The Deputy Chairman of the Authority Tariq Malik told APP that the He said the purpose of the project is to facilitate the card holder, He said the present CNIC have a 3-D bar which has not much Malik said the project would be initiated on August 14 this year as a pilot project and would be completed by March next. To a question regarding the cost of the new card, he said it would ‘We have sent eight Nadra’s engineers to France for training to He said the new card would help eliminate CNIC fraud threats The Deputy Chairman said that Nadra has a large data base of about He informed that as many as 13.750 million people get free of cost CNICs since the scheme was announced by the government. Malik said that due to Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) the He said presently, the Authority is registering 66 females daily out He said Nadra has established eight National Swift Registration In addition to this, he said separate female counters have also been Malik added that so far 19,7000 IDPs have been registered with NADRA at camps only.
card would initially be issued to overseas Pakistanis and later it
would replace all CNICs.
as the chip would have all the relevant data of the holder, while could
be used for various purposes.
information of the holder rather it requires an on-line connection with
Nadra for the verification of the card holder.
be a cost-effective project as each card would cost Rs80 to the
applicant.
implement the project by the Authority,’ he said adding that the
international cost of each card is around $4-5 but NADRA would provide
at $1 only.
including dual and fake ID cards. He added that presently, people try
to apply for CNIC on fake documents but the Authority blocks their data.
100 million people and so far it has issued 71.5 million CNICs
including 43.2 million male and 28.3 million female CNICs.
Authority observed a tremendous growth in registration of females.
of 100 while in past the female registration ratio was quite low.
Centres (NSRCs) in different districts comprising female Nadra staff to
register maximum females.
set up for in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps for registering
the female IDPs.
Do you remember that Mobilink used the same dialogue (back in August 2007) “In order to provide better services, we will charge your call center calls”, which was followed by everyone and Warid is Also doing the same thing with customer service calls.
This time its Telenor, that is displaying following message on its website.
"In order to provide better services to our valued subscribers, each balance inquiry via *444# (Rupee Account Balance), *111# (Free SMS Balance) and *222# (Free Minutes Balance) strings will be charged 10 paisa (exclusive of tax), with effect from 1st Aug 09"
Key Highlights
-One Grand Prize of Rs. 1 Million
-20 Prizes of Laptops
-All new Broadband subscribers who place their orders from July 16th to August 14th are eligible for the draw
-All new Student Broadband subscribers who place their orders from July 16th to August 14th are also eligible for the draw
-Applicable on all 1MB, 2MB and 4MB packages
-An open and transparent lucky draw at the end of the period will decide the winners.
Telenor Pakistan faced an operating loss of $14.3 million in the first quarter of 2009, following a loss of $ US 49 million in 2008.
Average revenue per user in Pakistan stood at just Rs. 252 ($ US 3) per subscriber per month in the first quarter, the lowest in all 13 countries in which Telenor operates, but the number of subscribers grew by nearly 20 percent year-on-year.
A fresh air in the quarter 2, 09 where Telenor Pakistan has posted a growth in revenues by 8% and netting 908k subscribers compared to 597k in the previous quarter.
Just two days back a court in Moscow has allowed the sale of shares owned by Telenor in VimpelCom, a number two company by size in Russia, in which Telenor has 29.9 % of shares. The order from the court will result in a total loss of all the assets Telenor posses in Russia.
Earlier this year, the Siberian court ordered Telenor to pay VimpelCom damages after Farimex Products Inc., a small stakeholder in VimpelCom, sued Telenor for blocking the mobile phone network’s expansion into Ukraine few years ago. Telenor had termed the suit a fake and flawed and refused to pay the damages.
Court had authorized the auction of Telenor’s 29.9 percent share last month in a bid to recover $ 1.7 billion as court-awarded damages. If courts orders are implemented Telenor will lose every thing there before it can go for an appeal.In Short Telenor is in big trouble in all his operating countries and going may be they want to sell the setup. In these days china mobile is in contact with Telenor to may be take over the setup.
There is a rumor circulating in the market that Wateen is looking forward to a potential buyer to get the company rolling. Reportedly, they had allocated huge budget for TVC in recent past, but they haven’t come up with anything in the market.
