November 2011 / Volume 4 / Issue 4

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Review Generation 08 iPhone 4S next:

Although windows phone and some of the Android sets also have a voice recognition program yet they require specific commands to function and seem very robot like...

Blockbuster 10 Megagateparty in town 6610-The

Megagate took the local competition a notch higher with the introduction of its touch screen phone Titan T610 and this time around they have done it again with their block...

Telecom 12 An overview of branchless banking in Pakistan

MCB, which is also a large commercial bank with over 1,100 branches nationwide has decided to partner with Nokia to develop a mobile banking application which can be...

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Nokia 14 Thefuture 603 launchofand the road map Nokia devices

Apple and Samsung both are moving at an incredible pace when it comes to upgrading their OS so as to make their devices faster and more ecient than before...

The Banana 16 Mobilink! Shop at

Mobilink, Pakistan has endeavored to set up the first app store of its kind in Pakistan. The banana app store as it is called has over 5000 apps featuring a lot of rich local content...

30 Universal Service Fund: A Success Story

Pakistan's USF program has set out and achieved ambitious targets, including in some challenging operating environments, and therefore is considered to be among the leading countries where USF has succeeded The World Bank- 2011 4 MORE November 2011

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Interview 18 Worst moments of Pakistani Air Cargo industry

Mr. Tahir Malik who is the Chairman of Trafco Group of Companies has recently become the President of Air Cargo Agents Association of Pakistan for the year 2011 2012...

Pakistani engineer who 20 makes cheaper petrol pumps

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MORE Magazine printed at Banquet Printing Press 28-A, Nisbat Road, Lahore and published by Mudassar Jehangir Mufti at 2nd Floor, Ali Mansion, 41-A, Lower Mall, Lahore Tel: 042 2106737 Email: info@apnatime.com
Editor-in-Chief Mudassar Jehangir Mufti Group Editor Sumaira Mudassar Editor Halima Qureshi Sub Editor Saba Asghar Ali Advertising Manager Qayyum Ahmed (Lahore) Designer Assaad Chughtai Photographer Ahsan Jari Marketing Executive Syed Faisal Ahmed International Correspondent Ireland: Alina Amir | US: Ovais Qureshi Registration No. PCPB 286 Disclaimer: Where opinion is expressed it is that of the authors and does not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of the publisher or MORE. All information in this magazine is verified to the best of authors and publishers ability. However, MORE does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from reliance on it.

This is a completely computerized machine and we can control the flow of petrol to any extent. We can set it to throw out the fuel at 1000 liter per minute or we can increase...

P36

Technology survive or 22 Will Androidcompetition succumb to

This is the question that is on the mind of many smartphone buyers in the market today. Everybody wants to have the best possible OS and the best possible...

APP DEVELOPMENT 24 Burgeoning Sector of The the IT Industry of Pakistan

The young generation of software developers in Pakistan is making headlines world over with their creative and lucrative ideas as well as execution of mobile apps...

26 Aair between Apple and Samsung P37 32-40 42-44 45 46

Month in Focus Phone Shop
Samsung and Apple have locked their horns in the fiercest corporate battle the world has seen in a very long time. Apple started the whole fiasco when it sued Samsung...

Hard Disks predicted to 28 become a rare commodity

Floods this season have not just been a disruption of life here in Pakistan. A bout of flooding in Thailand is soon to hit the whole world in the form of Hard Disk Drives (HDD)...

29 Hot this week:

Camera Shop Gadget Shop
Although the Information and Communication Technology industry of ours sees something or the other popping up, literally, every second from just about.. November 2011 MORE 5

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Review

MORE Team

<< A lot of people were very disappointed when Apple announced the iPhone 4S since they were already prepared for iPhone 5. However spending a little time with 4S will change the mind of many a disappointed apple fans.

has been increased to 64GB almost doubling up which is quite an improvement over its last version.

Call quality:
Iphone 4 had some serious issues with receiving signals owing to a slightly misplaced antenna. Its update with 4S however has promised better reception with the phone intelligently switching between the exterior antennas even in the middle of the calls to ensure that reception does not fail.

Hardware:
The hardware of 4S resembles in many ways that of iPhone 4. So basically its not on the outside that the dierence between iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S can be felt but on the inside. It has a dual core processor which is the same as the one on iPad 2 although it steps down from 1GHz in iPad 2 to 800 MHz. With android devices oering up to 1.5 GHz it is kind of nave on Apples part to step down instead of stepping up probably to save itself a few bucks. It has the same RAM capacity of 512 MB as in iPhone 4 however storage capacity 8 MORE November 2011

Design:
The sublime combination of glass and metal with glass covering the entire back surface and screws quite visibly holding the thing together have inspired many of those who have an eye for beauty.

Review >>
Screen and Display:
The 3.5 inches screen is the same as before with 960 x 640 pixels display. It is getting a bit boring and monotonous given the latest 4 inches screen found on Android sets these days. that can function as your very own personal assistant. Siri is a voice recognition system that has evolved from a voice recognition program at DARPA, a company Apple bought in

April 2010. Software:

The iOS 5 introduced with 4S is a major progress over the last iOS 4. Three most notable features are Notifications iCloud and Siri Although windows phone and some of the Android sets also have a voice recognition program yet they require specific commands to function and seem very robot like. Siri on the other hand oers a casual conversational style and even has a sense of humor. When you ask it questions such as what is life it will reply 42 and other times more seriously. Very adept at surfing the

Although windows phone and some of the Android sets also have a voice recognition program yet they require specific commands to function and seem very robot like. Siri on the other hand oers a casual conversational style and even has a sense of humor

Notifications:
Although many Android and other handsets already have this feature, it will be the first even for an iPhone. Now you can check your updates from twitter or emails or facebook notification, calendars and reminders by sliding your finger top to down on the screen.

web and wikipedia for answers you can ask siri for any

calculations you might want to make or the nearest pizza parlor. It can set alarms and reminders for you and all you have to do is ask! Be as demanding as you like Siri is very compliant! Ask Siri to send your wife a message and after asking who your wife is she wont ask twice. She will remember all your relatives for all times to come probably even better than you would!

iCloud:
This and iTunes is one feature that Apple oers unique to Apple customers while others have been unable to provide to their customers as yet. iCloud allows you to sync your emails, contacts calendars and even songs you bought on iTunes across all your devices be it your iPod or iPad. For example if you take pictures and sync them to iCloud through Photo Stream later on you can just open your laptop and access your pictures you took with your mobile earlier allowing you to locally store the pictures you like. The only catch is that you cannot delete individual pictures saved in the Apple server. You can either keep the whole set or delete the whole set. Anything past 30 days is deleted and pictures over a 1000 will be deleted as well until you move them to some other device for local storage. So it is kind of a temporary storage for you to use when you do not have your heavy computing devices such as your laptop with you to store your data. There is also a 5 GB limit to the data whether its app or music or whatever it is that you want the iCloud to hold for you. For further space you need to pay the service.

Camera:
The 4S has an 8 mega pixel camera with a back-side illuminated sensor. The speed is way better than the iPhone 4 and the result is crisp with a quality that matches any personal compact camera. Videos shot at 1080p are just as vivid and delightful. iPhone 4S has packed a tremendously fabulous camera without increasing the size or changing other specs of its predecessor which deserves a well round of applause.

Battery:
Apple claims up to eight hours of battery life on an active 3G connection, standby time has dropped from 300 hours on the 4 to 200 on the 4S. 14 hours on GSM, 10 hours of video watching and 40 hours of listening to music.

Conclusion:
iPhone 4S has everything going in its favor specially if you are an Apple customer and price isnt a factor. However if you already have an iPhone 4 it will make little sense to jump on 4S as the change isnt all that significant. iOS 5 will be available on 4 just as it will be on other Apple devices. But if you have earlier versions then switching would be a good option since Apple is more likely to continue support for 4S for a longer time than it is for 4. >> November 2011 MORE 9

Siri:
Siri is the star of the show and steals the limelight when it comes to the iPhone 4S. It is the most talked about tool of the 4S which is not just a sales gimmick but an actually useful tool

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Review

MORE Team

<< Megagate took the local competition a notch higher with the introduction of its touch screen phone Titan T610 and this time around they have done it again with their block buster 6610 phone which is a dual sim phone too. If there ever was a party phone in this price range then 6610 is it and for Rs4,200 theres a lot more that you will love getting your hands on!

on the looks and feel of the phone. You cannot judge a book by its cover but nevertheless the cover has to be tempting enough to lure the reader to whats inside! On the outside the 6610 seems just like your average phone performing an average range of functions but you would know better by now. The mobile comes with a charger, a data cable and earphones.

Screen and Display:

Very modest on the outside the 2.4 QVGA display adds color to the phone. The display has sharp colors and clear contrasts oering an exciting user experience and certainly not dull as other phones in the same price range. The phone oers amazing specs and functions for a phone that costs so little, however what the company could have done is improve 10 MORE November 2011

Call quality:
We found no issues with call reception or quality. The speakers are quite adequate and the sound comes o just fine. When you make a call youll be prompted to select sim1 or sim 2 and you can use either. You have the speakerphone and mute options and interestingly you can also record the call if you want.

