08 | EDITOR'S NOTE Editorial
09 | READER'S RESPONSE Letters to the Editor
INTERVIEW 20 | Wateen puts Pakistan on the global digital map 36 | Dell Interview
TELEPEDIA 10 13 15 18 29 33 44 50 51 53 54 57
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Nadra, celcos to launch new biometric system Dhabi Group gets inclusive ownership of Warid Telecom Mobilink holds its 6th Golf Tournament PTCL partners with DHA for provision of ICT services Video calling gaining popularity in Pakistan Smartphones help scientists improve storm forecasts Android smartphone to be sent into space What does rooting a phone do? Cyber-attack risks global stability Smartphone war heats up BlackBerry 10 unveiled, RIM becomes BlackBerry The greatest tech comeback
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COVER STORY 26 | Bossless PTA
Saga of corruption, nepotism on the up
INSIGHT 12 14 16 17 30 34 40 45 46 48 49 52 55 56 58
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Steady growth of IT in Pakistan CM follows CM tech-savvy Shahbaz Sharif promotes his Facebook, Twitter profiles Artists demand to restore YouTube Revolutionary computer breakthrough 2013: The year of transformation ISPAK moves ECP against Govt. Fastest growing countries on Facebook Mobile uptake to help Twitter gets $1billion Freedom of expression in cyber space Google revenue hits $50 billion, profits up Online crowd powers 'Girl Rising' Google brings new Image search Hackers release iOS 6.1 jailbreak utility Philips turns off TV in turnaround
EVENTS
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PTCL partners with DHA for provision of ICT services
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32 | Samsung Galaxy Note-II Creative Guru contest 38 | Ufone celebrates 12th Anniversary 42 | Mobilink brings Nokia Lumia smartphones in Pakistan
SURVEY 22 | Most preferred employers in Pakistan 24 | Cellular service suspension becomes norm of the day 39 | Trends on Facebook: Pakistani, Global brands
MOSAIC
Dhabi Group gets inclusive 13 ownership of Warid Telecom
65 | International
24 Cellular service suspension becomes norm of the day
NEWS 66 | National News 73 | International News
TECH TOOLS 77 78 80 84 86 87 88 89 90 92 6
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Mobile Rates Mobile Review Current Mobiles Upcoming Mobiles High Range Mobiles Low Range Mobiles Computers Laptops Accessories Gaming Zone 32 Samsung Galaxy Note-II Creative Guru contest
Mobilink holds its 6th Golf Tournament
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February 15 - March 15, 2013
Editor s Note Service suspension leaves celcos in deep waters
Pakistan telecommunication industry, known as the cash-cow, continues to face harsh regulatory measures and suffer from bad governance. The government’s performance and regulatory decisions remained a major disappointment. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority failed to auction licences for the 3G spectrum despite few attempts and promises– a reflection of the incompetence of those in power to implement major decisions. The incumbent government also failed to pass the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill to make it a legal act. The regulator, while enforcing the interior ministry’s directives, kept suspending mobile services on various occasions. The periodic service suspensions cost millions of dollars in revenue losses both to the industry and the national kitty, and added to the psychological stress of a nation already ravaged by terrorist acts. The telecom sector had remained one of the most potential sectors during the last six years and had contributed more than Rs 687 billion to the national exchequer besides providing a large number of employment opportunities to the unemployed youth of the country. The highest ever contribution was in 2011, when contributed more than Rs. 117 billion to the national exchequer while Rs 109 billion were deposited in 2012 despite facing grave hurdles created in its way; clouds of uncertainty hovering over the sector, particularly over the mobile phone companies i.e. regular cellular service suspensions, energy outages and ban on retail stores to sellout SIM cards. This saga of bad governance left the telecom sector in deep waters as the service suspension become a norm of the day leaving 122 million cellular consumers in complete blockade. Already miserable public, who with grace of God ever welcome a good opportunity, missed out due to genius minds enjoying a top seat on the helm of power. Cellular phone consumers will see an increase in calling rates, while the telecom industry’s core focus will shift to streamlining regulatory bottlenecks that hurt growth. Chances of the rollout of the third generation (3G) mobile spectrum will also continue to remain slim, at least in the first half of the year. The government cannot do anything for the industry’s benefit nor for the reverend consumers. The first half of 2013 will, therefore, be a continuation of its bad governance, for 3G we may have to wait six more months for the next government. Most intelligent people would have suggested strong intelligence based policing backup with clear plans of action and objectives. How about using police to protect people as opposed to protecting the battalions of VIPs who cannot break wind without first having a security cordon thrown around them? It’s not the proper solution, the people in the corridors of power need to devise a well thought policy to tackle this menace instead of keeping public in despair. 8
Zubair Ahmed Kasuri
Editor
Irfan Khan Ismail Qureshi
Assistant Editor Senior Sub-Editor
Usman Yaqoob Director Marketing
Zafar Khan Afridi Senior Graphic Designer M. Naeem Mughal Graphic Designer Azhar Javed General Manager
Lahore Office 46J-Gulberg III, Lahore-Pakistan. Ph: +92-42-35555511 | 35880183 | 32112352 Fax: +92-42-35880183 Islamabad Office Phone: +92-51-3000012 | 2254548 Kasur Office Phone: +92-49-2723099 | 0608-600000 Karachi Office 14 Star Marketing & Production 32-1-C-1/6, Block 6 PECHS Main Shahrah-e-Faisal. Tel: 021 343117813 | 34228885 Registration No PCPB/105 (Vol. 9 Issue:04) Price Rs: 400 URL: www.flare.pk Email: flare.mag@gmail.com Colour Sepration: Fotoscan Process, 25-C Lower Mall, Lahore. Ph: 042-37111906, 37234042.
Zubair Ahmed Kasuri, (Editor-in-Chief) publisher of FLARE leading telecom magazine, printed it from Qasim Naeem Art Press, Near Bank Road, Main Bund Road, Lahore and published from 46J, Gulberg III, Lahore.
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Nadra, telcos to launch new biometric verification system
NADRA has demonstrated its services and applications to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Cellular Mobile Operators including representatives of Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong. In order to set up biometric systems at 10,000 outlets, each telecom company will have to invest approximately Rs500 million just to install the equipment
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he National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has successfully prepared a robust and authentic biometric verification system for telecom operators and is ready to launch it on February 28, this year. In a statement issued, the Nadra said that all telecom operators had earlier agreed with the prime minister to launch biometric verification system for the issuance of SIMs from February 28. According to the statement, the new verification system will require each citizen to approach retailer, franchise or customer service centers of cellular operators personally and provide his/her fingerprints for authentication against CNIC data held with Nadra. On successful transaction, SIM will be activated. All this operation will be performed online and will take 15 seconds end to end. Moreover, security related segments believe that such measures will help the government curb the use of illegally issued SIMs for terrorism, extortions and street crimes. Pakistan has significantly high cellular density. Although mobile phones have changed the dynamics of communication means, their misuse has created security risk. Prior to biometric verification services, methods adopted to regulate SIMs’ issuance were prone to frauds. Now, with the fingerprint matching facility, it is expected that the same will bring authenticity and will reduce the risk of SIM issuance against fake identity to almost zero. In this regard, NADRA has demonstrated its services and applications to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Cellular Mobile Operators including representatives of Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong. The proof of the concept has been carried out with some telecom operators. A draft contract has already been forwarded containing minute details of this operation. Nadra has proposed flexible architecture to telecom industry with its recommendations on the basis of security and performance. Nadra has requested the telecom
operators to finalise the contract and deployment plans so that the target date of February 28 is achieved amicably. The cellular operators and NADRA have yet to finalise the online verification charges of subscribers’ data for issuance of SIMs through biometric system despite the fact that the deadline for implementation is a few weeks away. Sources in the telecom industry said that operators are trying to engage telecom authority to set low charges for verification of subscribers’ data and fingerprints in order to reduce their cost of operation. A cellular operator has to invest a hefty amount on the purchase of equipments at thousands of sales points therefore we want the government and its authority to offer affordable rates.
The government is pushing the biometric verification plan as it sees this as another avenue to make money off the telecom sector. Nadra also intends to sell SIMs at its eSahulat facilities, which will increase walk-ins and usage of their facilities. Besides, they will also earn an additional commission per transaction on the sale of SIMs
NADRA charges Rs 17 per SIM verification on 789 system presently however the cost seems to be increased if the subscribers’ authentication will be carried out under the new system. The charges should be reasonable for cellular operators because the SIMs are sold in millions every months, an official of the cellular operator said. Besides millions of old SIMs are likely to be verified again which are currently unregistered. He said that cellular sector sought amicable negotiation with NADRA because it has the right
to make revenues against its services. On the other hand, PTA should help operators in negotiation for low charges against verification of subscribers SIMs for SIM sale. Cellular phone companies were asked to deploy a biometric verification system for issuance of SIM by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Asharf in November to continue sales of SIM at retail outlets from February 28 onwards, the deadline of new SIM issuance system. The operators were asked to stop sale of SIMs on thousands of retail centres whereas they were allowed to continue their sales at their franchises and customer care centres. Sources in NADRA said a software programme has been prepared for verification of subscribers’ data along with fingerprints, which will be sold out to cellular operators in the coming weeks but no negotiation has been done on the charges of subscriber’s verifications. In order to set up biometric systems at 10,000 outlets, each telecom company will have to invest approximately Rs500 million just to install the equipment. Each unit is estimated to cost more than Rs50,000 exclusive of maintenance cost. Since Nadra is the only agency that provides for biometric verification, the implementation of this system will see it earning more than Rs2.5 billion from all CMOs put together, a telecom company official has said on the condition of anonymity. According to another official at a telecom company, Nadra has fleeced the telcos earlier too with a similar move. “Previously, Nadra used to charge us Rs7 to verify each CNIC. But to force us to agree to a price hike, it began to delay the information required by the CMOs. This left us with no choice but to agree to pay Rs25 per record.” According to this official, the government is pushing the biometric verification plan as it sees this as another avenue to make money off the telecom sector. “Nadra also intends to sell SIMs at its eSahulat facilities, which will increase walk-ins and usage of their facilities. Besides, they will also earn an additional commission per transaction on the sale of SIMs.” n
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Flare Report
tunning developments in the fields of information and technology have had a profound impact on almost every aspect of our daily lives, affecting everything from health and agriculture, to communications, transportation, and defence. In Pakistan, science and technology play an integral role in our national politics and practices, and even in strengthening our national identity. Since the 1960s, both science and technology have been linked to the national ideology and practical functioning of Pakistan. As a developing country, Pakistan has faced numerous challenges with regard to the development, adoption and diffusion of technology. While successive governments have made an effort for the betterment of the IT sector, a lot more needs to be done. The private and public sectors need to start taking ownership of the IT industry since science and technology have never been given the status required to effectively utilise them as harbingers of economic growth. Instead, we have tended to rely on technologies mostly transferred from developed countries. Even in areas where progress appears imminent, the scales never seem to tip in our favour. Take the mobile and telecommunications sector. Until now, Pakistan was counted amongst the global leaders in the telecoms industry. We are the only country in South Asia yet to taste the wonders of 3G data services and mobile broadband. At the time of independence in 1947, the technical resources available to the nation were largely primitive. Office work was carried out manually; even electric typewriters were rare. The process of corporate computerisation was launched in Pakistan in 1957, when offices first started using computers for work. The process of ‘computerising’ society continued at a slow but steady pace through the early 1980s and 1990s, as more and more people started using desktop PCs. However, it wasn’t until well into the later part of the previous decade that personal computers became a norm. Today, the picture is far less positive. Assessing the development of information and communication technologies in countries across the globe, the World Economic Forum recently ranked Pakistan 102nd among 144 countries in the 2012 Global Information Technology report. The constrained funding and attention Pakistan’s IT sector has received over the years had a further impact on the quality and quantity of work produced by our research and development institutions. Left with meagre resources, they were unable to match the valuable research produced in other countries of the region. Lack of suitable facilities and a failure to encourage and foster an atmosphere conducive to research in universities and research institutes led to a further deterioration in the standard of higher education. Today, most of our universities have been relegated to the status of low-level colleges in which valuable university-economy links are totally missing. This degradation of our higher educational institutions is one of the most critical issues facing us today. This is especially relevant in the IT industry, which is facing an acute shortage of trained manpower. To put things in perspective: the largest software house in Pakistan employs 300 people, while the largest software house in India employs 350,000 programmers – more than the total number of skilled IT workers in Pakistan. What makes this comparison all the more staggering is that we in Pakistan do not lack manpower. Rather, we have failed to provide
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Steady growth of IT in Pakistan
In Pakistan, science and technology play an integral role in our national politics, practices and even in strengthening our national identity; but until now, Pakistan was counted amongst the global leaders in the telecoms industry. We are the only country in South Asia yet to taste the wonders of 3G data services and mobile broadband
our populace with the means through which it can achieve the requisite technological skills sets. It is for these, and many more, reasons that investing in technology and telecom is the need of the hour. I believe that as a country we are ready for our very own telecommunications and technology revolution.
The world today is sharply divided by a technology boundary that separates technologically advanced countries from technologically backward ones. I believe that telecommunications and information technologies are the key enablers of change in today’s rapidly evolving business and social environments
According to the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Ispak), estimated internet users in Pakistan have reached 25 million; approximately five million of these are connected to high-speed broadband. World Bank statistics further reveal that Pakistan’s In-
ternet penetration growth rate stands at 16.8 percent; second highest within the Saarc region (the Maldives lead with a growth rate of 28.3 percent; India, in comparison, is at 7.5 percent). Pakistan is also the ninth-largest market for mobile phones; the country’s mobile phone users crossed the 118 million mark in May 2012. Keeping this in mind, the government of Punjab has allocated about Rs46 billion across various sectors, including education, IT, telecommunications, and science and technology. The world today is sharply divided by a technology boundary that separates technologically advanced countries from technologically backward ones. I believe that telecommunications and information technologies are the key enablers of change in today’s rapidly evolving business and social environments. The telecoms and IT revolution has changed the lifestyles of people in every part of the world. It has eliminated geographical distances and helped shrink the world to the size of a computer screen and a single click of a button. Yes, there can be no doubt that the IT sector in Pakistan is in its early years. However, a greater focus on information technology will expose us to many benefits, not only for a prosperous Pakistan but also a more developed Pakistan. n
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Dhabi Group gets inclusive ownership of Warid Telecom
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The Group plans to continue to improve Warid Telecom’s operations in Pakistan by introducing new technologies, services and packages
bu Dhabi Group, a business conglomerate in the Middle East and a major investor in Pakistan, has reacquired SingTel’s shares in Warid Telecom that it had sold back in 2007, said a statement issued by Warid. As a result of this transaction, SingTel will receive US$150 million in cash and a 7.5% share of proceeds from any future sale or public offering of Warid (if ever happens), read a statement issued by Singtel. Abu Dhabi Group has said that the transaction has further reinforced its commitment to the company.
Abu Dhabi Group is a huge business conglomerate in the Middle East and one of the largest foreign investors in Pakistan; it has invested hefty amounts in Information and communication technologies (ICT), financial services, energy, hospitality & real estate, health-care and agriculture sectors in Pakistan By virtue of this strategic decision, the Group has gained sole ownership over Warid Telecom, and will allow them to have a more focused approach as Warid enters its 8th year of operations in Pakistan, the statement added issued by the company.
Commenting on this development the Group official has said, “The Abu Dhabi Group has a diverse investment portfolio in Pakistan and is one of the leading foreign investors in the country.
With this step of acquiring complete control of Warid Telecom, the Group is reaffirming its commitment to Warid and the belief that the Pakistani telecom sector is set to grow further.” He added, the Group plans to continue to improve Warid Telecom’s operation in Pakistan by introducing new technologies, services and packages. We will also continue with our active participation in the important educational, cultural and social initiatives in the communities we serve. We are proud of our relationship with the people of Pakistan and are committed to being a model of responsible corporate behaviour, the official concluded. It’s pertinent to mention here that Abu Dhabi Group is a huge business conglomerate in the Middle East and one of the largest foreign investors in Pakistan. It has diversified business interests, offering strong financial resources and extensive management expertise that result in commercial success for several institutions. The Group has invested hefty amounts in Information and communication technologies (ICT), financial services, energy, hospitality & real estate, health-care and agriculture sectors in Pakistan. His Highness Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan is Chairman of Warid Telecom International with operations in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Georgia, Uganda, Congo Brazzaville, and Ivory Coast. He had received Pakistan's highest civilian award, the 'Hilal-e-Pakistan', which was conferred upon him by the President of Pakistan in 2005.
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Why people forget that these laptops are not given from the pockets of Chief Ministers to the students of the universities and the amount used in these schemes are all collected from our taxes
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fter completion of first phase of free laptops distribution, Punjab Government has once again started free laptops scheme. The query is that can Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif get political benefit of laptop scheme. Shahbaz Sharif started its political youth campaign through this scheme. Why people forget that these laptops are not given from the pockets of Chief Ministers to the students of the universities and the amount used in these schemes are all collected from our taxes. Now to get popularity like Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hoti has started to award free laptops among the students. Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti first ever inaugurated the Naway Sahar Laptop Scheme by distributing 35 laptops among the topper students of BS Programme under University of Peshawar and students of three affiliated degree colleges. Around 23,147 laptops will be distributed through the scheme among the students who would achieve 70 percent or above marks in their last semester. Similarly, those students who would secure 60 percent marks during their annual examination will also be eligible for the laptop. Similarly, top forty position holders of government institutions from each board of intermediate and secondary education and board of technical education would also get laptops. Speaking on the occasion said from the day first education was priority of his government and for that purpose eight new universities were established, he added. The Chief Minster said to cater with requirements of the modern education the laptops were necessary for students. He said the government had allocated one billion rupees in current fiscal budget for launching laptops scheme. He directed ensuring transparency in the procurement and distribution of the laptops among some twenty three thousand plus students studying in the various degree programmes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's public sector universities. He went further that VCs and heads of insti-
tutions should look to ensure distribution of laptops among the deserving students. Talking about the financial position of UoP and other public sector varsities in the province, the Chief Minister said that it was federal government's responsibility to provide funds till next NFC Award to public sector varsities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, however, he added KP government would also provide every possible support to the varsities, he promised. Chief Minster also announced grant of rupees one hundred million rupees to UoP for purchasing buses for facilitation of the students and a sum of Rs 10 million for golden jubilee celebrations of Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA). About the allocation of funds for education he said the budget for higher education has been enhanced from a Rs one billion in 200708 to five billion in the year 2012-13. He added since independence there were only 137 colleges in the province till 2008. The ANP government has approved 72 new colleges during the last
five years. Amongst the proposed colleges eighteen have already been made functional, Hoti added. Sharing his concern over the status of female education in remote areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Chief Minister said, not a single girl student appeared for metric examination from Torghar area last year and more or less the same situation persisted in Kohistan. In order to improve upon this gloomy pic-
ture his government has decided to give cash money of amount Rs. 1500/- to families of girl students studying in these areas in class 1-5 and Rs. 2000/- each to those studying in class 6th to 7th. A five year monetary plan has been made for the same purpose and amount for the entire period has been spared already for the scheme in order to improve female education in the province. He urged the students to serve as ambassador of peace for this region by getting excellent quality education The Laptops were provided by Dell Company through supplier Mega plus Pakistan. The Laptop has 2 GB RAM, 500 GB hard disk, DVD writer, bluetooth, built in cam, window original, logo of Naway Sahar with a warranty of fifteen months.
Now to get popularity like Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hoti has started to award around 23,147 free laptops among the students Vice Chancellor of University of Peshawar Dr Rasul Jan in his speech expressed his pleasure over visit of first Chief Minister to UoP in last forty years. VC said UoP was passing through a difficult time. The transitional phase of devolution of Higher Education to provinces, after the eighteenth constitutional amendment, has led to serious financial problems for the mother instituted of higher education in the province, where most of our developmental projects and academic growth have come to a halt, he said. The situation has aggravated to a level where it has become difficult for us to meet the recurring budget, and extending financial help to University students from our own resources, the Vice Chancellor added. He requested the Chief Minister to take the issue of adequate funds allocation for varsities to relevant quarters for a tangible solution. n
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obilink organized the 6th Mobilink Golf Tournament 2013 at the Royal Palm & Country Golf Club, Lahore. The one day tourney in Lahore attracted a number of amateur golfers, representing a diverse segment of Lahore’s corporate and business sector, making for a well competed event, providing healthy entertainment and promoting golf in Pakistan. Mobilink presented a number of valuable prizes to winners and other participants.
Azfar Manzoor, Vice President Business Services Division, Mobilink highlighted, “It is a great pleasure to host our customers in the 6th Mobilink Golf Tournament, Lahore. With our customers’ fervor and support over the years, this recreational
event has turned into one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in Pakistan. We will continue to bring this opportunity to our customers in the coming years.” Now in its sixth edition, the 18-hole tourna-
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ment has consistently attracted golfing enthusiasts from within the Mobilink customer base. A similar tournament is also in the planning for Mobilink customers in Islamabad over the coming weeks. Mobilink Hunt for Heroes: One of Mobilink's most popular sporting initiatives has been the ‘Mobilink Hunt for Heros’ in collaboration with the Pakistan Cricket Board to nurture young cricketing talent in National Cricket Academy, Lahore. The hunt has presented an opportunity for highly talented young cricketers to catch the attention of the cricketing legends through open trials. The initiative discovered and groomed talented young cricketers by entrusting coaches to make a pathway for them to international cricket.
Mobilink In-House Initiatives: Mobilink also has several in-house initiatives for its employees which include: • Ladies Club which organizes recreational activities with emphasis on engaging the female workforce on various areas including health. • Mobilink Juniors Club caters to the children of its employees providing them with various fun and learning activities including games and competitions. • Physical Fitness initiatives at Mobilink include sports tournaments for games like cricket, football, badminton, etc. • Healthy Minds is an initiative that brings out the recreational and innovative talent of the employees through GK Quizzes, photography competitions, etc.
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hahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of Punjab and also known as Khadim-ePunjab, uses over two dozen government websites to promote his personal Facebook page and Twitter profile. These websites – that are owned by government of Punjab and not by Mr. Sharif – are vigorously and shamelessly used by the chief minister to promote a Facebook page and a Twitter profile that he uses for official, personal and political motives. It may be recalled that the Facebook page and Twitter Profile in question are personal properties of Shahbaz Sharif that he will retain even after completing his service term. Instead of encouraging all these provincial government departments to have their own social media profiles, so that users may follow
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their updates and they may retain accounts even after the government is over, Mr. Sharif opted to promote his own profiles as if these government websites are his personal properties. These government websites range from Punjab Police to Punjab Pension Funds, Daanish Schools to Health Department. Almost every such website has a link to Shahbaz Sharif’s Facebook page and Twitter Profile, encouraging users to become his follower on social networking websites. When we last checked Shahbaz Sharif had 343,349 fans on Facebook and close to 75,000 followers on Twitter. It merits mentioning here that there might be more Government Websites used for the same purpose but we could find only 20 such websites – screen shots of which are attached below:
Irfan Khan
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In some countries YouTube is completely blocked, either through a long term standing ban or for more limited periods of time such as during periods of unrest, the run-up to an election, or in response to upcoming political anniversaries. In other countries access to the website as a whole remains open, but access to specif ic videos is blocked
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ensorship of YouTube, the third-most visited website in the world in 2010, 2011, and 2012 according to Alexa Internet, has and continues to occur in many countries throughout the world. In some countries YouTube is completely blocked, either through a long term standing ban or for more limited periods of time such as during periods of unrest, the run-up to an election, or in response to upcoming political anniversaries. In other countries access to the website as a whole remains open, but access to specific videos is blocked. As of September 2012, countries with standing national bans on YouTube include China, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Turkmenistan. The history to block YouTube in Pakistan has a long journey have a look: on 22 February 2008 YouTube was blocked in Pakistan following a decision taken by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority because of the number of "non-Islamic objectionable videos." One report specifically named Fitna, a controversial Dutch film, as the basis for the block. Pakistan, an Islamic republic, ordered its ISPs to block access to YouTube "for containing blasphemous web content/ movies." Blasphemy law in Pakistan calls for life imprisonment or death. This followed increasing unrest in Pakistan by over the reprinting of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons which depict satirical criticism of Islam. Router misconfiguration by one Pakistani ISP on 24 February 2008 effectively blocked YouTube access worldwide for several hours. On 26 February 2008, the ban was lifted after the website had removed the objectionable content from its servers at the request of the government. It has been suggested by some Pakistani web sites, blogs, and by electoral process watchdog groups that the block was imposed largely to distract viewers from videos alleging vote-rigging by the ruling MQM party in the February 2008 general elections. Allegations of suppressing vote-rigging videos by the Musharraf administration were also leveled by Pakistani bloggers, newspapers, media, and Pakistani anti-Musharraf opposition parties. On 20th May 2010, on Everybody Draw Mo-
hammed Day Pakistan again blocked the website in a bid to contain "blasphemous" material. The ban was lifted on 27 May 2010, after the website removed the objectionable content from its servers at the request of the government. However, individual videos deemed offensive to Muslims that are posted on YouTube will continue to be blocked. On 17 September 2012, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ordered access to YouTube blocked, after the website did not remove the trailer of Sam Bacile'sInnocence of Muslims, a film insulting Islam and eventually resulting in a ban due to YouTube's non compliance. On December 29, 2012, the Prime Minister ordered to restore the largest video sharing site after 103 days ban but soon after restoration, on the availability of objectionable
YouTube is a source of research and information. It is a free medium of information for people and plays a pivotal role in religious education because a large number of people go on YouTube to read the Quran and other religious texts. I think we have already made our point by banning it; now it should be restored immediately, said Junaid Jamshed
content, the PM again ordered to take down the site. But our so called government yet to bring the internet giant Google into an agreement, in the absence of agreement, the internet giant is free to exercise its services here without the consent of the local laws. The government’s ban on video-sharing website YouTube has been protested on Twitter and Facebook time and again by everyone from ordinary citizens to journalists and musicians in the past four months. While most have tried to live a life without YouTube — either by using Vimeo and Dailymotion
— or around it by using proxies, the Pakistani music industry has suffered largely in silence. One group of artists has realised the importance of such a video-sharing platform, and has come up with a unique way to protest the ban — YouTube Aloud, a collaborative effort between Omran Shafique (Momo) from Mauj, Hamza Jaafri from CoVEN and Pakistan’s child prodigy Usman Riaz. “YouTube Aloud is a social media page where we [and the Facebook community] express our thoughts about how this ban is having a negative effect on society,” Riaz told. Musicians Zohaib Kazi and Zoe Viccaji recently wrote an open letter requesting Interior Minister Rehman Malik to restore the site. A line from the letter reads: “YouTube is a medium that provides a platform for both. It is a library of today and an archive for tomorrow — an archive from which we will be missing”. Even Junaid Jamshed, the former Vital Signs member turned entrepreneur, feels YouTube should be restored. According to Jamshed, YouTube is a source of research and information. “I think we have already made our point by banning it — now it should be restored immediately,” he says. “It is a free medium of information for people and plays a pivotal role in religious education because a large number of people go on YouTube to read the Quran and other religious texts,” explains Jamshed. “We are a Muslim nation and will not tolerate or watch anything blasphemous, even if it is present on YouTube. As a Muslim Ummah, we know what is right or wrong for us.” However, not everyone agrees that the YouTube ban is impacting our music industry in a negative way. Senior musician Asad Ahmed, who has been in the music scene for three decades, says, “[YouTube] should be restored but I don’t think it is harming the music industry.” “It’s funny that [people are] saying that,” he chuckles. “Around 50% of Coke Studio’s viewership is outside Pakistan and the real YouTube fans in Pakistan already have Spotflux or hotspot shield working for them.” n
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This strategic partnership shall enable residents of DHA Islamabad to experience superior telecom services of PTCL including voice telephony, broadband internet and SmartTV as well as Pakistan’s fastest and most reliable Evo wireless broadband internet services
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akistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has inked an agreement with Defence Housing Authority Islamabad (DHAI) to extend Information Communication Technology (ICT) services and infrastructure deployment in DHA Islamabad. This strategic partnership shall enable residents of DHA Islamabad to experience superior telecom services of PTCL including voice telephony, broadband internet and SmartTV as well as Pakistan’s fastest and most reliable Evo wireless broadband internet services. In addition, PTCL has already established a dedicated facility to further facilitate its customers by offering all the products and services of the company under one roof. Earlier, PTCL was providing telecom services in Phase I & II of DHA and now PTCL network and services are being extended to remaining sectors of DHA II, Islamabad. The MoU agreement was signed by Muhammad Nasrullah, PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) Business Zones and Brig. Sadullah Fatimi, Administrator Defence Housing Authority Islamabad in the presence of Walid Irshaid, President and CEO PTCL. Tariq Salman, Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
PTCL and other senior officials from PTCL and DHA were also present on the occasion. Walid Irshaid, PTCL President and CEO while speak-
“Serving our customers at their door steps with complete bouquet of telecom services is a key component of PTCL business philosophy. We are delighted to extend our cooperation and partnership with Defence Housing Authority. This strategic partnership is another step towards improving the life styles of our customers by providing them futuristic and diversified products and services”, says Walid Irshaid, PTCL President and CEO
ing at the ceremony said. “Serving our customers at their door steps with complete bouquet of telecom services is a key component of PTCL business philosophy. We are delighted to extend our cooperation and partnership with Defence Housing Authority (DHA). This strategic partnership is another step towards improving the life styles of our customers by providing them futuristic and diversified products and services.” Defence Housing Authority Islamabad is developing master-planned residencies and communities with a focuson reliabilityand value-additionand delivering world class amenities at highest international standards. “PTCL has provided continuous, uninterrupted and robust services to the residents of DHA previously andwe are moving forward with the same spirit for future projects as well." said Brig. SadullahFatimi, Administrator, DHA Islamabad. As the leader in delivering innovative telecom, information and entertainment solutions, PTCL provides wireline and wireless services fromvoice telephony to broadband internet, EVO wireless, video-conferencing and carrier services to consumers and businesses. n
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Wateen puts Pakistan on the global digital map
markable story of how he has made the most of the opportunities that have come his way. “2012 has been a good year for Wateen. We’ve worked very hard to stabilise the company over the last year and consolidate the gains we made in 2011. Our restructuring in the third quarter of last year was difficult for everyone, but structural changes are essential to any organisation and the Line of Business model has substantially increased our business efficiency. We’ve achieved significant progress by reducing our costs and improving our margins. Culturally, we’ve gone from being a somewhat closed and centralised culture to a much more open, relaxed and dynamic company where people now speak up, ask questions and expect answers, which was an important part of our program when the new management took over in 2011.