It merits mentioning here that Wateen had used its last card by offering un-metered downloads for some of its packages, which gave them the opportunity to get maximum numbers of customers. But even this promotion was not advertised heavily on TV.
We are told that they are also incorporating tele-sales to boost their subscriber base, however, results of such practices are yet to appear.
PTCL is looking for various options to offer Video conferencing and GNOP, said Mr. Walid Irshad, President and CEO of PTCL during an interview with Sabah uddin Qazi for Huawei’s Win-Win Magazine.
PTCL may go with Huawei to use IPTV platform to create home to home video conference, revealed President PTCL
Indian Home Ministry is apparently set ready to give security clearance to Telenor Group for hiking its stakes in Unitech Wireless up to 74 percent, but that comes with a condition that none of the staff who have worked in Telenor Pakistan will be employed in India.
NEW DELHI: The home ministry is set to give security clearance to Norwegian telecom firm Telenor to hike its shareholding in Unitech Wireless, by
up to 74%, on the condition that none of the staff who have worked in Telenor Pakistan —100% owned by the Telenor group — are employed here.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had last month deferred a decision on allowing Telenor to hike its stake in Unitech Wireless following reservations of security agencies on the Norwegian firm’s strong presence in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both nations serve as a launchpad for various terror attacks here.
While the worries over Telenor’s operations in Bangladesh, where it holds 62% of Grameenphone, are not so pronounced, both IB and RAW were highly suspicious about the security implications of Telenor’s presence in Pakistan through a 100%-owned subsidiary of the Norwegian parent company.
It was in the light of the security agencies’ fears that allowing the same firm to operate here could be detrimental to national interest that FIPB had put off a decision on the Unitech Wireless’ FDI proposal at its early June meeting.
MHA has since examined the security agencies’ views on the matter in detail, while keeping in mind reputation and stature of Telenor, which has presence in 14 countries across Europe and Asia and has also revolutionised rural telephony in countries like Bangladesh through Grameenphone.
With the government determined that a wrong message should not go out to FDI investors, the home ministry has come around to the view that Telenor should not be held back from picking up to 74% stake in Unitech Wireless simply because it has a successful presence in Pakistan.
At the same time, home ministry officials were categorical that the security concerns of the agencies needed to addressed while granting the go-ahead. It is against this background that MHA came up with a reasonable solution that no employees who at anytime were part of its Pakistan operations are moved to the Indian subsidiary.
This means, staff currently working in countries other than Pakistan but have served there at some point of time will come under the ‘ban’. Though a manager working here can always be sent to Pakistan, he or she would not be allowed to return to the Indian arm of Telenor.
Keeping human assets of the Indian and Pakistani arms of Telenor separate is expected to take care of risks such as spying and subversion.
MHA will be submitting to FIPB its views favouring a conditional security nod for Unitech Wireless’ FDI proposal ahead of the next meeting of the Board. This would pave the way for a final FIPB clearance, allowing Telenor to hike is stake in Unique Wireless to up to 74%.
Telenor has 49% stake in Unitech and now requires FIPB nod to complete its deal for 67% stake. This would give Telenor management control and 4 of the 7 seats on the board of directors. Telenor-Wireless combine is expected to start services later this year. Unitech has a pan-India licence and has secured spectrum in 21 of the 22 telecom circles.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 By Jawwad Rizvi LAHORE: A leading telecommunication company, which launched DSL (digital subscriber line)
The failure is the result of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd’s outdated network and lack of modern technology, it is learnt.
When contacted, a PTCL spokesman said there were exchange upgrading issues, causing problems for the people.
PTCL’s Executive Vice President Jamil Khwaja said for providing the best telecom services to the customers, the PTCL was expanding and upgrading its network in Lahore.
In that regard, the company had upgraded the cable network and provided ONU facility to Canal Bank Housing Scheme, Rizwan Gardens and surrounding areas for the satisfaction of customers, enabling them to utilise and enjoy telecom services smoothly.
