Mobile Evolution

Indigo Talk Fiesta

Now paying your Line Rent in advance can get you additional free minutes on your i plan. With your free minutes lasting longer, you can talk even more each month, for no hidden costs or extra charge.


** All Government Taxes will apply

Terms & Conditions:
-Upon opting for indigo Fiesta program, the Customer can not avail any Line Rent Discounts, or any other form of discount for the Period of the indigo Fiesta program.
-The Advance Line rent shall be paid in full for the period opted for. No Discounts would be exercised on the Advance Payment. In case any Discounts exist, they shall be reversed for the Period of the Program.
-The Advance Line Rent Paid is non-refundable under all conditions and a request for the same shall not be entertained in any form or manner.
-Customer can not upgrade from one indigo Fiesta Program to another until the said Period of the chosen indigo Fiesta Program is complete. Customer shall be responsible for keeping a track of the completion of such Period from the date of purchase of their respective Fiesta Program.
-Customer can not upgrade or downgrade their i plan as he or she signed up for initially until the said indigo Fiesta Program Period is over.
The Customer cannot port out their number to any other cellular operator for One (1) year upon signing up for indigo Fiesta Program.
-The Customer is not allowed to change their Bill Date until after the expiry of the indigo Fiesta program Period.
-The amount paid for indigo Fiesta program shall not be used as a cash alternative/ substitute for Bill Payments and/or other facilities etc.
-In case of Sales Return from the Mobilink network, only the Security Deposit will be refundable, subject to pending payment and conditions
-All taxes for indigo Fiesta program will be charged upfront.
-All Existing Conditions Apply.
-Mobilink shall not be liable for any loss, harm, damage, cost, expense etc. (whether direct or indirect) which may be incurred by any person on account of anything contained in these Terms and Conditions for indigo Fiesta Program or any other services provided by Mobilink at any time, including the use of such Products and/ or Services.
-Mobilink reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions in like manner.

he worldwide mobile phone market recorded another quarter of year-over-year decline in the second quarter of 2009 (2Q09).­ According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, handset vendors shipped a total of 269.6 million units worldwide, down 10.8% from 302.2 million units in 2Q08. The second quarter results are an improvement from the 17.2% decrease seen during 1Q09, but ongoing challenges stemming from the economic crisis remain a factor to watch.

"The challenges from the previous nine months - aggressive channel destocking, foreign exchange volatility, and uncertain demand - continued to plague the mobile phone market in the second quarter, but were not as severe as before," says Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. "Those vendors who were able to adjust quickly were rewarded with greater shipment volumes. Although this tested the handset vendors' abilities to hit a moving target, customers reaped the benefits of lower-costs, even on key high-end devices."

For the full year, IDC believes that the market will decline 13%, with the market outlook for 2009 remaining relatively consistent among the top vendors. The small signs of improvement were centered around consumer demand for high-end handsets and the manufacturers' ability to shift portfolio to meet these needs.

"Among the big handset vendors, Nokia, Samsung, Research In Motion, and Apple, all beat expectations for smartphones within the second quarter," said Ryan Reith, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "This demand for high-end mobile phones has created a price war among large mobile operators and handset vendors. Apple's price cut on the iPhone 3G reflects a trend we expect to continue in the upcoming quarters, and one that will effectively maintain competitive pricing within mature markets."

Regional Analysis

• Amidst the ongoing economic challenges in North America, the market for converged mobile devices thrived with the arrival of the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3G S towards the end of the quarter. Shipment volumes for other converged mobile device vendors also benefited from increased attention and price adjustments on the segment, pushing the market even higher. At the same time, interest in prepaid devices remained strong for budget-conscious customers. Finally, the market for mid-tier and high-end devices began to show signs of improvement with the arrival of new devices from leading vendors.
• Despite the expected decrease in volume from last year in Latin America, the second quarter of 2009 was stronger than expected, showing solid sequential growth from the doldrums that were seen in 1Q09. Local currencies in the key markets of Brazil and Mexico experienced revaluation from the precipitous drops that occurred in the prior six months, helping to alleviate some of the economic pain being felt by many businesses and consumers. Interest in 3G services and offerings have been expanding in the region, helping carriers to increase, or at a minimum sustain, ARPUs that have been falling over time.
• Results in Western Europe continue to reflect weaker demand from the previous year despite some improvement from the first quarter. The growth of the very low-end segment was not sufficient to reverse the decline in traditional mobile phones. However, the robust growth of converged mobile devices was a sign that the recession may have reached the bottom and some improvements can be expected for second half of the year. In CEMA, the market showed more vitality after two quarters of abrupt decline, with regional shipments approximately 15% higher than in the previous three months. With handset distribution and sale largely out of mobile operator hands, the financial crisis had squeezed inventory out of the channel as bank and trade credit dried up. The recovery of shipments in the second quarter suggests that this process has now been largely completed and that underlying demand remains robust.
• High levels of private savings and aggressive national fiscal policies have helped sustain the demand for consumer products in Asia/Pacific, even as the global economy sputters along. Now, with several Asian economies showing the green shoots of recovery, mobile phone demand has also responded in a healthy fashion, with shipments for the region once again surpassing 100 million units in 2Q09.

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors

Nokia finished 2Q09 with shipments back above the 100 million unit mark. Launches of key devices, including the E71, N97, and the 5800 converged mobile devices, mitigated further ASP decline and operational efficiency resulted in healthy gross margins overall. Nokia's shipment volumes were roughly equal to those of the next three vendors by the end of the quarter. While still substantial, this is nevertheless down from a year ago when Nokia's shipments were nearly equal to the next four vendors' combined total shipments. While CEO Kallasvuo was pleased with the overall results and the company's traditional advantages, he also highlighted Nokia's ability to shape the evolving wireless landscape, combining mobile devices and the Internet with Nokia's strong operations, ecosystems, customer relationships, and metrics to track success.