Review >>
While you are on call you can message or check out your phonebook for a number as well. The camcorder also oers the same quality videos as the camera with the same options.

Messaging and Connectivity:

You can send SMS or MMS if you wish and all basic features are present. The set has GPRS and is also Bluetooth enabled so anything and everything that is pretty basic for a phone is present. You can access the internet and choose the sim you have activated your GPRS on. I did miss the special browser facilities though like the opera mini on T610!

Games and Applications:

There are just two games and the application of e-reader that comes preloaded with the phone. Although it was fun to play Tetris which was like the old brick games we used to play as children but like any phone running on the Chinese OS the problem is that there are not many applications that can be downloaded. If you are the kind of person who likes to have an app for everything you do have java so not everything is lost but still you will be severely limited.

Entertainment:
This is where the phone cripples the local market competition by oering amazing multimedia functions
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Battery:
Battery Talk Time Up to 4 h 30 min, Standby Time Up to 280h

King movie: If you have to travel a lot you can kill time

by saving your favorite movie to watch on King Movie and it even oers various subjects that you can save it in like horror, comedy, romantic etc. You only need a lot of space! The display is bright and colorful so it is a thoroughly enjoyable experience!
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Memory:
Internal memory is extremely limited and you wont be able to benefit from all the functions like the camera or the king movie etc unless you have a memory card in there which will cost you a little extra since it doesnt come with the pack. The memory is expandable to 8GB. Like the T610 the data cable can be plugged into the charger or the laptop if you wish to charge your phone through it. The phone can also be used as a USB and when in USB mode your phone can be used as a storage device, modem and webcam. Proper drivers will have to be installed though.

Audio player: What is special about the 6610 audio

player is that it oers you a wide range of functions to choose from. It has 3D Surround Sound, Shue, Equalizer which by the way works beautifully and other such options that you would expect from a sophisticated audio player these days. The set supports MP3 files and also lets you set your favorite tune as your alarm or even ringtone! The speakers are the loudest I have ever heard on any phone and listening to Zohaib Hassan blaring aap jaisa koi in full volume brought back a lot of good memories! In short you can count on your phone to keep the party going in case your stereo speakers fail you; yes the speakers are actually that good!
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Other features:
Several other basic features like organizer consisting of camera, alarm, notepad and tools like calculator, converter etc are present. To my amusement it also has a torch!

FM Radio: You can go to your favorite channel by

saving it to my channel and record your favorite shows or songs. As with all sets you will have to use your earphones to listen to it.

Conclusion:
The phone could improve in a few departments as I said but overall given the price and specs Id say it is worth buying for those who intend to have fun with their phones especially for music lovers out there you couldnt have asked for a better deal!

Camera:
They say that only pixels is not what it takes to make a good camera and when you look at the results of the 1.3 mega pixels camera supported by the mobile you are totally inclined to believe that. Daylight pictures came o pretty well however due to absence of flash the night mode wasnt of much use. Asking for a flash wouldnt be too much to ask for, would it? However the camera oers many other options like whitewash, timer, special eects etc.

Other Specs:
Dimension: 120 x 51 x 12.5mm Weight: 89g 900/1800MHz Entertainment: FM Radio with Recording, 3.5mm audio jack, MP4/3GP/AVI/RMVB, MP3/MIDI/WAV/AMR/AAC >> November 2011 MORE 11 Colors: Hot red and Mist blue Frequency: / Band Sim 1: GSM 900/1800MHz Sim 2: GSM

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Telecom

Saba Asghar Ali

<< No other technology has been embraced with so much fervor and enthusiasm as the mobile technology in Pakistan. It is heartening to see that this enthusiasm has paid us o well. A CGAP report states that Pakistan has the fastest growing system of branchless banking. The market has seen the greatest surge in mobile banking or as it is formally known as branchless banking since the relevant regulations were issued by the SBP in March 2008. In 2009 Telenor in partnership with Tameer bank rolled out its

service Easy Paisa for all its customers who couldn't aord a regular bank account for any reason and since its launch in 2009, EasyPaisa has grown from 2500 to 12,000 shops throughout Pakistan. The total transactions through Easypaisa surpass Rs 43 billion which is almost equal to US$ 500 million. State Bank Governor reiterated the firm resolute of SBP to support branchless banking as it is the only aordable solution for financial inclusion of about 85% of the population that is deprived of any facilities of formal banking. According to him the existing number of branchless banking outlet

MCB, which is also a large commercial bank with over 1,100 branches nationwide has decided to partner with Nokia to develop a mobile banking application which can be loaded on to all Nokia handsets. It is also considering options to make Nokia stores its agents locations

which amount to 13,000 have already outstripped the total branch network of 10,000 branches nationwide. According to the Governor, the cost of setting up a conventional bank is 76 times higher than using third party agents to bring the un-banked into the financial system and using mobile phones halves costs even further. Currently with a population of 187 million, there are only 12 million bank accounts, which show that a significant fraction of the population is without accessible banking opportunities. In these circumstances, people resort to other means of funds transfer like the use of the post oce, money orders, and even leveraging the 12 MORE November 2011

Telecom >>
underground movement of money. Owing to the competitive environment of telecom sector with very low ARPUs and players anxious to compensate by acquiring other sources of revenues banking through mobiles seems not only a convenient method for paying bills and performing transactions but it also provides to the poor a legal way of money transfer.

Mobilink tried unsuccessfully twice before to open branchless banking facilities however this time they got their request to set up their own bank by the name of Waseela Bank approved by the SBP. Given the size of the telecom operator, it is set to be a formidable contender.
districts, residential areas and shopping malls. It will expand to 25 locations from the present 3 locations but it isn't intended for mass market and there are no plans to either.

In case of Easy Paisa, the simple procedure involves going to the nearest Telenor retailer and giving him the necessary documents. He does the transaction using his mobile phone and when transaction is complete, both the sender and the receiver receive transaction information through SMS. It is kind of like easy load.

Principally approved projects of branchless banking:

MCB, which is also a large commercial bank with over 1,100 branches nationwide has decided to partner with Nokia to develop a mobile banking application which can be loaded on to all Nokia handsets. It is also considering options to make Nokia stores its agents locations. Presently it has developed a mobile banking interface for existing customers powered by Fundamo and made transactions amounting to Rs 7 billion. Mobilink tried unsuccessfully twice before to open branchless banking facilities however this time they got their request to set up their own bank by the name of Waseela Bank approved by the SBP. Given the size of the telecom operator, it is set to be a formidable contender. Pakistan's largest courier service TCS with over 400 outlets nationwide has also decided to set up its own bank and will be the first courier company in the world to oer its customers financial services at their doorstep.

Large Scale deployment of Branchless Banking:

Given the amazing success of Telenor other companies also decided to venture into the branchless banking business. According to regulations issued by SBP only regulated banks can be allowed to hold the accounts and sign agreements with networks of agents to service these customers. The second one to launch this service was UBL, which is one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan. UBL has its own brand by the name of UBL Omni to cater to its customers needs. It allows over the counter bill payments and transfer of money to friends and family through a card or any mobile (SMS) regardless of the operator. It requires a balance of Rs 100 and oers several options for paying fees like pay-as-yougo, weekly, monthly and annual packages. It has won several contracts for disbursing money to the people on the behalf of government and NGOs and they were quite active in the recent floods enabling devastated people obtain money to secure food and shelter through support programs.

Projects still in the pipeline:

Some projects are still in the pipeline with companies applying for licensing in order to operate their branchless banking system. Bank AlFalah and Warid which are both owned by Abu Dhabi just might enter into a partnership. Askari Bank which has a loyal customer base in the army could in future team up with Zong to facilitate its customers wherever they are stationed. Other countries like India, Mexico, Brazil and Kenya have benefited a lot from branchless banking and are on their way to pluralizing its applications. According to a survey mobile financial services could reach 71% of our population by 2020. Several factors will aect the increase in the development of the branchless banking system including the security concerns of customers, pricing, marketing customer service quality and user experience etc. >> November 2011 MORE 13

Small-scale deployment of branchless banking:

Two cases of small-scale banking include First Microfinance Bank (FMB) and Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Ltd. The FMB was the first bank in Pakistan to experiment with branchless banking in collaboration with the Pakistan Post oce. FMB has deployed sta for loan disbursement and collection in about 52 post oces and disbursed loans amounting to US $ 29 Million. They lack an electronic system to record their transactions. The Dubai Islamic Bank which was awarded license in April 2010 has 50,000 existing customers in schools, business

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Telecom

MORE Report

<< In the second quarter of this year, Nokia lost the top spot in market share to Apple and Samsung both of which fared better than it owing to their smartphones sales. Nokia has been struggling with its smartphone business for a long time now and their OS Symbian is always a little too late to save the day. Apple and Samsung both are moving at an incredible pace when it comes to upgrading their OS so as to make their devices faster and more ecient than before. N8 was a remarkable smartphone but it took a little too long to arrive in the market and by the time it did in October 2010, it was up against iPhone 4 and Android 2.2 1GHz snapdragon processors, which are ultra fast. So Symbian ^3 and N8 didnt rock anyones world as it was supposed to. However, by keeping their prices comparatively low Nokia was able to churn profits in Q4 2010.