“Now the customers of these areas can obtain broadband facility conveniently. The PTCL will upgrade its network step by step all over Lahore,” he said.
Khwaja said PTCL’s broadband was the fastest Internet service in the country and ADSL2-Plus technology had been provided on current land lines.
Kashif Iqbal, a resident of Samanabad, applied for IPTV service from the company. However, the PTCL does not provide IPTV connection only and it is necessary for the consumers to take both DSL and IPTV services.
On Kashif’s application, the company men installed DSL modem at his residence, but they refused to give IPTV connection, saying the network cable reaching his house was connected with the fibre optic cable, which does not support IPTV connection. A company official told him IPTV service could be provided only through copper cable.
Kashif told The News he had actually applied for IPTV connection due to problems faced by the private TV cable network in the area.
“The TV cable service in my locality was not good and remained suspended usually,” he said, adding he learnt from someone the PTCL was providing good IPTV service at cheap rates.
“I applied for it but the company installed DSL modem only which was not of use to me,” Kashif said, adding after refusal from the company he submitted an application for removal of DSL modem.
In another incident, a resident of Cantonment area, Shoaib Ali, applied for DSL student package on July 6. However, DSL service manager and DE of the telephone exchange at Cant refused to provide the service, saying the telephone exchange could not be upgraded.
The exchange was built in 2001 and was based on ONU-I technology which was not fit for DSL technology. Shoaib said they also told him that some 22 PTCL exchanges under their control were outdated which could not support DSL. Shoaib said the company official instead asked him to purchase PTCL-V phone and change his telephone number.
ISLAMABAD: Universal Service Fund (USF) signed contracts for providing basic telecom services in Nasirabad with
CM Pak and Broadband Services in Multan Telecom Region with World Call. CEO CM Pak, Qian Li and CEO World Call, Babar Ali Syed signed these contracts with CEO Universal Service Fund, Parvez Iftikhar. Secretary IT, Naguibullah Malik witnessed the signing ceremony as the chief guest. staff report



Microsoft and Yahoo! today unveiled a 10-year deal to create an online search and advertising partnership in an effort to challenge Google, the world’s biggest internet search engine. Under the agreement, Yahoo! use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine on its own sites, while Yahoo! will act as the exclusive global sales force for the companies’ premium search advertisers. Yahoo! will get to keep 88 per cent of the revenue from all search ad sales on its site for the first five years of the deal, and have the right to sell ads on some Microsoft sites. Yahoo! estimated the deal will boost its annual operating profit by $500 million and save it about $275 million on spending since it will not have to invest in its own search technology. The deal has been announced more than a year after Yahoo! rejected a $47.5 million (£29 million) takeover bid from Microsoft and Yahoo!’s attempt to strike a search advertising deal with Google fell apart under regulatory scrutiny. Microsoft is counting on Yahoo!’s search engine, which ranks as the second largest in the world with a global market share of 8 per cent, to pose a more formidable challenge to Google, which holds 67 per cent of the global audience, according to the most recent data from the research company comScore. In the US, Google’s share is 65 per cent, compared with 20 per cent for Yahoo!. Despite spending billions to upgrade its search engine, Microsoft still held just a 3 per cent share worldwide and 8 per cent in the US in the comScore rankings. There is a chance a deal combining the powers of the second and third-ranked search engine companies would be blocked by antitrust regulators. Shareholders of both Microsoft and Yahoo! have been urging the two to strike a deal for some time.
Mobinil, Telecom Egypt and Vodafone Egypt have submitted their respective bids to acquire Link Egypt, Broadband unit of Orascom Telecom. According to OT’ CEO, Khaled Bichara, two other unnamed firms have submitted bids before the deadline, which may include Etisalat, as perceived by analysts.
Orascom had announced in February 2009 to sell out 100 percent stakes of Link Egypt, in order to focus on primary Telecom business.
Earlier reports had clued that Link Dot Net Pakistan will be part of this sale out; however, strategic merger of Link Dot Net and Infinity contradicted the phenomenon.
Bichara said five firms had already completed due diligence on Link Egypt, and that OT and consultant EFG-Hermes would begin examining the bids.