2012 has been a good year for Wateen. We’ve worked very hard to stabilise the company over the last year and consolidate the gains we made in 2011. Our restructuring in the third quarter of last year was difficult for everyone, but the Line of Business model has substantially increased our business efficiency. We’ve achieved significant progress by reducing our costs and improving our margins
“We’ve had our share of major challenges, particularly the fire that destroyed our head office soon after we re-launched and gained momentum in the market was a huge setback but we have bounced back and continued to make progress. Our LDI business has moved up to
During an exclusive chit chat, Naeem Zamindar, CEO Wateen Telecom says, “Wateen is the only operator that was able to get Mobilink, Ufone, Zong, Telenor and Warid as its customer’s for outbound international traffic. In 2012, Wateen carried over 300 million minutes of traffic in September to set an all-time record for international traffic before the International Clearing House was set up.” Naeem’s two years at the helm of Wateen have seen the beginnings of a remarkable turnaround for company, which provides broadband services and solutions to around 200 leading organisations, as well as countless individuals, across the country
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ach moment is an opportunity to be seized upon – to do something impactful that will change the outlook of the future.” This is a core belief of Mr. Naeem Zamindar, the dynamic CEO heading Pakistan’s leading converged communication service provider, Wateen Telecom. Pakistan is currently going through a massive transformation as the country moves towards modernising its economy and embracing the digital revolution. Naeem boasts an outstanding pedigree of achievements: heading the strategy for Mo-
bilink, Pakistan’s largest cellular service provider; working as a venture capitalist at Intel Capital on the proliferation and adoption of WiMAX globally; and now heading Wateen Telecom, an embattled service provider at the time of his joining. Already recognised as one of Pakistan’s technology gurus, Naeem’s two years at the helm of Wateen have seen the beginnings of a remarkable turnaround for company, which provides broadband services and solutions to around 200 leading organisations, as well as countless individuals, across the country. In an open conversation, Naeem tells the re-
number 2 in the country and overall the company is on its way to becoming more stable. Wateen is the only operator that was able to get Mobilink, Ufone, Zong, Telenor and Warid as its customer’s for outbound international traffic. In 2012, Wateen carried over 300 million minutes of traffic in September to set an alltime record for international traffic before the International Clearing House was set up.” The International Clearing House is another challenge that Naeem and his crew have faced, as this was recently challenged in the court and
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subsequently dismantled. Rallying resources has always been a challenged faced by most new CEOs. Building a charismatic legacy is one thing; motivating your employees with wisdom, judgment, and entrepreneurial courage is quite another. Naeem’s confidence has been remarkable in his team as evidenced by the culture he is building at Wateen. At the time of this interview, organisational values were being introduced. Staff at the office could be seen wearing stickers of ‘Value Champions’ – leaders who are meant to ensure that the organisation is transformed from the inside out. As soon as Naeem joined Wateen, he outlined a vision of ‘enabling the people of Pakistan through the most modern technology thereby transforming their lives’. “We collectively believe that the internet can significantly change lives and because of this we’ve been focused on nationwide projects to provide connectivity to all areas of the country. We added over 1,000 km of fibre optic cable to our network and completed USF projects (under-served areas of the country) in Baluchistan and Sindh, helping bridge the urban-rural divide. We also completed a very interesting project with the HEC, the Metro project, connecting some 43 universities nationwide for data sharing and resources. “We also signed an agreement with the Punjab Government to digitise course textbooks, past papers and also deploy Wi-Fi hotspots in the colleges and universities across the province. This will enable our students to compete with any country in the world with the best resources available to them. Wateen also deployed Wi-Fi hotspots in all major restaurants, cafés and airports in Pakistan. We believe that Pakistan’s economic and social problems can be cured using technology and Wateen is gearing up to make this happen.”
also created the Organisational Development function and began company-wide training for employees. These things were unprecedented at Wateen.” On a personal front, Naeem is an avid practitioner of yoga and founder of the Pakistan chapter for the Art of Living – a global organisation that helps people relieve their daily stresses through precise breathing and yoga techniques. Naeem has been able to translate these into his business acumen. “Transformation is basically unleashing the growth and potential ability in a person, a family, team, organisation, or even a country. And that happens when you have a clear idea and direction of where you want to go and a fairly clear idea of how you want get there. But the most im-
makers on how technology can help enrich the lives of the people in the country. “Pakistan is just starting to take-up broadband services. There is immense potential here. There are only 2 million connections in a country of 180 million. The Government of Pakistan recognises the need for broadband proliferation and is making efforts to transform its machinery into adopting the most modern tools. Even the private sector is taking its early steps into adopting such measures. Virtualisation and Cloud Based Services are bound to take off in a big way as organisations are forced to improve performance and reduce costs. Applications and solutions for managing and securing networks will be one of the top priorities of CIOs at large organisations. Disaster management and recov-
They say that the mark of a true leader is when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. Naeem is quick to call his success the success of his team. As he sips on some cucumber juice, his daily natural supplement for gurana and caffeine, Naeem is quick to share the Wateen’s turnaround story has been led by the efforts of not one individual but the entire organisation. “Every department and each employee has been instrumental in our success. Some of the big highlights of this calendar year 2012 were that we [Wateen Telecom] topped PTA’s Quality of Service (QoS) Award for Wireless Broadband Services; we won the Consumer Choice Award in the Internet Category, won the Pakistan Advertisers Society award for the Best Marketing Campaign in the internet category and won the
portant question why? If you don’t have the why then you cannot really tap into the real genius of people, which is their drive, their motivation, their creativity, their passion, all of that. And that’s the only place where the transformation comes from. “At Wateen, we understand the idea of transformation to be simple: to take the inner potential of people in our organisation with regards to their lives and their work and, using precise methodologies, to harness and direct that potential into the productivity of a person in their personal and their professional lives. The Wateen transformation philosophy rests on the belief that all people have inner reserves of untapped genius and potential that require recognition and motivation to help these people understand their own potential and work to make the most of their lives. In this way trans-
ery will also be a focus for large corporations, especially in the financial services sector, to ensure continuity of services in case of any unforeseen circumstances. I believe these growing data and network requirements will prove to be the tipping point for Virtualisation and Cloud Services. As such, 2013 will see these become available not only for companies and corporations, but also eventually the average consumer and Wateen is ideally positioned to enable all of this.” What is the future for you and the organisation? We want to make Wateen an efficient organisation and our focus has been on developing the best of our human resources to the point where the management and employees are satisfied with each other. Only then can we truly unleash our potential and put Pakistan well and truly on the global digital map. n
Customer Satisfaction Excellence award from Cisco by ensuring the best deployment and integration services of technical solutions in the industry. “I am a strong believer in collective responsibility and rewarding exemplary results wherever necessary. Therefore, in order to reward our employees, after a three year break, we re-implemented our annual employee appraisals through a Performance Elevation System (PES) and we
formation is like a healing process that requires feedback and action from the people undergoing it, as well as the people directing it. Transformation being a continuous process leads the healed organisation to gain strength and gradually gain pace, outperforming its competitors in due time.” As an optimist, Naeem believes that the future is bright for Wateen and Pakistan. He has been instrumental in advising various policy
We collectively believe that the internet can significantly change lives and because of this we’ve been focused on nationwide projects to provide connectivity to all areas of the country. We added over 1,000 km of fibre optic cable to our network and completed USF projects in Baluchistan and Sind, helping bridge the urban-rural divide. We also completed a very interesting project with the HEC, the Metro project, connecting 43 universities nationwide for data sharing and resources
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Survey
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Most preferred employers in Pakistan Telenor Pakistan has been ranked as the top employer, Mobilink follows behind with 33 percent weighted votes and Ufone becomes the third top employer as preferred by respondents. Other notable names who despite obtaining signif icant respondents votes do not appear in the top three list are PTCL, Warid Telecom, Wateen Telecom and Wi-Tribe Pakistan Ltd
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elenor Pakistan has been ranked as the top employer in the country amongst various sectors, as per the survey conducted by ROZEE.PK in collaboration with Yougov, a leading global opinion pollster based in United Kingdom. Compensation & benefits, brand image, career growth, better work environment and social responsibility were the factors for selection of Telenor Pakistan as the most preferred employer. In the industry break up category, Telenor Pakistan led from the front as the most preferred employer in the telecommunications industry with 56.79 percent votes. Speaking about the most preferred employer ranking, Vice President Human Capital Division, Te-
lenor Pakistan, Muhammad Shoaib Baig said, “This is a worthy accomplishment for Telenor Pakistan to be declared the top employer in the country. We attribute this to our people centric culture and egalitarian values that provide a progressive and growth oriented work environment. We believe that our people are our real asset and nothing is possible without their hard work, commitment and dedication.�
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Telenor Pakistan was also found to be the most sought after employer among university students with respondents from 10 unique universities voting it as their preferred employer. It is pertinent to note that Telenor Pakistan was also ranked the most preferred employer in Rozee.pk survey back in 2009.
According to the survey report for 2012, a third top employer as preferred by respontotal of 9,068 respondents took the survey in dents. 16 weeks and specified their preference to Other notable names who despite obtainwork for the top employer in the country. Re- ing significant respondents votes do not apspondents had the choice to pick one em- pear in the top three list are PTCL, Warid ployer from a list of 1,169 companies or Telecom, Wateen Telecom and Wi-Tribe Pakchoose an alternate company. istan Ltd. Demographics of respondents: Top 10 employers in IT Industry n 68 percent of respondents hail from Microsoft leads with 33 percent weighted the four major cities of Pakistan: Lahore, votes in the Information Technology sector. Karachi, Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metropolitan Following closely are Netsol Technologies Area and Faisalabad. and AbacusConsulting with approximately 30 n 88 percent of respondents were males percent and 31 percent weighted votes rewhereas 12 percent female respondents took spectively. the survey. Other notable names that received significant votes are Teradata Pakiatan and 3D Cellular. Top 10 employers by females Of the 12 percent females who took the survey, about 21% have voted for United Nations Pakistan to be the top employer amongst nine others selected.
n 42 percent respondents fall between the age group of 25-29, 24 percent belonged to the age group of 18-24, while 34 percent belonged to the age bracket beyond 30. n 72 percent of the respondents are full time employees. n 92 percent of the employed respondents have a Bachelors or higher level university degree, whereas 52 percent of them held a Masters or higher university level degree. n 39 percent of the employed respondents were employed in professional or higher technical work, whereas 38 percent were employed as managers or senior administrators. Top 10 employers in TelecommuniA total of four FMCGs are listed under the cation Industry top ten employer banner by females. Females Telenor Pakistan, takes up the number one were more inclined than their male counterwith more than half of the weighted votes parts towards the NGO/Social Services sector given to the top three employers in this cate- with the inclusion of both the UN and Aga Khan Foundation. Top 10 employers by males 88 percent males responded to the survey, and of these about 17 percent have voted for Telenor to be their top preferred employer in Pakistan, followed by Unilever Pakistan that acquires approximately 16 percent votes from the male respondents. Although a similar trend of preferences is visible in both classifications, Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd, Oil and Gas Development Ltd Company and Abbott are voted to appear in the Top Ten Employers by Males list only, whereas, Aga Khan Foundation, Procter & Gamble and Habib Bank Ltd appear in the Top Ten Employers by Females list only. Also noteworthy is that four banks were ranked as the top employers by females, gory. Mobilink follows behind with 33 per- whereas as only one was selected by males. n cent weighted votes and Ufone becomes the Courtesy: rozee.pk
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Cellular service suspension becomes norm of the day
Immature decisions maiming telecom growth, quality
The telecom regulator, enforcing the interior ministry’s directives, keeps suspending mobile services on various occasions; the periodic service suspensions cost millions of dollars in revenue losses both to the industry and the national exchequer, and added to the psychological stress of a nation already ravaged by terrorist acts
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akistan’s telecommunication industry will continue to face harsh regulatory measures and suffer from bad governance for at least the first half of 2013. Meanwhile, cellular phone consumers will see an increase in calling rates, while the telecom industry’s core focus will shift to streamlining regulatory bottlenecks that hurt growth. Chances of the rollout of the third generation (3G) mobile spectrum will also continue to remain slim, at least in the first half of the year. Cellular mobile operators (CMOs) remained in the headlines throughout the year for both good and bad reasons, but mostly for the bad ones. During the year 2012, the cellular services sector surpassed the 120 million subscribers mark, and two more operators – Mobilink and Zong – entered the mobile banking sector. On the flipside, the government’s performance and regulatory decisions remained a major disappointment. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority banned popular video-sharing website YouTube, and failed to auction licences for the 3G spectrum despite three attempts – a reflection of the incompetence of those in power to implement major decisions. The incumbent government also failed to pass the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill to make it a legal act. The telecom regulator, while enforcing the interior ministry’s directives, kept suspending mobile services on various occasions. The periodic service suspensions cost millions of dollars in revenue losses both to the industry and the national exchequer, and added to the psychological stress of a nation already ravaged by terrorist
acts. “This government cannot do anything for the industry’s benefit. The first half of 2013 will, therefore, be a continuation of its bad governance,” said an official who wished not to be named. “3G should be a high priority, but we may have to wait six more months for the next government,” he said. It’s the story of a sector that was amongst the most attractive in the world. Rapid surge in investment in fixed-line, mobile networks and establishment of systems to aid in network growth has established Pakistan’s telecom sector as the third-fastest growing sector in the world a few years back.
Clouds of uncertainty had started hovering over the sector last year, particularly over the mobile phone companies, as cellular suspensions and some other factors made the year tough for operators as well as for subscribers
According to figures released by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the telecom sector had remained one of the most potential sectors during the last six years and had contributed more than Rs 687 billion to the national exchequer besides providing a large number of
employment opportunities to the unemployed youth of the country. The mentioned sector made its highest ever contribution during year 2011, when telecom companies and PTA together brought in more than Rs 117 billion to the national exchequer while Rs 109 billion were deposited last year, thus showing a 7 percent growth. In addition, taxes collected from the telecom sector remained the principal contributor to the overall tax collections made by the government. However, clouds of uncertainty had started hovering over the sector last year, particularly over the mobile phone companies, as cellular suspensions and some other factors made the year tough for operators as well as for subscribers. Previously, as a part of security measures, the government had banned the sale of Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) at retail outlets, thus cutting down a slice of the sector’s income. According to an estimate, the operators had to close down around 0.2 million retail outlets across the country in the wake of a new policy introduced to govern the practice of SIMs issuance, whereas two million SIMs were being sold every month, the figure for which had presently dropped down to around 0.7 million. Currently, around 1,800 franchises of all the mobile phone operating companies were working in the country, mostly in urban areas, thus creating problems for the rural areas subscribers in buying new SIMs. Experts told that the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for all mobile companies was currently only Rs 210 and the basic objective of the companies was to enhance the ARPU.
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“Companies invest to gain profit. In the current unfavourable environment, the companies might increase their tariffs besides controlling expenditures,” the experts said. One of the leading mobile phone service provider had already imposed call set up charges of 10 paisas on every call while at least two other operators had decided to follow the same in a couple of months. Furthermore, the experts believed that Mo-
fected in such situations. Section 54 of Telecom Act talks about service suspension during war or hostile situations. It reads as following: (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, in the interest of national security or in the apprehension of any offence, the Federal Government may authorise any person or persons to intercept calls and messages or to trace calls through any telecommunication system.
Most intelligent people would have suggested strong intelligence based policing backup with clear plans of action and objectives. How about using police to protect people as opposed to protecting the battalions of VIPs who cannot break wind without first having a security cordon thrown around them? It’s not the proper solution, the people on the helm of power need to devise a well thought policy to tackle this menace instead of keeping public in misery
bilink would likely be at the top in terms of revenue generation, as after the introduction of new rules it would probably increase SIMs’ rates besides improving marketing tactics. Meanwhile, Ufone and Zong were likely to remain price efficient networks and would likely increase focus on “voice bundles” to attract additional subscribers. With “Easy-Paisa” at the top, there were chances that the other three operators would not compete on with each other over the prices. Instead they would focus on extending their reach to remote areas of the country. The incumbent government ruined the telecom sector in the name of security threat; the service suspension forced the mobile phone operators to ask for compensations as the network suspension are marring their growth and revenue. Amongst the rest, Telenor Pakistan has made attempt and written a letter to Ministry of Information Technology to get compensation against the revenue loss it had to incur due to forced cellular suspensions. Sources who are aware of the development said that Telenor Pakistan, in its letter to Secretary IT, said that it makes special arrangements — involving higher costs — to cater massive increase in traffic on special religious and national occasions, such as Eid, Muharram, Ishq-e-Rasool day, Rabi-ul-Awal, Chelum etc. Telenor said that such special arrangements
are made to get higher returns during these occasions, however, due to PTA orders for suspension of cellular services it had to incur a revenue loss of approximately Rs. 163 million in year 2012 and January 2013. Telenor Pakistan said that Government of Pakistan — after getting the services suspended under section 54(3) of Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act — is also required to compensate the operators whose services are ef-
(2) During a war or hostilities against Pakistan by any foreign power or internal aggression or for the defense or security of Pakistan, the Federal Government shall have preference and priority in telecommunication system over any licensee. (3) Upon proclamation of emergency by the President, the Federal Government may suspend or modify all or any order or licences made or is-
sued under this Act or cause suspension of operation, functions or services of any licensee for such time as it may deem necessary. Provided that the Federal Government may compensate any licensee whose facilities or services are affected by any action under this sub-section. In view of this section of Telecom Act, Telenor Pakistan requested the federal government to compensate for its losses. This is not the first time that cellular companies have approached MoIT for compensation against the revenue loss due to service suspensions. However, it appears that all prior attempts were put on deaf ears. It is said that other cellular companies are also in process of writing similar letters to MoIT. As we know the suspension of Mobile phone service on any big or mega event is practice of our government, as usual they halted the mobile phone services on the occasion of 12th Rabiul Awwal and almost left the whole Pakistan suffering. It was not the first time happened in this particular time but all the time government say there were security issues and due to that reason directive has been issued by PTA to all telecom operators for jamming the cellular services. The question is, why this practice has been adapted by our current government to restrain the people of Pakistan to not been able to call their loved ones, forced people keep pending their important issues due to mobile service suspension. It has been practicing for the last two years and very easily halts the cellular services
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without any reason and always Interior Minister Mr. A. Rehman Malik came on media and said due to security threats, government has initiated the steps to protect the precious loss of innocent public. Telenor Pakistan, along with other cellular operators, has probably forgotten the loss of mobile phone customers, as no one is perusing or talking about the loss that customers have to bear due to service suspensions. During cellular service shut downs, all postpaid customers are charged with usual daily rental, in addition to service charges deductions that prepaid customers pay against bundles, services, LBC offers and so on. Flare Team has interviewed the public and tried to know the local point of view of our nationals, some of the people supported the government agenda but rest of the people were in trouble and didn’t accept the opinion of current government. Salaman Ahmed, a college Professor by profession has said, “Most intelligent people would have suggested strong intelligence based policing backup with clear plans of action and objectives. How about using police to protect people as opposed to protecting the battalions of VIPs who cannot break wind without first having a security cordon thrown around them? It’s not the proper solution, the people on the helm of power need to devise a well thought policy to tackle this menace instead of keeping public in misery.” Sana Zahra, a BBA student of NUST, while supporting the government stance expressed, “We all should see the other side of the story as well. We have to accept this that Pakistan is under serious threats and especially on such a day. When huge numbers in social gathering is expected. We can give this doubt to them. Because if something goes wrong we will blame them and when they have taken a step for a security measure, we are scratching them. So it’s us who are not happy! And we should think again on this and should have to support the incumbent government.” “I think more people’s life will be compromised due to this step. May God keep everyone safe; there could be if not thousands or hundreds of medical emergencies calls and the cellular service is down in most populated areas of the country. We should keep that in mind as we are moving back to Stone Age” Sardar Ateeq commented.
Sohail Amjad, a university student, who missed out a funeral prayer of his best friend due to mobile service suspension, he lost his way while heading to his friends’ village, furious Sohail said, “Throw the sick person (Mr. Malik) out of the Interior Ministry-that is the best cure for ailment our government has been able to come up with; suspend mobile services , ban motor bikes , may be some day they will say you are not allowed to go out of your homes due to security reasons … have we failed as a state”? n
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Zubair Ahmed Kasuri
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he incumbent government was aiming to appoint their skin on important positions to get some hefty amounts through unfair means for their upcoming election campaign. To get their evil desired, Farooq Awan, a junior officer of grade 21 was appointed as Secretary Incharge Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) in Jan 2012. The Government was aiming to divert the funds of over Rs. 50 billion available with Universal Service Fund and ICT R&D Fund to Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and also generate cash for PPP leaders from illegal activities. Then, Farooq Awan was made Chairman PTA to generate funds through auction of 3G, but two bold baboos stood in their way, which created chaos within the authority, but latter Mr. Awan was removed on legal grounds by Lahore High Court. After the removal of the former PTA chairman Farooq Awan and repatriation of various officials to their parent departments, smooth functioning of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been jeopardised due to a severe tussle among senior officials. In the recent episode, some uniformed people forcefully entered the premises of the PTA Headquarters in Islamabad and attempted to harass or kidnap Member Technical Dr Khawar Siddique Khokhar and Member Finance Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi. The bold stance taken by both the PTA members against the government on appointment of consultants to supervise the auction of $2 billion 3G spectrum, forced those minds who are on the corridors of power to arrest them. However, on the commendation of a senior official from the power corridors, they returned empty-handed. The intense rift among senior PTA officers has created anxiety and a sense of insecurity among the juniors who are now looking for other options to protect themselves from the controversy. Member Finance Nasrullah Ghaznavi said that these suspicious people asked him to go with them to the conference room of a ministry where they would ask some questions. “I asked them to ask any question here in my office or produce orders of any high-ups concerned to go to conference room of the ministry,” he added. Sources said because of the rift between members of PTA and Cabinet Division regarding exercising of administrative powers of Chairman PTA, status of several officers’ posting and current designation was not clear. A secretary of a ministry was spotted in the CCTV footage recorded on the premises of PTA Headquarters where he was seen as supervising the operation to abduct two members of the PTA, around a dozen armed persons, some in police uniform and others in plain clothes, riding in four cars with green number plates, made their entrance to PTA Headquarters Building located in the sensitive Red Zone and entered in rooms of Member Finance Syed Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi and Member Technical Dr Khawar Siddique Khokhar. They allegedly forcefully tried to abduct them without any search or arrest warrants. The team however left PTA empty handed as both members of PTA refused to go with them and put up resistance. The ongoing power tussle in PTA took a new twist when hundreds of protesters demanded that the Chief Justice of Pakistan take suo moto notice of the ‘illegal’ harassment of two members of the authority. The protesters, including PTA officers and representatives of the Internet Service Providers Association (Ispak) and civil society, marched
towards the D Chowk in front of parliament and demanded registration of FIRs against the secretary interior, DSP of the Secretariat Police Station and PTA official Sajjad Latif Awan. According to the protesters, they three tried to coerce PTA Member Technical Dr Khawar Siddique Khokhar and Member Finance Syed Nasrul Kareem Ghaznavi to sign off on an information memorandum for the auction of third generation licenses worth $2 billion. When the two offered resistance, accused the protesters, Awan and Co attempted to illegally arrest them.
A secretary of a ministry was spotted in the CCTV footage recorded on the premises of PTA Headquarters where he was seen as supervising the operation to abduct two members of the PTA, around a dozen armed persons, some in police uniform and others in plain clothes, riding in four cars with greennumber plates, made their entrance to PTA Headquarters building located in the sensitive Red Zone and entered in rooms of Member Finance and Member Technical. They allegedly forcefully tried to abduct them without any search or arrest warrants
This tussle over the 3G auctions has intensified in the wake of the Lahore High Court’s stay order against the appointment of PTA Chairman Farooq Awan and a directive for him to discontinue work till the resolution of the matter.
“The police did try to arrest us without showing warrants and it’s only because of the intervention of the PTA employees that they were unable to,” Ghaznavi confirmed, adding that he was considering to quit his job because of the pressure on him.
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Telecom industry and human rights activists have reacted with anger on the incident. According to Convener Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) Wahajus Siraj, the PTA had revoked the appointment of consultants for the 3G licenses auction but pressure from some Western capitals forced the government to reconsider its decision. “In order to get Khokhar and Ghaznavi to sign the IM, the interior ministry attempted to get the two arrested from the PTA headquarters,” said Siraj, who also claimed that the Secretariat police station had refused to file an FIR against the DSP, secretary interior and Awan. “This is totally turning the country into a police state,” Siraj added. Amina Janjua, Defense of Human Rights (DHR) Chairperson, said “Government is always quick in snatching the civil liberties of citizens and illegal attempt of abduction of two officers of PTA is highly condemnable.” The disturbance in apparently dysfunctional telecom watchdog has caused poor quality of services on the network of mobile phone operators as customers continued to suffer problems in connectivity and communication. Customers complained that they have been facing persistent problems in making calls and SMS due to technical issues on their network. They said that call drop; delayed SMS and weak signals have witnessed in the services of their telecom operators that cost lost of their balance, daily routine communication and commercial talks due to frequent network failure. On the other hand, the rift in the authority left the watchdog dysfunctional which also diverted its major duty to check the international traffic and tariff, the LDI operators are charging from overseas Pakistanis. Recently, National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology expressed serious concerns over the poor performance of PTA, accusing it of failure in building consensus among the members on the 3G auction process. After the removal of the Chairman PTA Farooq Ahmed Awan, the regulator is dysfunctional and hence unable to fulfill responsibilities. Despite, the LHC orders and PTA notification, LDI operators are charging post-ICH call rates. Telecom sector in Pakistan is still gaining higher international incoming revenue to charge higher tariff rates because of International Clearing House (ICH) agreement, in spite the factor PTA has taken back its notification which allowed to charge increased tariff rates and agreement has already dissolved in the date November 2012 with the agreement of ICH and still charging the same high rates. The master mind to create ICH was also Mr. Awan, who was instrumental in getting the ICH agreement which was officially stopped by Lahore High Court (LHC) but still continuing unofficially by telecom operators. An estimated amount of Rs. 700 million is allegedly paid as kickback from telecom operators that were distributed to top leaders down to Secretary MoIT level. Most of the telecom operators were defaulter of GOP for total of Rs. 24 billion and they were given assurance that PTA would not come hard after them for recovery of this amount. Grey traffic to Pakistan has increased substantially since 01 October 12 (date of increase the rates and establishment of ICH) causing a loss of millions of dollars to national exchequer. Incoming traffic to Pakistan went down to 999 million minutes in October 2012 from 1,700 million minutes in September 2012, the month pre-
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ceding ICH implementation. The traffic further dropped to 834 and 741 million minutes in the months of November and December 2012 respectively, indicating diversion of about 50percent to illegal and grey market. The telecom companies have been booking their international incoming revenues on a higher tariff allowed through the ICH arrangement despite PTA has taken back its earlier issued notification of establishment of ICH. Interestingly, this market trend is valid for all operators hinting that there is something common amongst them. One common factor is the announcements for 2012 performance that is planned for next week but the second and most important similarity is the ICH benefit that has struck all operators in equal manner. Telecom industry experts said that despite the ICH arrangement being dissolved in November 2012, higher incoming international calling rates
The incumbent government tried its level best to auction 3G without any competition and in haste to divert maximum funds for their upcoming election campaign but failed; the national kitty survived a big loss credit goes to PTA senior members, who also have left little time to stay in office as both are retiring in March and April this year respectively, but hopefully, this government has also only a few days in its bank to rule and plunder
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continue. The market speculates that an arrangement has been made by the 9 LDI operators in keeping rates somewhere between ICH 5.8/min and Pre-ICH 0.9/min (mostly at higher end). This has been a game changer for LDI operators as it is expected an increase by 4-5 times on LDI segment revenues, observed AHL analysts. The LDI operators, PTCL is currently terminating the entire set of international incoming minutes at the same ICH driven rates (USc8.8/min) and is providing respective revenues to the LDI operators according to their respective shares. This has rejuvenated interest in the entire telecom sector as higher revenues led by ICH arrangement coupled with higher than anticipated traffic would lead these companies to announce windfall profits. The small operators should be given extra attention as they would see a significant turnaround in their profitability, experts observed. They said that the international calls were previously recorded at USc1.25?1.5/min that led many LDI operators into losses. However, things have changed for the better now. According to industry sources, an average 750 million mins/month have been recorded by the entire sector in Oct-Dec 2012; higher than initial expectations of 500 million mins/month for FY13. These minutes have been terminated at PTCL’s network and the other LDI operators have received revenues according to their share allocation at a rate of USc5.9/min. Experts believe this set-up has worked wonders for the sector and the revenues earned will duly reflect in the company’s quarterly estimates. A market expert has said that the PTCL is expected to emerge out as the winner given its largest market share of 50pc. However amongst
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the smaller companies, they tilt liking towards Telecard Limited (TELE) as the impact on earnings will be greater than others due to its entire business concentration towards LDI segment. The telecom sector has outperformed the market by a phenomenal 15pc in a span of just ten days. And that’s not it, as they believe the rally will continue until the result announcements. The ICH case is still in courts (next hearing on 18th Feb) but experts believe whatever the outcome may be, it will not impact the sector’s profitability as per understanding, the LDI operators have worked up a price-consensus formula. This is only why that Pakistanis living abroad are still paying high rates even after the suspension of ICH, because operators have apparently fixed the rate and aren’t lowering them for the sake of competition. For your review, following are the with-ICH and without-ICH rates: Without ICH With ICH AAR 12.5 cents / min - 17.6 cents / minute
ASR 6.25 cents / min - 8.8 cents / minute LDI’s Share 5.0 cents/min -5.9 cents/minute APC 1.25 cents / minute - 2.9 cents/ minute Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) will come into play in any such case and may impose fines if telecom operators are found guilty for any such cartel; because CCP was one of the opposition for ICH. A former USF Director has said, remember that in case of calls terminating on landlines there is no APC. Therefore in such cases the LDI Operator, e.g. PTCL keeps it and its share increases further from 5.9 to 8.8 cents per minute. The overseas Pakistanis need to raise their voice and asked the concerned authorities to take action against those who are showing non-compliance with august court orders and PTA notifications. But, when contacted some expats, they requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice as they don’t have faith in any other public institution these days. They opined, the Apex court is the only pillar of the state which is acting according to its mandate and providing with justice to reverend citizens, while the present government is just plundering but aren’t interested to serve the people who brought them into the corridors of power. It is likely that someone (probably a court) may probe into MoIT’s decision of approving ICH when it was a clear violation of competition rules. Chances for such an investigation during current government are low (for obvious reasons), but nation would love to know the motive behind the decision that pleased only a few companies. Experts said that, the PPP-led coalition government has set new record of corruption in all spheres of life and it seems that instead of “roti, kapra and makan” for masses, looting, corruption and plundering of public exchequer is the only manifesto of the present government. The nation has been deprived of the most anticipated 3G services for the last 5 years, without any delay or prejudice, the government should have to appoint a new upright man for the office of the Chairman of PTA and as soon as possible to auction 3G with consensus to trickledown its benefits to reverend consumers, as the technology has been landed in India in 2010 and in 2011 in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan due to corruption and nepotism is still on the losing end, expressed a telecom lover. The incumbent government tried its level best to auction 3G without any competition and in haste to divert maximum funds for their upcoming election campaign but failed; the national kitty survived a big loss credit goes to PTA senior members, who also have left little time to stay in office as both are retiring in March and April this year respectively, but hopefully, this government has also only a few days in its bank to rule and plunder, he added. If the top bureaucracy show some courage and character the national institutions can’t be utilized for political and personal goals, but unfortunately, our system has many black sheep who are always there to rescue corrupt politicians in settling personal scores. Time is the best judge; who gets what, wait and see with naked eyes! n
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Video calling gaining popularity in Pakistan
Mostly in Pakistan people are using the mobile internet packages by using the services of different cellular companies like Warid, Mobilink, Zong, Ufone and PTCL to make video calls to their friend and families
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ideo calling or face-to-face talking while sitting in remote distance, nowadays video calling is no more phenomenon, as young generation is using Facebook, Skye, and Google Plus, but popularity of Skype is significant, yes free conversation and just needed a high speed broadband or internet to have a live chit chat. But in the recent times smart phones as device has its own importance because next challenge in the advancement in technology is face any where any time as you are sitting in remote distance but routine task done as sitting front to front. Importantly introduction of smart phones revolutionized the world and no need to sit on PC by using of smart phones you are moving any where can make a video calling. High resolution cameras, big size of screen and high bandwidth of wireless technologies usable this. Mobile video calling has risen so rapidly that industry analysts have not yet prepared the correct statistics. This era is also creating new business models, new stress on mobile networks and even new rules of manners. Mostly in Pakistan people are using the mobile internet packages by using the services of different cellular companies like Warid, Mo-
bilink, Zong, Ufone and PTCL, to make video calls to their friend and families and so easy to download the mobile apps like Skye or other for this reason. But calling Skype to Skype is free and for Skype to mobile calling there and charges to subscribe for this and enjoy very cheap calling.
