Telenor Mobile TV

Telenor announced a GPRS/EDGE based valued added which they are calling Mobile TV (look here for content roundup by Farhan of OurE61). This is different than the chip-based, 470 to 862 MHz analog TV reception on cell phone that can potentially be realized by technologies like FLO from Qualcomm. As rightly pointed out by this in-depth review of Telenor Mobile TV by Osama at Green & White, the service is expensive and sports pretty high procedural entry barriers.

The stunt might not have a lot of takers in the local Pakistani market but this, along with the Telenor Akhbar service (reviewed here), should send a few chills down the spine for the operators who are still basking in just the volumes of voice. With rates approaching the 50 paisa boundary and tele-density at 33%, contents will become the ARPU enhancer maintainer.

MNP Needs Marketing

When MNP was introduced a few weeks ago, everyone had their own idea of the elephant they were feeling in a dark night.

Some said the stuff is not picking up, later to be corrected later by PTA that the number is running in thousands in the first month of the service introduction. Cellular-News say:

Speaking at a conference last week, the Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Maj. Gen (R) Shahzada Alam Malik said that since the introduction of mobile number portability in the country, more than 10 thousand subscribers have availed the MNP facility while 20 thousand have already posted their requests for shifting their cellphone numbers along with the code from one operator to another. ..

Yet, MNP remains a technical jargon for most of the cell users in Pakistan. Ask the average joe teefa on the street and he’d draw a blank on this possibility. MNP needs neutral marketing from PTA – jargon free, crisp and right in the local lingo.

True, everyone (Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid, Paktel, Instaphone) is flashing the MNP badge on their websites but this is not the right marketing MNP needs right now.

The mission of MNP – forcing operators to deliver better service to keep the MNP-enabled churn low – is best served if PTA or Pakistan MNP Database – the co-funded company at the center of portability service – advertises the MNP possibilities to the general public. Am I am not talking about ‘instruction sounding’ announcements that most of the target audience will overlook thinking it relates to a technical domain. I am talking about taking the publicity of MNP to the level of engaging a media partner, making the information and the message get across in the masses.

I am sure the sponsors of PMD , especially the bigger ones, would not like the idea. Even the small ones who at first would like to see MNP helping them will appear supportive might not want to let the chaos loose. So the best entity for MNP promotion might be PTA. I am not sure if the USF could be used for such an activity (which does not come specifically under rural telecommunication infrastructure enhancement) but if financing this campaign is an issue, the money could be put to good use.

With right marketing and awareness, the PMD could soon be in need for more hardware and a license upgrade for the Telecordia MNP solution.

Dear PKNIC

Dear PKNIC,

Can we have a telephone number we can call you when there is an urgent need to do so? Yesterday, a fellow ISP had a problem in their domain record that apparently occurred at PKNIC’s end. The NS glue records were changed. The site disappeared. The emails were not going through. It was a sorry sight to see him ask around everyone about a PKNIC support telephone number they might know about. Of course he was short on luck.

We all know PKNIC doesn’t believe in having a public number to serve its paying customers.

In this era of voice over IP, unified communications, Instant Messaging and cheap (for North American businesses) BPO services, it is hard to believe that one of the core digital era services of an entire country like Pakistan would not have anything besides an email address to serve thousands of customers who are charged a fee for the service.

I am not debating how small or big the PKNIC fee structure is. I know PKNIC serves government and military domains for free (by the way, showing respect for the powerful used to be a shame in the past). I know PKNIC tries to remain democratic in its process development. I know PKNIC pays a lot to its DNS hosting company. We’d ben on these issue before too.

I am just asking one question: Can we have a number to call PKNIC in times of distress?

Last we checked, for business outfits, customers used to be the king. Or did I miss the news about PKNIC changing its status to a charity during the recent past?

PKNIC has been a great service to Pakistan. It was there when not a lot of people knew how essential a service it is for Pakistan and its digital future. Please make a phone number available for your paying customers.