Via Wireless Federation
If you ever wondered about the forward text messages you receive daily, who actually develops/generate them?
If you think these forward messages are created by someone like you, but in a distant part of country, then there are very little chances. Reason I am saying this is the amount of text messages that keep on appearing on regular basis. I believe this job is not possible by individuals and that too just for fun.
If cellular companies generate such forward messages? Here are good chances, and reasons are,
- Cellular companies benefited the most if forward messages are circulated around the region.
- It can be only cellular companies, which can spend huge money on generation of SMS content
Mind you, cellular companies may hire VAS companies, which are there in market for such tasks. These VAS content provider companies charge cellular companies for this.
SMS websites can be another possible source of forward text messages. But in actual, these websites are either associated with VAS content provider companies, or they lift content from other websites and/or messages their receive on their phones.
United Bank Limited (UBL) has successfully completed the implementation of Oracle Applications, which includes Oracle E-Business Suite Human Resource Management System, Oracle Payroll and Oracle General Ledger, in a record time of 9 months.
Oracle Certified Advantage Partner IBM Global Business Services completed the implementation that provides automated HR management , payroll and financial processing capabilities. All of this will enable UBL to increase business efficiency and operating performance through an enhancement and streamlining of their business processes. For example, The deployment of Oracle Applications has helped the bank save over 10,000 man-hours by reducing paper work and the level of human intervention that is otherwise required to create and post accounting entries.
In addition, via the implementation of the Oracle Fixed Asset Management system, the bank can easily view consolidated information of its total assets and maintain centralized records from disparate systems operating across 66 regions. The solution is being utilized by 1040 branches and maintains approximately 250,000 asset records.
“Oracle Applications have helped us improve the efficiency of our existing processes, and enabled us to improve our service levels to the business in order for them to meet their organizational objectives,.” said Mr. Kumail Dehradunwala, Chief Information Office, United Bank Limited.
“We are happy to have had the opportunity to support United Bank Limited’s objective to save costs,” said Samina Rizwan, Oracle’s Regional Director for South Asia Growth Economies-West. “Oracle has been successfully serving financial institutions for over three decades and we are glad that our solutions are helping local banks build their businesses in Pakistan by enhancing business efficiencies while reducing costs.”
“GBS is the leading implementation consultant for Enterprise Applications in the financial sector. The success at UBL is attributed to IBM’s delivery excellence, dedication to our clients success and developing synergies between our consultants and the UBL team,“ Armughan Rafiq, IBM GBS Manager South.
ProfiMail is a powerful e-mail client for mobile devices, supporting multiple mail accounts, HTML and attachments.
Through your mobile Internet connection.Simple. What you get: Main
ProfiMail screen, displaying multiple accounts, and two system
mailboxes.Next to each mailbox are icons summarizing its contents. Mail
reader with HTML text support, comfortable attachment browser, and easy
navigation. Built-in image viewer, for comfortable viewing images,
scaled or in original size. File Explorer for browsing files, managing
attachments, viewing and sending files.
Features:
* Automatic synchronization of messages with mail server
* IMAP folders
* Attachments – view, save, send
* HTML messages with images and hyperlinks
* Built-in File Explorer
* Writing using T9
* Address book
* Signatures
* Support for POP3 / IMAP / SMTP mail servers
* Multiple email accounts
* Rules and filters allowing selective message download
* Opens and browses ZIP archives
* Support for various character encoding – Western, Cyrillic, Central European, and more
* Build-in image viewer – JPG, PNG and other popular formats
* Text viewer for standard text, HTML and Word documents
* Optimized for GPRS – get headers first, then download message bodies which you really want to see.
* Main ProfiMail screen, displaying multiple accounts, and two system mailboxes. Next to each mailbox are icons summarizing its contents.
* Mail reader with HTML text support, comfortable attachment browser, and easy navigation.
* Built-in image viewer, for comfortable viewing images, scaled or in original size.
* File Explorer for browsing files, managing attachments, viewing and sending files.