Telepedia
stall Skype on it. Here is what you want to know. Mostly for the same reasons for which more than half a billion people have registered for it. Then, what’s more interesting with Android is that it gives you Skype functionality everywhere you are. What does Skype offer? First, you get to make and receive voice and video calls on your Android device. The video quality is unprecedented, provided you have what it takes. You can also share multimedia files (video, pictures, documents etc.) with your Skype buddies, making it a nice collaboration tool. In a more basic level, you can chat and use the tool as an instant messenger (IM) on your mobile phone or tablet. Skype also allows you to get an additional number to which people can call you. You also have free voicemail, and your Skype contacts are synchronized with your phone’s contacts. At the time I am writing this, only few people qualify for full use of the Skype tool, especially for video communication. This is because Skype for Android is not as generic as its computer-based version, where you don’t need to care about which computer you are using. You need an Internet connection with some decent bandwidth to be able to make and receive voice and video calls. Skype recommends an unlimited data plan because a lot of mega bytes will be used up with the calls and you might end up paying a lot for what goes above your flat rate. Wi-Fi is great, but only when you are in a hotspot. Else, it limits your mobility seriously. You won’t be able to use Skype using your GSM network through your SIM card as Skype uses a fully IP-based network. A Skype account. This is the easiest thing to acquire. Just register for free with Skype and use your credentials to log in on your device once it is installed. For full-fledged video calls, you need to use one among the handful of state-of-the-art and expensive Android devices and tablets, as specified on Skype’s website, fitted with a front and a rear camera. To install Skype on your Android device (phone or tablet), use your device’s browser to go to Skype’s product page on the Android Market. If you don’t know where that is, use the search tool. Look for the ‘INSTALL’ button and click on it. The application will download and install automatically on your Android machine, like most other Android apps. The settings are pretty much auto configured, such that when you launch the app for the
You get to make and receive voice and video calls on your Android device. The video quality is unprecedented, provided you have what it takes. You can also share multimedia files (video, pictures, documents etc.), you can chat and use the tool as an instant messenger (IM) on your mobile phone or tablet. Skype also allows you to get an additional number to which people can call you Skype is the most widely used VoIP application and apart from allowing free and cheap communication, it gives a number of features that favor fluid communication and collaboration. Android on the other side has rapidly become the favorite system for mobile phone and tablet users. So if you hold an Android device, there is a huge chance that you will want to in-
first time, you only need to log in with your Skype credentials and you are good to communicate. Since you’ve come to this page looking to install Skype on Android, you most probably already have used Skype elsewhere, so you know how to use the app. Besides, the interface is like always, very user-friendly. n
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Revolutionary computer breakthrough
Code of life becomes databank
A speck of man-made DNA can hold mountains of data that can be freeze-dried, shipped and stored, potentially for thousands of years. The contents are "read" by sequencing the DNA -- as is routinely done today, in genetic f ingerprinting and so on -- and turning it back into computer code
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cientists in Britain announced a breakthrough in the quest to turn DNA into a revolutionary form of data storage. A speck of man-made DNA can hold mountains of data that can be freeze-dried, shipped and stored, potentially for thousands of years, they said. The contents are "read" by sequencing the DNA -- as is routinely done today, in genetic fingerprinting and so on -- and turning it back into computer code. "We already know that DNA is a robust way to store information because we can extract it from bones of woolly mammoths, which date back tens of thousands of years, and make sense of it," said Nick Goldman of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in Cambridge. "It's also incredibly small, dense and does not need any power for storage, so shipping and keeping it is easy." DNA is the famous double helix of compounds -- a long, coiled molecular "ladder" comprising four chemical rungs, adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine, which team up in pairs. C teams up with G, and T teams up with A. The letter sequence comprises the genome, or the chemical blueprint for making and sustaining life. Human DNA has more than three billion letters, coiled into packages of 24 chromosomes. The project entails taking data in the form of zeros and 1s in computing's binary code, and transcribing it into "Base-3" code, which uses zeros, 1s and 2s. The data is transcribed for a second time into DNA code, which is based on the A, C, G and T. A block of five letters is used for a single binary digit. The letters are then turned into molecules, using lab-dish chemicals. The work does not entail using any living DNA, nor does it seek to create any life form and
in fact the man-made code would be quite useless in anything biological, the researchers said. "We have absolutely no intention of messing with life," said Goldman. Only short strings of DNA can be made, which means the message has to be chopped up into small sections of 117 letters, each attached to a tiny address tag, rather like packet-switching in Internet data, which enables data to be reassembled. To prove their concept, the team encoded an
The work follows a big step last year when scientists at Harvard announced they had stored 700 terabytes of data - enough for around 70,000 movies -- in a gram of DNA. Data is accumulating massively around the world, and storing it is a headache. Magnetic and optical discs are voluminous, need to be kept in cool, dry conditions and are prone to decay MP3 recording of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech; a digital photo of their lab; a PDF of the landmark study in 1953 that described the structure of DNA; a file of all of Shakespeare's sonnets; and a document that describes the data storage technique. "We downloaded the files from the Web and used them to synthesise hundreds of thousands of pieces of DNA. The result looks like a tiny piece of dust," said Emily Leproust of Agilent, a
US biotech company that took the digital data and used it to synthesise molecules of DNA in the lab. Agilent then mailed the sample back across the Atlantic to the EBI, where the researchers soaked the DNA in water to reconstitute it and used standard sequencing machines to unravel the code. They recovered and read the files with 100-percent accuracy. The work follows a big step last year when scientists at Harvard announced they had stored 700 terabytes of data - enough for around 70,000 movies -- in a gram of DNA. The new method eliminates the risk of error when the DNA is read, say the researchers. "We figured, let's break up the code into lots of overlapping fragments going in both directions, with indexing information showing where each fragment belongs in the overall code, and make a coding scheme that doesn't allow repeats," said co-author Ewan Birney. "That way, you would have to have the same error on four different fragments for it to fail, and that would be very rare." Data is accumulating massively around the world, and storing it is a headache. Magnetic and optical discs are voluminous, need to be kept in cool, dry conditions and are prone to decay. "The only limit (for DNA storage) is the cost," said Birney. Sequencing and reading the DNA takes a couple of weeks with present technology, so it is not suitable for jobs needing instant data retrieval. Instead, it would be appropriate for data that would be stored for between 500 and 5,000 years. But on current trends, sequencing costs could fall by a factor of 20 within a decade, making DNA storage economically feasible for timeframes of less than 50 years, the authorsclaim. n
Event
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During the ceremony, a qualif ied sketch artist from the NCA, was engaged to use the creative features of Note-II, and draw a sketch of Humaima Malik – the renowned TV & f ilm star and guest of honor
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amsung is celebrating the overwhelming global success of the “Samsung Galaxy Note II” by holding “Creative Guru” activity at various cafes across Pakistan. Launched in October 2012, the Galaxy Note-II is an intuitive smartphone and a fascinatingly creative device. Worldwide sales of the S-Pen enabled Galaxy Note-II had exceeded five million units within two months of its launch, while the figures continue to grow rapidly. This smartphone is consistently selling at more than three times the pace of the Note 1 – its predecessor. The inauguration ceremony was held at the Atrium in Mall of Lahore, recently, attended by prominent personalities along with print and electronic media. During the ceremony, a qualified sketch artist from the National College of Arts, was engaged to use the creative features of Note II, and draw a sketch of Humaima Malik – the renowned TV & film star and guest of honor at the ceremony. Humaima was delighted to receive a Note II smartphone from Samsung as a gift. After being rolled out from Café Zouk La-
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hore, the Note II “Creative Guru” events will hit various top Cafes and Art Institutes in Lahore. Later, this contest will continue its journey through trendy cafes in Karachi and Islamabad.
The highlight of these shows will be the opportunities for participants to win free Galaxy Note II smartphone. The Business Head of Mobile Phones (Pak-
istan & Afghanistan) of Samsung EC Pakistan Private Ltd Faridullah Jan said; “A great customer response is generated by the comprehensive mobile experience and delightful expressive freedom delivered by the Note-II. Users can create personalized, complex and highly expressive content for instant sharing, through a wide range of social networks. It gives unmatched ease in capturing those “big ideas” using Samsung’s creative “S pen” technology, to accurately digitize sketches, artworks and handwritten text, besides offering a revolutionary “Caricature” feature”. Note II “Creative Guru” contest invites every one, to demonstrate their creative talents by using the S-pen and uploading their finished art-works, through the “Note II Creative Guru” Application on Samsung’s facebook page. Samsung fans from all over the country can view the Gallery and vote for their favorite drawings, whereby the contest winners will be given valuable prizes including Galaxy Note II smartphone. n
Event
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During the ceremony, a qualif ied sketch artist from the NCA, was engaged to use the creative features of Note-II, and draw a sketch of Humaima Malik – the renowned TV & f ilm star and guest of honor
S
amsung is celebrating the overwhelming global success of the “Samsung Galaxy Note II” by holding “Creative Guru” activity at various cafes across Pakistan. Launched in October 2012, the Galaxy Note-II is an intuitive smartphone and a fascinatingly creative device. Worldwide sales of the S-Pen enabled Galaxy Note-II had exceeded five million units within two months of its launch, while the figures continue to grow rapidly. This smartphone is consistently selling at more than three times the pace of the Note 1 – its predecessor. The inauguration ceremony was held at the Atrium in Mall of Lahore, recently, attended by prominent personalities along with print and electronic media. During the ceremony, a qualified sketch artist from the National College of Arts, was engaged to use the creative features of Note II, and draw a sketch of Humaima Malik – the renowned TV & film star and guest of honor at the ceremony. Humaima was delighted to receive a Note II smartphone from Samsung as a gift. After being rolled out from Café Zouk La-
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hore, the Note II “Creative Guru” events will hit various top Cafes and Art Institutes in Lahore. Later, this contest will continue its journey through trendy cafes in Karachi and Islamabad.
The highlight of these shows will be the opportunities for participants to win free Galaxy Note II smartphone. The Business Head of Mobile Phones (Pak-
istan & Afghanistan) of Samsung EC Pakistan Private Ltd Faridullah Jan said; “A great customer response is generated by the comprehensive mobile experience and delightful expressive freedom delivered by the Note-II. Users can create personalized, complex and highly expressive content for instant sharing, through a wide range of social networks. It gives unmatched ease in capturing those “big ideas” using Samsung’s creative “S pen” technology, to accurately digitize sketches, artworks and handwritten text, besides offering a revolutionary “Caricature” feature”. Note II “Creative Guru” contest invites every one, to demonstrate their creative talents by using the S-pen and uploading their finished art-works, through the “Note II Creative Guru” Application on Samsung’s facebook page. Samsung fans from all over the country can view the Gallery and vote for their favorite drawings, whereby the contest winners will be given valuable prizes including Galaxy Note II smartphone. n
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Smartphones help scientists improve storm forecasts
Telepedia
Atmospheric pressure is the weight of the air above, and includes information about what is happening as air masses collide. Precise tracking of pressure readings and pressure changes could help weather forecasters to pinpoint exactly where and when a major storm will strike
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he next advance in weather forecasting may not come from a new satellite or supercomputer, but from a device in your pocket. University of Washington atmospheric scientists are using pressure sensors included in the newest smartphones to develop better weather forecasting techniques. "With this approach we could potentially have tens or hundreds of thousands of additional surface pressure observations, which could significantly improve short-term weather forecasts," said Cliff Mass, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences. Owners of certain new Android smartphones and tablet computers can now download the PressureNet app, which measures atmospheric pressure and provides the data to UW researchers. When some smartphone manufacturers recently added pressure sensors, to estimate the phone's elevation and help pinpoint its location, Mass saw an opportunity to enhance weather prediction. In the autumn he approached Cumulonimbus, a Canadian app company that developed a barometer application for smartphones that collects all the data and shares it back with users.
The PressureNet app recently collected about 4,000 observations per hour, with users clustered in the northeastern United States and around some major cities. "We need more density," Mass said. "Right now it's a matter of getting more people to contribute." Android devices equipped with pressure sensors include Samsung's Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note and Nexus 4 smartphones, and the Nexus 10 and Motorola Xoom tablet computers. Atmospheric pressure is the weight of the air above, and includes information about what is happening as air masses collide. Precise tracking of pressure readings and pressure changes could help weather forecasters to pinpoint exactly where and when a major storm will strike. Tracking storms a few hours out could help people better protect themselves and their property. In the Seattle area, the tool could improve short-term forecasts for wind and rain. "I think this could be one of the next major revolutions in weather forecasting, really enhancing our ability to forecast at zero to four hours," Mass said. Cumulonimbus updated the app's privacy
settings so users could allow access to the data by scientific researchers. Since then, the UW group has been uploading the pressure data each hour and preparing it for use in weather forecasting models. The data will soon be available to all researchers who want to incorporate it in weather-prediction tools. A project begun in 2010 by Mass and Gregory Hakim, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences, has explored ways to improve weather forecasts by taking advantage of surface pressure measurements. The current network of U.S. weather stations offers about one thousand air-pressure readings. Adding observations collected by small-scale weather networks and hobbyists, the UW team found, improves the forecasts. A weather station in every pocket would offer an unprecedented wealth of data. If the technique is successful, the researchers hope to supply it to the National Weather Service and the weather bureaus of other countries. The technique could be particularly useful, Mass noted, in countries that have little weather-forecasting infrastructure but where smartphones are becoming more common. n
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Naeem Zamindar
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2013: The year of transformation
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2013 will see adoption of Cloud Services continue to grow in Pakistan. Increasingly, customers – both individuals and companies – will seek to store their data ‘in the Cloud’ as opposed to physical data servers, as well as avail of software services on a ‘rental’ basis
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he past year has been an interesting one for Pakistan from a technology and telecommunications point of view. With 2013 well on its way, it’s now time to think about what the future holds. No doubt, there is much looming on the horizon – and all indicators point to 2013 as a year of better performance and service delivery in the telecom industry. This is the time for advancement and technological upgrades, and while there will be many developments, here are my top picks for the year to come. 2013 will see adoption of Cloud Services continue to grow in Pakistan. Increasingly, customers – both individuals and companies – will seek to store their data ‘in the Cloud’ as opposed to physical data servers, as well as avail of software services on a ‘rental’ basis. Large MNCs, banks and other financial services companies moved into this domain some time back. Looking forward, educational institutions are likely to take the next step, as digitisation of educational content takes place. Some progressive institutions have already adopted softwares such as Moodle and Learning Management Systems and incorporated their curriculum on them, thereby preparing their scholars for a digital future. There is also much potential for the government, providing e-farming support in rural areas, and to consolidate various departments online on a single portal. This will help bridge the urban-rural divide as farmers in remote areas will be able to see market rates for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides etc, as well as getting online support for weather forecasts and irrigation techniques. All of this requires data hosting facilities that can be provided on the Cloud for relatively low costs. We at Wateen launched our Cloud services in 2012 for enterprise customers; the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) also recently launched its Data Centre and Cloud Computing Services for both individuals as well as companies. 3G will play a significant role in pushing mobile broadband and looks to be the next big thing for fulfilling Pakistan’s data needs. Pakistan has over 100 million cellular subscribers; reportedly around 10 percent of these use smartphones. Data usage has grown substantially and there are an estimated 10 million mobile data users in Pakistan. However, it’s important to caveat that 3G has been much hyped and may dampen the expectations of a lot of people as it has in India. Almost a year into its launch in India, only 2 percent of the people have taken up 3G services. 3G will
require ubiquitous coverage for consumers to be satisfied with the services. WiMAX can play an important role here by offering a solution for data backhauling for telecom operators. Wateen has already deployed around 250 WiFi hotspots in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and is ideally positioned to fulfill the data needs for mobile operators. Speaking of WiMAX, across the globe WiMAX technology is utilised to deliver open WiFi hotspots in dense urban areas. This essentially means that anyone with a WiMAX enabled chipset is able to connect directly. This promises to improve the takeup of broadband in the country. In Japan alone, there are 30 WiMAX embedded smartphones and notebooks.
3G will play a significant role in pushing mobile broadband and looks to be the next big thing for fulfilling Pakistan’s data needs. WiMAX can play an important role here by offering a solution for data backhauling for telecom operators. Wateen has already deployed around 250 WiFi hotspots in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and is ideally positioned to fulfill the data needs for mobile operators
If open WiFi hotspots are established in Pakistan, these devices can also be made available for customers in Pakistan, which will help proliferate broadband and serve the growing appetite for data. In order to make this happen, the policy for open WiFi hotspots needs to be reviewed by the Government. This may include review of security concerns and allocation of additional unallocated spectrum by the Frequency Allocation Board. Declan Byrne, President WiMAX Forum, recently met with the Secretary IT and Member Telecom MoIT on this and both have promised to look into this matter. Branchless Banking and m-Commerce Services will be the biggest innovations for the year. New entrants (Zong and Askari Bank, and Mobilink and
Waseela) have recently launched their offerings and promise to improve the take-up of this service. New payment solutions will also be a first in the country as smartphones enable swipe magnetic card readers and pioneering companies such as Inov8 Ltd begin to deliver on their potential for the consumer market. Smartphone apps will also be big. These are being developed at an exponential rate and telecom operators may need to look into developing customised CRM applications to service their customers. Last year, a new system of tracking and predicting dengue outbreaks saved hundreds of lives in Pakistan. The project, another PITB brainchild, created a data management system whereby public sector hospitals sent reports of all suspected dengue patients with their home addresses and test results. This data was mapped and a statistical analysis algorithmically highlighted areas where dengue was likely to spread allowing pre-emptive action. As a result, deaths from dengue dropped to zero in Punjab. Similar clever uses of mobile technology are likely to proliferate through 2013. Asian countries, especially China and India, are taking the lead in developing low cost tablets and handheld devices to cater to their large populations. In Pakistan, some companies have already started bringing Android based devices as low as Rs 5,000. In India, they have recently announced that they will be developing the world’s cheapest tablet at USD35. These devices will play an exceptional role in transforming societies. The Consumerisation of IT has already started taking place in Pakistan. Initially, large organisations were providing handsets to their employees for using a particular service. This trend is radically changing as today’s workforce wants to bring their own handsets, tablets, notebooks and other devices to the work premises. Organisations will be forced to look into enabling their internal customers and offer services which aren’t restrictive to a particular device. Companies like QMobile will play an important role in the proliferation of low cost handheld devices. This, in turn, will impact the use of mobile internet/broadband, open WiFi/WiMAX, as well as Cloud services, as consumers look to access data and media on their handheld devices. The writer is the CEO of Wateen Telecom, and a board member of the World WiMax Forum, the global advisory body responsible for setting WiMax standards.
Interview
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Flare Panel talks to Syed Asim Bukhari, Chief Executive Officer, MEGAPLUS Pakistan, who says, “Pakistani new generation is full of talent, enthusiastic and highly committed, they need encouragement and exposure”. MEGAPLUS taking Pakistan to next level of high-tech through bringing-in state of the art facilities, skills and innovations to enhance and streamline young minds to do wonders in the fields of Telecommunications, Information Technology and application software to compete with the world, he adds
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EGAPLUS Pakistan is the sister concern of M/s Pakistan Typewriter Company, which was established in 1954 as an office equipment company. Driven by one man's dream of making a difference in the IT business and trade, MEGAPLUS is an IT based end to end solution providing company in Pakistan, Malaysia, Afghanistan and now expanding to Asia Pacific and Africa. It offers a range of products, including enterprise systems, which include servers, storage, workstations, and networking products; client systems, such as notebook and desktop computer systems; along with software and peripherals. MEGAPLUS is one of the largest and oldest Authorized Distributors and Service Providers for Dell in Pakistan having direct presence in all the provincial capitals of Pakistan with international presence in Kabul, Afghanistan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. MEGAPLUS Pakistan has the highest year-to-year growth rate in all Dell Distributors in Asia Pacific for the past 5 years. Considering the phenomenal growth which MEGAPLUS achieved over a certain period of time, some of the leading brands in the IT industry opted for appointing MEGAPLUS as their preferred business partner dispelling in-
dustry standards, where one company is usually having a single brand portfolio only. MEGAPLUS is now Dell’s only Premier Partner in Pakistan, Oracle’s Gold Partner, and EMC’s Velocity Affiliate Partner, making it one of the unique companies in the IT industry,
MEGAPLUS is now Dell’s only Premier Partner in Pakistan, Oracle’s Gold Partner, and EMC’s Velocity Affiliate Partner, making it one of the unique companies in the IT industry, which represents DELL, IBM, Oracle and EMC, all industry leaders in their own capacity
which represents DELL, IBM, Oracle and EMC, all industry leaders in their own capacity. As Channel partners for other world renowned companies like Cisco, Red Hat, Mi-
crosoft, Symantec & VMware, MEGAPLUS can boast about carrying one of the most diverse product portfolios in the IT Industry. Some major achievements and projects accomplished in the past 17 years of its existence in this region speak volumes about its commitment to excellence in the IT field. Flare team meets Syed Asim Bukhari, Chief Executive Officer, MEGAPLUS Pakistan, in his office for a formal discussion regarding what he and his team is doing special for Pakistan and its people and in what capacity. Mr. Asim banks an outstanding pedigree of achievements, while taking MEGAPLUS Pakistan to new heights. He says there is no dearth of talent in Pakistan; we are very hardworking and resilient nation. Our youth/ young generation is highly talented but due to lack of resources and guidance on the government front, they are being deprived of exposure other countries providing to their youth. It’s a good omen, during the last 5 years our government shows some character in providing platform and facilities to exploit their energies and skills to bringupon pride for Pakistan likes of Arfa Karim, the world’s youngest Microsoft certified, unfortunately, she is no more with us but she will remain here forever, before breathed her last, she
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was working on the project of NASA a US space agency and Babar Iqbal, a 14 year old youth, who had already set four world records in the field of computer science and now published his first ‘Digital Forensic Science’ research paper discussing new method of Apple iDivices. Mr. Asim said, but this industry/ ICT sector has been facing numerous problems, we cann’t quote a few God gifted youths examples, but needs to provide the infrastructure and environment where every child of any age can excel. He stressed, our youth can bring upon drastic changes by playing vital role in ICT as well as trickledown job opportunities not for themselves but for public at large. He affirms, the future lies in ICT sector, but here, we need to break the iceberg in providing these infrastructure to every nook and corner of Pakistan, without state of the art technology and exposure, we can’t expect digital revolution. In Pakistan, the ICT has shifted the financial, political and social parameters in previously unimagined ways. Information Technology is the single most important factor in the development of a well educated and aware population. The ICT has the power to be a life changing technology in Pakistan and the applications are numerous. The modern technology is fundamentally a tool, and we at MEGAPLUS believe that it should be used to unleash the power of people, to transform societies and enable communities and people to make a difference. There is no boundary this high-tech cannot cross and no person who is beyond the reach of this modern tech but the correct use of it is a mechanism for liberating people to follow their hearts. Asim Bukhari also throws some light on the journey of MEGAPLUS that how, his firm floats through the troughs and crests to reach its zeal of success. He said, MEGAPLUS started its business operations in 1994 and in 1996 partnered with Dell as its official distributor in Pakistan; whereas we sat-up our offices in Islamabad and Lahore in 2000, 2001 respectively. We crossed the borders of our neighbor-
ing country in 2004 to kick off operations in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 2007, we had opened up a new office in Karachi, which provided humongous job opportunities to Pakistani educated youth. In 2010 and 2012, we entered Malaysia and Kenya respectively. He said, we are not only providing with jobs but enhancing capabilities of educated young generation to exploit their positive energies in a direction to follow their hearts. Following this trend, we have introduced genuine products of IBM Lenovo and Dell laptops/notebooks in Pakistan. The trust leading companies showing in MEGAPLUS is an open secret of our success.
Information Technology and Telecom across the world are bringing upon dramatic changes in the human lives. During the interview with Asim Bukhari, MEGAPLUS General Manager Nauman Fahad Butt was also present. He shares his experiences in the fields of IT
Interview
and Telecom with us. Nauman said, our company, not only dealing in ICT products but also pretty much aware of its social responsible role towards society i.e. MEGAPLUS built houses for flood affectees, when catastrophic floods washed-away all the infrastructure across the country from Swat to lower Sindh and also provided with support to IDPs of Swat during the targeted operation against the militants by the Pakistan Army. At present, we are carrying out operations in collaboration with Rescue 1122 to ensure public safety on the priority basis. He said, as compare to other provinces Punjab government stood tall as developmental projects in ICT sector are concerned. Wherein, more than 100000 laptops were distributed amongst position holders of universities and colleges across the province, other than that, also established several computer labs in 4000 schools in record 90 days. He said, we should encourage and appreciate such initiatives taken by government in providing the latest facilities to youth in public education institutions. Asim Bukhari also informed that, after our successful laptop campaign in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtoon Khawa government also inked accord with MEGAPLUS Pakistan to distribute 25000 laptops amongst position holder students of schools, colleges and universities of KPK. He said, MEGAPLUS is in partnership with more than 250 companies. We are striving day and night to excel in software industry by promoting ICT infrastructure. n
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actions. As of 31st Dec 2012, there are now 8,000,000 Pakistanis on Facebook which makes it no 28 in the list of Facebook population by countries. Since 1st August 2012, approx 1.1million new facebook users from Pakistan have joined in. Majority of Pakistani Facebook users are young – 65 percent of them between the age of 13 to 24 years old. Currently 70 percent of Pakistani Facebook users are male and 30 percent female. Please note the following definitions are used in the infographic: • No of Fans: The number of fans that the particular page has on their respective Facebook page. • Engagement rate: Engagement Rate reflects percentage of your fans that you have attracted and made them engage (like or comment) with your Wall Post. It is calculated mathematically as Daily ER = [Likes + Comments + Shares on a given day] / Total number of Fans on that given day x 100 • No. of Questions: Number of Wall posts sent to the wall of that particular fan page. • Response Time: The average time that it takes for the company to respond to user wall posts. • Response Rate: The percentage of user wall posts that get responded by the company. • Interactions: Likes + Comments + Shares Courtesy: Branding Bees
Trends on Facebook:
Pakistani, Global brands Among Pakistani Brands, OLX Pakistan leading the list with 1.2million Fans (95.5 percent are from Pakistan) followed by Nokia Pakistan with 1.1m fans (95 percent from Pakistan) and Ufone with 1m fans. In the ‘Socially Devoted’ category, we f ind all top 5 positions being taken by Telecom companies
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randing Bees are very excited to share for the first time analytics about Pakistani Fans on Global Facebook pages. Previously this data was only available to Page Admins, now with changes made by Facebook and tools of Social Bakers, Brands can determine the local fan count as well as that of competition. This will change the social media landscape. In words of Jan Rezab, CEO of Social Bakers “Brands can measure the volume of fans by country, develop strategies for a target audience, and even rank your competitors’ pages without special admin rights”. This will define a new era of social media marketing with marketers now running local campaigns and targeting customers through their international pages. For the first time, we can share that Intel’s global Facebook page is the third most Liked page by Pakistanis. 6.1 percent of Intel’s 16 million fans come from Pakistan – that is 964,000 Pakistani Fans!. Following is the list of International Pages / Global Brands in Top 10 liked by Pakistani Fans. • At No 3: Intel has 984,252 Pakistani Fans out of 16million (6.1 percent) • At No 7: Samsung Mobile has 542,000 Pakistani Fans out of 15.8 million (3.4 percent) • At No 8: RED BULL has 509,280 Pak-
istani Fans out of its 35million Fan following (1.5 percent) • At No 9: KIT KAT has 478,641 Pakistani Fans out of its 14 Million Fan following (3.4 percent) Among Pakistani Brands, we do not see much change from Nov 2012. OLX Pakistan leading the list with 1.2m Fans (95.5 percent are from Pakistan) followed by Nokia Pakistan with 1.1m fans (95 percent from Pakistan) and Ufone with 1m fans. In the ‘Socially Devoted’ category, we find all top 5 positions being taken by Telecom companies. (Socially Devoted determines a page response to customer questions on its Facebook wall). wi-tribe Pakistan returning with 95 percent response rate to the list of Top 5 socially devoted. Telenor Pakistan maintains its position as the ‘Most Socially Devoted Brand’ in Pakistan. In the engagement content of Facebook, we find two new entrants – Huawei Pakistanand Gillete Pakistan. Ufone continues to stir up interactions on its facebook page. Ufone’s Quaid-e-Azam’s birthday picture was the most interactive post of the month of Dec 2012 with 38,000 interactions (24,000 Likes + 11,000 Shares + 2,268 comments). In Nov 2012, Ufone’s Allama Iqbal post was the most interactive post with 22,000 inter-
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ISPAK moves ECP against Govt.
Cabinet Division violates CEP directives, advertises Members PTA positions
Cabinet Division has advertised for recruitment to the posts of Member (Finance) and Member (Technical) of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on 29th January 2013 and again on 14th February 2013 in national press in violation of the ban imposed by ECP on fresh recruitments in Government
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he Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has imposed ban on the recruitment in the government departments and the discretionary use of the developmental funds. But the Cabinet Division violated the directives of the Election Commission
Ad published in National Newspapers on 14th February 2013
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of Pakistan by advertising three positions i.e. Member Finance, Member Technical and Member Compliance & Enforcement in the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on February 14, 2013 in all leading national newspapers. Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) written letter to Mr. Ishtiak
Ahmed Khan, Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan under subject “Recruitment of Member (Finance) and Member (Technical), PTA, in violation of the Directive of ECP”. ISPAK letter reads as, Cabinet Division has advertised for recruitment to the posts of Member (Finance) and Member (Technical) of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on 29th January 2013 and again on 14th February 2013 in national press in violation of the ban imposed by ECP on fresh recruitments in Government.
The applicant also informs ECP about the ill-intentions of the present Federal Government, it said, the government in its last bid, wants to appointment Members of its own choice in PTA who could dance to its tunes and approve selling of 3G spectrum. We fear that process of the appointment of Members in PTA would be grossly engineered, without merit and merely eyewash. The malafide intent of the government and Chairman of PTA
ISPAK in its letter to ECP reminds that, ECP in its directive No. F.8(12)/2012-Cord. dated 22 January 2013 imposed ban on all kind of recruitments except recruitments by the Federal or Provincial Public Service Commission. The
posts of Members in PTA are neither Constitutional nor included in other categories exempted by ECP. According to clarification dated 6th February 2013 issued by ECP, Ministries needs to seek exemption from ECP on case to case basis if they require to fill any post. We are not aware if such an exemption has been sought by the Cabinet Division from ECP for filling the posts of Members of PTA.
