OCTOBER 15, 2008 - November15, 2008

Content
Editor’s Note
Editorial 8

Reader’s Response
Letters to the Editor 9

Exclusive
Abu Dhabi group to inject $3 billion 10

Mobilink hunting for heroes 12

Mubarik Centre 20

KHL sponsers golf championship 22

Page48 Despite the annual loss of 4 billion in revenue, PTCL authorities are not seriously working
to save the sinking ship of the company. The package announcing and then silently bringing to an end is
Cover Story showing the lack of good planning on higher level. Slump policies did nothing
Telepedia good but badly damaged the image of PTCL. What is going inside PTCL to
plunder this national asset is eye opening for all.
PTCL banking on back doors! 14 Read full story to know more …..

Pakistan is reay for 3G: Abdullah 30

Mobile clicking tumours 34

PTA plans to grab FDI 47

Pros and cons of telecom 72

Mobile mania: Is it over? 75

Interview
Ericsson becomes local: Strand 36

Zong prompts competition: Wassay 44

Event
Page10 Page75
Abu Dhabi Group to Mobile Mania
Warid continues search for cricket heroes 16 inject $3 billion:
Bashir A. Tahir
Wateen draw Umera winners 38

Cover Story
PTCL: A tale of black corruption & white lies 48

InsighT
Mess of news communication 24

IT a boon for pilgrims 68

Style meets tech at New York 69

Massive customer data theft 86

Valley tech giants 95 ‘Zong prompts growth and

competition in Pakistan’

Page36 Page44
Ericsson becomes local
Tech-Tools
Mobile review 52

Available mobile 54

High range mobile 59

Upcoming mobiles 60

PDA mobile 63

Uncomplicated cells 66

Samsung Omnia 67

The Weird world of mobile 71

Synopsis
National 88

International 96 Sarah Palin passes by a

camera-phone she signed Samsung Omnia

Page86 for a supporter.

Page67 launches in India

6
 OCTOBER 15, 2008 - November15, 2008

Editor s
Note
Every cloud has a silver lining…
After a long time, Pakistan’s telecom sector has finally
started to see regularities. The new Chairman of PTA Dr
Yaseen is trying to gradually upgrade the subscriber iden-
tification module (SIM) issue, the number of blocked SIMs
has crossed the line of 10 million. Strict check and balance
has been introduced in case of keeping and issuing SIMs
Zubair Ahmed Kasuri Editor-in-Chief
without proper documentation. Law enforcing agencies
Fatima Batool Editor
have been provided with full access to the data shared
among cellular subscribers nationwide. As calls and mes- Usman Yaqoob
Marketing Manager (Lhr)
sages will be kept under close suspicion, it will be impossi- M. Farooq Malik
ble for people to misuse their handsets in terrorist Marketing Executive (Lhr)
Rashid Hussain Mughal
activities. Recently, PTA has ordered Ufone to stop its Marketing Executive (Khi)
Black Berry pre-paid service that was, launched without
NoC, causing great security threats.
After the announcement of budget, we have seen that the Zafar Khan Afridi
Senior Graphic Designer
ratio of packages introduced by cellular operators has de- Umer Ayaz
creased. Same case is with the growth of cellular sub- Graphic Designer

scribers that has remained fail in fulfilling the expected Khawar Shahzad
Manager Islamabad Office
limit due to increased taxes and financial crunch. Accord- Asmat Ullah
ing to the statistics issued by the Pakistan Telecommunica- Content Coordinator
Azhar Javed
tion Authority (PTA), the declined trend of 0.3 per cent Production Manager
compare to 170.02. Moreover, increasing awareness to- Taimur Shafiq
Web Developer
wards the use and possession of mobile phones has badly Muhammad Saeed
affected the handset market. Chief Photographer
Mobile: 0321 - 8404389
Companies take decades in establishing themselves; it
takes only seconds in destroying the infrastructure of a Lahore Office
Ph: 042-5750732
well-established firm. Where telecom sector is moving Islamabad Office
Phone: + 92-51-2890054
with a slow pace, Pakistan’s IT sector has been drastically Fax: + 92-51-2891339
affected by the blast in Marriot. Karachi Office
Phone: + 92-21-4602620
Besides, in a short span of time we have seen remarkable
changes on higher officials of various operators world- Registration No
PCPB/105
wide. Pakistan is also among those countries that have
made exceptional leadership changes in last few days. (Vol. 5 Issue: 2)
Price Rs: 300
CEO of Warid Marwan Zawaydeh has been removed from
his office for the greater good; the announcement of a sub- URL: www.flare.com.pk
Email: flare.mag@gmail.com
stitution is expected to be the beginning of a new era.
To do something wrong is not a mistake; to repeat the Zubair Ahmed Kasuri, publisher of FLARE
leading telecom magazine printed it from
wrong act is. It is never too late for those who want to
Akkaz Printers, Shama Plaza, Lahore and
make a difference by learning from their errors. In telecom-
published from 105 B, Gulberg II, Lahore.
munications, we have made rapid progress in all these
years on false pillars. Now authorities are taking pains to
stop the situation from further aggravation. These late pre-
cautions are irritating many people but some how or the
other it has to be so. If few are protesting against then
many are looking forward to these changes.

8
Letters
to the
Editor
Not again!
The bullying between cellular operators is
nothing new in Pakistan. The latest adver-
tisement by Telenor is once again an effort
to look down upon Mobilink in particular
and other operators in general. The ad: A
man, who is travelling in bus, after missing
his flight, initially refuses the samosa offer
of his neighbour but later on accepts his Te-
lenor mobile to make a call as there are no
signals in his hand set. Well, Telenor has
focused on its popularity in rural areas and
also tried to abridge the gap between two
extreme classes of society. At the same
time, it has borrowed Indigo-shirt from
Mobilink. Moreover, following the argu-
ment given by Mobilink car ad, Telenor
moves with the same pace.
Zong has made it a habit to bring some
anonymous person to convince the public
by mocking at all other cellular operators,
have they nothing new or different to serve
us with? Mobilink is also unable to change
the exuberant colour scheme of its modals
plus the festival backgrounds. Moreover,
Ufone ad of cheapest call rates has also
copied Telenor. It seems that the ad making
agencies are suffering from lack of ideas as
innovative advertisements are scarcely
coming. When we watch foreign channels,
they entertain their viewers with a variety
of product charms. Contrarily, in Pakistan,
the tradition of leg pulling is not letting go
the minds of product or package launchers
and we, the poor viewers, are bound to sit
and saw same patterns repeating with dif-
ferent colours –
Khurram Mushtaq, Lahore.
Advertising Today!
In the advertising world most of the medium
sized clients still don’t understand the
importance of a communication brief. How to
evolve a brand with respect to the market
demand, brand ownership and brand
experience. Although medium sized
companies invest extensively into developing
new product ideas, less time and
consideration is given to the concept
execution right. It has been observed that
research plays an important role, if
concentrated in three key phases such as
positioning, brand identity and advertising.
There are many clients, who have the ability
to grow but they falsely claim themselves
market leaders, if you compare the market
and the production of their product with the
number of customers, the end result tells a
different story.
I strongly feel that the biggest mistake a client
can make is when he takes advertisement for
granted. In today’s cluttered competition and
consumer driven domain, in depth analysis
and brand persona is the most critical aspect
of the launching game. If a brand dares to
carefully chart out the key brand benefits and
ingredients, it is sure to head in the right
direction. Since there is already a very thin
line on which the agency has to execute any
idea, therefore a proper brand skeleton is
compulsory. That is why a lot of brands get
out of this hungry market even before they
are born. Strategic intent is need of the hour.
Lahore being the perfect domain, serves as a
diversified hub of clientele and it’s never too
late rethink one’s plan of action - Taimur Ali
Khan, Lahore.
Bills without connection!
Everyone knows that the controversy between
the Pakistan Telecommunications Company
Limited (PTCL) and the Rawalpindi Canton-
ment Board (RCB) over lying of cable in
Chour and Misrial areas has ended in closing
down hundreds of telephone connections for
the last one year. As a result, the telephone
numbers starting with 547 and 546 are the
major causality as PTCL is abandoned to re-
pair these phones.
PTCL has sent me the bill of Rs 10,000 for my
PTCL number 5487630 of Westridge Exchange
which was disconnected some 4 years ago.
The phone number 5487630, of Westridge Ex-
change was disconnected about four years
ago. Similarly, a colleague of mine whose
phone number is 5479010 which is out of
order for more than year received Rs 1500 bill
last month.
I appealed through your magazine to the au-
thorities of PTCL to withdraw these bills of
disconnected landlines – M. Ather Shahzad,
Rawalpindi.
Bad phone service
As a resident of Chitral's Garam Chashma val-
ley, I would like to bring to the attention of the
authorities concerned the lack of communica-
tion facilities in the area. PTCL's Vphone is the
only phone service as there are no mobile and
landline service in the vicinity of Garam
Chashma Valley. But unfortunately over the
past few weeks the quality of the PTCL service
is deteriorated.
Moreover, we are using Vphone from several
months and we are still unable to understand
the billing procedures. There are many un-
known charges even in the Kifayat package,
and there is no way to inquire why and how
they are implemented. When we contact there
service centre, they treat us as nothing impor-
tant or worth bothering has happened. How-
ever, as there is no other mean of
communication in our area so we are ready to
bear the credit hardships, but it is impossible
for us to bear the poor service. It is requested
that the authorities concerned look into the
matter and remove technical faults so we can
atleast remain connected to the world at large -
Irshad Ali, Chitral.
Any body at exchange…
My phone, 4990031, is out of order from
more than a fortnight. I am lodging com-
plains on 1218 and every time they provide
me with a new complain number with the
assurance that my number will be restored
in next twenty four hours. I wonder why
no one has come to resolve the issue yet. I
can myself go and bribe some line man to
fix my line but I am not convinced. Besides,
me and every one in my family has per-
sonal handset and we no more need a land-
line. However, we are making complains
everyday to see is their any body at ex-
change to hear us – Ghazanfer Abbas,
Karachi.
Wateen axing without
notice!
When I went to my office on October 9, I
found that the system is unable to identify
me at the entrance. I inquired the guards
and they informed me that I am no more a
Wateen employee. I along with other 144
colleagues of mine tried to contact some of
the higher officials but of no avail. There
cell phones were either switched off or
were not picked up. All of us are low wa-
gers and it is deplorable to see the way in
which we are treated by the authorities. At
last, we have to go back to our homes as no
one was ready to pay attention to our wail-
ing.
I want to ask the concerned authorities, if
they have done this to us today will not
they treat their customers in the same man-
ner in near future? Is it just to treat low wa-
gers like us in such a pathetic manner
where high wagers are enjoying their facili-
ties all the same? I, on behalf of my friends,
want to appeal to the Government of Pak-
istan that kindly look in to the matter and
save our ruined lives –
an employee, Lahore.
Where is Ufone Black Berry?
I belong to that corporate sector where I
have to remain in touch for twenty four
hours with my employees and col-
leagues. When Ufone launched its pre-
paid Black Berry service, I was one of the
very first people who went to get the
service. Besides commenting or compar-
ing the Black Berry service of different
cellular operators, I just want to say that
the service was halted few days ago
without any prior notice. The very next
day, through your website I came to
know that PTA has issued notice to
Ufone for not obtaining NoC and it has
to suspend the service.
I wonder at the boldness showed by
Ufone; they launched the service, spent
fanatically on the electronic and print
campaign without obtaining no objection
certificate (NoC). Deplorable!
Besides whatever happened between
Ufone and Pakistan Telecommunications
Authority, we the users suffered badly.
Our service was blocked; we did not get
any substitute except a promise that
Ufone will soon get a NoC. If PTA is au-
thoritative enough to raise questions at
the policies of Ufone then why not it step
forward and secure the rights of users –
a Ufoner, Islamabad.
How to direct divert calls?
For the past several days, I have been
trying to activate the direct divert call
service on my resident number 0244-
363572, but have not succeeded yet. As
the normal time for activation of this
service is three hours, I will request the
PTCL to immediately activate the direct
divert call service on my given number
so that I may use this service –
a worried customer, Nawabshah
Send us your letters at
flare.mag@gmail.com or at our
postal address.
Flare reserves the right to edit let-
ters for clarity & space.
9

Banking Flare Report
Group takes strong exception to
Bank Alfalah bankruptcy rumour
bu Dhabi Group, one of the strongest in-
A vestment consortiums in the world,
would bring in an investment of about $
three billion in power generation and construc-
tion sectors of Pakistan, announced its Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer Bashir A Tahir.
Bashir A.Tahir rushed from Dubai on October
10, to give moral strength to frenzied nerves of
the depositors of Bank Alfalah, the 5th largest
bank of Pakistan that is owned by the group, on
baseless rumours that the bank had defaulted.
"The conspiracy was hatched to harm the group's
interest that has already invested $10 billion in
Pakistan and still firmly believes in its financial
health," said the CEO while addressing an urgent
press conference held in Serena Hotel, Islamabad.
He said anyone could gauge the financial
health of Alfalah Bank from the very fact that the
bank reserves stand at Rs 8.5 billion against the
State Bank of Pakistan requirement of Rs 4 bil-
lion. We are guardians of the depositors' inter-
ests. He added that Bank Alfalah showed a
remarkable performance during
the last fiscal year. The deposits
grew to Rs 287.7 billion against Rs
270.6 billion during the financial
year 2007. Likewise the Bank's
profit before taxation grew by 35
per cent (Rs 3.28 billion). Bashir A
Tahir requested the media not to
become part of conspiracies and
check the information from the
person or company in question.
Mr Tahir said that the Bank Al
Falah was not going into default.
At present, the bank has 225
branches across 88 cities in Pak-
istan making it the fifth largest
bank of the country. “We are plan-
ning to open 49 new branches in
the remaining cities to meet the
growing demand.” ISLAMABAD: Co-Chairman of Bank Alfalah, Bashir A. Tahir addresses a press
Pakistan was to a large extent conference at a local hotel, Group Head, Talib Rizvi and Shakil Sadiq are also seen states of the US.
immune to global financial crisis, sitting on the stage.
which had spread from Asia Pacific to Europe
and across Atlantic due to different domestic en-
vironments and strict regulations. "Dubai Group
has full confidence in Pakistan's financial health.
The government would never repeat the year
1998 mistake of freezing foreign currency ac-
counts, as it realised the dire consequences of
such a blunder in the past.”
Elaborating the current financial crisis impact, frozen. The apprehensions being floated regard-
Mr Tahir said that Pakistani banking system was
immuned from this crisis. “We are not part of any there is no fear of default by the country, he
10
group in the US or Europe. Our economy is based
on agriculture,” he categorically ruled out the im-
pression of any impact on Pakistani financial sys-
tem. He said the group had already invested
more than $10 billion in various sectors in Pak-
istan since 1997 and provided jobs to more than
"The conspiracy
was hatched to harm
the group's interest
that has already in-
vested $10 billion in
Pakistan and still
firmly believes in its
financial health"
19000 Pakistanis in various sectors. He said the
current economic crisis in this country was owing vestment in the power sector of Pakistan to meet
to deteriorated law and order situation. “We
need to think about improving the law and order company was working with the UAE govern-
situation.”
On the other hand, Advisor to the Prime Min- that Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan of the
ister on Finance Shaukat Tareen said the foreign
currency accounts and lockers are not being
ing the bankruptcy of Pakistan are not true and
www.
flare.
Free Download com.pk
added that the government will be able to control
all the economic issues. He assured that the gov-
ernment is making all efforts to attract more for-
eign inflows in the country and said that the
foreign exchange reserves will not reduce further.
The local currency will also stabilise soon. There
is urgent need to crush the conspirators who
harm the Pakistan's interests and prevent direct
foreign investment (FDI).
Bashir A. Tahir said that the Abu Dhabi
Group invested over $10 billion in Pakistan in
telecommunications and other areas and it would
bring in more investment in the range of $ three
to five billion. It has signed a memorandum of
understanding with the Punjab government to
construct a huge complex in May
2005 and it took almost three years
to get permission from the provin-
cial government which was finally
achieved in March this year. The
cost of the complex had increased
from $900 million to $1.5 billion and
it would be completed very soon.
Answering a query, he said he did
not know how rumours about the
bank spread without any solid
ground.
He said that a new IT company,
Raseen costing around $1 billion
would be established in Pakistan
very soon. Raseen provides solu-
tions in the technology space spe-
cializing in mobile commerce and
e-banking. He elaborated this tech-
nology is currently available in a few
Mr Tahir said that the company
was also planning to make over $1.2 billion in-
the growing energy demands. He said that the
ment to bring investment in the sector. He added
Abu Dhabi group is a better Pakistani. “I have a
confidence in Pakistan. Pakistan is my next home.
We will continue our investment in this country,”
Mr Tahir quoted Sheikh Mubarak.


Telepedia Flare Report
The second phase of the “Hunt” will comprise
of six weeks of physical training and tactical
awareness of the final thirty-six short-listed
youngsters at the prestigious National Cricket
Academy in Lahore
or those who think “cricket fever is an
F urban social phenomenon, the Mobilink
Hunt for Heroes is an eye opener. The
dynamic social energy produced through this
phenomenal campaign has ignited the emotion-
al flames amongst the young and the old in not
only urban but also rural areas.
Last year Mobilink Hunt for Heroes covered
more than fifty districts to unveil raw cricket
talent, spread across the mountains, plains and
deserts. Talented youngsters showcased the
true meaning of “Passion for Cricket”. Even the
federally administered areas in the North West
were represented by Cricketing enthusiasts,
making it a very first activity to step into the
tribal regions.
The overwhelming response with more than
12,000 participants from 52 districts is a testi-
mony to the fact that cricket runs in our blood.
A unique activity, where specialized coaches
and trainers of PCB traveled countrywide to
look for talented youngsters, Mobilink Hunt for
Heroes has been largely lauded in regional as
well as national cricket circles. Unlike other
marketing efforts, it helps the cricket enthusi-
asts to realize that their dream and talent must
be recognized - 10 of these Heroes were a part
12
www.
flare.
Free Download com.pk
the U-15 World Cup and emerged victorious by
the narrowest of margins. In the league format
of the World Cup, Pakistan recorded the
biggest winning margins in the tournament.
293-run win against America U-15 and 230-run
win against Netherlands U-15 team.
According to Haroon Rashid Head Youth
Development, National Cricket Academy, “This
year, I can see at least three to four youngsters
who have the ability to make it to the Test team
if given proper focus and training.”
Talking about the second edition of the pro-
gramme, Khurram Mahboob Brand Manager
Strategic Initiatives Mobilink said, “After the
tremendous success of the 2007 edition of
Mobilink Hunt for Heroes, Mobilink has taken
the search to a new level with sixty six activi-
ties in sixty districts across Pakistan, spanning
over five months. This phase will be succeeded
by short-listing of youngsters for twelve region-
al teams, who will fight for the top honors in
the Mobilink Hunt for Heroes Tournament
2008.”
The overwhelming
response with more
than 12,000
participants from 52
districts is a testimony
of the 15-member squad for the U-15 World to the fact that cricket
Cup in the West Indies.
Having had the opportunity to receive
extensive training by some of PCB’s best play-
runs in our blood
The second phase of the “Hunt” will com-
ers, the Heroes unearthed by Mobilink per-
prise of six weeks of physical training and tacti-
formed par excellence at the U-15 World Cup.
cal awareness of the final thirty-six short-listed
Consequently, Pakistan U-15 team won the
youngsters at the prestigious National Cricket
knockout phase of the World Cup by emerging
Academy in Lahore. The ongoing activities are
victorious over the hosts by two runs. The
geared to bring forth talented Cricketers across
youngsters held their nerves under pressure of
the country and train them for the 2011 ICC
playing in the final of the knockout phase of
Cricket World Cup.
During October, the “Hunt” will be going
into bigger districts like Lahore, Multan,
Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Mansehra and Larkana
as well as smaller centers like Dadu, Hub,
Swabi, MirpurKhas and Pishin.
The passion for Cricket is shared by
everyone, barring age, gender, race and reli-
gion. With the right kind of nurturing and
exposure through this great platform, today’s
youngsters will form the future of Pakistan
Cricket in the coming years. It is the enthusi-
asm and dedication of the fresh talent that will
take the game by storm and make Pakistan a
force to be reckoned with once again.

 www.
flare.
com.pk Free Download
Prepaid Black Berry service is extremely hazardous for the
security of any country as there is no procedure of de-
crypting the encrypted data. Ufone aunched its prepaid
Black Berry service without attaining NoC from PTA
lackBerry is the leading wireless
B enterprise solution that keeps mobile
users connected to people and
information while on the go. Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has
suspended the Ufone Black Berry prepaid
service for not obtaining no objection
certificate (NoC). PTA issued warning letter
to the Ufone management to respond in this
respect.
When Flare contacted a high official of
Ufone, he said, “Ufone has suspended the
Black Berry service in Pakistan on the
direction of PTA. Ufone will re-launch the
service countrywide after getting NoC from
the Authority very soon.”
Moreover, a law enforcement agency
wrote a very strict letter to Ufone for
launching Blackberry prepaid service
without obtaining NoC from PTA. The
Agency demanded the CEO Ufone to
apologise to PTA and to immediately
withdraw the advertisements in print and
electronic media.
It is recalled that the
Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority had issued NoC to
only post-paid Black Berry
services. Prepaid services of
Black Berry is a threat to
security and can create law
and order situation. Mobile
phone companies have
completed details of post-
paid Black Berry users where
CEO Ufone, Abudl Aziz
pre-paid service has not
proper documentation and anybody can
avail these services by just an ID card. In
short, pre-paid Black Berry service is very
hazardous for the security of a country.
Our law enforcing agen-
cies are still unable to
tackle the issue of
unregistered SIMs; in case
of pre-paid Black Berry
services the situation will
further aggravate
In India, the security concerns have
captured mobile operators in general and
Black Berry users in particular. The
Department of Telecom has asked mobile
operators providing Black Berry services in
India, asking whether there is a way to
monitor Black Berry usage, when
there is a need for "lawful
interception". The security agencies
feel that they cannot decrypt
encrypted Black Berry messages
and the servers are not located in
India. Airtel, Reliance, Voda and
BPL are among the operators who
offer Blackberry services in India.
Government of Pakistan is
already facing problems in
resolving the illegal SIMs issue as
Dr. M. Yasin, Chairman PTA whose names these
Image of PTA letter
companies did not provide complete SIM
data to PTA. Recently, some mobile
companies have launched a drive for
registration of the unverified SIMs through
SMS, which is extremely ridiculous step as
the SIM user can send any body's ID card
number for registration. People must visit
the authorised franchise to confirm their
registration and proper documentation of the
connections in order to get rid of the illegal
SIMs. On the contrary, cellular phone
companies’ claim to have blocked 10.5
million unregistered connections has not
helped the police who, during the course of
investigations, continue to find themselves
helpless in locating criminals since personal
details submitted to cell phone service
providers usually prove to be false.
Senior officials and investigators dealing
with several criminal cases argue that their
problems in terms of unregistered cell-phone
connections have not come to an end even
though cellular phone companies have, on
Flare Report Telepedia
the directives of the Senate’s Standing
Committee on Interior, traced and blocked
some ten million (SIMs) whose data proved
unverified. They considered that the pre-
paid Black Berry service is an issue of
irrecoverable threat as
the device is a highly
functional tool of
communication.
“In a few recent
cases of kidnapping, we
checked dozens of cell
phone numbers and
followed the personal
details of the people in
connections were
registered,” said Sharfuddin Memon,
chairman of the Citizen-Police Liaison
Committee. “We did not find the criminals
and we could not guess their whereabouts
since the personal details with the cellular
phone companies referred to innocent people
who did not apply for the connections under
suspicion and who enjoy separate and
legitimate service.”
In an already tense cellular scenario, it
will be least wise to issue Noc to pre-paid
Black Berry services. It is quite shameful for
Ufone to start such a hazardous service
without obtaining NoC from the Authority.
It has already remained unable to provide
the data of blocked unauthorised Ufone SIMs
to the law enforcing agencies. Ufone and
PTCL have produced a unique history of
violations in Pakistan’s telecom sector and
eyes are waiting to see what measures
authorities will take against these
transgressors.

13

Telepedia Special Report
It is really a big question why PTCL has spent
millions to sponsor BISP? The answer is very
simple; there is some thing wrong behind the
scene. The worst privatization in the history of
Pakistan has been challenged in the Supreme
Court and new CJ may take any decision about
that pending petition
here are reports of annual loss of more
T than 4 billion to PTCL revenue and can- MNA belonging to ruling
cellation of some big development proj-
ects. The general impact is that the copmany
is losing its ground due to poor policies of
new management. But, people were stunned
when they saw the ad in print media by PTCL
to claim the backing of Government initiative that has less than 6000
of Benazir Income Support Programme by
just paying 10 million Rupees. This is the
biggest social project ever started by any
government. Let’s talk briefly about this
country wide welfare project first and
then we will discus the minor contribution
of PTCL.
Benazir Income Support Programme
(BISP) was launched to realize the vision
and mission of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto to
give relief the people under cesspit finan-
cial pressure due to high prices on nation-
al and international level. When PPP coali-
tion took the charge of Government, they
simply decided not to give any subsidy on
food items which was nearly Rs.78 Billion
on the pressure of World Bank and IMF.
BISP will help the needy people of the
society to a great extent and mitigate their
sufferings. The programme to benefit as PTCL President Waleed Irshad (File Photo)
many as three million people, will be
implemented with complete transparency and team for the last 3 months. Although any
beyond political affiliations.
The government would provide maximum
relief to 25 per-
Daily Jang 10-10-2008 cent people liv-
ing below the
poverty line by
supporting them
through Benazir
Income Support
Programme. The
scheme that will
cover around 14 like “Parha Likha Punjab” but the govern-
per cent of the
population in
the low income
group across the
country; includ-
ing FATA,
Northern Areas
and Azad Jammu really sincere they may give checque of 20
Kashmir. The
programme
would be imple-
mented irre-
spective of any
14
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political affiliation as every
party or opposition would
be given 8000 forms for
the deserving in their con-
stituencies.
So, every household
monthly income will be
benefited from BISP. The
programme was craft very
pay handsome amount to the 8th October
carefully by Dr. earthquake affetees this year. The 3rd
Kaiser Bangali anniversary of the most destructive episode
who was work- has just past silently and no one was worry
ing on it with his to look to those people who had lost every
thing during the calamity. It is really a big
government can politicized it very easily question why PTCL has spent millions to
sponsor BISP? The answer is very simple;
By sponsoring BISP, Etisalat there is some thing wrong behind the scene.
The worst privatization in the history of
and PTCL are trying to Pakistan has been challenged in the Supreme
create a soft corner in the Court and new CJ may take any decision
about that pending petition. Once the pro-
Government circles and ceeding started, Etisalat under hand arrange-
ment and black corruption of Musharraf
avoid any possible action. regime will be disclosed and the deal may be
cancelled immediately. By sponsoring BISP,
Etisalat and PTCL are trying to create a soft
ment has done a very good decision not to corner in the Government circles and avoid
make it a slogan but to help the poorest at any possible action.
their doorstep. On one side poor employees of the compa-
If we look on the other side, it becomes ny are constantly crying for new salary
clear that PTCL could do more by paying the package and security of their jobs and on the
entire amount to the government instead of other side PTCL authorities are doing every
spending millions on publicity. If they were effort to destroy this national asset at the
cost of just 26 % shares. More than 2000
million silently and set an example for others employees were sent home under VSS. What
to follow. It has also damaged the noble cause is the message for them?
to help the poorer silently. All the questions are un-answered and
If the leadership of PTCL was really sin- the whole nation has grave concern about
cere to the people of Pakistan they should PTCL…?.


Event Flare Report
Warid continues search
for cricket heroes
Hundreds of thousands of people enthusiastically became a part of the
largest cricket tournament of its kind in the history of Pakistan
ricket culture has experienced many
C
changes over the years, from bats and
balls to the change in styles of casual
wears. Young cricket lovers from the subconti-
nent have managed to culturally adapt cricket to
suit their playing conditions. Wrapping a tennis
ball in insulation tape allows an increase in
weight, swing, bounce and slippery speed.
The final Warid 2nd Tape Ball Cricket Tour-
nament has been played between Faisalabad
Falcon Cricket Club and Lahore Lions Cricket
Club at Shah Faisal Cricket Club, M-Block,
Model Town Extension, Lahore, on September
20, 2008. Faisalabad Falcon Cricket batted first
and scored 58 runs in six over. On their turn, La-
hore Lions Cricket Club achieved the target in
just four over. The Captain of Lahore Lions
Club, Mohammad Shakeel, received the win-
16
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ning trophy from Farhan Abbas, Marketing
Manager Warid Telecom. Warid Telecom mar-
keting officials were also present on the memo-
rable occasion.
A large number of cricket lovers gathered to
watch the series of Warid 2nd Tape Ball Cricket
Tournament in respective cities. The supporters
cheer equally for teams during all matches, the
final specially turns in to a kind of festival. The
match played between Faisalabad Falcon and
Lahore Lions Club remained remarkable for its
strategic sportiveness. The tournament proved
to be the largest sports entertainment on na-
tional level.
The tournament was started on August 18 in
which. 3,170 teams across the country partici-
pated. However, only 413 teams could qualify
the strict criteria. The matches were played si-
 www.
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multaneously at all centers announced by Warid
in all nooks and corners of Pakistan. It was in-
deed an excitement to see the local well-pre-
pared teams heartily playing against each other
under the floodlights with tape balls. By the end
of the tournament, viewers were so excited that
many of them traveled to Lahore to remain a
part throughout the series. Approximately
around 10 million people voluntarily remained
part of the event.
It is evident that Warid has played a vital
role in promoting cricket on such level in Pak-
istan. The 128 teams were selected from Karachi,
128 from Lahore, 64 from Islamabad, 32 from
ZRG wins contract in Khartoum
This latest achievement by ZRG is a significant effort towards earning foreign ex-
change for Pakistan through software export
RG International, nation’s leading provider
Z of customer interaction and contact centre
solutions, has won an impressive IT soft-
ware export contract from Bank of Khartoum, the
largest bank in Sudan that is owned and managed by
Dubai Islamic Bank, Dubai.
According to the agreement, ZRG will be provid-
ing state-of-the-art Banking Contact Centre Technol-
ogy with CRM solution to BOK. This latest
achievement by ZRG is a
significant effort towards
earning foreign exchange
for Pakistan through soft-
ware export. According to
Pakistan Software Export
Board, Pakistan IT solution
and service providers
earned $169 million against
the target of $160 million
during the year 2007-2008.
The software earnings for
the year 2006-2007 were
$116 million against the tar-
get of $108 million.
ZRG, having solutions installed and working at
major banking contact centres in the country, offered
a flexible and modular Financial Contact Centre plat-
form with features including a multi-lingual (English
and Arabic) self-service Interactive Voice Response,
on-screen Soft Phone and CRM suite with contact
management applications for Live Agent desktop,
CTI for smart routing and call handling, Integration
with ATM switch and Banking data host, SMS Alert
The final Warid 2nd Tape
Ball Cricket Tournament was
played between Faisalabad
Falcon Cricket Club and
Lahore Lions Cricket Club at
Shah Faisal Cricket Club,
Lahore, on
September 20, 2008
module and a suite of quality assurance and control
tools such as digital voice recorder, supervision and
monitoring applications and an integrated MIS re-
porting package.
BOK expects several strategic benefits coming out
of the contact centre initiative including increased
customer retention and loyalty, competitive edge
over other banks, increased ability to capture new
markets and customers and faster launch of new
“The cutting edge
technology of ZRG
will help us achieve
our customer’s
satisfaction and
retention goals as
well as give us more
customer base”
products and services.
Speaking at the signing session Mr Kashif Naeem,
Head of Private Banking Sale and QA, BOK said,
“Bank of Khartoum is known for introducing innova-
tive products for Retail customers and is the market
leader with the unmatched product menu. Though
we have a PABX based call centre for the past 2 years
but with the increased product menu and increased
customer base, it became absolutely vital for the bank
Flare Report Event
Hyderabad, 32 from Multan and 32 from Faisal-
abad. At the end of the tournament, teams from
one to six positions were awarded smart prizes.
1st Prize – Rs 1,000,000 2nd Prize – Rs
500,000 3rd Prize – Rs 200,000 4th, 5thand 6th
prize – Rs 50,000 each
Despite of double prize money for the win-
ners, the performances of Warid’s various brand
ambassadors, who also represent teams of dif-
ferent cities, twisted the environment: Abrar-ul-
Haq - Lahore Lions, Jawad Ahmad - Karachi
Super Kings, Haroon – Multan Jets, Rahim Shah
– Islamabad Champs, Shaman Mirani - Hyder-
abad Heroes and JAL – Faisalabad Falcons.

to invest in a 24/7 IVR-enabled Contact Centre solu-
tion. We are always looking at ways to provide the
best service to our valued customers and by having
24/7 IVR Call Centre solution, we will be able to pro-
vide high quality and accurate customer services. The
cutting edge technology of ZRG will help us achieve
our customer’s satisfaction and retention goals as well
as give us more customer base.”
Mr Ayub Butt, CEO, ZRG International expressed
his views, “We are ex-
tremely pleased to become
a strategic technology part-
ner for such a prestigious
and forward looking finan-
cial institution. We believe
that BOK has taken the
right approach of going
with open standards based
flexible and scalable tech-
nology. We are providing
the contact centre technol-
ogy foundation that will
help the bank offer prod-
ucts to the market faster as
well as encourage new possibilities and inspire new
services.
”Already proven and widely installed in the
Banking industry, our contact centre solution is de-
signed to deliver leading edge performance and to
help our clients to innovate upon. We are confident
that BOK contact centre will redefine the customer
service standards in the region and will be a role
model for the rest of the industry to follow “

