Alert: Telenor to Charge Rs. 2 for Helpline Calls, Even More in fact!: ProPakistani

Alert: Telenor to Charge Rs. 2 for Helpline Calls, Even More in fact!
Clash of Titans: PTA High-Ups get Head to Head
Warid Announces All Pakistan Tape Ball GLOW Kricket Tournament 2011
PTA Issues List of Telecom Equipment for Type Approval
Intel Unveils Thunder Bolt Technology: 10 GBps File Transfers
Warid Introduces MircoSIM

Alert: Telenor to Charge Rs. 2 for Helpline Calls, Even More in fact!

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 06:44 AM PDT

Alert: Telenor to Charge Rs. 2 for Helpline Calls, Even More in fact! is a post from: ProPakistani

Telenor, in an advertisement published recently, said that they will charge helpline calls at Rs. 2.39 including taxes, from April 09, 2011.

These Rs. 2.39 charges would be in addition to IVR charges of 28 paisas.

If you are little confused, read on to better understand the charging mechanism,

If you call helpline and don't speak with CRO:

25 Paisas + 3 paisas (taxes) = 28 paisas

If you dial 345, you will be charged 28 paisas straight away. Meaning that you will be charged 28 paisas for listening to IVR. If you don't speak with Customer Representative officer, your total charges will be 28 paisas and that's it.

Speaking with CRO:

Rs. 2 + 39 paisas (taxes) + 28 Paisas (IVR charges) = Rs. 2.79

if you connect to Customer Representative officer, you will be charged Rs. 2.39 (including taxes) plus the IVR charges, which are 28 paisas. So your total charges will be Rs. 2.79 to seek help from your own operator.

Why Charges on Helpline Calls:

Though, a common man can't understand the idea of charging helpline calls, but Telenor in its announcement said:

"To keep our valued subscribers enjoying the best customer care services, we are announcing a revision in our existing call rates"

So apparently it looks that Telenor may employ more CROs to make your helpline calling experience little better, but wait, that's what they said last time – when they increased helpline call charges from 50 paisa to Rs. 1.00.

I think we better not comment on how much the quality of service has improved since then, instead we would recommend you to read this guide if you want to decrease wait time during helpline calls.

By the way, Mobilink is also charging Rs. 2 for helpline calls.

Telenor Call charges to customer center thumb Alert: Telenor to Charge Rs. 2 for Helpline Calls, Even More in fact!

Image via PakTelecom

Clash of Titans: PTA High-Ups get Head to Head

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 01:43 AM PDT

Clash of Titans: PTA High-Ups get Head to Head is a post from: ProPakistani

wrestling Clash of Titans: PTA High Ups get Head to Head There are good chances that you might have already gone through recent news reports regarding Chairman PTA and the members of authority, particularly the one we saw last week and another in today's edition.

It is apparent that the bureaucracy at regulator's office is up for a conflict and result has been obvious so far: i.e. plenty of news leaks, damage to organization's repute and hindrances in the work flow.

From what we have heard from our sources, this all started when Chairman revised the administrative hierarchy at PTA's head office and confined finance member's powers. All DGs were made to report directly to Chairman himself.

This happened in May 2010, however, the news never surfaced on main stream, until it got published in 'The News' on January 30th, 2011.

'The News' reports in its January 30th edition:

Appointed by President Zardari in May 2008 as chairman of PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yasin, in blatant violation of PTA rules, took over all administrative powers of PTA through a notification in May this year and started his spending spree costing PTA Rs. 704 million so far.

The Cabinet Division, the controlling ministry of PTA, took note of the situation and wrote to him several times while the PAC also took up the issue, but the arrogant chairman has ignored everybody.

Cabinet Division sources disclosed that after the June 2010 audit, the chairman PTA to-date has made an expenditure of Rs600 million. In May he spent Rs104 million without any authorization and powers and this may lead to one of the biggest scandals of the telecom industry.

According to this news, in other words, Chairman PTA revised authority's power rule and started spending money without getting approval from member finance.

From our sources, we can confirm that finance member's powers of approving financial transactions were taken back and a DG from finance division was made responsible for approving the cash inflows/outflows.