Story published in Daily The News on 11th December 2012
Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan has accused the present government and tried to inform the Election Commission of Pakistan that how desperate was the government in auctioning the most anticipated 3G spectrum by ignoring PPRA rules to bag maximum bucks for their upcoming election campaign, the letter reads, “ the government has desperately been trying to sell multi-billion dollar 3G spectrum since past few months and these attempts in disregard to PPRA rules were frustrated by the incumbent Members of PTA. The matter was widely reported in the press and clippings are produced. The telecom industry and civil society is perturbed on this attempt of the government that could open the doors of massive kickbacks and possible diversion of proceeds from sale of spectrum to projects for gain-
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ing political sympathies thus giving opportunity to the ruling parties to gather undue public support.” In its letter ISPAK also tries to explain the plot that how the present government appointed Mr. Farooq Awan as Chairman PTA to auction 3G in haste to collect funds for the incumbent government to supervise its political campaign. The letter reads as, the government has previously appointed Mr. Farooq Awan as a Member of PTA in violation of merit, rules and regulations, and subsequent appointed him as Chairman PTA on 1st August 2012. Mr. Awan was allegedly appointed with the specific target to sell 3G spectrum and his attempt to appoint consultants of his own choice in violation of PPRA rules was resisted by the Members of PTA and declared illegal by NAB. The appointment of Mr. Farooq Awan was declared illegal by honourable Lahore High Court (LHC) on 15th January 2013and Mr. Awan has since left the charge of the post of Chairman PTA. His appointment was subsequently withdrawn by the Establishment Division. (Copy of the LHC Judgment and notification of Establishment Division are printed herewith). Story published in Daily The News on 12th December 2012
Story published in Jang on 13th December 2012
The applicant also informs ECP about the illintentions of the present Federal Government, it said, the government in its last bid, wants to appointment Members of its own choice in PTA who could dance to its tunes and approve selling of 3G spectrum. We fear that process of the appointment of Members in PTA would be grossly engineered,
without merit and merely eyewash. The malafide intent of the government and Chairman of PTA. The Pakistan Internet body plead the ECP, it said, “we therefore request ECP that process of recruitment of Members in PTA by the Cabinet Division may kindly be stopped forthwith till the appointment of a Caretaker Government. If Cabinet Division submits request for exemption from ECP, we may kindly be given a chance of hearing so as to present all facts to the ECP.” Earlier, in order to stop the government from ‘engineering’ the forthcoming elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan imposed a ban on all types of recruitments in government sector with immediate effect. ECP also put a bar on the diversion of funds already allocated to various development projects. However, Federal Public Service Commission and Provincial Public Service Commission are exempted from the ECP ban of recruitments. The government was about to recruit
During the process of selection of consultants for the most anticipated 3G spectrum, the then Chairman PTA, Mr. Farooq Awan violated PPRA rules by hiring foreign consultants on hefty package of Rs. 70 million for just three months, which was declared illegal by the two bold Members of the PTA, since then, the government tried to sign Information Memorandum from the two Members forcefully, but they resisted against powerful government and its departments
thousands of people to lure their votes and support in the next general elections, however, the ECP decision shattered the dreams of ministers, who were all set to induct thousands of people in government departments. The process of new appointments was underway in almost all government departments. Interior Minister Rehman Malik in particular, was very keen to make thousands of recruitments in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Islamabad Police. FIA and Islamabad Police had recently completed their process of receiving applications from candidates. The ECP decision however, sprung into action and put a bar on these recruitments. “All kinds of recruitments in any Ministry, Division, Department or Institution of the Federal Government or any Department or Institution of any Provincial and Local governments were banned forthwith except recruitments by the Federal or a Provincial Public Service Commission. The diversion of funds already allocated to various development projects in the country was banned forthwith and the spending of funds so diverted shall stand frozen forthwith,” said a statement issued by the ECP. It said the ECP took this action after witnessing grave concerns of people from different segments of society, who said some government departments are in the process of inducting thousands of people on various positions which amounts to pre-poll rigging. “For tangible reasons, the Election Commission is of the considered view that such mass recruitments at this point of time when the general elections of the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies are going to take place shortly, will substantially influence the results of elections, therefore, it is imperative on all standards of
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legal, moral and democratic ethics that all kinds of recruitments except the recruitments which are made by the Federal and Provincial Public Service Commission be banned forthwith,” the statement added. It further said the commission has considered the repeated concern of the people as expressed and voiced in the national press that money allocated to various important development projects in the country is being diverted to the d i s c r e t i o n a r y Story published in Daily The News on fund of the prime 5th February 2013 minister for its utilisation in the development of his constituency, which is nothing short of yet another facet of pre-poll-rigging which if not checked and brought to an immediate end is likely to influence the electoral process adversely and thus send an extremely wrong message to the public at large, making the election tainted and falling short of the constitutional provisions contained in Article 218 (3) of the constitution. It’s merit mentioning here that, during the process of selection of consultants for the most anticipated 3G spectrum, the then Chairman PTA, Mr. Farooq Awan violated PPRA rules by hiring foreign consultants on hefty package of Rs. 70 million for just three months, which was declared illegal by the two bold Members of the PTA as well as NAB. Since then, the tussle between incumbent government and the Members of the regulator heated up, the government tried to sign Information Memorandum from the two Members forcefully, but they resisted against powerful government and its departments.
Story published in Daily The News on 5th February 2013
Now, the Cabinet Division announced all the three positions for fresh recruitments by violating ECP directives. The mind game and engineering of plots are clearly visible; the government is pretty much desperate to collect funds and to plunder national kitty to run their political campaign in the upcoming General Elections. n
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Mobilink brings Nokia Lumia smartphones in Pakistan
Mobilink continues to remain at the forefront of bringing the latest in cellular technology to our customers. The launch of the Lumia series together with Mobilink adds to the long range of Nokia handsets that our customers have been able to reliably purchase from Mobilink’s selected business centers: Arsalan Zia Qureshi, head of corporate sales (South), Mobilink
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okia and Mobilink recently held an event in Karachi called “Switch to Lumia” to officially launch three new Lumia smartphones in Pakistan. The new ranges of Lumia smartphones include the budget-oriented Lumia 620, the mid tier Lumia 820 and Nokia’s current flagship the Lumia 920. All three of the aforementioned devices run on Microsoft’s latest and greatest Windows Phone 8 mobile smartphone operating system. With the latest range of Lumia Windows 8 devices, Nokia Pakistan is all set to lead the change for the Windows Phone ecosystem with its Lumia differentiators. Speaking on the launch, Alessandro Lamanna, vice-president marketing – IMEA (India, Middle East, Africa) at Nokia said, “We are focused on redefining the future of smart devices and continue to invest towards delivering truly compelling experiences to consumers across price points. With the launch of Lumia Windows Phone 8 range, we aim to usher an era of unique innovations in the smart phone market. The announcement today is yet another giant leap in the remarkable progress we have made against our strategy announced in February 2011.” He further added, “We are working with partners across the board to take the Lumia experience to more and more consumers faster. The roll out of not two, but three devices marks not just our intent and agility, but also reflects our commitment to our consumers in Pakistan. With a range of accessories and partnerships to bring wireless charging outside the home, we are also boosting wireless charging into the mainstream. All this innovation adds up to one thing – it’s Time to Switch to Lumia!” Commenting on the occasion, Salman Siddiqui, country lead – Channel Sales, Microsoft Pakistan said, “With Windows Phone 8 we created a new way to think about smartphones, one that puts people at the center. With the same look and feel, the
same technology core and cloud service, Windows Phone is built to work seamlessly with Windows 8, you can learn it once and use it everywhere. From Tablet to PC to phone, it is all there for you whenever and however you want it. Nokia has done a phenomenal work to bring Windows Phone to life with truly stunning hardware, there is a phone for everyone, these phones are colorful, different and diverse.” At the occasion, Arsalan Zia Qureshi, head of corporate sales (South), Mobilink, said: “Mobilink continues to remain at the forefront of bringing the latest in cellular technology to our customers. The launch of the Lumia series together with Mobilink adds to the long range of
the companies will keep venturing together in the future as well. The Nokia Lumia 620 is the budget oriented one in the trio. The Lumia 620 features a 3.8inch 480 x 800 px AMOLED screen, Dual Core 1 GHz processor, 5MP back and VGA front camera, 512MB of RAM and 8GB of on-board storage which can be expanded via a microSD card. The Lumia 620 is priced at Rs. 24,800. The mid tier Lumia 820 features a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen with the same 480 x 800 px resolution as it’s smaller brother, Dual Core 1.5 GHz processor, 8MP back and VGA front camera, 1GB of RAM along with 8GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card.
Nokia handsets that our customers have been able to reliably purchase from Mobilink’s selected business centers.” “Mobilink’s partnership with Nokia ensures that our customers have access to the latest cellular technology at competitive prices and bundled with the most attractive offers”, he added. Mobilink will be the exclusive telecom partner for these Lumia devices, and it is said that both
Nokia Lumia Smartphone Nokia And Mobilink Launch Lumia 920, Lumia 820 And Lumia 620 In Pakistan The flagship Lumia 920 features a bigger 4.5inch 720p IPS LCD PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack display, 1.5 GHz dual core processor, 8MP back and 1.3MP front camera, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage which unfortunately is not expandable. n
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UK university has developed a satellite that is based around an Android smartphone - and they plan to send it into orbit later this month. The satellite, called STRaND-1 (the Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator), is a 30cm CubeSat weighing 4.3kg and at its heart is a Google Nexus One smartphone. As the researchers note, smartphones incorporate several key features that are integral to a satellite -- such as cameras, radio links, accelerometers and high performance computer processors -- almost everything except the solar panels and propulsion. STRaND-1 will also be the first UK CubeSat to be launched and has been developed by space engineers and researchers at Surrey with the majority of the design and developmental work being carried out in their spare time. The build and test phase of the project has been completed in just three months. During the first phase of the mission, STRaND-1 will use a number of experimental 'Apps' to collect data whilst a new high-speed linux-based CubeSat computer developed by SSC takes care of the satellite. During phase two, the STRaND-1 team plan to switch the satellite's in-orbit operations to the smartphone, thereby testing the capabilities of a number of standard smartphone components for a space environment. The satellite will be commissioned and operated from the Surrey Space Centre's ground station at the University of Surrey. The space mission has been jointly developed by the University of Surrey's Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). Being the first smartphone satellite in orbit is just one of many 'firsts' that STRaND-1 is hoping to achieve. It will also fly innovative new technologies such as a 'WARP DRiVE' (Water Alcohol Resistojet Propulsion Deorbit Re-entry Velocity Experiment) and electric Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs); both 'firsts' to fly on a nanosatellite. It is also flying a 3D printed part - believed to be the first to fly in space. Dr Chris Bridges, SSC's lead engineer on the project, says: "A smartphone on a satellite like this has never been launched before but our tests have been pretty thorough, subjecting the phone to oven and freezer temperatures, to a vacuum and blasting it with radiation. "It has a good chance of working as it should, but you can never make true design evolutions or foster innovation without taking a few risks: STRaND is cool because it allows us to do just that." On the other hand, Canalys has published its final mobile phone shipment estimates across the 50+ countries that it tracks. The total mobile phone market, at 438.1 million units, was flat year-on-year, while the worldwide smart phone market grew 37 percent. Android smart phones accounted for 34 percent of all phone shipments and iOS phones 11 percent. Smart phones now represent almost 50 percent of all the phones that shipped in Q4 2012. In the smart phone market, Android handsets accounted for 69 percent of the 216.5 million shipped. Samsung had a very strong quarter, growing 78 percent, while the Chinese vendors Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Yulong all grew by triple-digit percentages.Android's share did, however, dip sequentially from 74 percent as Apple's share grew from 15 percent to 22 per-
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Android smartphone to be sent into space The satellite will use a number of experimental 'Apps' to collect data; then it will be switched in-orbit operations to the smartphone, thereby testing the capabilities of a number of standard smartphone components for a space environment
cent on the strength of the iPhone 5. BlackBerry and Windows Phone shares remained unchanged sequentially at 4 percent and 2 percent respectively. "BlackBerry, Microsoft and Nokia, as well as other Android vendors, have strategies and devices in place to attack, but the task is daunting to say the least," said Pete Cunningham, Principal Analyst. "When we look at the whole of
Dr Chris Bridges, SSC's lead engineer on the project, says: "A smartphone on a satellite like this has never been launched before but our tests have been pretty thorough, subjecting the phone to oven and freezer temperatures, to a vacuum and blasting it with radiation
2012, Nokia remained the number three smart phone vendor, shipping 35 million units, but Apple in second place shipped 101 million more handsets. First-placed Samsung shipped 74 million more than Apple - the gaps are colossal. But
there is still a big opportunity as smart phone penetration increases around the world. Vendors left in the wake of the top vendors must at the very least improve their portfolios, time-tomarket and marketing, as well as communicate their differentiators. Microsoft, BlackBerry and other new OS entrants, such as Mozilla, must make the OS switch as simple as possible and drive and localize their respective app and content ecosystems." Huawei took third place for the first time in Q4 and ZTE fourth. As well as their home markets, they have been relatively successful in the US, where ZTE was fourth and Huawei fifth, driven by their portfolios of low-cost LTE smart phones. Even so, both vendors took less than 5 percent share each there. Sony fell out of the top five this quarter, and Lenovo moved in. It was one of the fastestgrowing smart phone vendors, growing 216 percent year-on-year and shifting 9.5 million units to take fifth place. "China made up 98 percent of Lenovo's shipments with a handful of emerging markets making up the rest. Its struggle to gain a foothold in markets outside of China means that it may be forced down the acquisition route - as it was with its PC business - hence the speculation about BlackBerry," said analyst Jessica Kwee. n
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Fastest growing countries on Facebook The fastest-growing country on Facebook — in terms of gross users — is Brazil, which added 2.4 million users over the past month. One surprising country is Russia, where Facebook has been trying to make inroads for quite some time. It is the top social network in 127 countries
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acebook is increasingly becoming an international phenomenon, as CoFounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that his goal for the company is to connect the world. While that might take a while, Facebook is rapidly growing in countries such as Brazil, South Korea, and Russia, according to new data released by Facebook. The fastest-growing country on Facebook — in terms of gross users — is Brazil, which added 2.4 million users over the past month. It’s not surprising, as we’ve previously reported that more and more users have their language set to Portuguese. One surprising country is Russia, where Facebook has been trying to make inroads for quite some time. It is the top social network in 127 countries, but vKontakte remains king in Russia. In October, Zuckerberg paid a visit to Russia to discuss information technology — but some firms felt that he was scouting local talent. Although Russia has added only roughly 8 million users in the past month, that represents a 6.14 percent gain. South Korea is another country where Facebook is not (yet) the social network of choice, as Koreans choose QZone — which is also dominant in China. Throughout 2012, several countries experienced a significant growth in user volumes
of North America being the largest continent on Facebook. But since 2011, the U.S. position started to weaken. According to statistics, U.S. growth began to stagnate in Q1 2011. From May 2011 until August 2012, the number of Facebook users in the U.S. increased by only 0.53 percent. Worldwide, Facebook continued to grow fairly rapidly causing multiple changes to its global face. Not that long ago we reported that Asia became the second largest continent on Facebook. It was when Asia surpassed North America and displaced it to Facebook’s number three for the first time. Since June 2012, Asia increased by mere 0.43 percent, but apparently just enough to outgrow formerly leading Europe. Currently, Asia has more than 245 million Facebook users. Asia continued to grow, overtaking Europe in August, becoming the biggest Facebook continent with currently over 278 million Facebook users, despite China with the world largest population is not using Facebook.As you can see in one of the graphs, this rapid growth in user volume is due to countries, like India, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, and Thailand. 2012 was also a game-changing year for Brazil as it became the second biggest Facebook country and gained the most new monthly active users, almost 30 million, from January 1st to December 31st 2012.
on Facebook. Some of these changes have contributed to the shift in the overall ranking of continents. Facebook’s landscape was completely transformed in 2012. North America officially lost its dominant position and dropped down to number three, as Asia surpassed it in May. For many years, we were used to the picture
Facebook is one of the most visited websites in Pakistan and currently has over 8 million registered users in the country. The network is continuing to grow at a phenomenal rate and by our projections there will be more than 10 million Facebook users in Pakistan by June 2013
According to the latest regional report, Guaraná Antartica and Skol still belong to Brazil´s top social brands.It looks like there is still growth potential in Latin America, due to the fact that Facebook continues to gradually penetrate the region, even surpassing Orkut a couple of months ago. The users of Facebook in Pakistan have increase by eight percent in last three months and Pakistan stood at 28 worldwide users of Facebook. The latest statistics released by Socialbakers social media. Facebook is one of the most visited websites in Pakistan and currently has over 8 million registered users in the country. The network is continuing to grow at a phenomenal rate and by our projections there will be more than 10 million Facebook users in Pakistan by June 2013! n
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Mobile uptake to help Twitter get $1bn Twitter's projected mobile advert revenue is forecast to increase by about 85 percent this year and more than double in 2014. According to Greencrest the company's total revenue is expected to reach $605million this year and exceed $1billion in 2014
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strong uptake in mobile services will help Twitter, the world's largest real-time micro-blogging website, surpass $1billion in revenue by 2014, according to a report by Greencrest Capital, a research and advisory firm that assesses companies that have yet to go public. While many online platforms have struggled to get users to click on mobile adverts, an area which many social network sites are focusing, this appears to be one frontier Twitter has cracked. The Californiabased company, which was founded in 2006, reported a 75 percent year-on-year growth in mobile, putting it ahead of Facebook and LinkedIn in this respect, according to Greencrest. The company is believed to be reaping more from mobile adverts than from those placed on its standard website. In 2012, Twitter earned $135million in mobile advertising revenue from the US market, while Facebook recorded $339million and Google $2.2billion, according to eMarketer. Twitter's projected mobile advert revenue is forecast to increase by about 85 percent this year and more than double in 2014. According to Greencrest the company's total revenue is expected to reach $605million this year and exceed $1billion in 2014. Over 60 percent of Twitter subscribers use the site on their mobile devices, Shailesh Rao, a former Google executive poached by the microblogging site to head up its international operations, said in a interview with Arabian Business. Marketing on the site leads to between a 1 percent and 3 percent engagement rate, which is as much as 30 times better than traditional advertising, Rao said. "Central to the ability of an online platform to drive offline commerce, in our view, is a robust mobile offering," Greecrest’s analysts said in a recent report. "Mobile sits at the intersection of online and offline commerce, as we believe users looking to make real world purchases are increasingly turning to social media for information." Twitter doubled its user base to 200 million in 2012, versus Facebook's 837 million users, with about 70 percent of its users coming from outside the US, while revenue reached $300 million. The company sees 11 new accounts created every second, or about 1 million new users a day, according to Infographics Labs, and has
recorded over 160 billion tweets since it was created. President Barack Obama’s tweet in November marking his election victory was the most re-tweeted of 2012. Twitter may list in an initial public offering (IPO) by the end of this year or in 2014. Some projections estimate the company may raise
The company sees 11 newaccounts created every second, or about 1 million new users a day, according to Infographics Labs, and has recorded over 160 billion tweets since it was created. Twitter entered into an agreement with Egypt’s Connect Ads to churn out its advertising and sales products such as promoted tweets, promoted accounts and promoted trends across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Pakistan $9billion from an IPO, while Greencrest says the figure could be as much as $11billion and possibly more if the company manages to illustrate a propensity to reap higher revenue growth. The Middle East is one of the fastest-growing
markets for Twitter. The site has been instrumental during the protests that swept the Arab world over the past two years. It helped activists organise demonstrations and was arguably a key ingredient in the toppling of leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Twitter entered into an agreement with Egypt’s Connect Ads, much in the same way that Facebook did the previous year, to churn out its advertising and sales products such as promoted tweets, promoted accounts and promoted trends across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Pakistan. The firm had already deployed a similar strategy in the US, the UK, Japan and Latin America. Qatar’s Al Jazeera English, which was only carried in three US cities in 2011, and which wanted to expand its reach during the revolution that toppled Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak two years ago, used promoted trends on Twitter to boost awareness with the hashtag #demandaljazeera. Promoted tweets drove live-stream views and allowed users to submit news items, resulting in an 8.8 percent engagement rate for a total of 92 promoted tweets across 4m impressions, according to Twitter documents seen by Arabian Business. Promoted tweets increased the channel’s daily follower rate by 15 times to more than 200,000 total followers, with Twitter being a top referrer to Al Jazeera’s website. Traffic surged by 2,500 percent as a result. North America accounts for about 31 percent of Twitter’s total active users, followed by Europe and Asia, which make up 20 percent a piece, then South America which represents 16 percent and each of the Middle East and Africa accounting for 5 percent. That compares with Facebook, which has around 24m users in the Middle East out of its 1bn users globally. The Middle East "can be a significant revenue contributor to the business," said Twitter's Rao. Digital media will more than double its share of the Arab world’s advertising market by 2015, according to a survey by Deloitte. Digital is the fastest growing media platform in the region and accounted for 4 percent of the total advertising spend in 2011. Deloitte expects digital to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 35 percent over the next three years, generating about $580 million across the region by 2015. n
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Freedom of expression in Cyber Space
The WWW is widely known as a vast avenue for freedom of speech. Now even a common surfer of the web world can have his say through blogs, comments, remarks, views and feedback on online publications to agree, disagree or challenge the media reports
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he term ‘cyberspace’ was first used by science-fiction writer William Gibson in his 1984 novel Neuromancer. He described it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it. This term now refers to the Internet and lends a romantic image to a world where an almost limitless pool of information can be plucked from a network of computers and computer users around the world. The Internet was originally developed for the US military but was recognised as the perfect system to transfer and share information for academic research. The World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, with the first working system deployed in 1990, while he was working at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research). The introduction of the World Wide Web allowed the public to access huge amounts of data and it has now become an accepted way to receive and send information. The World Wide Web is just one service that the Internet provides; a layman’s analogy is of the Internet being the transportation of the World Wide Web’s content. With cyberspace being made up of more than 100 million computers in more than 100 countries it is almost impossible to fathom how much information there is available to the user. The cyber world of digital information has no boundaries. The World Wide Web (WWW) is widely known as a vast avenue for freedom of speech. It allows everybody to speak their mind in a large number of ways. Now even a common surfer of the web world can have his say through blogs, comments, remarks, views and feedback on online publications to agree, disagree or challenge the media reports. In today’s world, people have been actively engaging in a variety of activities on platforms provided by a plethora of free social networking
sites, which have collectively become a big international market for all types and sizes of businesses to take advantage of. The presence of billions of people of all ages from across the world on facebook and Twitter – the two global social networking giants – has transformed them into a multi-billion dollar conglomerates. Big media and publishing houses have also started making as good a use of the cyber space as possible by maintaining websites and portals and making their news reports and other multimedia content available to the viewers for free. Most of these sites provide major avenues for greater visitor interaction.
Awareness is needed to take into account the implications that misuse of powerful online tools by the media industry or the common users can cause. The online tools have allowed people to engage, consciously or unconsciously, in rumormongering through mass-distribution lists and social sites, and spread information without checking facts and sources
Almost all of these big media organizations now have their pages on the major social websites. Just like the pros and cons of any other technology, sharing of information online also has its positive and negative aspects. The greatest benefit of the online technology is its ability to carry information in a matter of a few clicks to a large population of the world. However, just because someone has the capability to commu-
nicate, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they do it in a responsible way. It’s very easy to misuse the freedom of expression but very difficult to fix the situation that it could lead to. Awareness is needed to take into account the implications that misuse of powerful online tools by the media industry or the common users can cause. The online tools have allowed people to engage, consciously or unconsciously, in rumormongering through mass-distribution lists and social sites, and spread information without checking facts and sources. Web is abundant with tirade about discrimination and various forms of abuse, and blogs that reveal and harp on about someone’s deviant ways. It is now very easy to give vent to our opinions online about the worse in our society. Sure, flake should have its proper place, but if it is not kept in inspection, we become accessible to the danger of explaining ourselves by all the things we are against, don’t like, and rant about. The Internet is a vast and powerful tool and as such it is there to be used or abused by anyone with access. The arguments that the Internet should be regulated are important and should not be completely ignored. The power that some governments and big business corporations have over the flow of information is very real and this is something that should be examined closely. However, picking out certain aspects from cyberspace to be scrutinised will open a precedent for all content to be regulated. This could then lead to a misuse of power and the freedom of creative input could draw to a halt. Speech is free, thanks to new media platforms, but it is cheap and easy as well these days. One should understand that “Give respect to be respected”. If we want to respect our freedom of expression and use it in responsible way, we might be capable of changing the world. n
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Google revenue hits $50 billion, profits up
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spoken to mobile devices and described the online Play shop for music, books, applications and other digital content as "on fire." Google's mapping service program tailored for Apple gadgets running on the iOS platform have been a hit, Page said, adding that it search and email programs are also popular on Apple devices. "We now live in a multi-screen world; in fact, we feel naked without our smartphones," Page said. "Devices have been one of our biggest bets in the last few years, along with the software that goes with these devices." In an indirect shot at the Apple iPad Mini launched late last year, Page said that Google's Nexus 7 "continues to define the seven-inch tablet category." Google has been shedding unwanted Motorola Mobility assets since it completed its $12.5 billion takeover of the company early last year.
"We now live in a multiscreen world; in fact, we feel naked without our smartphones. Devices have been one of our biggest bets in the last few years, along with the software that goes with these devices. Google's Nexus 7 "continues to define the seven-inch tablet category", said Larry Page
Revenue in the quarter that ended December 31 was up 36 percent from the same period a year earlier at $14.4 billion. For the year, revenues grew to $50.2 billion, helped in part by the acquisition of Motorola Mobility
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oogle reported that its profit climbed and its annual revenue hit an unprecedented high last year as it evolved to stay in tune with people using smartphones and tablets. "We ended 2012 with a strong quarter," said Google co-founder and chief executive Larry Page. "We hit $50 billion in revenues for the first time last year; not a bad achievement in just a decade and a half." The fourth quarter profit was up 6.7 percent from a year earlier at $2.89 billion, and for the full year Google's earnings grew 10 percent to $10.74 billion. Revenue in the quarter that ended December 31 was up 36 percent from the same period a year earlier at $14.4 billion. For the year, revenues grew to $50.2 billion, helped in part by the acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Google shares jumped more than five percent to $738.12 in after-market trading that followed release of the earnings figures, which topped most Wall Street estimates. Google dominates the US digital advertising market, which grew 14.9 percent to $10.58 billion in the final three months of last year, according to eMarketer. The market tracker estimated that Google takes in more than 41 percent of digital ad revenue in the United States and "holds more share than any other company" when it comes
to online, display and mobile advertising. In a conference call with financial analysts, Google executives stressed how the company is connecting with people on smartphones and tablets, and cautioned that it would take time to get Motorola Mobility on a new course.
Page said he was excited about progress Google has made in handling search queries
Chief financial officer Patrick Pichette said during the earnings call that the Internet giant has "12 to 18 months of product pipeline it is still working through" at Motorola. In December, Google announced it was selling the Motorola Mobility Home unit to global communications technology company ARRIS in a cash and stock deal valued at $2.35 billion. The Internet giant's purchase of Motorola Mobility was seen as a grab for patents to protect Google's Android mobile operating system from legal attacks. Modems and television set-top boxes made by Motorola Home evidently did not play into the California-based company's strategy despite its investments in Google TV technology for tapping into online entertainment in living rooms. "I am excited about the innovative way they are approaching product development," Page said of the Motorola Mobility team. "The opportunities are endless -- you shouldn't have to worry about charging your phone; when you drop your phone, it shouldn't go splat." The majority of Google advertisers are opting to target mobile gadgets, and the company saw successes with experiments tying realworld shopping to smartphones, according to executives. "Overall, the core search business is doing well, driven really by the growth in mobile," Pichette said. Analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley said investors will be watching to see the bites taken from Google revenue by investments in self-driving cars, Internet-linked eyewear, smartphones and other projects. “Most eyes will be on their build-out,” Enderle said. “Clearly, like Microsoft, they will be expanding their hardware footprint.” n
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What does rooting a phone do?
In a nutshell, root has, or can assign to itself, permission to all f iles and directories, and all users. Everything in unix/linux can be treated as a f ile to an extent, so if you have access to every f ile, you have access to every possible function now or added in the future, as long as it is part of the Linux OS that root controls
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ooted, or rooting, is a rather new term primarily for Linux-based smart phones. In every version of unix, linux, SunOS, AIX, HPUX, etc, there are several user ID's that are set up by default. Some of them run things, others are mostly just a holding and controlling place. The root ID, has a UID (user ID) of zero. It is all powerful. If you have the password to the root ID, you can use it. I've honestly not read how they're getting into the various phones, there could be some other things "wrapped" on top of root to hide it, or the normal ways to hack into it, nevertheless, this is the goal, to get full access to the root ID. What does this do? If you're not a coder or sysadmin, this may seem like not much, but it is everything due to the way the operating system manages permissions. In a nutshell, root has, or can assign to itself, permission to all files and directories, and all users. Everything in unix/linux can be treated as a file to an extent, so if you have access to every file, you have access to every possible function now or added in the future, as long as it is part of the Linux operating system that root controls. There can be some things that are hardcoded into electronics/chips on the phone that are not under Linux, and therefore root, control. But anything you think of as a program or application is, and some that you may not realize. So with root, you can add, own, edit, delete, any file on the system, and control who else (what other user ID's) have access to what files (programs, apps, functions)." The pros and cons of rooting your phone Rooting your Android phone allows you to access everything on it. Carriers normally prevent this because you could do things like deleting essential files which would cause problems. Unfortunately, these ‘one size fits all’ policies limit what you can do with your phone. You
bought it and should have the right to do whatever you want with it (although the government may not agree with this). Here are some compelling reasons why you should consider rooting your device. Ten reasons you should root your phone 1. Free Tethering – You already pay for a mobile data plan, why should you have to pay more to share your 3G or 4G connection with your other devices? You don’t. Just download a free tethering app, and in seconds you’ll be able to share your phones data connection with your tablet, laptop or other devices. Now you access the Internet from your tablet even when a Wi-Fi hotspot is not available.
Rooting your Android phone allows you to access everything on it. Carriers normally prevent this because you could do things like deleting essential files which would cause problems. You bought it and should have the right to do whatever you want with it (although the government may not agree with this) 2. Delete Carrier Bloatware – Most carriers load your phone with apps you’ll probably never use. These apps consume precious space and in some cases consume memory and other resources. After rooting your phone, it’s easy to delete all of the carrier-installed apps you don’t want.