17

Telepedia Flare Report
With this offer we have once again prove that Mobilink recognizes, meets and
exceeds the needs of its customers
obilink, the count ry 's mark et
M
lead er in c ellular communica-
tion with a g rowing b ase of
over 32 m illion c us tomers and a sub -
s id iary of Oras c om T elecom, has
an nounc ed th at M obilink Jazz sub -
s c ribers had 30 – 600 free minut es on
every rec harge.
Com m entin g on th is exclusive limit -
ed tim e offer, B ilal M unir Sheik h, V ice
Pres id en t M arketin g Mob ilink said, "At
M obilink, we c on s tan t ly st rive t o pro-
vid e the very bes t in cent ives t o our
It takes into account not only cost but attempts to acknowledge gender and language
barriers as well, and provide easy solutions
elenor TeleDoctor brings Medical
T Advisory Service into the digital
age. Now professional and authentic
medical advice is just a phone call away.
This industry first offers personalized
attention to each caller giving them reli-
able advice, conforming to the strictest
medical codes.
Telenor Pakistan, has announced the
commercial launch of its mobile medical
service, “Telenor Tele Doctor 1911" – the
first service of its kind in the industry.
The service aims to provide Telenor sub-
scribers easy and instant access to medical
advice wherever and whenever needed.
The services are available in Urdu,
English, Punjabi, Pashtu, Sindhi, Balochi,
Seraki, Hazarvi and Handko.
The service provides Telenor Pakistan
subscribers 24/7 telephonic access to
qualified and experienced General
Practitioners. These online Tele Doctors
will be able to provide Telenor Pakistan
subscribers with basic health information,
medical advice and laboratory report
interpretation in local languages of the
18
consumers. Jazz F ree Minutes, w h ere
users can avail up t o 600 fre e mi n ut es
when t hey credit t heir accoun t , i s
aimed t o furt her reward and f a c i l i t a t e
our valued cust omers durin g t h e h o l y
mont h of Ramadan. Wit h t h i s o f f er w e
have once ag ain proven t ha t M obi l i n k
recog nizes, meet s and excee d s t h e
needs of it s cust omers", says a st a t e-
ment .
It said t hat t ailored t o t he n eed s of
t he diverse mark et , t he offer i n c l ud es 5
free minut es on Rs 50 - 99 r ec h a rge, 3 0
subscribers' preference, in addition to
Urdu and English. Female callers wishing
to talk to female doctors will also be facil-
itated. These preferences will be provided
to callers via specially designed call for-
warding facility.
Tele Doctor 1911 service is designed to
provide callers with an assessment of
symptoms and complete answers to med-
ical health related questions based on
internationally accepted and recognized
medical decision making protocols. The
service will also provide online access to
Tele Doctors with medical records of pre-
vious callers to facilitate better follow up.
Telenor Tele Doctor is all set to estab-
lish new benchmarks for corporate social
responsibility in the industry as it pro-
vides valuable expert medical advice to
Telenor Pakistan subscribers at Rs 8 + tax
per minute against regular doctor visits at
almost Rs 500. The service has been for-
mally endorsed by the Ministry of Health,
Sindh.
Chief Marketing Officer Telenor
Pakistan Lars Christian Iuel describes the
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f ree mi n ut es f or ev ery R s 1 0 0 t o R s2 9 9
rec h a rge, 5 0 f ree mi n ut es f o r rec h a rge
bet w een R s 3 0 0 a n d R s 5 9 9 , 1 5 0 f ree
mi n ut es w h en rec h a rge i s f rom R s 6 0 0 -
R s 9 9 9 a n d a s ma n y a s 6 0 0 f ree mi n ut es
on rec h a rge o f R s 1 , 0 0 0 a n d a bo v e.
T h e st a t emen t sa i d t h a t t h e of f er c a n
be subsc ri bed ea si l y by sen d i n g a
bl a n k S M S t o 1 5 0 bef o re c red i t i n g t h e
a c c oun t . T h i s i s a on e t i me subsc ri p-
t i on on l y c h a rged a t 2 5 pa i sa s pl us t a x.
T h e f ree mi n ut es a re f o r M obi l i n k t o
M o bi l i n k c a l l s o n l y.

service as ‘a new concept in Medical
Advisory Service.’ "Keeping with our
objective of striving to be a socially
responsible organization, we also hope to
reach out to people who refrain from get-
ting medical advice for privacy. Apart
from providing healthcare and medical
advisory services to callers, this service
will also provide information and aware-
ness about healthcare and health related
hazards. We hope that the Tele Doctor
project will work as an example to follow
for community initiatives in the telecom-
munication industry."
The service has the capacity to accom-
modate 4,000 to 5,000 callers daily. It
takes into account not only cost but
attempts to acknowledge gender and lan-
guage barriers as well, and provide easy
solutions.
Telenor TeleDoctor has ensured that
the service can be customized to our
callers as much as possible. The service
ensures that our valued subscribers are
offered the best healthcare advice from
their Telenor connections.

 www.
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Mubarak Center
Iconic landmark in Pakistan
shopping and entertainment complex in the region. The
The project will be spread over 11 acres of eclipse shaped tower will also house the largest reception and
conference halls in the country, holding between 3,500-4,000
prime land on main Ferozpur Road, Lahore. It people. There will be exclusive, high-end residential suites
in the main tower managed by Hyatt Residency. Parking
will be a multi purpose development space will be available for more than 4,000 cars. There is
complex and will cater a variety of target also a five star hotel with 400 rooms, ballrooms, ban-
quettes and all ancillary amenities. The complex will
markets. Retail Area with shops and other be connected to the Gaddafi Stadium Sports Complex
by a covered, over-head bridge or possibly an under-
recreational facilities including Bowling pass.
The two investors have formed a holding company
Alley and Skating Rink, Cineplex (with 6 for Mubarak Centre called Taavun (Pvt.) Ltd. which
will be responsible for managing the project. Pak-
independent theaters), Car Park (for 2,800 istani and foreign companies will construct this
project. The residential apartments will be man-
cars on ground and underground levels) aged by Concord. Mubarak Tower. The height of
the building will make it visible from India, as
akistan has nearly 35 tall buildings and towers where Mubarak Center is

P going to be the tallest building of South Asia. A symbol of Pak-UAE

friendship, the project is being completed as a joint venture of Abu Dhabi
Group and Government of Punjab in the heart of Lahore.
well as allow residents of the upper floors views
of the Golden Temple in Amritsar approximately
50 kilo meter away from the building on clear
days.
The Abu Dhabi Group Consortium is one the largest UAE based group of in-
By these huge investment in Pakistan, Abu Dhabi
vestors actively participating in investment activities in countries like Pakistan,
Group has proved himself a true well
Bangladesh, Iran, Uganda, Republic of Congo and the Middle East. Last month
wisher and friend of Pakistan.
government of Punjab has formed a eight member board of directors of
What the government has
Mubarak Centre, a multi- use complex currently under construction, in Lahore.
to do is to fully facilitate
Government of Punjab will be represented by Secre- tary Finance, Chair-
the group in making
man P and D and Chief Secretary while Abu Dhabi Group will be
more in- vestment
represented by Chairman Abu Dhabi Group Sheikh Nehyan
and ac-
Mubarak Al-Nehyan and CEO Abu Dhabi Group Bashir
tively par-
Ahmed Tahir in the new board of direc- tors. The center
ticipating
will include residential and official tow- ers, as well as
in the de-
conference halls and a shopping mall. The first phase of the
velopment
project will be completed in 2010 and the whole project
of
will be completed at a cost of about $ 1.2 billion in 2012.
Pakistan.

The complex will be comprised of four towers and a
small eclipse shaped building. The main tower will be 72
stories, with the first 30 floors reserved for of-
fices, and from 31 onwards for res-
idential apartments. The other three
towers will have 30 to 34 stories;
with an eclipse shaped
tower in between
that will house
uniquely designed
apartments along
with a five story
covered shopping
mall, which will be
biggest and
most exclusive

20

Exclusive Flare Report
Shabbir Iqbal from
Navy retains title
KHL sponsors President Gold
Medal Golf Championship
n a relatively brief span of time, KHL has estab-
I
lished itself as the leading service and solution
provider in Pakistan when it comes to telecom,
specialised construction, and power and infrastruc-
ture development. With an unparalleled reputation
for top-notch quality, exceptional reliability and
dedicated resources, KHL has also gained a
foothold globally, handling projects from Mauritius
to China, and alliances with international compa-
nies. KHL is the leading service oriented firm in the
field of optical network technology and is provid-
ing a range of services from being manufacturers,
project consultants to supporting managed services
round the clock for GSM, LDI and long haul opera-
tors.
Besides, KHL has always marked its presence by
participating in International conferences and
CEO KHL Usman Sheikh addresses a press conference to sponsor
President of Pakistan Gold Medal Golf Tournament 2008, who is
committed to promote sports in future as well.
22
events. KHL participated in ITCN Asia 2008, one of
the biggest IT & Telecom extravaganzas of Pak-
istan, where most significant brands of the world
were showcased. Keeping up the tradition KHL is
also participating in the upcoming GITEX Technol-
ogy Week 2008. The event promises to provide a
power – packed week showcasing business solu-
tions and consumer electronics. KHL will also dis-
play its portfolio representing the fast growing
sector of technology in Pakistan. Mr Usman Sheikh,
CEO KHL, said that KHL is determined to play
vital role not only in its services but also in sports.
With a history of promoting sport in Pakistan, hav-
ing sponsored Sara Mansoor, ranked second in
Tennis Women Singles, KHL believes in benefiting
the society through non-conventional means. KHL
has honoured to organise the 2008 Presidential
Gold Medal Golf Championship sponsored by
Konnect Holden Limited. The three-day event,
which has commenced on October 10 and con-
cluded on October 12, was widely considered one
of the most popular events in the country and at-
tracted keen golfers from all nook and corners of
Pakistan.
Professional golfer Shabbir Iqbal from Navy re-
tained his title by winning the 26th President of
Pakistan Gold Medal Golf Championship with the
score of 203 in a 54 holes competition here at Islam-
abad Gold Club recently on October 12. Defending
champion Shabbir Iqbal was eight strokes ahead on
the end of day two on Saturday, October 11. He
maintained his lead on third and final day to lift the
trophy. Waheed Baloch claimed second position
with 211 score while Muhammad Traiq remained
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Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar gives away trophy to the winner at Islam-
abad Golf Club. Sponsor of the tournament KHL, CEO Usman Sheikh
also seen in the picture.
third with 217. The winner did not need to toil to
maintain lead on the final day and he played his
routine strokes to reach at the top in the profession-
als' competition.
Meanwhile, there were tough competitions among
the females, as the Ami Qin grabbed the title with
gross score of 172 after leaving behind Tahira Nazir
with 176 gross score. Shahzadi Gulfam's gross score
was 190 and she claimed third position. Shahida Is-
mail got the top position with the net score of 151
with a single stroke lead, as her challenger Salma
remained second with net-152.
At the end, chief guest Defance Minister Ahmed
Mukhtar and CEO KHL, Usman Sheikh distrib-
uted the cash awards, prizes and trophies in the
winner and runner up players of the champi-
onship. Rs.0.5 million has been distributed among
the players. The officials of the Pakistan Golf Fed-
eration (PGF) and Islamabad Golf Club were pres-
ent at this occasion.
Federal Minister for Defence, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar gives
away a trophy to winner of President of Pakistan Gold Medal Golf
Tournament 2008, at Islamabad Golf Club.

InsighT Mahmood Hussain
Our channels remain on air for twenty four
hours a day yet they are unable in producing
a single, comprehensive, well-timed and
properly managed programme
cores of radio and television channels, exclu-
S sively devoted to news and current affairs in
the private sector of Pakistan, are busy in
enjoying complete professional freedom however
they are so far collectively failed to deliver any ben-
eficial stuff. They remain on the air round the clock
but have failed to produce even a single compre-
hensive and compact news bulletin or a quality and
well timed programmes based on current affairs.
The reasons behind such failures are aimlessness,
incompetence, professionally untrained and inex-
perienced staff, and non-professional management
at the helm of affairs.
As far as the public sector is concerned, the
Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) and
Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) had done
well in the past but had been rapidly getting down
for the last several years. Thanks to the nominated
senior management one after the other for so many
years, most of them carry no background in the
field of broadcasting. Gone with the wind are the
days when Radio Pakistan and PTV defended the
enemy’s propaganda onslaught during the 1965
and 1971 wars and also the cultural invasion
launched across the borders. In contrast now they
had kneeled down to the information and cultural
invasion propagated outside our territory.
To justify their nominations in the professional
organizations like PBC and PTV, the alien manage-
ment had coined the term media management.
Even if the new terminology is accepted, it must be
made clear whether managerial duties are different
to the actual broadcasting business that remains a
thorny affair. Incompetent men at the helm of
affairs not only avoid work but also tend profes-
sionals to stop working. This had actually hap-
pened in the two organizations. As a result news
and current affairs programme broadcast by PBC
and PTV had gradually deteriorated and in the
process their credibility had been eroded.
The private sector had not properly taken off,
so no question of their losing any ground. Right
from the beginning they had focused attention on
24
commercials and they have achieved that objective.
But where is the news? The managements of all
channels owe an answer to the citizens of Pakistan.
The state-run electronic media had its own
compulsions, handicaps and shortcomings that can
be understood. But, it is strange that the private sec-
tor had also failed to communicate although they
have no excuse of curbs that are imposed over the
state owned media.
The private sector
had not properly
taken off so no ques-
tion of their losing
any ground. Right
from the beginning
they had focused
attention on com-
mercials and they
have achieved that
objective
A person glued in front of news and current
affair channels remains in wilderness as there is
nothing new or worth-watching (and unfortunately
he or she has no other choice). Every thing under
the sun except news will be broadcasted along with
the bombardment of equivalent commercials. None
of the news channels had so far been able to pro-
duce a compact and comprehensive news bulletin
that could satisfy the requirement of the viewers.
They are still not in a position to let the viewers
know the exact time, schedule and duration of
news bulletins, and current affairs programme. Not
only the producers but people had the right to
know as to when a programme will start and end.
The news may be of one or two minutes or at times
more but the discussions run over hours. How can
remain seated without knowing the duration?
Cannot these programmes be timed before broad-
cast?
It is interesting that the producers appear inter-
ested in the one line news that runs at the bottom
of the small screen called ‘patti’, instead of detailed
story that could cater the basic requirements and
ingredients called ABCD, i.e. accuracy, balance,
clarity and deadline. Different stories each meeting
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ABCD standards knitting together the news bul-
letin that is missing from almost all the private
news channels. The stories broadcast on the media
are generally incomplete. They seldom fulfil the
basic ingredients that make a comprehensive story,
i.e., 5 Ws. well known by each and every student of
mass communication.
News and current affairs are dry subjects when
compared to the music and other entertainment
programmes, therefore their duration has to be
restricted. They are supposed to be tightly edited,
well timed and the presentation handled with spe-
cialized craftsmanship and journalistic background.
The management at the private channels are
greatly mistaken if they consider the production of
news and current programmes an ordinary task.
They have perhaps envisioned that these channels
would need lesser financial inputs as compared to
the entertainment channels.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory
Authority (PEMRA) was established in 2003 to
gradually liberate and regulate the broadcasting
sector. Consequently the new organization issued a
number of licenses for cable TV operations, FM
radio stations and satellite TV channels. This was in
addition to the chain of AM and FM radio stations
run by Pakistan by Pakistan Broadcasting
Corporation and the chain of Pakistan Television
Corporation centres across the country.
While issuing the licenses PEMRA too headed
by non-professionals and retired persons from the
police department or telecommunication hired on
contracts, secured the fee in cash but never both-
ered to ensure weather the applicants had the nec-
essary infra-structure and expertise to run the
show. They do not even have any mechanism to
oversee the quality of the broadcast except to see
that they are not against their set formula to safe-
guard government interest and also not violating
day to day instructions issued by the PEMRA.
It is therefore necessary that the management at
the helm of affairs both in the media and at
PEMRA be made hundred per cent professional,
well trained and well experienced in the trade, so
that they can help conceive, plan and produce qual-
ity broadcast that could cater to the requirement of
the public so that they may not drifted to foreign
channels.
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Disgruntled employees include lower, middle and senior level executive officers. Most of
these employees, who have given over a decade to Instaphone, have not been paid for the
last four months
ellular company employees elsewhere are
C known to get good pay packages. In In-
staphone, they are actually fighting to get
paid. Its employees have been negotiating with
the management on delayed salaries. They are,
however, still doubtful if the company would
keep its side of the bargain, pay them on time.
Disgruntled employees include lower, middle
and senior level executive officers. Most of these
employees, who have given over a decade to In-
staphone, have not been paid for the last four
months.
Instaphone was initially the subsidiary of Ar-
feen Group (Pakistani group). Arfeen took over
Instaphone in May 2006 when the Luxemburg-
based company Millicom International Cellular
(MIC) disinvested. Currently, Javaid Feroz is the
chief executive officer (CEO) of Instaphone. On
May 21, 2008, the government cancelled In-
staphone's licence when the company ran into fi-
nancial difficulties and failed to pay its dues to
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
According to sources in PTA, Instaphone had
been extended every concession and was fully ac-
commodated in terms of time, which had been
the licensee's main concern and request. Instead
of availing the concessions, Instaphone had been
abusing the extra time and despite the number of
opportunities given to it, had failed persistently
in showing a serious approach towards its obliga-
tions under the licence and regulatory directives.
South Korea Telecom and then Russian tele-
com investors, Altimo, also backed off due to
poor investment climate and political instability.
Nonetheless, Instaphone had taken the matter of
its licence cancellation to court to avail some
more time. The decision i still pending.
"We were one of the first cellular companies.
We could have done well but owners did not
think globally and act locally. The company is
now on the verge of disaster," said a member
from the senior management in Instaphone.
“During the period of MIC the company
was generating revenues and earning profits. But
since Arfeen took over (two years back), In-
staphone has been facing losses and has lost its
corporate image severely. He added with billions
of rupees in unpaid liabilities, Instaphone owes
millions in licence fee, beside the promised health
care and employee’s compensation claims. It's al-
most dead. Instaphone has brutally damaged
consumer and employee rights".
Instaphone employees had not been paid their
salaries since May 2008. It had become a normal
practice for the company to delay salaries. "And it
has been so since January. The CEO did not seem
to pay any heed to the hue and cry of the employ-
ees despite having been reminded on countless
occasions. The company's redundant status has
weakened employees professionally and finan-
cially. They are in distress," the senior officer said.
Recently, nearly 30 staff members had been
served with Letter of Thanks on immediate basis
by Instaphone without clearing their dues which
include salaries, provident fund, gratuity and
leave encashment.
The executive, who saw no hope of the com-
Adding insult to injury, we have been
stripped of our medical insurance facility
since February due to non-payment of
premium by Instaphone, which clearly
violates the employment contract we were
served with at the time of joining
pany carrying itself out of the crisis, sympathised
for the situation in which Instaphone's employees
found themselves in. "Even the employees, who
left at the start of 2008, are yet to receive their
clearance dues."
"Adding insult to injury, we have been
stripped of our medical insurance facility since
February due to non-payment of premium by In-
staphone, which clearly violates the employment
contract we were served with at the time of join-
ing," said another Instaphone employee request-
ing not to be identified. "It is criminal negligence
attitude on the part of management of Arfeen
Group. It hurts even more when our families
have to suffer with us.”
A senior executive in Instaphone Lahore of-
fice, who was among the laid off staff, said he
Flare Report Telepedia
was still willing to work with Instaphone. "I
started my professional career with Instaphone
and gave 12 years to the company. But they have
to pay us sooner or later. The entire customer's
operations department, customer's relations man-
agement and sales staff were told that the sys-
tems in Lahore office were being shut down and
they were being laid off.
Calling for an end to uncertainty over his fu-
ture, an Instaphone executive in Karachi said he
had been living in torture for the last three
months because he had not received his salary.
We can't pay school fees. It's becoming difficult to
even keep the kitchen running. Worst of all, there
are no jobs for us because we carry the brand of
Instaphone with us on our CVs everywhere we
go. This is the worst management," said the dis-
pleased officer.
And as one of the executives put it, "with
the company losing its subscribers fast, In-
staphone is now a non-existent entity".
Nonetheless, optimistic that Instaphone still
had future, its CEO Javaid Feroz said the two
telecom companies (SK Telecom and Russian
Altimo) had "not backed off". "Rather they are
waiting for the investment climate to get better
and political stability. Chances are that In-
staphone will get back in the game," said Mr
Feroz.
Whatever Instaphone will do in its so called
‘future’, the hardships of committed personnel
is a question of today and it has to craft some
way to console the mistrust of those people
who are its part and parcel.

25

Telepedia Flare Report
hairman Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA)
C Dr Muhammad Yaseen informed, while
chairing a high-level meeting, that the
Authority is launching 3G service, rural telephony,
consumer protection cell, strategy and development
division, mobile virtual network operators and
broadband. "Consultation regarding 3G Service
with the stakeholders had been carried out through
Industry Forums and Seminars from time to time. It
is expected that 3G spectrum auctions will be held
late this year and modalities are finalized in this
regard. Moreover, Ministry of IT is also being con-
sulted in procedure of 3G Auction.
"Regarding Rural Telephony, the PTA is now
focusing on improvement of telephone services in
far-flung areas of the country and steps have been
taken to increase rural telephony. Basically this issue
is being tackled through Universal Service Fund
(USF). However, PTA has also initiated Rural
Telephony Projects through the Rabta Ghar Scheme
aimed at the proliferation of telecom facilities in the
rural and far flung unserved and undeserved areas
of Pakistan to bridge the digital divide between
urban and rural areas.”
"The growth of broadband services could not
take fast pace keeping in mind its high costs. PTA
has now focused on this area and with the launch of
some recent services like Wimax penetration of
broadband across the country would increase
resulting in enhanced data and voice services avail-
able to a common Pakistani. More than 100 per cent
growth of broadband was recorded in the last year.
3G will also increase mobile broadband services.
Besides, it will also provide employment opportuni-
ties to Graduates of remote and rural areas," he said.
"In view of prompt redress of consumer complaints
a dedicated consumer protection cell has recently
been established at PTA. This Cell would work in
close coordination with mobile, fixed, internet and
other operators to solve consumers' complaints
regarding their services. Consumer regulations are
also being formed which would help in dealing
with consumer related issues. Other measures in
this regard would also be taken.… A new Division
namely Strategy and Development has been formed
in PTA which would work as a Think Tank and
would advise the authority on future telecom poli-
PTA, being regulatory authority, itself has been taken
under the ambit of tax regime by insertion of
subsection 4 of Section 49 of the Income Tax
Ordinance 2001, in the light of Finance Bill 2007.
Resultantly PTA has paid advance Tax of Rupees One
Billion for the tax year 2008
cies. Taking into account the increasing scope of
mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) in world
cellular market, Government of Pakistan took a
principal decision to allow MVNO services in
Pakistan and included it as a clause in Mobile
Cellular Policy 2004. The same was added in new
Cellular Mobile Licenses." He added that in compli-
ance with the policy, PTA issued a Framework for
MVNO services in Pakistan in March 2006. “This
framework was twice revised in May 2007 and
April 2008 respectively to incorporate feedback
from industry. After recent revision, queries are
being received from various local and foreign
investors and a few are in process of negotiation
with local incumbent cellular mobile operators."
26
To launch 3G services, rural telephony,
consumer protection cell, strategy and
development division, mobile virtual network
operators and broadband
He said the WLL segment of telecom sector has
shown tremendous growth and in a short period of
one year the WLL subscribers have reached 2.22
million in July 2008. In spite of above developments,
he said, the sector is facing some difficulties which
hinder the growth. "This includes slow growth of
economy and impact of currency depreciation on
the sector. We are taking corrective measures and
pursuing government of Pakistan to overcome the
difficulties. Few areas included increase in federal
excise duty/GST from 15 per cent to 21 per cent is
having adverse effect on the growth of telecom sec-
tor as the annual revenues of the operators have
decreased. It is, therefore recommended that
Government should reduce these indirect taxes for
the proliferation of telecom facilities and to help the
foreign investors in recovering their costs." He said
the FDI in telecom sector declined from 27 per cent
in 2006-07 to 21 per cent in 2007-08 because most of
the operators have already laid down the infrastruc-
ture. "Telecom sector imported sets and equipments
worth $1.3 billion in 2007-08, which is a burden on
Pakistan economy's foreign exchange. We are con-
vincing leading manufacturers of the world to
establish their facilities in Pakistan."
PTA has contributed Rs 47.426 billion in federal
consolidated fund (FCF) w.e.f 1998-99 to 2007-08,
which includes Rs 2.432 billion contribution of 2007-
08 to USF and R & D account, while during 2007-08
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contribution in FCF was Rs 5 billion. "Telecom
industry has contributed more than Rs 111 billion to
national exchequer in different heads of direct and
indirect taxes, which includes GST Rs 44.6 billion,
activation tax 19.2 billion, PTA deposits 10.86 billion,
other 36.95 billion. During the year 2007-08, telecom
sector has contributed over Rs 44.6 billion in GST. In
the year 2007-08, FBR has collected more than Rs 19
billion activation tax from mobile companies.
Dr Yaseen said Mobile Banking is another con-
tribution of telecom sector that will further facilitate
the prompt, reliable, and accurate banking transac-
tions on the go at minimum costs 24 hours a day
and seven days a week. "PTA suggests that DSL
monthly charge should be made a tax deductible
expense. It should be allowed to be deducted from
an individual's income before tax is deducted.
Telecom sector has contributed positively to the
employment situation of Pakistan by creating over 1
million direct and indirect jobs," he added. The PTA
Chairman explored that 7.1 million unverified con-
nections have been blocked till now. Connectivity
between cellular mobile operators (CMTOs) and
NADRA has been established. Training of fran-
chisee or retailers has been conducted. Partial use of
online verification has already commenced.
Teething problems have been sorted out between
CMTOs and NADRA. NADRA has sent draft serv-
ice level agreement (SLA) to CMTOs, which is being
analyzed by CMTOs. PTA, in collaboration with
MoIT & Telecom, and Ministry of Interior, is work-
ing to revise the rates for verification of connections.
CMTOs are in a process to update their data. Media
campaign was launched, asking subscribers to regu-
larize their connections. System is being built in
"Online Verification" to check or block more than 10
connections on single CNIC. More than 10 connec-
tions in old data are being blocked."

Telepedia Flare Report
Telecom revenue plumged to 22 %
The tax revenue of the telecommunication sector has plunged to 22 per cent in the
fiscal year of 2007-08 as compared to 35 per cent growth in tax collection in 2006-07
he share of telecommunication sector in
T overall tax revenue of the country is ex-
pected to increase between 30 to 35 per
cent for the fiscal year 2008-09 owing to the
continuous growth in sector and addition of
taxes, officials in the tax department told the
media.
Tax official forecast the recent tax enhance-
ment on the account of general sales tax /fed-
eral excise duty (GST/FED) by six per cent to
21 per cent coupled with rapid growth of the
sector is expected to retain the 30 per cent to 35
per cent revenue generation through various
taxes. The tax revenue of the telecommunica-
tion sector has plunged to 22 per cent in the fis-
cal year of 2007-08 as compared to 35 per cent
growth in tax collection in 2006-07.
In 2007-08, the overall GST/FED collection
in telecommunication sector has reached to Rs
44.53 billion as against Rs 36.3 billion taxes col-
lected under the same head in 2006-07. Accord-
ing to the stats issued by the Telecom authority
in which showed declined trend to 0.3 per cent
annually compare to 170.02 annually, due to in-
28
creasing taxes.
The GST/FED received through the utility
of cellular phone had posted 30.4 per cent
growth with overall tax of Rs 36.80 billion.
However, this growth was shrunk from its pre-
vious fiscal year that stood at Rs 28.2 billion in
In 2007-08, the overall
GST/FED collection in
telecommunication
sector has reached to
Rs 44.53 billion as
against Rs 36.3 billion
taxes collected under the
same head in 2006-07
2006-07. However, GST/FED through fixed
line telephony has posted negative growth in
recently closed fiscal year 2006-07. It fell by 14
per cent to stand at Rs 6.80 billion in the same
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period. Taxes through wireless local loop
(WLL) and long distance international (LDI)
sector surged tremendously by 365 per cent to
Rs 0.93 billion in 2007-08.
The contribution of telecommunication sec-
tor to the overall tax revenue has been increas-
ing continuously since 2001-02 in the country
with accelerated pace of sectors' growth in the
country.
Telecom experts predicated the taxes
through cellular phone is likely to register a
notable growth because of rapid penetration in
the customers' market while taxes through
fixed line and WLL sector are not seemed to be
posted a significant surge.
They also believed that high tax burden on
the customers may slightly slow down the util-
ity of phone services particularly in the cellular
phone sector, but if the cutting throat competi-
tion among the operators will reduce call tariff
further to boost the market. They also pointed
out rising packages offered by cellular phones
besides its high consumption will also enhance
the tax revenue in the current fiscal year.

 SITE ACQUISTION

CIVIL
MECHANICAL

SITE DESIGN
TELECOM

SHELETRS
TOWERS

GENERATORS

HR OUTSOURCING

MANAGEMENT SERVICES

3G COMTECH(PVT)LTD.
TURNKEY SOLUTIONS PROVIDER
429-430 UMER BLOCK ALLAMA IQBAL TOWN
PH: +92-42-5296429,5296529,5296212
FAX: +92-42-5296329
E-MAIL:khurram.mushtaq@comtech.net.pk

Telepedia Flare Report
J on Eddy Abdullah,
newly appointed CEO of
Telenor expressed his
views, “Considering the
right of access for everyone,
it is very important that the
telecommunication services
in Pakistan should be avail-
able everywhere and af-
fordable for layman. It is
very important for the taxation regime to be ra-
tional. Activation tax needs to be abolished
and GST brought down in line with other
products and services.
Jon Eddy Abdullah has an experience of
more than 15 years in telecommunication in-
dustry. He has been working with both infra-
structure vendors as well as several mobile
operators, most recently as Chief Operating Of-
ficer in Maxis Telecommunications, Malaysia,
and Chief Technology Officer DiGi Malaysia.
He holds a Bachelor of Science (Electrical Engi-
neering) degree from Montana State Univer-
sity, USA.
He said Telenor believes it is right time for
Pakistani market to launch 3G cellular services.
“The industry is going through a tough phase
at present, with all stakeholders facing serious
challenges. 3G offers opportunities to tackle
these challenges.”
Giving the reasons of launching 3G serv-
ices, he opined as operators expand to rural
areas, average revenue per user (ARPU) con-
tinues to drop and subscriber growth slows
down significantly, while investments become
more capital-intensive. CAPEX are capital ex-
penditures or funds used by a company to ac-
quire or upgrade physical assets such as
property, industrial buildings or equipment to
maintain or increase the scope of their opera-
tions including repairing a roof to building a
brand new factory.
“At the same time networks choke, espe-
cially in the urban area, due to inadequate
spectrum. Spiking cost of doing business is
also starting to hurt the bottom line or net in-
come”, he said adding that now more than
ever operators need assurance of better re-
turns.
He further said that in a country of 160 mil-
30
Right time to launch
3G services in Pakistan:
CEO Telenor
China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and
the Philippines have already adopted 3G,
while India is issuing a licence this year
lion only 150,000 are lucky enough to be able to
access or afford broadband Internet. Broad-
band across the world is used for improving
education, healthcare, business, enterprise, and
other productivity indicators, but broadband
growth in Pakistan is slow.
He was of the view that the fixed line infra-
structure is insufficient to drive broadband
proliferation. At the same time, new fixed &
wireless broadband operators are focusing
only on affluent population.
In such circumstances, 3G offers broadband
connectivity over mobile networks, which span
the rural-urban divide, can stimulate internet
penetration in Pakistan just like new 2G li-
When the market
was opened to 2G
technology, the
economies of scale
came into play cutting
the prices to more
affordable levels, thus
same is going to
happen in 3G’s case
and that will increase
its usage among the
masses over a period
of time
censes boosted cellular penetration to record
levels over just a few years, Abdullah ex-
plained.
Telenor CEO pointed out that China, In-
donesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and the Philip-
pines have already adopted 3G, while India is
issuing a license this year. 3G offers the gov-
ernment an opportunity to stay ahead in terms
of regulatory development in the region.
“Pakistan happens to be one of the lowest
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ARPU countries and for industry to continue
to offer these low prices and at the same time
get returns on investment, the industry has to
invest in more efficient technologies for deliv-
ering services to consumers.” He further said
that 3G was one such technology and it offers a
lower cost-per-bit than GSM, in order to stay
competitive and profitable in this cutthroat
competition, operators do need to invest in 3G.
He said prices of 3G mobile handsets have
dropped and the slide will continue. “When
the market was opened to 2G technology, the
economies of scale came into play cutting the
prices to more affordable levels, thus same is
going to happen in 3G’s case and that will in-
crease its usage among the masses over a pe-
riod of time”, Eddy added. “The success of 3G
with both operators and customers, Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) should
focus on the immediate auction of the 3G spec-
trum.”
He said spectrum auction should be limited
to the existing operators as Pakistani market is
already hyper-competitive and industry cannot
afford new entrants.
“In Pakistan there is a demand for high
speed Internet and even basic Internet and in-
frastructure to accommodate that demand does
not exist. Mobile operators are privileged in
that they have wide cellular networks all
across Pakistan and these networks, with the
help of 3G technology can easily deliver high
speed Internet connectivity all over Pakistan.”
Talking about the comparison of 3G with
WiMax, Eddy viewed that WiMax rollouts
have so far been limited to the major first and
second tier cities and have not seen as much
success as was initially expected. The biggest
stumbling block is the price of the user prem-
ises terminal commonly called the CPE and
then there have been complaints on coverage
and quality of service (QoS). All this stems
from the fact that WiMax is not a very mature
technology and does not have the economies of
scale that are present in the GSM ecosystem.
WCDMA leverages the economies of scale of
GSM as it is a technology upgrade for GSM
and network equipment and handsets all are
very affordable these days, he remarked.


Telepedia Usman Yaqoob
Mobiles
clicking
tumours in brain
"It's only on the side of the head where you use
the cell phone," Carpenter said
ashington: The potential link between
W
mobile phones and brain cancer could
be similar to the link between lung
cancer and smoking — something tobacco com-
panies took 50 years to recognize, according to a
warning by US scientists.
Researchers are currently split on the level of
danger the biological effects of the magnetic field
emitted by cell phones poses to humans. How-
ever, society "must not repeat the situation we
had with the relationship between smoking and
lung cancer where we ... waited until every 'I'
was dotted and 'T' was crossed before warnings
were issued," said David Carpenter, director of
the Institute of Health and Environment at the
University of Albany, in testimony before a sub-
committee of the US House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Reform.
"Precaution is warranted even in the absence
of absolutely final evidence concerning the mag-
nitude of the risk" — especially for children, said
Carpenter.
Ronald Herberman, director of the University
of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute said that most
studies "claiming that there is no link between
cell phones and brain tumours are outdated, had
methodological concerns and did not include
sufficient numbers of long-term cell phone
users."
A brain tumour can take dozens of years to
develop, the scientists said. Carpenter and Her-
berman both told the committee the brain cancer
risk from cell phone use is far greater for chil-
dren than for adults.
A 2008 study by Swedish cancer specialist
Lennart Hardell found that frequent cell phone
users are twice as likely to develop a benign tu-
mour on the auditory nerves of the ear most used
with the handset, compared to the other ear. A
separate study in Israel determined that heavy
cell phone users had 50 per cent increased likeli-
hood in developing a salivary gland tumour.
In addition, a paper published this month by
the Royal Society in London found that adoles-
34
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the situation we had with the relationship be-
tween smoking and lung cancer," Carpenter said.
Herberman expressed his views, “I cannot tell
this committee that cell phones are definitely
dangerous. But, I certainly cannot tell you that
they are safe."
Herberman held up a model for lawmakers
We must not repeat the
situation we had with
the relationship
between smoking and
lung cancer where we ...
waited until every 'I'
was dotted and 'T' was
crossed before
warnings were issued
cents who start using cell phones before the age
showing how radiation from a cell phone pene-
of 20 were five times more likely to develop
trates far deeper into the brain of a 5-year-old
brain cancer at the age of 29 than those who did
than that of an adult. "Every child is using cell
not use a cell phone.
phones all of the time, and there are three billion
"It's only on the side of the head where you
cell phone users in the world."
use the cell phone," Carpenter said.
He added like the messages that warn of
Scientists warned US legislators of the risks of
health risks on cigarette packs, cell phones "need
brain cancer from cell phone use, highlighting
a precautionary message."
the potential risk for children who use mobile
The committee were shown several European
phones.
studies, particularly surveys from Scandinavia -
"We urgently need more research," said Car-
where the cell phone was first developed - which
penter in testimony before the House Subcom-
show that the radiation emitted by cell phones
mittee on Domestic Policy. "We must not repeat
have definite biological consequences.