I promise I wont be calling just to say ‘hi’.

An Otherwise Satisfied PKNIC Customer

MTC Interested in Warid?

A news appearing in Urdu, attributed to Associated Press of Pakistan says (translated for the primarily English readership here):

Islamabad (APP): Telecom service group of Kuwait, MTC has offered to buy Warid Telecom cellular services in Pakistan for $805 million. There have been two rounds of talks for the deal between the two groups in Dubai during the last two weeks. Warid sources have said that the MTC group is very actively looking to get engaged in the cellular business in Pakistan and is talking to Warid for such a possible acquisition. Sources have said that the two managements met in Dubai recently and MTC offered $805 million for acquiring Warid. Warid Telecom has not yet conveyed acceptance or otherwise of the offer back to MTC.

No other sources of the news could be tracked so the readers can take the newsbite with a pinch of salt.

Worldcall Trials RedMax

Worldcall is currently doing trials with Redline Communications‘ RedMax platform for its Wimax (802.16d) services in Karachi Sukkar. As the company nears its launch of CDMA voice services in Karachi with 83 cell cites and a launch date (of CDMA voice services) of 6th May 2007, the same real-estate and infrastructure would be put to use for its Wimax services for which the 3.5 GHz frequency is already in the kitty.

Speechless!

Who said a blogger cannot be short on words. I am.

Wateen Telecom has a news on its website.

Qtel & Burraq Deal

This half cooked news in The News (that probably evaded editorial quality review) was a mystery as the headline and the contents did not make any obvious co-relation.

However, a better done story later emerged here on The News (thanks to Mustafa @ BBPak).

Qtel is said to be buying Burraq Telecom for $30 million. Burraq Telecom was among several companies, which acquired LDI (long distance and international) and WLL (wireless local loop) licenses in 2004.

Apart from the regular LDI voice business, Burraq has been actively pursuing a Wimax strategy with Redline Communications‘ RedMax platform. A lot of new names that acquired the WLL license from PTA in 2004 never intended to go for basic telephony services as has been the case with Telecard, VPTCL and Worldcall’s CDMA based voice services. The strategy had been to acquire licensed frequency band in the 3.5 GHz range and offer data and Internet services in an under-served data market.

Wateen Bulk IP BW: Sales Calls Begin

Wateen Telecom has started making inquiry calls to potential bulk transit Internet bandwidth customers. While price points were not available with the calling representative of the company, they are planning to offer a single rate for IP bandwidth across Pakistan which will be major impact news.

Whether IP bandwidth would be subject to VoIP service restrictions or not is not known yet. However, unless canabilization is not a problem for Wateen which is also actively pursuing domestic players for nationwide transmission services, most of the tier two players would want to opt for the flat rate Internet across Pakistan and use the medium to save their transmission costs.

Currently, PTCL offers transit Internet bandwidth to Internet Service Providers at a flat rate across Pakistan. However, the same bandwidth could not be used for transporting voice traffic by any player as major VoIP services are disabled on this bandwidth. (PTCL has  traditionally been using a so called ‘Network Security & Surveillance Wing’ to actively detect voice traffic on PTCL provided links to ISP and other enterprise customers).

Backbone Interconnections: Wateen would initially be buying bulk capacity from SMW4 consortium members.

Internet Exchange and Private Peering: Busy in their network roll-outs and customer acquisitions, and want of realized volumes, none of the players (TW, PTCL, Wateen, Mobilink) have so far announced any private peering arrangements. Similarly, the Internet Exchange plan also remains a dream because the country lacks agile nationwide ISPs that own a lot of IP users and hence would potentially benefit from an Internet Exchange.

GSM Investments & 3G Licenses

Telegoegraphy is reporting on Warid’s further investment in Pakistan in the form of a $100m loan from IFC:

…..private sector investment arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is to extend a USD100 million loan and arrange a syndicated loan of USD140 million for Paktel rival Warid Telecom. According to an IFC document seen by Dow Jones Newswires, Warid Telecom is seeking the loans to finance the construction, expansion and operation of a nationwide GSM network. The project, which began in June 2006, is estimated to cost USD 1.4 billion and is expected to be completed in June 2009.