Add to this Nokias latest bid to compete with better smartphone vendors Nokia decided to go to Microsoft and the new windows phone will be out by early 2012. It has a lot to expect from this allegiance which will equally benefit Microsoft who even though has brilliant software yet lacks hardware support for its OS. This marriage of convenience just might work and turn the tables around for Nokia. The Nokia team owing to tough competition and declining sales has devised clever marketing strategies and aggressive self-promotion which can be regarded as a smart move on their part.

14 MORE November 2011

Telecom >>

the base and the part that you put in your ear. Taking the earpiece out of the base automatically fires up the Bluetooth connection to your phone and answers incoming calls. Putting it back hangs up the call and powers down the Bluetooth connection There are voice prompts to assist you with pairing, and also to tell you when the battery is low. Pairing is even simpler if youve got a Nokia phone with NFC built in (Currently, the Nokia C7, Oro, 600, 603, 700, 701 and N9). In that case, you can just bump the two things together and the jobs done. (Courtesy:Nokia Team). Nokia has a strong presence in the mobile phone market which is made for just phones. It could use this fact to its advantage since not everyone has the kind of connectivity to support large data transfers, which is really the primary selling point of high end smartphones like those by Apple and Samsung. Over 70 % of the mobiles sold today are still normal phones having normal phone functions and Nokia has a lead in that market S40 sets have sold pretty well and Nokia has grand plans for it. Adding Nokia browser to S40 will reduce data consumption by up to 90% and the addition of Nokia maps operable with very limited or no data connection are sure to boost sales even further. It is also working on numerous web apps for S40 and has developed a full new touch interface for it. The management at Nokia has an inspiring vision for the future of its handsets If it is able to execute its plans for converting S40 into a smartphone and at the same time manage the Microsoft alliance amicably Apple might have to relinquish its crown to a worthy competitor! >> November 2011 MORE 15

Apple and Samsung both are moving at an incredible pace when it comes to upgrading their OS so as to make their devices faster and more ecient than before. N8 was a remarkable smartphone but it took a little too long to arrive in the market
The Nokia 603 is preloaded with maps, games like the angry birds and social networking applications, like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter so people can enjoy the full smartphone experience right out of the box. Nokia 603 has a standard Li-ion battery with the capacity of 1300mAh. It has talk time up to 16hrs over GSM, upto 490hrs of Standby, up to 75hrs of music playback and up to 10hrs of video playback. When we asked about its availability in Pakistan the team said that they are in the process of launching the phone in all those countries where people would Nokia made its first global launch be interested in buying them. Symbian Belle is a lot more easy to operate and more ecient than its predecessors. The whole concept is to allow people to be more aware of their surroundings what Nokia calls a "heads up' approach. Therefore, it has come up with easy to operate widgets and you only need to glance at your mobile in order to perform any function from calling to messaging or even logging into your favorite site. In addition to the launch of the Nokia 603 they also introduced their new bluetooth head set called Nokia Luna headset which costs 69 euros and comes in six enticing colors. The device is a striking two-piece design. Theres

with the new Symbian Belle OS on its latest device the NOKIA 603 and held an interesting webinar on the device specifications and its OS. Nokia 603 is a smartphone designed for people upgrading from an older smartphone or using a smartphone for the first time. It is also equally appealing to the business and the common class due to its aordability as it costs 200 euros. The phone has a 1GHz processor and an amazing graphic performance according to the Nokia team. The latest Symbian Belle OS oers up to six customizable screens and quite a number of widgets and options to arrange them as you desire.

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Telecom

<< Mobilink, Pakistan has endeavored to set up the first app store of its kind in Pakistan. The banana app store as it is called has over 5000 apps featuring a lot of rich local content. The colorful banana store has something in store (and here is the catch) for all Jazz and Indigo customers only. Yes, sadly the first app store by a service provider in Pakistan is limited to its pre-paid and post paid subscribers only. Quite proud of Mobilink's achievement and rightly so its Vice President for Marketing Mr Jahanzeb Taj said, Mobilink has always remained at the forefront of innovation in Pakistans telecom industry, and Jazz Bananas is another leap forward towards providing our customers with the complete mobile experience. Jazz Bananas enables our subscribers access to a completely new lifestyle that provides on-the-go access to thousands of apps at the click of a button. The store features a lot of applications ranging from social networking sites like twitter and facebook to games to music and even weather forecasts. Games like angry birds app is free to download as are facebook and twitter apps. Most of the apps are free and those that aren't sell at quite aordable prices. The prices of apps range from Rs 5 to Rs 100. Normal GPRS rates apply.

Select the application that you want to download and click buy (if its free it won't cost you anything). You will receive a short code and the code you need to send through your handset for confirmation and there you have it! Nice and easy!

Kinds of Apps:
One application allows you to log your blood pressure and heart rate data thereby making it easier for your doctor to decide upon your medicine and exact dosage depending on the average readings of your blood pressure stored. The app kind of compels you to think of the iPhone app and peripherals specially made for it so that you can directly plug in a blood pressure cu to your iPhone , take a reading while automatically recording it with the option of sharing it on facebook and twitter or even emailing your physician. Now that's swift although it will cost you a lot of unnecessary bucks specially the peripherals which come at a price more than double the price of your average blood pressure monitor. I would therefore suppose that it's not the most sensible thing to do. Downloading an application that does the recording and analyzing on the other hand is! Another app called car trac control guides you through your parking routine so as to make it convenient for you to optimize parking space. Your perfect parking app will cost you 20 Rs only. In addition to that you can have harry potter ebook for just Rs 5, a movie fone app guiding you to the best

Procedure for downloading apps:

On visiting the Jazz bananas site you are asked to specify your handset and then you are shown a plethora of apps compatible with your device. The site oers content compatible with Symbian, Android and java Operating systems. 16 MORE November 2011

Continue on Page 38

Technology >>

November 2011 MORE 17

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Interview

MORE Team

<< Worst moments of Pakistani Air Cargo industry Mr. Tahir Malik who is the Chairman of Trafco Group of Companies has recently become the President of Air Cargo Agents Association of Pakistan for the year 2011 2012. He talks to MORE team and discusses the problems that Air Cargo industry is facing in Pakistan. Excerpt of the discuss is mentioned below;

and export their clients goods to the rest of the world. Foreign airlines that are providing services to Pakistani cargo agents are Thai Air Cargo, Gulf, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Saudia Airlines and Hong Kongs airline, but most of these airlines do not deal directly with our local cargo agents. Instead, they pick the Pakistani cargo from a third country, most of the time the cargo is delayed and even lost in some

What is the current state of aairs of air cargo industry in Pakistan?

Air Cargo industry is currently among the most neglected industries of Pakistan. Due to mismanagement and irresponsible behavior on Governments part, this valuable industry is dying. We are generating some US $ 1 Billion revenue at the moment but this entire chunk is going in the pockets of foreign carriers and cargo agents. It is not impossible for our own airlines to get a major portion of this revenue, but due to internal corruption and weak policies our national carrier has overlooked this handsome business model and our Government is also not paying attention on this issue.

How ACAAP is dealing the situation?

There are 135 IATA approved and non-approved air cargo agents in Air Cargo Agents Association of Pakistan (ACAAP) who rely on the foreign carrier and cargo agents to import 18 MORE November 2011

Interview >>

Air Cargo industry is currently among the most neglected industries of Pakistan. Due to mismanagement and irresponsible behavior on Governments part, this valuable industry is dying. We are generating some US $ 1 Billion revenue at the moment but this entire chunk is going in the pockets of foreign carriers and cargo agents.

due to this, we rely heavily on foreign carriers. Being Pakistanis, we like to involve PIA into this and take the benefit. We have requested the MD PIA to spare some time and discuss this important issue with us. We wish to make him realize that this industry is the backbone of all the industries in Pakistan and how much foreign exchange we can earn by establishing a proper cargo section. We will also discuss the same with Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Defense as well.

cases. The buyer of Pakistani products in the foreign countries hold Pakistani exporter responsible for all this delay that brings a bad name to the country and the loss of business as well.

How much revenue we can earn through this industry?

The potential is huge, because this is the biggest blessing of Allah that we grow best quality of fruits and vegetables in Pakistan and the demand for these products is extra ordinary in foreign countries. The whole world wants to get Pakistani Mango, Kinnoos and Pakistani vegetables including Onions, Garlic and Ginger etc. All these products are perishable because their shelf life is short and no delay is acceptable in their transportation. Fresh meat is another product that is high in demand. Then comes the dry cargo which includes Textiles, Machinery, Towels, Bed linens accessories etc. I believe that the revenue of this industry is approximately Rs 50 billion annually which is currently going in to the pockets of foreign carriers. Although government of Pakistan collect the taxes out of it which is also a very considerable amount but we are missing a huge amount that our national carrier can earn very easily. Similarly the chunk of import is very large. Although, our national carrier cannot cover the 100% of the import into Pakistan but if it could take care of 10 15 % of it, even then, the revenue amount is too big to calculate at the moment. >> November 2011 MORE 19

Why our local airlines do not take it seriously?