* May be used as stand-alone application and is available absolutely for FREE
Download Link: ProfiMail 3.14
2.36 Billion Rupees of Universal Service Fund for Rural Telecom and Broadband Projects in Unserved Areas of Pakistan
Universal Service Fund signed contracts for providing basic telecom services in Nasirabad (Balochistan) with CM Pak and Broadband Services in Multan Telecom Region (Southern Punjab) with World Call. CEO CM Pak, Mr. Qian Li and CEO World Call, Babar Ali Syed signed these contracts with CEO Universal Service Fund, Parvez Iftikhar. Secretary IT, Mr. Naguibullah Malik witnessed the signing ceremony as the chief guest. In the Rural Telecom project, CMPak will be paid Rs. 1.57 Billion to provide telephony services to 648 unserved Mauzas to serve a population of around half a million in districts of Bolan, Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi and Nasirabad of Balochistan. Whereas in the Broadband project, WorldCall will be paid Rs. 785 Million to provide broadband connections in 11 districts (38 small towns) of Southern Punjab, in addition to establishing 27 Educational Broadband Centres in high-schools, colleges and libraries plus 121 Community Broadband Centres. It is noteworthy that this is in addition to broadband services in MTR that PTCL will provide under a contract with Universal Service Fund signed last month. Giving his remarks on the occasion, Federal Secretary for Information Technology, Mr. Naguibullah Malik said that the Ministry of IT is striving to reinvigorate and stimulate the ICT sector by increasing level of telecom penetration in unserved areas of the country. He informed that Ministry of IT, through Universal Service Fund, has been successfully executing rural-telecom, broadband and optic-fiber programmes that are playing a huge role in socio-economic development in rural and semi-urban Pakistan. He further stated that Broadband Programme will give impetus to provision of other e-services like e-education, e-health, e-government, e-commerce etc. CEO of Universal Service Fund informed that after signing the two contracts, the total amount of subsidies through Universal Service Fund have crossed Rs. 10 Billion, which has generated total investments of Rs. 16 Billion in unserved areas of the country. Seven major Telecom Service Providers are rolling out these services under contracts with Universal Service Fund. The number of villages where services have already started with the help of Universal Service Fund has exceeded one thousand. Work is in progress for another five thousand villages, including 648 under today’s contract with CMPak. Another five thousand remaining unserved villages shall be covered by Universal Service Fund through future auctions. Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed Bhatti, Member-Telecom, Ministry of IT, and Dr. Muhammad Yaseen, Chairman-PTA, were also present at the occasion.

Inspired by minimalism, the design of the new HP ProBook series combines matte and glossy surfaces, while stripping out the extraneous, leaving only a stylish and clean look. Distinguished by a choice of merlot or glossy noir finishes, a unique keyboard design and a set of professional innovations previously found only on higher-priced models, the HP ProBook series delivers HP's best combination of business features, functionality and value.
"The stunning HP ProBook s-series delivers exceptional style and aggressive pricing that will captivate small and medium business users," said Philip Lau, General Manager, Asia Emerging Countries, Personal Systems Group, HP. "But it's not just about good looks or low cost, the HP ProBooks deliver the right blend of features and professional innovations to provide a great user experience."-PR

aims at bringing Samsung Star Touch Phone, a full touch-screen mobile phone, to consumers and educating them along with providing a feel of the gadget.During the activity, consumers will also get a chance to the gadget Samsung Star phone through a lucky draw. The Samsung team is also visiting shopping centers and restaurants to give prizes through lucky draw. Samsung Mobiles Pakistan and Afghanistan Head Zeeshan Qureshi said that Samsung has always placed high priority at consumer interaction, bringing technological advancements to every Pakistani's doorsteps."-PR
Information for Persons with Disabilities in Pakistan is very limited. The CR department at Telenor Pakistan, along with its partners STEP, LABARD, NOWPDP, Ministry of Social Welfare & Special Education, has tried to include information in a must download guide about services from all across Pakistan that can be very useful to PWDs.
It is based on lengthy discussions with disability experts and focus group discussions with persons with disabilities at Telenor Pakistan’s own premises. And although this guide is not a complete resource, it is a sincere attempt and can be very useful for PWDs and their families, who want awareness about their rights and to provide a compilation of basic facilities and concessions offered by the Government of Pakistan and disabled persons organizations.