Clipped cells targeting fertility
India: An Indian American fertility expert has vided into two portions to make a control group
warned men that keeping their cell phones in and a test group.
pockets and belts while talking on hands-free We exposed the test group sperm to a cell
phone in talking mode with a radiation of 850
could affect their fertility.
In a study published in the Journal of Fertility megahertz, the frequency most often used by cell
and Sterility, phones in the US. We exposed the sperm for about
Ashok Agarwal, lead au- one hour, he told.
thor, says men who keep The researchers looked at sev-
their cell phones in their We exposed the test eral markers, including mobility,
pockets or clip them to their
belts while using an ear
group sperm to a cell viability and cellular or molecular
changes. There were 85 per cent
piece to chat may be com- phone in talking more free radicals generated by
promising their sperms. the exposed sperm samples in
An earlier study con-
mode with a radia- both healthy and infertile speci-
ducted on some 361 men, he tion of 850 mega- mens versus the control group,
said, had found a significant and a six per cent decrease in an-
relationship between cell hertz, the frequency tioxidants in the exposed sam-
phone use and sperm qual-
ity, especially among men
most often used by ples, the chemicals that fight
free-radical damage.
who used mobiles for more cell phones in the US Motility, or what proportion
than four hours per day. of sperm are moving, decreased
“We wanted to find out what was going on,” he by seven per cent, and the viability, or the percent-
added. age of sperm that is alive decreased by 11 per cent.
The researchers, he said, took sperm samples That was for both groups the healthy men and
from 23 healthy men, and from nine men with men with fertility problems, as compared to a con-
known fertility issues. The samples were then di- trol group that had no exposure.

 www.
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Interview Flare Panel Free Download com.pk

nies, we know that the growth is coming but

we need to change. We realized that we have
to reshape the way we were doing our serv-
ices. First of all we took the decision to de-
velop the services business but then we
realized that technological leadership wasn’t
enough. Besides the establishment of local re-
sources that is approachable to customers, we
also need a backbone that is GSDC. We em-
ployed 29,500 professionals in local and global
organisations to ensure that we deliver high
quality services to our customers. The GSDC
itself contains some 7500 people. Today, we
have to maintain a balance between service-
port and d technology-port and we have
steady growth in last couple of years. 2005
was probably a great year as we sign two
mega deals with operators in Europe and this
year we have signed 60 management contracts
along with six such engagements in Middle
East.

The market leader in

2G and 3G mobile tech-
nologies, Ericsson sup-
plies communications
services and manages
networks that serve more
than 195 million sub-
scribers. The company’s
portfolio comprises
mobile and fixed network
infrastructure broadband
Yet it is another step in realizing Ericsson’s and multimedia solutions
global service delivery strategy. The GSDC will for operators, enterprise
serve both regional and global customers and and developers
support Ericsson’s global leadership position in FP: What incentives are you expecting
managed services as well as form a regional base from the government of Pakistan?
FS: Of course we expect incentives but we
for the company’s offering in consulting and edu- have a bigger portfolio of many points when
we look in to such issues. We have an evalua-
cation towards emerging markets tion methodology in which we keep at least 50
aspects under consideration. Incentive or in-
Flare Panel: Sir brief us about Ericsson terest is quite important for us. There are areas
and GSDC. such as accessibility to local knowledge, avail-
Fredrik Strand: Ericsson is the world’s ability of local knowledge and talent, cus-
leading telecom services provider, supporting tomer’s interest, etc. at which we look and we
operators in creating competitive, attractive have made a tactical plan to manage our serv-
and appealing offerings to consumers. Its ices in the
portfolio includes state-of-the-art expertise in country.
consulting, systems integration, managed FP: What possibly will be the size of
services, network deployment and integration, human resources in Pakistan?
education and support services. Our technol- FS: The Pakistani market has already bene-
ogy leadership, business and understanding fited from the recruitment of over 1100 engi-
and extensive experience of managing tele- neers and technical staff at Ericsson who have
com-grade, carrier-class projects and multi- been offered career opportunities in a global
vendor networks, make Ericsson a leader in and innovative environment. By the end of
telecom. The market leader in 2G and 3G mo- 2008, more graduates will be inducted in the
bile technologies, Ericsson supplies communi- GSDC predominately engineers, to deliver
personal mobile devices.
cations services and manages networks that services in the areas of System Integration,
Ericsson is advancing its vision of commu-
serve more than 195 million subscribers. The Network and Technology Consulting, and
nication for all through innovation, technol-
company’s portfolio comprises mobile and Managed Services. But it is impossible for us
ogy and sustainable business solutions. Global
fixed network infrastructure broadband and to define the size at the very launching day of
service delivery centre is a set-up we establish
multimedia solutions for operators, enter- GSDC.
for the telecom crisis in early 2000. We have
prises and developers. The Sony Ericsson joint FP: Do you have any plans to start some
major reductions through out in all compa-
venture provides consumers with feature-rich internship or training programmes for local
36
 www.
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com.pk Free Download
students?
FS: We have already started a graduate
training and recruitment programme last year.
We have selected 25 best minds from the local
universities and develop them by their expo-
sure to highly professional training of those
people whom we have already made in last
four or five years. We have many well-experi-
enced people at the moment but we also look-
ing for preparing a ground for the next
generation.
Ericsson was the first
company in Pakistan to
introduce mobile teleph-
ony in 1990, and is today
the only telecommunica-
tions supplier with over
18 years of experience in
supplying, installing,
commissioning and main-
taining mobile networks
across Pakistan
FP: Why you have chosen Pakistan? Keep-
ing in mind the political and economical in-
stability of Pakistan, investment is quite
risky at the moment. Don’t you think that you
have taken a risk?
FS: Its strategic geographical location in-
clined us to select this part of the Third World,
besides Ericsson has been active in Pakistan for
over 40 years. Ericsson Pakistan (Pvt) was in-
corporated in 1994 with its head office in Is-
lamabad. It is present in four major cities –
Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad – as
well as in towns - Sukkur, Hyderabad and
Quetta. It has currently 1600 employees across
the country, and many Pakistanis are effi-
ciently working with Ericsson on international
level and we have great expectations from this
country. We have no doubts about the capacity
and capabilities of the nation and we are eager
to work with the people over here.
The telecom market has seen rapid devel-
opment through the fast growing Middle East
region over the last few years. The establish-
ment of this centre in Pakistan recognises the
competence and capabilities that Ericsson has
developed in building and operating unusu-
ally large and complex telecom environment.
Why we have chosen Pakistan is very simple.
Ericsson was the first company in Pakistan to
introduce mobile telephony in 1990, and is
today the only telecommunications supplier
with over 18 years of experience in supplying,
installing, commissioning and maintaining mo-
bile networks across Pakistan. It will be com-
paratively helpful for us to launch our global
services in Pakistan. Our vision to be the Prime
Diver in all communicating world takes us
frontier to deliver the best in the network econ-
omy. The opening of GSDC will further de-
velop our service delivery capabilities in this
region where Pakistan has the sixth largest
population in the world.
Moreover, we believe that Pakistan is a
place which is going to be extensively helpful
with its emerging enthusiastic youth in coming
years. As far as risk is concerned so it is always
lurking in business. For a high potential coun-
try like Pakistan, we are ready to take all kinds
of risks.
FP: What benefits Pakistan is going to at-
tain by such centres?
FS: This is a two way process: if we are
going to get benefits from the potential of Pak-
istan and obviously we are going to give them
privileges in return. The very obvious benefits
are technological and educational. Moreover,
besides providing youngsters a professional
platform, we will help Pakistan’s emerging
market in coming up with proper strategies.
This initiative will not only reinforce Ericsson’s
Interview
commitment to the country but also lay the
foundation stone for the first of its kind expert-
ise centre in Pakistan.
FP: You have a GSDC in Romania, what is
your experience of various global service cen-
tres around the world?
FS: the results have remained quite satisfac-
tory. Global centres are very important and
one has to keep in mind many strategic things,
our centre at Romania is one of such points.
One of GSDC’s tasks is to find right and com-
petent people and we are happy at the growth
our centres have yet showed. From 7500 of Er-
icsson’s employees, over 29,500 services pro-
fessionals work in 22 Global Service Delivery
Centres around the world. These centres are
designed to ensure business readiness for the
global market. They support global and re-
gional demands by providing global expertise
in a cost-efficient manner, which is a key part
of expending Ericsson’s services business.
Our task is to be a global country rather
having a Swedish, Japanese, or other national
tags.
FP: Where do you see Pakistan in coming
years in Pakistan?
FS: If we look at the development market
now, we have a very bright future. We can see
that now our customers want to differentiate
themselves from others. So far it was a race of
price but now it is more of a quality manage-
ment business in different services, especially
in value-added services, in multimedia envi-
ronment. We see a lot of opportunities for us.
We also know that many operators are looking
for the likes of Ericsson to provide consul-
tancy, to take advice about how they should,
like other operators, carry their global opera-
tions. Our consultancy and system integration
policies will definitely facilitate. 3G and other
technologies will be soon coming and we will
have room through Pakistan in Middle East.

37
 www.
flare.
Event Flare Report Free Download com.pk

Wateen draw winners for Umera

Wateen Telecom has become popu-
lar countrywide in a short of span of
time due to its faster, cost-effective
and flexible communication solu-
tions to the customers. It enthusias-
tically works for its customers and
general public as well as employee
welfare-oriented projects.
Wateen Telecom gave away Umera
tickets to the participants recently.
General Manager Marketing Wateen
Telecom, Athar Jamal awarded tick-
ets to the lucky winners. Meanwhile,
Tariq Malik, Chief Executive Officer
Wateen Telecom, gave certificates to
the brand ambassador and employ-
ees in Lahore.

38
 www.
flare.
com.pk Free Download
If you are often added by some unknown person
or your friends are constantly on move and want
to locate the name or/and location of that person
then you must not miss this discussion
t often happens that we are interested in
I
approximately locating a person to whom
we are connected through electronic means
such as Gmail, MSN and Yahoo.
People usually do not know but one can
actually detect many things with a singal email
address. The email comes with headers (that are
normally not displayed in the message) that
carry personal information that can tell where
the email was sent from and possibly who sent
it. For that, you would need to find the IP
address of the sender. So it is clear that before
knowing anything, one must have to discover
some way to find IP address.
To find IP address with Gmail
1. Log into your Gmail account;
2. Now open any your inbox (or the one
you want to track the location);
3. Click on down arrow button on the left
side of to panel, that will open a drop
down menu;
4. Click on Show Original;
Flare Report InsighT
3. Open the mail that you want to track;
4. If you do not see the headers above the
mail message, your headers are not displayed.
To display the headers click on Options on the
top-right corner;
5. In the Mail Options page, click on
General Preferences;
6. Scroll down to Messages where you
have the Headers option;
7. Make sure that Show all headers on
incoming messages is selected;
8. Click on the Save button;
9. Go back to the mails and open that
mail;
10. You will see similar headers. Look for
Received: from followed by the IP
address between square brackets [ ].
Here, it is 202.65.138.109;
11. This is the IP address of the sender.
Finding IP address in Hotmail
1. Log into your Hotmail account;
2. Click on the Mail tab on the top;
3. Open that mail which you want to
track;
4. If you do not see the headers above the
mail message, your headers are not dis
played. To display the headers, click on
Options on the top-right corner;
5. In the Mail Options page, click on Mail
Display Settings;
6. In Message Headers, make sure
Advanced option is checked;
7. Click on Ok button;
8. Go back to the mails and open that
mail;
9. You should see the email headers now;
10. If you find a header with X-
Originating-IP: followed by an IP
address, that is the sender’s IP address
Hotmail headers. In this case the IP
address of the sender is [68.34.60.59]. If
you have multiple Received: from
headers, eliminate the ones that have
proxy.anyknownserver.com.
11. Track the IP address of the sender and
get the location and name.
It seems complex at first glance but it is not
hard if you go on trying it. If you are a commit-
ted netzian than believe me it is nothing for
you… just try it once, it really works!
5. A new window will open, which will
have plenty of raw material. Do not get
confused here;
6. Look for Received: from Received: from
[69.138.30.1] by
web4587.mail….yahoo.com;
7. [69.138.30.1] can be different for every
mail, as this is the IP address of the
sender;
8. You may find more than one received
mails: from patterns, in that case select
the last one;
9. Now that you have an IP address, now
you can locate this IP address;
10. Open www.who.is and enter this IP
address without brackets;
11. You will receive city and sender’s
name.
To find IP address with Yahoo
1. Log into your Yahoo mail;
2. Click on Inbox or whichever folder you
have stored your mail;
39

Telepedia Flare Report
Warid deploys solar powered
macro base station with Huawei
With increasing subscribers, operators are planning to
provide better network coverage especially in small and
medium sized cities, suburb areas, countryside and hilly areas
uawei Technologies Co Ltd., a leader in
H providing next generation telecommu-
nication solutions for the operators
around the world, has announced that the trial
of new generation GSM BTS with its solar
power system is successfully deployed in Pak-
istan for the cellular operator Warid, which is
spreading network coverage to remote areas
and marks a first commercial solar powered
telecom macro site in Pakistan.
Warid’s Pocket
PCO for
everyone
arid Telecom has introduced a revolu-
W tionary public call office (PCO) scheme.
This is a part of Warid's ongoing effort
to promote corporate social responsibility
through cultivating jobs and eliminating poverty
by introducing a variety of programmes to pro-
vide opportunities to the needy and deserving
people. Pocket PCO is to utilise a standard GSM
handset as a mobile Pay Phone.
The Pocket PCO SIM toolkit allows the hand-
set owner, individual or PCO operator, to create
42 a PCO business at negligible cost by using a sin-
While the mobile phone subscribers are in-
creasing in Pakistan, operators are planning to
provide better network coverage especially in
small and medium sized cities, suburb areas,
countryside, as well as hilly areas with poor
transportation. Among the targeted markets,
many sites are located in remote areas with lim-
ited access to the electricity grid, where tradi-
tionally 1+1 Diesel Generator Solution is
adapted to power such sites. With the ever in-
gle cell phone to sell airtime to other users at
cheap rates. In short it is a pocket-business.
Initially, PCO services have started for Lahore
and afterwards extended to others cities like
Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gu-
jranwala, Sialkot, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta and
Hyderabad. This product aims to replace the
fixed line PCO by introducing a wireless PCO
functional SIM with a Warid network locked
phone. The SIM will be on a 128K card having
only one application i.e. Pocket PCO. The factors
differentiating Zem Pocket PCO from a fixed line
PCO are as follows:
• A SIM based solution, which allows user
to charge differently for any call or SMS made
from a normal Zem connection.
• Customers can set advance amount for a
call thereby terminating the call automatically
after the amount has been consumed at the set
tariff rate. Customer and PCO owner have the
visibility of called units and charges during and
after the call. PCO owner has real time access to
sales done from the SIM by clicking option in
menu.
www.
flare.
Free Download com.pk
creasing oil price and after comprehensive re-
search, Warid has decided to adopt solar system
to fully utilize the abundant solar radiation re-
sources, reducing both CO2 emissions and noise
pollution harming the local environment. The
adopted solution will also help reduce the pres-
sure of overall country energy supply, which
will further enhance the environmental protec-
tion and improve the network O&M for mobile
network coverage.
Huawei is committed to consistently reduce
base station power consumption through tech-
nology innovation, laying a good foundation for
green energy application and green community.
So far, Huawei has introduced serial renewable
energy solutions for mobile communication
sites, such as solar solution, solar & wind hybrid
solution, solar & diesel hybrid solution etc. Such
solutions fully meet the environmental require-
ments, significantly reducing TCO in product
life circle, optimizing energy efficiency, and
bringing obvious benefits to operators. Huawei
renewable energy solution enables network cov-
erage to reach areas with limited access. It is ex-
pected that this venture will spring ever-green
buds for Pakistan’s emerging telecom sector.

• Bonus balance is awarded on usage of
SIM in Motorola C123 based on Rs 1000 reload of
Warid scratch card. The total package price is Rs
3,700 with Motorola C123 handset plus SIM card.
•
line PCO
•
A handset chord and receiver for use by
the customer to make calls as on a normal fixed
A log book to record sales and a starter
guide to help you understand the product func-
tionality.
• A Zem Pocket PCO cap and jacket to
identify the PCO owner in a crowd.
• A SIM based solution for scratch card
recharge and balance inquiry option.
Zem Pocket PCO is a bundle, which gives
complete value for money. Users will have the
feature of pre-determining call amounts to have
the ability to automatically terminate calls when
the expiration tariff rate is reached. Both the cus-
tomers and PCO owners will have the visibility
of called units and charges during and after the
call. It is indeed a new horizon in the arena of
telecom.


Interview Flare Panel
‘Zong prompts growth
and competition in
telecom sector’
Salman Wassay, Director Marketing Zong, in
his interview with Flare Pannel assured that
Zong will be the biggest company of Pakistan
in the next few years.
Flare Panel: Zong is quite young as far as tele-
com sector in Pakistan is concerned, what plans do
you have to expand your network?
Salman Wassay: In a short span (less than five
months), in the face of intense competition Zong has
proved itself a fast emerging cellular company of
Pakistan by reaching at subscriber base of five mil-
lion. Today, Zong connects Pakistanis over 6,000
sites and is fast expanding. Moreover, we are contin-
uously working in expanding our network services
to every nook and cranny of the country in a record
time.
Zong has set the trend of new packages which
have never been introduced before, like life time free
Wassay joined Zong in
November 2007. Before taking
over as the Marketing Director
of Zong, Wassay served as
CEO of DV Corn Limited for
two years. Earlier, he
served as Vice President
Marketing of
Ufone, GM
Marketing of
NTM and Market-
ing Manager at
Paktel. Wassay holds an
MBA degree from Lahore Uni-
versity of Management Sci-
ence (LUMS). He is a seasoned
marketer with 17 year of
experience in telecommunica-
tion and electronic media
industry.
number, happy hours around the clock and cheapest
call rates not only within the country basis but also
internationally. Moreover, there are lots of other
packages to come.
With ambitious plans to the fastest growing
Pakistani market and to win over the ever de-
manding Pakistani customer, it will be of-
fering unprecedented coverage, voice
44
www.
flare.
Free Download com.pk
nect the unconnected in the remotest corners of Pak-
istan with valuable services, we understand the need
for constant investments in the network, capacity,
and services, thus till the end of 2008 we will invest
an additional $800 million.
FP: What challenges Pakistan’s telecom sector is
facing now-a-days?
SW: Today’s greatest challenge before the indus-
try is the registration subscribers’ data. We are work-
ing with the regulators to cope up the challenge.
Among other challenges, cell site acquisition is quite
difficult owing to the existence of different rules in
the various parts of the country, which create prob-
lems that take enough time to be resolved.
Cellular companies are cautiously following the
procedures laid by the authorities to block illegal
and unregistered SIMs. During past six
months, more than 5.4 million SIMs have
been blocked on the directives of Sen-
ate Standing Committee on Interior
Affairs.
FP: We are eager to know why
China Mobile has chosen Pakistan to
launch it services?
SW: The main reason be-
and data services as well as a hind pioneering overseas set up
wide range of tariff options to of China Mobile in Pakistan is
choose from. China Mobile has great faith which china has in
the resources and technical ex- Pakistan from a long time. How-
pertise to aim at becoming one of ever, China Mobile had conducted a
the largest operators of Pakistan. feasibility study of South African
We are doing our utmost to countries, South East Asian
make sure the availability of every countries and others for
information through the SIM cards in launching its services
order to avoid the trouble to go to the but the
service centers, thus we are focusing on trust
providing better and comprehensive net
work services to our clients. So far we
have 150 franchises across the
country and out of them 100 are
running their businesses.
FP: Kindly brief us about
the upcoming investments in
Zong’s infrastructure?
SW: Money investment
is not a problem for Zong
as its parent company is
one of the richest compa-
nies of the globe, now it
has cash account around
$40 billion. So far
China Mobile
Pakistan has
in-
vested more
than $700
million in
the telecom
sector of Pak-
istan. As we
intend to
con-
 www.
flare.
com.pk Free Download
and friendly relation with Pakistan had encouraged
it to launch its first international brand in Pakistan.
FP: How do you predict the performance and
growth of telecom sector in next five years?
SW: Pakistan is one of the fastest growing tele-
com markets in the world. The growth rate is re-
markable. PTA statistics reported that the cellular
phone operators added 1.3 million subscribers in
July-08, which takes the overall market size to 90 mil-
lion customers. In view of the country’s population
of around 160 million, the mobile phone tele-density
has reached to 55.62 per cent in July 2008; which was
1 5.39 per cent in 2000.
Interestingly, prices of product are increasing day
by day but the telecom sector of the country is show-
ing sharp decline in their tariff and SIM cards rates.
The contribution of Telecom Foreign Direct Invest-
ment in the total FDI and the GDP is significant and
this investment is not drying up. With mobile tele-
com operators penetrating the largely unconnected
rural market, urban customers start to increase usage
of data services and advanced voice features, a
widely young customer base and the government
sustaining its policy of telecom sector support, Zong
sees a very promising future for the customer and
those operators who can demonstrate responsible
growth.
FP: How do you comment on the regulatory en-
vironment of telecom sector which is said to be com-
petitive by providing opportunities to all (including
small operators) in order to enter into region’s
emerging telecom market?
SW: We appreciate the presence of a stable regu-
Providing small amounts of the chemical nicotine with each inhalation
lectronic Cigarette is the world's most ad-
E
vanced quit smoking product. It uses a small
replaceable cartridge filled with propylene gly-
col and a small dose of nicotine, powered by a
rechargeable battery. Each cartridge is equivalent to
10 regular cigarettes, and it costs less then a dollar
each.
The left part (white) is the battery, the middle
part (white with small hole) is the atomizer and the
right part (brown) is the mouthpiece and cartridge.
An e-cigarette (or e-cig) is an alternative to the ciga-
rette, providing small amounts of the chemical nico-
tine with each inhalation. The device takes the form
of a tiny rod which is slightly longer than a normal
cigarette. The mouthpiece of the device contains a re-
placeable cartridge filled with liquid. The main sub-
stances contained in the liquid are nicotine,
propylene glycol and optional flavors or aromas.
When the user inhales through the device, the air
flow is detected by a sensor. A microprocessor then
activates a piezoelectric nebulizer (popularized by
the industry as an atomizer), which injects tiny
droplets of the liquid into the flowing air and
vapourises the nicotine. This produces a vapor mist
which is inhaled by the user. The addition of propy-
lene glycol to the liquid makes the mist better resem-
ble normal cigarette smoke. The microprocessor also
activates an orange LED at the tip to simulate real
smoking.
latory environment with a clear licensing framework
in Pakistan. Pakistan Telecom Authority has been
successful in providing a level playing field and has
fostered a culture of industry consultation.
Zong has around 6,000 cell sites
and it will be increased to 7,000
cell sites by the end of 2008 and
within next two years this fig-
ure will swell to 15,000 sites,
which reflects record growth in
cell sites in just fly months pe-
riod as compared to the other
leading cellular companies of
the country, which have only
7,000 sites respectively in the
period spanning 14 to 15 years.
FP: How do you comment on the contribution of
telecom industry in the budget of country’s advert-
ing industry?
SW: Telecom industry has been the major re-
source of advertising industry over the last couple of
years, if we exclude the share of telecom industry
from the advertising industry, the present declining
trend of the advertising industry will reach to alarm-
ing situation.
FP: Telecom and banking sectors have enabled
electronic and print media to push forward with ex-
E-cigarettes generally use a rechargeable battery
as a power source. Battery life varies between de-
vices, with some lasting a day between charges, and
others lasting a week. Developed in China by Hon
Lik of Ruyan, the technology is patent pending
worldwide.
• In the European Union some countries
have stipulated a decision according to the legal sta-
tus of e-cigarette products.
• In Austria the e-cigarette is seen as a med-
ical device and the nicotine cartridges are considered
a medicinal product. This means that an e-cigarette
needs to be CE-marked and the nicotine cartridges
must be registered as medicinal products before they
can be sold.
• In the United Kingdom, electronic cigarette
use is currently unrestricted, with celebrity nightclub
Chinawhite allowing use of the devices indoors,
where traditional cigarette smoking is pro-
hibited.
• In The Nether lands the use of the
e-cigarette is allowed but advertising the
electronic cigarette is forbidden as long as
no European legislation or guideline exists.
• In Finland the usage is prohibited as it is
considered a medical device by the Finnish National
Agency for Medicines.
• In the United States, a representative from
the Southern Nevada Health District is quoted as
saying "As long as there is no tobacco in the product,
it is not in violation of the Clean Indoor Air Act.”
Cartridges for e-cigarettes are usually offered in a
variety of formulations, with different flavors (e.g.
fruit, mint, and coffee) and nicotine concentrations.
At the upper range of nicotine concentrations, e-ciga-
Flare Panel Interview
pansion plans?
SW: I anticipate that overall marketing budget of
telecom industry will be declined during the current
fiscal year mainly due to economic and political woes
of Pakistan.
FP: What standards do you have to measure the
success of your company?
SW: Zong captured leadership of the country’s
cellular market merely in the period of four months
by reaching to 5 million subscribers, which itself
translates the company’s success but we have not
confined ourselves to only the quantity rather we
have been kept focusing on the network services,
economical packages and good marketing as well.
We haven’t fallen into the trap of easy advertising
by getting a big name endorsement or having a song,
but rather have tried to flank the competitors with
their campaign. The huge public response was sim-
ply because Zong is the only cellular operator that is
offering what the public needs, rather than promot-
ing products and packages that serve the company
more than they serve the users. Zong made record-
breaking sales of more than one million connections
throughout the country in just three weeks after its
launch on April, 7, 2008.
We are going unprecedented with our amazing
services and economical charges and others are fol-
lowing us. This is reward for the company to compel
others to follow our patterns. It is a testament to the
dedication and creative talents of the Zong team and
their hard work in making Zong a driving force in
the telecom industry.

rette smoking is equivalent in nicotine delivery to av-
erage tobacco cigarettes. Most companies also offer a
range of milder options, including completely nico-
tine-free cartridges. An empty cartridge can be re-
placed with a new cartridge or it can be refilled with
solution.
Unlike a traditional cigarette, electronic cigarette
does not contain tobacco. It also does not contain any
carcinogens such as tar, carbon monoxide, and ar-
senic. By replacing smoking habits with electronic
cigarette, one will not only benefit from a healthier
life, but will also have the freedom to smoke any-
where in the world, including bars and restaurants
where smoking is prohibited.
Benefits of E-cig are as follows
• They are 80 per cent cheaper than real
cigarettes
• They contain no carcinogenic or cancer
ous toxins
• They are unanimously attributed as a
healthier alternative to the ordinary cig
arette
• They have proven to be affective with
smokers.
• It is legal to use e-cigarette in public
areas
• No lighting, no burning, no tar and no real
smoke. No cancerous substances (during the burning
of tobacco there are approx. 40 cancerous sub-
stances), no ashtrays, no cigarette butts, no horrible
smells and no air pollution
• They do not contain tobacco
• They are able to lower the strength of
nicotine over time.
45

InsighT Flare Report
Intel vPro Technology has been a win-win for the IT
industry and high-tech industries
slamabad: Intel Corporation has intro-
I
duced its third generation Intel®
vPro™ suite of business desktop PC
technologies, which among other features
enhances security and reduces the time
and cost of maintenance by enabling PCs
to literally think and act for themselves.
The new vPro Technology for desktop PCs
also opens the door to new virtualized PC
models and products aimed at the special
needs of small businesses.
The new Intel vPro Technology (former-
ly codenamed “McCreary”) combines the
energy-efficient performance of Intel®
Kingston joins VMware alliance initiative
Alliance Companies Collaborate in Offering Memory Discounts and Reseller Tools
Encouraging Businesses to Deploy Virtualization Solutions
ingston Technology Company, Inc.
K is the world’s largest independent
manufacturer of memory products.
Kingston designs, manufactures and dis-
tributes memory products for desktops,
laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memo-
ry products for PDAs, mobile phones, digi-
tal cameras, and MP3 players. Through its
global network of subsidiaries and affili-
ates, Kingston has manufacturing facilities
in California, Taiwan,, China, Malaysia,
and sales representatives in the United
States, Taiwan, China, India, Australia,
New Zealand, Europe, Russia, Turkey,
Ukraine, and Latin America.
Kingston has recently announced that it
is participating in VMware’s Alliance
Affiliate Initiative. Kingston has estab-
lished special memory discounts for
resellers who purchase VMware solutions.
The relationship also includes creating
innovative reseller support tools, such as
webinars demonstrating the benefits of the
VMware platform and Kingston server
memory.
46
Core™2 quad-core
or dual-core proces-
sors with the new
Intel® Q45 Express
Chipset and Intel®
82567LM Gigabit
Network Connection
along with Intel®
Active Management
technology 5.0.
Among the new
business-class technology innovations, this
2008 version for the first time extends IT
organizations’ reach to protect and manage
PCs beyond the corporate firewall. With
the new Remote Alert feature, a suddenly
ailing PC – even one that is turned off –
that is experiencing symptoms outside pre-
set parameters can call for IT assistance on
its own.
Using the new Remote Scheduled
Maintenance feature, IT administrators can
programme PCs for regular tune-ups that
have PCs automatically connecting to an IT
management programme for maintenance.
“Kingston has been a champion of the
channel since our beginning, and working
with VMware to bring virtualization to the
world is an incredible opportunity,” said
Ann Bai, Product Manager of Memory
Module, Kingston. “We are honoured to be
a part of VMware’s Affiliate Alliance
Initiative and look forward to demonstrat-
ing the power that optimum memory
We look forward to
demonstrate the power
that optimum memory
brings to both the
enterprise and small
business customer
brings to both the enterprise and small
business customer.”
“VMware welcomes Kingston as part of
its Alliance Affiliate Initiative, which is
designed to equip and provide financial
motivation to channel partners to sell,
www.
flare.
Free Download com.pk
With the new Fast Call for Help feature,
the user can get immediate assistance over
an out-of-band link by entering a key
sequence, even if the computer is com-
pletely crippled with a failed operating
system or hard drive.
“Intel vPro Technology has been a win-
win for the IT industry and high-tech
industries, and each year we’ve unveiled
unique innovations to solve IT’s biggest
challenges,” said Gregory Bryant, Intel
vice president and general manager,
Digital Office Platform Division. “For 2008,
vPro Technology continues that trend,
automating repair and maintenance func-
tions to not only free IT professionals’
time, but rapidly accelerate the time it
takes to get end-users up and running.”
In addition, for 2008 Intel beefed up
access security with two new features. The
new Access Monitor feature comprehen-
sively and more securely logs IT activity
on systems, further closing the door on
potential internal security breaches. The
platform also offers the first embedded
technology to authenticate PCs using
Microsoft Network Access Protection,
enabling protected out-of-band remote
maintenance on Intel vPro-based systems.

service and support VMware technology
partner solutions with VMware virtualiza-
tion solutions,” said Steve Houck, vice
president of worldwide channels at
VMware. “Memory is a critical component
in virtual infrastructure, and resellers that
can sell Kingston server memory with
VMware virtualization help bring innova-
tive and cost-effective product combina-
tions to end users. It’s a win-win strategy
for everyone in the virtualization value
chain.”
In addition to the memory discount,
applicable to Kingston branded server
memory, the VMware Alliance Affiliate
Initiative includes a free customer-facing
webinar and tools to support marketing
and sales efforts. Open to all VMware part-
ner levels, there are no special pro-
grammes to join or forms to complete.
Kingston server memory is backed by a
lifetime warranty, free technical and all the
tools necessary to minimize server down-
time.

 www.
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com.pk Free Download
PTA plans to
grab massive FDI
Telecom industry has contributed more than Rs 111 billion to
national exchequer in different heads of direct and indirect
taxes which includes GST Rs 44.6 billion, activation tax 19.2
billion, PTA deposits 10.86 billion, other 36.95 billion
hairman, Pakistan Telecommunication
C Authority Dr Muhammad Yaseen in-
formed that PTA is set to launch various
future initiatives to make the telecom sector
more vibrant and attractive for foreign direct
investment (FDI).
"These moves include establishment of 3G serv-
ice, rural telephony, consumer protection cell,
strategy and development division, mobile vir-
tual network operators, broadband, etc.," re-
vealed Dr Yaseen. "Consultation regarding 3G
service with the stakeholders had been carried
out through Industry Forums and Seminars
from time to time. It is expected that 3G-spec-
trum auction will be held by the end of this
year and modalities are being finalised in this
regard. Ministry of IT is also being consulted in
the procedure of 3G auction."
Regarding Rural Telephony, he said
that PTA is now focusing on improvement of
telephone services in far-flung areas of the
country and number of steps has been taken to
increase rural telephony. Basically this issue is
tackling through Universal Service Fund (USF).
However, PTA has also introduced rural te-
lephony projects to Rabat Ghar Scheme aimed
at the proliferation of telecom facilities in the
rural and underprivileged areas of Pakistan to
bridge the digital divide between urban and
rural areas.
"It also opens new avenues of employ-
ment opportunities for Graduates of rural
areas…. The growth of broadband services
could not take fast pace keeping in mind its
high costs. PTA has now focused on this area
and with the launch of some recent services like
Imax penetration of broadband across the coun-
try would increase the enhancement of data
and voice services available to a common Pak-
istani. More than 100 per cent growth of broad-
band is recorded in the last year. 3G will also
increase mobile broadband services," he ex-
plored.
"In view of addressing of consumer
complaints a dedicated consumer protection
cell has recently been established at PTA. This
Cell would work in close co-ordination with
mobile, fixed, Internet and other operators to
solve consumers' complaints regarding their
services. Consumer regulations are also being
formed which would help in dealing with con-
sumer related issues. Other measures in this re-
gard would also be taken."
He said a new Division namely Strat-
egy and Development has been formed in PTA
which would work as a Think Tank and would
advise the authority on future telecom policies.
Taking into account the increasing scope of mo-
bile virtual network operators (MVNO) in
world cellular market, Government of Pakistan
took a principal decision to allow MVNO serv-
ices in Pakistan and included it as a clause in
Mobile Cellular Policy 2004. "This framework
was twice revised in May 2007 and April 2008
respectively to incorporate feedback from in-
dustry. After recent revision, queries are being
received from various local and foreign in-
vestors and a few are in process of negotiation
with local incumbent cellular mobile opera-
tors."
The FDI in telecom sector
declined from 27 per cent
in 2006-07 to 21 per cent
in 2007-08 because most
of the operators have
already laid down the
infrastructure
He said the WLL segment of telecom
sector has shown tremendous growth and in a
short period of one year the WLL subscribers
have reached 2.22 million in July 2008. In spite
of above mentioned developments, he re-
marked that the sector is facing some difficul-
ties which hinder the growth.
Foreign Direct Investment in Telecom Sector (US $ million)
Flare Report Telepedia
"This includes slow growth of economy
and impact of currency depreciation on the sec-
tor. We are taking corrective measures and pur-
suing government to overcome the difficulties.
Few areas including increase in Federal Excise
Duty/GST from 15 per cent to 21 per cent is
having adverse effect on the growth of telecom
sector as the annual revenues of the operators
have decreased. It is, therefore, recommended
that Government should reduce these indirect
taxes for the proliferation of telecom facilities
and to help the foreign investors in recovering
their costs. Telecom sector imported sets and
equipment's worth $1.3 billion in 2007-08, which
is a burden on Pakistan economy's foreign ex-
change. We are convincing leading manufactur-
ers of the world to establish their facilities in
Pakistan," he added. PTA has contributed Rs
47.426 billion in federal consolidated fund (FCF)
w.f. 1998-99 to 2007-08, which includes Rs 2.432
billion contribution of 2007-08 to USF and R & D
account, while during 2007-08 contribution in
FCF was Rs five billion.
PTA, being regulatory authority itself
has been taken under the ambit of tax regime by
insertion of subsection 4 of Section 49 of the In-
come Tax Ordinance, 2001, in the light of Fi-
nance Bill 2007. Resultantly PTA has paid
advance Tax of Rs One billion for the tax year
2008. Dr Yaseen declared that Mobile Banking is
another contribution of telecom sector that will
further facilitate the prompt, reliable, and accu-
rate banking transactions on the growth rate at
minimum costs 24 hours a day and throughout
a week.
"PTA suggests that DSL monthly charge
should be made a tax deductible expense. It
should be allowed to deduct from individual's
income before tax is deducted. Telecom sector
has added positively to the employment situa-
tion of Pakistan by creating over one million di-
rect and indirect jobs," he added.
"Connectivity between cellular mobile
operators (CMS) and NADRA has been estab-
lished. Training of franchisee or retailers has
been conducted. Partial use of online verifica-
tion has already commenced. Teething problems
being sort out between CMS and NADRA.
NADRA has sent draft service level agreement
(SLA) to CMS, which is being analysed by CMS.
PTA in collaboration with omit & Telecom, Min-
istry of Interior working to revise the rates for
verification of connections". Media campaign
was launched, asking subscribers to regularise
their connections. System is being built in "On-
line Verification" to check or block more than 10
connections on single CNIC," he concluded.
47
 www.
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Cover Story Zubair Ahmed Kasuri Free Download com.pk