We do not have capable airlines for this kind of services. Either, they do not have capacity or they are not interested to support this industry. For example, Air Blue has no capacity; they can maximum move loads from 500 to 1000 kg on one flight. There was a time when PIA was considered to be the worlds best airline, it had a large fleet that was dedicated for Europe, UK and Far East. Unfortunately, there is no fleet today. The condition of airline is very deplorable, even; our passenger flights are getting delayed by 8 to 10 hours which damages the perishable goods. This leaves only dry goods to be transported and even that is not delivered on time. Only

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Interview

Sumaira Mudassar

<< It is never a rule that only qualified people who takes degrees and certificates from the institutions has the capability to think out of the box. There are individuals in almost any part of the world who thinks similar to the ones called qualified engineers. Mr. Zahid Majeed is one such man who has built a pumping machine that can throws out 1300 liters of oil in a minute. This pumping machine is used at the oil storage areas (oil depot) where large quantity of oil is to be shifted from the storage to tankers which is then distributed at the petrol pumps. Normally, such machines are imported from US, England, China and that cost more than a 1.5 million. This man was able to build this machine for just Rs. 500,000 using locally assembled parts. Mr. Majeed says, This is a completely computerized machine and we can control the flow of petrol to any extent. We can set it to throw out the fuel at 1000 liter per minute or we can increase the speed. That means a tanker of 6000 liters of capacity can be filled in just 2 to 4 minutes. Mr. Majeed and his team are the ones who designed Pakistans first digital petrol pump and since then they have been

Mr. Zahid Majeed standing with the pumping machine he built

This is a completely computerized machine and we can control the flow of petrol to any extent. We can set it to throw out the fuel at 1000 liter per minute or we can increase the speed. That means a tanker of 6000 liters of capacity can be filled in just 2 to 4 minutes
To a question he said, The companies such as Caltex, Shell

supplying these pumps to number of people across the country. and PSO get their petrol pumps from their approved and desired suppliers who import these machines which cost almost more than 6 lacks a pump. Those pump owners who are price conscious come to us; not only we give them a cheap solution but also maintain the quality. We have also started to make use of latest technology. By integrating SMS and GPRS system we can update the owner of petrol pumps with the sales at any moment as well as the condition of machines, in case they require maintenance. To a question about government support, he said, Although we have been making these machines for years, government has not yet recognized it as industry. Today, we are also exporting these pumps to other countries such Afghanistan. If our government recognizes this sector, then for sure, we can not

A worker is seen while giving final touches to petrol pump machine

20 MORE November 2011

only produce very aordable pumps but also we will be able to earn a good revenue for Government of Pakistan. >>

Technology >>

November 2011 MORE 21

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Technology

MORE Report

<< This is the question that is on the mind of many smartphone buyers in the market today. Everybody wants to have the best possible OS and the best possible hardware system to go with it. There is no doubt that Google has done a terrific job with Android however if Android is to compete with the already established brand of Apple and the fast gaining windows phone 7 OS it has to play its cards very carefully. Many say that the battle between Apple and Android is similar to the one between Microsoft and Macintosh back in the 1990s. Even back then Apple was adamant on running its software only on its own hardware whereas Microsoft could be run on many PCs thus eventually increasing its market share. Windows was an easier platform to develop on whereas the Macintosh was more dicult to develop on. Similarly today we have the iOS that is more dicult to develop on and tied to Apple devices only while on the other hand we have Android which is actually available for free and far more developer friendly. This brings us back to the question of market share which Microsoft was able to grab in the PC war and Android might grab in the tablet/smartphone war.

running on smartphones of 39 manufacturers, and their more than 300 dierent models. Nokias Symbian comes in second with 22% and Apples iOS with 18%. A recent study by IDC (International Data Corporation) claims that the Windows Phone and its future versions can reach a market share of 20% in 2015, surpassing Apple with 17%. In the tablet market however Apple iPad is the undisputed king of them all. According to a Gartner survey, the iPad has an overwhelming majority of 2011 tablet sales, with 73.4 percent, or nearly 46.7 million in all. Androids total in 2011 will be 17.3 percent, or 11 million. By 2015 however Android will grow to 116 million tablet sales, compared to 148 million for Apple. Windows phone 7 is also poised to make an impact on the smartphone market. According to a survey 40% of smartphone owners intend here to buy one windows phone 7 device in future. So, the competition is by no means an easy one to win.

Technical Aspects:
The Android market oers several apps but they are not as many or as smart as those oered by the Apple app store. However Google oers services like Google docs, Google maps, Google voice and now even Google wallet all seamlessly and deeply integrated into its Android OS. Android has various multi task options which allow you to open several applications and switch back and forth without having to shut any one of them down. Lack of multi tasking

Market share:
Android is the largest operating system in the world. More than 500,000 devices get activated worldwide everyday carrying Android. In the smartphone market it has a 43.4% market share 22 MORE November 2011

Technology >>
Continued from Page 24 - App Development on the iPhone is a common complaint with its customers. Although since Apple fans are religiously attached to it you will seldom hear them getting vocal about it. Apple set the ground for innovation with iPhone and has forever changed the landscape of the smartphone market. There is no denying that but with Android updates coming one after another and the multiplicity of hardware vendors that make multiple devices over the year android appears to be an attractive choice. The hardware systems running Android have generally more processing speeds, better cameras and an extremely aordable peripheral system to go with it making it attractive to the section of society that cannot keep up with the perils of owning an iPhone. Although Apple releases only one update every year it has made the device aordable by oering dierent memory and connectivity options so that it can widen its consumer base. The multiple OS updates meant as a boon are also becoming the bane of the Android market. With updated versions being released so fast vendors have diculty catching up resulting in many devices entering the market with older versions of OS. Android has thought of a way around this with its latest update ice-cream sandwich which tends to give a single solution to Google tv, smartphone and tablet industry. A single platform for updates and releases will ensure less development time and make it simpler for consumers. According to Google there will be fewer releases throughout the year only to fix bugs and make minor adjustments that wont terribly aect the consumers with older versions. Nokia Store rendering it the most popular mobile app store in Pakistan today and theres still so much more room for growth. Telenor Pakistan too held a competition between the software developers and Pakistani students for creating apps in categories such as Games & Fun, Location & Presence, Health & Fitness, etc. Winners were selected on the basis of the most downloaded apps and awarded iPads, smartphones and Rs 5000 worth free airtime! Usman Javed, Director Marketing Telenor Pakistan said on the occasion: Apportunity is all about encouraging young Pakistanis to create apps for the global market. Given an opportunity, our app developers can compete with the best in the world. Already the apps created by the winners have been downloaded thousands of times by people across the globe. Telenor will continue to provide opportunities to the talented youth of Pakistan to enable them to excel in their fields. Ten Pearls another software development company won two competitions in a row by Nokia. One was earlier this year and the other was ANIMAL 101 in the Trivia and Education category of Nokia and AT&Ts Calling All Innovators 2011. It provides children belonging to the age group 2-7 an engaging way of learning about animals. Winners in 2nd place in every category received a cash price of $ 50,000! If any of what I just said should make an impression, it must be that if you are a software developer then for you sky is the limit. The most successful apps today in the world are undoubtedly related to entertainment or games! Developers can get in touch with handset makers and through their app stores reach the international market of millions of potential customers. The app can be marketed through social network platforms such as facebook and once the marketing is done any decent application has a fair chance of taking o well! Pakistan has a vivacious and ambitious youth which can even in limited resources outperform the best in the world. Pakistani software developers prove this every time their success resonates in the apps market worldwide! >> November 2011 MORE 23

Patent issues:
Google is new to the smartphone and tablet industry and the seasoned competitors like Apple, Microsoft and Nokia have more than hundreds of thousand of patents in their name while Google has only a few thousand. The patent violation issue has become a nightmare for companies like Samsung and HTC who have made Android popular by using it as their OS of choice. Apple instead of targeting Google which is a formidable contender owing to its size decided to go after the soft targets with legal battles being fought across the world in Australia, Europe, US and S.Korea against patent infringements by Samsung and HTC. It is rumored that just to get rid of the Apple headache HTC might consider Windows phone 7 OS for its devices instead of Android. HTC already pays Microsoft $5 as license fee on every device it sells. In order to allay the fears of its partners Google first bought patents from IBM and then surprised the market by buying Motorola Mobility. Thus adding 12,000 registered patents to its portfolio. Unless the patent issues are resolved Android vendors may more than compensate for its free license by paying royalties to Apple and Microsoft. I suppose there are too many variables here and since I dont have the crystal ball only time will tell whether Android can come out of it all unscathed. For now the vitals seems pretty strong! >>