Universal Service Fund signed contracts for providing basic telecom services in Nasirabad (Balochistan) with CM Pak and Broadband Services in Multan Telecom Region (Southern Punjab) with World Call. CEO CM Pak, Mr. Qian Li and CEO World Call, Babar Ali Syed signed these contracts with CEO Universal Service Fund, Parvez Iftikhar. Secretary IT, Mr. Naguibullah Malik witnessed the signing ceremony as the chief guest.
In the Rural Telecom project, CMPak will be paid Rs. 1.57 Billion to provide telephony services to 648 unserved Mauzas to serve a population of around half a million in districts of Bolan, Jaffarabad, Jhal Magsi and Nasirabad of Balochistan.
Whereas in the Broadband project, WorldCall will be paid Rs. 785 Million to provide broadband connections in 11 districts (38 small towns) of Southern Punjab, in addition to establishing 27 Educational Broadband Centres in high-schools, colleges and libraries plus 121 Community Broadband Centres. It is noteworthy that this is in addition to broadband services in MTR that PTCL will provide under a contract with Universal Service Fund signed last month.
Giving his remarks on the occasion, Federal Secretary for Information Technology, Mr. Naguibullah Malik said that the Ministry of IT is striving to reinvigorate and stimulate the ICT sector by increasing level of telecom penetration in unserved areas of the country. He informed that Ministry of IT, through Universal Service Fund, has been successfully executing rural-telecom, broadband and optic-fiber programmes that are playing a huge role in socio-economic development in rural and semi-urban Pakistan. He further stated that Broadband Programme will give impetus to provision of other e-services like e-education, e-health, e-government, e-commerce etc.
CEO of Universal Service Fund informed that after signing the two contracts, the total amount of subsidies through Universal Service Fund have crossed Rs. 10 Billion, which has generated total investments of Rs. 16 Billion in unserved areas of the country. Seven major Telecom Service Providers are rolling out these services under contracts with Universal Service Fund. The number of villages where services have already started with the help of Universal Service Fund has exceeded one thousand. Work is in progress for another five thousand villages, including 648 under today’s contract with CMPak. Another five thousand remaining unserved villages shall be covered by Universal Service Fund through future auctions.
Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed Bhatti, Member-Telecom, Ministry of IT, and Dr. Muhammad Yaseen, Chairman-PTA, were also present at the occasion.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is trying its best to equip the nation with the modern technologies and state of the art communication system. Here is the official press release issued by the PTA to to provide Free SMS Based alerts to 60 educational institutesISLAMABAD—Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) would provide Free web-based SMS Alert System to around 60 educational institutes across country.
This SMS alert system will be used by schools to communicate with their students/staff. The PTA selected total of 60 institutes, including 21 colleges, 10 cadet colleges, 4 universities, one medical college and 5 special colleges for deployment of this SMS alert system.
As per details, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has started a project named “SMS-based Information System” for educational institutions, to equip them with an interactive mobile application for broadcasting important information to students and their guardians on their mobile phones.
It is a system of sending SMS by using computer software developed by PTA. It has been noted that usually management of educational institutions relies on mail-correspondence with guardians, which is costly and time consuming. PTA would provide this software free of cost to educational institutions across the country.
A formal launching ceremony of the system was held today at PTA Headquarters. On the occasion, Naguibullah Malik, Secretary (IT), handed over the software application along with its operating manual to Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, Secretary (Education).
The application was presented to Ministry of Education for onward provision to the among public-sector educational institutions. Both the secretaries also exchanged PTA souvenir with each other.
This software would help recipient to be aware of events like lecture venue, coursework deadlines, result announcements, attendance details and upcoming school functions or meetings. Since majority of students and parents nowadays own mobile phones and most of them are familiar with sending and receiving SMS text messages, this solution for information dissemination introduced by PTA in educational institutions of Pakistan through SMS would prove to be an important information and communication source.