Government of Pakistan is also reportedly considering to offer three nationwide UMTS (3G) licenses.

Core Network Security Seminar by Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems Pakistan is holding a seminar focusing on the requirements for improving backbone security on May 3, 2007 at Karachi. The seminar will cover the following:

• Features and techniques available to help improve security by hardening the core network
• Security best practices, security recommendations, and router features to mitigate direct infrastructure attack
• Deployment of specific features and using them to improve backbone security.

Date: May 3, 2007
Venue: Diplomat IV Marriott Hotel, Karachi
Speaker: Yusuf Bhaiji CCIE #9305 (R&S and Security)

You can register by sending email to marketing contact Nabil Rana (nabrana@cisco.com.NOSPAM) and Areej Qureshi (arquresh@cisco.com.NOSPAM).

Worldcall Nears Homerun

Worldcall, one of the three nationwide CDMA operator (besides PTCL and Telecard), is launching its CDMA based voice services in Hyderabad, Sindh in the next couple of days.

Earlier, Worldcall services, that started from central Pakistan had reached till Sukkar. The Hyderabad network leg is based on hardware from Huawei Technologies. Hyderabad launch will help the company brace itself for a subsequent Karachi launch which is considered a very mature market with already high cellular, fixed and WLL penetration.

What’s In a Name?

This blog had a posting disconnect between Nov 2006 and April 2007 owing to the wordpress.com blog ban in Pakistan.  The last story before the disconnect was about Paktel which, at that time, threatened to stop its operations because of the losses it was making. In January, China Mobile bought Paktel from Millicomm International who was desperately seeking an exit from Pakistan in-line with their international corporate strategy.

China Mobile has announced (on Saturday) that they are investing $400 million and a brand name change for Paktel.

According to China Knowledge, China Mobile  is to invest US$400 million to extend its network in Pakistan, said company CEO Wang Jianzhou at the Boao Forum on Hainan Island on Saturday.

Wang said the company will step up improving sales channels and building new brands in Pakistan next year, adding that a wireless data transmission system will be built in the Pakistan.

And Flair, the showbiz-looking-telecommunication magazine (Issue April 2007, Page 84) says the brand name change is from Paktel to CM-Pak.  How good or bad is this choice (if the Flair report is correct) is subjective.

The China Mobile has sought the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) consent to swap the Paktel mobile company name as CM-Pak, the name under which the company intends to operate.  The China Mobile that took over Paktel from Millicom International after paying dues has now formally requested the regulator for change of Paktel’s name.  Officials from PTA has confirmed that it was approached by the China Mobile with the application that it wanted to operate under the name of CM-Pak, but added no decision has been taken so far.

China Mobile has pumped in $700 million in the Pakistan telecommunication sector since taking over the management control of Paktel.  The company will invest $2 billion in the next three years (till 2009) to expand its network, an official of the Paktel told.

In other Paktel related news, the head office of the company in Islamabad is now inundated with Chinese nationals that have been brought in by the company to take more direct control of the things.

Paktel is also reported to have been talking to Multinet for access to dark fiber pairs on its Project Ittehad similar to the deal between Multinet and Telenor announced in December 2006.

More Dollars for Cybercrime Wing

Strategy Page, without citing any of its sources, is saying that the Government of Pakistan is putting up more dollars for countering cyber-crimes – this time specifically for local use. From the article (see entire text here):

Internet based crime and terrorism activity became a growing problem in Pakistan, and the government realized that it needed a Cyber War capability that worked. Now the government has announced that it will spend several million dollars to equip and staff a proper operation to deal with Cyber Crime.