48
 www.
flare.
com.pk Free Download Cover Story

akistan Telecommunication ● PTCL has started to charge all of its pared to the revenue of Rs 65.28 billion for

P Company Limited (PTCL) is spinning

the wool since its privatisation but of
no avail. Initially it invested on an abrupt
complementary services as local calls, e.g.,
1214 (time check), 1217 (telephone directo-
ry).
the fiscal year of 2006-07, a reduction of Rs
4.28 billion has occurred. In assessing the
financial performance the board was
make-over of its nationwide offices along ● In case PTCL has decided to pro- informed that decrease in profit is mainly
with logo and tagline. Then it sprinkle vide its subscribers some relaxation in due to its voluntary separation scheme
charm to this change by adding exuberant terms of call charges, e.g., late night free (VSS) which had cost the company around
colours to its advertisements. Pakistanis local calls then it is omnipotent in remov- Rs 24 billion. The operating cost without
were looking forward to these initiatives ing the facility any time without publish- VSS this year was Rs 45 billion as com-
as they anticipated it as the beginning of a ing a prior pared to Rs 47 billion reported last year,
new era but PTCL disappointed every notice for loss of 2.8 billion reported due to heavy
expectation in a very short span of time. the users. VSS expense.
Once upon a time when it was not yet ● A local news agency reports: Etisalat
privatised, though local corruption was PTCL’s plan has announced an aggressive five year
there but PTCL remained the most presti- to launch expansion plan for the company and is
gious brand. People were used to receive IPTV has viewing options to bring about a positive
up dated directories every year. Calls on also proved change. When Etisalat has remained un-
provincial and international levels were to be anoth- successful after the very first two years of
booked through a hideous procedure, but er expected PTCL’s privatisation then what better
that was absolutely fine as people were not mess. It could we expect from such five years plan
only getting good service, but they also cancelled all of an irresponsible authority!
knew charges of a certain call. Pros and develop-
cons of PTCL’s functionality since are as
follows:
ment proj- Sikandar Naqi, SEVP PTCL
ects without any reliable reason.
Free call facility
● PTA has banned the issue of SIMs
without prior registration where PTCL is
● On one hand, PTCL management
has remained plunged for a long time in
withdrawal
issusing its Vphone on a single phone call. salary and other issues with its basic or PTCL has come back with its same turn
● PTCL is providing its internet high low-ranked employees where on the other to earn more and more profit by withdraw-
broadband service which is so high that it
scarcely appears on the toolbar of comput-
ers.
● The only service which is available
in rural areas like Garam Chashma is
Vfone which does not have pathetic signals
but also short battery life.
● Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and
PTCL tussle over laying cables in Chour
and Misrial areas has finally ended in the
disconnection of hundreds of PTCL lines in
Rawalpindi. Moreover, its employees work
in most unprofessional way as they left the
road dug after laying pipes for months to
cover the digs.
● In spite of disconnection, PTCL
customers are accustomed to receive heavy
bills.
● Nothing happens except registra-
tion on 1218. Subscribers themselves
approach the line man and personally pay
them for the service.
● PTCL never mention local call
details in monthly bill and there is a possi-
bility that it over charge. Cancellation notice of PTCL for development projects

● We are bound to pay Rs 2 (without
tax) for every three minutes to any land-
line number plus line rent. This ritual is
observed only in Pakistan.
● PTCL charge Rs 2 for one minute
call on any mobile phone across the coun-
try which is more than the on-net and off-
net amount offered by all cellular service
providers.
● PTCL is run by Etisalat but it offers
no economical package for the Middle
East, and other Islamic countries where the
tariffs are high.
its higher officials are feed with luxury
apartments in five star hotels on annual
bases.
● Although it has revised the pay
scale of its employees but its personnel are
strongly insecure about the unexpected
attacks by the management. Recently the
promotion of many officers on OPS and the
inclusion of many outsiders has coerced
the staff to raise question on the ambigu-
ous attitude of the management.
PTCL has earned revenue of Rs 61 bil-
lion for the financial year 2007-08 com-
ing free late night call facility from
September 30, 2008, without issuing any
prior notice to the subscribers. The PTCL
customers called their near and dear ones
between 11 pm to 6 am without fearing of
extra bills during Eid days but surprisingly
there was no more free package.
The Company had introduced the free
local call facility between 11 pm to 6 am on
July 1, 2008 and it instantly become popu-
lar among the customers. The facility had
been widely publicized at the time of its
launch, millions were spent on the call

49

Cover Story
campaign; but once the subscribers were
addicted to it, the company withdrew it
silently while subscribers still thinking
that they have it.
Apparently, the company had the right
to withdraw the facility, but it should have
informed public. Media tried to contact
PTCL’s PRO Ali Kader Gillani, but his cell
phone remained switched off. Other senior
officials refused to comment on the issue.
Waleed Irshad, President PTCL
Moreover, PTCL announced free inter-
net from Eid’s day onwards from all PTCL
landline numbers. People started to use the
package per given instructions where
PTCL did not activate the free package.
Company will charge Rs 199 as service
charges monthly. PTCL never come up
with fair advertisement, it is shame-full to
see that the official website contains no ad
of the respective free internet facility.
Alleged mass
promotions
PTCL officers including engineers have
expressed their concern over recent promo-
tions of hundreds of officers allegedly
without maintaining seniority. The alleged
promotees included those who were picked
to higher positions under OPS and many
outsiders appointed directly on senior
positions.
A group of aggrieved PTCL officers
said PTCL management had placed dozens
of engineers and other officers under Own-
Pay-Scale (OPS) scheme on higher posi-
tions. They were posted against seats
meant for officials in higher grade, without
any reason or justification, and allowed to
use powers and facilities of those in higher
positions although they worked in their
original lower grades. PTCL management
has also inducted hundreds of inexperi-
enced people directly to senior grades.
These decisions, they said, have created
frustration among aggrieved officers who
felt humiliated with threats to their career.
Moreover, PTCL has issued notices to
its retired officials to evacuate the PTCL
residence in two months. Retired officers
have registered case against the company
50
as the facility (at affordable rent) was
included in their contract with some other
Image of News Story published in Daily Dawn
incentive.
Such actions by PTCL management
would only damage the company as the
increasing among majority of PTCL officers
Images of News Story published in Daily Jinnah & Nawa-e-waqt
would result in inefficiency towards cus-
tomer’s problems and disinterest towards
the company itself. The PTCL officers have
appealed to the higher authorities to help
provide them justice, and save their
careers and the future of the company.
Moving against
the wind
This would be shocking for many to
There is a new culture of
lavishness and look busy-do
nothing in PTCL, particularly on
Executive (5th) Floor of
headquarters
www.
flare.
Free Download com.pk
know that the CEO of PTCL was living on
permanent bases in a luxurious presiden-
tial suite of Marriott Islamabad (until the
bomb blast) with daily room rent of Rs
80,000 plus taxes. Since his appointment in
March 2007, has been living in the deluxe
suite of the same PTCL has spent
about Rs 36 million on his accom-
modation only.
PTCL, whose major part (62 per
cent) is still owned by the
Government of Pakistan, has set a
new record of extravagance by pay-
ing hefty salaries and perks to its
executives that include luxurious
Mercedes, furnished accommoda-
tions, free first class air travels and
other similar incentives.
PTCL's current share trading at
KSE stands at Rs 39.5 against Rs
62.00 reserve price set by the gov-
ernment at the time of its privatisa-
tion and Rs 117 as paid by Etisalat
in 2005-06. During last three years,
PTCL has revamped its manage-
ment structure, brought foreign
and local experts from private sec-
tor in executive cadre, sent more
than 25,000 employees packing
under VSS scheme and announced
new products and services most of
which were met with bitter criti-
cism from its customers due to
poor quality and hidden charges.
Noor-ud-Din Baqai, Member
Telecom, Ministry of IT, who is one
of the three nominees of PTCL's Board,
when contacted by Flare said that he knew
that Walid Irshaid has been staying in a
five star hotel but did not know how much
PTCL was paying for it. A team of over 20
consultants from McKinsey & Company
has been working at PTCL for some
months and their meals are daily served in
the office from a five star hotel. Ironically,
charges of these consultants are paid from
PTCL in the form of Technical Services
Agreement between PTCL and Etisalat, a
concession granted by the Privatisation
Commission to Etisalat in post bidding
backdoor negotiations. Financial experts
termed such concessions for siphoning of
money away from PTCL to Etisalat at the
cost of public funds.
 www.
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Etisalat is building its empire at the
Etisalat-
avoiding due
instalment
One instalment worth $133 million
was due which Etisalat has not
paid so far owing to problems
related to the transfer of property
and another instalment worth $133
million would be due by the next
month
cost of those who have trusted them.
Unfortunately people do not have at this
moment an alternative to this huge institu-
tion. The only thing one can do is the pray:
May Allah show them a humble path of
fair dealing!
The problems in the transfer of property
in the name of PTCL’s new management
Etisalat have caused a delay in the release
of $133 million due instalment expected to
be received by Islamabad, as the economic
managers of the country are anxiously
waiting for dollar inflows from all possible
avenues.
A high-level government official, who is
involved in this whole process, disclosed,
“The provinces as well as defence institu-
tions have raised objections to this transfer
of property as both PTCL and provinces
have lost property documents in most of
File photo of Marriott Hotel
the cases. Now the Privatisation
Commission has sent official communica-
tion to Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and some
defence institutions for resolving this issue
amicably without any further delay.”
Etisalat has to pay eight instalments
where each is in the range of $133 million
and so far three instalments have been
paid by the company. Up till now, another
instalment worth $133 million would be
due by the next month The Privatisation
Commission is discussing the possibilities
of getting $266 million as soon as possible.
Cover Story
However, President and CEO PTCL
Walid Irshad told, “We are ready for pay-
ing our instalment once this property issue
is resolved.” He added that they are
streamlining the restructuring process of
PTCL, which has already entered into the
second phase. In the second phase of
restructuring process, the employees
would be trained in customer-oriented
services in their relevant fields.
Regarding the sharp decline in PTCL’s
customer base, Irshad conceded that more
than half a million customers have been
dropped. “It is not because of any other
reason, but the key factor is data cleans-
ing,” he explained that disconnected num-
bers were not deleted from the PTCL data-
base. He claimed that PTCL is now becom-
ing a service-oriented company, and the
next target of the company is to expand
broadband service to one million cus-
tomers in next two years. The company has
the potential to increase its base three
folds to around 12 million households.
Instead of entrusting capital in personal
account, PTCL must consider some solu-
tions to improve its image for those cus-
tomers who are utterly fed up and are still
ready to bear more troubles…!!!

51
 www.
flare.
Tech-Tool Free Download com.pk

Nokia 5220
The latest Music-Optimized gadget
In 1997, music in mobiles was introduced with the Nokia 8110i
pioneering support for simple downloadable ring tones. Nokia has
since then led the way, shaping the integration of music into wire-
less and connected communications devices. The Nokia 8310
was the first Nokia handset to introduce FM Radio and the Nokia
5510 the first dedicated Nokia music handset. It led to new ring
tones and pre-loaded music in distinct Nokia devices.
The key features of Nokia 5220 XpressMusic are:

Storage for up to 1500 songs (in eAAC+ format) with
optional 2GB microSD card

Dedicated music keys

Excellent audio with dedicated audio chip

3.5 mm connector for wide choice of Hi-Fi head
phones

Music Player supporting MP3, eAAC+, WMA

Play songs purchased from Nokia Music Store where
available

Rhythmic lights’ flashing in the beat of the music

FM stereo radio with RDS

Bluetooth Stereo Audio

Enhanced 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom

Video capture: Video recording in QCIF quality

Internet browser

Talk time: Up to 5 hours

Standby time: Up to 17 days

Music playback: Up to 24 hours

Trend T-786i Dual Sim GSM

Trend mobiles were the first in introducing the dual SIM mecha-
nism that allowed a person to hold two different SIMs in one mobile
phone. It has now come up with the simplest and yet the most loaded
of the mobile phones. It is called the, Trend Perfect Dual Sim, T-786i
is available in Bar shape with keypad and touch screen facility.
The features of T-786i are startling. Its basic edge is that a user
can retain different network operators' SIMs in one cell phone and can
receive calls in both. It is a complete multimedia cell phone with 2
mega pixel camera, which has an audio and video recorders and
players as well. The USB data cable allows the user a unique facility
of 'Plug N Play'.
Attach the cable with your computer and view
what you have recorded. There is no need of any
software or driver installation unlike other cell
phones. Trend T-786i having Bluetooth connectivity,
GPRS and MMS. Trend mobiles offers an
unmatched Deluxe Package along with the set
which includes a free-of-cost Bluetooth Device,
256 MB memory card, hands free, USB port,
Desktop charger, 2 extra batteries and In-Car
charger and a Trendy pouch to carry your cell phone in style.
The Trend T-786i is a fashion conscious handset, which has
a good and attractive size of LCD and gives solid and quality feel
when in use. Mobile phone holds another edge to other cell phones in
the market. It has the style, it has the attractive look and it has all that
you require in cell phone to begin with.

52
 www.
flare.
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Tech-Tool

Samsung S3600 gets announced,

while Samsung i7110 leaks
The Samsung i7110 is the next Symbian smartphone with a 5 megapix-
el camera and enhanced multimedia capabilities - at least as far as rumors
go. In the same time Samsung released a lower midrange handset - the
Samsung S3600, which borrows its looks from the Soul clamshell
Samsung G400, but offers entry-level specs and no external display.
This is not the first time the Samsung i7110 leaks - we've reported it
back in August. This time a new image of the device leaked and it seems
some redesigning has taken place. Plus we now know more about its high-
end specs.
Powered by the latest Symbian S60 UI with FP2, the Samsung i7110
sports quad-band GSM, 3G with HSDPA, optical joystick navigation, a 2.6-
inch 16M color display, accelerometer for auto screen rotation, a 5
megapixel video camera with dual LED flash, VGA@30fps video recording,
slow motion and high-speed QVGA recording, Wi-Fi with DLNA, DivX and
XviD video support, GPS receiver with A-GPS, FM radio and FM transmit-
ter.
We are eagerly waiting for the official announcement of the Samsung
i7110, which seems to be this month.
The Samsung S3600 however is the handset that saw its announce-
ment today. Banking on the well-received Soul-design the Samsung S3600
brings a bit of style to the masses.

Motorola Q 11 smartphone turns up,

Wi-Fi and GPS, but no 3G
Today Motorola announced the newest member of their highly popular Q family.
The Motorola Q 11 is true to its nature with slim silhouette and Windows Mobile
6.1 Standard OS.

Motorola Q 11 comes with quad-band GSM support, making it capable of

global roaming. It's landscape display measures 2.4 inches and sports QVGA
resolution. The full-QWERTY handset has 64MB of RAM and a Freescale ARM
7 LTE CPU.

Some of its more exiting features are Wi-Fi, GPS (with A-GPS support) and a 3
megapixel fixed focus camera. USB v1.1 and Bluetooth v2.1 are also on board
and so is a microSD card slot for expanding the built-in memory. The lack of
UMTS support however will force users to use EDGE for on-the-go wireless
data.

Motorola Q 11 measures the pretty slim 117x64x11.7 mm, totaling a volume of

85cc. Its weight is the passable 115 g.

Motorola Q 11 is expected to be available in December 2008 but there is no

information regarding its pricing yet.

53
 www.
flare.
Tech-Tool Low Range Mobiles Free Download com.pk

Rs Rs
4,000 5,400

Trend T-303 Smarty Nokia 1680 Classic

• 1.3 Mega Pixels Camera
• FM Radio
• 1.8 inch wide TFT color screen
• Wrong Call Restriction
• Secret Message Inbox
• Polyphonic Ring Tones
• Multiple Languages
• Time Synchronization
• Slim & Smart
Dimension 108 x 46 x 15 mm, 66 cc
Weight 73.7 g
Battery Talk time Up to 7 h 40 min, Stand-by
Up to 424 h
Memory Combo 32 MB Built-in Flash, 4 MB
SDRAM (1000 Phonebook entries + 20 dialed,
20 received, 20 missed calls)
Connectivity GPRS Class 10, EGPRS Class
6, SyncML 1.2
Display Size 128 x 160 pixels
Display Colour TFT, 65K colors

Rs Rs
4,450 4,750

Sony Ericsson T250i Motorola W230

Dimension 100 x 45 x 13 mm
Weight 82 g
Battery Talk time Up to 7 h, Stand-by Up to
300 h
Memory 2 MB internal memory (20 received,
dialed and missed calls)
Connectivity Infrared, GPRS Class 10 (48
kbps), HSCSD
Display Size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.7 inches
Display Colour TFT, 65K colors
Dimension 110 x 45 x 14.7 mm
Weight 80 g
Battery Talk time Up to 9 h, Stand-by Up to
450 h
Memory 1MB internal memory + Extendable
(MicroSD Memory Card, up to 2 GB support-
ed)
Connectivity USB, GPRS Class 10 (48
kbps)
Display Size 128 x 128 pixels, 1.6 inches
Display Colour CSTN, 65K colors

Rs Rs
4,150 2,800

Samsung B200 LG KG288

Dimension 104 x 44.5 x 16 mm
Weight 77 g
Battery Talk Time Up to 9h, Standby Time
Unknown
Memory 2 MB built-in memory, no Memory
Card (500 Phonebook entries, 30 dialed, 30
received, 30 missed calls)
Connectivity GPRS Class 10 (48 kbps), USB
Display Size 128 x 128 pixels, 1.52 inches
Display Colour CSTN, 65K colors
Dimension 99.5 x 45 x 13.4 mm
Weight 60 g
Battery Talk time Up to 3 h, Stand-by Up to
400 h
Memory 80kb Built in memory
(300 phonebook entries, 100 SMS memory)
Connectivity none
Display Size 1.5 inches, 128 x 128 pixels
(Large Font Display)
Display Colour CSTN 65K Color Display

54
Above prices are subject to change as per market
 www.
flare.
com.pk Free Download Current Mobiles Tech-Tool

Rs. 13,800 Rs. 13,800

Nokia 5220 Nokia 7310 Supernova

Dimension Dimension
108 x 43.5 x 10.5 mm, 53 cc 106.5 x 45.4 x 12 mm, 58 cc
Weight Weight
78 g 83 g
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 5 h 15 min, Stand- Talk time Up to 4 h, Stand-by Up to
by Up to 406 h 300 h
Memory OS
30 MB Built-in + microSD card Series 40
(512 MB included) Memory
Connectivity 32 MB internal + microSD card
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB, (supports up to 4GB)
GPRS Class 32, EDGE Class 32 Connectivity
(296 kbit/s RX), HSCSD Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB,
Display Size GPRS Class 32 (88 kbps), EDGE
240 x 320 pixels, 2.0 inches (296 kbits),
Display Size
240 x 320 pixels, 2.0 inches

Rs. 14,900 Rs. 32,500

Motorola ROKR E6 Samsung F480

Dimension Dimension
111 x 51.5 x 14.5 mm 98.4 x 55 x 11.6 mm
Weight Weight
121 g 100.6 g
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 7 h, Stand-by Up Talk time Up to 3 h, Stand-by
to 235 h Up to 250 h
OS Memory
Linux-based 232 MB Built-in + microSD
Memory Memory Card (supports up
8 MB user memory + SD card, to 8GB)
up to 2GB Connectivity
Connectivity Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP,
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB, GPRS Class 12 (32 -
USB, GPRS Class 10 (48 48 kbps), EDGE, 3G
kbps), EDGE Class 10 (HSDPA 7.2 Mbps)
(236.8 kbps) Display Size
Display Size 240 x 320 240 x 320 pixels, 2.8
pixels, 2.4 inches inches

55

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 www.
flare.
Tech-Tool Current Mobiles Free Download com.pk

Rs. 28,500 Rs. 38,000

Nokia 6210 Navigator Nokia E71

Dimension Dimension
103 x 49 x 14.9 mm, 89 cc 14 x 57 x 10 mm, 66 cc
Weight Weight
117 g 127 g
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 3 h 40 min, Stand- Talk time Up to 10 h 30 min,
by Up to 220 h Stand-by Up to 410 h
OS OS
Symbian OS 9.3, Series 60 UI Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI
Memory Memory
120 MB built-in + 64 MB SDRAM 110 MB Built-in, 128 MB SDRAM
+ 1 GB microSD card included Memory + microSD (up to 8GB,
(supports up to 8GB, hotswap) hotswap)
Processor Processor
ARM 11 369 MHz ARM 11 369 MHz
Connectivity Connectivity
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared,
GPRS Class 32 USB, GPRS
Display Size Display Size
240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches 320 x 240 pixels, 2.36 inches

Rs. 64,500 Rs. 18,200

Nokia N96 Nokia 3600 Slide

Dimension Dimension
103 x 55 x 18 mm, 92 cc 97.8 x 47.2 x 14.5 mm, 60 cc
Weight Weight
125 g 97.3 g
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 3 h 40 min, Stand- Talk time Up to 5 h 30 min, Stand-by
by Up to 220 h Up to 280 h
OS OS
Symbian OS 9.3, S60 rel. 3.2 Nokia Series 40
Memory Memory
128MB RAM, 256MB storage 30 MB internal + microSD Card
Memory + Nokia N96 has 16 GB (supports up to 4GB, 512MB includ-
of internal memory + Extendable ed)
microSD (TransFlash) Connectivity
Connectivity Bluetooth v2.0, USB, GPRS Class
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB, 32 (100 kbps), HSCSD (28.8 kbps),
GPRS WLAN EDGE Class 32 (296 kbps)
(Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g) Display Size
Display Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.0 inches
240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches (5-way navigation key)

56

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 www.
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com.pk Free Download Current Mobiles Tech-Tool

Rs. 18,000 Rs. 25,000

BlackBerry 8700g BlackBerry Pearl 8120

Dimension Dimension
110 x 69.5 x 19.5 mm 107 x 50 x 14 mm
Weight Weight
134 g 91 g
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 4 h, Stand-by Up Talk time Up to 4 h, Stand-by Up to
to 450 h 360 h
OS OS
BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS
Memory Memory
64 MB flash memory + 16 MB 64 MB flash memory + Extendable
SRAM microSD (TransFlash)
Processor Connectivity
Intel PXA901 312 MHz Bluetooth v2.0, USB, GPRS,
processor HSCSD, EDGE, WLAN (Wi-Fi
Connectivity 802.11b/g)
Bluetooth, USB, GPRS, EDGE Display Size
Display Size 240 x 260 pixels
320 x 240 pixels

Rs. 13,300 Rs. 22,800

Sony Ericsson S500i Motorola RAZR2 V9

Dimension Dimension
99 x 47 x 14 mm 103 x 53 x 13.3 mm
Weight Weight
94 g 125 g
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 9 h, Stand-by Up Talk time Up to 3 h 30 min, Stand-
to 370 h by Up to 260 h
Memory Memory
12 MB shared memory + 45 MB internal memory +
Extendable (Memory Stick Micro Extendable with Memory Card
M2) (microSD TransFlash)
Connectivity Connectivity
Bluetooth v2.0, USB, GPRS Bluetooth V2.0 with A2DP, USB,
Class 10 (48 kbps), HSCSD, GPRS Class 10 (48 kbps), EDGE
EDGE Class 10, (236.8 kbps), Class 12, 3G (HSDPA 3.6 Mbps)
Display Size Display Size
TFT, 256K colors 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches, 2nd
external 2 inches display (240 x
320 pixels) with contextual touch
interaction

57
Above prices are subject to change as per market
 www.
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Tech-Tool Current Mobiles Free Download com.pk

Rs. 22,300 Rs. 13,600

Samsung F400 Sony Ericsson W350i

Dimension Dimension
103.2 x 48.2 x 16.9 mm 104 x 43 x 10.5 mm
Weight Weight
105 g 80 g
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 4 h 30 min, Stand- Talk time Up to 7 h, Stand-by Up
by Up to 620 h to 300 h
Memory Memory
24 MB Built-in + microSD Memory 14 MB shared + Memory Stick
Card (1 GB card included, supports Micro M2, (512MB card included)
up to 8 GB) Connectivity
Connectivity Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, GPRS
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB, Class 10 (48 kbps), HSCSD,
GPRS Class 10 (48 kbps), EDGE EDGE Class 10 (236.8 kbps)
(236.8 kbps), 3G (HSDPA 3.6 Display Size
Mbps), 176 x 220 pixels,
Display Size 1.9 inches
240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches (Dual
slide design)

Rs. 22,900 Rs. 18,100

LG KF600 LG KF510
Dimension Dimension
101.2 x 50.7 x 14.1 mm 104.5 x 49.5 x 10.9 mm
Weight Weight
107 g 110 g (Real Metal Body)
Battery Battery
Talk time Up to 4 h, Stand-by Up Talk time 4 h, Stand-by 400 h
to 480 h Smart Power Saving (Auto
Memory Lighting Control)
25 MB internal memory + Memory Memory
Card (microSD TransFlash) 16 MB shared memory +
Connectivity Extendable memory card
Bluetooth v2.0, USB, GPRS Class (microSD, up to 4GB)
10 (48 kbps), EDGE Class 10 Connectivity
(236.8 kbps) Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP,
Display Size USB, GPRS Class 10 (48
240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches + kbps), EDGE Class 10 (236.8
Touch-sensitive lower display (176 kbps)
x 240 pixels, 1.49 inches) Display Size
240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches
Scratch proof (tempered Glass)

58
Above prices are subject to change as per market
 www.
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Rs
70,500
Apple-iPhone 3G (16GB)
This 133 grams phone has a Lithium Ion
battery, which provides talk time of 600
minutes and standby time of 300 hours. It
has added features like Quad band, 16m
coloured touchscreen display with resolu-
tion of 320 x 480 pixels and a music play-
er supporting MP3, AAC, Audible, Apple
Lossless, AIFF and WAV music formats. It
also comes with an inbuilt memory of
16GB, 3G compatibility, 2 megapixel cam-
era, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, USB connector and
EDGE. Multi-Touch Display, OS X
Operating System and GPS are the
unique features of this mobile phone and
comes in Black and White colour.
Rs
97,000
Nokia-8800 Sapphire Arte
This 150 grams phone has a Lithium-Ion
battery type, which allows you talk time
of 180 minutes and stand by time of 300
hours. It comes with features like 16m
colour OLED display with resolution of
240 x 320 pixels, mp3 capability. It also
has added features like Quad-band,
3.15MP camera with video recording,
Autofocus feature, 1GB inbuilt memory,
EDGE, Bluetooth and USB connector.
This mobile phone comes in Silver
colour and it also has an Accelerometer.
Rs
36,500
Sony Ericsson-W960i
This 119 grams mobile phone has a
Lithium Polymer battery, which allows
you a talk time of 540 minutes and
stand by time of 370 hours. It has
added features like tri band, 262k TFT
touchscreen colour display with a reso-
lution of 240 x 320 pixels. It comes with
a music player, 8GB inbuilt memory,
inbuilt dictaphone, push email client and
USB connector. It comes with an inbuilt
3.2MP camera, 3x digital zoom with
flash and video recorder. The mobile
phone comes in Vinyl Black colour.
Above prices are subject to change as per market
High Range Mobiles Tech-Tool
Rs
54,500
Apple-iPhone 3G (8GB)
This 133 grams phone has a Lithium
Ion battery, which provides talk time of
600 minutes and standby time of 300
hours. It has added features like Quad
band, 16m coloured touchscreen dis-
play with resolution of 320 x 480 pixels
and a music player supporting MP3,
AAC, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF
and WAV music formats. It also comes
with an inbuilt memory of 8GB, 3G
compatibility, 2 megapixel camera, Wi-
fi, Bluetooth, USB connector and
EDGE. Multi-Touch Display, OS X
Operating System and GPS are the
unique features of this mobile phone
and comes in Black colour.
Rs
41,600
Samsung-SGH-P520
(Armani)
This 85 grams phone has features like
256k coloured touchscreen display
with resolution of 240 x 320 pixels,
3.15MP camera with Video Recorder,
Triband, MP3 Player, Bluetooth,
GPRS, EDGE, SMS and handsfree
speaker. The phone comes with a
60MB Internal Memory which is
expandable using a microSD card. The
music player supports MP3, ACC and
ACC+ audio formats, works on a Li Ion
battery providing a Talk Time of 360
minutes and 220 hours of Standby
Time.
Rs
57,500
Nokia-E90 Communicator
This 210 grams phone has a lithium-
ion battery type, which allows talk time
of 300 mins and stand by time of 336
hours. It has a 16M colour TFT internal
display with resolution of 800x352 pix-
els and 16M colour TFT external dis-
play. It comes with features like quad
band, fm radio, music player, 128MB
inbuilt memory, microSD card slot,
EDGE, Wi-Fi, 3G, bluetooth, infrared,
USB Connector, WCDMA, PTT, GPS
and flight mode. It has a 3.2MP cam-
era with features like flash, auto-focus,
Sales package consists of leather
pouch and 512MB microSD card.
59

Tech-Tool Upcoming Mobiles
Nokia-5800 Xpress
Music
This 109 grams phone works on a
Li Ion battery providing talktime of
525 minutes and a standby time
of 406 hours. The phone comes
with an inbuilt memory of 81 MB
which is upgradeable upto 16 BG
using a microSD card and has a
16m touchscreen TFT display with
a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels. It
also has a 3.15 MP autofocus
camera with flash, video recorder
and a secondary videocall cam-
era. The mobile has connectivity
options like wi-fi, bluetooth with
A2DP, USB connector, EDGE,
GPRS and WAP and supports
audio formats like MP3, WMA,
WAV, eAAC+. Built-in GPS receiv-
er, TV out, 3.5 mm audio output
jack, Document viewer.
Nokia-N79
This 97 grams phone has a
Lithium Ion battery type, which
provides talk time of 330 minutes
and standby time of 372 hours. It
comes with features like 16m
colour TFT display with resolution
of 240 x 320 pixels, inbuilt memo-
ry of 50 MB which can be upgrad-
ed upto 8 GB using a microSD
card. The phone comes with a 5
megapixel autofocus camera with
flash and video recorder. It has
connectivity options like wi-fi,
bluetooth with A2DP, USB con-
nector, EDGE, GPRS and WAP.
The phone supports MP3, AAC,
AAC+, eAAC+, WMA audio for-
mats and comes with inbuilt
games and fm radio. Built-in GPS
receiver, TV out, 3.5 mm audio
output jack.
60
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Nokia-N85
This 128 grams slider phone has
a Lithium Ion battery type, which
provides talk time of 410 minutes
and standby time of 363 hours. It
comes with features like 16m
coloured OLED display with reso-
lution of 240 x 320 pixels, inbuilt
memory of 74 MB which can be
upgraded upto 8 GB using a
microSD card. The phone comes
with a 5 megapixel autofocus
camera with flash and video
recorder. It has connectivity
options like wi-fi, bluetooth with
A2DP, USB connector, EDGE,
GPRS and WAP. The phone sup-
ports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+,
WMA audio formats and comes
with inbuilt games and fm radio.
Built-in GPS receiver, Dual slide
design, 3.5 mm audio output jack,
TV out, Office document viewer.
Sony Ericsson-W902
This 100 grams phone has a
Lithium Ion battery type, which
provides talk time of 540 minutes
and standby time of 380 hours. It
comes with features like 262k
colour TFT display with resolution
of 240 x 320 pixels, 5 megapixel
autofocus camera with 16x zoom,
flash and video recorder. It has
added features like Tri band, 25
MB inbuilt memory which can be
upgraded using a Memory Stick
Micro and has connectivity
options like bluetooth with A2DP,
USB connector, EDGE, GPRS
and WAP. The phone supports
MP3 and AAC audio formats and
has FM radio, games. Shake
Control, Geo-tagging and
Accelerometer Sensor are the
unique features of this mobile.
 www.
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Sony Ericsson-S302
This phone comes with a 262k
TFT display with a resolution of
176 x 220, inbuilt memory of 20
MB, which is upgradeable using a
Memory Stick Micro. The mobile
has a 2 megapixel camera with
2.5x digital zoom, flash and video
recorder. It comes with connectivi-
ty options like bluetooth with
A2DP, USB connector, EDGE,
GPRS and email client support.
The phone has fm radio, games
and a music player with MP3 and
AAC audio formats.
LG-KT610
This flip mobile mobile phone comes with a Lithium Ion battery
and features like QWERTY keyboard, 256k colour TFT display
with resolution of 640 x 480, 2 megapixel camera with a Video
Recorder. It has added features like Tri band, 64MB inbuilt
memory, microSD card slot, Bluetooth, USB connector, EDGE
and a USB connector. The mobile phone comes with a Music
Player which supports MP3 music format and comes in Black
colour. Built-in GPS receiver, Document viewer, Photo/video
editor are the unique features of the mobile phone.
Upcoming Mobiles Tech-Tool
Sony Ericsson-C905
This slider phone comes with a
262k TFT display with a resolution
of 240 x 320, inbuilt memory of
160 MB, which is upgradeable
using Memory Stick Micro. The
phone comes with a 8.1 megapix-
el autofocus camera with 16x digi-
tal zoom, flash and video
recorder. It has connectivity
options like wi-fi, bluetooth with
A2DP, USB connector, EDGE,
GPRS and email client support.
The phone has fm radio, games
and a music player supporting
MP3 and AAC audio formats.
GPS, Geo-tagging, TV out,
HSDPA and Accelerometer sensor
are the unique features of the
mobile phone.
Samsung-SGH-G400
(Soul)
This clamshell phone comes with
features like 256k colour display
with resolution of 240 x 320 pix-
els, Tri band, GPRS, EMS, SMS
and handsfree speaker. It also
has features like a Secondary
Touchscreen Display, 5 megapixel
auto focus camera with Face
Detection, Image Stabilizer and
Secondary camera for video call,
Bluetooth, USB connector and
GPRS. The mobile phone comes
with a Music Player which sup-
ports MP3, AAC, eACC+ and
WMA audio formats, Games,
Email Client and an Inbuilt
Dictaphone.
61