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Technology

Saba Asghar Ali

ninja convert poisoned fruit lands into healthy fruit bearing lands meanwhile escaping fruit bombs which can prove fatal in case of contact. They have also made apps for the iPhone and Nokia phones including games like Skitrix, Cricket World Championship 20 and Word Target. On a more national level earlier in the month of October Nokia in collaboration with P@SHA arranged an app development competition between Pakistani software developers. Called Nokia Make MyApp Competition 2011 the << The young generation of software developers in Pakistan is making headlines world over with their creative and lucrative ideas as well as execution of mobile apps development. Pepper.pk an oshoot of the Five Rivers Technologies is their mobile app development division based in Lahore. It has created worlds no 1 app on Blackberry not once or twice but thrice! Had it happened once you couldve called it luck but with three consecutive top spots in the Blackberry App market it is definitely not mere coincidence. Pepper.pk is only 2 years old and according to Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT (P@SHA) it already has 150 applications in its name running over eight dierent platforms including Samsung Bada, iPhone, and iPad, Nokia, Blackberry and J2ME. Last year the app that became the most downloaded Blackberry app was The Photo Editor. As the name clearly suggests its a photo editor that allows you to do some touch ups and increase or decrease the size of your pictures. The second app LED Notifier made its way to the top of the list in the month of April. This app lets you assign any color in the LED spectrum of your Blackberry to a certain person for calls, messages and even emails. Like for instance you can choose pink for your daughters e-mail, blue for your sons message and fiery red for their mothers call! The color notifies who has called or messaged you without even having to actually pick your phone up and look. The third app is a game Ninja fruit bash. Very creative the game has a whole story and original art work to help the 24 MORE November 2011 participants were to make apps in the categories Entertainment/ Fun & Games, Think Green, Business Productivity and Easier Living. The five winners were introduced at P@SHA ICT Awards event and awarded Rs 400,000 each whereas the special winner Umair Cheema was awarded a Nokia E7 and Rs 100,000 as well on his revolutionary app. On the occasion Nokias Head of Marketing in Pakistan Haseeb Ihtisham said, We are overwhelmed by the energetic response that we received from Pakistani developers for this competition. With their highly usable and practical apps, Pakistani Developers are making waves not only in Pakistan but all over the world. Thanks to their persistent eorts, every other day sees a new bundle of Pakistani apps added to the

Continue on Page 23

Mr. Haseeb Ihtisham (1st R), Head of Marketing presents a cheque of PKR 400,000 to Mr. Faisal Iqbal (C) of orison for Highway Racer app

Technology >>

November 2011 MORE 25

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Technology

<< Samsung and Apple have locked their horns in the fiercest corporate battle the world has seen in a very long time. Apple started the whole fiasco when it sued Samsung for infringement of its iPad design patents in a court in Germany. Samsung vowed to fight back with its lawyers applying against the injunction of the Germany court to ban the Samsung Tablet 10 and 7.7. The court upheld the ban and Apple seems to have won in Germany, Australia and Netherlands where Samsungs claims of patent infringement didnt meet with any success. Since then Apple has been able to secure a sales freeze on Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Ace smartphones in 30 European countries. The two are fighting 30 legal battles in 10 countries across the world including Germany, Australia, US, Spain, Japan, France, Italy, S.Korea, Netherlands and UK.

According to the Netherlands court Samsung infringed on Apples photo-flicking patent. Its the way in which photos can be viewed on the smartphone while flipping through them. Keeping this in view Samsung removed this function from all its devices set to sale in Europe and hence can sell Galaxy SII phones as they no more violate the court order now. A Samsung spokesman said, "The court has banned sales of smartphones that contain the related technologies, so we do not need additional approval to sell products that do not contain any technologies that are in dispute." Google itself deleted it from the Ginger bread OS to avoid further patent confrontations with Apple. Samsung also re-designed the galaxy nexus which will soon be in market to protect itself from more law suits over design patents from Apple. Apple took Samsung to court in Spain as well for copying its design patents. Samsung says that apple can hardly own the round corners on a tablet design as it existed before the iPad even saw the light of the day. Whether the court agrees with Samsung or not remains to be seen, however this decision shall have major implications for both the companies in the rest of Europe. Samsung has had enough of Apple patent law suits and it is especially angry about the delays it has caused in the launching of its tablets in Australia and in Europe elsewhere. It has therefore sued Apple in Australia and Japan citing 3G and user interface patents on iPhone 4S as the reason. Samsung said. "Apple has continued to violate our patent rights and free ride on our technology. We will no longer stand idly by and will steadfastly protect our intellectual property." Apple already pays license fees to Samsung regarding the use of some of its patents. Neither Apple nor Samsung has won any suit outright in any of the two countries and as they both await the decision there Samsung has filed patent suits against iPhone 4S in France and Italy too. It is pertinent to mention here that Apple was successful in obtaining

26 MORE November 2011

Technology >>
injunctions so quickly as the patents violated were easier to decide upon but the cases filed by Samsung are more complicated in nature and will require months before a final decision can be made. This brings to memory the battle between Nokia and Apple recently which went on for 20 months before Apple finally decided to pay royalty to Nokia for its patents. It is therefore highly probable that some kind of settlement might be reached between Apple and Samsung too. But for now the game will get much nasty before we can see the end of the rope here. Recently when Apple launched iPhone 4S in Australia Samsung began selling its Galaxy SII at cheap dirt price of $2 for a whole week to the first ten customers that came into the store. People made long queues and some even camped through the night to benefit from the oer. One wonders what all this patent jargon is about and why suddenly the fate of a company has become intertwined with the number of registered patents it holds. It appears that the competition is getting tough for everybody as more and more corporations enter into the IT business. In the present case it appears that Apple has much more reason to worry than Samsung because according to market research firm Strategic Analytics Samsung sold over 20 million models in the recent quarter against Apple which stood at 17 million. This makes Samsung the global industry leader when it comes to smartphones. Galaxy SII and Galaxy tablet 10.1 are the only real competition for Apples iPhone and iPad 2. So the patent war may after all be about Apple getting insecure about its hold on the smatphone /tablet market. The two have other businesses beside the suing business and for now neither wants to disturb it. Samsung makes the A4 and A5 processor used in iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch etc and LCD screens among other components. In patent expert Paul Grahams words, A company that sues competitors for patent infringement is like a defender who has been beaten so thoroughly that he turns to plead with the referee. You don't do that if you can still reach the ball, even if you genuinely believe you've been fouled. So a company threatening patent suits is a company in trouble. Since Apple started the whole thing and revenues for the Korean company have only risen in the past quarter it is fairly easy to see who is in trouble! >> << It seems that Googles appetite has been increased after the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the internet giant wants to strengthen its internet portfolio with acquisition of one of the biggest players in internet, Yahoo! Google has been taking the acquisition so seriously that it has been talking with private equity firms to help it finance the deal to buy Yahoo completely or its core business only. The possibility of the acquisition is there but no formal agreements have been signed, the equity firms have not agreed to the acquisition to date but the mere idea of the current search engine king and the deposed giant coming together to form a mightier force is intriguing in itself. Another point behind this intention could be the behavior of anti-monopoly legislators in Europe and the USA as in my personal opinion coming together of these two companies will thwart competition and may harm the industry. Yahoo has been in financial turmoil despite better third quarter earnings reported by the company. Yahoo cant be in a worse situation than its current state of turmoil as employees are not happy, stock prices are dwindling and no solid product development and innovation eorts are there. The sacking of CEO Carl Bartz has not done any good as it seems the company is preparing itself for a takeover instead of a makeover. Google is not the only party interested in acquiring Yahoo, it is understood that both AOL and Microsoft are also monitoring the situation closely and may bid for the company as and when they seem it fit. Source: apnatime.com >> November 2011 MORE 27

Google interested in acquiring Yahoo

Bilal Sulehri

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Technology

Syed Sarmad Ahmad

<< Floods this season have not just been a disruption of life here in Pakistan. A bout of flooding in Thailand is soon to hit the whole world in the form of Hard Disk Drives (HDD) shortage that will soon aect the computer systems industry the world over. Analysts, industry insiders and journalists are predicting not only a shortage in the availability of HDD but also a sudden rather steep hike in the price of computers in the very near future. Hard Disks are like the cheapest, readily available component of a computer system that many of us dont care for much. However, these floods in Bangkok are about to make Hard Disks a valued commodity. The floods have hit nearly 14000 factories situated in the country and have put more than 660,000 people out of work for a very long time to come. These floods have hit the biggest Hard Disk manufacturers, Western Digital and Seagate, the worst. Western Digital has most of its plants located in the areas that have been hit the worst by these floods and reports claim that it could take more than a month for the flood-water to start receding. If this does happen, this means that the plants cannot start becoming productive again for at least seven to eight months, in case of worse damage or hindrances in rehabilitation it could take even more than that. The CEO of Western Digital, John Coyne, has even gone on to say that there quarterly report could show a dip in of more 28 MORE November 2011

than 60 percent from last years returns, owing to these floods. Senior ocials from Seagate sound o similar bleak predictions about their quarterly statements as well. The Seagate CEO Steve Luczo even said that these eects will show up on multiple quarterly statements in future. Not only will the HDD manufacturing companies be aected, these floods have repercussions for the whole computer systems industry in store too! Companies like Dell, HP and Apple are expecting their PC and laptop manufacturing to be aected badly. Apple, however, is expected to be the least aected because of its use of flash memory for some of its devices, like the iPad. Analysts predict that the world HDD output could reduce by as much as 30 percent in the final three months of the current year, thus starting a cut-throat competition between computer manufacturers to lap up the available sources of HDD and avoid the expected price-hike. So, while the Apple CEO Tim Cook may be not sure how Apple will be aected by these floods and the sudden upheaval in the computer systems industry, we on the consumer end of the spectrum are definitely sure that vendors, at least in Pakistan (oh these money-hungry, greedy business folk!) will halt their supply of even the existing HDDs until the price-hike is final. So brace yourselves and go buy computers NOW, if you were planning to get one in the near future. Source: apnatime.com >>

