102 million subscribers of the mobile phone operators. Mobilink is the market leader with highest number of subscribers at 31.7 million followed by Telenor with 24.69 million subscribers. Ufone and Warid’s users’ bases reached 20.27 million and 17.51 million respectively. While Zong subscribers are said to have touched 8.5 million mark.
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and Alcatel-Lucent in a joint press conference held on Friday announced the launch of VDSL2 Bonding technology for the first time in Pakistan pioneering the commercial use of this technology in the telecom industry globally.
PTCL will be the first service provider to deploy a commercial VDSL2 Bonding solution, showing “our commitment to take the broadband service experience in Pakistan to the next level.”
PTCL will be using VDSL2 Bonding technology to provide existing digital subscriber line (DSL) customers with speeds up to 50 Mbps. The project leverages Alcatel-Lucent’s (Euro next Paris and NYSE: ALU) VDSL2 Bonding expertise and will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2011.
VDSL2 Bonding takes two copper-based VDSL2 lines per subscriber and aggregates them—almost doubling the bandwidths available to existing customers, or expanding high-speed broadband access to areas that are underserved today. Using VDSL2 Bonding, service providers can extend the life of their existing copper infrastructure - supporting the delivery of bandwidth-intensive services such as triple-play voice, data and HDTV.
According to a recent study from market research firm IHS iSuppli, simultaneous access to applications such as peer-to-peer file sharing, online gaming, streaming audio, VoIP and IPTV will soon require bandwidths between 50 and 100Mbps. This fits exactly with VDSL2’s capabilities—especially when combined with innovations such as Bonding and Vectoring.
Commenting on this achievement, Walid Irshaid, President and CEO of PTCL stated “PTCL is the first service provider worldwide to deploy a commercial VDSL2 Bonding solution that aims at doubling the bandwidths provided to its existing customers. We are thus setting the trend in international telecom, and are taking the broadband experience in Pakistan to the next level. Alcatel-Lucent’s VDSL2 Bonding technology and comprehensive services and network integration expertise is helping us to keep pace with the increasing bandwidth requirements of our customers, while capitalizing on the existing copper infrastructure. This will enable us to quickly deliver high-quality, high-speed and high-availability business and residential services – even in areas where it was not possible before.”
Alcatel-Lucent is providing PTCL with its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) IP access platform – which is the first platform to commercially support VDSL2 Bonding. Alcatel-Lucent will also supply Bonding-ready customer premises equipment (CPE). Alcatel-Lucent serves as the project’s master network integrator, and is providing a range of professional services – including project management, installation and commissioning, integration and technical support.
“We understand that service providers need the right tools to bridge the gap until fiber deployments become ubiquitous. VDSL2 Bonding is an ideal approach: service providers like PTCL can almost double the speeds supported by their DSL infrastructure or expand their network’s reach. This makes it a fast and cost-effective approach to bridging the digital divide,” said Aadil Rauf CEO Alcatel-Lucent.
The tablet computer market will become the third largest consumer electronics sector, after televisions and personal computers and will grow to $ 49 billion business by 2015 worldwide.
Tablets are a high-value casual-computing segment that is creating huge growth opportunities for major brands and at the same time in Pakistan, said analysts.
The analysts at ABI Research which conducted the research said this year sales volumes of tablet PCs could reach four million units and by 2015 this figure will rise to 57 million units, registering remarkable rise from 2010.
The tablet era started in 2009 with Apple's iPad.
The tablet computer has already hit Pakistan as some major brands including a Chinese technology giant and one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world is engaged in introducing its products in Pakistan.
In his comments, Huawei's Regional President for Middle East said the company believes this is the perfect time to enter the smartphone and tablet market in Pakistan, because the market is relatively new in the region and majority of the products are targeted towards the high end price point.
He said there is a huge market that is eager to enjoy the added value of an innovative smartphone at an affordable price.
The official said Huawei is focusing on the price factor and to some extent that's true as well. Huawei will take full advantage of what it predicts is a rapid growth of the smartphone market in Pakistan.
According to survey, Pakistan and Middle East markets will grow to 39 percent by 2014.
The company has already launched its marquee product and other devices including the Tablet computer.
He said the company's strategy for Pakistan is similar to the one it has in the other regions creating affordable, high quality and innovative smartphones that capitalize on the gap in the market.
Meanwhile, Analysts predicted that 80% of the value of the tablet market worldwide in 2015 will reside in both high-tier and entry-tier models, as tablets address the opportunities in both developed and emerging markets.
The research said Apple's iPad will dominate the market for years with Samsung Electronics a distant second.
“People are continuing to look for solutions that suit both their work and personal life; in business circles this is known as the ‘consumerization’ of IT. The Nokia E7 gives people the confidence to bring their own smartphones to the workplace to connect securely to corporate messaging servers,” said Haseeb Ihtisham, Head of Marketing, Nokia Pakistan & Afghanistan. “On the other hand, whether you are an artist, entrepreneur, university student or aspiring world traveller, the Nokia E7 is the only smartphone you will need to get the world’s best mobile navigation and mapping application, thousands of apps, millions of music, and a rich messaging experience.”For business users, Nokia E7 provides direct, secure and real-time access to email, calendar, contacts, tasks and the corporate directory through Microsoft Exchange servers, as well as Office Communicator Mobile, developed by Microsoft for Nokia smartphones, which brings presence and corporate instant messaging.
Additionally, a wide range of entertainment and social services available on the Nokia E7 make it the perfect off-duty companion, and the Ovi Store offers a wealth of apps such as Bloomberg, Angry Birds and Sports Tracker.
The new arrival offers drive or walk navigation in 80 countries. The latest commercial version of Ovi Maps, available immediately via Ovi Store or Ovi Suite, adds visibility to subways, trams and trains, real-time traffic, safety alerts, visibility to parking and petrol stations, speed limit warnings, and improved search and location sharing capabilities.
The Nokia E7 is heralded as the all-in-one business smartphone because it allows the user easy access to private and business email, create, edit and share office documents and view PDF files with Adobe Reader, fast, secure intranet access with the built-in VPN, high-resolution photos and HD video with the 8 megapixel camera and dual LED flash, HDMI connectivity to project files, videos and images onto large screens and 16 gigabytes of on-board flash memory and USB-On-The-Go, enabling easy file sharing by connecting a USB stick to the smartphone.
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