3. Eliminate Banner Ads – Apps like AdFree remove most advertisements which appear in your browser and other apps. This is done using a blacklist which blocks ads before they can even download. 4. Backup Everything on Your Phone – Apps like Titanium Backup allow you automatically backup everything on your phone — including protected apps, system apps and data on your SD card. If you purchase a license key for Titanium Backup you can upload your backups to your free Dropbox account. This makes it easy to restore a backup from the cloud if your phone is ever lost, or stolen. 5. Make Your Phone Run Faster – Apps like SetCPU allow you to overclock the speed of your processor to make your phone run faster. More info. 6. Increase Your Battery Life – Custom ROMs and apps like SetCPU increase the battery life of your phone. In some cases the difference is significant. For example, a Nexus 7 running a CM 10.1 ROM gets twice the battery life compared to stock Android software. 7. Install Custom ROMs – After you root your phone, you can install custom ROMs which give your phone better battery life, faster performance, custom themes and additional features like special audio processing. Cynanogenmod is the most popular aftermarket firmware. 8. Run Any App You Like – Once you root your phone you’ll be able to install any app you like. 9. Run Apps on Your SD Card – By installing and running apps on your SD Card, you free up internal memory. 10. Perform Other UI Tweaks – Want to remove the search box from your home screen and replace it with a search button? No problem. What about adding back a menu button to the main screen of your phone. Again, no problem. n
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Cyber-attack risks global stability
yber-attacks against governments and businesses are among the top five risks in the world in terms of likelihood, according to the startlingly obvious World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Risks for 2012 report. According to the international organisation, famous for its annual conferences held in the Swiss resort of Davos, cyber-attacks come in at number four of the risks most likely to materialise: just behind economic fears about income disparity and fiscal imbalances, and concern about rising greenhouse gas emissions. After holding a mix of interviews, surveys and workshops with experts, the WEF's Risk Response Network penned the pretty document, which weighs up what's pressing on the minds of nation states and top firms. In the technological sphere, the experts are most afraid of cyber-attacks that spark some sort of devastating malfunction in power plants, water supplies and other critical systems, but they figure that has a relatively low likelihood of happening. Steve Wilson, chief risk officer for general insurance at Zurich and a member of the project, said the biggest concern for the WEF was the complexity of internet security. He said: "We don't even really understand the risks yet." The report, which tries to look at the next 10 years of risk, pointed out that technology moves so fast, it's difficult for anyone to keep up with: Only ten years ago, the dot-com bubble burst, and claims about the internet’s potentially transformative benefits seemed to have been wildly overstated. We can now see that they were not so much overstated as premature. It is worth considering whether the same could prove to be true of current alerts about the internet’s potentially transformative risks. The WEF dossier concludes: "A healthy digital space is needed to ensure stability in the world economy and balance of power." While
According to the international organisation, famous for its annual conferences held in the Swiss resort of Davos, cyber-attacks come in at number four of the risks most likely to materialise: just behind economic fears about income disparity and fiscal imbalances, and concern about rising greenhouse gas emissions
Vendors of online security products have an interest in talking up the threats of cybercrime, while victims of cybercrime often have an interest in remaining silent. It is therefore very difficult for firms and organisations to get a clear picture of the true levels of the risk and needs for investment
this is nothing new to folks in the technology sector, the issue is creeping up many political agendas, and the the report calls "urgently" for new mechanisms to get private investment into exploring system vulnerabilities. The report also said that information about cyber-attacks and cybercrime is hard to come by: Research into cyber threats against governments and the private sector has largely been
funded by those who are in the business of selling internet security solutions – a potential bias that causes scepticism. Academic and policy papers are based largely on anecdotal case studies. Vendors of online security products have an interest in talking up the threats of cybercrime, while victims of cybercrime often have an interest in remaining silent. It is therefore very difficult for firms and organisations to get a clear picture of the true levels of the risk and needs for investment. Correcting such information asymmetries should be at the centre of policies to improve global cyber security and to ensure an efficient market. Although technological concerns are featuring in the top 5 most likely risks this year for the first time since 2007, the experts are still most worried about the ongoing financial crises around the world. The risk with the most likelihood of happening, according to the experts, is severe income disparity. While most of us don't feel that wage inequality is quite as bad as when the world had serfs (which is up for debate really), those 1 per cent statistics are nevertheless bringing people down. The report said: On an unprecedented scale around the world, there is a sense of receding hope for future prospects. Gallup polling data in 2011 reveal that, globally, people perceive their living standards to be falling, and they express diminishing confidence in the ability of their government to reverse this trend. Their discontent is exacerbated by the stark-
ness of income disparities: the poorest half of the global population owns barely 1 per cent of the global wealth, while the world’s top 1 per cent owns close to half of the world’s assets. Knowing that a lot of folks earn more than them can be an incentive, but if people, especially the yoof, think that they can't get anywhere no matter how hard they work, they get pretty hacked off. The report warned: The social unrest that occurred in 2011, from the United States to the Middle East, demonstrated how governments everywhere need to address the causes of discontent before it becomes a violent, destabilising force. While Yahoo! chief Marissa Mayer told the forum there was a "trade off" between privacy and the benefits of increasingly personalised services offered by Internet giants, the network's founding father took up the ethical issues at stake. "The dream is of a more open web," BernersLee told the gathering in the Swiss ski resort, citing social media as a way of breaking down barriers. But he said the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old US Internet activist who faced charges of illegally copying and distributing millions of academic articles, highlighted government efforts to police the Internet. "He downloaded a lot and so the secret service in the US decided that he was a hacker. For them that aren’t the term of great praise that it is when I use it. For me a hacker is someone who is creative and does wonderful things," he said. n
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Online crowd powers ‘Girl Rising’ Using the power of online crowd, Tech startup Gathr is putting the power behind the f ilm that poignantly backs the fact that educating girls makes our world a better place. It is about the world-changing power of educating girls, it gives voice to girls who are f ighting for a better future in spite of very diff icult circumstances
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he whole of the common characteristics with which heredity endows the individuals of a race constitute the genius of the online race. When, however, a certain number of these individuals are gathered online in a crowd for purposes of action, observation proves that, from the mere fact of their being assembled, there result certain new psychological characteristics, which are added to the racial characteristics and differ from them at times to a very considerable degree. Using the power of online crowd, Tech startup Gathr is putting the power behind 'Girl Rising,' a film that poignantly backs the fact that educating girls makes our world a better place. One of nine stories woven together by director Richard E. Robbins in the work was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Along with traditional premieres in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, in March, 'Girl Rising' hopes to debut in theaters throughout the United States as well as around the world. "Through Gathr, anyone who has access to the Internet can request a showing of the film in their own community," said Shelly Esque, corporate affairs group global director at chip making titan Intel, which is backing 'Girl Rising.' "Once they reach a certain threshold of people who will show up, the theater is able to host the film." Esque told a friend who already had 50 aspiring viewers signed up at a Facebook page for an opening-night showing of 'Girl Rising' in Phoenix, Arizona. "Intel has always been on the precipice of what is new and disruptive," said Gathr chief executive and founder Scott Glosserman. "For them to take a keen interest in the new and radical way 'Girl Rising' is attempting distribution is really encouraging; Intel has given 'Girl Rising' and Gathr a stamp of approval." Glosserman was making a documentary about collectively-created online knowledge compendium Wikipedia when it struck him that the power of the crowd could remedy "archaic inefficiencies" of traditional film distribution. He came up with a way to use the Internet to "crowd-source" theater audiences by letting people in any community use credit cards to re-
serve tickets then deliver films to local theaters once sales cover the costs involved. "We let the people create the demand for us," Glosserman said. "Now, we are having screenings in farflung parts of the country where a film wouldn't have had a prayer." He noted that industry statistics show 98 percent of US Theater seats are empty of any given week, meaning cinemas have ample space and motive to embrace what he called "theatrical-on-demand."
With 'Girl Rising,' Gathr will be part of a celebrity-backed movement to get cultures around the world to embrace the idea that educating girls can translate into better lives and economies. These films give visual corroboration to knowledge we already have: Educating women and girls has the most optimistic, positive effects on families, communities, and economies worldwide If a screening doesn't "tip" the balance with enough buyers, no one is charged for tickets. "It may take a week to get to the film threshold, but when it hits critical mass and the the-
ater puts it on a marquee, on a Facebook page or in a newsletter it goes from tipping to selling out very quickly," Glosserman said. Gathr has benefited from the rise of online social networks and crowd-sourcing along with being able to deliver films inexpensively to theaters on encrypted hard drives or even highquality disks. Since Los Angelesbased Gathr went live nearly two years ago, it has seen success with films including Grammy-nominated 'Big Easy Express' and Oscar-nominated 'How to Survive a Plague.' With 'Girl Rising,' Gathr will be part of a celebrity-backed movement to get cultures around the world to embrace the idea that educating girls can translate into better lives and economies. "These films give visual corroboration to knowledge we already have: Educating women and girls has the most optimistic, positive effects on families, communities, and economies worldwide," said actress Meryl Streep. "If to see it is to know it, this film delivers hope; reasonable, measurable, tangible hope that the world can be healed and helped to a better future." The list of stars narrating the film includes Streep, Freida Pinto, Selena Gomez, Liam Neeson, Alicia Keys, Salma Hayek, Anne Hathaway, and Cate Blanchette. The film spotlights nine "unforgettable girls born into unforgiving circumstances" and serves as centerpiece of a 10X10act.org campaign for education equality. "'Girl Rising' is about the world-changing power of educating girls," said Robbins. "I wanted to give voice to girls who are fighting for a better future in spite of very difficult circumstances." Intel partnered with 10X10 and other groups focused on promoting technology and policy changes aimed at improving education opportunities, according to Esque. "We know that women and girls are often left behind and technology can bridge that gap," Esque said. "We believe education is a fundamental right for everyone around the globe." The 10X10 campaign marked its launch late last year with events in 93 countries on the UNdesignated International Day of the Girl. n
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Azhar Javed
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martphones, which are in reality miniature purse-or-pocket computers that we occasionally -- just occasionally -- use to make a call when we're not texting, tweeting, Facebooking, navigating, taking and sharing photos, playing music, browsing the Internet, checking our bank balances or running one of thousands of available apps that are downloaded literally by the billions. The smartphone market is expected to further heat up here as major handset producers are all set to sell highly-improved handsets, as the once market leader Research in Motion (RIM) changed its name and become BlackBerry and introduced its new line-up in the market running on BlackBerry 10 operating system. Smartphones are selling like hotcakes, but it is no cakewalk for those who make them in a market where giants like Apple and Samsung and rebranded like Blackberry and Nokia with Windows 8 vie for consumer attention. 2013: Year of living dangerously, where BlackBerry has launched its new and refurbished BB10 operating system as its last gamble; Apple has begun offering easy distribution options for its iPhone customers around the corner including China; Nokia is betting on its marriage with Windows and the offspring they produced Lumia; Global firms such as Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC have plans to launch an array of Android-based smartphones in 2013. The demand drivers are: Push mail that makes e-mail easy on the go; Internet surfing, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter; Apps that help in anything from weather updates to games and music and increasingly affordable prices. A fortnight ago, when 26-year-old car salesman Suleman Sajjad walked into a neighbouring mobile handset store in Blue Area Islamabad with a desire to change his old feature phone for a new one, the sales executive talked him into buying a smartphone instead. Suleman is happy he shelled out extra money for the smartphone - an Internet-enabled handset that allows users to download independent applications (apps). He is not alone.
2013: Year of living dangerously, where BlackBerry has launched its new and refurbished BB10 operating system as its last gamble; Apple has begun offering easy distribution options for its iPhone customers around the corner including China; Nokia is betting on its marriage with Windows and the offspring they produced Lumia; Global firms such as Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC have plans to launch an array of Androidbased smartphones in 2013 He is among the millions who are graduating to smartphones as the device turns cheaper - and loaded with new features that tempt the buyer. But there is a market shootout as brands big and small jostle to grab consumer attention to sell a product whose price and quality cover a
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Smartphones are selling like hotcakes, but it is no cakewalk for those who make them in a market where giants like Apple and Samsung and rebranded like Blackberry and Nokia with Windows 8 vie for consumer attention
wide range. Pakistan has more than 200 million mobile phone connections, the country has imported telecom products of over Rs34 billion during July-Sept 2012-13, including mobile phones of around Rs15.77 billion, showing an increase of Rs1.59 billion compare to the corresponding period of last year. The nation imported telecom products of over Rs18.54 billion, up by Rs6.51 billion from import of same period of last fiscal year. The telecommunication imports during the first month of the ongoing fiscal year (2012-13) increased by 12.98 per cent and 16.24 per cent as compare to the imports of July 2011 and June 2012 respectively. While imports of Smartphone are still pretty much low - leaving the ground open for an explosion in smartphones as users go beyond the entry-level handsets. "I had budgeted Rs.7, 000 for a new handset, but for an extra two thousand rupees a decent smartphone was on offer. I therefore decided to buy one," said Suleman gleefully. Industry research firm IDC expects a 70 percent jump in the sales growth of smartphones in Pakistan. "The price difference between a low-end smartphone and a feature phone has narrowed to the extent that for an extra thousand rupees a customer feels it is better to opt for a smartphone," said a senior market analyst. About a year ago experts had remarked that
very cheap smartphones coupled with very cheap data plans could make country's market to explode. Such forecasts are now coming true. Over the last 12 months smartphones that run on Google's Andorid operating system (which has dramatically lowered manufacturing costs) have stormed the market. And South Korean giant Samsung has made the most from the Android revolution. Over the last year Samsung has successfully created quite a buzz by offering a whole range of smartphones in the Galaxy series that range from sub-Rs.10,000 to premium Galaxy series based on the Android OS. Samsung believes in flooding the market with an array of smartphone choices for the customer. This is working in their favour. Nokia, once the undisputed market leader in handsets also made a comeback effort last year when it teamed up with Microsoft to offer Windows-based smartphones. Notably, both Apple and BlackBerry that appeared to have lost ground as sales dipped have woken up to booming smartphone market. While Apple has now spruced up its distribution business by making attractive offers such as easy installments to buy iPhones, the Canadian BlackBerry launched a completely refurbished BB10 a couple of days ago. Be it global biggies such as Nokia, Sony, LG, and HTC or the humble upstart brands such as QMobile, all have chalked out aggressive expansion plans. The year 2013 will be exciting. n
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BlackBerry 10 unveiled, RIM becomes BlackBerry Canadian-based Research in Motion said it had changed its name to BlackBerry as it launched the BlackBerry 10, the new platform aimed at helping the firm regain traction in a market now dominated by rivals. "It is one brand, it is one promise" RIM CEO Thorsten Heins officially unveils the BlackBerry 10 mobile platform in New York.
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lackBerry launched its comeback effort with a revamped platform and a pair of sleek new handsets, along with a company name change as part of a move to reinvent the smartphone maker. Canadian-based Research in Motion said it had changed its name to BlackBerry as it launched the BlackBerry 10, the new platform aimed at helping the firm regain traction in a market now dominated by rivals. "From this point forward RIM becomes BlackBerry," chief executive Thorsten Heins told a glitzy unveiling in New York, one of six global events for the product launch. "It is one brand, it is one promise." The company unveiled two new devices for its new platform, one with a physical keyboard called the Q10, and a touchscreen handset dubbed Z10. The new BlackBerry "will transform mobile communications into true mobile computing," Heins said. "Today is a brand new day in the history of BlackBerry." The launch is seen as critical to BlackBerry, which had been the dominant smartphone maker before Apple launched its iPhone and others began using the Google Android operating system. RIM says the all-new system will break new ground by allowing customers to flip between applications seamlessly and without first passing through a home page, to boost efficiency and multitasking. Another key asset of BlackBerry 10 is what
job, his or her former company can disable the device's corporate side without affecting personal data. RIM's recent performance on Wall Street suggests the market is open to the BlackBerry 10.
RIM says the all-new system will break new ground by allowing customers to flip between applications seamlessly and without first passing through a home page, to boost efficiency and multi-tasking and "BlackBerry balance," a system that allows users to separate professional communications and applications from music, photographs and other personal items
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RIM dubbed the "BlackBerry balance," a system that allows users to separate professional communications and applications from music, photographs and other personal items. Such an option means that if a user changes
Shares have risen more than 30 percent since the start of the year, although they dropped back over the last two sessions. Carolina Milanesi, an analyst for Gartner who specializes in consumer devices, said the aim
of the launch "is to reinstill faith in the BlackBerry brand and capture both consumer and enterprises at the same time." Milanesi said a successful launch will at least give them a shot to get into the game" but that BlackBerry has little room for error, after a launch delayed several months. "They will not be forgiven for any mistakes," she said. BlackBerry shares fell 4.4 percent after the launch to $14.98. According to research firm IDC, BlackBerry's share of the global smartphone market slipped to 4.7 percent in 2012, to 68 percent for Android and 18.8 percent for Apple's iOS.
Key dates in the life of BlackBerry Washington: Research in Motion sought to remake itself and secure its future by assuming the name of its star product -- Blackberry -- and launching the all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system and two new handsets. Here are the major dates in short lifespan of RIM/BlackBerry: - 2003: Canada-based RIM, a littleknown maker of pagers, launches the BlackBerry smartphone, named such because its physical keyboard resembled the small drupelets of the blackberry fruit. It attracts people who want email as well as a phone on a mobile device, and its secure network is favored by companies and governments. RIM shares quadruple during the year to nearly $15. - October 2007: BlackBerry counts more than 10 million subscribers, just months after Apple launches its iPhone. But a month later, Google joins major wireless carriers and handset makers HTC and Samsung in announcing Android, an open-source operating system for smartphones. - June 2008: RIM shares hit all-time high $144.56, before the global market meltdown. - February 2009: RIM subscribers top 50 million, an the company announces an expansion with thousands of new hires. - April 2010: Apple launches the iPad tablet. RIM responds a year later with the PlayBook tablet, which falls flat. - July 2011: The number of iPhone users surpasses those of BlackBerry in the US market. Shares fall and the company announces it will cut 2,000 jobs, 11 percent of its workforce. - October 2011: BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and South America are hit by a service outage lasting several days, and shares sink below $25. - November 2011: More than half the smartphones sold worldwide in the third quarter are Android-powered, some 60.5 million units, while BlackBerry sinks to an 11 percent market share on sales of 12.7 million units. BlackBerry users suffer more service problems. - January 2012: With RIM's share price now below $16 and the company clearly struggling, founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis resign as co-CEOs. They are replaced by chief operating officer Thorsten Heins who two months later releases quarterly earnings showing a loss. - May 2012: RIM warns of another quarterly loss and hires JP Morgan Securities and RBC Capital Markets to study its strategic options. Days later the company cuts 5,000 jobs and says its new platform will be delayed. Shares sink below $10. - January 30. 2013: RIM launches its new platform, BlackBerry 10, two new handsets aimed at the iPhone and Android market, changes the company name to BlackBerry, and recruits singer Alicia Keys as its creative director. n
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Google brings new Image search
Is this increasing or decreasing your traffic?
“The domain name is now clickable, and we also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on,” said associate product manager Hongyi Li. “This means that there are now four clickable targets to the source page instead of just two. In our tests, we’ve seen a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting website”
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ecently, Google announced a new design for its Image Search. It’s been rolling out, so maybe you have it by now. One thing that was interesting about this particular launch is that Google made a major point of talking about how good it was going to be for webmasters. They even made the announcement on the Google Webmaster Central blog. As a webmaster, have you been pleased with the changes? How about as a searcher? Let us know what you think in the comments. Google implied that the changes would be good for webmasters in terms of increasing traffic to their sites. “The domain name is now clickable, and we also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on,” said associate product manager Hongyi Li. “This means that there are now four clickable targets to the source page instead of just two. In our tests, we’ve seen a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting website.” Of course, that doesn’t mean that this will be the case for everyone, but that’s the kind of thing you want to hear, if they’re going to talk about the effects the changes have had on sites in internal testing. Marketer Rich Gorman has gone as far as issuing a press release praising the benefits of the new Image Search to webmasters. Here are a couple of quotes from that: “Google has made some changes to its Image Search platform that will be immediately apparent when you go to conduct your next image inquiry,” Gorman says, in a new statement to
the press. “At first, the changes may seem cosmetic, but they are actually very significant, and for a couple of reasons. The most obvious reason is that it simply makes image searching quicker and easier for search engine users, but more important is the fact that these changes bring new challenges and opportunities to online marketers and reputation management professionals.”
The source page will no longer load up in an inframe in the background of the image detail view. This speeds up the experience for users, reduces the load on the source website’s servers, and improves the accuracy of webmaster metrics such as page views. As usual, image search query data is available in Top Search Queries in Webmaster Tools
“More than ever, users are going to be using an image search to click through and access a corresponding domain, and what this means is that Google Image Search is going to be sending more referral traffic,” Gorman says. “For businesses, this presents a whole new opportunity to draw users to a particular website. By
using compelling, engaging images, businesses and marketers can boost traffic to various landing pages and online assets. In other words, image optimization just became a lot more important!” “The source page will no longer load up in an inframe in the background of the image detail view,” explained Google’s Li of the changes. “This speeds up the experience for users, reduces the load on the source website’s servers, and improves the accuracy of webmaster metrics such as page views. As usual, image search query data is available in Top Search Queries in Webmaster Tools.” Some sites aren’t having such great experiences with the new Image Search. I’ve noticed a huge negative difference in my image search results according to my WordPress stats. However, this might be deceiving as I’m not sure if it was counting those “hits” that were just my page in the background. In reality, it might actually be for the better, will have to keep monitoring. My initial fear was that somehow I did something wrong “Google-wise,” but looks like that wasn’t the case. Why would you expect anything less from Google? The changes are only meant to benefit the bottom line. Next up will be Google ads next to our hotlinked images. They have certainly crossed the line past thumbnail images and fair use with this one. I’ve had a 50 percent drop in visitors, and I still rank good in search results. How can it be good for webmasters? I do not need my domain name to be displayed on images search section of google.. I need that someone finds an image then because i show him/her this image, he/she comes to my website, then i can get profits. I do not want that i do the job and google gets the money thing. Then Google should also have a section search-for-content, he should show everything on our websites, at the bottom he should give a link to our websites, is that also okay for you? You write all stuff, Google shows every letter in it to the users, and then do you think that the visitor will come to your website? Forget about it… Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable has been monitoring the forums as usual, and
has seen other webmasters complaining about “significant” decreases in traffic. He points to threads in both Webmaster World and Digital Point. Have you seen a dramatic difference in traffic coming from Google Image Searches for better or for worse? On a somewhat related note, Google has been rolling out its recent SafeSearch changes to more countries, and that may be having a direct affect on some businesses. Visitors, who say they work in adult business, say the change affects their sales and research. n
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program to jailbreak Apple devices running iOS 6 or above was release, sparking over 100,000 downloads in the first 10 minutes of availability. The jailbreak modifies Apple's mobile firmware, letting users load applications from outside of the official AppStore, and access iOS files that Apple usually shields. Though technically intended for iOS 6.1, the Evasi0n jailbreak utility works with all versions from 6.0, according to the Evaders, the group of leading iOS hackers who released the program at Evasi0nJailbreak.com. That means it can be used by owners of iPhone 3GS through 5, all iPads except the first one, iPad mini, iPod touch 4 and 5, and second generation Apple TV. The utility is available for the Mac's OS X, for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, and Linux. Evasi0n creates what's called an untethered jailbreak, which means that each time you turn your device on you don't need to cable it to your computer and go through the jailbreak process again. Untethered, the device with the jailbreak utility can patch the OS kernel on its own after each reboot. A jailbroken iOS device can still use Apple's iTunes and App Store. Jailbreaking also lets you add software to unlock your phone from a mobile carrier's network and in some cases run it on another carrier's cellular network. In theory, the phone's existing functions are unchanged. But not long after Evasi0n was released, sites such as The iDownload Blog reported that some iPhone users were complaining that after installing the jailbreak, the phone's stock Weather app either crashed or refused to open. One Evasi0n team member, pod2g, tweeted that the team is looking into the problem. He also tweeted, in early afternoon, that there were 270,000 active users on the Evasi0n website at that time, trying to download the jailbreak utility. The level of interest, and action, also led to problems as users were unable to gain access to the Evasi0n website. It also crippled access to Cydia, the unofficial distribution platform for iOS software outside the App Store, accessed via the Cydia app browser and installer. Developers can post their apps on Cydia repositories, usually abbreviated repos (sometimes called
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sources). "Although the app itself loads fine, we're finding it nearly impossible to access our Store accounts, or download any apps or tweaks from the main repos," posted iDownload Blog's Cody Lee. For jailbreak fans, Evasi0n or something like it, has been eagerly awaited since the launch of iPhone 5 and iOS 6 last Fall. "The new tool is very simple to use -- in fact, it's easier to use than the iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak tool I covered last year," reports CNET's Jason Cipriani. "Taking far less time, and only a few steps, if you're comfortable clicking a few buttons on your computer and tapping an icon on your iOS device, you're more than prepared to use evasi0n."
Twitter's servers have been breached by "extremely sophisticated" hackers who may have made off with user names and passwords for about 250,000 users, the company said
He adds a caution: "At times things go wrong while jailbreaking a device. Apple never intended for this kind of stuff to happen. As such you should be comfortable troubleshooting any issues you run into, including completely restoring your device through DFU [Device Firmware Update] mode. Meanwhile, Twitter's servers have been breached by "extremely sophisticated" hackers who may have made off with user names and passwords for about 250,000 users, the company said. Twitter said unusual access patterns led it to identify the attacks, which took place during the past week. "We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information -- usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted
versions of passwords -- for approximately 250,000 users," Twitter Director of Information Security Bob Lord said in a blog post. Twitter reset the passwords and revoked session tokens for the accounts, and said it was emailing the affected users Friday and telling them to reset their passwords. "This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," the company said in its post. It noted that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal also said they'd been targeted by hackers this week. Those companies said the attacks originated in China, but Twitter did not point to a country of origin. Twitter said it thinks other companies and organizations have recently been similarly attacked. It urged all its users to ensure they are using strong passwords on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet. Passwords should be at least 10 characters and use a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, as well as numbers and symbols, the site said.
"Using the same password for multiple online accounts significantly increases your odds of being compromised," Twitter said. "If you are not using good password hygiene, take a moment now to change your Twitter passwords." The company said it was still gathering information about the attacks and is working with federal law enforcement agencies to prosecute the attackers. n
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The greatest tech comeback
This is really the most amazing time ever. The ascent of Android from literally nowhere, the fanatical following of the iPhone, the death of Symbian, the resurgence of Windows Phone, the rise from the ashes of Nokia – it’s like the plot of an amazing Hollywood suspense thriller. But, for the moment, nothing comes close to the BlackBerry story
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e live in exciting times! While this may sound like a loose bastardisation of the ancient Chinese curse, it’s also the perfect description of the world of mobile technology. This is really the most amazing time ever. The ascent of Android from literally nowhere, the fanatical following of the iPhone, the death of Symbian, the resurgence of Windows Phone, the rise from the ashes of Nokia – it’s like the plot of an amazing Hollywood suspense thriller. But for the moment, nothing comes close to the BlackBerry story. This is a perfect example of when truth is stranger than fiction. The BlackBerry story started in the ’90s with the first BlackBerry device. RIM called that product a BlackBerry because the keyboard’s buttons looked like the drupes of the blackberry fruit. The idea was to give the name BlackBerry to just that first device, but the name stuck. The first BB was just a glorified pager that could receive messages and send back replies, which for that time was a very big deal. In 2002, the first real BlackBerry smartphone, the 5810, was released and the rest is history. In fact, it’s so much part of history that the term ‘CrackBerry’ (the comparison of BlackBerry addiction being as much as an addiction to cocaine) was named ‘New Word of the Year’ in 2006 by Webster’s New World College Dictionary. BlackBerry ruled the world, it had a fanatical following, it revolutionised instant email, it gave birth to a whole new tribe of BBMers and it produced a generation of people tapping the red light to make sure that their BB was still working! Around 200 million BlackBerrys were shipped out, almost all governments used BBs, as did most defence agencies and almost every corporate across the globe. And then in one swift swoop, it all fell apart. The world switched to touchscreens, apps and great optics on their cameraphones – three things the BlackBerry totally sucked at. Slowly the whole amazing story unraveled and came apart. Sales numbers fell, BB phones were no longer cutting
edge, specs looked antiquated, the phone themselves looked old and kludgy, the BB Playbook tablet was poorly thought out and the BB app domain was completely outdated. Losses mounted, bad decisions were taken on a regular basis, people abandoned BB and moved towards the Apple-Android juggernaut and every single morning brought with it a new rumour of how RIM and BB were about to be bought out by ABC . It seemed that the BB fairytale was over!
Let me first explain why this new OS and devices are going to be the reason why RIM could make the greatest comeback ever. First, BB10. This is BlackBerry re-written from the ground up. It’s slick and fast and looks like a million bucks. But far more than that is the innovation and features it holds
Let me first explain why this new OS and devices are going to be the reason why RIM could make the greatest comeback ever. First, BB10. This is BlackBerry rewritten from the ground up. It’s slick and fast and looks like a million bucks. But far more than that is the innovation and features it holds. Whatever you’re doing on the phone, swipe upwards and take a peek at your notifications and the number of new messages you’ve received. Swiping left moves you to menus with an app, as also to different apps screens, all of which are updating in real time. The BlackBerry Hub is
the best and most intuitive integration I’ve seen of contacts, calendar, email and social apps such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Swipe up and right and you get the BB Hub from anywhere. The real big deal is of course the keyboard. Most people have stuck to their BlackBerries only due to the speed of typing they can achieve. Well, whatever you were able to do – now double it. It learns your language, your style, your words, your terminologies, your slang, your abbreviations, suggestions pop around the letters on the keyboard and you just swipe the words up. I was hitting about 80 words a minute within the first hour. Browsing was another super sucky feature in all BBs, but no more. Web pages now render with speed, simplicity, perfect size, format and builtin sharing. There’s a lot more new stuff in BB10, but for the moment, let’s keep to these. While BB10 is great and pulls of a lot of innovation, why is it any different from a new version of Android or iOS? Why would it bring RIM back from the doldrums? Actually, it’s a matter of simple mathematics. Currently BB has about 90 million active subscribers and users across the world. BB10 is good enough for each and every one of them to look to upgrading to a BB10 phone. Some will do it right away, some after a while – but eventually there’s enough in BB10 to make them all want to upgrade. That would mean about 90 million new BB phones sold. Ninety freaking million! RIM just needs about half of that in the first year to become a major player once again the world of smartphones. It’ll take a flaw of gigantic proportions for RIM to screw this up from here. My hope is that they don’t do anything spectacularly foolish and let the natural momentum take them towards their comeback destiny. After all, we do live in exciting times but there’s a limit to the level of excitement one can endure. Any more than this and it could well be fatal! n
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Philips turns off TV in turnaround To make Philips more lean and nimble has taken a rigorous monitoring of its entire portfolio of products and markets combined with a ruthless willingness to jettison weaklings and poor performers such as the home entertainment businesses, and to concentrate instead on higher-margin market leaders
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he Philips name has been synonymous with trusty TV sets and reliable video players; but in the overhaul of this lumbering Dutch behemoth over the past two years, both have been ditched. Nothing, it seems, is sacred in Chief Executive Frans van Houten's makeover of Philips to focus on the healthcare, lifestyle and energy needs of ageing and increasingly prosperous consumers - whether high-margin electric toothbrushes and shavers, street lighting or hospital equipment. To make Philips more lean and nimble has taken a rigorous monitoring of its entire portfolio of products and markets combined with a ruthless willingness to jettison weaklings and poor performers such as the home entertainment businesses, and to concentrate instead on highermargin market leaders. Van Houten picked new managers at each of the company's three core businesses - consumer lifestyle, healthcare and lighting - and is shaking up a stodgy culture in a firm that once led in R&D but sometimes fell short in the marketplace. The company which first experimented with televisions and radios later lost out in the videotape wars of the 1970s and 1980s and did not react quickly enough when consumers shifted online for their music and other entertainment. Van Houten has also cut jobs and overheads, including office space and IT systems, scaled back inventory to free up cash flow, and launched a 2 billion euro share buyback. The strategy has started to pay off. The divestments and four consecutive quarters of better-thanexpected results have pushed the stock to its highest level since March 2011, just before Van Houten officially took over as CEO, as Philips appears to be on track to achieve its 2013 targets. "Exiting lifestyle entertainment for me is the real mark, these guys invented a lot of these consumer electronics we know, that is part of the Philips legacy," said Scott Cobb, principal at Southeastern Asset Management which is Philips' biggest shareholder with about 6.5 percent of the stock.