Shhh..`The Minnows Are Expecting’

The News is saying that at least two groups, one of which is from UAE, wants to take up the smaller ISPs in the country in an effort to capture the left-over Internet part of the telecommunication sector in Pakistan which so far has been overshadowed by the bigger numbers and higher attention bandwidth casted on the voice business by the international investors.

The ISP sector which once saw great amount of local investments, job bonanza, high-profile marketing and a lot of attention bandwidth from the general public has gone through its bad times. Safely, 60% of all the ISPs licensed by PTA have disappeared in thin air. Those that are left intact are operating with tight budgets, leaner teams and lower advertising spendings.

So when we are told that investment might be coming the way of these telecommunication minnows, there is a ray of hope among the ranks. But given the fact that the current investment friendly environment allows for new investment to come in and start their businesses effortlessly, is this optimism real? Why would someone want to acquire existing ISPs some of whom might already be carrying legacies and complexities that are not worth the trouble?

Customer loyalty is low (so you wont by any ISP for its customers), ISP licenses are cheap and easy (Rs 500,000 / 1 week processing time), and the infrastructure gear (fiber, remote access servers, routers, transit bandwidth etc) are cheap for Internet service providers solutions. Human resource that understands the local needs and norms can always be attracted by a bigger name that enters the market, so problem at that front too.

There is one reason why someone would acquire existing smaller ISPs instead of starting out from a clean slate – possible resistance by PTCL towards any new setup. The new PTCL management has not yet shown any considerable activity in Paknet – the nationwide ISP owned by PTCL. The sector is too small revenue wise when compared to voice. If the current speculations are correct, we all might be in for some interesting mini-battles between PTCL’s Paknet and the mopped-up bigger ISPs.

P.S: The part where the news item quotes the source is interesting:

Potential areas in Pakistan are Internet broadband, data communication services and managed IT and telecom services,” said the source. “But the groups would solely rely on the feedbacks and studies carried out by their consultant. It may take a month or more before a clear picture could emerge.

Why re-emphasize a standing fact? Investors always give weight to their consultants who are paid for the job. Somehow I find the wordings carrying some additional payload between the lines.

PTCL: ‘God, This Cannot Happen To Me!’

PTCL is over-reacting panicking on the churn of just 100 MB worth of Internet Transit and IPLC capacity customers to Transworld in Karachi alone. PTCL commercial wings are busy preparing reports for internal consumption that seem to be on the quest to answer ‘how can this happen’. Sources inside PTCL named an International bank and a HFC cable operator’s recent switch-over from PTCL to Transworld as having caused the pressing of the panic button. PTCL has started re-compiling data about its co-located ISP customers down to the levels of wires and jacks. It is clear from the queries that ISPs have received so far, that PTCL wants to make sure that its transit Internet bandwidth competitor is not able to directly connect to any customer whose very existence is due to the co-location services provided by PTCL in the first place. PTCL has already been doing a similar physical verification with the Long Distance & International (LDI) service providers all over Pakistan to prevent from direct interconnects within the PTCL provided co-locations.

Transworld (with Orascom as one of its shareholders) is expected to take its bandwidth to Lahore around July 2007 when Mobilink (one of its partners) expects to light up their cross-country fiber capacities. Competition for higher-capacities of transit Internet would then spread out of Karachi and across all major cities.

Less than a year since it launched its commercial operations in Pakistan in July 2006, Transworld Associates (TW)  has signed up a number of bigger transit Internet accounts of PTCL. TW vows to remain 20% to 25% cheaper than PTCL at all times. For bulk customers, this could mean a lot of saving and more switch-overs are expected until PTCL reacts correctly by lowering bases costs and dropping prices for the customers – essentially acting more professionally.

Transworld primarily uses metro dark fiber (leased from Worldcall Limited) to deliver its bulk bandwidth. One of the customers of Transworld has also deployed the revolutionary Dragonwave wireless Ethernet product range for the last mile.