It may be mentioned that PTA was engaged in proliferation of mobile-based applications to facilitate information-based society culture in Pakistan. Today the mobile usage in Pakistan is growing exponentially, both in terms of number of users and the amount of activity.
The package details are given above. If you wish to convert your package there are some simple steps you need to follow. Some facts Vfone Pakistan has revised its prepaid packages. Now there are only three packages to choose from compared to the five earlier. The new packages are named as Vfone Simple, Vfone Family and Vfone unlimited. The old packages ‘Bachat’, ‘Kafayat’ & ‘Sahulat’ packages are being merged into a single package; “Vfone Family” with a new daily line rent of Rs.5/day. The Vfone Simple package does not charge any daily line rent.
How to Convert Vfone Packages
Your default package is simple but the existing bachat, kafayat packages will be mereged with new Vfone family packages
The packages mentioned above are not for PCOs as they have different packages.
Medical researchers have unveiled a new gadget that could be used by The device, which attaches to a mobile The CellScope project focuses on the development of a modular, Researchers at the University of California Berkeley
doctors in the developing world to diagnose diseases such as
tuberculosis and malaria.
phone, allows physicians to create a portable microscope that can be
used to examine blood samples in the field and help spot some of the
world’s deadliest diseases.
high-magnification microscope attachment for cell phones. Due to its
portability, affordability and functionality, the CellScope will enable
health workers in remote areas to take high-resolution images of a
patient’s blood cells using the mobile phone’s camera, and then
transmit the photos to experts at medical centers. This device can
reduce both the cost and time of performing critical disease diagnoses,
as well as provide early warning of outbreaks in poverty-stricken
regions in the world.
say they hope the gadget would be deployed in areas where the cost of
equipment and training currently prevents access to basic diagnostic
tests.
The consumers can make a free-of-cost call to PTA at 080055055 if their complaint is not resolved within given timeframe by the concerned telecom operator,” he said and added the PTA would take up the matter with the concerned authorities and would get it resolved amicably. He said Pakistan’s telecom sector has seen phenomenal growth patterns during the past decade. This phenomenal progress has brought huge benefits to the people of Pakistan in terms of network expansion, scope of services, reduction in tariffs and availability of an array of telecom operators with regard to choice of their service provider. Telecom sector maintains handsome inflow of money to the government exchequer. The vision of telecom growth coupled with consumer protection as envisaged in the `Pakistan Telecom Act, 1996′ has been realized through a teledensity of 61.8 percent and number of an expanding cellular mobile subscriber base that today stands at 94.34 million,” he added. In the last one year, he said, PTA have come a long way towards achieving a number of measures that have strengthened the industry and benefitted the consumers at large. “Our mechanism of checks and balances will only add to healthy competition and will promote good business in the sector. At the same time, as a guarantor of telecom consumer protection, Authority believes that the issues pertaining to consumer interest and grievances shall be tackled in a broader but more focused manner,” he added. He said the same has been the vision behind the revamping of Consumer Complaint Handling and Redressal Mechanisms at the operators as well as Regulators’ end.—APPIslamabad—Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Friday launched Redressal of Consumer Grievances Mechanism which would ensure proper resolution to the problems being faced by the telecom sector consumers. Addressing a press conference here at PTA headquarters, Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen unveiled the details of the package, saying that the consumers would have a complaint with the respective telecom operator and if the issue is not resolved, the consumer should file the complaint with the PTA Consumer Protection Directorate.
According to some statistics, the combined customer base of China Mobile (NYSE: CHL)’s and Telenor’s Pakistani operations is around 26 million, representing a 28% of the market. For the record, China Mobile entered the Pakistani market in 2007, when it paid $460 million to buy Paktel from Millicom International. Previously, they had tried to acquire Warid Telecom, another smaller operator in the country, but failed to reach an agreement on the price. China Mobile’s Pakistan subsidiary is called Zong and with just under 6 million customers, it is the smallest of the 5 main operators in the country.China Mobile is reportedly in talks with Norway’s Telenor concerning an acquisition of their Pakistani mobile network. Both companies are denying such development, yet sources told the local Dawn newspaper that negotiations were being held secretly at the group level.