There is much more potential to unlock. We need to stay at this for five years, just two years into the turnaround, adding that too many companies "stop too early" when it comes to shaking up their business: Van Houten, CEO Philips
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"For them to say 'this is a business that is marginally profitable, struggling with declining revenue and does not have scale to compete' sends a massively strong signal that this company and its management are not the old Philips." Cobb said the 2 billion euro share buyback was also a strong buy signal because it showed the management was confident of delivering cost savings and pushing through change. By some measures, such as the ratio of enterprise value (EV) to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), Philips looks undervalued against German conglomerate Siemens (SIEGn.DE) and General Electric (GE.N), its rivals in the field of lighting systems and hospital equipment. Starmine puts the forward 12-month EV/EBITDA for the Dutch firm at 6.8, versus 7.7 for
Siemens - and 18.7 for GE, whose figures analysts say are distorted because of its finance activities. Two French firms in the capital goods sector, Schneider Electric (SCHN.PA) and Legrand (LEGD.PA), trade on multiples of 9.1 and 9.5 respectively. Philips is also cheaper than two small European firms which compete purely in the home appliances sector. SEB (SEBF.PA) of France, which owns the Moulinex brand, and De'Longhi (DLG.MI) of Italy, are valued at multiples of 7.2 and 7.9 respectively. Based on other ratios such as price/book value, and EV/revenue, Philips ranks at the lower end of the group's range. And with roughly one third of Philips' units still underperforming and in need of turnaround, according to Van Houten, there should be further upside for investors. "There is much more potential to unlock. We need to stay at this for five years," Van Houten said, just two years into the turnaround, adding that too many companies "stop too early" when it comes to shaking up their business. Van Houten became chief executive in April 2011, but during his months as CEO-in-waiting, he took a whirlwind tour of what was soon to become
his global empire. Stunned by the sheer number of different products available in a myriad of different markets, he realised the group had proliferated and had little inkling of which of these combinations made or lost money. He worked closely with his chief financial officer, Ron Wirahadiraksa, and with chief strategist Jim Andrew, a former Boston Consulting Group partner who had worked in India and Singapore, to come up with his plan. Using what he describes as a "dashboard" - a computer model that monitors hundreds of combinations of products and the markets where they are sold - he can keep track of profits, sales, market share and supply chain efficiency for anything from medical equipment in Malaysia to salad dicers in Russia. Each business and market combination appears in red, green or amber, according to performance, and is further scrutinised for ways to squeeze more value out of it. The model isn't foolproof. High-growth countries are set high targets, but for example if growth hits 28 percent, just short of a 30 percent target, the targets may have to be eased slightly, Van Houten said. n
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Wateen, Cisco co-organized “Technology Awareness Session”
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Wateen offers organizations support for planning, implementation and management of enterprise network and is a gold partner for Cisco ateen Telecom Pakistan’s leading converged communications service provider, in its efforts to deliver the highest quality solutions, products, and services to its valued customers, held a joint seminar with Cisco Pakistan at Pearl Continental Hotel Karachi recently. The event, aptly named “Technology Awareness Session” was organized to address the opportunities accessible through technology, which can help business partners achieve their objectives of lower costs and better management. Mr. Hamid Mohiuddin –GM EBU Wateen Telecom, opened the forum by emphasizing the importance of a “Digitalized Pakistan’’ and Wateen’s role in making this dream a reality. This was followed by the key note address by Baber Shahbaz, Channel Manager Cisco Pakistan, on Cisco’s new initiatives of Cloud Computing and Big data. Syed Mohammad Kashif, Head of Prod-
ucts Wateen, presented Wateen’s product portfolio in detail, highlighting Wateen’s skill-set and other strengths from which businesses can be benefited from. Briefing the participants, Cisco’s SME on Collaboration technologies, Munaf Ahmed,
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shared innovative solutions available in Cisco’s product line for speeding business decisions and ensuring revenues and profits in shortest possible time. In the second technical briefing, Javed Hashmi Technical Head –EBU explained how Cisco’s Security Solutions Portfolio can help businesses in generating revenue through E-commerce. The seminar was concluded by Mr. Junaid Gul, DGM Enterprise Sales, Wateen by thanking the audience for their attendance and offering them to utilize our resources as per their requirements and further queries on the subject and designs. T h e event was attended by representatives of National Bank of Pakistan, Bank Alfalah, Citi Bank, United Bank, Bank Al Habib, PIA, State life Insurance, KSE, KICTL, NIFT, Liaquat National Hospital, KASB Bank, Pak Suzuki, DHA City Consultants & SSGC. The audience appreciated the gesture and regarded it as a good start for gearing business on new technology options. n
Acer continues to drive growth in Pakistan
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Channel Partner Ecosystem to benef it from sustainable prof itability growth
cer is revamping its already successful channel business to deliver more sustainable and profitable growth to its partners. In a channel partner meet held today, Acer executives highlighted the crucial role its partners play in making Acer’s empowering technology and products available to valued customers across the country. In Pakistan Acer is a major player for notebooks and desktops. Acer executives updated channel partners and distributors from across the country. New products and Acer’s 2013 channel strategy were key subjects. Acer’s channel partners applauded the new channel partner schemes and loyalty programme. Acer’s Amin Mortazavi and Ali Nemati committed to deliver increased profitability to Pakistani channel. Acer continues to fortify its regional operations with new hires and the introduction of state-of-the-art products, Acer’s channel model that encourages them to be pro-active. ation. “Our partners will be able to see immecommunity in Pakistan has grown bullish Working together, we can capture an even more significant share of this growing, huge- diate benefits as we focus on making the about its future prospects. “Pakistan’s IT market is growing at a sig- ly exciting IT market,” commented Amin channel more profitable. The Pakistani IT nificant pace and empowering our channel Mortazavi, Acer Vice President, Middle East market is constantly evolving and is of significant importance to Acer. We have made partners in the county and facilitating their and Africa. Acer’s partners and distributors look for- great progress in the last few years, and emgrowth is instrumental for Acer’s continued ward to increased support from the global powering our channel is instrumental for success. Acer commits to a significant infirm, particularly in terms of customized our continued success,” added Ali Nemati, crease in the level of support we provide to training, certification, and sales lead gener- General Manager, Acer Middle East. n our partners to facilitate a dynamic business
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Bank Alfalah selects Wateen for connectivity of 75 branches
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Wateen Telecom to provide fiber & radio deployment to establish Data-VPN link for 75 branches of the bank akistan’s leading converged communications service provider, Wateen Telecom, has been chosen by Bank Alfalah after a stringent vendor evaluation process for providing Fiber & Radio deployment to establish Data-VPN link for 75 branches and aggregation sites. Wateen Telecom is a preferred partner for broadband connectivity and related solutions for Bank Alfalah and over 200 leading companies in the country. Wateen offers organizations support for planning, implementation and management of their network and is a gold partner for Cisco. Wateen has always maintained exceptional level of customer service for both enterprise customers and the general consumer. Mr. Naeem Zamindar, CEO Wateen Telecom, in a message to the employees stated, “This achievement is further recognition of Wateen’s focus on customer centricity and keeping our cus-
tomers at the center of our thought process while dealing with all environmental and economic challenges. This is a direct result of Wateen providing the best
quality services to all its customers; we are committed to the success of our customers. We intend to continue delivering the highest quality solutions, products, and services to our valued customers.” Wateen also won the Cisco Customer Service Excellence Award recently for
having delivering outstanding customer value and the best trained team in the local industry. n
FBR targets major sectors for tax collection
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The revenue body has initiated action against major sectors such as telecom, banking and oil exploration companies by strengthening the withholding tax regime in order to generate desired tax revenues
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n the wake of massive revenue shortfall during the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated action against major sectors such as telecom, banking and oil exploration companies by strengthening the withholding tax regime in order to generate desired tax revenues, said sources. They said that the revenue body has generated a demand of Rs15 billion to Rs20 billion on account of mismatch in collecting withholding tax from consumers. “We have generated demands against banks, which have collected withholding tax of Rs5 billion from consumers on cash withdrawals but never deposited into the national exchequer,” said sources. The FBR, the sources said, has also generated huge demand of Rs20 billion against an oil exploration company as it did not pay its due tax. “We have taken steps to ensure effective enforcement and monitoring of the withholding tax in order to plug leakages worth billions of rupees,” said sources. The FBR has so far collected Rs1,027 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year as compared to Rs976 billion in the same period last year, said sources. The increase in revenue collection stands at Rs51 billion by netting Rs1,027 billion in the first seven months as compared to the collection of Rs976 billion in the same period last year, registering a growth of six percent. With this pace of collection, the tax machinery
is expected to collect its initially envisaged annual tax target of Rs2,381 billion, said sources. The FBR has already revised downward its tax collection target to Rs2,190 billion, keeping in view massive revenue shortfall witnessed in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. By taking additional measures with the approval of the finance minister and finally by the premier, the tax collection can go up to a maximum of Rs2,232 billion by the end of June, they said. Official documents showed that Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed on taxation measures, whereas the FBR would take drastic policy measures to generate revenues of Rs150 billion in the remaining months of
the current fiscal year. The proposed tax measures, if approved by the government, include elimination of lower rates of withholding tax on imports for yielding additional revenues of Rs15 billion, increase in withholding tax rate on import from five percent to six percent for collecting additional Rs16 billion, rationalisation of the federal excise duty on cigarettes for generating Rs10 billion, increase in withholding tax on services from six percent to 10 percent for collecting Rs10 billion, rate of withholding tax on supplies to exports to be enhanced from 0.5 percent to one percent for collecting additional revenues of Rs3 billion and the rate of withholding tax on prize bonds to be enhanced from 10 percent to 15 percent for collecting Rs2 billion additional revenues on an annual basis. Other revenue measures included registration scheme (amnesty scheme), which is likely to yield Rs124 billion; Tax Investment Scheme, Rs20 billion; improvement in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism, Rs25 billion; elimination of zero-rating on domestic sale in five exportable items, Rs25 billion; abolition of domestic zero-rating, Rs15 billion; and disallowance of input tax on sales to unregistered persons, Rs30 billion. On an annual basis, these revenue measures will bring Rs300 billion additional tax into the national exchequer but after passing seven months (JulyJanuary) period, the FBR could yield Rs120 to Rs150 billion. n
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Ebanking transactions jump to Rs 7.6 trillion Overall 9,896 branches of banks out of 10,523 now offer RTOB services across the country. The value and volume of RTOB transactions also increased by 18.82 percent and 14.29 percent respectively during the second quarter as compared to the previous quarter of the current fiscal year
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he value and volume of overall e-banking transactions in the country increased by 18.02 percent and 11.31 percent during the second quarter (Oct 2012 to Dec 2012) to reach Rs. 7.6 trillion and 79.45 million respectively as compared to the first quarter, according to the recently published report by State Bank of Pakistan. Ninety-four percent of banks’ branches in Pakistan are now offering Real-Time Online Branches (RTOB) services as 484 more branches were added to the RTOB network during the second quarter of the current fiscal year (FY13), says the State Bank of Pakistan’s Payment Systems report for the second quarter of FY13 released recently. Overall 9,896 branches of banks out of 10,523 now offer RTOB services across the country. The value and volume of RTOB transactions also increased by 18.82 percent and 14.29 percent respectively during the second quarter as compared to the previous quarter of the current fiscal year, the report added. The Payment Systems infrastructure in the country maintained an increasing growth trend during the second quarter of FY13 and 245 more
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) were installed by banks bringing the total number of
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ATMs in the country to 6,232, the report said, adding that ATM transactions, in terms of volume of overall e-banking transactions, have a major share of 61.12 percent with an average value of Rs. 9,779 per transaction. The overall value and volume of ATM transactions increased by 10.33 percent and 10.68 percent respectively in the second quarter as compared to the first quarter of the current fiscal year. The share of ATM transactions in overall ebanking transactions in value terms was 6.27 percent during the second quarter. The report said that the number of plastic cards in the country also witnessed an increase of 5.33 percent in the second quarter compared to the preceding quarter as over 20.72 million plastic cards were issued in the country by the end of December, 2012. The value and volume of transactions through Point of Sale (POS) terminals stood at Rs. 22.1 billion and 4.5 million in the second quarter which showed a growth of 6.25 and 5.06 percent respectively as compared to the first quarter of the current fiscal year, according to the report. The report pointed out that the recorded value and volume of large-value payments through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) was Rs.42.13 trillion and one lakh twenty one thousand six hundred sixty three (1,21,663) respectively in the second quarter, depicting an increase of 9.46 percent in value and 10.35 percent in volume as compared to the first quarter. The major portion for the increased number of overall Pakistan Real Time Interbank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM) transactions during the second quarter was contributed by Interbank Funds Transfer (IBFT) which increased by 14.06 percent as compared to the last quarter. Similarly, the largest contribution in the value of overall PRISM transactions in the second quarter was due to securities settlement which increased by 14.96 percent, the report said added. n
Celcos propose options for SIMs verification
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There should be one unified system with easy process that will not only save expenses of the operators but feasible process for agents of retail outlets throughout the country he cellular operators are mulling on different options for introducing new SIM sales mechanism to ensure transparent system throughout the retail outlets’ network at minimum expenses. Officials of the cellular phone companies said that operators have proposed different mechanisms for deployment of new system in whole sector after conducting separate financial feasibilities in recent weeks. There are two proposals that mainly came under discussion—one is biometric solution along with equipment, the other is barcode of CNIC along with card swap machine. Besides the present SIM verification system of 789 is being considered to be ended to introduce one mechanism for avoiding discrepancies, delays and expenses in the process of SIM issuance. There should be one unified system with easy process that will not only save expenses of the operators but feasible process for agents of retail outlets throughout the country, they said. The cellular phone operators have different choices to set a uniform system in line with directives issued by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the meeting with CEOs of all operators in November, an official of cellular operator said. The government instructed to deploy a verification system mandatory matching the thumb impressions of SIMs’ purchasers from its CNIC, he said on the condition of anonymity. It could be biometric solution with equipment or CNIC swap machine. According to an estimate, there are a total
number of 196,000 retailers of all five telecom operators. In addition to it, SIMs used to be traded scores of small shops and cabins throughout the country. The deployment of biometric machines is not only expensive for operators but its maintenance is also an issue in the future. In addition to it, the trainings to retail agents are long procedures for companies to provide in short time period, an official of another cellular phone company said. The deployment of any new system cost millions of rupees to one operator whereas it has to pay regular charges to National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) on the issuance of every SIM for verification of subscribers’ data.
He said the cost of verification should not be increased further if one comprehensive system is introduced which ensures the mechanism authentic, transparent and smooth. Cellular operators SIMs sales have nosedived due to ban on its trade at hundred thousands of retail outlets for more than two months, hence they can’t afford a slow process of SIM issuance involving more than one step, he further said. SIMs activation is being carried out through SIM verification system 789 with NADRA database, which was introduced in 2009. The registration authority charges 17 on the verification of every SIMs from cellular operators presently. Cellular operators and NADRA are likely to negotiate charges for subscribers’ data verification against CNIC once they decide about new mechanism. n 61
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Facebook celebrates 9th birthday
Mark Zuckerberg and his four friends started Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard University and now it is one of the most popular social networking sites in the world he world's most popular social networking site, Facebook, on February 4 turned nine. Today, the Facebook has over one billion active users and the counting is going on rapidly. Mark Zuckerberg and his four friends started Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard University and now it is one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. In March 2004, CEO Zuckerberg launched the expansion of Facebook to other colleges and universities. After three months of expension plan, the headquarter of the Facebook was shifted to Palo Alto in California. In September 2004: Zuckerberg faced a lawsuit to stole the idea of introducing the Wall facility, which allows people to write personal feelings and other ideas on profile pages. Later in a bid to further expansion, Facebook allows people to join the social networking website with a corporate email address. After two years, Facebook introduces most popular feature News Feed. In May 2007: Facebook starts ‘Platform’, which allows people to develop tools for sharing photos, taking quizzes and playing games. In October 2007, Microsoft bough stake in Facebook for $240 million and forges advertising partnership. Facebook unveiled its Beacon program in 2007, which allows broadcasting of people's activities on dozens of outside sites. March 2008: Facebook hires Sheryl Sandberg as chief operating officer, snatching the savvy, high-profile executive from Google Inc. Facebook’s "Like” feature in 2009. In the same year, Facebook eclipses News Corp.'s My-
space as the leading online social network in the US. Location feature was added in 2010 to know the exact location of users and friends, in 2012
Timeline feature was added, which attracts more users. World’s biggest social networking site Facebook is celebrating its 9th birthday but the occasion has been marred by the fact that it has over 76 million fake user accounts. Even its efforts to curb this though spam filters have done little. Facebook has declared said that its monthly active users (MAUs) during fourth quarter 2012 were 1.06 billion registering an increase of 25 percent year-over-year. Its daily active users (DAUs) were 618 million on average for December 2012, an increase of 28 percent while mobile MAUs were 680 million. It said that mobile DAUs exceeded web DAUs for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2012. But the concerns remain that “undesirable” accounts has decreased by 0.9 percent of the total number of monthly active users. According to Facebook, an “undesirable” user is any account that is intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as spamming.” Then there are duplicate accounts which are added to total number of valid users. Duplicate account is an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account. They account for about 5 percent or 53 million accounts of Facebook monthly active users. There are 13.8 million mischaracterized accounts, which according to Facebook are pages. Countries where Facebook in terms users enjoys maximum popularity areUS, India, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico. It is much ahead other social networks like Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. n
Do you wish to be an ‘Online Entrepreneur’?
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It’s no longer news that the industry is worth a billion dollars now and the websites and domains are being traded through leading market places such as Flippa, WebsiteTrade.com etc
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ow many of us realize that the oh-sotechnologically advanced West has always been counting on Pakistani software and web developers for their future IT challenges? Where Pakistani Entrepreneurs have gained huge success in establishing state-of-art market places like Tradekey.com, disappointingly there is still a glaring lack of attention towards domain and website brokerage industry. It’s no longer news that the industry is worth a billion dollars now and the websites and domains are being traded through leading market places such as Flippa, WebsiteTrade.com etc. Interestingly, it’s no different than the real estate business, and therefore thriving in the ebusiness world. Many turned from rags to riches overnight just because they had reserved an Internet property such as a .com, .net etc that later, for one or another reason, topped the demands list. It is amazing how flipping websites have newly emerged to become one of the most profitable businesses where ready-made and established websites are sold quite similar to a million-dollar property. What is even more interesting is
that without any major investment and even without the hassle to go to the office, an individual can sell websites, blogs and domains right from their very home. Hence, in recent years, it could be safely said that the website-for-sale industry can really lift up the economy and therefore employment of developing countries. The future of mobile and internet industry can already determined by people’s inclinations and recent imports of cell phones and
smart phones that have exceeded as much as Rs. 33 Billion. Our next move should be to bring out the best of our national talent by educating the youngsters to invest their time and potential in more ways than one. The government and the IT ministry should also be ready to take the task of education our young generation with various online income generating options. n
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PTCL posts record profit of Rs 8.6 billion The increase in the company's revenue streams is an indicator of our dynamic corporate identity and increasing customer base. Whether it was through launching innovative wireless products and bundles or segmented propositions, offering unmatched affordable packages, investing in our network for even better customer services, or expansion of our infrastructure for reaching-out to the remotest areas of the country: Walid Irshaid, President & CEO PTCL
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akistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), country's largest integrated telecommunications services provider, has posted a record net profit of Rs 8.6 billion in the 4th quarter ended December 31, 2012 along with 37 per cent revenue growth compared to the previous quarter. The company announced these results in the audited accounts for the six months' period ended 31st December 2012, after the change of financial year of PTCL Group to correspond with the calendar year. These results were announced at the company's Board of Directors meeting held recently in Lahore. "The increase in the company's revenue streams is an indicator of our dynamic corporate identity and increasing customer base. Whether it was through launching innovative wireless products and bundles or segmented propositions, offering unmatched affordable packages, investing in our network for even better customer services, or expansion of our infrastructure for reaching-out to the remotest areas of the country, PTCL maintained an aggressive position that reaffirms our core philosophy of providing latest and most affordable information communications solutions to our customers", commented Walid Irshaid, President & CEO PTCL, after the meeting of the company's Board of Directors. "Through optimal use of resources, we strive to achieve enhanced revenue, greater levels of customer satisfaction, as well as improve our shareholders' value", he added further.
According to the PTCL Board of Directors announcement, the PTCL Group's revenue for the six months' period ended 31st December 2012 stands at Rs. 62.6 billion, showing a growth of 15 percent over the last quarter with 28 percent profitability for the reported revenues. The company's market share in the broadband, wireless and specialized telecom solutions segments has increased during the period
under review through introduction of state-of-theart products and unmatched affordable services. PTCL remains the market leader in broadband internet segment with more than 1.4 Million customers; the service is available in more than 2000 cities and towns nation-wide. On the wire-line front, PTCL continued to introduce innovative products that augment the futuristic approach of the company. n
Mobilink Foundation organises ‘Road Safety Painting Competition’
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slamabad Traffic Police (ITP) and Mobilink Foundation jointly organized a painting competition at the Open Air Theater Islamabad to promote road safety awareness amongst College/school children. Participating students were asked to use their imagination to visually depict simple yet critical topics related to road safety and associated hazards using the medium of art. The event attracted over twelve hundred students from across various schools/colleges of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. A unique feature of the event was the involvement of special children who shared their perspectives on the need for safety measures specifically designed for those with special needs. To sensitize the youth about the potential losses of over speeding, one wheeling etc. under the command of Inspector General of Police, Islamabad Mr. Bani Ameen Khan and able direction of Deputy Inspector General of Police, Headquarters, Islamabad Dr. Sultan Azam Temuri, SSP Traffic Dr. Moeen Masood took the initiative to arrange series of campaigns. It is important to note that such campaigns are useful to acquaint the road users with traffic laws and to inculcate traffic sense amongst them. Bilal Munir Sheikh, Chief Commercial Officer, Mobilink added, “Every year thousands of people are affected by road accidents, and much of this distress can be prevented by exercising a little care and vigilance. With this initiative, these young children have helped Mobilink Foundation
(L to R) IG Islamabad Police Bin Yameen, Minister of Interior, A. Rehman Malik, SSP ITP Dr. Moeen Masood, DIG Headquarters Sultan Azam Taimoori and Head of Corporate Communications Mobilink, Omar Manzur at the ITP Mobilink Foundation Painting Competition, Islamabad.
and ITP share a public service message to educate our citizens towards preventing loss of life and property.” The painting competition was organized by Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) as part of their cel-
ebrations for the ITP’s seven (7) year anniversary. The painting competition was followed by a series of activities to educate children on numerous road safety measures, and ended with the distribution of prizes amongst winners. n
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Smartphone touted as ‘remote for your life’
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The hundreds of thousands of “apps” developed for mobile platforms such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone are quickly taking a lot of functions that people or different devices used to do t can talk to your car, your refrigerator, water your plants and help you stay fit and healthy: the smartphone is become the consumer’s remote control for life. That was the message delivered by dozens of firms at the International Consumer Electronics Show, where terms like “appification” were tossed around freely. The hundreds of thousands of “apps” developed for mobile platforms such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone are quickly taking a lot of functions that people or different devices used to do. Nowhere was this more evident in the “connected home” zone of the world’s biggest technology show. Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, showed a connected refrigerator which can stream music from a smartphone, while US appliance maker Dacor unveiled what it called the “first Android oven,” with a panel to check emails and the Web. US appliance maker Whirlpool showed its lineup of smart appliances which can send a user a text message when the laundry is done. Whirlpool’s refrigerator can also stream music through an app, enabling a host to set a playlist for each course of a dinner party, for example. “You don’t need to be friend on Facebook with your fridge, but it makes its use easier,” quipped Warwick Stirling, Whirlpool’s senior director of energy and sustainability. South Korea’s LG offered an integrated solution: one smartphone app which can remotely turn on a robotic vacuum or washing machine, or monitor something cooking in the oven. An LG refrigerator, equipped with a touchscreen panel, can deliver a shopping list to your smart-
phone wirelessly, provided that the database is created in the appliance. “You can control your life with a smartphone,” said LG’s Lisa Hutchenson. French-based firm Parrot and Korea’s Moneual each showed off an app to allow smartphone users to keep their home plants watered, using a sensor which transmits information on temperature, light and humidity and alerts people when the plants are thirsty. The home thermostat, locks and lighting can be controlled with an app developed by Ingersoll Rand. “The phone can be your remote control for your house,” said Matt McGovren, marketing manager for the maker of home equipment. “Everything will be connected, even things not generally associated with smartphones, like locks.”
Bank Alfalah and Warid join hands for branchless banking The two companies have been working extensively to develop a branchless ecosystem which will offer a range of customized products and services tailored to suit the evolving needs of various stakeholders
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ank Alfalah Limited (BAFL), Pakistan’s 6th largest bank and Warid Telecom, both owned and operated by the Abu Dhabi Group have joined hands for their upcoming branchless banking services in Pakistan. The technological support for this collaboration is being provided by Monet and the pilot testing launch is currently underway as approved by the State Bank of Pakistan. The two companies have been working extensively to develop a branchless ecosystem which will offer a range of customized products and services tailored to suit the evolving needs of various stakeholders including consumers, institutions, SMEs and the government. ‘We are pleased that both companies have been working in conjunction to successfully execute our shared outlook on introducing our branchless banking services. Once launched in the market, we are optimistic that both telecom and banking customers will benefit hugely
from the enhanced access and convenience provided by this innovative offering. We will continue to explore joint efforts in order to provide innovative, technology driven value-additional propositions that increase access to financial services
“Up to now, radio was the only entertainment in the car,” said Thomas Sonnenrein, of the German equipment maker Bosch. “Today we have a system shared with the Internet, the smartphone and the car” which “creates a lot of value.” The health segment is exploding with apps which can monitor heart rate, blood sugar, distance traveled by runners and many other things in fitness tech zone. Shawn DuBravac, chief economist has said “We have moved away not only from telephony but from communications being the primary part of these devices. So it is not just a communications devices, it is a hardware hub around which people build services... the smartphone is becoming the viewfinder for your digital life.” n and hence reduce the gap between the ‘banked’ and ‘yet-to-be-banked’ in Pakistan,’ said Atif Bajwa, CEO Bank Alfalah. Muneer Farooqui, CEO Warid Telecom while commenting on the occasion said “The future of the telecom industry in Pakistan lies in providing technological solutions that cater to a wide range of customer requirements which are not necessarily linked to communication only. The synergistic relationship between Warid Telecom and Bank Alfalah is a natural fit and the launch of Mobile Financial Services is another step in the right direction, where we look forward to using our collective resources and experience to provide further convenience to the Pakistani consumer.” As we enter 2013, Bank Alfalah continues to operate through a network of 471 branches across 163 cities in Pakistan in order to provide consumers, corporations, institutions and governments with a broad spectrum of financial products and services, including corporate and investment banking, consumer banking and credit, securities brokerage, commercial, agricultural, Islamic and asset financing. As an organization entering its 8th year of operations, Warid Telecom prides itself on being contemporary, approachable and constantly innovating. With achievements ranging from having one of the largest post-paid bases, most loved youth and prepaid brands, international roaming and nationwide coverage at over 7,000 destinations in Pakistan, Warid Telecom's selection of value added services makes communication effective and enjoyable. n
International
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Models show off NTT Docomo's new smartphones (from L; Aquos Phone EX, Arrows X and Xperia Z) and Xperia Tablet Z (R) during the company's 2013 Spring lineup press preview in Tokyok.
Models present the new HTC Butterfly smartphone during a news conference to launch the product in Taipei.
A model poses with an Acer Liquid C1 smartphone equipped with Intel Inside chips during a news conference in Bangkok.
A woman uses her mobile phone outside a branch of UK retailer Phones 4U advertising the new Blackberry Z10 in central London.
Japan's electronics giant Sharp displays their new premium LCD television set "ICC Purios" with a 60 inch 4K LCD panel and 3,840 x 2,160-pixel resolution.
Mosaic
Model Bar Refaeli holds mobile phone and presented a creation by Desigual during "Autumn-Winter 2013-2014" fashion week in Barcelona.
Sony Playstation promotional girls pose for a picture during the Asia Game Show (AGS) in Hong Kong.
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3G a big opportunity for IT companies: Oracle
Karachi: The 3G (Third Generation) technology is a big opportunity for information technology companies in Pakistan as they have a crucial role in the launch and operation of the high-speed and heavy data technology to millions of cellular users across the country. This was stated by Pakistan and South Asia Growth Economy (West) Managing Director Ahsen Javed in a news briefing held recently in Karachi.
Oracle has been engaged with different telecom operators to deploy all software solutions and hardware equipments for 3G technology because Oracle is capable to deliver all solutions with complete integration. He added that 3G technology on mobile phone is based on data storage and transmission which will be requirement of all operators hence Oracle sees its vital role in the launch of
3G technology in Pakistan, which is currently in development stages. Talking about different sectors, Javed shared his experience of working with different companies, saying that Pakistan’s companies are very eager to adopt technology in their business surprisingly in contrast with the impression that people running their family business are shy in adopting technology in the businesses. People in Pakistan
welcome advanced technology as it is introduced worldwide without waiting for analysing experiences of different countries, the Oracle managing director said. Business tycoons are very confident about technology and believe that advancement in their business through IT could benefit them particularly reduction of their business cost and improvement of their efficiency and productivity in businesses. In the manufacturing sector, Oracle products including application, solutions and systems are installed for financial management, human recourse management and security. Corporation has specific needs and we have complete solutions for them, so many of them are equipped with plug-andplay equipment based on complete hardware and software needs.
LG to lead OLED & Ultra HD TV markets Karachi: Speaking at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Havis Kwon, President and CEO of the LG Electronics’ Home Entertainment Company, outlined the company’s vision for the upcoming year and expressed confidence in LG’s ability to lead the next generation TV market. “2013 is an important year because for LG, it marks the beginning of a new TV era,” said Mr. Kwon. “With game-changing products such as the OLED TV and Ultra HD TV, we are in a strong position strategically to lead the industry. Delivery of our Ultra HD TV well before the competition and the imminent release of our OLED TV in the first quarter of 2013 will give us a head start in a mar-
ket where speed is a critical com-ponent of success.” Seizing the Advantage with Global Rollout of OLED TV In order to gain an early foothold in the OLED TV market, Mr.