Technology >>

Although the Information and Communication Technology industry of ours sees something or the other popping up, literally, every second from just about every nook, cranny and abyss, the three hottest, most interesting happenings for me are the ones that I am discussing in my round-up of the very-newsworthy week:

Sony does oust Ericsson from their cell phone partnership

As I had reported earlier that Sony was expected to make a bid to take over the 50/50 partnership between itself and Ericsson in their joint venture Sony Ericsson. Not defying our expectations Sony has exactly done that and for a whole lot of greens too. The company paid about $1.5 billion to Ericsson to buy it out. Well this does leave Sony with the liberty that they wanted to execute their vision with regards to Sony Ericsson phones that had been floundering in the face of smart phone wars between every cell phone manufacturing company. Reports are that the company is all set to plunge into competition with the likes of Apple and Microsoft with the coveted Microsoft-style-strategy based on promoting the cell phones in a tight knit connectivity to laptops, TVs and tablets by the same company.

Nintendo suers because of a drop in Wii sales

The much loved game console of our childhoods, Nintendo, is all set to post a sales loss somewhere in the $1 billion level; at least, this is the word going round the tech and the financial world. A further bad news is that this loss is only for the six-month period of the current fiscal year ending September 30. So what put Nintendo in such a bad position? Pundits are saying that there are two main reasons to which the Japanese gaming giant owes its losses. Firstly, the strength of the Japanese currency Yen is forcing the company, along with many other Japanese firms, to face losses in the foreign exchange as most of their sales are overseas and Yen strength leads to poor exchange! Secondly, the companys Wii and Nintendo DS are not as much of hot sellers as they used to be so the Japanese firm is accruing further losses. Hope they recover soon as we cannot bear the thought of a childhood memory to exist no more, even though we may (or may not) have moved on.

Windows XP turns 10, remains as strong as ever

Yes! The much loved version of the largest selling operating system is 10 years old. Windows XP was launched on October 25, 2001 and was then touted as the best operating system by Microsoft. 10 years on, we still believe it is. While many newer and more current operating systems exist in the market, and supposedly many believe that Windows 7 is the new XP, there is no denying that the original Windows XP is still a force to reckon with. Its user-friendly interface and ability to run just about any software helps heaps, and then there is also the fact that it is still the most widely used operating system surpassing 7 and the much ridiculed Windows Vista (nightmare for me and the reason I reverted back to XP and not leaped ahead to 7). More power to Microsoft, more power to XP and much respect, Mr. Gates for your Windows! Source: apnatime.com

November 2011 MORE 29

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Telecom

Pakistan's USF program has set out and achieved ambitious targets, including in some challenging operating environments, and therefore is considered to be among the leading countries where USF has succeeded The World Bank- 2011
<< For bridging the telecom access gap, many countries in South Asia, Latin America and Africa have been running schemes for providing subsidy (or grant) to private operators and bidding the subsidy on competitive basis to keep the cost as low as possible. In order to initiate the same practice in Pakistan, Universal Service Fund was established by the Government of Pakistan (Ministry of Information Technology) for the development of telecommunication services in unserved and under-served areas in 2006. This fund consists of contributions (1.5% of adjusted revenues) by the Telecom Operators with no Government funding involved. Before the establishment of USF, there was a general belief that initiatives taken by public sector in Pakistan are either too short-sighted or do not sustain for long due to lack of funds and weak implementation procedure. The introduction of USF proved this perception wrong. Although, Pakistan had witnessed phenomenal growth in the telecom sector during the last one decade and had more than 63% tele-density, there were still areas where telecom services had not reached as they were not commercially viable. Problem was that these areas were the ones that were not only dicult to reach but also required higher investments to provide telecom services. This is 30 MORE November 2011 where USF came in. USF to a great extent has bridged this access gap and proved that even the steps taken by the public sector can be a huge success if taken with intelligent planning. USF, which consists of contributions by Telcos, is implemented through USF Company, which has an independent Board of Directors, equally balanced between Government and Private sector. Currently, USF is running programs worth more than Rs. 17 Billion and advertised programs are worth another few billions - providing basic telephony and data services to thousands of villages, optic fiber connectivity to the Tehsils, broadband internet to hundreds of small towns and cities and bringing broadband to the villages through telecenters. Other than ICT, there is no other way to serve the large and expanding populace, living in rural areas. So far, a lot has been accomplished: 1. In Rural Telecom Program, almost 3,500 previouslyunserved villages have been provided telecom services. 2. In Broadband Program, 256 previously unserved towns now have more than 305,000 USF-funded broadband connections. Subsidy winning service-providers are obliged to provide free Broadband Internet to ALL

Telecom >>

CEO of USF, M r. Pervaiz Iftikha r monitoring th e work on site

higher-secondary schools, libraries and colleges in their areas. So far 897 such institutions have been covered. 3. In Optic Fiber Connectivity Program, 3,370 Kms of Optic Fiber Cables have been laid through subsidy contracts connecting 108 unserved Tehsils with 6,523 kms of cables, mainly in Balochistan. Each and every unserved Tehsil of the country will be fiber-connected. 4. To take Broadband Internet to the villages, USF has launched a Program to establish Universal Tele-Centers (UTCs). This project is attempting to bring the most modern e-Services through broadband, down to the village level. On one side the world recognizes Telecenters to be the only way to bring e-Services to the doorsteps of the rural populations, whereas on the other side, self-sustainable telecenters are dicult to find. 5. And finally, the initiation of USF pilot Project to set-up telemedicine networks around large cities like, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Multan. Through this project, Jinnah Post graduate medical center, Karachi, Nishtar Medical College Multan and Holy Family hospital Rawalpindi will be connected with 12 remote sites to set up three telemedicine networks. The concept of USF has been tried in several countries, but in most cases, it has not been a big success. Pakistans USF is however considered a success story and a model. This is mainly attributable to two factors: 1. Unique USF Pakistan Model, that ensures Public-PrivatePartnership and brings all stakeholders on board 2. Five Basic Principles that are followed by USF Pakistan (a) (b) Absolute transparency Allocation of Subsidies only through open competitive bidding

(c) (d)

Technology Neutral Obligatory Infrastructure Sharing (e) Half-yearly audits of USF Co. (not a single audit observation in 4 years).

It is important to mention here that the success of USF Pakistan specially stands out when one considers the numerous obstacles (war on terror, security situation, global and domestic economic downturn, energy crisis, unprecedented floods, etc.) that have to be faced, especially in most remote areas in Pakistan. USF understands that the challenge is even bigger for the service providers. So USF continues eorts to make it somewhat easier for them. For instance in the basic rural telecom program, as one goes into more remote and dicult areas, USF is now also oering a large part of operating expenditures in the first 3 years (previously only capital expenditure was given), renewable power has been made obligatory, no reserve prices in the auctions, etc. etc. Similarly in the Telecenters program, broadband providers will no more be burdened with running of the centers that will be done by rural development organizations. So now it is the service providers who have to venture out a little bit more! Lastly, it is a known fact that Pakistan can only flourish through proliferation of ICTs which is what USF delivers. With profound dedication, it is necessary to put in the best eorts to assist our country in achieving technological prosperity. With the support of Ministry of IT and PTA, it is hoped that USF will excel more and continue to make its contribution towards the progress of our country. If we believe in ourselves, we can meet and conquer every challenge. >> November 2011 MORE 31