Tech-Tool Upcoming Mobiles
LG-KF700
This 107 grams phone comes with
a Lithium Ion battery and features
like 256k colour TFT touchscreen
display with resolution of 240 x
480 pixels, 3.15 megapixel autofo-
cus camera with Video Recorder.
It has added features like Tri
band, microSD card slot,
Bluetooth, GPRS and USB con-
nector. The mobile phone comes
with a Music Player which sup-
ports MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+
music formats and comes in Black
Colour. 3G support and MPEG4
Player are the unique features of
this mobile.
Samsung-SGH-P960
This slider mobile phone comes
with a 256k coloured display with
a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, 3
megapixel camera with video
recorder. It comes with features
like bluetooth, USB connector,
GPRS and FM Radio. The music
player in the mobile phone sup-
ports MP3, AAC and AAC+ audio
formats. The mobile phone is
JAVA enabled and works on a Li
Ion battery.
62
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Samsung-SGH-L770
This 93 grams slider mobile
phone comes with a 256k
coloured display with a resolution
of 240 x 320 pixels, 2 megapixel
camera with flash and video
recorder. It comes with features
like bluetooth with A2DP, USB
connector, EDGE, GPRS and FM
Radio. The mobile has an inbuilt
memory of 40 MB, which can be
upgraded using a microSD card.
The music player in the mobile
phone supports MP3, AAC,
eACC+ and WMA audio formats.
The mobile is JAVA enabled and
works on a Lithium Ion battery.
HTC-S740
This slider PDA mobile phone
comes with a QWERTY
Keyboard, 5-Way Navigation Key
and keypad inputs. It has a 65k
colour TFT coloured display with
a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.
It has a 528 MHz Qualcomm
processor, Windows Mobile 6.1
Standard mobile OS with 256 MB
RAM and 256 MB ROM. The
PDA has a 3.2 MP camera with
video recorder and comes with
connectivity options like w-fi,
bluetooth with A2DP, USB con-
nector, EDGE and GPRS. It sup-
ports MP3 and AAC audio for-
mats and inbuilt games. Built-in
GPS and Video/audio album are
the unique features of this PDA
phone.
 www.
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Rs
53,500
HTC-TyTN II (P4550)
This quad band slider PDA mobile phone comes with a touchscreen dis-
play, 5-way navigation key, QWERTY keyboard and 65k colour LCD dis-
play with a resolution of 240 x 320. It has a 400 MHz processor, Windows
Mobile 6 Professional Edition with 128MB RAM and 256 MB ROM. It
comes with softwares to handle word processer, spread sheet and presen-
tation. The PDA comes with a 3.15 megapixel camera and various con-
nectivity options available on this PDA mobile phone like Wi-Fi, bluetooth,
USB connector, GPS, GPRS and EDGE. The PDA supports flight mode
and comes with a Li-Polymer battery.
Rs
19,000
i-mate-JAMA
Small, Light and Powerful – A New Dimension in Mobility
Stay in touch with your friends all day with Instant
Messenger and easy access to email,Powerful Windows
Mobile® functionality in a compact, light and easy-to-use
device. New configuration tools to enhance device
management.
Current Mobiles Tech-Tool
Rs
33,500
HTC-P3450
HTC Touch (Windows Mobile 6.0 & T1 OMAP 201 MHz
Processor)::::The world's first phone to feature intuitive touch
screen technology, the HTC Touch with TouchFLO™ gives
you unprecedented touch panel experiences....TouchFLO is a
Touch Cube (3 dimensional Interface) that gives one Touch
Access to everything..... Simply slide your thumb or finger on
the touch screen to open, rotate & Exit the Touch Cube.
Rs
49,600
i-mate-JASJAM
Introducing a new superstar for those requiring a mobile
device with that bit extra. With superb full colour screen, built
in slider QWERTY keyboard & a power house of funcyionali-
ty, The i-mate JASJAM is the new benchmark in mobile com-
puting. Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, 400 Mhz Samsung
processor, Video call, Pocket Office(Word, Excel, Outlook)
63
Above prices are subject to change as per market

Tech-Tool Latest Laptop
DTK MiBook S52
Rs
46,500
Processor Intel Core 2 Due Processor, 1.66 GHz T5450,
Memory GB DDRII 667 (Up to 2 GB) Hard Disk 120 GB SATA HDD
5400rpm, Display 15.4 TFT WXGA LCD, Video Graphics
Integrated M672MX, 256 MB Share, Optical Drive DVD Super Multi
Drive, Audio 2 Channel HD Audio by Realtek ALC268,
Connectivity Integrated 10/100 Lan by Realtek RTL810E, Wireless
802.11abg, Blutooth V2.0, 56 Data Modem, Digital Camera 1.3
Mega Pixel Camera, Ports 4 USB Port 2.0, IEEE 1394 (Fireware)
RJ45 Output, RJ11 Port, Card Reader 4.1, Battery 6 Cell Li-on,
4800 mAH, Warranty One Year Warranty
SONY VAIO VGN– CR34G/B
Rs
90,395
This sony laptop comes with Intel 1.4GHz Core2 Duo Processor, 1GB
RAM and a 160GB Hard Drive. It has a DVD Writer, 14.1-inch display
with a resolution of 1280 x 800 dpi. The laptop also has an integrated
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 video card, integrated sound
card, Wifi, Touchpad mouse, In-Built Speakers, Microphone and a
built-in 1.3 megapixel camera. The laptop has interfaces like Express
Card slot, S-Video port, 3 USB ports, Firewire port, Bluetooth and 3 in
1 Digital Media Reader. The laptop comes with a Fingerprint Reader,
Lithium Ion battery and Windows Vista Home Premium operating
system.
IBM ThinkPad Z60M (UH3FJxx)
Rs
87,494
The new Z60m is versatile to meet the most demanding work and
home tasks. It combines the convenience and mobility of a notebook
with the performance and functionality of a desktop. This powerful
system offers a bright 15.4-inch widescreen. The 15.4-inch
widescreen offers more viewing area than standard TFT screens,
allowing additional space for increased productivity for spreadsheet
and multimedia applications. In addition, the Z60m offers an array of
multimedia ports and graphic choices including three USB ports, an
IEEE 1394 port, a 3-1 digital media reader, and up to 128 MB discrete
graphics.
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Compaq Presario C797
Rs
68,849
From the simple step-by-step setup through easy support tools to use
for the life of the PC with Advisor, the C795 series gets you up and
keeps you running. And HP DVDPlay provides access to DVD movies
at the touch of a button. Watch DVD movies on the full screen using
simple media controls. Burn audio CDs with integrated Roxio CD
Creator. Make great movies without the hard work with muvee
autoProducer. And edit, store and share photos with Photosmart
Premier. Simple entertainment is here!
MACBOOK AIR MB003
Rs
162,321
MacBook Air is ultrathin, ultraportable, and ultra unlike anything else.
But you don't lose inches and pounds overnight. It's the result of
rethinking conventions. Of multiple wireless innovations. And of break-
through design. With MacBook Air, mobile computing suddenly has a
new standard. The incredible thinness of MacBook Air is the result of
numerous size- and weight-shaving innovations. From a slimmer hard
drive to strategically hidden I/O ports to a lower-profile battery, every-
thing has been considered and reconsidered with thinness in mind.
DELL XPS 1330
Rs
110,429
The Dell XPS 1330 is a superb ultra portable laptop in every sense.
Lightweight, robust, and with a personalized design. Most impressive
of all, with a high end spec and multitude of features the XPS 1330 is
an extremely impressive, fully functional, high performance laptop for
home or business.
The Dell XPS 1330 is arguably the most powerful, ultra thin, portable
notebook on the market today. It stands out from the crowd with its
high specification and brilliant performance ratings across the board.
Dell have not been shy promoting this notebook and for good reason.
 www.
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Mobile devices combine laptop power with smartphone tricks
hen it comes to surfing the Inter-
W net, playing games or watching
movies on the road, a laptop can
be too big and a smartphone too small.
That's why some tech heavyweights have
been working on a device that falls in be-
tween.
The gadget — essentially a handheld
computer — has essentially the same pro-
cessing power as a laptop but in a consider-
ably smaller size. Like a smartphone, it can
connect to the Internet while out on the
road, but offers a bigger screen and the abil-
ity to display Web sites that most smart-
phones cannot. A new generation of the
devices, sometimes called ultra-mobile per-
sonal computers or UMPCs, is slated to hit
stores this fall and has some consumers sali-
vating.
Pat Merg, a programme manager at tool
maker Snap-on and self-described techie,
tested out a Samsung UMP demonstration
unit two years ago and is eager to own one.
Merg finds his smartphone too small to take
notes on and his laptop too big to use easily
on an airplane. The UMPC, though, "is a
perfect-size device," said Merg, a San Jose
resident.
But technology analysts are skeptical
that most consumers are like Merg. The
technology industry has been trying to mar-
ket UMPC-like gadgets ever since Apple de-
buted the Newton 15 years ago, but
consumers have not embraced them.
"It's been proven over and over and over
again that the world doesn't want such a de-
vice," said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at
technology research firm IDC. "I see no rea-
son why that's changed."
But backers of the new devices, like Intel,
say they will find a mass market among
consumers who are used to using the Inter-
net for entertainment or to connect with
friends and who increasingly expect to do
that while away from their desktop comput-
ers. "The market potential is huge," said
Pankaj Kedia, who is helping to spearhead
the company's handheld computing effort.
Makers hope
market is ready for
ultra-mobile PCs
Microsoft kicked off development of the
latest version of handheld computers two
years ago with its "origami" project, but it
never really caught fire with consumers.
More recently, Intel has been working to re-
fine the idea with its Mobile Internet Device
platform built around some new, low-power
processors. Intel envisions that manufactur-
ers will develop at least four different types
of such gadgets: some for entertainment,
some for navigation, some for communica-
tion and some as general office devices, re-
placing laptops.
The Internet is becoming one of the pri-
mary ways consumers communicate, and an
important destination for movies, music and
games, noted Kedia. As most content on the
Internet has been optimized for PCs, con-
The handheld gadgets are
likely to cost $500 or more.
That is a hefty price, espe-
cially when the upfront
cost for a smartphone is as
low as $100, and laptops
can cost as little as $400
sumers have been limited in where they can
access it, he said. As Intel sees it, consumers
will want these new handheld gadgets be-
cause they will be able to get the same Inter-
net experience they get from their desktop
or laptop computer.
That is something they generally cannot
do with smartphones, because they typically
have a hard time pulling up full Web pages
and some, such as the iPhone, cannot use
programmes like Adobe's Flash, which un-
derlies sites like YouTube. "When you want
to do things like social networking, user-
generated content, Facebook, and so on, you
want to do it wherever you are," Kedia said.
As many as five models of the Intel MIDs
Troy Wolverton InsighT
will be on store shelves by the holiday sea-
son, mostly for navigation or entertainment
uses. But it remains far from certain that
people will be eager to buy them. Analysts
point to a number of factors that could dis-
suade consumers. First is price. The hand-
held gadgets are likely to cost $500 or more.
That is a hefty price, especially when the
upfront cost for a smartphone is as low as
$100, and laptops can cost as little as $400.
And, as with a smartphone, UMPCs are
likely to cost more than their upfront price.
In order to access the Internet from every-
where, consumers will most likely have to
pay a monthly service charge for a data con-
nection. Consumers who already are paying
monthly bills for cell phones, cable televi-
sion and Internet service have shown a lot
of reluctance to take on new monthly
charges, noted IDC's O'Donnell.
Another obstacle is likely to be their size.
The gadgets' larger screen size means con-
sumers would not be able to put them in
their pockets like a cell phone. That means
consumers will have to carry them in a case
or a bag, at which point they might decide it
is just as easy to carry a laptop.
And manufacturers will have to make it
easy to get movies, music and the like on
the devices, as Apple has done with its
iPods and iTunes, said Rob Enderle, princi-
pal analyst at the Enderle Group, a technol-
ogy consulting firm. "This is not for your
mainstream buyer," Enderle said. "This is
not a device that if you build it, they will
come." Still Enderle and others think the
handheld Internet devices could eventually
find a niche audience.
Roger Kay, founder and president of
consulting firm Endpoint Technologies, ac-
knowledges the spotty history of handheld
devices. "The technology wasn't up to it and
the usage model wasn't clear," Kay said.
"But we're getting there. We're very close."
Nothing about consumer’s response is
determined before such gadgets hit the mar-
ket. May be they will utterly deject it or em-
brace it… Let’s wait and watch!.

65

Tech Tools FlareReport
Today cells are equipped with all that is
necessary as well as unnecessary.
Those who want to restrict phone to
just calls are lost in making a
selection. Here are some suggestions to
help you out in making the right choice
here is no end to human urge for more
T and more. There are so many handsets in
market which are designed to satisfy this
ever lurking urge. Other then those who need it
for business, people are lavishly spending on
latest mobiles despite of their usefulness and
need. There are also those, especially in third
world countries, who grab the set for style and
status symbol and hardly aware of the wonders,
its latest features are capable of performing.
There are also those who want to keep a cell for
just attending calls, they are tired of others’
(specially their children) continuously using
their mobiles for playing games, listening
songs, web surfing or switching in radio.
Our mobile devices have gotten awfully
intricate in recent years, outpacing many con-
sumers who are either not interested in all those
features or who simply don't want to pay for e-
mail and Web surfing. If someone ask me for a
palmset which is smart enough to make just
calls than I will recommend two sets. The first,
the Pantech Breeze, features a big keypad that
will appeal to those who want a basic phone,
especially seniors. The second is Motorola's
Rokr E8, a stylish music phone that loads songs
flawlessly and behaves more like an MP3 play-
er.
► Pantech Breeze: The Breeze was designed
for consumers who may not hear or see perfect-
ly. It is a flip phone. When closed, a small
screen on the front provides time and date.
When open, there are three keys - numbered 1,
2 and 3 - that sit below the display screen.
These are quick-call keys that can be pro-
grammed for a user's three most important con-
tacts. Press a quick-call key and that person's
photo and number appear on the screen. Then
hit the send key to make the call. The send key
is prominently displayed on the main keypad.
Above the main numeric keypad is a bigger-
than-normal navigational keypad to move
through the phone's menu options. A great fea-
ture is that the type on the menu choices is larg-
er than normal (though you can make it small-
er), and the type can be enlarged when an
66 option is highlighted, making it very easy to
see. Next to the navigation pad sits a volume
button to increase the sound easily, a smart
touch. Across from that is a button for the cam-
era. It would be better if instead of a camera
button, the users will be provided with an
alarm or reminder key. It can also shoot videos,
send instant messages and access mobile e-
mails - all worthy features which are not worth
mentioning here.
Unlike a lot of phones designed for the eld-
erly, the Pantech Breeze is unusually full-fea-
tured for an entry-level device. Starting with
the basics, the Breeze has a phone book with
800 entries, with room in each entry for three
numbers, an e-mail address, and an image for
photo caller ID. Essentials including vibrate
mode, a speakerphone, an alarm, a calendar, a
notepad, a voice memo recorder, and a calcula-
tor. For slightly more advanced users, there's
also text and multimedia messaging, mobile e-
mail, instant messaging, a wireless web brows-
er, plus bluetooth. It's also a quad-band world
phone.
► Motorola Rokr E8: As a media phone,
you might think Motorola's Rokr E8 should not
be dubbed uncomplicated but it is easy to use.
It will appeal to the teens and young adults
who want music but not a monthly data plan.
With the Rokr E8 loading music from a
www.
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Windows-based laptop was simple. I plugged
the phone in via USB and up popped the
Windows Media Player software.
If you are using it as a phone, then the
ROKR E8 shows a conventional numeric key-
pad – in case of using camera it shows camera
controls, and for multimedia playback the
ROKR E8 shows music keys. Motorola calls this
technology ModeShift and in the case of the E8
is combined with a speed sensitive FastScroll
navigation wheel, which makes it easy for users
to scroll through media libraries or menu
options.
The virtual keypad is enhanced with
Motorola's haptics technology - pressing the
keys actually does result in some physical reac-
tion, even though they are completely flat and
motionless. When switched off, the ROKR E8's
keypad is totally blank. Get past the clever key-
pad, and the Motorola ROKR E8 turns out to be
a pretty capable multimedia phone. It can play
back MP3, MIDI, AAC, WMA, WAV, AMR and
RealAudio music formats, comes with 2GB of
internal memory (expandable to 4GB with a
microSD card) and it has a landscape format
(wide) 2" 320 x 240 pixel display for video play-
back. The ROKR E8 can also be used with a
variety of wired and wireless headsets and
speakers. There's an FM radio too.
I hope that this discussion will help you in
selecting that tool which suits you most from
the showcase of handsets.

 www.
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With an ultra slim body having a platinum-look
finish, the phone is a sure competitor to the
recently launched iPhone in India
fter Pakistan, Samsung Mobile has
A recently launched its top of the line and
premium Samsung Omnia SGH-i1900 in
the Indian market.
On the occasion, Country Head-Samsung
Telecom Sunil Dutt said, “Samsung Omnia is
our flagship model aimed at users who desire a
lot of functionality, a lot of style, a lot of usabil-
ity and a lot of entertainment in one innovative
device. Samsung Omnia will help users to be at
the forefront of work and play and at the same
time, to stay connected anytime, anywhere.”
Excited about the launch, Dutt additionally
mentions, “Omnia is for people who expect the
Flare Report Telepedia
5 mega-pixel auto-focus camera with face detec-
tion, smile detection and auto-panorama shot,
ample storage space for digital assets with 32
GB memory (16GB internal memory + 16 GB
card) and 24 GB Memory (8GB internal memo-
ry + 16 GB card) and MultiCodec support for
DivX, Xvid and other video formats eliminates
the hassle of file format conversions along with
GPS that should take care of navigation and
geo-tagging capabilities.
A five minutes appearance was all that Lara
Dutta could manage for media persons who
were patiently waiting for her at the unveiling
of Samsung Omnia mobile the Oberoi. She
appeared when all the launch formalities were
finished and it was almost time to leave. The
lady allowed shutterbugs to dictate the poses
while holding the newly launched Samsung
Samsung Omnia is
available at leading
retail stores in India
for a price of Rs
39,999 for 32GB
memory and Rs
37,999 for 24GB
memory
Omnia during a Press briefing in New Delhi.
Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1
Professional operating system, the Samsung
Omnia can assure an extended PC experience
as users can effortlessly switch between
Microsoft Outlook email and productivity
applications.
Samsung Omnia is available at leading retail
stores in India for a price of Rs 39,999 for 32GB
memory
and Rs
37,999 for
24GB
memory.
Well
everything
you wish
for in your
mobile
could just
be a reali-
ty, espe-
cially if
you are an
Indian
Samsung
handset
ultimate from their mobile devices and who
don’t compromise on their desires. Functions of
this device including amazing video quality are
expected to set the next benchmark in the
lover.
Indian
mobile
consumers
industry.”
can gear
The name itself speaks pretty much for itself
up for
as Omnia, means ‘everything’ in Latin and
some fun and dynamic multimedia experience
‘wish’ in Arabic. Samsung Omnia comes with
in tandem with some great business perform-
some top of the line features that include a
ance capabilities. The handset certainly raises
high-resolution touch-sensitive 3.2” LCD screen
the bar in mobile convergence and perform-
patented by Samsung’s TouchWiz user inter-
ance, taking the consumer’s mobile experience
face and an onscreen Qwerty keyboard. So get
to the next level.

ready to tap, sweep, drag and drop.
Additional attributes of the device include a
67

InsighT Azhar Javed
IT a boon
for Pilgrims
to attain
ballot results
Ministry of Religious Affairs, Zakat and Ushr Government of Pakistan, has
developed a website to facilitate the pilgrims to get their results online
e are living in global village equipped
W with ultra-modern technologies. Dis-
tance have been reduced, even mars is
by an arm’s length. Now if some one wants to
visit the house of Allah, he is neither going on
foot nor rushing for horses or camels to ride in
the deserts of Arab. The days had also gone
when the pilgrims were waiting the result of bal-
loting for long time. In the present time, the in-
formation technology has progressed a lot which
almost all sectors are utilising and benefiting as
much as possible.
There are only eight pilgrim camps in Pak-
istan where the pilgrims get information regard-
ing, application, NIC verification, mailing
address, balloting result, etc. These camps are sit-
uated in big cities like Islamabad, Rawalpindi,
Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and
Faisalabad.
In this respect, Ministry of Religious Affairs,
Zakat and Ushr Government of Pakistan, has de-
veloped a website to facilitate the pilgrims to get
their results online from
http://www.hajjinfo.org (click ballot result for
Hajj 2008), after entering the application number
(first six digits), for example application number
439312, enter and one can get complete details as
Name: Muhammad Suleman Tahir, Father/Hus-
band name: Muhammad Tahir, National Identity
Card no.: 3520113551349, Status: Successful or
unsuccessful.
Ministry of Religious Affairs, Zakat and Ushr
has designed this website to provide general in-
formation about all aspects of Hajj and arrange-
ments being made for the pilgrims.
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to the holy city of
Makkah during the month of Dhu'l-Hijjah. The
performance of the Hajj is one of the five pillars
of Islam. For every Muslim able to perform Hajj,
it is mandatory to make the journey at least once;
for all Muslims it is the journey of a lifetime. To
facilitate the Hajj applicants, Ministry has made
arrangements this year with VectraCom to pro-
vide ballot result through mobile SMS services.
If any applicant wishes to obtain results
68
through mobile phone, simply write HS (space)
first six digits of Hajj application number e.g., HS
123456, in the message box and send to 32532.
This service will return status of Hajj applicant
against valid application number. More than
164,647 pilgrims will perform Hajj during De-
cember 2008. The number of pilgrims under the
government scheme would be 85,000 and those
under HGO Scheme would be 79,647. As many
Applicant who wishes to
obtain results through
mobile phone can simply
write HS (space) first six
digits of Hajj application
number e.g., HS 123456
in the message box and
send it to 32532. This
service will return status
of Hajj applicant against
valid application number
as 85,000 applicants under government scheme
were declared successful through computerised
balloting for Hajj-2008 held on September 17.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Religious Af-
fairs, Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi pressed the but-
ton to conduct computerised balloting in
presence of media and intending pilgrims. Secre-
tary, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Najeebullah
Malik and senior officials were present. The Ad-
viser informed that a shuttle service would be
launched to provide pick and drop facility to eld-
erly pilgrims in Makkah during Hajj. "I will also
talk to the administration of PIA to reduce fare in
view of decreasing oil prices and benefit, if any,
will be passed on to pilgrims."
www.
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Hamid Saeed Kazmi said that a request to en-
hance quota for Hajj has been made to the Saudi
officials and in case of any positive response,
those applicants who were remained unsuccess-
ful under government scheme will be accommo-
dated. The Secretary, Ministry of Religious
Affairs informed the audience that this year ma-
chine-readable passport would be once again is-
sued to the pilgrims.
On the other hand, the people have de-
manded of the government to immediately an-
nounce cut in the Hajj fares, following reduction
in oil prices in international market. The govern-
ment had increased the Hajj fares under the pre-
text of increase in oil prices in the international
market but now when the oil prices had came
down to $88 per barrel from $147, the govern-
ment should cut the Hajj fares.
Hajj pilgrims are being given special conces-
sion at the government level in other countries
but in Pakistan they were being cruelly ex-
ploited. It termed a sheer injustice with the peo-
ple and government had made the religious
obligation of Hajj a 'hard obligation'.
Majority of Hajj pilgrims belong to poor fami-
lies; therefore, the government should immedi-
ately cut the Hajj fares and provide relief to
them.
Sindh High Court directed Deputy Attorney
General to provide record regarding allocation of
Hajj policy and quota to private tour operations,
including reservations for armed forces. SHC di-
vision bench comprising Justice Athar Saeed &
Justice Dr Qamaruddin Bohra was hearing iden-
tical petitions filed by four private tour operators
against 50 per cent reduction in their allocated
quota this year by Religious Affairs Ministry. It
directed DAG Amir Raza Naqvi, who repre-
sented Religious Affairs Ministry, to provide en-
tire record pertaining to allocation of Hajj quota,
Haj policy and other relevant documents includ-
ing reservations for armed forces. It also called
entries on basis of which Haj quota of certain
tour operators had been increased & reduced for
this year.

 www.
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High fashion has stubbornly resisted cutting-edge technology, in
favour of faxes and clipboards. But change is occurring, and it is
never been more evident than during the Fashion Week season in
New York
eople today want not just their clothes,
P
but also their homes, their cars, their cell
phones and now their PCs to reflect their
personal sense of fashion and style”, said Rob
Poznanski, senior marketing manager at
Microsoft.
The Hewlett-Packard computer from Silicon
Valley (set to go on sale this spring) was carried
by a model during the Vivienne Tam show at
Bryant Park. Tam, known for infusing her
clothes with Asian art sensibilities and fabrica-
tions, designed the laptop to appeal to women.
It looks like a clutch decorated in a red peony
print. Tam, who was holding the laptop like a
purse while chatting with well-wishers, friends
and press.
This collaboration, like so much in high fash-
ion, is about sponsors. The Palo Alto helped
underwrite Tam's show in return for her input
into the notebook's design. A runway show can
University of California
building massive research lab
n an oak-studded landscape in Silicon
I
Valley's back yard, University of California
researchers are assembling what could
become the largest array of high-tech sensors
to probe envi-
ronmental
mysteries as
grand as cli-
mate shift or
as subtle as
sap flow.
The net-
work will connect the physical world to the
virtual world by gathering and transmitting
data to scientists around the globe — and any-
one with a Google Earth connection — from
the 3,260-acre former cattle ranch. The minute-
by-minute accumulation of information, when
analyzed over years and decades, could reveal
near-imperceptible natural trends, giving sci-
entists and the public a comprehensive story
of man's impact on nature, from tiny West
Nile virus to Bay Area smog.
"We'll observe the previously unobserv-
able," said reserve director Michael Hamilton.
“Much of nature is a now-you-see-it, now-
cost $25,000 to $50,000 just to rent the venue for
an hour or so during Fashion Week.
"We felt there is nothing more important in
people's lives then their computer," Chahil said,
"and too much of tech is still very male-orient-
ed. She [Tam] is integrating fashionable design
with what we offer in the way of technology."
Microsoft, too, is making itself known in
New York. The Seattle-based company is spon-
soring a retreat apartment on West 30 Street for
fashion editors, and it is presided over by
celebrity stylist Robert Verdi. The theme is
"Great American Style," which means the space
is filled with displays of goods from brands
such as Kiehl's, Hershey's, Coach and of course,
Microsoft. "We decided that great American
style should be about historic American brands,
and what other brand represents tech more than
Microsoft?" Verdi rhetorically asks.
Displayed around the retreat space are flo-
you-don't affair — a flash of a fish, the pounce
of a hawk, the slide of a turtle into swift and
deep waters. The reserve's Webcams will cap-
ture events that would otherwise have been
lost.”
Yet much else happens on scales far too
grand for the puny human eye, such as the
slow and subtle shift of seasons. The reserve's
sensors will detect those, as well.
Although the reserve will be closed to the
public, Hamilton said there will be open hous-
es and volunteer opportunities. The ranch,
valued at about $5 million, was donated
anonymously to UC in December 2007.
Managed by UC-Berkeley, the reserve's
golden hills are home to ancient blue oaks,
valley oaks and two species of live oak — as
well as endangered California tiger salaman-
ders, Foothill Yellow-legged frogs, native trout
and river otters. Embedded in the Mount
Hamilton Range, the ranch has not been
grazed for 15 years.
"This is completely raw land that has been
essentially undeveloped for its entire history,"
said Hamilton.
Its centerpiece is a solar-sustained field sta-
Flare Report InsighT
ral-covered Asus F6V PCs that emit a fragrance
once the computer fires up and the purse-like
Ego Orphine decorated with Swarovski crystals.
It retails for $15,000 to $20,000. "Let's face it,''
said David Wolfe, creative director of the
Doneger Group, a trend-forecasting agency,
"we've become so design conscious that we
want everything to be about aesthetics." A new
sponsor entered the tent: the Google. "It's
important for us to build a bridge between fash-
ion and technology, and as hard as it was to get
sponsor space, here we are," said Michaela
Prescott, product manager for Google.
The search engine is promoting its iGoogle
feature that personalizes the search page for
users. Designers such as Michael Kors, Anna
Sui, Vera Wang and Tory Burch have designed
what looks like a strip of wallpaper for a theme
page. It is part of Google's attempt to integrate
artists with the company, Prescott said. It is not
just computers and catwalks that are making
the fashion and tech collaboration evident.
''Before the Internet, fashion was very, very
exclusive," he said. "It's too difficult to build
your brand with all the competition, so why not
let technology help? Let everyone have instant
access to the looks and trends for the next sea-
son. Not just editors." Bouwer, who is best
known for dressing celebrities for red-carpet
We've become so design
conscious that we want
everything to be about
aesthetics
events, said presenting a virtual show was easy
and less expensive.
Newcomer Thuy Diep, whose label, Thuy,
debuted just a few seasons ago, showed for the
first time in Bryant Park and is already thinking
in terms of i-commerce. "There will be more
adventurous pieces available online that won't
be in stores," she said.

tion, converted from an old barn. Future plans
call for dormitories, classrooms, labs and
offices designed by UC-Berkeley faculty and
students to surpass the highest "green'' build-
ing standards.
"It is a wonderful location to observe some
of the most important habitats of Northern
California,'' said Philippe Cohen, director of
Stanford University's Jasper Ridge preserve in
Woodside. The advent of such wireless
sensing systems has transformed the field of
ecology.
"There has been a revolution in the past
decade that is allowing us to ask questions
that couldn't be asked before," Cohen said.
The node's weather station holds sensors to
measure temperature, humidity, rain, sun-
light, barometric pressure and wind speed and
direction. It even has a rain gauge that catches
water by 1/100 of an inch — then empties it
automatically. Eventually Blue Oak will hold
25 major nodes and 1,000 smaller units. From
his window, Hamilton can watch soaring
golden eagles and prowling bobcats. But he
knows that most of nature's mysteries are
beyond his sight.
69
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Enter in the weird world of cells
Origami handset
When it comes to this Rubik’s Cube of mobile
phones, one must wonder what – if any – ad-
vantages are presented by this frustratingly un-
orthodox device. Of course, having a mobile
phone that folds into different shapes may seem
worth the amusement (and I think it is) some
have reported that the handset damages easily. Nonetheless, SK Telecom,
the largest mobile carrier in Korea, has revealed a few photos of this pe-
culiar mobile phone Although the specs are not widely known as if yet,
the phone is thought to be fairly similar to an average camcorder phone,
albeit one that slides, folds and swivels.
Matchbox Cell
It is ugly. I know. But this highly unnatural-
looking “Matchbox Mobile” phone concept fits
snugly in your pocket when not in use and
slides open to reveal a keypad at the push of a
button. Think of it as a turtle phone. It comes
out of its shell at times but otherwise remains
safely tucked away inside of its own frame.
Ghetto Blaster Mobile
Named the “Thunder Super Radio HiFi”, this
old-fashioned table-top-radio-style mobile features
a 1.3-megapixel camera, 2.4-inch TFT display, built-
in mini boombox, and a microSD card slot. There
would be nothing striking about this mobile if you
only viewed its face. On one side, however, there is
a massive speaker with an old school ghetto blaster
grille to protect it and an AM/FM tuner.
Portable Director Cell Jammer
The CX 200 Portable Director II Cell Phone
Jammer is predicted to be the forerunner of
many similar devices in the future. Two modes
are available with this peculiar device. One
gives seventy seconds musical jamming around
you while the other fades out the call with natu-
ral atmosphere presumably to help you end
calls you should rather not continue.
Intruder Phone
Unlike other comparable mobile phones, the
Intruder measures just 2.5-inches in diameter
and boasts a circular keypad that swivels out to
reveal a 220 x 176 display.
Out of the ordinary but highly appealing, the
device is most appealing attribute is its thinness
- just a third of an inch thick when it is swiveled
closed. When a call is received, there is “a de-
lightful ring of light” that radiates from the center of the circle toward the
outside. It is very cool, indeed.
Flare Report Telepedia
Anti-mosquito palmset
By producing ultrasonic sounds that al-
legedly repel mosquitoes, this Pantech
handset has been dubbed “Mosquito Repel-
lent” slider. Apart from its believed effect
on pesky insects, the mobile is rather
unimpressive. It features a 2.6″ QVGA dis-
play, 2.0 Megapixel camera, EV-DO, MP3/MOV/VOD support,
stereo speaker, MP3 player, and portable media player functional-
ity. But the thing is so noisy you should have to wonder if it
would be easier to just avoid mosquitoes than tolerate this mobile
phone.
Three-Screen Mobile
KDDI Japan has created a mobile phone
sporting three individual touch screen LCD’s.
That’s an awful lot of screen and very little
phone. To date, very little is known about the
rest of the concept mobile device, but if screens
are your thing, then this eccentric mobile was
definitely tailor-made for you.
Onyx: Touchpad Phone
Call me old-school but any keyless mobile
phone is inherently weird… but in an incredibly
cool way. What truly makes the Onyx a deserv-
ing entrant on this list is its ability to sense
when it is placed beside your cheek. When it
reaches that particular part of your face, it an-
swers the incoming call. It’s sleek, it’s unusual,
and it’s so cool I have never forgotten about it.
Cigarette Mobile
Yes, this is a real phone. Do you think I could
actually make up something like this?
In addition being a fully functional or “nor-
mal” handset, it also holds a half pack of ciga-
rettes. And if you are so inclined, you can even
purchase the “luxurious VIP kit,” which in-
cludes other smoking paraphernalia in a com-
memorative box.
BenQ SL98 Slider
BenQ-Siemens has come out with a conspicu-
ously new mobile phone design in the form of a
concept phone called the SL98 Slider. The pri-
mary display smoothly slides out on the top
when needed. The rest of the time, you have just
the bottom half of the phone in your hand. It
looks (and presumably feels) a bit weird, as
though it is more of a pocket calculator than a mobile phone. Only a
small external display shows caller information and other data. Once the
primary display pops out, you can also use the camera at its back.
71
Above prices are subject to change as per market
 www.
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Pros and cons of cellular

growth in Pakistan
Whereas, it has made the communication easier and cheaper, it has also
given birth to some social evils that did not exist in the past
elecommunication is, perhaps, the only you can avail this facility. Previously, the cell sponsibility. For example, consider the selection

T field in our country which has improved

and got cheaper at the same time with the
passage of time. When PTCL first launched its
services, getting a telephone connection was
quite a task. Connections were given on priority
basis but today you can get the PTCL Wireless
connection without getting into any formalities.
On the other hand, to a great extent use of PTCL
has been replaced by the cell phones.
Not very long ago, when the cell phones
were introduced in Pakistan they had the status
of a luxury owned by the limited who could af-
ford it. However, today, in a span of a few years,
cell phones are in easy access of everyone. It is a
necessity to many and for others an entertain-
ment.
The rapid growth of the cell phone industry
has its pros and cons. Whereas, it has made the
communication easier and cheaper, it has also
given birth to some social evils that did not exist
in the past, consider the wrong use of cell
Connections were
given on priority
basis but today
you can get the
phone companies did not bother about the un-
registered SIMs, the repercussion of which fi-
nally gained the government's attention as it has
taken measures to block the unregistered SIMS.
Concrete steps should be taken to prevent the
wrong use of cell phones. Much can be done by
the registration of SIMs, disallowing a person to
keep more than one SIM, and abolishing the
night free like packages. Without a doubt, cell
phones have brought a remarkable change in
our society and its proper use calls for our re-
PTA must regulate mobile business
“Now with the involvement of police and increasing access
to data, privacy and confidentiality become a major issue’’
he Pakistan Telecommunications Au-
T thority (PTA) has been asked to draw
up a comprehensive standard operat-
ing procedure for cellular telephone business
in Pakistan that should safeguard the pri-
vacy right of the law abiding subscribers and
at the same time effectively curb expansion
of unregistered SIMs which are said to be
one of the key factors of in-
crease in crime rate.
The necessity of such a
The moot point of
of ring tone and the selection of Silent or Gen-
eral Mode as the situation requires. How many
times the full volume ring tone of a song has dis-
turbed you while you were offering your
prayers in the mosque? You might also have
heard ring tone with Holy verses which is such a
wrong thing to do as so many times people only
give missed calls in which case the meaning of
the verse changes as the verse is not recited com-
pletely. Much can be improved if only we start
realizing our responsibilities.

ernment agencies that enjoyed the access to
data and information from the cellular com-
panies.
“Now with the involvement of police and
increasing access to data, privacy and confi-
dentiality become a major issue,’’ contends
an executive of one of the seven cellular
companies in the country who does not
mince words to allege “po-
lice in this part of the
world are known for high

PTCL Wireless
procedure has been war-
ranted from a dispute be-
cellular phone is that handedness and their in-
volvement in data and in-
connection tween the law enforcement they were the biggest formation sharing puts an
agencies, mainly the police additional pressure on us
without getting and the cellular phone investor in the coun- and also on our cus-
companies and the PTA. tomers.’’ The moot point of
into any The police, allege the try during the last cellular phone is that they
cellular phone companies were the biggest investor
formalities and PTA, are now fre- seven or eight years in the country during the
quently demanding, for- last seven or eight years
mally and informally, from
and any impairment and any impairment of
phones and the increase in street crimes.
the cellular companies their business confidence
There is a great deal of competition among
billing data, subscriber de-
of their business would not be good for the
the companies offering cell phone services, the
negative aspect of which is that the companies
tails and other technical de- confidence would country. “We want to coop-
tails required for “live erate with the government
are doing all out effort to extend their network
before the market heads toward saturation
operations against kidnap- not be good for the through PTA, which is a
pers and hard core crimi- regulatory body.’’
(though still quite far). Another result of this
competition is the introduction of different pack-
nals’’, to quote an official country “It is because of this
communication. About a reason, we want the PTA to
ages to attract a variety of users. For the nega-
week ago, the Capital City draw up a standard operat-
tive social affects just consider the Night Free
Police Officer formally designated an SSP of ing procedure for the cellular phone busi-
Package offered by a company from 12 am. to 7
anti-violent crime cell in Karachi to obtain ness,” replied CCPO Wasim Ahmad. He
am, is this package being used in a positive way
all such information, whenever asked. recalled that the PTA was asked to do this
at large?
The cellular companies are understood to job at a high level meeting on August 30,
It is debatable whether a cell phone connec-
have taken a serious notice of this move. Till 2008. But the PTA has, so far, not indicated
tion should be available to every person or not.
recently, only the Inter Services Intelligence having started this job.