In other un-related PTCL news, Haji Khan Bhatti who claims to represent PTCL non-officer grade employees, managed to get Sindh High Court pass restraining orders against transfer of PTCL ownership to Etisalat.

Rumours & Maths

Dawn reported today that:

Mobile phone companies are reported to have earned billions of rupees within six hours soon after the cellphone virus rumour spread across the country last week. According to market sources, the mobile companies generated record revenue.

While the ’scam’ nature of the event might be true as we suspected earlier, the number is dumb. Even to make Rs 1 billion, 50 million users must spend Rs 20 on this scam each to reach the 1B mark. Anyone living in Pakistan with a cell phone knows that both these numbers are crazy.

Realistic numbers could be ‘a few million‘ – 5 million users spending Rs 5 on average on this scam (one call and two text messages).

Broadband Policy – There and here

When Om Malik quoted FCC Commissioner Michael Copps saying:

the biggest issue in formulating a coherent broadband strategy is the “lack of reliable government data. Until we know where we stand today, how can we possibly build the broadband future that our nation deserves?”

Whoa! That’s FCC from the US.

I feel Pakistan’s efforts towards formulating a broadband policy might not be that bad after all. The policy went through a open public commentary before being finalized. Or may be, the regulators have the same problem everywhere.

P.S: BTW, Pakistan BB Policy defines (see page 3 of the Policy Document) 128 kbps download as ‘broadband’.

‘Habibi Bakistan’

Loosely translated, this means, ‘My Love, Pakistan’. Of course, this is not an patriotic statement coming from a Pakistani. You need to read this hint in the greater background of Pakistan’s exploding telecommunication market and the Arab petro-money sink towards the promising landscape.

May be the third ‘W‘ is around the corner. I don’t know for sure. But I am also not  clueless.

ICOCN2007 in Islamabad

University of Engineering & Technology Texila is hosting the 6th International Conference on Optical Communication and Networks – ICOCN2007 in Islamabad during early August 2007. From the conference’s website:

Since its very inception in 2002 in Singapore, International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks (ICOCN) has been held annually in different countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.  The second conference was held in Bangalore, India, third one in Hong Kong, fourth one in Bangkok, Thailand and fifth one in Chengdu, China.

The 6th International Conference on Optical Communication and Networks ICOCN2007 is being organized by University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila during 7-9 August 2007 and will be held at Margala Hotel Islamabad, Pakistan.

The conference aims to provide a premier opportunity for professionals, experts, engineers, scientists and industrialists throughout the world in the field of research, development and applications of Optical Communications to share and exchange their ideas and experiences.

Important dates are:

Conference Date: 7-9 August 2007
Submission of Full Paper: 20 May, 2007
Notification of acceptance: 16 June, 2007
Camera Ready and Registration: 30th June, 2007

Telenor to Wannbe Road Warriors: ‘Spare us your Rs 17K’

Telenor’s new postpaid brand ‘Persona’ is now focusing on its EDGE data capabilities. In a newly launched campaign, the European cellular operator is offering Telenor/Sony Erricson co-branded PC based card and service. The campaign shows an empowered women road warrior that is apparently doing some botanical research and modeling in one go right in the hearts of in the troubled tribal areas of Pakistan. And true to match her Rs 7 million Range Rover, the PC card is priced at Rs 17,000 plus actual data services charges that would probably go by the bytes. The service is limited by EDGE’s technological upper limits for data transfer rates but is apparently available everywhere on the Telenor’s foot print in Pakistan as well as outside Pakistan.

Telenor and other EDGE services in Pakistan compete with the CDMA 1X based data services from Telecard and Worldcall. Telecard used to offer GoCDMA Internet service which was recently given an exclusive brand called ‘iGo‘. One time charges are less than Rs 10,000 and data rates max at 153 kbps with average responses being around 60 to 80 kbps. The product lacks proper branding and support services can sometime be frustrating but is technologically advanced than the EDGE. Coverage, while available in most of the cities of Pakistan, has some coverage holes.