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Month in Focus

Ufone and AIESEC join hands to educate youth

<< Taking a step forward to promote environmentally sustainable initiatives, Ufone in collaboration with AIESEC successfully carried out an internationally acclaimed project in Pakistan. The project named 'My World My Choice' has been successfully running under the AIESEC umbrella in Canada and India and this is the first time AIESEC in association with Ufone has brought this initiative to Pakistan. AIESEC is the world's largest youth-run organization and is present in over 110 countries and territories and with over 60,000 members. Focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development, AIESEC oers young people the opportunity to be global citizens, to change the world, and to get experience and skills that matter today. The members of the Ufone Volunteer Group (UVG) along with AIESEC representatives visited various middle schools where the UVGs being mentors, imparted knowledge and indulged in various simulation activities. The project aims to cause a direct impact, working with the children in question to bring a positive change in their lives. This program provides middle and high school students in Lahore the ability to become future leaders in sustainability. Akbar Khan, Chief Marketing Ocer at Ufone said that through such mentor-run classroom presentations, sustainability leadership simulations, and innovative design projects, we enable the leaders of tomorrow to become responsible citizens and empower them with the tools for sustainable decision making and inspiring them into action. The members of the Ufone Volunteer Group expressed their desire to work under such international initiatives in the future claiming that only by educating and guiding the next generation of responsible citizens will they be able to witness a positive change in the social environment of the country. >>

Etisalats chairman honoured with Stevie at International Business Awards

<< Mohammed Omran, chairman, Etisalat, who is the architect of the groups expansion to encompass operations throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia, received the Best Chairman award. Under his leadership, Etisalats customer base has increased from four million in 2004 to 140 million today across 18 markets. Since becoming chairman in 2005, group revenues have enjoyed doubledigit compound annual growth rate to reach AED 31.9 billion (USD $8.7 billion) with a four-year period where CAGR 32 MORE November 2011 exceeded 25% between 2005 and 2008. Etisalats footprint now covers two billion people, nearly one third of the worlds population. Mr. Omran has also guided the group through a diversification programme that has seen Etisalat develop as one of the worlds leading telecommunications companies with the broadest portfolio of products, capabilities and talent. In addition to providing telecommunications services in 18 markets, the groups portfolio of companies also includes submarine

Month in Focus >>

cable maintenance and repair, the Thuraya satellite communications network, and a leading manufacturer of SIM cards among others. Receiving the award Mr. Omran said: Telecommunications transforms economies, businesses, communities and the way people live. Our mission is to bring the future of communications to the most dynamic regions in the world, no matter how challenging or demanding the market, and that requires innovation. Etisalats innovations, such as the launch this week of our cashless payment service by mobile phone, provide a platform for the future of communications, commerce and collaboration, and we are delighted that the International Business Awards has recognised this. He continued: Etisalat is a home for remarkable people. Our success is due to the talented problem-solvers who focus every day on delivering next-generation services that transform the lives of the people who live, work and play on our world-class networks. I thank them for their dedication and ingenuity. In addition to the three top awards, the company also received medals in four other categories: Green Initiative, Corporate Social Responsibility, Telecom Company and Human Resources. The Stevie Awards were created to honour the achievements and raise the profile of exemplary work done by organizations from around the world. The board of judges comprises prominent global industrialists and management experts including Tom Peters and Gary Hamel. >> << Kingston has introduced urDrive, a free pre-loaded application available on a variety of its DataTraveler USB Flash drives. urDrive transforms USB drives from passive storage to engaged, active storage, allowing consumers to easily access and organize their personal files, photos, music, games and videos. A built-in photo viewer and MP3 player make looking at pictures and listening to music easy. urDrive enhances security on the PC with the inclusion of Norton PC Checkup. The diagnostic tool scans for virus infections (including spyware, worms and adware) and checks for slow performance and risks to identity and data. urDrive further enhances the digital experience with the Maxthon 3 Web browser. Maxthon 3 boasts industryleading startup and rendering speeds, and architecture that gives users a truly portable, safe browsing experience. All temp files, history and cookies remain on the drive, keeping browsing private particularly on public computers. urDrive appeals to consumers of all ages, whether they are at work, home or traveling. For example, business professionals can easily access content at work or home and even extend storage capacity beyond the USB with free, additional online backup. The service syncs files from USB to cloud oering backup and access. For family entertainment, urDrive provides access to the latest casual game titles from EA Games and PopCap Games. Busy moms
n n n n

Transforms USB Flash Drive into Active Storage Device

can rest assured that their kids can safely engage in online activities with the Fooz Kids kid-safe web browsing application. Travelers can view, manage and share their growing photo and video albums on the go, while carrying digital copies of critical documents, like passports. urDrive is available as a free, pre-loaded application on Kingstons entry-level DataTraveler 101G2, 108 and 109 USB Flash drives, and soon on the DTIG3. These devices oer consumers a choice in design and capacity, from 4GB to 32GB.

New version of Wi-Drive App

Kingston is also giving a new version of Wi-Drive App. By downloading the latest version, consumers can enjoy the following expanded features on the award-winning Kingston Wi-Drive: Wireless file loading and deleting: File transfers from Wi-Drive hardware to the Wi-Drive App local area and vice versa can be done via Wi-Fi. Recognition of Apple device Open In option: When working with documents, Wi-Drive presents the Open In option so the user can select which App to use to open and copy a file to. Addition of file select and email sending function: User can select and send music, photo, video or document files (up to 10MB size) as email attachments. Minor bug fixes The updated Kingston Wi-Drive App is available now on the App Store, or can be downloaded from the iTunes store: /www.apple.com/asia/itunes/ >> November 2011 MORE 33

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Month in Focus

Intel Pakistan and Meezan Bank bring technology to the masses

<< Intel Pakistan and Meezan Bank have joined hands to oer one-stop Shariah-compliant financing for consumers who purchase Hewlett-Packard laptop computers based on Intel 2ndgeneration Core processors through Meezan Banks Laptop Financing Scheme. Naveed Siraj, Country Manager, Intel Pakistan said, Technology plays a critical role in the development of a country, opening new horizons for economic development, helping to create jobs, and creating brighter opportunities for our children. With Meezan Banks network of more than 230 branches in 63 cities of Pakistan, this program will help to bridge the digital divide and extend the benefits of computing to as many people as possible. Mr. Irfan Siddqui President and CEO Meezan Bank said, Providing Shariah-compliant Consumer Finance products will help us achieve our Vision of Establishing Islamic Banking as Banking of first choice by taking Islamic Banking to the Consumers doorstep; the Laptop Ease scheme will also educate consumers by helping them understand the process of Islamic finance. Features of the Laptop Financing Scheme include fixed payment installments over three to 24 months, with payments as low as Rs. 100 per day, and a two-years warranty, including parts provided by New Horizon and free Takaful (Islamic insurance) cover for damage and theft of laptop. Additionally, dedicated after-sales service will also be provided by New Horizon. >>

United enters Pakistan Mobile Market with Zong

<< Manchester United has signed a three-year partnership with Zong, one of Pakistans leading mobile telecoms companies. The deal will give the Clubs estimated 10 million fans in Pakistan a chance to see all the goals scored, as well as exclusive interviews, news and behind-the-scenes access bringing them closer to Old Traord than ever before. Announcing the deal, Commercial Director Richard Arnold said, Zong is a great partner for United in Pakistan. It is a relatively young company, but has ambitions to be one of the major players in the country and partnering with United will give them high visibility, as well as helping the Club to communicate directly with millions of 34 MORE November 2011 our supporters there. Using our digital assets to engage our global fanbase is an increasinglyimportant part of our commercial strategy and we are very excited about the possibilities presented by this partnership. Sir Alex Ferguson said, The way the Club uses modern technology to reach our millions of fans around the world is outstanding. Zong will be a key player in allowing us to bring the passion and excitement of Manchester United to our fans in Pakistan. Rizwan Akhter, The Director Advertising and Promotions of Zong said This partnership is one of a kind coming from Pakistan and the initiative that Zong has taken to team up with a giant like Manchester United will only lead to prosperity, growth and triumph! For all the glory that is to come, we stand united, to take on all opportunities and victories together as one. Today, we play for the same team! The Chief Financial Ocer of Zong, China Mobile Pakistan, Mr. Feng Tuixian said We see ourselves as an integral part of peoples lives, providing support to over 12 million subscribers. We help them in their business or at work, bringing friends and families closer together, providing quality moments of leisure and recreation while remaining at the cutting edge of technology. We share Manchester Uniteds commitment to be the best among competitors. I am sure this is the start of something very big indeed.

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Zong organized a press conference at Karachi to announce a three-year partnership deal with Manchester United. Picture shows Rizwan Akhter (3rd from right) Director Advertising and Promotions, Usman Ishaq (4th from Right) Director Sales and Distribution, (2nd from left) Amir Pasha - Manager PR along with other ocials of ZONG

Pakistan's cricket captain Misbah-ul Haq and his Sri Lankan counterpart, Tillakaratne Dilshan hold the Mobilink Jazz Cup.