In some countries, at least I know of the USA,
and Intelligence Bureau were the two gov-
you have to undergo a lengthy process before
72
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Game industry
tries to break
through glass wall
Industry looks to take games out from behind the glass
into the aisles
he game industry has been broadening its
T content and trying to reach new customers,
but is up against a glass wall. At retail
stores, video games are typically confined to
games area and often kept in glass display cases.
Retail and game industry experts say this limits
sales and discourages purchases by non-tradi-
tional game buyers.
Breaking out of the glass has long been a goal for
the industry. Now, though, some game makers
are working with retailers to get their games in
new places and are hopeful that consumers
“who never would have looked for (games) will
be soon buying them on impulse,” said Tony
Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing
at Ubisoft, one of the top game publishers.
Among the new initiatives, few are as following
v Electronic Arts has teamed up with Hasbro to
create a new video game that comes with and
can be played with a Nerf foam dart gun. They
expect to sell the product in the toy aisle and in
special display racks, rather than just in the
game section.
v Earlier this year, Limited Too began selling
Ubisoft's girl-focused Imagine games inside its
stores. The girls clothing chain, which also has
sold Nintendo DS game machines, now carries
three Imagine titles.
v Game retailer GameStop has been putting up
special display cases to market female-oriented
and family-friendly games, and to lure in par-
ents and other non-traditional game consumers.
The game industry is booming right now. But
analysts argue that the industry can still reach
new audiences. Many consumers who have
bought new game machines were owners of
older ones, meaning that the industry has not
won a lot of new converts. Hardware and soft-
ware makers in recent years have tried to ex-
pand beyond their core audience of young men
and boys by targeting girls, women and older
consumers with new games and marketing
pitches. Nintendo, in particular, has found suc-
cess among non-traditional gamers with its Wii
and DS game machines. But these efforts are
being stymied by the way video games are sold,
industry analysts say. Game specialty stores like
GameStop cater to core gamers and have a hard
time luring in new customers. Meanwhile, at
general merchandise and electronics retailers
like Target, Wal-Mart or Best Buy, video games
are generally all lumped together in one section,
no matter their target audience.
"This has been a challenge for years and years,"
said David Cole, principal analyst with DFC In-
telligence, a game industry consulting firm
based in San Diego. Getting games out of the
glass cases and into other areas of retail stores
absolutely would be a key driver for sales."
Asmat Ullah InsighT
A large chunk of consumer spending goes to-
ward impulse purchases. For example, con-
sumers spend 26 per cent of their fashion
budgets on items they did not intend to buy be-
fore they entered the store, according to NPD
Group, a market research firm. But with games,
impulse buys represent just 6 to 7 per cent of
purchases, according to NPD. Analysts attribute
that in part to the "glass case" effect.
"If a customer has a hard time in getting an item
and putting it in a shopping cart, it's going to re-
duce sales of it," said Craig Johnson, president of
Customer Growth Partners, a retail industry con-
sulting and research firm. That's what Hasbro
and EA are trying to get around with the upcom-
ing N-Strike game. Johnson said he expects re-
tailers to make similar arrangements this holiday
season with related products from other game
and toy companies.
If it were up to game makers, such arrangements
would be the rule. Ubisoft, for instance, makes a
line of personal improvement and education
games under its "Coach" brand that it would like
to sell in related areas of retail stores, rather than
in the games department.
But few analysts expect retailers to make wide-
scale changes anytime soon. One reason is fear of
theft. Games, particularly in the first four weeks
after they are released, are frequently stolen, said
Joel Alden, a principal at A.T. Kearney, a man-
agement and consulting firm. Theft typically
amounts to 1 to 2 per cent of total sales at con-
sumer electronics stores. But when it comes to
video games, theft represents more than 5 per
cent of total sales, Alden said. That level of theft
"doesn't leave you much (profit) margin.”
Retailers can try to rely on security sensors in-
stead of glass cases to prevent theft, but that still
may confine games to a particular area. "There
are no easy answers," said Britt Beemer, presi-
dent of America's Research Group, a retail in-
dustry consulting firm. Security concerns are not
the only problems game makers face in trying to
get out of the glass case.
At many retailers, the people assigned to buy
products for the game department are not the
same ones who buy for the toy department or
other areas. Buyers who work for other sections
often know little about selling games and do not
have contacts in the game industry. So if games
were to sell in other store areas it could raise
questions about which department and employ-
ees get credit for their sale.
Despite the challenges, analysts expect game
makers to continue to push retailers to find new
ways to display games in their stores. "Being in
the right spot," Beemer notes, "is priceless."
73
 No Line Rent
Competitive Rates
Crystal Clear Voice
Free VAS
 www.
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com.pk Free Download
Mobile
mania
Is it over?
In past years, we have seen people fanatically changing and exchanging mobiles on
monthly basis. But now the scene has changed and people are more interested in
maintaining their tools’ quality instead of quantity
t is true to some extent that now I don't
I see many people going for every new
handset coming in market. I take myself
as an example. Before last two years, I was
running to change my handset after every
couple of months. After using almost thirty
handsets in last five years or so, I have
reached to a level where utility has taken
over fashion and it really does not matter
whether the set is in or not but it has to
have the functions I am looking for.
Many people have gone through same
experience as mine. Once upon a time,
mobile phone was a status symbol and it
has remained so for a long time but now
social conditions have altogether changed.
Now every other person has a cell phone
and every house at least one handset.
Mobile is now part and parcel of day to
day life and people are more interested in
having one, instead of getting the best.
Many factors have contributed to the
rapid leaps of telecommunications in
Pakistan: tough competition, emerging
market, increasing penetration, lower
installation cost, etc. However, people have
finally learn how to maximum utilize their
tool and they are making best of it.
Coming back to my point why
Pakistanis have lost interest in new
mobiles. Well, there are a few reasons, I
can think of.
• The modern handsets are more
expensive than the predecessors. Nokia E
series or N series phones are a relevant
example in this regard. They are certainly
good but expensive. Same is the case with
Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, iMate, HTC,
O2 etc. it is very hard for people to afford
such expensive sets when low cost mobiles
can serve the same purpose.
• Cheap copies of famous handsets
have diminished their charm. If some one
wants to have a mobile, he or she goes for
the China copy then the original one and
hence keep the price under control.
• Most buyers now are teenagers or
young professionals, who know the value
of money they earn or get as pocket money.
They want style but after getting it prefer
Now every other
person has a cell
phone and every house
at least one handset.
Mobile is now part
and parcel of day to
day life and people are
more interested in
having one, instead of
getting the best
to stick to it.
• The government is increasing taxes
and duties to make cell phones
unaffordable for their habitants, and
Pakistan is one of the best examples in this
regard.
• The new handset, when purchased,
immediately suffers a price breaker of
about 25-30 per cent. For instance, if you
buy a brand new handset for like 15K, and
open the box, use it for a minute and then
try to sell it back to the same shop keeper,
he will take it back with the reduced price.
Fatima Batool Telepedia
This practice is good for shop keepers as
they get to make a handsome margin on
marginally used sets. So the second hand
market has flourished.
• iPhone is not really responsible for
this but I think it has affected to some
extant the way people use and see mobile
phones.
• Mobile snatchers have also affected
the trend as someone who wants to buy a
good handset is afraid if it gets snatched as
soon as he is out of the shop.
• Inflation has affected people's
priorities. Now they want to sustain their
living than to spend money to newer
handsets.
• Cheaper sets are affordable to keep
and easy to dispose off. Moreover, the
mobile manufacturers are coming up with
so many models in short span of time that
most people have just got over the I have
to have it mentality.
• Now everyone in the house needs
to have a mobile phone. Gone are the days
when only dads had it. So the budget
increases if everyone wants to have a good
phone. Better keep it to volume instead of
value.
• No one wants to see a new mobile
phone. Mobiles are now just reduced to a
commodity. You use the phone as an
everyday device and not some novelty.
And once you gets used to one set, you
hardly bear to change it.
Despite of everything, quality conscious
people are afraid of look-alike handsets of
different countries. Now people are less
greedy and more to the point. Mobile is on
its way to replace computers. Let’s see how
long this controlled mobile mania
survives!.

75
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Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif in a meeting with a delegation of Ericsson
Global Service. Sweden Ambassador Ms Anna Karin Enes Trom also present in meeting on September 18.

Lahore: Wateen Telecom organises a cyber video games Islamabad: SEVP PTCL Sikandar Naqi and CEO Computer Research
competition to select a national champion for video games final. Khalid Shamsi exchange documents of an agreement.

After Marwan Zawaydeh’s removal

from his office, Faisal Khan is acting Islamabad: Famous German social activist Ruby poses for a group photo with the guests during a charity
CEO Warid. show to raise funds for water purification plant and support programme of a school in Elliot.
77
 www.
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Islamabad: Executive Vice President Telenor Irfan Wahab Khan pres- Singapore: President & CEO Satoshi Kimua and Vice President Melvin
ents a cheque to Manager SOS Children's Village Nazir Siddiqui and Ho awarded Khursheed Abbas GM MBM and Tauseef Ahmed Khan
Incharge SOS Shelter Ms Shahida Anwaar is also present. National Sales Manager for Canon’s best performance.

Lahore: Muhammad Ali Raza Regional Director Zong greeting the Lahore: HTC organised a stall for the promotion of their new series
Chinese youth delegation at their arrival. of mobiles at a shopping mall.

Islamabad: Guests witnesses an agreement

signing ceremony between PTCL-Ufone Gujranwala: Muhammad Ali Raza Regional Director Zong Serving with KIAN LI
and Microsoft at PTCL Headquarters. CEO Zong for a new sales and service centre in Gujranwala.
79
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Islamabad: PM Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Lahore: CEO Bank Alfalah and Warid’s Board of Director Pervaz A. Shahid inaugurates
inaugurates Chaghi News Room. the H.S. Studio at 4C Modal town.

Lahore: Manager Sales and Marketing Zulqarnain Ch., Editor-in-Cheif Flare

Zubair A. Kasuri and GM Shahid Manzoor at an Iftar party in Sun Fort. Lahore: A photo taken on the inaugration ceremony of H. S. Studio.

Islamabad: CEO Abu Dhabi Group Bashir A. Tahir, Chief Editor Daily Osaf
Karachi: Sindh Minister for Information Shazia Mari visites Mahtab Khan, Editor Mohsin Bilal, Shakeel Sadiq, Talib Rizvi, Tahir Jamil and
Citizens Police Liaison Committee. Zubair A. Kasuri after the urgent press conference called by Abu Dhabi group.
80
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Chiba: Japanese electrmocs giant Toshiba employee displays

the prototype model of a mobile phone, powered by a direct
methanol fuel cell (DMFC) battery and methanol cartridge for
re-fuelling at CEATEC in Chiba on October 1, 2008.

Chiba: Japanese electronics parts maker Murata Electronics unveils a uni-

cycle robot called the "Murata-seiko-chan", which has various sensors to Tokyo: NTT docomo president Ryuji Yamada and RIM COO
keep its balance on September 30, 2008. Don Morrison display the BlackBerry Bold smart phone.

Tokyo: Japan's electronics giant Sony

Tokyo: A model displays Japanese electronics giant Toshiba's new line employee displays the new waterproof portable
up of the LCD TV "Regza", sized at 22” x 52” on September 18, 2008. TV "XDV-W600" on September 22, 2008.
81
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Tokyo: A model from Japan's electronics giant Matsushita

Electric Industrial displays a new lightweight notebook
computer called "Let's note F8" on September 25, 2008.

Tokyo: Water is pored onto the keyboard of Matsushita Electric California: Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin passes
Industrial new lightweight and water resistant notebook com- by a camera-phone she signed for a supporter at her campaign rally
puter called "Let's note F8" on September. at the Home Depot Center in Carson on October 04, 2008.

Beijing: A woman checks her mobile Tokyo: Japan's mobile communication giant NTT docomo president Ryuji Yamada and Canadian
phone while pushing a child in a pram electronics maker Research In Motion (RIM) COO Don Morrison display the BlackBerry Bold
through a park on October 7, 2008. smart phone on September 29, 2008.
83

Banking Flare Report
Even if Asia is the world's largest broadband market in terms
of absolute numbers, it lags the United States and Europe in
overall penetration
sia will continue to deliver strong
A growth in the mobile phone market due
to sustained demand from China and
India, the world's two biggest markets of such
services, industry officials said.
But, even if Asia is the world's largest broad-
band market in terms of absolute numbers, it
lags the United States and Europe in overall
penetration, with just 3.6 out of every 100 inhab-
itants connected to the high-speed Internet, the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
said in a report.
The ITU, which groups companies and offi-
cial bodies from 191 countries, held an industrial
conference in Bangkok.
The Asia Pacific region has about 1.4 billion
mobile phone subscribers, representing 42 per
cent of the global market, and it is expected to
exceed 50 per cent within the next two years,
Hamadoun Toure, ITU Secretary-General said.
India and China combined have total cell
phone subscribers of about 900 million, account-
Giving every home or business its own dedicated cable is the
most expensive option, said the BSG, and could cost up to
£28.8bn. But, it would mean each home would get up to
1Gbps
he cost of taking fibre-based broadband to
T every UK home could top £28.8 billion,
says a report. Compiled by the govern-
ment's broadband advisory group, the report
details the cost of the different ways to wire the
UK for next generation broadband.
Another option, to take the fibres to street-
level boxes, would only cost £5.1bn. Big differ-
ences in the cost of updating urban and rural
net access will pose difficult choices, says the re-
port.
In a statement Antony Walker, Chief Execu-
tive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group which
drew up the report, said: "The scale of the costs
involved means that the transition to supper-
84
fast broadband will be challenging."
ing for a quarter of the world total. "Every
month, India adds 9 million new subscribers and
more, which is higher than China. We hope the
excitement will continue," said N.K. Goyal, pres-
ident of consultant group Communications and
Manufacturing Association of India.
But if India is the world's fastest-growing
mobile phone market with nearly 300 million
subscribers, only 11 million people in the coun-
try have access to the Internet. While developed
markets like South Korea and Singapore are
among the world's top 10 economies for house-
hold broadband access, most of the low - and
lower-middle-income economies in the Asia Pa-
cific region have limited and costly access to In-
ternet.
"Despite Asia's reputation as an ICT (Infor-
mation and Communication Technologies) pow-
erhouse, many countries in the region are still
struggling to connect their communities to af-
fordable basic services," Toure said.
Developing countries in Asia should speed
"We hope that this report will help to ensure
an informed public debate on the key policy
and regulatory decisions that lie ahead," he
said.
The BSG report looks at the three most likely
options for using fibre to boost the speed of the
UK's broadband networks. The cheapest option,
at £5.1 billion, is to take fibre only to the famil-
iar street-level cabinets that act as a connection
point between homes and exchanges. Beyond
the cabinet to the home existing copper cables
would be used. The BSG estimates that this sys-
tem would permit speeds of 30-100 Megabits
per second (Mbps).
The other two options involve taking fibre to
homes via a shared or dedicated cable.
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up plans to develop high-speed broadband In-
ternet access, including making spectrum avail-
able and creating investment incentives, the
report said.
To serve growing demand for mobile data
services, which is driven by things like smart
phones and embedded laptops, operators are fo-
cusing on new ways to boost value-added serv-
ices. Wang Jianzhou, chairman and CEO of
China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier,
said his company was banking on the develop-
ment of new-generation wireless technologies
such as long term evolution (LTE), which prom-
ises to speed up everything from mobile video
sharing to music downloads.
Over a third of China Mobile users use their
handsets to listen to music, much higher than in
the US, Britain, France and Germany, the ITU re-
port said. "Surely it is Asian operators who will
be among the first to exploit the technological
potential of LTE, translating it into real-world
services, revenues and customer numbers," said
Jean-Pierre Bienaime, chairman of UMTS
Forum, an organisation aimed to
promote the uptake of advanced mobile
technology.

The BSG puts a £25.5 billion price tag on the
shared option which would see a small number
of homes sharing the 2.5 Gigabits per second ca-
pacity of each line.
Giving every home or business its own dedi-
cated cable is the most expensive option, said
the BSG, and could cost up to £28.8 billion. But
it would mean each home would get up to
1Gbps.
But, warned the report, even these relatively
simple choices conceal stark differences in the
cost of taking fibre to different parts of the
country. For instance, it said that the high price
of the cheapest option for fibre is already far
higher than the amount telecoms firms have al-
ready spent cabling up the UK. Also, it noted,
taking fibre to homes in rural areas costs dispro-
portionate amounts of money - essentially the
more isolated a home the more it costs to take
fibre to it.
The BSG estimates that getting fibre to the
cabinets near the first 58 per cent of households
could cost about £1.9 billion. The next 26 per
cent would cost about £1.4 billion and the final
16 per cent would cost £1.8 billion.
The disparity in costs meant the UK faced
some tough choices, said Mr Walker. However,
he added, enthusiasm for the take-up of broad-
band could make taking it to rural areas more
palatable for telecoms firms.
"If operators could achieve a higher level of
take-up in rural areas than we have predicted in
our study, then the business case for deploy-
ment in those areas could improve
significantly", said Mr Walker.

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Mumbai: Jim Balsillie, Co-Chief Executive

officer of RIM, poses with a huge replica Cologne: A model presents Canon's new Ixus 980 IS camera during a press preview
of Blackberry Bold phone during its of the Photokina trade fair for the photographic and imaging sector on September 22,
launch in Mumbai on September 18, 2008. 2008 in Cologne, western Germany.

Tokyo: Models display Japan's camera giant Canon's new high-performance

compact camera "Powershot G10", equipped with a 14.7 mega-pixel CCD
image sensor and Pixus inkjet printers on September 17, 2008. Manaus: Brazilian tetraplegic Maria do Socorro Ferreira talks with
students as she types a message on the screen of a laptop through
cables connected to her face using an "ocular mouse" on September 12, 2008.

Tokyo: An employee for Japanese electronics giant Sony displays the com-
pany's new digital audio player 'Walkman NW-S series" and its detachable
stereo speaker system, which also enables a user to recharge the Walkman's
built-in battery on September 11, 2008.
Dhaka: A Bangladeshi man takes pictures with his cell phone as
Muslims offer "Eid al-Fitr" prayers outside Baitul Mukarram
National Mosque on October 2, 2008.
85

InsighT Khawar Shahzad
Some companies are working to control network access and use of devices such as
USBs, iPods and PDAs against the data theft
t has been observed in recent years that the
I ratio of customer data theft is rising glob-
ally. Customers provide their original infor-
mation with absolute reliability to various
operators but such incidents are increasing dis-
trust among customers due to heavy credit loss
and moral threats.
South Korean police arrested four people
over the theft of data on 11 million customers
of a local oil refiner in what is being called the
country's largest-ever data leak. The four, in-
cluding two employees of a subsidiary of re-
finer GS Caltex are accused of violating laws on
protecting personal information online. Police
had been hunting the suspects after a CD and
DVD containing the names, social security
numbers and email addresses of 11 million GS
Caltex customers were found in piles of
garbage.
Investigators informed that one of the sus-
pects had exposed the leak to media in a pub-
licity campaign aimed at boosting the market
value of the data. Customer information is
often illegally traded online or offline for com-
mercial purposes. Security experts warn that
such leaked data can also be used for criminal
purposes. Those GS Caltex customers whose in-
formation was divulged include high-ranking
government officials, lawmakers and big-name
politicians.
Police alleged a, 28 years old, man identified
by his family name Jeong of a GS Caltex-run
call centre who had stolen the customer infor-
mation from the firm's database and made six
copies on CDs and DVDs. One female GS Cal-
86
Data of 10.8 million users
of Internet Auction, a
South Korean unit
affiliated with US online
auction house eBay, were
hacked online. A similar
hacking case recently
occurred at local mobile
carrier LG Telecom
tex employee and two of Jeong's friends helped
him in committing the crime. The case comes as
the country is still reeling from the shock of
similar cases involving hackers or businessmen.
Data on 10.8 million users of Internet Auc-
tion, a South Korean unit affiliated with US on-
line auction house eBay, were hacked online. A
similar hacking case occurred at local mobile
carrier LG Telecom recently. Hanarotelecom, a
local fixed-line operator, faces a class-action
lawsuit after its former chief was found to have
sold the private information of six million users
to telemarketers.
In America the Department of Justice has
charged 11 people with the theft of millions of
account numbers from a long list of US big box
retailers including TJ Maxx, OfficeMax, Barnes
and Noble, Boston Market, BJ's Wholesale Club,
Forever 21, DSW, Dave & Buster's and Sports
Authority. Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez was the
ringleader, according to the indictments, which
were unsealed in San Diego and Boston. He is
being held in New York on charges of com-
puter fraud, wire fraud, access-device fraud,
aggravated identity theft and conspiracy -- a
roll call of crimes that could net his life in
prison if he has convicted. Others named in the
indictment include three Americans, three
Ukrainians, two Chinese nationals and two
Eastern Europeans from Belarus and Estonia.
The account information was sold to other
criminals who were able to cash tens of millions
of dollars, according to the indictments. Banks
in Eastern Europe allegedly laundered the
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money. The activities attributed to this group
are at the center of the largest and most com-
plex identity theft case ever built in the US, ac-
cording to the prosecutors.
Some companies are working to control net-
work access and use of devices such as USBs,
iPods and PDAs against data theft. The prolif-
eration of consumer devices such as iPods, USB
drivers, smart phones and other portable de-
vices has increased the risk of data leakage and
malicious activity on networks. While most
companies have anti-virus software, firewalls,
email and web content security to protect
against external threats, few realise how easy it
is for an employee to copy huge amounts of
sensitive data on an iPod or USB stick. There is
also risk of viruses or malware and illegal soft-
ware being introduced on the network. One
way to prevent this from happening is to lock
down all ports but this is neither sustainable
nor advised. Prevent data theft and virus
infection from within with endpoint secu-
rity software. Unfortunately, many businesses
are unaware or ignorant of the threat until
something actually happens. According to re-
search conducted by eMedia on behalf of GFI in
the US, few medium-sized businesses consider
portable storage devices to be a major threat
while fewer than 20 per cent had implemented
software to address this risk. The key to manag-
ing portable device use is to install an endpoint
security solution that gives administrators con-
trol over what devices are in use, have been
used and by whom and in-depth knowledge of
what data has been copied.

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Tokyo: A model from Japan's electronics giant

Matsushita Electric Industrial displays a new
lightweight notebook computer called "Let's Tokyo: A model displays Japanese electronics giant Toshiba's new DVD recorder
note F8" on September 25, 2008. "Vardia RD-X8" to enjoy current DVD in high picture quality on September 18, 2008.

Contemporary business people efficiently working in the office.

Basra: Umm Amir fixes a television set in a room of her home which she has
turned into a workshop. Following the US-led invasion of Iraq and the poor
economic climate, she turned her hobby into a business.

Tokyo: A model displays Canadian electronics maker Research In Tokyo: Models display Japan's camera giant Canon's new high-per-
Motion's BlackBerry Bold smart phone on September 29, 2008. The formance compact camera "Powershot G10", equipped with a 14.7
new BlackBerry will be launched in Japan early 2009. mega-pixel CCD image sensor and Pixus inkjet printers.
87

Synopsis National
Diamond Drum Washing Machine of Samsung
Pakistan: Samsung Elec-
tronics has launched its high-
end, top loading washing
machine with New Diamond
Drum. This year’s PD 2 series
has emphasized on its luxuri-
ous design with Samsung’s
unique Diamond Drum cou-
pled with variety of colour
and the user-friendly options;
door handle and the slanted
control panel has minimized
CDA yet to take action
against illegal phone towers
Islamabad: The capital de-
velopment authority (CDA)
gets reluctant to take action
against cell phone towers on
rooftops posing threat to
human lives or installed with-
out prior permission and se-
curity measures.
Earlier, the Authority had
planned to launch drive
against unauthorised cell
phone towers. "We have
pointed out around 65 base
transceiver stations (BTS)
towers and the authority de-
cided to take action against
them as they were not con-
forming to the CDA by-laws,"
said a senior CDA official.
According to new policy no
tower would be installed on
PSEB conducts RHCE
training programme
Islamabad: Pakistan Soft-
ware Export Board (PSEB)
has conducted Red Hat Cer-
tified Engineer (RHCE)
training programme for in-
formation technology (IT)
professionals of leading
public and private IT com-
panies. Thirty IT profession-
als participated in this
nine-day training held in Is-
lamabad, Lahore and
Karachi, which was organ-
ised free of cost under the
PSEB's project Open Source
Resource Centre (OSRC).
The programme aimed at
convincing the companies,
private organisations, insti-
tutes and small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) to mi-
grate to a more cost-effective
open source-working envi-
ronment.
Participants of the training
programme included indus-
88
user’s discomfort when using
the washing machine. Apart
from that, for the convenience
and safety of the consumers
Samsung provides all the
possible functions that wash-
ing machine can have; strong
glass door, Air turbo function
that shortens dehydrating pe-
riod and Magic Filter with
higher lint correction rate
which will open new era of
the rooftop or in the open
plot. Contrary to the CDA by-
laws, a large number of such
towers are seen on the
rooftops putting people and
structure at risk. When con-
tacted the spokesperson of a
cell phone company, he said
no tower had been set up
without prior approval from
the CDA.
try's experienced IT person-
nel, network and system ad-
ministrators, IT managers,
telecom industry network
engineers, IT consultants
and experienced profession-
als working in a
Linux/UNIX environment
with IT companies in Pak-
istan, PSEB spokesman said
in a statement.
Motorola introduces adaptive media management
Islamabad: Motorola, Inc. an-
nounced enhancements to its
on demand portfolio that lever-
age adaptive media manage-
ment (AMM). AMM is a
technology framework that cre-
ates a flexible, cost-effective
platform for the delivery of on
demand services including
video on demand (VOD), time-
shifted television and on de-
premium washing machine.
“Samsung’s exclusive AG
plus Technology releases sil-
ver ions into the washing
cycle to sanitize the clothes. It
will save energy and protect
the fabric because its silver
ions have antimicrobial prop-
erties makes sanitizing possi-
ble even in cold water” said
Mr. Baber kazmi of Samsung
Electronics.
100 call centres
submit IP
gateway
Karachi: As many as 100
call centres of various cities
of the country have submit-
ted their details of internet
protocol (IP) and gateway
addresses to Pakistan Tele-
com Authority (PTA) that
are being utilised for their
local and international op-
erations, industry sources.
According to the sources,
PTA has assured that it
would provide uninter-
rupted communication
services through legalised
operations of call centres
that submitted their details.
On the other hand, it would
take possible action against
call centres that are misus-
ing bandwidth and other
telephone services in the
country instead of call cen-
tre business, they added.
The submission of the de-
tails was the part of the na-
tionwide campaign that the
PTA had kicked off last
month on August 27 as a
nationwide collaboration
with Pakistan Software Ex-
port Board (PSEB). Abdul-
lah Butt, President
Association of Call Centre
Operators (ACCO) Pakistan
said that this step would
improve the regulation of
call centres in the country.
mand advertising.
The platform enables Mo-
torola's video service provider
(VSP) customers to adapt rap-
idly to changing content usage
patterns while optimizing stor-
age, streaming and network
costs. Subscribers will benefit
from increased content choice
and greater service reliability.
On demand content libraries
Free Download
Warid updates Wzone
Karachi: Warid Telecom has
launched in collaboration
with AMES (Arvato Middle
East Sales, a Bertelsmann
Company), the biggest enter-
tainment and digital media
portal in Pakistan, which will
be accessible to Warid cus-
tomers through the phone
and on the Web.
Warid Telecom updated its
content portfolio by offering
250 mobile games that are
compatible with more than
500 different types of hand-
USF to provide subsidies
on broadband firms
Karachi: In order to pace
up the proliferation of broad-
band service in the country,
Universal Service Funds
(USF) Pakistan will provide
subsidies to the selected serv-
ice providers.
According to details, the
subsidy would be deter-
mined through open auction
in October by USF with the
participation of leading serv-
ice providers. This would be
followed by signing of con-
tracts with those who are
willing to establish - and run
CCPO holds meeting with
cellular phone companies
Karachi: The indiscrimi-
nate use of mobile SIMs, ob-
tained in fake names, in acts
of terrorism, kidnapping for
ransom and other heinous
crimes came under discus-
sion at a meeting of CCPO
Karachi Waseem Ahmed
with regional heads of cellu-
lar phone companies, re-
gional directors PTA and
CPLC.
DIGs Investigation and
CID and SP Anti-Violent
Crime were also present. It
are rapidly expanding as VSPs
seek to gain competitive advan-
tage by offering consumers
greater choice in VOD content
and time-shifted TV experi-
ences. At the same time, in-
creased customer choice means
that viewer-ship is more widely
distributed and traditional con-
currency rules no longer apply.
Rather than a 'one-size-fits-
www.
flare.
com.pk
sets. These exciting games are
constantly updated and are
related to the genres of Ac-
tion, Arcade, Puzzle, Racing,
Shooting, Sports, Strategy
and much more.
Zem Mobile Games have
gone the extra mile since
users are ensured compatibil-
ity by sending an SMS to
“200” mentioning their model
and make to receive a list of
games that is relevant to their
handset.
- such enabling platforms
against that subsidy.
The actual payment of sub-
sidies (except 20 per cent ad-
vances) would be made only
after the necessary infrastruc-
ture has been set up and sub-
scribers have been signed on
(in steps of 25 per cent). The
idea is to pay subsidies to
those serious service
providers who demonstrate
their seriousness and not just
by setting up but also by op-
erating the necessary infra-
structure and systems.
was pointed out that in case
if any unauthentic or
unidentified SIM is used in
the commissioning of a
crime or it was found that
the company or dealer had
issued a SIM in a fake name
in violation of laid down
rules and regulations, legal
action will be taken against
them. All the mobile tele-
phone companies were di-
rected to provide all kind of
mobile phone related infor-
mation directly to police.
all' approach to managing and
storing content, Motorola's
AMM proactively and reac-
tively manages the placement
of content within the network
and identifies and assigns the
most effective streaming and
storage technology (DRAM,
Flash, Disk and network at-
tached storage (NAS) / storage
area networks (SAN)).
 www.
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com.pk Free Download National Synopsis

Pacra removes Worldcall from Rating Watch Long Distance

Karachi: The Pakistan Credit Rating
Agency (Pacra) has removed the entity
and TFC ratings of Worldcall Telecom
Limited (WTL) from the Rating Watch.
Pacra reaffirms the long-term and
short-term ratings of "A+" (Single A
Plus) and "A1" (A One) for the entity
and "AA-" (Double A Minus) for the
TFCs.
Nokia N96 offers person-
alised Internet experience
The removal from the Rating Watch
follows the successful completion of
acquisition of majority stake in WTL by
Oman Telecom. WTL, a 56.8 per cent
owned subsidiary of UT, is a fully inte-
grated communication service
provider offering telecom services na-
tion-wide, while broadband services
are operational in Karachi and Lahore.
Motorola introduces
The company is listed on Karachi and
Lahore Stock Exchanges.
OT, majority owned by Government
of the Sultanate of Oman, is the sole li-
censed operator of fixed phone and In-
ternet services in the Sultanate of
Oman. The company also offers mobile
telecom services. OT is listed on Mus-
cat Securities Market.-PR
Operators join
PTA
Islamabad: Long Distance
and International (LDI) op-
erators have agreed to set
up a system jointly at PTA
for Reconciliation of Inter-
national Telephony Traffic
(RITT). This decision was
taken in a meeting held at
PTA Headquarters,
presided over by PTA
Chairman Dr Mohammed
Yaseen.

Karachi: Nokia an- gaming and a 2.8 display,

nounced the availability of
Nokia N96, its flagship
multimedia computer in
the iconic Nokia Nseries
range. It boasts live TV, 5
megapixel camera with
Carl Zeiss optics, turn-by-
turn voice navigation,
16GB of internal memory
that can be increased to
24GB with an optional mi-
croSD card, superior
sound and music, N-Gage
LG incorporates
Dolby mobile
Karachi: Breaking new
ground in mobile entertain-
ment, LG Electronics, a
world-wide technology and
design leader in mobile
communications, and
Dolby Laboratories, Inc an-
nounced that LG would be
the first handset maker to
incorporate Dolby mobile
into handsets bound for the
global market.
The companies signed an
agreement that grants LG a
licence to embed Dolby
mobile Technology into its
handsets. Dolby mobile is
an audio processing tech-
nology plat-form designed
to deliver rich, vibrant
audio and dramatically im-
prove listening enjoyment.
Built on Dolby's extensive
portfolio of technologies,
Dolby mobile has been op-
timised for mobile applica-
tions.
"Being the first company
to incorporate Dolby mo-
bile technology into hand-
sets for the global market
reinforces LG's role as a
leader in the mobile indus-
try and in multimedia
says a statement of the or-
ganisation.
Voice guided turn-by-
turn navigation for walk-
ing or driving along with
the new City Guides that
offer a great way to ex-
plore undiscovered places.
It is even possible to up-
load and share person-
alised journeys, favourite
places and great new finds
online.
phones," said Dr Skott Ahn,
President and CEO of LG
Electronics Mobile Com-
munications Company.
"We believe this technol-
ogy will raise the bar for
audio quality on multime-
dia phones and expect
Dolby mobile to help us
create a new trend in the
mobile phone industry."
Ahn added.
7400 series Intel processors launched
Karachi: Seven 45 anome-
ter manufactured processor
7400 series products
launched by the Intel Cor-
poration. Intel Corporation
has extended its lead in the
high-end server segment,
setting new standards in
virtualization performance.
It said that with up to six
processing cores per chip
and 16MB of shared cache
memory, applications built
for virtualized environ-
ments and data demanding
workloads, such as data-
bases, business intelligence,
enterprise resource plan-
three new devices
Islamabad: Motorola in-
troduced its three new de-
vices for everyday
communication with W156,
W270, and W388 which are
inspired by the vision of de-
livering Motorola's high-tier
style and innovation at an
affordable price point. W156
and W388 is candy bar de-
signed and W270 a
clamshell handset, featuring
excellent battery life, allow-
ing more standby and talk
time between changes. Mo-
torola's proprietary Crys-
talTalk TM Technology,
which automatically adjusts
ning and server consolida-
tion, experience dramatic
performance increases of al-
most 50 per cent in some
cases.
The statement further
pointed out that the plat-
forms based on these
processors can scale up to 16
processor sockets to deliver
servers with up to 96 pro-
cessing cores inside, offering
tremendous scalability,
ample computing threads,
extensive memory resources
and uncompromising relia-
bility for enterprise data
centres.
audio to ensure clear calls
even in noisy environments,
is featured on all the three
W-Series handset and was
previously found only on
Motorola's premier hand-
sets.
With an intuitive user in-
terface, large display and
sleek keypad, the W156,
W270 and W388 are ex-
tremely easy to use. The
handsets feature all the tools
consumers need to stay con-
nected, including Fm radio
on W270 and W388 and Mo-
torola's CrystalTalk Tech-
nology on all three.
'This new processor series
helps IT manage increas-
ingly complex enterprise
server environments, pro-
viding a great opportunity
to boost the scalable per-
formance of multi-threaded
applications within a stable
platform infrastructure.
With new features such as
additional cores, large
shared caches and advanced
virtualization technologies,
the Xeon 7400 series delivers
record-breaking perform-
ance that will lead enter-
prises into the next wave of
virtualization deployments'.
It was decided that the
funding of Phase 1(a) of the
RITT System would be
done based upon the inter-
national incoming traffic
share of each LDI for the
months of April, May and
June, 2008. The funding of
subsequent phases would
be done by calculating run-
ning average of interna-
tional incoming traffic
starting from April 2008
and extending up to the
month when the share is
being calculated for new
contract. The Letter of In-
tent (LOI) for the expansion
project of technical facility
to curb grey telephony
would be issued by PTCL
being the consortium head.
The contract for the project
would be signed by PTCL
or jointly by all LDI opera-
tors whichever is decided
amongst themselves.
PTA building
damaged due to
Marriott Hotel blast
Islamabad:The powerful
bomb blast at Marriott hotel
has caused huge damages to
Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority building. The win-
dow pans and false ceilings
of the PTA building, located
near the Marriott Hotel were
badly affected. The main en-
trance of the building, win-
dows, doors and fixture of
five floors have been dam-
aged. Despite the widespread
damage, luckily no employee
of PTA was injured as only
security staff was present
outside the building at the
time of blast. Chairman PTA
Dr Mohammed Yaseen vis-
ited the building and super-
vised the rehabilitation work,
which could take weeks to
complete.

