Interviews

Mr. Bilal Hashmi entered into telecom industry in 2000. He has

got extensive cellular experience with some of the leading
telecom names like Mobilink, Ufone & Nortel Networks. Currently
he is serving in Ericsson as a National QoS & Optimisation
Manager. Today he shares some of his valuable experiences &
views with fellow ZUMBEELians.

• Your education & career.

Graduated in 1999 from UET Lahore in Telecom & Electronics and joined Air Weapons
Complex in September 2000. Joined Mobilink in Systems Engineering as an Intern and
my cellular career was launched. Also got associated with Nortel Networks before joining
Ufone. Currently giving my services to Ericsson as a QoS & Optimization Manager -
Nationwide. I have also done Executive MBA from NCBA-Lahore.

• Your interest & activities.

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Telecom as a professional interest. I often read the information that is available to us

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internally in a vendor, that’s the biggest plus of a vendor’s job☺. Astronomy as an
activity, to set up the f5/6 Newtonian and align with eth celestial Pole☺ for observation.
Mosquitoes are the bane of amateur astronomers. History reading as a personal interest.
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• 3 reasons for choosing telecom as your career.
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• Telecom gives the right advantage to see technology in motion, my job in AWC
was more into software which is not my forte.
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• Telecom is showing tremendous growth in engineering and as an emerging

sector.
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• Telecom is a main stream profession rather than being a side lined one e.g.
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instrumentation & control.

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• 3 unpleasant surprises when you started your career.

• Hectic work schedule & unscheduled tasks from top management.

• Too many things were assigned without proper training☺.
• Had to learn the rope the hard way but with encouragement from few senior
colleagues, it was a good learning experience all together.

• 2 pleasant surprises when your started your career.

• Freedom to do work.
• To know that technology can be complex to understand but really easy to work
with☺.

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Interviews

• Your views on “telecom is the biggest catalyst of change in current times”.

Telecom is the basic need of life these days, one cannot survive in isolation. Also, access
to information and timely delivery of information give the edge to achieve targets which
is helped by Telecom. It has become a basic tool, be it telephony, internet, electronic
media etc.

• Please share one interesting event while working for Mobilink?

When I was based in Karachi, rusting of lugs at MW dishes was not taken seriously by
Field Operations in those days, and one day a big dish fell off from a tower near Clifton
to convince the management to take action☺.

• Telecom is full of adventurous stories. Please share some of yours.

While returning from BSC Commissioning in Faisalabad, we (Mobilink & Motorola) were
crossing the road near Khanqan Dogran in early hours of the morning. There was a road

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block and the driver slowed the car, then at that moment gun shots were heard and

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driver put the pedal to take us out of danger. He had excellent control and Allah saved
us from any loss although we had to cross fields to get to a safer part of road.
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• Please tell us more about your current association with Ericsson.
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Currently I am the Senior Consultant for RNPO, working in capacity of National Manager.
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We do RF Optimization and QoS (E2E) Performance Management. Also we help Ericsson

business in the various projects and trials of products that fall in RAN (GSM/UMTS)
domain. Many feature trials are done for selling to existing customers, like Handover
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Power Boost etc. New Technology e.g. UMTS trail for selling to prospective new clients
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is also done with our support.

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• What are the main differences between non technology manager and
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technology manager?

Technology manager is like the most experienced engineer of his team, he knows is
work in and out. He is often not the decision maker. Non-Technology managers work on
abstract things and are mainly part of decision making which has a business impact.

• Your views on future of Ericsson in global landscape.

Ericsson is a telecom giant and will survive the price war☺. It’s an old and experienced
player who knows the pitch very well. Ericsson has a diverse product line and can push
sales in many sectors. Global recession is hitting everyone, vendor and Operator alike,
hopefully in a few years/months things will settle down and then we will see surge in
business, Insha’Allah.

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• Why you have not moved outside Pakistan with your colleagues?

When one can find opportunity within Pakistan then why not work and, make our
motherland more prosperous☺.

• 3 things you would love to change in top management.

No comments please☺, but I would advise them to have empathy for their junior
colleagues since the guys in top management have treaded the path long ago and know
the pitfalls.

• 3 things you would like to have in our young telecom students and
professionals.

• Students must be willing to take the arduous road to success which comes after
a while.
• Willingness to go the extra mile to achieve better results.

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• Always do the right things.

• How are you managing your boss? e l.n

I act naturally and often share my views with him so that he can share the strategic
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vision with me.
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• Please share some examples of importance of team work in your career.

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Team work in telecom is like a game of soccer; all have to contribute to reach success
and the “Goal”. One great example of the setting up of RF Optimization Department in
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Ufone in late 2004. Without the help of juniors and seniors we could not have made it
and the results were evident as the end user was satisfied with the quality of the
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product i.e. a phone call.

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• How do you see telecom future in the world?

Great and ever changing and demanding. Hardly 50% of the population has access to
Telecom, just like access to clean drinking water, so demand is always there to fuel the
technological advancement.

• How do you see telecom future in Pakistan?

Potential is there for technological advancement and the business case is OK as well.

• Are we ready for 3G in Pakistan?

Yes, more than ready technically but the commercial sense is not realistic yet.

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Interviews

• What advice will you give to our Fresh Grads?

Fresh grads must be willing to take the hardship and then make a name for them selves
in this challenging field.

• What advice will you give to our telecom professionals?

Try to be generous and provide guidance and hope to the new entrants in our
professional family.

• Your future plans.

To relax and enjoy life & work balance☺.

• Your views about ZUMBEEL.

ZUMBEEL is undoubtedly the fore runner in Telecom Advisory for thousands of people in

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this field. I have been associated with it for last 8 years and have immensely benefited.

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