Kwon said LG will launch its 55-inch OLED TV in North America, Central and South America, Europe and Asia in the first quarter of 2013. The company will increase R&D and investment in OLED TV technology and marketing to ensure that consumers see a strong link be-tween OLED and LG. The company will also continue to develop and improve produc-tion techniques in cooperation with LG Display in order to strengthen its position in what is expected to be a fast-growing segment in the next two or three years.. Dominating in Ultra HD TVs with Diverse Lineup LG will solidify its market position with the addition of different Ultra HD TV sizes to
Islamabad: Zong has launched a brand new service through which Zong’s SIM can be booked on the telecom company’s official website. After confirming the booking online, customers can collect their SIMs from authorized Franchisees and Customer Service Centers them self. The latest service has
been launched to facilitate new customers after PTA directives that physical SIM cannot be obtained from retailers. Therefore now SIMs booked through website can be collected from the nearest CSC or Franchise. In addition to above,
Zong is also providing opportunity to customers for SIM order booking at Call Centre, CS Centre, Franchise and Retailer. Moreover new numbering series of 03111XXXXXX and 03110XXXXXX has been introduced and cus-
Book your number on Zong website
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complement its 84-inch Ultra HD TV (Model 84LM9600) which was first unveiled at CES one year ago. Earlier this week at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, LG unveiled new 55 and 65-inch versions slated for launch in some 100 countries. With its 84-inch Ultra HD TV already being delivered to living rooms in more than 40 countries, LG has begun playing a key role in promoting new Ultra HD content. At CES, LG demonstrated the progress it has made with Korea’s number one broadcaster, KBS, to develop Ultra HD content and expressed its interest in forming partnerships with overseas broadcasters as well. n tomers can get the number of their choice booked out of the above mentioned series at retail. Customers can make a maximum of five bookings against the same ID. Upon submission of the booking request, a ticket number will be generated. Customer has to keep a record of this number as he or she will be requested to present this along with a copy of CNIC at the time of SIM handover. n
Javed pointed out that around 50 units of big textile companies have used Oracle’s different solutions and witnessed excellent responses regarding the efficiency of their production. Similarly the adopting trend of latest technology is amazingly high in Pakistan’s enterprises particularly in financial sectors, telecom companies, manufacturing units and government department. Despite various challenges particularly economic slowdown and energy crisis, corporation are not reluctant to invest money on IT because they are very optimistic about the good time in future and exploring opportunities at the time where businesses environment is not conducive, Oracle managing director said. Therefore there is a dire need to simplify IT through minimising its
complexity and it could be done when solution providers could have all solution portfolio for addressing the issues of corporations with respect to their operations and productivity issues. Pakistan is the second biggest country is the region having PeopleSoft Campus Solution in its 15 big universities - the same solution installed at Stanford University. There are more universities in the process of enabling the system since it improves the management system of education system significantly. Javed is very optimistic about Oracle business growth in Pakistan by virtue of potential in the local market. Oracle business in Pakistan has witnessed handsome progress as its customer’s base reached up to 1,100 including big and middle size corporation, he concluded. n
Etihad Airways to launch Abu Dhabi – Amsterdam flights
Lahore: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will launch daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The new EY77 and EY78 services will begin on Wednesday 15 May 2013 and carry the KL code of Dutch national carrier, KLM. The daily flights will complement KLM’s current service between Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi which will increase to daily from the Summer and carry Etihad Airways’ EY code, ensuring that the two airlines can offer a combined double daily service. James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways said: “We are delighted that Amsterdam will become a part Etihad Airways’ global network from 15 May. The Dutch capital joins a group of 17 leading European cities that Etihad Airways flies to including Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, London and Paris. The double daily
service between Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi will benefit passengers looking to travel from the Netherlands to Abu Dhabi and beyond to destinations like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia.” In return, KLM will place its KL code on Etihad Airways flights to Baghdad, Basra, Calicut, Cochin, Dhaka, Erbil, Hyderabad, Kathmandu, Chennai, Male, Peshawar, Seychelles and Trivandrum. This adds to the current codeshare flights to Colombo, Islamabad, Lahore, Melbourne, and Sydney. These new destinations are part of the airline’s 10-year network growth plan which will see Etihad Airways fly to more than 100 destinations with a fleet of more than 150 aircraft by 2020. Etihad Airways offers 27 weekly flights to Abu Dhabi from Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and twice a week from Peshawar. Travellers from Pakistan will have direct flights to Amsterdam via Abu Dhabi, the airline’s home-base. n
NEWS
Samsung launches campaign for newly-wed couples
Lahore: Samsung Electronics has launched a special campaign till February2013 to add excitement and create value for customers during the wedding season in Pakistan. This offer named “Khushiyon Bhara Aghaz” presents a wide range of products based
on cutting-edge technologies for newly-wed couples. These products are tailored to doubleup the joys of those memorable moments in their lives. All newly-wed couples can now purchase the latest home appliances and electronics, to enrich their lifestyle with Samsung’s LED TV,
Warid brings ‘postpaid to prepaid balance transfer’ service
Lahore: Warid Telecom brings another fascinating service for its customers; Postpaid To Prepaid Balance Transfer. This service will allow Warid Telecom’s postpaid customers to share balance with Warid prepaid and Glow customers. Warid Telecom has been leading the way of innovation in Pakistan’s telecom indus-
try and Postpaid To Prepaid Balance Transfer service is yet another industry first by Warid Telecom. Through this service Warid Telecom’s postpaid customers can transfer amounts up to Rs.50, in denominations of Rs.10, with Warid’s prepaid and Glow customers by sending “B<space>Recipient Number<space>Transfer Amount” to 2424. This service reflects Warid Telecom’s commitment towards providing best quality services to its customers by introducing unique and innovative services in the industry. Commenting on this new offer, Warid Telecom’s
PTCL offers free balance for Vfone customers
Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) has launched an exciting offer for its Vfone customers, enabling
them to avail free balance of Rs. 1000. The offer has been specially launched for customers, who have not recharged their account
Plasma TV, Automatic Washing Machine, NoFrost Refrigerators and Vacuum Cleaner. The Managing Director of Samsung EC Pakistan Pvt. Ltd. – John Park said; Samsung has once again created this delightful offer for its customers. This time we decided to share the joy with all the excited couples who are planning a shopping spree for their wedding. Samsung aims to ensure that their new journey in life becomes a pleasant, convenient and comfortable experience, as they enjoy the innovative, luxurious appliances and digital entertainment products from a global technology leader. n
Chief Commercial Office, Mr. Younas Iqbal Sheikh stated, "There are so many occasions where a parent or a businessman etc. needs to send balance to their children or business associates for an urgent communication need. With this innovative service, a Warid postpaid subscriber no longer needs to go to a retail shop or franchise outlet to buy credit to send across. They can now do it with comfort and convenience simply by sending an SMS.” Postpaid 2 Prepaid Balance Transfer provides convenience and flexibility in terms of balance sharing, ensuring that Warid Telecom’s customers are always in touch with their loved ones. n
since Aug 10, 2012. Customers can avail this service by calling or sending a SMS at 7711. Valid for 15 days from the day of activation, the free balance of Rs. 1000 can be utilized by customers for Vfone to Vfone and Vfone to PTCL calls, Internet and SMS services. Omar Khalid, PTCL Executive Vice President (EVP) Wireless Business said at the occasion, “Serving the needs of our customers remains our top priority and we are striving to exceed their expectations. With PTCL Vfone, our customers enjoy on-the-go voice and data connectivity at most affordable rates”. PTCL Vfone has the country’s largest Wireless Local Loop (WLL) coverage and is available with both prepaid and postpaid options. Vfone enables customers to enjoy unlimited free calls from Vfone to Vfone and Vfone to PTCL landline through ‘Family & Unlimited packages’. Vfone also offers SMS facility to all networks for only Rs. 0.30 per SMS while internet charges are Rs. 2.00 per 15 minutes. n
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Mobilink brings Internet Khazana
Islamabad: Mobilink brings an internet based quiz for its prepaid customers including Mobilink Jazz and Mobilink Jazba subscribers. The Internet Khazana quiz mechanism consists of multiple choice questions on WAP pages which participants can answer in
order to gather points and increase their possibilities to become a winner. All points will
be accumulated during the campaign for the balloting of the final / grand prize. The participant will click on the answer he / she believes is the correct in order to gain points. Once answered, user is notified if the answer was correct or incorrect. n
HBL signs a business alliance agreement with Cinepax
Warid introduces Android apps Jiammi
Lahore: After introducing PakWheels and Har Batti Android apps, Now Warid has introduced another android app for Android users named as Jiammi. Jiammi (a product of IDEAS – Web Solutions) is designed to be the biggest repository of educational content, submitted by students, teachers and publishers all across Pakistan. Anyone who publishes their content through Jiammi can earn financial reward based on the number of views generated by their content. Jiammi is available through the following mediums for ease of access & use by students and to maximize reach. n
Wateen sponsors “Best Domestic Bowler” award
Karachi: Habib Bank Pvt. Ltd. has announced that it has signed a business alliance agreement with Cinepax Limited, Pakistan for working on different initiatives ranging from installation of HBL ATMs to branding and promotional activities across Cinepax cinemas country-wide network. The announcement was made at a signing ceremony held at HBL Plaza, Karachi, attended by HBL & Cinepax Limited representatives. Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Faiq SadiqHead, Payment Services, said that “HBL aims to partner with the entertainment industry in Pakistan in order to create value for its existing and prospective customers by providing them access to smart financial solutions
beyond the traditional means of banking. The business alliance is in line with the bank’s mission of creating avenues for financial inclusion. From Cinepax Limited, it was signed by HashimRaza, Chief Operating Officer of the company. He mentioned that such collaborative partnerships are a winwin for both organizations and where it will help HBL promote its brand leveraging Cinepax’s exhibition assets and an in-cinema reach to up to 12,000 people per day it will also create value for Cinepax, with cutting-edge theater and technology that enhance the movie-going experience for audiences in the entertainmentstarved Pakistani target markets. n
Ufone has announced this special daily mobile internet bundle for its prepaid customers, which is considered as one of the best packages available in the market. This Mobile Internet Bundle from Ufone comes at a special price of Rs. 4.99 per day, against which you can consume 75 MB of mobile internet.
However, this special mobile internet bundle will be available during 1 AM to 9 PM next day only. Meaning that, customers will not be able to use mobile internet during 9PM to 1 AM – i.e. for four hours. For rest of 20 hours, you can use Mobile Internet with ease and up to 75 MB of download/upload. n
Ufone brings 75MB internet bundle for Rs. 4.99/day
Lahore: Wateen Telecom is proud to announce its support for Pakistan cricket by sponsoring the “Best Domestic Bowler” category award, at the recently held first ever PCB awards. Up and coming talented cricketer Zulfiqar Babar was presented this award by Imtiaz Ahmed. Zulfiqar Babar is a highly talented slow left arm orthodox bowler and has been consistently performing well at the domestic level. Speaking about supporting Pakistan cricket, Naeem Zamindar, CEO Wateen Telecom said: “Wateen Telecom believes that cricket is something that unites our nation like nothing else. Our youth possesses immense cricketing talent and it is important to support the game at the domestic level. We admire Pakistan Cricket Board’s efforts in recognizing and promoting our national cricketing talent.” The awards were held at a local hotel with the Pakistan Cricket team and a number of dignitaries from all walks of life in attendance. n
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Zong carnama offer prize distribution
Berkatullah, Regional Director, Zong handing over the key of Honda Civic to lucky winner Ghulam Yasin.
Islamabad: Zong, the fastest growing network of Pakistan, has once again outdone the competitors by announcing the winners of its Carnama offer. Through this offer the telecom giant has rewarded 5 fortunate subscribers with brand new Honda Civic cars and 40 subscribers with motorbikes. Names of the win-
ners were selected by conducting a lucky draw which was carried out by CEO Mr. Fan Yunjun accompanied by CCO Mr. Sajid Mahmood and Executive Director Mr. Usman Ishaq. To be eligible for the prize all that one had to do was to consume a minimum balance of Rs 200 plus tax till 25th November. n
EVO Wireless Broadband services along with the services of Meezan Bank. Zaman Gulzar, PTCL Executive Vice President (EVP), National Sales, while speaking at the occasion said, “This partnership will enable Meezan Bank to increase its productivity and focus on its core business of financial solutions. PTCL’s dynamic end to end ICT solutions
ation support and scalability for network expansion”. Faiz ur Rehman, Chief Information Officer, Meezan Bank while speaking on the occasion said “the synergy between PTCL and Meezan Bank will improve operational efficiency of Meezan Bank and augment our vision of delivering exceptional services to our customers”. n
storage facilities, resource enabling the banks cus- provide reliable network PTCL, Meezan Bank sign agreement utilization and scalability tomers to enjoy PTCL services, continuous oper-
Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) and Meezan Bank have announced signing an agreement for Data Center services provisioning. Under the agreement, PTCL will provide Data Center services to Meezan Bank for its Disaster Recovery Data Center (DRDC). This strategic partnership shall enable
Meezan Bank in disaster recovery and business continuity, reduce internal network operations cost, provide geographical redundancy and add greater resilience to its network. The agreement was signed by Zaman Gulzar, PTCL Executive Vice President (EVP), National Sales and Arif Ul Islam, Chief Operating Officer (COO) & Executive Direc-
tor, Meezan Bank, at a ceremony held at Meezan Bank Head Office in Karachi. Other senior officials from PTCL and Meezan Bank were also present at the occasion. The state of the art Data Centers of PTCL offer strategic ICT solutions through a highly secure and reliable network infrastructure providing optimum network security,
‘Mobilink Business’ introduces new paradigm in business communications
Lahore: Mobilink has launched a new service division, ‘Mobilink Business’, aimed at addressing the connectivity needs of businesses across Pakistan. As part of Mobilink’s new business model, management and owners of businesses will be empowered to customize their cellular and enterprise services to suit their business and budgetary needs. Mobilink Business offers a unique portfolio of ‘Mobility Solutions’ that will enable entrepreneurs, professionals, SMEs and large business concerns to enjoy in-
creased control, value and flexibility over their business communications. Business managers will now be able to tailor solutions by selecting their preference of numerous Mobilink services that are unique to their needs. Bilal Munir Sheikh, Chief Commercial Officer, Mobilink, emphasized, ‘Mobilink has always been innovative when it comes to the needs of our customers across Pakistan. We believe in going beyond business to change the way businesses manage their communications needs. Mobilink Business is another milestone in the history of Pakistan’s cellular industry that will change the paradigm of how businesses manage their connectivity needs.’ Azfar Manzoor, Vice President Business Serv-
ices Division, Mobilink said, ‘The continuing evolution of Pakistan's business sector necessitated a shift in strategy to cater to its connectivity needs. Mobilink is the first cellular operator in Pakistan to address this need by offering a robust solution that ensures complete control to our business customers.’ This new business model will provide customers with valuepacked cellular plans inclusive of all network and Circle minutes, SMS and data volume, as well as the provision of customization from a catalogue of service options. Businesses will also be able to enjoy dedicated account manager facilities, call back facilities, activation at doorstep and other advantages as part of this new relationship service model. n
Mobile users surpass 123.6 million mark
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Cellular companies in Pakistan added 1,088,909 subscribers in November 2012 to take the total subscription base to 123,597,202 subscribers by end of November, said recently issued stats by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. This huge increase in cellular subscription – after a long
time – can be credited to Zong, which alone added 978,627 subscribers in the reported month. PTA said the cellular density stood hay 69.8 percent, up from 68.8 percent a month ago. Mobilink lead the market with 36,600,076 subscribers while Telenor had 30,809,667 customers by
November end. Ufone stood third with 24,314,561 subscribers. Zong took a long jump in the month to get 18,930,012 subscriptions. Warid had 12,942,886 subscribers by end of November. It added 181,877 customers during the reported duration. n
which reduce the cost of data ownership and management, said the release issued by PTCL. PTCL will host Meezan Bank’s data services at the company’s Data Center in Islamabad, providing convenient and secure network support to the bank’s 300 branches in 90 cities nationwide. PTCL has also recently signed an agreement with Meezan Bank,
Etihad Airways wins ‘Airline Brand of the Year’ award
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister of Finance, presenting the Brand of the Year Award trophy to Amer Khan, Etihad Airway’s Area General Manager for Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
Lahore: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has bagged the ‘Airline Brand of the Year Award’ organised by the Brands Foundation. The award, which is one of the highest honours bestowed in the business and corporate communities in Pakistan, was awarded to the airline due to its popularity, strong company profile and commitment to its customers as shown by nationwide surveys. The Brands Foundation, a public company monitored by the government of Pakistan, organises the award annually with the aim of promoting healthy com-
petition among local, national and multinational brands operating in the country. The Foundation’s governing body includes Intellectual Property Organization (IPO-Pakistan), Pakistan Standards Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industries. It works in collaboration with the International Brand Council that ranks brands globally Amer Khan, Etihad Airways’ Area General Manager for Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives. said: “We are honoured and pleased to win this prestigious award and
believe it is a reflection of the positive progress that has been made in establishing the Etihad Airways brand, the hard work of our team, and the continued innovation in the inspirational travel experiences we offer our guests.” The Chief Executive of the Brands Foundation, Shaikh Rashid Alam, said: “I’d like to congratulate Etihad Airways on this coveted award. Etihad Airways has consistently outpaced the market with the level of innovation it brings to the airline industry, so it's no surprise to see that it stands out as a leading brand in this category.” n
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Merit and transparency for PIA employment being introduced
MD PIA Muhammad Junaid Yunus and CEO NTS Dr Haroon Rashid signed an agreement for assessment of the PIA employees' professional standards for bringing in merit and transparency in the employment in Lahore.
Lahore: Managing Director PIA, Muhammad Junaid Yunus and CEO –National Testing Services Dr. Haroon Rashid signed an agreement for assessment of the PIA employees’ professional standards for bringing in merit and transparency in the employment. After signing of the agreement all appointments and promotions in PIA will be done on merit on passing of the test conducted by National Testing Service.
The NTS tests of the PIA employees would be computer based and a computer laboratory would be established by the NTS at the Head Office. The test would be for professional competence, Psychometric test of the employees based on their job description. For purposes of merit and transparency these online test would be conducted on real time basis and the result would be announced immediately on finishing the test by each
employee. Initially the test would check proficiency in job related knowledge, English language, general knowledge and intelligence quotient (IQ). Initially about 2500 employees of all categories would be put to test by NTS. Managing Director PIA while sharing his views on the occasion said that PIA’s financial position is improving and the airline is now in operating profit. He said that in November 2012 PIA
PTCL Freedom Package offers unlimited call, free Wi-Fi modems Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) has announced free on-net calls through its Freedom Package and free Wi-Fi modems with new Broadband connections. PTCL Freedom Package enables landline customers to make unlimited on-net calls from PTCL to PTCL and Vfone across the country with monthly charges. All double play cus-
tomers can avail this offer for only Rs 250 extra while single play customers can benefit from this offer for Rs.499 per month only. Keeping in view of the
increased demand and proliferation of Wi-Fi enabled devices, PTCL is also providing free Wi-Fi modems with every new Broadband connection. Aasif Inam, PTCL Ex-
Etihad Airways' net profit jumps 200pc
Lahore: Etihad Airways reported net profit of $42 million in 2012, up 200 per cent on 2011 ($14 million) in a year which saw strong improvements in revenues, passengers
numbers and cost control. Revenue increased 17 per cent to $4.8 billion ($4.1 billion), on passenger numbers up 23 per cent to 10.3 million (8.4 million).
These numbers were boosted significantly by Etihad Airways' equity partnerships and codeshares, which delivered more than $600 million in total revenue. James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, said: “This has been a game-changing year for Etihad Airways. We have delivered improved net profit, the second consecutive year we have been in the black, a remarkable achievement given the youth, ambitious growth and ongo-
earned operating profit of Rs. 738 million. Previous loans will be restructured and a comprehensive plan has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance. After taking charge of the National Flag Carrier various initiatives have been taken for the betterment of the airline. With the induction of A320 aircraft in PIA fleet the airline will be saving around 54% in fuel costs. He said that each flight is being monitored and in December 2012 the airline managed to save 110 tons of fuel. With the induction of aircraft in PIA fleet the flight schedule of the airline will also improve. He added. Other initiatives taken include forensic audit, a Committee formed for the review of airline affairs and termination from service of employees with fake educational degrees. The signing of the agreement with National Testing Service is another step forward in implementing merit and transparency in employment and promotions in PIA. n ecutive Vice President (EVP) Wireline Business commented, “We are delighted with the overwhelming response from our customers for PTCL Freedom Package. At PTCL, we believe in differentiating ourselves by offering customized voice and data packages designed to suit varying needs and demands of our customers.” PTCL remains the leading player in the Broadband market of Pakistan with the largest consumer base of more than 1 million subscribers. n
ing investment made by this airline in a challenging global economic environment. We have taken great strides in building the industry's first 'equity alliance', with our investments in airberlin, Air Seychelles, Virgin Australia and Aer Lingus, which are contributing significant value to our business. And we have met our mandate of contributing to the economic development of Abu Dhabi, growing its aviation sector and building trade and tourism connections across the globe.” n
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | fl a re. p k
Samsung introduces Galaxy Xcover 2 smartphone
Lahore: Samsung unveiled the Samsung Xcover 2, the ideal smartphone for active explorers who are enjoying outdoor lifestyles and seeking a durable mobile device with essential smartphone capabilities. The Galaxy Xcover 2 is optimized to endure against the most rugged outdoor conditions, whether you’re at work or play. Protected against the elements, it is dust and sand proof. It’s even water resistant to a depth of one meter for up to 30 minutes (IP67 Certified). You can now take photos under water with the di-
rect camera key, hold on tight to your device with the strap holder and not worry about dropping your phone as the battery cover lock gives added protection. Pre-downloaded Google map data, an enhanced GPS + GLONASS which shortens the satellite signal detection by up to 20% to tracks your location more accurately, LED Flash next to the camera which can be used like a torch and a huge battery capacity of 570 hours(1,700mAh), making the GALAXY Xcover 2 is the best possible smartphone partner for outdoor exploration. n
Karachi: Government has appointed Dr. Asif A. Brohi as President/CEO of National Bank of Pakistan. A Master in Business Administration from
Northrop, California and Doctorate in Public Administration, he joined National Bank of Pakistan in 1984 as an Assistant Vice President. Dr. Brohi prior to becoming President of the Bank, was serving as Chief Operating Officer & Head of Commercial & Retail Banking Group of NBP, and carries rich experience in all spheres of banking spanning over almost three decades. He has in the past headed Bank’s Operations Group, Strategic Planning Group, Information Technology Group, Culture Change Programme Group and Training. n
Karachi: As per tradition of HOM, this year celebrated the Meladun Nabi by organising Mehfil-e-Milad which was telecasted on 11th &12thRabiul- Awwal on various TV channels programmes sponsored by HOM including QTV
Rate Rubiul Awwal transmission including male, female Mehfil-eNaat, male, female Naat competition and other special programmes sponsored by HOM which was appreciated by our consumers countrywide.
Dr Asif Brohi appointed NBP President
HOM Miladun Nabi celebrations
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PTCL brings Smart TV app for PC users
Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) brings Smart TV application for PC/laptops users. If you spend most of your time in front of laptop screens for studies or official work in that case don’t miss out famous programmes or a live cricket match and download
smart TV application. Even if you miss out, the application gives you a re-run feature of 7-days through which you can not only watch any past programme but also record a live or past program in your laptop harddisk, the functionality is known as DVRDigital video recording. n
Team Ufone Golfer makes it to the Asian Tour
Islamabad: Muhammad Munir Pakistan No. 3 & Tour team member for Ufone recently qualified for the Asian Tour. Making him the only Pakistani
PM Raja chairs USF 30th BoD meeting
Islamabad: The 30th meeting of the Board of Director of Universal Service Fund (USF) was held recently under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf at PM House. During the meeting the minutes of the 29th Board meeting were confirmed. The meeting was told that USF has made tremendous progress during the last five and a half years by providing basic telephony and data services in more than three thousand and six hundred (3600) muzas. The meeting was
also informed that broadband services have also been provided in two hundred and sixty (260) 2nd and 3rd tiers cities and towns. As far the optic fiber programme, more than 4250 km of optic fiber cable has been laid to connect unserviced tehsils and towns. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf appreciated the performance of USF and praised the plan of USF to extend connectivity in the remote areas of Baluchistan in order to bring them at par with other developed areas of the country.
The Prime Minister emphasized on the need to use the fund efficiently for developing connectivity in rural areas and benefit of telecom sector. Dr. Abdul Hafiz Sheikh, Minister for Finance, Dr. Basit Riaz Sheikh, CEO/Advisor Ministry of IT, Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qadir, Secretary IT, Dr. Ismail Shah, Member Telecom, Walid Irshad, CEO PTCL, Fan Yunjun, CEO-CM Pak, Azfar Manzoor, CEO ISPAK and Kaukab Iqbal, Representative of Consumer Association of Pakistan also attended the meeting. n
Usman Ishaq resigns from Zong
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Karachi: Usman Ishaq, Executive Director Commercial at Zong, has resigned. Usman Ishaq, considered a close ally of Fan Yun Jun – the CEO of Zong, had joined Zong in April 2008 as Regional Director for Sales. During his five years’ service term at Zong, Mr.
Ishaq was promoted thrice and became Executive Director Commercial at the company — a slot that is said to be created specifically for him. Zong credits Mr. Ishaq for taking customers’ base from 7 million to 14 million when he was Director Sales at
Zong. Later on he was made the Director for Marketing Department during which company’s subscriber base grew to 19 million. Before joining Zong, Mr. Ishaq had served at Warid Telecom, ICI Pakistan, Mobilink and Thuraya. n
step onto the international circuit. At 38 he is still a promising prospect for Pakistan Golf. The sport may not get the same attention as popular sports like cricket or hockey yet Munir is hoping to be among the forerunners to turn the spotlight on the sport by performing well on the Asian Tour. It is pertinent to mention that this year a record 761 golfers from across the globe registered for the Asian Tour Q School, out of which only the Top 41 made it to the Asian Tour. Munir had a great 2012, having also won the President Gold Medal among many others and hopes to continue his form on the international circuit. n
Golfer to qualify for the Asian Tour via Q school. In the past he has participated in a few Asian tour events for which both Munir & Shabbir Iqbal were invited to represent Pakistan. Shabbir who has held onto the No.1 slot in Pakistan for a number of consecutive year is also a member of the promising Ufone squad. Munir participated in the recently held Dubai Classic Golf Tournament making him the only Pakistani ever to take part in the European Tour. This was accredited to the performance he displayed in last year’s MENA tour. He out performed all other Pakistanis that took part in the Tour and was the proud winner at the Ras
Al Khaimah Classic. At the end of the MENA tour Munir was ranked 4th among many international players which is indeed a great feat for Pakistan. Munir said, this is indeed a great achievement and I look forward to bring Pakistan onto the fast progressing International Golf Map. I would like to thank Ufone for its continuous support to the game of golf in Pakistan, their development program is sure to help in the growth and professionalism in the sport. Pakistan’s Muhammad Munir first created history when he steered his country into their first World Cup appearance at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in 2009, this was his first
Aamer Izhar, VP Telenor resigns
Zong introduces Music Call
Karachi: Zong has launched a new excited service Zong Music Call, which will allow its customers to enjoy musical experience when they make calls to their family and friends. This stirring service is topped by Zong MusiIslamabad: Aamer Izhar-ul-Haq, Vice President at Telenor Pakistan and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer has resigned. Atifa Asghar, Director Communications and Public Relations at Telenor said that Aamer Izhar-ul-Haq, Vice President Corporate Affairs, Telenor Pakistan has decided to move on for personal reasons. Telenor said that it will announce replacement for Ammer Izhar soon. Aamer Izhar was working with Telenor since 2004, before which he had worked for Mobilink for four years. Aamer was Vice President at Telenor since January 2011, during which he headed the corporate affairs. n
Call content which is absolutely free. You can download from a treasure trove of melodious songs, inspiring instrumentals and much more from Zong MusiCall Library without any charges (limited time promotion). In addition to this Offer you can also Copy free Music during the conversation. Zong MusiCall features are not limited here; you can also select different music for different people and play special effects during the conversation by just pressing a keypad button on your mobile phone. n
Intel introduces mSATA SolidState Drive for Ultrabook
Islamabad: Intel Corporation announced the Intel Solid-State Drive 525 Series (Intel SSD 525 Series) in a small mSATA form factor with 6-gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) performance. The Intel SSD 525 Series gives OEM customers, channel and tech enthusiasts an ultraportable, low-power storage solution in oneeighth the space of a traditional 2.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD) to
drive innovative Ultrabook, tablet and embedded applications. The Intel SSD 525 is the latest entry to the Intel 500 Series SSD family aimed at higher-performance, enthusiast solutions. Measuring 3.7mmx50.8mmx29.85 mm and weighing 10 grams, the mSATA with PCI Express (PCIe) mini-connector delivers the performance of the Company’s Intel SSD 520 Series client drive. n
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Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f la r e.p k
gard. Recently, the company has provided motorcycles on ownership basis to its Customer Serv-
ices Representatives and technicians of field units as part of the company’s employee development initiatives. This major initiative has been taken aligning the personal welfare of employees with business sustainability. In the first phase of this program, employees are being provided Motorcycles in 48 easy installments on ownership basis. In addition, 30 liters of fuel will also be provided by the company every month. This facilitation exercise brings convenience for the employees and also strengthens the field resources for provisioning of better services to the customers. Syed Mazhar Hussain, PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) Human Resources said at
Karachi:LG Electronics (LG) today introduced its 2013 TV lineup in South Korea, unveiling products that deliver unrivalled picture quality as well as a bevy of easy-to-use features to heighten the viewing experience. With industry-leading products such as the ul-
timate 55-inch OLED TV, the world’s first-to-ship 84inch Ultra HD TV and the most advanced 3D Smart TVs in the market, LG is setting a high bar by demonstrating that superb picture quality is its top priority. “LG is building a brand that is synonymous with
PTCL takes employee development to new heights
Syed Mazhar Hussain, PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP), Human Resources, presenting motorcycle keys to PTCL customer care representatives.
Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) stands committed in its
resolve of development dedication exhibited by and welfare of its em- employees. ployees and deeply valNumerous initiatives ues the commitment and have been taken in this re-
Islsmabad: Telenor Pakistan is trying to convey the message to their customer, be aware of mobile phone scams, and portraying the message once the official website of Telenor loads and initial information is all about the mobile scams and within the few seconds header of the website is loaded.
It has been noticed in recent years that the activities of scams in mobile phones are gorgeously planed and fool the innocent people. Messages are coming from unknown numbers and proclaiming that you are the winners of prize, and asking you to provide the scratch cards numbers and send easy load transfer money
the occasion, “PTCL recognizes its human resource at its most valuable asset and invests heavily in their development through various training initiatives and welfare activities. Our HR initiatives are geared towards creating a sustainable economic and social impact on the lives of our employees. This initiative will not only benefit and improve the productivity of our employees but also inspire them to deliver beyond our customers expectations.” In connection with this employee facilitation exercise, special ceremonies were held in all the zonal head offices where motorcycles were handed over to the employees by PTCL management. n
Telenor alerts mobile phones scams to its customers LG unveils next generation TV in market through easy paisa in order to claim the reward. So this kind of messages should be ignored and do not replay and even not call to the sender, in case of any prize Telenor is announcing the schemes on its official websites and sending the messages from authentic numbers and winners are announced officially. n
Return of the ShahCar Offer 2013
Islamabad: Ufone has once again launched its renowned ShahCar offer for its valued customers. Ufone customers, this time, have a chance to win one of twenty brand new Toyota Corolla cars via a lucky draw. Ufone customers can take part in the lucky draw by consuming a minimum balance of Rs.300. The more a customer consumes a balance Rs.300 he/she will multiply their entries for the lucky draw, hence
increasing the probability to win. The offer is valid from 7th Feb till 31st March. Both existing and new prepaid and postpaid Ufone customers can participate in the offer and try their luck. In the past, a total of 30 customers benefitted from the two previous Shar Car Offers. ShahCar Offer 2013 is being introduced after the remarkable success of the same offer. Ufone has been in the lead to offer such deals to their cus-
tomers. Akbar Khan, Chief Marketing Officer at Ufone said that, “the success of the ShahCar offer has actually fulfilled dreams of so many of our customers that we are encouraged to launch it again.” Like last year this offer is a ray of hope for our customers to win brand new Toyota Corolla cars and we look forward to share many more exciting offers with our valued customers”, he added. n
wi-tribe deploys the all-new “my wi-tribe 2.0”
Karachi: Recently, witribe has unveiled of the revamped version of my wi-tribe, the ever popular wi-tribe customer selfhelp portal. At the forefront of understanding its customers’ needs and providing them with simple and convenient solutions to meet them, the new look offers more userfriendly functionalities and interactive interface. Providing one-stop online solutions to wi-
tribe customers, this technological tribute to customers will allow them to enjoy using the more augmented and simplified version to access their account, view usage and billing history, pay bills, purchase add-ons, live chat with customer care representatives, watch self-help videos and much more. Launched in 2009, ‘my wi-tribe’ is one of the many customer care touch points the leading
broadband service provider offers. As the pioneer of customer engagement programs in the broadband industry and the number 1 broadband company to provide quality services and customer satisfaction, wi-tribe is proud to consistently innovate simple new ways for its customers to engage with the brand at their convenience. n
great picture quality,” said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. “With our advanced display technologies, we are confident that our products will lead the next generation of TVs in 2013 and beyond.” n
Mobilink organizes 6th Golf Tournament
Azfar Manzoor, VP Business Services Division (Centre) with winners of the 6th Mobilink Golf Tournament held in Lahore.
Mobilink organized the 6th Mobilink Golf Tournament 2013 at the Royal Palm & Country Golf Club, Lahore. The one day tourney in Lahore attracted a number of amateur golfers, representing a diverse segment of Lahore’s corporate and business sector, making for a well competed event, providing healthy entertainment and promoting golf in Pakistan. Mobilink presented a number of valu-
able prizes to winners and other participants. Azfar Manzoor, Vice President Business Services Division, Mobilink highlighted, “It is a great pleasure to host our customers in the 6th Mobilink Golf Tournament, Lahore. With our customers’ fervor and support over the years, this recreational event has turned into one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in Pakistan. We
will continue to bring this opportunity to our customers in the coming years.” Now in its sixth edition, the 18-hole tournament has consistently attracted golfing enthusiasts from within the Mobilink customer base. A similar tournament is also in the planning for Mobilink customers in Islamabad over the coming weeks. n
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Wateen sponsors “Best Domestic Bowler” award at the first PCB awards
Lahore: Wateen Telecom is proud to announce its support for Pakistan cricket by sponsoring the “Best Domestic Bowler” cat-
egory award, at the recently held first ever PCB awards. Upcoming talented cricketer Zulfiqar Babar was presented this award by
Mr. Imtiaz Ahmed. Zulfiqar Babar is a highly talented slow left arm orthodox bowler and has been consistently perform-
ing well at the domestic level. Speaking about supporting Pakistan cricket, Mr. Naeem Zamindar, CEO Wateen Telecom said, “Wateen Telecom believes that cricket is something that unites our nation like nothing else. Our youth possesses immense cricketing talent and it is important to support the game at the domestic level. We admire Pakistan Cricket Board’s efforts in recognizing and promoting our national cricketing talent.” The awards were held at a local hotel with the Pakistan Cricket team and a number of dignitaries from all walks of life in attendance. n
Innovative solutions applied to energise edu sector
Islamabad: Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Begum Shahnaz Wazir Ali has said that Pakistan needs to find innovative solutions to unleash education emergency in the country and public and private sectors must join hands to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in this sector. She was speaking at the inaugural meeting of Education Innovation Alliance organized by Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) in collaboration with Developyst and Ilm Ideas - the two civil society organizations. The Education Innovation Alliance is a group
of visionaries coming together to transform the education landscape in Pakistan. Begum Shahnaz Wazir Ali said that Pakistan has the second highest number of chil-
dren who do not go to school. To be very precise, she said, nearly 25 per cent of the 19.75 million children in Pakistan aged 5 to 9 are out of
school.in the same vein, she said that almost twothird of the poorest girls in Pakistan have never been to school. Former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Shahid Kardar said there is a need to challenge the status quoin education sector. Ahmad Jamal, Senior Group Head PPAF, stressed the need to reach out individuals and institutions across the country, including the poor, to identify scalable and innovative solutionsthat provide access to quality education. Rashid Khan, chairman of a leading telecom, identified that innovation and a desire
for change is evident amongst Pakistan’s growing middle class, youth and members of civil society and this needed to be harnessed in a systematic way. The participants developed recommendations for finding and inspiring innovators in education. They pledged to advocate with the public and private sector to build an enabling environment for innovation. They agreed to help develop connections of people and ideas, to allow innovative ideas to interact and feed off each other to create a multiplier effect. n
Irfan Wahab Khan
Aamir Ibrahim
Ifran Wahab replaces Aamir Ibrahim at Telenor
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Islamabad: Irfan Wahab Khan will be taking over as Chief Marketing Officer, Telenor Pakistan while Aamir Ibrahim, currently Chief Marketing Officer, Telenor Pakistan will join Telenor Group, said a press statement issued recently. Both of these changes will be effective from 1 April 2013. Irfan Wahab Khan has a long association with Telenor Pakistan being the first member of the startup team when he joined the company as Executive Vice President in 2004. He played a key role in
establishing and expanding Telenor in Pakistan. Since 2009 he has been on international positions as Group Vice President Devices and VP-Head of Asia Distribution within the Telenor group both in Norway and Thailand respectively. Irfan Wahab Khan has over 20 years of diverse management experience with leading telecommunications companies across North America, Europe and Asia. “I am delighted for the opportunity to return back to the company which I feel so special and passionate about.