89
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USF signs contract with PFFB

Islamabad: Universal
Service Fund (USF) signed a
contract of its Special Proj-
ect with Pakistan Founda-
tion Fighting Blindness
(PFFB) to ‘enable persons
with disabilities to use tele-
com services’ which aims to
increase accessibility of IT
and telecom for people with
vision disability. Ms Saima
Ammar, CEO PFFB and
Parvez Iftikhar, CEO USF
signed the contract.
The main objective of this
project, worth Rs 6.2 mil-
lion, is providing education,
computing skills, livelihood
skills and employment.
Through this programme,
activities like digitalisation
of Local Audio World Li-
brary and expansion of as-
sessable internet cafe for
blind at PFFB Headquarters
will be carried out. More-
over, this initiative will en-
hance the social
development, through ICTs,
for the persons with disabil-
ities and integrate them
fully as productive elements Islamabad: Parvez Iftikhar CEO USF and Saima Ammar
in the society. sign the contract.

PTA directed to ban sale of pre-active SIMs Tariq PTCL reconnects in 30 minutes
Islamabad: A Sub-Com-
mittee of Senate Standing
with Ministry of Informa-
tion Technology and suggest
Gulzar Karachi: Pakistan their bills at PTCL One
Committee on Interior di- an amendment in the re- elecommunication Com- Step Shop at Clifton, Gul-
rected the Pakistan Telecom- spective law so that the appoints as pany Limited (PTCL) has shan-e-Iqbal and Naz-
munication Authority (PTA) practice could permanently introduced Line Restora- imabad, PTCL Revenue
to stop the sale of pre-acti-
vated mobile SIMs by cellu-
be stopped.
The Committee gave two
CFO Warid tion through e-collection Offices (Defense & Karachi
Lahore: The Board of Direc- information processing Airport) and Ufone fran-
lar companies. weeks to PTA to inform the service. This exclusive fa- chises and Customer Care
tors and management of
The Committee presided Committee how the sale of cility will allow PTCL cus- Centers. From 15th Octo-
Warid Telecom have ap-
by Senator Talha Mehmood pre-activated SIMs can be
pointed Tariq Gulzar as Chief tomers to get their ber 2008, payments can
asked PTA to coordinate stopped.
Financial Officer (CFO) of numbers restored within also be made at all HBL
Warid Telecom Pakistan. 30 minutes after paying online branches of Karachi.
Mobilink and friends mourn his death
Tariq Gulzar has a combined
and share the sorrow and
CFO died grief of the poor family," said
Omar Manzur, Director Pub-
professional and industry
background gained from over
17 years experience in assur-
Francis Gurry becomes
in Marriott lic Relations Marketing Mo-
blast bilink Pakistan. Tariq Fouda,
an Egyptian by origin and in
ance, internal audit, account-
ing, risk management and
general consulting in telecom-
Wipo director general
The body of Tariq Fouda his early 40s, was recently ap-
munication, media and tech-
Chief Financial Officer Mo- pointed in Pakistan. The nology industries. This Karachi: The General As- growing demand for
bilink Pakistan, who died in body of the deceased was experience has been earned sembly of the world intel- patent services around the
Marriott Hotel blast, has identified by his brother Wael lectual property world, as well as the need
primarily in Europe and
been recovered and sent to who had specially arrived North America with major organisation (Wipo) ap- to examine the future of
Egypt. "The body of Tariq here to confirm the identifica- pointed Francis Gurry, as copyright in a rapidly
multinationals and consulting
Fouda is en-route to Egypt tion of the body of the Mo-
houses. He is a Fellow Char- Wipo Director General for evolving business and
now. All of his colleagues bilink official.
tered Accountant, a Certified a six year term. A Wipo technological environ-
Public Accountant from Col-
Work on first IT Park at orado, USA and also a Certi-
fied Internal Auditor from
communication said the
term of Director General
elect begins on October 1
ment.
Charles Gurry referred
to the need for reflection

SSUET starts New York. His last assign-

Karachi: Work has started
on the setting up of Pakistan's
first Information Technology
Park to be constructed on 200
acres of Sir Syed University of
Engineering and Technology
(SSUET) in the Education
City.
The progress of the gigantic
project was reviewed in detail
at a meeting held under the
chairmanship of SSUET
Chancellor Z.A. Nizami.
Yahya Waliullah, a former
Provincial Secretary IT and
Planning and Development is
appointed as Project Director
for IT Park project. The meet-
ing was informed that feasi-
bility of the project has been
completed and now the cost-
ing involved is being revised.
Nizami told that the work is
in full swing and Master Plan
being prepared. He said that
under-ground sweet water
had been explored at a depth
of 560 feet while tree planta-
tion is being carried out at a
fast pace. He informed that
necessary allocation for the
project for fiscal 2008-09 has
been made in the budget.
Marriott blast destroyed 90% of IT industry: PCA
Islamabad: About 90 per
cent of Pakistan’s IT indus-
try has been completely de-
stroyed at the Evacuee
Trust Building following
suicide bombing at Marriott
Hotel, reflecting total col-
lapse of the computer in-
ment was General Manager
Audit, Risk & Corporate Gov-
ernance Division with Warid
Telecom. The various senior
level positions he has held
prior to joining Warid Tele-
com include Assistant Vice
President in the Risk & Regu-
latory Advisory practice of
(PwC), Canada.
dustry.
Pakistan Computer Asso-
ciation (PCA) disclosed that
most of the leading com-
puter companies and soft-
ware houses were operating
at the Evacuee Trust Build-
ing, which has been de-
and runs through Septem-
ber 2014. In his acceptance
speech, Francis Gurry out-
lined his priorities for the
future and committed to
the strategic realignment
of the organisation. In par-
ticular, he addressed the
challenge of finding an ef-
fective response to the
clared dangerous. Resul-
tantly, not a single company
is saved from the deadly
bomb blast in Islamabad.
President PCA, Munawar
Iqbal opined that many of
the IT professionals have
lost their lives and every
on the appropriate role of
Wipo in addressing the es-
calating problems of trade
in counterfeit and pirated
goods, which according to
one estimate exceeds 200
billion dollars. Gurry un-
derlined the importance of
broadening the intellectual
property system.
single IT-related set up in
the building has been de-
stroyed completely. He
urged the government to
immediately help out the
industry so that the hapless
effectees of the incident
may be able to

90
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Customers decry PTCL apathy
Bahawalpur: Hundreds of
customers of the Pakistan
Telecommunication Com-
pany Limited (PTCL) are in
trouble because their land-
lines are dead from many
days.
It is learnt that scores of
telephone lines were dam-
Un-updated President website
Islamabad: Former Presi-
dent Pervez Musharraf
launched his own website
on government expenses,
aimed at giving the world
more information about the
man and his policies. The
people were able to send
their questions or complain
directly to the president,
and wherever applicable,
they will be sent responses
through email.
But after the resignation
of Musharraf, the website
http://www.presidentof-
USF signs Telenor for
rural telephony
Islamabad: Universal
Service Fund and Telenor
have entered in a contract to
provide basic telephony and
data services to the popula-
tion in the yet un-served
areas of Bahawalpur Lot,
consisting of identified areas
in Bahawalnagar, Ba-
hawalpur and Rahimyar
Khan. The contract signed
between Telenor and USF
aged when the contractors
hired by the tehsil munici-
pal administration (TMA)
were digging streets and
roads in Satellite Town and
20 adjacent localities to lay
new water supply lines.
PTCL customers say they
registered complaints with
pakistan.gov.pk is not up-
dated up till now.
When President and Co-
Chairman of Pakistan Peo-
ples Party, Asif Ali Zardari
took oath as the President
of Islamic Republic of Pak-
istan on September 9, 2008
this website did not func-
tion properly. It is interest-
ing to know that there is no
picture of present President
on the website after the
elapsed of more than a
month where most links are
dead on the official pages.
marks the launching of new
telecom services to be pro-
vided by Telenor in the
above mentioned areas.
Chief Executive Officer Te-
lenor, Jon Eddy Abdullah
and Chief Executive Officer
USF, Parvez Iftikhar signed
the contract. Telenor and
USF have also signed con-
tract of the project for
Malakand Lot earlier.
the authorities several
times, but to no avail. Dur-
ing a visit to the PTCL com-
plaint office in Satellite
Town, this correspondent
saw dozens of complainants
grumbling about the poor
performance of the PTCL
field staff. They said that
10.5m blocked SIMs
Chairman PTA Dr Mo-
hammed Yaseen presided
over a high-level meeting of
chief executive officers of
all mobile companies to dis-
cuss the progress of differ-
ent deadlines given by PTA
for blocking of unregistered
SIMs, blocking of more than
10 connections on one
CNIC and on the proposed
project for "activation of
SIMs after verification".
The meeting was in-
FIA to trace
fictitious
messages
Islamabad: Interior Advisor
Mr Rehman Malik has di-
rected the cyber wing of fed-
eral investigation agency (FIA)
to trace out the originators of
fictitious e-mails and SMS,
sent to people. Such messages
are aimed at launching vilifi-
cation campaign for the char-
acter assassination of the
politicians and senior leaders.
The directive given by the In-
terior Advisor to the investiga-
tion agency will help initiate
immediate action against the
culprits, indulged in the smear
campaign against the political
leadership of the country.
Telenor again leads the DJSI
Islamabad: Telenor has been
ranked first in the Dow Jones
sustainability indexes (DJSI)
second time in a row. The
ranking marked Telenor as the
industry leader among 17
leading global mobile telecom-
munications companies.
In the DJSI ranking, Telenor
achieved top scores for Digital
Inclusion and Climate Strat-
National
PTCL officials should have
taken up the issue with
TMA officials to regulate
the digging.
SDO Abdul Jabbar said
landlines would be restored
after completion of work
that had been initiated by
TMA contractors.
formed that after consider-
able efforts total 10.5 mil-
lion connections have been
blocked so far. SOP on veri-
fication also binds the mo-
bile companies to block
more than 10 connections
against single CNIC.
Mobile companies were
asked to block additional
connections by September
30, 2008. Up till now 2.6
million of extra connections
have been blocked.
Instaphone struck in
cut throat troubles
Instaphone had defaults on
its licence fee of $291 million
that were being relaxed by
PTA to let Instaphone acquire
some investment support. The
chances are that the company
may wind up. The overall situ-
ation in the company is pa-
thetic: the workforce has
become demoralised as em-
ployees are not getting
salaries, many have left In-
staphone. A few officials in the
top management of Arfeen
Group and of course the CEO
of Insta messed up.
SK Telecom was serious in
investing in Insta but the deal
was lingered by the top man-
egy. Telenor is focused on pro-
viding state-of-the-art prod-
ucts and services as well as
ensuring a constantly improv-
ing commitment level towards
the company's corporate re-
sponsibility performance
across the Group.
DJSI annually analyzes sus-
tainability trends and per-
formance of companies
Synopsis
Motorola
signs contract
Karachi: Motorola an-
nounced that it has signed a
multi-year WiMAX contract
with wi-tribe Pakistan lim-
ited, the all-new wireless
broadband Internet provider
to enter the country. Mo-
torola will supply infrastruc-
ture and a comprehensive
services package that will en-
able ‘cost-effective, com-
pelling wireless broadband
services' for wi-tribe's cus-
tomers.
Motorola will begin de-
ploying wi-tribe's WiMAX
network from this month in
the 3.5GHz spectrum. Com-
mercial launch is expected
during 2009. Motorola will
supply award-winning
equipment from its WiMAX
portfolio including the WAP
400 WiMAX access point,
which features diversity
MIMO antenna capabilities
to enable strong indoor pene-
tration.
agement for three years for
nothing. Now no investor is
ready to invest in Insta. Be-
sides it has become impossible
to compete with the cellular
companies like Warid, Te-
lenor, Mobilink, Ufone and
Zong. The service of Insta in
terms of quality has deterio-
rated considerably to an
alarming level. In most of the
cities the services are sus-
pended.
Instaphone had been loosing
since ever. PTA figures for No-
vember 2007 show Instaphone
at 329,743 subscribers or just
0.44 per cent of the current cel-
lular subscriber base.
worldwide based on 98 in-
depth questions on economic,
social and environmental as-
pects of sustainability. This is
the world's most comprehen-
sive annual analysis of sus-
tainability trends and
corporate sustainability per-
formance. The research is
based on extensive internal
and external documentation.
91
 www.
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Mobile subscribers only grow 0.3% in August LG and Conergy sign MoU
Islamabad: LG Electronics this deal its extensive R&D
Karachi: The rate of new cellular phone sub- this sector expanded by 1.4 per cent in July and Conergy AG signed a knowledge, including several
scribers witnessed slack in August 2008 de- with 1.3 million new users. memorandum of under- years of R&D in various pho-
spite increasing competition among the Telecom analysts believe that cellular phone standing to form a joint ven- tovoltaic technologies. LG
operators. They added only 0.2 million connec- companies have captured the active chunk of ture in the solar module will also leverage its leading
tions. PTA statistics reported that the cellular Pakistani market that slightly slowed down manufacturing business. LG expertise in mass manufac-
phone operators sold out only 238,364 connec- their penetration in the big cities. However, would acquire a 75 per cent turing from similar industries
tions in August, showing only 0.3 per cent companies have chalked out strategies to ex- stake in Cinergy’s solar mod- such as flat panel displays.
growth. In absolute number the total number pand their service in small cities and villages of ule plant in Frankfurt and Conergy will provide the
of mobile phone customers enhanced to reach the country in order to attract more customers. Conergy would retain 25 per joint venture with unparal-
at 89.5 million by the end of August, PTA data The mobile phone tele-density has reached cent. LG and Cinergy project leled access the market
showed. This sluggish growth in cellular sub- 55.60 in August 2008, which was at 15.39 in that their partnership would through its distribution fran-
scribers’ depicted the market’s saturation as 2000. get underway by the end of chise that spans across over
this year. LG will bring to 20 countries.
Motorola Brings Media FBR
Mobility to Life at IBC 2008 modifies Marri emphasis on IT training
of Information officers
Karachi: Motorola will un-
veil its recent advances in
tors to create their own High
Definition (HD) video con- IT rules to Karachi: Sindh Minister for The Minister said that it
delivering rich personal
media experiences through
tent. Visitors will witness
Motorola’s powerful encod- help Information Shazia Marri has
said that the officers of the In-
was essential to enhance tech-
nical skills of officers and offi-
live demonstrations at IBC ing process for themselves formation Department would cials for overall improvement
2008. The Motorola stand as the clips are encoded salaried becomputers
provided with training of
and information
in the functioning of the De-
partment. Their enhanced
will offer visitors the oppor- using the Motorola VODx-
tunity to generate their own change and displayed across taxpayers them to discharge their pro- skills
Technology so as to enable will also be helpful in
provision of better facilities to
video content, and see it the Motorola stand. In addi-
Islamabad: Federal Board fessional duties more effec- the media men, she added.
transformed and moved tion, the MPEG4 HD clips
of Revenue (FBR) has modi- tively. She said this while Marri said that Information
across various screens and will be spliced into live con- addressing the officers of the Department is the most im-
devices. Motorola’s Millen- tent by Motorola’s new fied the Income Tax rules to
Information Department. portant Department of the
nial Generation, the technol- CherryPicker CAP1000 ap- judge the taxability and
The Secretary Information Sindh government as it proj-
ogy-savvy users (ages 16-27) plication platform to seek more information Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi, Di- ects and highlights various
who have grown up with demonstrate how operators about the salaried taxpay- rector General Syed Safdar Ali endeavours and policies an-
the internet and mobile tech- can efficiently insert local ers. As per new format, Shah, Director Press Informa- nounced by the government,
nology, will be inviting visi- ads in their networks . more information regarding tion S. M. Iqbal and Directors from time to time. It also acts
the employee is sought for of various sections of Infor- as facilitator for the media
Adamjee proudly record of the tax depart-
ment in view of the fact that
mation Department were also
present on the occasion.
men in discharging their pro-
fessional duties, she added.
wherever employer’s an-
welcomes Jackson Dean nual statement is filed, em- Petition filed for cellular tower
ployees having no other
Adamjee Diesel Engineering Pakistan
source of income are not re- Karachi: Capital City Police SIMs in crimes of terrorism,
(Pvt.) Ltd, a pioneer and the leading
quired to file their return of Officer (CCPO) Wasim kidnapping for ransom and
company in Generator Supply, having
income. The new format Ahmed asked mobile phone other heinous crimes.
sole distributorship for Perkins & IVECO
also caters to the change in companies to submit data of Cell phone operators were
Engines, has announced the addition of
Jackson Dean to the company. He is the law regarding taxability of issued cell phone SIMs to asked to make their franchis-
latest addition to Adamjee Group where salary income for the facility Sindh Police. Presiding over ers bound to not sell the SIMs
he has taken on the role of National Sales of the employers. a meeting with regional till completion of legal re-
Manager. Adamjee Diesel Engineering is Extension: Federal Board heads of mobile phone com- quirement. It was decided in
part of the Adpower Group, based out of Dubai and Shanghai. of Revenue (FBR) has fur- panies, zonal directors of the meeting that strict action
"We are aggressively recruiting individuals with the kind of ther extended the due date Pakistan Telecommunication would be taken against fran-
drive and expertise that Jackson Dean brings to the group" for the submission of sales Authority, office bearers of chisers who would issue
noted Mishal Adamjee, Executive Director the Adpower Group tax and federal excise return CPLC, DIG Investigation, SIMs on fake names or bogus
and CEO of Adamjee Diesel Engineering. “He brings a broad and special sales tax return DIG CID and SSP Anti-Vio- documents. CCPO asked cell
range of expertise and experience in Sales and the entrepre- for production and supplies lent Crime Cell Karachi, he phone operators to submit
neurial spirit of success that continues to define the culture in for the tax period August expressed his concern over data of SIMs to SSP Anti-Vio-
Adamjee Group.” 2008, up to September 30. use of fake mobile phone lent Karachi.

New Intel High-End Xeon® Server Processors

Karachi: Intel Corpora-
tion has extended its lead
in the high-end server seg-
ment, setting new stan-
dards in virtualization
performance with the
launch of seven 45 nano-
meter manufactured Intel
Xeon Processor 7400 Se-
ries products. With up to
six processing cores per
chip and 16MB of shared
cache memory, applica-
tions built for virtualized
environments and data de-
manding workloads, such
as databases, business in-
telligence, enterprise re-
source planning and server
consolidation, experience
dramatic performance in-
creases of almost 50 per
cent in some cases.
Platforms based
on these processors can
scale up to 16 processor
“sockets” to deliver
servers with up to 96 pro-
cessing cores inside, offer-
ing tremendous scalability,
ample computing threads,
extensive memory re-
sources and uncompromis-
ing reliability for
enterprise data centres.

92
 www.
flare.
com.pk National Telepedia

Optic fiber network saves IT firms Inbox

Islamabad: After Septem- spaces. Within just a few tional. Offices of PRAL, a sales and income tax returns.
wins MS
ber 20 blast the companies
whose offices were exten-
days, most of the companies
including Bentley, Cogilent
subsidiary of the Federal
Board of Revenue (FBR), lo-
Other companies primarily
located in the Evacuee Trust
Enterprise
sively damaged started mak-
ing efforts for relocation.
Solutions, PRAL, LMKR,
Nortel, Prosol Technologies,
cated on the 5th floor of the
Evacuee Trust Complex
Complex are also in the
shifting process. They in- Agreement
With FTTU network spread Ovex Technologies and were badly hit. As a result, clude Pakistan Tobacco
all across Islamabad and Cisco Systems, had moved online tax collection of FBR Company, Kestral, MOL, Inbox has signed the
parts of Rawalpindi, these to their new locations and was stopped for few days Ikanomi, Geopaq, Tria Pak- largest Microsoft Enterprise
companies did not find their facilities were again and the FBR had to extend istan and Avenier Technolo- Agreement in the history of
shortage of desired office fully functional and opera- the deadlines for filing of gies. Pakistan. The $8.4 million
agreement by Inbox Busi-
ness Technologies spans
Sahara Fund launches over three years and in-
cludes MS Enterprise Li-
for Marriott affectees censes as well as other
Daughter of Sadaruddin Hashwani, value-added services. Inbox
Sara Hashwani has launched Hashoo will be providing the li-
Foundation Sahara Fund to provide fi- censes and services to Eti-
nancial support to the families of the salat International
martyred of Marriott hotel's bomb blast. Pakistan's two concerns -
She said people across the world are PTCL and Ufone.
approaching Hashoo Group to con- The decision to award the
tribute in the fund established to sup- project to Inbox Business
port the families of martyred of Marriott Technologies came after a
blasts. "We will be a source for those thorough vendor evaluation
people who wanted to support the af- and bidding process. All
fected families. We will chalk out a com- Microsoft Direct Large Ac-
prehensive plan that how can we make count Resellers (DLARs)
them self-sufficient." participated in the bidding
Sara assured that the Foundation process; however the value-
would visit every month to the families added services offered by
of blast victims to inquire about their Inbox were unrivalled.
needs and will left no stone unturned to
fulfil their requirements. She further
said this fund is not specific for Marriott
PTA asks data
martyred. "The fund will be used for all of excessive
those who have martyred in the Islam- ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN, SEPT 24: Sara Hashwani, daughter of Hasho Group
abad bomb blast irrespective of their af- President, addresses press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, September SIM
filiation or profession.” 24, 2008. (Adil Gill/PPI Photo).
subscribers
NUST accommodates affected Dubai holds Sony Ericsson’s sales Pakistan Telecommunica-
tion Authority (PTA) has di-
software houses Karachi: Sony Ericsson from the company's Mid- rected the cellular
Islamabad: The National moved to Nust School of confirms that Pakistan dle East and Northern companies to provide the
University of Science and Electrical Engineering and continues to be an impor- Africa regional hub office details of subscribers who
Technology (NUST) has of- Computer Science (SEECS) tant market and that, as in Dubai (UAE). This deci- used more than 10 SIMs is-
fered available free space in campus till the recovery of part of its plan to align its sion has resulted in the sued on single ID card till
Nust to the affected software their own infrastructure. operations and resources closure of the Sony Erics- September 25, 2008. It is ex-
industrial partners who suf- Space is available to accom- worldwide, it has decided son office in Pakistan with pected that the Authority
fered in the recent suicide at- modate all willing industrial to manage the sales and effect from September 30, will soon take action against
tack at Marriott Hotel, partners because of semester distribution of its products 2008. the transgressors.
Islamabad. break and availability of labs
According to Nust, the
major software houses were
and classrooms.

located in the Evacuee Trust
Complex adjacent to Mar-
riott Hotel, namely KMKR,
Siemens, Motorola, Mondo,
Geo Paq, Touchstone Com-
munications, Ovex Tech-
nologies, Microsoft,
BrightSpyre, Ministry of IT,
PSEB, Jin Technologies,
Kaptec, Ikonomi, Bentley,
Pral, Inbox, Cisco and Pak-
istan Tobacco, are in a dire
need to shift elsewhere.
Ikonomi, Kaptec and Jin
Technologies have already
Goiva IT infra-
structure by IBM
Karachi: IBM and Godiva
Chocolatier signed a serv-
ices agreement with IBM to
manage Godiva's IT infra-
structure. Through this five
year agreement, IBM will
support Godiva's offices in
the United States, United
Kingdom; Belgium, China
and Japan as well as stores
in North America, Europe,
Japan and the Pacific Rim.
Hundreds of faulty PTCL connections
Islamabad: Hundreds of
the PTCL telephone connec-
tions of Tarlai Kalan Ex-
change are out of order not
only perturbing customers
but also causing heavy fi-
nancial losses to the com-
pany for the last one and a
half year. An official in the
Exchange told that hun-
dreds of connections are not
in working order due to the
cold behaviour of the higher
authorities in rectifying the
fault permanently. "More
than two thousand connec-
tions are got closed as the
customers can not pay for
the lines not being used by
them at all.”
There are more than 250
telephone lines in village
Koral and only 5 or 6 con-
nections are working. The
same situation is in village
Pindori where there are
more than 150 customers
but only 10 are enjoying the
facility while all other con-
nections are faulty. More
than 250 connections are in-
stalled in Village Gangal but
very few are in order and
the situation in other areas is
not different as well, he said.
Meanwhile the customers
have furiously complained
of the attitude of the con-
cerned staff and regretted
that their complaints have
not had any response for
months.

93
 www.
flare.
Telepedia Flare Report Free Download com.pk

Samsung B2100 - mobile SUV PICT imports 12 gantries from China

Karachi: Pakistan Interna- $12 million, while the 10
Pakistan: Samsung Electronics announce covered with polyurethane lateral surfaces, tional Container Terminal RTGs costing around $1.25
its first SUV, Samsung B2100 Mobile. Users which will protect the unit from falling, and (PICT) imported 12 gantries million each. The PICT had
of mobile telephony have a lot of those who other mechanical damage. There's also a from China at a cost of $24.5 made a huge investment of
love an active lifestyle and are often chosen protection against dust and moisture that million to enhance its cargo $25 million to enhance its
for the competition, traveling, where condi- will be useful for active recreation and work handling capacity. According cargo handling capacity from
tions are close to the extreme and must have under difficult conditions. Flashlight, com- to sources, a ZPMC's project the current 0.5 million
a special mobile phone that is not afraid of pass and pedometer, which are especially vessel, M/v ZHEN HUA-5, twenty-foot equivalent units
any mechanical effects, whether dust, water, appreciated by lovers of travel, B2100 has a carrying two Ship to Shore (TEUs) to 0.8 million TEUs.
fall and the satellites active recreation. Sam- 1.9 - inch display with a resolution of Gantries (SSGs) weighing Shipping freight for the
sung B2100 is specially design for those 176x220 pixels, 2-megapixel camera, inte- 1,200 tons each and 10 Rub- gantries, which would be
users. grated FM-tuner. For communication facili- ber Tyred Gantries (RTGs), discharged stood at around
B2100 offers few interesting features and ties, it has Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, plug USB. was safely docked at PICT. $8 million, which is 13 per
functionality said, Country Samsung B2100 has built 30 MB memory PICT has imported two cent of the total cost of a
Zeshan Qureshi, Head of Marketing Sam- and has a slot for installing memory cards quayside cranes at a cost of gantry.
sung Mobiles added: “Samsung B2100 is format microSD”
Zong’s Video Card Service
Aamir Hussain new COO of Tele Card Emaar Zong invents a
Karachi: Tele card has an- launched first time WLL new style of greet-
nounced the appointment of services in Pakistan. He was highlights its ing. Now video
Syed Aamir Hussain as also responsible for GO
Chief Operating Officer for CDMA consumer services.
presence cards can be sent to
anyone across the
promotion of its wireless After completion of MBA Islamabad: Emaar Proper- country. All users
local loop (WLL) business. from an American Univer- ties, one of the world’s have to do is to lo-
He has a rich experience of sity, he joined Tele Card as largest property developers, cate an account
13 years in telecom industry. marketing manger. He has is highlighting its presence against Zong mobile number at
In 2002, he was the team also served as vice presi- at Cityscape Dubai 2008 http://61.5.156.102/zongservice/ then log in your account,
leader of the company that dent. with a never-before global select a card and enter receiver's number. Service charges
portfolio. Exhibiting projects will be either deducted from pre-paid users’ account or
from nine of its key global
Warid takes lucky markets including Saudi
billed in case of postpaid customer.
Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan,
winners to Singapore Morocco, Turkey, Canada,
India and Pakistan, for the
Warid has Got a Unique
Lahore: Winners from
Warid Telecom’s recently
clude Zafar Ahmed Qureshi
- Rawalpindi, Ghayur
first time ever, Emaar pre-
sented projects of over $100
Automatic Balance Alert Feature
concluded Grand Prix cam- Ahmed - Peshawar, Tauqeer billion in development value Warid has a very unique Warid prepaid. Being a Warid
paign enjoyed watching the Ahmed Qureshi - Lahore, at the premier property balance alert feature in its net- postpaid customer, you may
expo held at the Dubai Inter- work which it has been fol- miss this feature. As there is
1st Night Grand Prix event Muhammad Nasir Khan -
national Convention Centre lowing since it got started. no remaining balance in case
live in Singapore the other Lahore, Inam-ur-Rehman -
from October 6 – 9, 2008. The balance alert value added of postpaid accounts, at least
day. Warid had offered 10 Karachi, Muhammad
With its strong develop- service informs you the cost of Warid can just mention the
lucky winners a once in a Anwar - Gwadar, Muham-
ment portfolio across 36 key last transaction and your re- cost of last call, SMS or what-
lifetime opportunity to win mad Rafique - Kasur, markets internationally,
an all expense paid trip by Noman Haroon - Karachi, maining balance in prepaid ever it is in an automatic bal-
Emaar currently leads the
just spending Rs 500 on Muhammad Waqas Waheed account whenever you make ance alert. That'll also be a
region in terms of interna-
their Warid connection. - Lahore and Nisar Ahmed - a call, send a SMS or use great addition to Warid post-
tional projects. In all its mar-
The fortunate winners in- Islamabad. GPRS/EDGE. So, if you make paid. Moreover, I think other
kets, Emaar adopts its
integrated neighbourhood a call of 10 minutes, as soon as networks should also follow
you end the call, a balance this practice. However, it may
Bank Al-Falah, Microsoft sign accord development approach of
building holistic communi- alert will automatically ap- increase network load a bit
ties featuring educational in- pear at the screen and you but still it's a good feature to
Karachi: Bank Al-Falah Bank Al-Falah continue with
has signed an ‘Enterprise their commitment to pro- stitutions, retail outlets, don't need to check balance provide your customers with.
Agreement’ with Microsoft vide creative and innovative community centres, health- manually (which most people Let's see what Mobilink, Te-
for deployment of its tech- solutions to the IT and fi- care centres and hospitality do). Unfortunately, this fea- lenor, Ufone and Zong decide
nology solutions of IT infra- nancial sector. & leisure projects. ture is only available with about this feature in future.
structure, business
productivity, communica-
tion, collaboration and infra- PTCL-Ufone alliance with Microsoft
structure optimisation for Islamabad: PTCL and software support, of our long term commit-
the bank. Sherif Seddik, Mi- Ufone signed a strategic which will realize ment to enhancing busi-
crosoft Regional Director agreement with Mi- the full potential ness operation in
North Africa, East Mediter- crosoft, joining the elite of personnel at Pakistan. After complete
ranean and Pakistan while group of companies both PTCL and deployment across both
addressing on the occasion backed by the power of Ufone. Sherif organizations, the IT in-
said, “Microsoft aims to re-
the world leader in soft- Seddik, Regional frastructure at both PTCL
define standards around the
ware business solutions. Director, Mi- and Ufone will be and
IT infrastructure installed
Dubbed as a historical crosoft North "This landmark alliance can be compared to the
within the country.” He said
deal, the agreement will Africa, East Mediter- between Microsoft and best companies, in the
that it was heartening to
note that Microsoft and provide comprehensive ranean and Pakistan said, PTCL-Ufone is testimony world."