Samsung saw its shipment volumes edge back above the 50 million unit mark on the strength of its broad product portfolio and was rewarded with the highest year-over-year gain among leading vendors. Its touch-screen and messaging devices continued to find a warm reception in Europe and North America while feature-capable devices and slim form factors attracted customer attention in emerging markets. Meanwhile, operating margins returned to double digits despite higher marketing expenses. By the end of 1H09, Samsung was nearly halfway to its goal of shipping 200 million units in 2009.

LG Electronics maintained its momentum from 1Q09 to gain market share and improve profitability. Driving its success was a strong portfolio of mid-tier and newly-introduced high-end devices as well as overall operational efficiency. LG also unveiled plans to improve its converged mobile device presence, with the launch of the GM730 this summer and up to five models by the end of this calendar year. Over the next two years, LG hopes to capture 10% of the converged mobile device market.

Motorola posted another quarter of operating losses as well as the largest year-over-year decline among the leading vendors. Not to be overlooked, however, is its significant improvement in reducing those losses 50% from the previous quarter. The company also made progress filling in some of the gaps in its product portfolio with the launch of several messaging devices. These include the Clutch i465, Karma QA1 and the Rival A455. Moreover, plans to release Android-powered converged mobile devices during 2H09 appear to be on track and gained further clarity with the rollout for accelerated application development with its MOTODEV program.

Sony Ericsson's challenges in the mobile phone market continued, earning the company a fifth place finish in 2Q09 while falling further behind Motorola. Ongoing cost reductions, competitive pressures in key regions, and an aging product portfolio resulted in a gross margin of just 12%, but nonetheless an improvement from the 8% in the previous quarter. Sony Ericsson announced plans it hopes will bear fruit later this year, including the launch of its GreenHeart and Communication Entertainment product lines, as well as enhanced content, services, and applications for consumers.

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q2 2009

"Motorola posts unexpected 2Q profit and says rest of year will see improvement"

Motorola Inc. on Thursday posted an unexpected profit for the second quarter after several quarters of losses, and said it expected things to keep improving this year.

The Schaumburg, Ill.-based electronics company earned $26 million, or 1 cent per share, in the three months ended July 4. That's up from $4 million, or break-even per share, a year ago.

The latest results were boosted 2 cents per share by various one-time effects, but even so, Motorola exceeded its own forecast, which called for a loss of 3 cents to 5 cents per share, excluding the cost of its restructuring initiatives.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had on average been looking for a loss of 4 cents per share.

Motorola's sales fell 32 percent from a year ago to $5.5 billion from $8.1 billion a year ago. Analysts were looking for revenue of $5.6 billion for the latest quarter.

"We will further improve earnings in the second half of the year," co-CEO Sanjay Jha told analysts and investors on a conference call.

For the third quarter, the company now expects results in a range from a loss of 1 cent per share to a profit of 1 cent per share. Analysts had been expecting a 1-cent loss.

Motorola shares rose 48 cents, or 7.3 percent, to $7.05 in premarket trading on news of the third-quarter forecast. The shares had already risen 58 percent this year, as investors have overcome the worst of their pessimism and have started to look for signs of a turnaround.

Motorola's sales have been on a multiyear slide, as its cell phone division has failed to come up with a product that can match the popularity of the Razr, a stupendously popular phone in 2005.

In the second quarter, Motorola shipped 14.8 million handsets, up from 14.7 million in the first quarter, but just over half of what it sold a year ago.

The profit was evidence of Motorola scaling back heavily on its costs. It has laid off 8,000 employees this year.

It is not the first time Motorola has appeared to be on the cusp of a turnaround: in the second quarter last year, it also posted a small surprise profit and reported shipping more phones than the first quarter. Its shared soared, only to lose more than half their value before the end of the year.

Motorola's non-phone divisions, which make police radios, equipment for cable companies, and other electronic gear, continued to make up for losses in the cell phone division, though their sales have also been affected by the recession. They make up two-thirds of the company's sales.

The Deputy Chairman of the Authority Tariq Malik told APP that the
card would initially be issued to overseas Pakistanis and later it
would replace all CNICs.

He said the purpose of the project is to facilitate the card holder,
as the chip would have all the relevant data of the holder, while could
be used for various purposes.

He said the present CNIC have a 3-D bar which has not much
information of the holder rather it requires an on-line connection with
Nadra for the verification of the card holder.

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
be a cost-effective project as each card would cost Rs80 to the
applicant.

‘We have sent eight Nadra’s engineers to France for training to
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.

He said the new card would help eliminate CNIC fraud threats
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.

The Deputy Chairman said that Nadra has a large data base of about
100 million people and so far it has issued 71.5 million CNICs
including 43.2 million male and 28.3 million female CNICs.

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
Authority observed a tremendous growth in registration of females.

He said presently, the Authority is registering 66 females daily out
of 100 while in past the female registration ratio was quite low.

He said Nadra has established eight National Swift Registration
Centres (NSRCs) in different districts comprising female Nadra staff to
register maximum females.

In addition to this, he said separate female counters have also been
set up for in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps for registering
the female IDPs.

Malik added that so far 19,7000 IDPs have been registered with NADRA at camps only.

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"

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.

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)

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,

1. Cellular companies benefited the most if forward messages are circulated around the region.
2. 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

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.

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 institutes

ISLAMABAD—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.