I am looking forward to working together with a highly talented and dedicated team and I am confident that together we can further enhance and build upon the great tradition of excellence and take Telenor Pakistan to even greater heights” said Ir-
fan Wahab Khan. Aamir Ibrahim joined Telenor as Chief Strategy Officer and VP Corporate Affairs in 2009 to replace Ifran Wahab and for the past two years has been leadin g the commercial division as its CMO. Under his watch Te-
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Mobilink nominated for Global Mobile Awards 2013
Lahore: Mobilink Foundation has been nominated for the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards 2013 to acknowledge the success of the ‘SMS Based Literacy’ program. Mobilink Foundation’s ‘SMS Based Literacy’ program has been nominated for the inaugural ‘Connected Life Awards’ in the category of ‘Best Mobile Education or Learning Product or Service’. The program is Mobilink Foundation’s flagship corporate responsibility project in the education sector, which is aimed exclusively at rural women. ‘SMS Based Literacy’ was launched in May 2009 in collaboration with UNESCO, and is the first and the only service in Pakistan that utilizes Short Messaging Service (SMS) to impart education. The program is currently in its third phase and is being implemented in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa of Pakistan; till date, it has reached out to over 4,000 female learners across Pakistan. Rashid Khan, President & CEO, Mobilink,
highlighted, “It is a matter of great pride for Mobilink that our efforts are being recognized on the GSMA platform. The Mobilink Foundation has been the custodian of Mobilink’s Corporate Responsibility initiatives since 2007, and the nomination is an acknowledgment of our efforts towards making a difference for the societies in which we operate.” Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA, added, “The GSMA warmly congratulates all the nominees for the 18th annual Global Mobile Awards. The competition for 2013 was of an exceptionally high quality, breaking all previous records. Our judging panel has assessed well over 600 entries and nominations for the 37 awards, the largest ever number of honors to be presented in the history of the Global Mobile Awards.” The Global Mobile Awards aim to recognize excellence and innovation within the mobile communications industry, and the 2013 edition has 158 nominees across thirty seven (37) categories. The awards for 2013 will be presented at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 26 February. n win on sending each SMS, 5 Mobilink minutes, 30 SMS and postpaid customers can winVAS content. Mobilink Jazz already brings 1 to 8 SMS khazana offers but its coming exciting bumper prizing and daily base big cash prizes for Mobilink customers. n
Mobilink Jazz brings SMS khazana 9
Islamabad: Mobilink has introduced the Jazz SMS Khazana 9 for the customers to answer the nine questions and win grand cash prizes of 4 crore and daily prizes of five hundred thousand. Customers can further
lenor rapidly grew from 24 million subscribers and crossed the 30 million land mark in October last year and solidified its number 2 position in the Pakistan Telecom Industry. “It’s been a humbling and rewarding experience leading one of the best teams in the world. However, it is also time to move on, and to contribute to the Telenor agenda on a broader Asian level. I will miss the great people at Telenor Pakistan, but am equally excited about the next challenge,” said Aamir Ibrahim. “We are grateful for Aamir’s various contributions to the company; he passes on a legacy and a solid platform
that will allow for future growth and prosperity. I am very confident that Aamir will excel in his new position in Telenor Group.” Said Lars Christen, CEO Telenor Pakistan. “For Aamir’s replacement we needed someone who is familiar both with Telenor’s unique culture as well as the operational context within Pakistan. “We are grateful for Aamir’s various contributions to the company; he passes on a legacy and a solid platform that will allow for future growth and prosperity. I am very confident that Aamir will excel in his new position in Telenor Group.” said Lars Christen, CEO Telenor Pakistan. n
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Yahoo buys scrapbook website Snip.it San Francisco: Yahoo! confirmed that it bought Snip.it, a young San Francisco startup that lets people create scrapbooks with pictures, articles, videos and other content found online. "The Snip.it team created an innovative technology that lets people
was no longer available. A link was provided to a hall of fame honoring top Snip.it contributors. "For the past year and a half, we've worked tirelessly as a team to build the best social news platform on the Web," Snip.it said in the message. "We are thrilled at the
share content in a social and fun way," Yahoo! vice president of product Mike Kerns has said. "Reading and sharing content is a core daily habit for most of the world, and we can't wait to work with the Snip.it team to make that experience even more entertaining for our users." A message posted at Snip.it told users it was "joining forces" with Yahoo! and that the service
opportunity to bring Snip.it's vision to a larger scale at Yahoo!" Snip.it launched in late 2011 as a place where people could share digital "scrapbooks" based on topics or themes of their choosing. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but unconfirmed online reports estimated the figure to be in the vicinity of $15 million. n
Abu Dhabi: Etisalat Group and Pacific Controls, a global automation specialist, this week signed an agreement to offer Machine-to-Machine based sustainable development applications to clients across Etisalat’s footprint in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Khalifa Al Shamsi, chief digital services officer, Etisalat Group, said that the partnership would help the telco to offer managed energy services capable of reducing customers’ carbon footprints. “Energy consumption today is at an all-time high, leading to increased ecological and environ-
mental pressure to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Etisalat is well positioned to spearhead this initiative in alliance with Pacific Controls, leveraging technologies like M2M to reduce the carbon footprint of the UAE,” he said. Dilip Rahulan, executive chairman of Pacific Controls added that the company’s technology and programme were able to help businesses reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint by up to 30%. The agreement was signed in Dubai by Khalifa Al Shamsi and Dilip Rahulan. n
Mark Zuckerberg wins “CEO SK Group head gets fouryear jail sentence of the Year” award He navigated the company that he founded in his college dorm room to a $104 million IPO, the biggest in the history of tech companies; then led it past one billion active users; and now he’s been named the CEO of the year at the 6th annual Crunchies: big congratulations to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. The award was presented earlier this evening at the Davies Symphony Hall by Mike Arrington of CrunchFund and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, before a sellout audience of 2,500, and an online audience of thousands more. Larry Page of Google was named the runner-up and the other nominees on the shortlist were Dick Costolo of Twitter, Phil Libin on Evernote and Marissa Mayer of Yahoo. Not to put too fine a
point on it, but Zuckerberg is nothing short of a tech icon. Facebook, as conceived of and led by him, has transformed how we as a culture share information about ourselves and the world. As the site has grown, it has also taken that central premise into new dimensions — namely through the social graph and the Graph API that interlinks with so many of the services we like to use online and on mobile devices today. The growth of the company has come with a firm commitment to hacking and trying out new things all the time, which keeps things interesting. But it has not always been plain sailing for Zuckerberg: with the IPO and subsequent life as a public company, has come increased focus on how Facebook makes money. n
Etisalat offers international calls at local Etisalat goes green with M2M rates UAE operator Etisalat
iPhone tops in US as Android rules the world: report
has introduced a new 'Wasel International Add-on', which allows Wasel prepaid customers to make international calls at local prices. With the new option, customers will pay AED 0.005 per second for international calls, the same rate as they pay for making domestic calls, when they call Etisalat networks in Egypt and Sri Lanka and all networks in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and China. The rate is applicable any time of the day, every day of the week. A call setup fee of AED 1 per call will be applied at the beginning of the call. Wasel prepaid customers can subscribe to the offer for free by dialing *141# or by sending IDD as a SMS to 1010. n
San Francisco: Apple's iPhone remained the most popular smartphone among US buyers in the closing months of 2012 while Android handsets were on top worldwide, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reported. "At the end of 2012, the global (operating system) picture shows Android on top, but clearly the rate of growth it experienced over the past year is beginning to slow as easy wins from first-time smartphone buyers begin to reduce," said Kantar global consumer insight director Dominic Sunnebo.
Seoul: The head of South Korea's third largest conglomerate, the SK Group, was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of embezzling close to $50 million. The custodial sentence was seen as relatively tough in a country where convicted business tycoons are often given suspended prison terms in recognition of their apparent contribution to the national economy. The court ruled that Chey Tae-Won, 53, had embezzled 49.7 billion won ($45.6 million) from two affiliates and funnelled the money into a firm for investments in stock futures and options in 2008. The SK Group boss had remained free since he was indicted a year ago. The energy-to-telecom conglomerate,
Apple iPhones accounted for 51.2 percent of smartphone sales in the United States during the 12-week period ending December 23rd of last year, according to Kantar. Smartphones powered by Google-backed Android software made up slightly more than 44 percent of sales while handsets based on Microsoft's Windows operating system were a distant thirdplace with 2.6 percent,
which includes top mobile carrier SK Telecom, said Chey would appeal the verdict. It was not Chey's first conviction. In 2003 he was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a $1.3 billion accounting fraud. He was released after just seven months and, in 2008, was finally granted a full presidential pardon, wiping his record clean. It is not unusual for senior executives with convictions for crimes including tax evasion and embezzlement to remain in charge of South Korea's familydominated conglomerates. The Seoul Central District Court said in its statement that Chey had betrayed the public trust in his group. "He should be reproached for using subsidiaries as a tool for his crime," it said. n
the report indicated. Android smartphones continued to be best sellers in major markets including Britain, China, Spain, Australia, and Germany while iPhones were favored in Japan as well as the United States, according to Kantor. Windows smartphones appeared to be catching on in Europe, with its shares of sales in Britain and Italy climbing to 5.9 and 13.9 percent respectively, the reported indicated. "Windows Phone is now starting to gain respectable shares in a number of key European countries," Sunnebo said. "However, its performance in the Chinese and US markets remains underwhelming; these remain key challenges for Microsoft to overcome during 2013."n
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Ericsson appoints new GCC & Pakistan chief
Stockholm: Ericsson announced the appointment, of Victoria Strand as head of its GCC and Pakistan Unit, part of the Ericsson Middle East Region. In her new role, Strand will be responsible for
handling the company's customer relations, further developing the skill level of employees and focusing on business growth. Based in Ericsson's Dubai office, Strand will oversee the telecom giant's operations in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Yemen and Pakistan. "Victoria has been an integral part of the Ericsson organisation for over 20 years," said Anders Lindblad, president of Ericsson Middle East. "We're very happy to have Victoria on board in the region and we are con-
fident that she will utilise her unique experience and expertise to continue to expand our presence in the region, and ensure that our customers' demands for the latest communication technology are met." Strand, who is a Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration graduate of the University of Linkoping in Sweden, began her career at Ericsson in 1989 in Sweden as an area sales manager for the Soviet Union. Since then she has held several positions within the company in areas such as proj-
ect management, product management, technical sales support, HR and communications. Strand's time at Ericsson has also allowed her to work in several roles across the globe, including being based in the Netherlands in the mid 1990s. "I am very excited to begin contributing to the business here in the GCC and Pakistan," said Strand. "I hope to tap into my industry experience to support the Ericsson Middle East unit in achieving its business and growth goals moving forward." n
Ericsson sees network growth fuelled by mobile surfers Stockholm: Troubled telecom equipment maker Ericsson said it was confident about prospects this year as more operators boost network capacity to meet growing demand for video streaming services such as YouTube. The Swedish company, which said in November it plans to axe 1,550 jobs, announced a 53 percent fall in annual net profit for 2012 as it was hit by a charge for joint venture ST-Ericsson. But chief executive Hans Vestberg said the group would benefit from projects by telecom operators increasing the capacity of their networks in the second half of this year. "While the macroeconomic and political uncer-
tainty continues in certain regions the longterm fundamentals in the industry remain attractive and we are well positioned," he said in a statement. Telecom operators around the world are struggling to keep up with customers' growing demand for data-heavy services such
as YouTube, Netflix and online gaming apps on tablets and smartphones. Ericsson itself said in November that the amount of data used by mobile devices had doubled over the past year, boosted by growth in video streaming services. The trend poses a co-
nundrum for operators, since upgrading networks is expensive and consumers have gotten used to cheap mobile surfing deals. However, for wireless equipment makers like Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks the need for upgrades could signal a turnaround in a sector where spending has been suffering amid economic uncertainty. "The operators have to do this sooner or later," said Erik Paulsson, an analyst at investment bank Pareto Oehman. "We had expected these projects to increase network capacity, but now it's been confirmed by the company, which is very positive," he added. n
Microsoft partners Huawei for smartphone push in Africa New York City: Microsoft announced it had teamed up with Chinese manufacturer Huawei to launch an affordable smartphone across Africa. "Microsoft and Huawei introduced the Huawei 4Afrika phone, a full-functionality Windows Phone 8 preloaded with select applications designed for Africa, by Africans," said Microsoft's top executive for the Middle East and Africa, Ali Faramawy, on a corportate blog. While Africans have been enthusiastic adopters of mobile phones, the high cost of
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EU 'better than North America' for China firms: survey
Beijing: Chinese firms consider the European Union as good or better investment destination than North America, the EU chamber of commerce in China said, despite the eurozone's debt crisis and recessionary woes. Even more preferred to put money into the European Union than nearby Southeast Asia, where some countries have significant Chinese minorities. The European Union "is perceived as welcoming to foreign investment; with few market access barriers and little history of opposition to Chinese investment on national security grounds", the report said. The survey of 74 Chinese companies that have already established themselves in the European Union found 33 percent considered it more favourable for investment than North America, with 45 percent saying it was the same and 21 percent less favourable. Compared to Southeast Asia, 48 percent said the European Union was more favourable and 28 percent less favourable, with 24 percent seeing them as the same.
smartphones, which can run over $700, has kept penetration of the devices low. Microsoft estimates that smartphone penetration in Africa is about 10 percent, while sales of the devices accounted for 45.5 percent of total mobile phone sales globally last year according to the IDC research firm. Faramawy said the phones, which the New York Times reported would be sold for around $150, would ensure Africans "affordable access to best-in-class technology, so they can access the information and tools they need to be active global citizens.
But the report added that according to Chinese government data just five percent of Chinese overseas investment went to Europe in the 2004-2010 period. "This would mean that mainland Chinese investments only counted for 1.4 percent of total ODI (outward direct investment) into the EU in 2011, whereas the EU accounts for around 20 percent of investment into China," it said. The actual proportions may be different, it pointed out, as more than 60 percent of mainland Chinese overseas investment goes to Hong Kong, and it was likely the final destination was elsewhere for "a significant proportion" of that. Chinese officials have criticised Washington for placing barriers to trade and doing business with the United States. A US congressional committee said in October last year that Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE should be excluded from government contracts because their equipment could be used to spy. n
Huawei is known for building innovate and affordable phones, and the first in the series of 4Afrika phones will initially be available in Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa. Microsoft's Faramawy said the 4Afrika Initiative initiative aimed to tens of millions of smartphones into the hands of Africans and bring a million small and mediumsized businesses online by 2016. The initiative could also prove a boost to WindowsPhone8 as the mobile operating system has had difficulty gaining traction in the market. n
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Tablets accounted for 46% of PC shipments in Q4
Tablets accounted for over a third of worldwide PC shipments during 2012's fourth quarter, according to research firm, Canalys. PC shipments increased by 12 percent year-overyear to 134 million units with 46.2 million units qualifying as tablets, representing a 75 percent yearover-year increase. Apple shipped 27 million iPad units, giving it a 20 percent share of the market for the first time. Full year tablet shipments totaled 114.6
million units. The iPad Mini accounted for more than half of the company's total iPad shipments. However, due to supply issues with other iPad variants, Apple’s tablet share dropped below 49 percent. Consequently, for the first time, the firm didn't control over half the tablet market. "Apple timed the launch of the iPad Mini well," said Canalys research analyst, Pin-Chen Tang. "Its success proves there is a clear demand for pads
Google pays doodle tribute to Jagjit Singh
Had ghazal king Jagjit Singh been alive, he would have turned 72, and to make the day special, search engine Google’s doodle dedicated to Singh. He passed
away in October 2011 due to brain haemorrhage. “Jagjit Singh was undoubtedly the ghazal king, and his demise was a huge loss to the Indian music in-
Why do advertisements for clothes or cars or cameras suddently start showing up on Google, after I've been shopping for those items on line or discussing them in email? Google studies your online queries and GMail inbox for key words, then sends targeted, associated ads you're more likely to click on, making the company money. Microsoft just started an advertising campaign (TV, print and online) that suggests GMail users have been "Scroogled!" by such snoop-
ing. "Think Google respects your privacy? Think again." Microsoft is recommending you switch to Bing and Outlook.com (the successor to Hotmail) neither of which harvest emails for marketing purposes. In a vicious attack on Google,Microsoft has alleged that the company violates the privacy of Gmail users by reading their emails to serve up advertisements. Microsoft, which competes with Google, has also launched a website www.scroogled.com - that
Consumer efforts to protect personal data and remain "invisible" online are leading to a "data blackhole" that could adversely impact digital advertisers, technology research firm Ovum said. The move to seek "new tools that allow them to remain
'invisible' - untraceable and impossible to target by data means" will impact advertisers who rely on that information to target their audiences, Ovum said. Surveying consumers in 11 countries around the world, the research firm said 68 per-
with smaller screens at a more affordable price. Without the launch, Apple would surely have lost more ground to its competitors." Samsung became a top five vendor for the first time in overall PC sales, with HP, Apple and Lenovo topping the list. Its Galaxy tablet shipped 7.6 million units, a year-overyear increase of 226 percent, while its notebook computers shipped 4.1 million units, which gave it a 9 percent share of the PC market.
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f la re .p k Amazon's expanded Kindle Fire lineup and additional markets increased its worldwide shipments by 18 percent to 4.6 million units. Google’s Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets "performed relatively well" and shipped a combined 2.6 million units during the fourth quarter. "The sub-$200 price brands now feature products from established players that do not rely on lowquality components," said Canalys analyst, Tom Evans. "Those who control ecosystems, such as Amazon and Google, can obtain revenue from content sales, but pure hardware OEMs must accept decreasing margins or exit." Tablet display shipments have already surpassed the shipments of notebooks, while global shipments during 2013 are expected to approach the quarter of a billion mark. Michael Dell, who recently spearheaded a $24.4 billion deal to make the company he founded go public, lately admitted that the rapid rise of tablets has surprised him. n
dustry. As a tribute to India’s best known ghazal singer, the search engine has created a doodle to pay respect to him,” says Sandeep Menon, of Google India. The doodle shows Singh sitting with a harmonium, an instrument he held close. The search engine did a few other special things on his birthday, including a knowledge graph. Any user who searches for Jagjit Singh was greeted with an overview of his life, popular $200 to quit Facebook? songs, news, and his im- Would you agree to quit Faceages. “This is our way of book for five months if it meant saying thank you to him,” that you got a nice payday? The social network has adds Menon. n been shown to lower productivity, make us more self-indulgent, and fan the flames of talks about "Google's practice envy. But it's also incredibly of going through the con- hard to turn off, as the aptents of all Gmail emails to proximately 1 billion Facebook sell and target ads". Google users around the world would said no humans went be happy to tell you. How to through the mails; only al- quit? gorithms determined the ads. Well, some subtle financial Stefan Weitz, Microsoft's encouragement might work. senior director of online serv- Just ask Paul Baier, an execuices, said, "Emails are per- tive at an energy company in sonal and people feel read- Massachusetts. Recently, Baier ing... their emails to sell ads agreed to compensate his is out of bounds... We are daughter, 14-year-old Rachel concerned that Google vio- Baier, to the tune of $200, if lates privacy every time an she could stay away from FaceOutlook.com user exchanges book for a full five months. The messages with someone on $200, according to the conGmail." n tract, which is payable in two monthly installments: $50 on April 15, 2013, and the balance cent of respondents said they on June 26, 2013. "It was her idea," Baier would select a "do not track" feature if this was easily avail- told the tech site The Daily Dot. able. "This hardening of con- "She wants to earn money and sumer attitudes, coupled with also finds Facebook a distractightening regulation, could tion and a waste of time somediminish personal data supply times. She plans to go back on lines and have considerable after the [five months] is over."n impact on targeted. n
Google reads emails for ads posts
Internet users seeking more 'invisibility': study
Facebook tries to takeover the world with a redirection bug
Some of the biggest news sites in the world disappeared recently when Facebook took over the internet with a redirection bug. Visitors to sites such as The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, the Gawker network, NBC News and News.com.au were immediately transferred to a Facebook error page upon loading their intended site. Facebook users who were not signed into their accounts were not directed to the error page, which indicated that the problem was with Facebook's Connect service, which control's 'likes, 'comments' and other web-based features of the social network. Facebook declined to comment on the details of the bug, but made a state-
ment via email to NBC News: "For a short period of time, there was a bug that redirected people from third party sites with Facebook Login to Facebook.com. The issue was quickly resolved." For most sites the problem was "quickly resolved" within approximately 15 minutes, but for other sites like ReadWriteWeb the bug lasted about an hour. Facebook and Twitter users were quick to report the error, and share their fears that Facebook appeared to have hijacked the wider web, even if it was unintentional. Facebook officials are expected to provide a more detailed explanation of the outage when details behind the problem become clear. n
nounced it has signed a distribution agreement with communications equipment manufacturer Avayo Electronics. Under the agreement, Optimus will promote and distribute Avayo's range of products through its channel network across the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan. As Avayo's value-added distributor, Optimus will help create and establish the vendor's channel network and conduct focused development activities such as training and consultancy to enable it to sell Avayo's products. The distributor will also invest in marketing activi-
ties to increase Avayo's brand visibility in the region. Optimus said it plans to position Avayo as a "solution of choice" to complement data centre requirements and will bundle it with complementary offerings from vendors such as Opti-UPS, Netgear, Acer and NetIQ to enhance its market share. The company will train partners in service delivery through its training arm, Optimus Academy. n
$200 to quit Facebook: One Optimus expands data centre dad's deal with offerings with Avayo Optimus Technology and his daughter Telecommunications has an-
Nokia unveils sub-$100 smartphone in Asha series
Finnish handset major Nokia unveiled a new smartphone in its Asha series in the sub-$100 phone category to tap rising demand from young and aspiring consumers across developing regions. Asha 310 comes with WiFi connectivity, video streaming, dual SIM option, fast internet connectivity, preloaded apps for Facebook, Twitter and Nokia maps. The new touch smart-
phone is expected to be made available by March-end in India. The phones would be manufactured both in India and China. D Shivakumar, the head of Nokia's operations across India, Middle East and Africa, said that a huge consumer base across these regions aspires to own a smart phone and is fast graduating from an ordinary feature phone to fancy smartphones. n
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Samsung boosts US research, venture fund
San Francisco: Samsung announced it was pumping more money into research and venture capital funding efforts that will be led by a new hub for the South Korean giant in Silicon Valley. The electronics giant said it was launching a $100 million "catalyst fund" that will augment its $1 billion Samsung Ventures America Fund and "fuel innovative technologies and business models through all stages of
business." The company also said it will be launching its new Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center in Menlo Park, California, with additional offices in South Korea and Israel. It will be headed by Young Sohn, the company's president and chief strategy officer of device solutions. The move by the world's largest technology firm by revenue and top smart-
Samsung chairman wins $4 bn family court case
Seoul: Samsung Electronics chairman Lee KunHee won a court ruling against demands from his siblings to hand over billions of dollars in shares in various Samsung Group companies. The court allowed Lee to retain all his shareholdings in the giant conglomerate that members of his family had accused him of hiding from them following the death of his father and Sam-
sung founder Lee ByungChul. If the court had found against Lee, 71, it would have forced a restructuring of the complex web of shareholdings across the group's entities and weakened his hold on it. The main claimants were Lee's brother Lee Maeng-Hee, his sister Lee Suk-Hee and the children of another brother. They said that after their
phone maker comes as it ramps up its battle in the United States against California-based Apple, with the two firms embroiled in bitter legal battles. Samsung has been ordered to pay Apple $1 billion for patent infringement but is appealing the verdict. Samsung said the new drive would "create a powerful platform for igniting global innovation" and was part of an effort "to create new businesses and build open ecosystems through research and development, investments, strategic alliances, and M&A (mergers and acquisitions)." Sohn said the company sees "tremendous opportunities and transformations over the next five years driven by big data centered around mobility, cloud, and
father's death in 1987, Lee had taken over shares and assets worth around $4 billion in Samsung Electronics and Samsung Life Insurance that had been held under the names of other people. Lee is South Korea's richest man, with a net worth estimated by Forbes magazine at around $10.8 billion. In his initial suit, Lee Maeng-Hee had demanded Lee hand over around 710 billion won ($647 million) in shares. But the assets at stake increased to 4.1 trillion won as other relatives got involved. The Seoul Central District Court accepted Lee Kun-Hee's claims that most of the shares under dispute were not those left by his father. It also ruled that the statute of limitations on claiming the inheritance had expired. n
the Internet of Things, and Samsung will be a significant part of this revolution." He added that the new initiative offers "an exciting opportunity for us to engage with entrepreneurs and innovators and empower them to leverage Samsung's technology and global brand presence to bring our collective visions to market." The $100 million catalyst fund will be launched later in 2013 with a competition, SamsungCreate Challenge, offering artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and others a chance to submit ideas for Samsung's devices. The contest will award $10 million in seed investments for winners and will offer additional support from Samsung. n
Qtel launches Hala Int. promotion
Qtel has launched a promotion for Hala customers on international calling. Customers who subscribe to the Hala Monthly Pack 19 will receive 35 minutes for calling 17 of the most frequently-called countries around the world, valid for 30 days for QAR 19. The international minutes can be used to call Bangladesh, Bahrain, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE, the UK and the US. Customers calling India can also take advantage of the Hala India Pack, with calls at 19 cents per minute. The pack is valid for seven days, for QAR 1, and will automatically renew every seven days. Both offers end on 06 May. n
Internet users are suffering from password fatigue
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Consumers are beginning to struggle with creating and remembering more and more passwords and would prefer the option of being able to use their social media logins across a number of sites to simplify their online lives, according to a study commissioned by user management platform Janrain. The results, which come from a larger study, "Consumer Perceptions of Social Login," found that more than half of the 660 participants had more than five passwords and logins they needed to remember on a daily basis in addition to logins for social media sites. The strain of having to remember more and more unique username and password combinations means that 92 percent of respondents admitted abandoning a website during sign-in rather than going through the added effort of resetting or recovering their password information. But as well as password fatigue, the study also underlines the growing importance of social networks, with 65 percent of those surveyed agreeing
they are more likely to return to sites that allow them to sign in with their social media login details. Consumers also appear to be happy to share personal information with websites via their social media profiles, in return for a personalized experience and targeted advertising. In all, 52 percent of respondents said they used social login when it is an option and 67 percent of users said they found this type of personalization attractive. Almost four in five (78%) admitted navigating to a site after it was mentioned by someone in their social network.
Simplifying or even eradicating traditional passwords is a hot topic at the moment. In October the UK government announced it was considering allowing access to its online services via Facebook and Twitter IDs in a bid to simplify the process of creating and remembering passwords and log-in names, while in January, Google published a white paper detailing its plans to abolish the password once and for all in favor of a physical token or key that would plug into a device and provide authentication. n
Airtel to buy Alcatel-Lucent stake in India
Mumbai: Bharti Airtel, had formed the 26:74 joint venture, Alcatel-Lucent Managed Network Service India, in 2009. The five-year network contract, which was worth about $500 million, ends in April 2014. After the buyout "the company will operate independent of Bharti and in the future invite other operators to bring in equity", Bharti Airtel said in a statement. "The operations of the entity will be strengthened by India's biggest mobile phone the transition of processes firm, said it will buyout Al- and all staff from the existing catel-Lucent's stake in a joint joint venture," said the New venture which manages Delhi-based firm. Bharti's fixed-line and broadBharti Airtel provides band networks in the coun- broadband, data and teletry. phone services to 3.3 million Bharti Airtel and the lo- subscribers in 87 cities, of cal unit of telecoms equip- whom 1.4 million subscribe ment maker Alcatel-Lucent to Internet services. n
SK Telecom more than doubles fourth quarter net profit
Seoul: SK Telecom's net profit more than doubled in the fourth quarter, South Korea's top mobile operator said recently, partly as a result of one-off asset sales. Net profit in the OctoberDecember period surged to 519.1 billion won ($477 million) compared with 195.5 billion won a year earlier. Operating profit was up 37.6 percent over the same period at 544.6 billion won. The surge in net profit was partly down to revenue of more than 700 billion won from selling property and a stake in steel giant POSCO. The extra revenue was used to help pay for the roll out of next-generation Long-
Term Evolution, or LTE, networks which offer quicker connection speeds. A company statement said SK Telecom had acquired 7.53 million LTE subscribers by the end of 2012. South Korean wireless operators have spent heavily to promote the new 4G service -- up to five times faster than 3G -- to accommodate a growing number of smartphone users demanding faster speeds to download videos or play games. One of the world's most wired countries, South Korea has more than 30 million smartphone subscribers out of a total population of some 50 million.
Finnish phone maker Nokia said it was protesting against a tax investigation in India, a crucial market, in the latest dispute involving a foreign company's tax. Nokia said it has not yet received any information on potential claims resulting from the investigation that started in January. Recently, Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell's Indian unit said it would challenge a local tax claim on a share sale, while British mobile phone firm Vodafone is trying to settle a long-running $2 billion tax dispute with Indian authorities. Countries like India are crucial for Nokia's attempt to hold on to global market share. Recently, it announced an expansion of its Asha line of low-end smartphones and India is widely seen as a key market
for such cheaper models. Nokia said the actions of the tax authorities were "unacceptable and inconsistent with Indian standards of fair play and governance." The company objected to officials entering its factory in Chennai, southern India, which is one of its biggest facilities. Nokia said it has invested over $330 million in Chennai since setting up the factory in 2006. A senior Indian tax official said in January that the investigation related to allegations that Nokia may have evaded around 30 billion rupees ($558 million) in taxes. Nokia said it was in full compliance with local laws as well as a bilateral tax treaty between India and Finland related to withholding tax. n
Nokia protests against Indian tax probe
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Mobile Rates
77
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l ar e . p k
78
Tech-Tool
Tech-Tool
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l a r e. p k
79
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l a r e. p k
80
Above prices are subject to change as per market
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l a r e. p k
81
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | fl a r e . pk
82
Above prices are subject to change as per market
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | fl a r e . pk
83
Above prices are subject to change as per market
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l ar e . p k
84
85
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l a r e. p k
86
Above prices are subject to change as per market
Tech-Tool
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l a re . p k
87
Above prices are subject to change as per market
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l a r e .p k
88
Tech-Tool
Fr e e d o w n l o a d | f l a r e. p k
89