94
 www.
flare.
com.pk Free Download
The increasing trend of producing solar energy has
started a race of silicon chips’ manufacture
s some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech com-
A
panies - especially chip makers - have rec-
ognized the enormous potential in the solar
industry, the battle for supremacy is taking on David
vs Goliath proportions. So far, dozens of small, ven-
ture-backed solar start-ups - many based in the valley
- have been in the spotlight.
But companies such as Intel, Applied Materials and
National Semiconductor intend to capture their share
of the lucrative market. After all, these large players
Inspired by designs from the automotive and fashion indus-
tries, Samsung’s new moulding process eliminates the need
for glue or screws to construct the television cabinets
amsung released its Series 6 in Pakistan.
S
Samsung’s Touch of Colour (TOC) design
features a hint of amber colour naturally
blended into Samsung’s traditional piano black
bezel frame.
This Series 6 enable consumers to access a wide
range of digital and multimedia devices such as
MP3 players, camcorders, and PCs and to dis-
play, manage and play their contents through the
HDTV. Series 6 marks the first appearance of
are not content to let start-ups control a photovoltaic
solar industry projected to grow from $20 billion in
2007 to $74 billion by 2017.
It is not clear yet who will win the race. "That's the
great question, the $64,000 question," said Suvi
Sharma, chief executive of Solaria, a start-up in
Fremont. "The jury's still out." Tom Werner, the CEO
of SunPower said, "The competitive dynamic is going
to be really interesting.”
The process of manufacturing silicon to make semi-
Samsung
mesmerised
market
with Series 6
TOC design in the 2008 LCD HDTV line-up. The
result is an LCD HDTV with a clean, smooth fin-
ish infused with a hint of a translucent colour. On
the wall or off, these sets give the impression it is
floating, with soft lines that complement any
home décor.
This flat-panel LCD television has a 46” screen,
measured diagonally from corner to corner. This
screen size is perfect for viewing from 5.9’ to 11.8’
away. A 1080p resolution means that this televi-
Flare Report Insight
conductors - used in everything from personal com-
puters to cell phones - is also used to make solar pan-
els. So big tech's move to solar is a natural step in the
evolution of the industry, said Erik Straser, who heads
the clean-tech portfolio at Mohr Davidow Ventures in
Menlo Park.
As they have in other market segments, the big
players will need to ramp up manufacturing and
expand distribution channels to propel solar energy.
With their sheer size, access to huge amounts of capi-
tal and world-class research and development, it
should not be difficult.
Over the past few years, new solar start-ups with
names like Miasole, Solaria, Solfocus and Nanosolar
have emerged to stake a claim for their spot in the
sun. It did not take long for the giants to wake up.
Following SunPower's initial public offering in 2006
and Applied Materials' announcement that same year
to sell its equipment to solar-panel makers, others fol-
lowed.
CEO of VC-backed solar start-up, Nanosolar in San
Jose, fairly bristles at the notion that old-line Silicon
Valley players have some advantage. Martin
Roscheisen calls many of these big companies "just
tourists in solar." Nanosolar shipped its first solar
panel in late 2007. It prints thin-film solar panels and
recently showed off a $1.65 million machine that can
produce 1 gigawatt of solar cells a year, enough to
power 750,000 homes. Roscheisen is not convinced
that big companies have that many advantages over
start-ups.
"They are not as laser-focused as we are," said
Roscheisen. While he will concede that an Intel or an
HP has more money than Nanosolar, "it's all about
the amount of innovation dollars actually concentrat-
ed on solar that matters."
Applied Materials works with both start-ups and
big players, said Mark Pinto, its senior vice president
and chief technology officer. In fact, SunPower is one
of Applied's customers.
"It's not obvious who is and how many going to be
the global leaders of this, or what even the value chain
is going to look like," Pinto declared. His comment
echoes remarks by SunPower's Werner. "I think peo-
ple will keep coming into this until they conclude that
they can't make money."
sion has 1080 rows of pixels vertically. The more
pixels a TV has, the clearer the images it can pro-
duce. A built-in NTSC tuner allows you to view
standard analogue television broadcasts through
your television without a separate cable box. The
ATSC tuner means that you can enjoy over-the-
air digital channels and theatre quality audio
(with a separate HD antenna) without the need
for a digital antenna. The QAM tuner gives this
TV the capability to receive free in-the-clear digi-
tal programming. With a 120Hz panel refresh
rate, this TV doubles the amount of frames it dis-
plays from 60 frames per second to 120 frames
per second for smoother, more natural motion in
every video you watch. It enhances your sports,
action movies, and other fast-paced entertain-
ment. Using the 3 available HDMI inputs, you
can experience high definition audio and video
up to 1080p, the highest possible resolution avail-
able. The 2 component video inputs can be used
for video resolution up to 1080i. Also available
are 2 composite inputs, 1 S-video input, 1 PC
input, and 1 RF input. Samsung's new Touch of
Colour HDTVs offer ground-breaking colour
infused bezels and unsurpassed picture quality
for eye-popping design and performance.
Once connected, users can easily access device
menus and manage and display content through
the newly redesigned Wheel Key Remote control
and the HDTV’s sophisticated content manage-
ment interface.
The Series 6 Full HD LCD TVs is available in
market in the following sizes: 40-inches, 46-inches
and 52-inches.
95

Synopsis International
Google offers video-sharing for businesses
San Francisco: Google Inc is
adding YouTube-like video
communications features to
its business application suite,
looking to make video-shar-
ing among office workers as
easy as trading e-mails or in-
stant messages.
Unlike YouTube, which is
aimed at consumers, Google
Video for business is de-
signed to be shared among
designated users within an
Telstra restructures Kaz
Australia: Telstra has taken
the knife to its technology
services arm Kaz, axing head
of its enterprise and govern-
ment business and stripping
away back office functions,
just weeks after Telstra CEO
Sol Trujillo publicly admitted
failure in finding a buyer for
the troubled business.
Mr Trujillo flagged Telstra's
plans to restructure Kaz at its
full year results hearing last
month, and after reviewing
the business said it would be
more tightly integrated with
the telco's operations.
And in an internal memo ob-
tained by The Australian,
Kaz Group managing direc-
tor Mike Foster told it would
Telco
complaints
rise 75pc
Six months after Communi-
cations Minister Stephen
Conroy warned telco com-
panies that he would inter-
vene if complaints to the
Telecommunications Indus-
try Ombudsman continued
Saudi Telecom eyes North Africa growth
Riyadh: Saudi Telecom said
it would cut 14 per cent of its
workforce at home and boost
efforts to expand abroad after
being rebuffed by France's
Vivendi over a stake in
Maroc Telecom.
Chief Executive Saud al-
Duweish said he hoped
Vivendi would have a
change of heart after the
French media group declined
to sell its Moroc Telecom
stake, but later told that it
had not made an official bid.
"We tested the waters for
Maroc Telecom but we didn't
get a positive feedback ... We
hope Vivendi will change its
96
organisation's own Web do-
main, protecting executive
speeches, product training,
sales meetings or other em-
ployee video messages from
unauthorised disclosure out-
side the company.
From September, educational
users of Google Apps are try-
ing out the service free for six
months and will be charged
$10 a user to continue using
video afterward. Unlike
combine parts of its NSW
and Victorian businesses,
and as a result commercial
and government general
manager Chris Munro would
leave the company.
"To enable us to have a con-
sistent presence across all
states in line with market de-
mands, it is imperative that
we now structure NSW and
VIC to effectively leverage
our sales, delivery and new
solutions," Mr Foster wrote.
"We thank (Ms Munro) for
her contribution to the busi-
ness and wish her well."
Telstra spokesman Martin
Barr refused to confirm
whether Ms Munro quit or
was made redundant.
to raise. The watchdog has
been flooded with a record
number of grievances. In
the year to March, the om-
budsman has dealt with
complaints -- involving
232,869 issues -- a 75 per
cent jump. The number of
official complaints, which
may involve multiple issues,
is on track to rise 42 per cent
to 145,000 in the 2007-08 fi-
nancial year.
mind," he told Reuters on the
sidelines of an event that
marked the launch of a new
logo for the company. "We
are interested in the Middle
East and North Africa in gen-
eral but we are looking at
North Africa in particular."
Saudi Telecom is under in-
tense pressure to improve
profitability as a regional
telecom war heats up, with
rivals like Kuwait's Zain and
Emirates Telecommunica-
tions competing within Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Telecom has
spent in excess of $6 billion
on foreign expansion in the
past 15 months.
videoconferencing services
that require specialised hard-
ware and software installa-
tions in offices, Google Video
for business users can simply
trade Web site addresses to
view videos as the videos are
delivered from Google com-
puters.
The videos can be used in
standard quality or high-res-
olution formats, depending
on network bandwidth. They
Crazy john's
widow
sells to
Vodafone
Less than a year after the
death of her mobile phone
entrepreneur husband, Pa-
tricia Ilhan has sold Crazy
John's to Vodafone for a fig-
ure believed to value the
business he built at up to
$150 million.
Turkish migrant John Ilhan
died from a heart attack at
the age of 42 last October,
leaving his widow with
four children and control of
Australia's second-largest
independent mobile phone
retail group.
In the year before he died,
Ilhan moved the group's
business from Telstra to
Vodafone after a bruising
court battle with Australia's
biggest telecommunications
group.
The Australian understands
that Ms Ilhan began consid-
ering a sale process in Feb-
ruary but did not finalise
her decision until two
months ago.
New iPods looked a little gaunt
Boston: Apple CEO Steve
Jobs announced some widely
anticipated iPod updates and
other entertainment-related
developments to the cheers
of the faithful and the shrugs
of most everyone else, in-
cluding investors who sent
the stock down almost 4 per
cent.
On the hardware side, Jobs
unveiled a new, slim-profile
Free Download
are also available to desig-
nated corporate users of
Apple Inc's Internet phone,
the iPhone, Google said. In a
separate move, Google Inc is
set to begin a public trial on
Tuesday of a new Web
browser designed to more
quickly handle video-rich or
other complex Web pro-
grams, in a challenge to
browsers designed originally
to handle text and graphics.
BBC iPlayer offered on Nokia N96
Users of the Nokia N96
are to be among the first
with the ability to run the
BBC's iPlayer on their mo-
bile phones. From October
1, 2008 a purpose-built ap-
plication will be available
to download via BBC web-
site and will also be pre-
loaded on some handsets.
A Nokia spokesman said
the service would be 3G
and wireless compatible
and that Nokia would not
charge to use it. Erik Hug-
gers, BBC Director of Fu-
ture Media and
Technology, said the deal
was "critical" to reach out to
as many people as possible.
"This partnership is criti-
cal to ensuring we continue
South African
firm gets
Uganda
telecoms licence
Cape Town: South
African-based low cost tele-
coms firm Smile Communi-
cations has been awarded a
telecommunications licence
by the Ugandan govern-
ment, Uganda's communica-
tions minister said.
iPod Nano in multiple colors,
now equipped with an ac-
celerometer that lets the
screen shift automatically be-
tween portrait and landscape
mode and adds "shake to
shuffle" capability. Jobs also
rolled out a skinny new in-
carnation of the iPod Touch,
calling it "the funnest iPod
we've ever created" An up-
grade to the iTunes software
www.
flare.
com.pk
Sony to launch
new PSP
Tokyo: Japan's Sony Corp
will launch it new PlaySta-
tion Portable in Japan on Oc-
tober 16. The PSP-3000 can
also be used as a telephone
through the Skype service
that Sony added earlier this
year. More than 80 per cent
of PSP buyers use the con-
sole for other activities than
playing games, like listening
music, watching movies or
using the Internet.
to reach out to audiences
wherever they are and
allow them to catch-up on
their favourite BBC pro-
grammes."
A BBC spokeswoman said
that the iPlayer is already
available on the iPhone and
iTouch, but only for stream-
ing programmes. The Nokia
N96 will be the first phone
that enables users to down-
load programmes as well.
Some of the programmes
available through the iPlayer
include EastEnders and
Dragon's Den, as well as
documentaries such as Who
Do You Think You Are? and
radio programmes such as
The Chris Moyles Show
and The Archers.
Smile Communications
(Pty) Ltd plans to provide
affordable communications
to the poor and will target
expansion opportunities
across Africa and the Mid-
dle East.
Smile plans to offer free tele-
phone numbers and voice
message boxes to customers
whether they own a handset
or not. A customer will be
provided with a secure PIN
code to use on any Smile
Communications phone.
adds the "Genius" feature, an
automated music recommen-
dation engine that taps the
collective tastes of iTunes
users to generate playlists.
From the iTunes store, the
news included the addition
of HD programming and the
return of NBC to the fold
after Apple made some con-
cessions on pricing and pack-
aging.
 www.
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Shrine protects PC in Japan EBay to cut
Tokyo: In high-tech Japan, not
only programmers provide
protection from viruses and
other computer bugs, but also
the gods. At Tokyo's Kanda-
Myojin Shinto shrine, the
faithful can bring their com-
puter and have the priests use
centuries-old ceremonies to
ask the gods for help and pro-
tection for their computer, a
Ericsson’s plans
for Vietnam
Stockholm: Ericsson had
landed a 450 million dollar
deal to modernise Hanoi
Telecom's mobile network in
Vietnam. Ericsson said the
three year managed services
contract, the largest it has
ever signed in Vietnam,
called for it to manage, oper-
ate and redesign Hanoi Tele-
com's nationwide network.
The Swedish company will
be responsible for migrating
the network from CDMA
technology to the more inter-
nationally compatible
GSM/EDGE system, supply-
ing among other things radio
access network equipment
and optical and
microwave transmission.
Telstra, People Telecom
get cozy
People Telecom is continu-
ing its aggressive push to
establish itself as a network-
neutral telco after striking a
deal with Telstra to resell
mobile GSM services. Last
month telco said it would
expand its mobile phone
business and resell mobile
services from all major car-
riers in an effort to boost
margins after struggling to
return an operating profit in
its latest financial results.
John Stanton, People Tele-
com chief executive officer,
said that the new deal
would help push People
shrine spokesman said.
The shrine is located near the
Akihabara quarter, Tokyo's
technology hub and popular
destination for geeks and
lovers of the latest electronic
gadgets. Kanda-Myojin's reli-
gious protection services have
proven popular among infor-
mation-technology entrepre-
neurs in Japan's capital.
Dell netbook
to sell for $599
Computer maker Dell has
jumped into the burgeoning
netbook market, launching
its own version of the cheap
and cheerful notebook class
that Asus kick started last
year with its Eee PC. Dell's
new Inspiron Mini 9 goes on
sale locally for $599.
Dell's netbook sports similar
specifications to the compe-
tition, which includes the
Eee PC, Acer Aspire One
and the HP 2133. The Mini 9
has a small 8.9 inch, weighs
one kilogram and uses a
shock proof, 16GB solid state
drive. It has three USB ports,
an SD card reader, ethernet
and a VGA out port.
Telecom's move to operate
as a multi-network mobile
virtual network operator
(MVNO), enabling it to
offer services on all the
major mobile networks in
Australia.
The GSM agreement is an
addition to a $200 million
network services contract
that People Telecom signed
with Telstra's wholesale di-
vision in February this year.
As part of that services con-
tract, last month People
Telecom became the first
company to resell Telstra's
ADSL2 broadband service.
10% of jobs
New York: EBay Inc plans
to cut its work force 10 per
cent and sees third-quarter
revenue hitting the low end
of its forecast, though profit
will exceed expectations.
EBay would spend more
than $1.3 billion to buy com-
panies that bolster its online
payments and classifieds
businesses as it seeks to im-
prove its performance in a
weak US economy. Its
shares fell 2.6 per cent in
premarket trading after ris-
ing as much as 2 per cent
immediately after the an-
nouncement.
EBay, which has faced
slower growth in its core
auction business over the
last few years, said it will
buy the Bill Me Later pay-
ments service for about $820
million in cash and $125 mil-
lion in options. The business
offers consumers deferred
payments and financing
promotions. It will be com-
bined with eBay's PayPal
unit and is expected to gen-
erate $150 million in rev-
enue in 2009. EBay sees the
deal closing in the fourth
quarter and adding to earn-
ings in 2011.
Vivendi keeps
2008 outlook
Paris: Vivendi, armed with a
fresh contract with The
Rolling Stones and its new
Activision Blizzard gaming
venture, kept its 2008 profit
goal as it posted a rise in
second-quarter underlying
earnings. The owner of Uni-
versal Music Group, the
world's biggest record com-
pany, and France's second
biggest mobile operator,
SFR, said it could fund re-
cent deals without a rights
issue and no acquisitions
were pending. Those deals
include buying SFR buying
fixed-line operator Neuf
Cegetel and the formation of
video games giant Activi-
sion Blizzard, which
brought together its World
of Warcraft online role-play-
ing game with partner Ac-
tivision Inc's best-selling
"Guitar Hero" franchise. The
company still expects 2008
profit growth similar to the
8 per cent of 2007 on a like-
for-like basis.
International
Tata pays damages to Reliance
New Delhi: An international
tribunal has directed Indian
telecoms firm Tata Commu-
nications to pay $19 million
plus interest in damages to a
unit of rival Reliance Com-
munications. Reliance Glob-
alcom, the international unit
of India's No 2 mobile oper-
ator, said in a statement that
the International Chambers
of Commerce (ICC) had
found in its favour over the
issue of access to bandwidth
through Tata's Mumbai
landing station.
Google Chrome to tackle
Internet Explorer
Google has launched its own
web browser called Google
Chrome in another expan-
sion by the search giant into
the building blocks of the in-
ternet. Google Chrome will
take on the might of Mi-
crosoft's Internet Explorer.
Chrome
www.google.com/chrome
would feature a new format
for tabs, the ability to view
web pages as thumbnails and
better features on the address
bar. Initially it will be for
Windows users, but versions
for Mac and Linux will be
Orascom Telecom
disappointing Asia growth
Cairo: Orascom Telecom re-
ported lower-than expected
net income in the second
quarter as growth in Pakistan
and Bangladesh slowed and
financing costs rose, hitting its
shares. It net income dropped
by 64 per cent to $80.8m, com-
pared with the first quarter,
its first quarterly profit de-
cline since 2007."The results
are definitely below expecta-
tions," said May Khamis, a
telecom analyst at HC Securi-
ties in Cairo. "The quarter-on-
Employee Etisalat accused
of Dh27m
Abu Dhabi: A senior woman
manager of Etisalat, who had
been responsible for making
salary payments to the staff, al-
legedly misappropriated Dh27
million from the company ac-
count. The amount has been
retrieved from her bank ac-
count and the woman forced
to resign. The company
launched an investigation in
association with security offi-
Synopsis
Reliance, which first took
the case to the ICC in De-
cember 2004, said it would
receive $19.3 billion plus in-
terest since May 17, 2006.
Reliance Globalcom said it
had upgraded capacity to 80
GB on its Mumbai-London
route and would also be en-
hancing the cable capacity
on the Mumbai-Hong Kong
route to 80 GB, said the ad-
ditional capacity had cre-
ated a revenue opportunity
of $120 million to $180 mil-
lion.
available soon.
The software is being written
with Webkit, the open-source
engine at the heart of Apple's
Safari and Google's Android
platforms. The browser is
also getting a new Javascript
virtual machine, V8, which is
said to be better for complex
and rich web applications.
Until now Google has sup-
ported other browsers, no-
tably the open-source
Mozilla Firefox browser.
Google and Mozilla last
week renewed their agree-
ment, extending it until 2011.
quarter net income decline is
basically due to slowdown in
top-line growth in Pakistan
and Bangladesh."Average
revenue per user (ARPU)
slowed to $6.60 a month by
the end of June 2008, com-
pared to $7.10 a year ago.
"The decline in global ARPU
was expected due to the in-
crease in pre-paid subscribers,
who spend less by nature but
this is happening in the in-
dustry in general," Khamis
said.
cials after it received an alert.
They said the manager used to
transfer amounts at regular in-
tervals over a period of two
years from Etisalat's salary ac-
count to her private account in
a local bank. The bank, which
grew suspicious after checking
her monthly salary before the
large sums started getting
credited to her account, sent a
letter to Etisalat.
97
 www.
flare.
Synopsis International Free Download com.pk

Cell subscribers to reach 4b

Geneva: The number of mobile phone
subscriptions in the world will reach four
billion by the end of the year driven by
growth in developing economies, the In-
ternational Telecommunications Union
said. "Since the turn of the century, the
growth of mobile cellular subscribers has
been impressive." The ITU stressed that
its estimate does not mean that four bil-
lion individuals each have their own mobile phone, as many people in
developed countries have more than one. Earlier this year the ITU said
that the number of mobile phone subscriptions topped 3.3 billion by the
end of 2007. Continued progress in 2008 is
chiefly due to the growth in major develop-
ing markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and
China. "These economies alone are expected
to account for over 1.3 billion mobile sub-
scribers by the end of 2008," the ITU said.
China surpassed the 600 million mark by
mid-2008, becoming the world's biggest mo-
bile phone market, while India had around
296 million subscribers by the end of July. "Market liberalisation has
played a key role in spreading mobile telephony by driving competition
and bringing down prices," the ITU noted.

Huawei, ZTE win $75m
Libya deals
Tripoli: Chinese telecom
firms Huawei and ZTE
have won contracts worth
$5 million to expand the
mobile phone network in
Libya. A total of $8 million
has been awarded to ex-
pand the existing network
of the Libyana public mo-
bile phone company from
one million lines to 6.5
million lines.
ZTE and Huawei will
also expand the mobile
India the 2nd largest wireless market
India: India surpassed the
U.S. this year as the largest
wireless- phone market after
China, with 287 million sub-
scribers at the end of June,
more than the combined pop-
ulations of Germany, Japan
Buy back $40b in Microsoft Stock
Seattle: Chaos in the
money markets gave Mi-
crosoft Corp. an opening to
announce it would take on
debt for the first time,
launch a new $40 billion
stock buyback plan and raise
its dividend. The moves in-
dicate that for all the credit
problems plaguing the fi-
nancial sector, cash-laden
technology companies with
good credit ratings are still
borrowing money on favor-
able terms and otherwise en-
joying flexibility.
Hewlett-Packard Com-
pany approved an $8 billion
buyback plan. Intel Corp.
Chairman Craig Barrett told
that the chip maker, which
boasted $11.5 billion in cash
and $2.1 billion in debt at the
end of the last quarter, was
98
network along the Libyan
coast. In line with a second
contract worth 17 million
dollars, Huwaei alone will
install the first phase of a
fibre-optic network in the
Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Mohamed Kadhafi, who
heads Libya's telecommu-
nications office, has said
that government earns
some two billion dollars
from the telecommunica-
tions industry.
and the U.K. The south Asian
nation, where only about one
in four of 1.1 billion people
have mobile phones, added
8.95 million users in June,
compared with China’s 8.63
million additions.
feeling no squeeze from the
credit crunch. Microsoft,
which benefits from having
$23.7 billion in cash and
short-term investments on
hand as of June 30, histori-
cally has avoided taking on
debt to fund day-to-day op-
erations, acquisitions and
stock buybacks, even as
many of its peers, including
IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp.,
have done so. Oracle, for
one, has accumulated $11.2
billion in debt in recent
years while buying up
dozens of its smaller rivals,
while sitting on $13 billion
in cash as of August 31. The
business software maker in-
dicated recently that much
of that money would go to-
ward acquisitions or buy-
backs.
Apple sells un-
locked iPhones
in Hong Kong
Hong Kong: Apple has
started selling unlocked
models of its popular
iPhone 3G in Hong Kong
which allow users the free-
dom to select the telecoms
provider of their choice.
The eight gigabyte version
was on sale at Apple's on-
line store for $700, while the
16 gigabyte model was
6,200 dollars.
Apple said the phone can
be activated with any wire-
less carrier. The move is a
shift from Apple's previous
strategy of tying the phone
exclusively to a single mo-
bile operator in each coun-
try. The iPhone 3G was
previously only officially
available in Hong Kong
bundled with a two year
contract from tycoon Li Ka
Shing's Hutchison Telecom,
on tariff plans ranging from
$188 - 498 a month.
At last Google launched Android
New York: The first mo-
bile phone powered by
Google has launched,
ready to fight for the top
spot on tech addicts'
Christmas gift lists. It
goes on sale in the US in
October and is expected
to arrive in British stores
by early November.
The arrival of Android
signals the opening round
of a battle between
Google and rivals includ-
ing Apple, Microsoft and
Nokia to create the soft-
ware that powers the next
Sprint’s salesman to help
customers in phone shopping
New York: Sprint Nextel help by a cell carrier, but is
Corp. is making a big push similar to moves in the wider
to help customers under- consumer electronics indus-
stand their phones, creating try to demystify gadgets
a formal programme to through one-on-one contact.
make store employees avail- The goal is that customers
able to explain their prod- should leave stores with
ucts and set them up for their phones "completely set
buyers. up and personalized," said
The campaign is first offi- Kim Dixon, Sprint's senior
cial scheme for in-person vice president of stores.
RealNetworks releasing
DVD copying software
New York: Unlike various full copy of a DVD in about
software programmers that 10 to 40 minutes and copies
can be used for illicit disc saved on portable hard
copying, the new RealDVD drives will be playable on
software will copy DVDs to up to five computers per
computers or portable hard user. RealNetworks Chief
drives without taking off or Executive Rob Glaser thinks
altering the "content scram-
bling system," or CSS, en-
the product will have wide
appeal, from business trav-
cryption that is included on elers to families wanting
commercial DVDs. backup discs in case of
The software will create a scratches.
generation of Internet en- must sign up to 18 month
abled mobile phones. contract that costs £40 a
The phone will be avail- month. It is made by
HTC, a Taiwanese com-
pany.
Google also hopes to
take the lead over Apple
by making Android ‘open
source', meaning that no
one will be charged to use
it on their handset or for
writing applications for it.
This means that anyone
can write programmes
able exclusively with T- that will run free on an
Mobile in Britain, and will Android-powered phone.
be free to customers who
 www.
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World's first mobile with built-in intelligent key
United States: Nissan
Motor Company, NTT DO-
COMO and Sharp Corpora-
tion announced that they
have jointly developed a
mobile phone capable of
functioning as an intelli-
gent key for automobiles -
the world's first. The device
will incorporate Nissan's
Nokia's unlimited music service in UK
London: Nokia will
start offering unlimited
music through mobile
phones in Britain on Oc-
tober 16, as it seeks to
muscle in on a market
dominated by Apple's
iPod.
The new service, named
"comes with music", al-
lows people owning a
special device to down-
load unlimited music for
free through their mobile
telephone or computer
for up to 18 months -
Now steal the data of your
cell phone thief
San Francisco: Stolen mo-
bile telephones are being
taught to turn against
thieves by sending home
word of where they are and
letting owners snoop on
calls. Maverick Mobile won
accolades at a recent DEMO
gathering of 72 start ups in
Southern California by de-
buting software that lets
rightful owners track
swiped mobile telephones
and torment whoever has
them.
The application runs in an
unseen "hidden mode" in
HSBC arranges loan for
Sri Lankan mobile
Colombo: Global banking
giant HSBC said its Sri
Lankan unit has arranged a
45 million dollar loan to en-
able a local mobile company
to expand and upgrade its
network. Backed by Sinosure
the funding line will help
Mobitel pay for the new net-
work currently being built
by China's Huawei Tech-
nologies Company Limited.
Intelligent Key system, al-
ready a standard feature in
various Nissan vehicles.
Nissan's Intelligent Key
system, installed in more
than 950,000 units of vari-
ous Nissan models since
2002, employs two-way
wireless communications
technology to automati-
after which they can also
keep the music.
Britain will be first to
offer the service through
the Carphone Warehouse
dealer. It will be initially
available on 5310 Xpress
Music phones, which cost
$229, but other phones
will then be added. The
service will then be rolled
out to ten other countries
including France, Swe-
den, Spain and Singapore
where the online Nokia
Music Store is available.
mobile telephones, encrypt-
ing contact numbers and
other data if crooks put new
SIM cards in the handsets.
The India-based firm's
software also retrieves con-
tact lists from devices and
sends new SIM card tele-
phone number and location
data to mobile telephones
designated by original own-
ers. The application also
sends copies of any tele-
phone numbers thief has
called and copies of text
messages he or she may
send.
TCS to buy Citigroup's arm
Mumbai: India's largest
software exporter TCS ac-
quired Citigroup's back-of-
fice unit in India for $505
million in cash. TCS, part of
the Tata conglomerate, said
it would additionally pro-
vide outsourcing services to
Citigroup and its affiliates
for $2.5 billion over a period
of 9.5 years.
cally unlock or lock the car
door and start or stop the
engine. Nissan and Sharp
has now integrated these
electronic intelligent-key,
wireless communications
and electromagnetic tech-
nologies into the new
handset.
As mobile phones in-
Islamabad: Indian pop singer Daleer Mehdi comes out of a
local hotel after talking to media persons regarding a meting
with President Asif Ali Zardari on October 8, 2008.
eBay stops
porn phone
sale
A cairns woman has been
forced to shelve plans to sell a
mobile phone complete with
X-rated photos she bought
from Dick Smith Electronics
after auction website eBay
banned it from being listed.
The university student
hoped to recoup the $199 it
cost to buy the phone, but
eBay's sales policy bans
pornographic material. Last
week she had discovered
pornographic photos of a Dick
Smith Electronics female em-
ployee and a man among 49
images stored on the new
phone.
TCS expects revenues
from the acquisition to start
flowing in the fourth quarter
ending March 2009, chief
operating officer N. Chan-
drasekaran said. Citigroup
Global services has over
12,000 employees in India
and expects to generate rev-
enues of $278 million by De-
cember.
International Synopsis
RIM to sell Black-
Berry Bold in Japan
creasingly become a daily Canada's Research In Mo-
necessity, the integration of tion will sell its high-end
these technologies and the BlackBerry Bold in Japan
potential to further expand through No. 1 carrier NTT
related functionality DoCoMo from early 2009.
helped to bring together RIM is betting that new
the three parties, who ex- product launches around the
pect users to appreciate the world will help it raise its
seamlessly integrated fea- global market share even
tures of their new handset. though initial costs will eat
into its gross margins. Donald
Morrison, RIM's chief operat-
ing officer, said, "The chal-
lenge for us is to get our
products localized.… Once
they are localised and pass
the certification, the opportu-
nity, particularly in the enter-
prise base, is an essentially
still wide open market."
The Bold is RIM's most ad-
vanced smartphone to date
and is the first BlackBerry to
support high-speed HSDPA
cellular networks. It comes
with integrated GPS, Wi-Fi
and a host of multimedia fea-
tures.
US video game sales
up 9pc in August
New York: U.S. sales of video game hardware and software
rose 9 per cent in August to $994.8 million, boosted by the popu-
larity of the newly released "Madden
NFL 09." Ameri- cans bought
$384.6 million in video game hard-
ware, up 3 per cent from a year
ago, lead by sales of the handheld
Nintendo DS, which sold 518,300
units, according to data from market
researcher NPD Group. Nintendo's
Wii was the sec- ond-best seller
with 453,000 units, while Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 rounded up
the top three, selling 195,200 units. Sony's PlayStation 3 sold
185,400 units. In an attempt to better compete with rival consoles,
Microsoft Corp. cut the price of the Xbox 360, making the least
expensive version cheaper than the Wii. "Despite smaller
growth this month, the industry is up 32 percent year-to-date
and remains on target to achieve annual revenues in the range of
$22 billion to $24 billion," NPD analyst Anita Frazier.
UMC sales fall 23.6pc
Taipei: UMC, the world's
In June, TCS said its first No 2 contract chip maker,
quarter net profit rose by said its September sales fell
seven per cent on weak eco- 23.6 per cent from a year
nomic conditions across ago, declining for a fourth
global markets. TCS said net straight month, after a
profit for the three months slowing global economy
to June rose to 12.9 billion hurt technology demand.
rupees from 12.03 billion ru- United Microelectronics
pees a year earlier, accord- Corp (UMC) booked sales
ing to Indian accounting of T$8.052 billion last
norms. month, down from T$10.542
billion a year ago.
99

Synopsis International
BSNL to erect 19000 towers
New Delhi: India's state-
run telecom operator Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)
will erect 19,000 towers in
two phases to extend mo-
bile phone connectivity to
all villages in the country,
the government announced.
"Some 8,000 mobile towers
will be erected by the end
of this year under Phase-I of
the shared mobile infra-
Airtel unveiled DTH satellite TV
Telecom operator Airtel has
announced the launch of its di-
rect-to-home (DTH) satellite
television service. The service
will be available in 62 cities
from October 9. "This is a right
time for Airtel to enter the mar-
ket. We will take over as a
leader of the sector as soon as
possible," Airtel Chief Execu-
tive Officer and managing di-
Dubai: CEO Magazine presented H.E. Mohammad Hassan
Omran, Chairman of Etisalat, with an award for Outstanding
Personal Achievement during an event at the Raffles Hotel
RIM brings BlackBerry
Flip Phone
India: Research In Motion
(RIM) unveiled the Black
Berry® Pearl Flip 8220
smartphone, the first Black
Berry phone to come in the
popular flip form factor.
The quad-band EDGE
based Black Berry Pearl Flip
smartphone presents a so-
phisticated look with a sleek
design and a chrome-fin-
ished frame surrounding its
smooth, luminescent face.
Packed with an abundance
of powerful features, it
weighs only 3.6 ounces and
measures approximately
3.9” x 1.9” x 0.7”. Featuring
two high-resolution, light-
sensing color displays, the
external LCD makes it easy
to preview incoming emails,
100
structure
scheme,"
India's
Telecom-
munica-
tions
Minister
A. Raja
told. “Another 11,000 tow-
ers will be erected in the
second phase.” BSNL will
also procure 93 million
rector Manoj Kohli said. Ac-
cording to Kohli, the com-
pany's DTH services will have
universal remote for both set
top box (STB) that receives sig-
nal from the antenna, and the
television set, besides other fea-
tures such as high STB mem-
ory, exclusive interactive
applications, on-screen games
and more efficient battery.
text messages and phone
calls without opening the
handset, while the large, 240
x 320 internal LCD displays
messages, videos and web
pages with impressive de-
tail and contrast.
Google digitize old newspapers
Google announced Mon-
day it is working with a
growing number of newspa-
pers to "bring history on-
line" by digitizing archives
of articles ranging from
lunar landings to local obit-
uaries.
GSM lines so that people in
all villages in the country
having a population of
more than 1,000 can avail
mobile phone services.
This will be done soon
after new spectrum is allo-
cated to the various telecom
operators. This activity will
be funded with the support
of the universal service obli-
gation (USO) fund.
Bangladesh
sells mobile
spectrum
for $204m
Dhaka: Bangladesh has sold mobile
phone spectrum to three of the coun-
try's mobile phone operators for a total
of $204 million to help expand their
network.
The three companies - Grameen-
phone, Egyptian Orascom Telecom's
Banglalink and Aktel, controlled by
Telekom Malaysia - bought 7.5, 5 and 5
megahertz frequency respectively, at
the rate of 800 million taka per MHz,
the Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission said.
Microsoft cuts
prices in China
Beijing: Microsoft Corp has
cut the selling price in China
of one of its software prod-
ucts by over 70 per cent to
counter rampant piracy. It is
the first special offer since Mi-
crosoft entered the Chinese
market in 1992. Microsoft
said it had slashed the price
for Office 2007 Home and
Student Edition to $29 from
$102. The price cut is de-
signed to make Microsoft's
products in China more af-
fordable and more promo-
tions are likely in future, said
Jim Lin, the company's public
relations manager in Beijing.
"Around the globe, we es-
timate that there are billions
of news pages containing
every story ever written,"
Google product manager
Punit Soni wrote in a blog.
"And it's our goal to help
readers find all of them,
Free Download
Abu Dhabi parks to get free
internet access
Abu Dhabi: People visiting
public parks in the capital
would be able to access the
Internet for free within two
months, Abdul Aziz Al
Gureishi, Director of Public
Parks Department in the Abu
Dhabi Municipality, in-
formed. The move followed
negotiations between the mu-
nicipality and Etisalat on the
total charges of the free serv-
SanDisk rejects $6bn offer
from Samsung
Seoul: US flash memory
card maker SanDisk Corp re-
jected a $5.9 billion bid by top
memory chip maker, Sam-
sung Electronics Co Ltd, but
would not rule out a deal at a
better price. Buying SanDisk
would give Samsung ad-
vanced technology and a
tighter grip on its market
dominance as smaller rival
Toshiba Corp is challenging
its position and the industry
battles steep memory price
falls because of capacity over-
Etisalat to develop
Afghan telecom sector
Abu Dhabi: The United
Arab Emirates' leading tele-
com services provider Eti-
salat is concentrating its
efforts on developing the
telecom industry in
Afghanistan. In this connec-
tion, a meeting was held be-
tween a visiting high-level
Afghan government delega-
tion and Etisalat chairman
Mohammad Hassan Omran.
The two sides discussed
areas of cooperation between
from the smallest local
weekly paper up to the
largest national daily."
People can find old arti-
cles by searching Google's
online News Archives. As
the index grows, articles
will be woven into results of
www.
flare.
com.pk
ice. The service is aimed to
give a boost to investments in
parks, where the people are
encouraged to spend more
time. Eateries and cafeterias
may be opened to attract
more customers. The wireless
Internet service to be intro-
duced in public parks will
not be restricted to Bluetooth
service or sending e-mails,
but will be comprehensive.
building. Samsung,
which pays SanDisk over
$350 million a year in royal-
ties to use patented flash
technology, is looking not
only to slash those costs and
but also gain control of San-
Disk's many licences that
control the industry. San-
Disk shares soared 53 per
cent to $23 in extended trad-
ing after Samsung went pub-
lic with its bid following
months of private talks that
failed to produce a deal.
Etisalat and its subsidiary in
Afghanistan. They also dis-
cussed different services in-
troduced in Afghanistan
since Etisalat won the fourth
mobile licence in that coun-
try.
"The Ministry of Commu-
nications and IT and Etisalat
are working together to de-
velop the communications
industry in Afghanistan,"
said Omran after the meet-
ing.
general searches. "Not only
will you be able to search
these newspapers, you'll
also be able to browse
through them exactly as
they were printed — photo-
graphs, headlines, articles,
advertisements and all."