Wateen comes back with new promises and determination

<< Everyone talks about youth today because this segment of society is considered to be the most powerful and full of potential. This is what we also heard at Re-launch ceremony of Wateen Telecom in Lahore on October 31st that carried this slogan, Hello Again. Unlike Wateens previous events, this event was dierent. On the stage there were 3 young people (CEO, CCO and Head of Marketing) briefing the media on the rebirth of once disturbed but the largest WiMax operator in Pakistan. CEO, Naeem Zimindar, who has also worked for Mobilink in the past, started by saying, Pakistan has lots of potential and energy and this energy can be transformed into socialization, education, commerce, technology and health. Talking about the companys strength he said, Wateen is going to revolutionize the entire country and we must not forget that Wateen is well positioned in Pakistan to do so. We have the largest WiMax, Fiber and Cable TV network in Pakistan and we are also the third largest LDI operator in the country. Apart from that, we have 6 TV channels to take care of content management. Mr. Naeem confessed that there were certain loopholes that caused them to re-launch the company today. He said, 36 MORE November 2011 Its not only connectivity but the service as well that we will focus on. During last 11 months we have addressed all the weaknesses, we are more organized and we have reengineered our network to be more customer focused. When WiMax was launched in Pakistan in 2007, it was considered to be a higher end product but in later years, too early price war and non-required competition with fixed line DSL eroded all the healthy margins that changed the game plans. With Wateen going out of scene, Witribe and Qubee continued Naeem Zamindar-CEO, Syed Jibran Ali-CCO, Sohaib Sheikh-Head of Marketing at the event

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competing the fixed line DSL. It was announced at the event that Wateen is going to bring more aordable packages in next few days, so this time we can expect more price reduction. Wateen has entered into contracts with new vendors and selected some quality products. Syed Jibran Ali, CCO of the company said, We have selected Green Packet and Nokia Siemens Network which are considered top quality vendors in the world. Along with the perfect devices, we are going to change ourselves, the mindset and our approach. How to approach and how to deliver the customer will be our focal point and this is what new Wateen is all about today.

Wateens future plans;

Wateen is going to connect all the universities of Pakistan through its fiber optic network Wateen is to introduce Pakistans first cloud computing which will be called Wateen Cloud. Wateen will give primary focus to its voice services in the coming months Wateens website will be changed completely Like other data service providers, Wateen will soon announce discounted packages for the students in Pakistan >>

PTCL wins the Global HR Excellence Award 2011

<< Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) has won the prestigious 2nd Global HR Excellence Award 2011 in recognition of its outstanding organizational performance in the telecom sector. This award is an acknowledgement of PTCLs pioneering eorts undertaken to transform our HR policies and practices, said PTCL Senior Executive Vice President Human Resource, Syed Mazhar Hussain on the occasion. We have won this award because of the tireless eorts of our HR team, which has demonstrated exceptional commitment towards elevating PTCL to new heights of success by overcoming atypical challenges. Proered by Global Media Links and Business Milestones, the Global HR Excellence Awards recognize leading organizations that have achieved excellence in the sphere of Human Resource and Organizational Development. In the post-privatization period, PTCLs organizational transformation has been spearheaded by the companys HR Department, which has played an instrumental role in creating a new momentum and infusing vigor within the organization to bring about a paradigm shift in its organizational culture. The Global Excellence Award has increased PTCLs visibility on Pakistans corporate horizon and enhanced its image vis--vis our employer branding, said PTCL SEVP, Syed Mazhar Hussain. The Awards judges unanimously selected PTCL for this years honor in view of the fast-paced progression of its HR Department, and its exceptional achievements in successfully leading the companys massive post-privatization transition by introducing HR best practices in a very short period of time. Starting with a major rationalization of headcount to introducing a merit culture whereby performance determines the annual salary increments to the employees, our HR department has been at the forefront of our organizational change, said PTCL Executive Vice President Organizational Development, Shahzad Safdar Khan. We now place a strong emphasis on the development of our human capital by providing them with numerous learning opportunities that are in sync with our corporate objectives. In recent years, PTCL has firmly established its reputation for redefining and realigning the industrial relations paradigm. In line with contemporary business requirements, it has led organizational development and employee welfare by successfully creating a win-win situation, both for the employees and the organization, to emerge as an employer of choice. >> November 2011 MORE 37 PTCL ocial recieving HR Excellence Award

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Continued from Page 16 - Mobilink Banana Shop movies in town and showing trailers of upcoming movie to help you make your mind for free, free IFA online app for business men which feeds essential news and government regulatory policies aecting the financial world and it even has a baking application for all those ladies out there who are eager to try their hand at baking for Rs 40 only! For all the cricket lovers out there, get very low data free commentary and live scores of all big T20, Test & ODI cricket matches. Support for Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bangla languages. Not just that if you have an innovative or unique idea for an app but lack the expertise to develop a code for it you can just share the idea with the banana factory and it will put its team of experts on the case. Whatever it earns you will be able to get your marked share. This opens new vistas of entertainment and enterprise for many in Pakistan. I for one would certainly love to find out new deals on takeouts or the latest sales on designer clothes or even new job openings. World over people buy much of what they need online and mobile apps help them find what they need like the Apple store or the Android store etc. Mobilink has braced itself for a 3G war which will ensue once the process of 3G licensing is completed in Pakistan. With high speed internet available on the go many users will be inclined to benefit from such online stores. Mobilink has just taken the first step necessary for preparing its customers and meanwhile attracting other potential customers, pushing up the stakes a little higher for every other company involved in the business. >>

Banana factory:
Its a big ball of fun all wrapped up in the Mobilink skin and the banana factory adds another star to the whole show. It is a place for developers and especially local developers now have a chance to market their products to the world through the Jazz banana app store. If you can develop games or other interesting apps you stand the chance of earning money by marketing your product.

Salman Wassay joins Ufone

<< Director Marketing, Mr. Salman Wassay resigned from Zong in October and moved on for a next big challenge in Ufone. Mr. Abdul Aziz, President and CEO of Ufone announced his appointment as Chief Commercial Ocer (CCO) of the company. The move seems to be very critical at a time when Zong had just recently crossed Warid Telecom in terms of subscriber base. Industry analysts believe that Zong achieved its first milestone in Pakistani Telecom market by introducing some out of the box products. In just few months from the date of its launch, Zong remained in the lime light because of straightforward and heart touching communication with its customers though number of quality campaigns and innovative and lucrative oers. According to a senior ocial at a local cellular company, After crossing Warid, Zongs management found it relatively easier to target Ufone in the coming months. However, considering the gravity of situation, Mr. Abdul Aziz and the Etisalat management has played smartly to deal with the future situation by making commitment with the man who is doing wonders at the moment. The current situation has taken Zongs entire team by surprise as Mr. Wassay becomes third major leading ocial to have left the company during past four months after Mr. Zafar Usmani (Ex-COO, Zong) and Mr. Ali Raza Mehdi (Ex-Director HR, Zong). Under these circumstances, it has become even 38 MORE November 2011 more challenging now for Zong to maintain the same pace especially from the point of view that no one had so far appointed on the positions of COO and Director HR. And now with Mr. Wassay leaving the company, the troika has broken leaving enough vacuum that may aect the future course of the company. With 22 years of vast experience, Salman was the key member of the launch team at Ufone. >>

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Warid Supports National Breast Cancer Awareness Drive

Group photo of Warid female sta at Breast Cancer seminar held in Lahore, aimed at training sta to volunteer and further spread the word around.
<< Continuing to fight against one of the most fatal female cancer in Pakistan, Warid Telecom is again supporting National Breast Cancer Awareness Drive this year in collaboration with Pink Ribbon, Pakistan. Marking October 2011 a Pink Month company-wide, a series of pink activities are planned for both employees and general public to create awareness. A workshop for Warid female sta was organized recently with the mission to train the attendees so they can take care of themselves and can also volunteer to further educate others in their surrounding communities. Warid Customer Service sta at Business Centers in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi are volunteering in distributing awareness material on the fatal Cancer and the importance of its early diagnosis. Companys ocial website carried awareness material for web surfers while a text awareness message was also broadcasted to Warid customers. Battling cancer is one of the most devastating experiences for a woman and her family. They never say and are never told they are cured only in remission. Doing its part earnestly by searching new and creative ways to help local community, Warid Telecom has always shown strong commitment towards the well being of the society. >>

wi-tribe launches a New Customer Care Center in Karachi

<< With an aim to increase convenience and to facilitate its customers, wi-tribe, Pakistans No.1 broadband company, has launched a brand new care center in Bahadurabad, Karachi. Considering the robust population and size of the city, increasing convenience is a need witribe aims to continually address. With an increased range of product oerings including add-ons and services, wi-tribe expands its network in order to reach customers in more ways, hence enabling them to utilize a complete range of amenities, all in one place. By visiting any of the wi-tribe care centers, customers can purchase new 40 MORE November 2011 connections, pay bills, subscribe to addons and services, acquire service support, as well as attain account and package information on the spot. The Mr. Mustafa Peracha (C), CEO wi-tribe Pakistan can been seen in the Picture with his sales teams at the inauguration ceremony of its new customer care center in Bahadurabad, Karachi. recent introduction of new scratch card a denomination also allows customers to pay their bills with greater flexibility. These services and more are also available at the new care center, located at the main Bahadurabad roundabout. Speaking on the occasion, Customer Care Director, Umair Ahmed, said that we are very pleased to launch our new care center in a well-known area of Karachi, allowing us to continue delivering the highest quality of products and services to the residents of Bahadurabad. With this in mind, we are closer to our aim of continuously providing the best services to our valuable customers. >>

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