Here came Cabinet Division into play and asked Chairman to restore finance member's powers, in accordance to telecom act.

This brought lot of pressure on Chairman's (through cabinet division), and ultimately he restored finance member's powers in late February 2011.

A source placed in PTA confirmed us that Chairman, through a directive, made it mandatory for finance member's approval for financial matters, but only for those involving amount over Rs. 500,000.

At this, 'The News' came up with another story on March 06, 2011, and said:

Despite a week long hectic persuasive sessions by the Cabinet Division Secretary Nargis Sethi, PTA Chairman Dr. Mohammad Yaseen has withdrawn just a portion of his much controversial internal order of May 14th, 2010, pertaining to power sharing among the chairman and the two members of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), thus still keeping a greater part of the administrative powers in own his hands.

It further said:

Out of five total bullet points of the controversial May 14 order, three points (2,3 and 5) have been withdrawn while two bullet points i.e. 1 and 4 have been left to be resolve under a plea that these two points could only be withdrawn after obtaining legal opinion from the Ministry of Justice & Law.

So till now, Chairman PTA was taking the media beating, but today – he decided to fire his ammo when a news report got published (in March 14th, 2011 edition) which reads:

A senior official of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been accused by his own chairman of causing huge financial losses of Rs 7.609 billion to the national exchequer by extending undue favors to some preferred telecommunication companies of the country.

In an official report prepared by PTA chairman Dr Mohammad Yaseen and submitted to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani by the federal cabinet division, it has been recommended that PTA Member (Finance) SNK Ghaznavi be suspended immediately till the completion of an enquiry to be conducted by the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) for having committed gross negligence and misconduct, and causing huge financial losses to the federal kitty.

According to the report, which in fact discusses the performance of the member finance, the national exchequer has suffered a huge loss of Rs 5.55 billion due to failure in recovery of revenue from Wireless Local Loop (WLL) license holders; Rs 530.816 million due to non-encashment of Stand By Letter of Credit (SBLC); Rs628.93 million due to failure in revenue collection from small companies; Rs 820.918 million due to erroneous deposit of Federal Consolidated Funds (FCF) and another Rs 80 million loss due to embezzlement.

Now it is quite apparent that who were scooping the news leaks, and for what purposes.

After today's story, it looks that this tussle is not settling in near future and we may keep getting such inside stories from PTA, which are pretty interesting by the way, for instance read below:

"A huge amount of recovery/receivables have not been fully collected since 2005 and PTA is issuing belated show-cause notices now and filling the recovery cases in the courts whereas many of the operators have already left their companies and sold their shares which have now made the issue more and more complicated since the recovery cannot be made from them".

This is how the report sent by Chairman PTA unearths authority's inability to recover money from telecom operators.

"The number of licenses issued by PTA was not reconciled between licensing and finance divisions of PTA as the member finance did not take any action as a result of which the finance division did not even know about so many licensees and therefore did not issue them any demand note," the report further says.

Now this is a wow situation; an operator got a license but was not billed for it. This is the utter thing that can happen on earth.

Okay this report has reached Prime Minister of Pakistan, who is again a government official, so don't expect any miracle from his side. However, do wait for another episode of news scoop from F-5 office in coming days.

Warid Announces All Pakistan Tape Ball GLOW Kricket Tournament 2011

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 01:40 AM PDT

Warid Announces All Pakistan Tape Ball GLOW Kricket Tournament 2011 is a post from: ProPakistani

Warid Telecom today announced the launch of GLOW Kricket Tournament starting from 15th March 2011. Announcement was made in a press conference held this Monday in Royal Palm, Golf and Country Club, Lahore.

This tournament is one of the largest events of such magnitude in Pakistan in which over 320 Universities and Colleges from all over Pakistan are participating with over 6000 players, 320 teams.

This tournament is organized in collaboration with Punjab Olympic Association and will be played in 12 different cities of Pakistan.

While interacting with media Mr. Amer Aman , Head of Sales, Warid Telecom said

"At Warid we are always probing on the best options to support our talented youth and provide them with a platform that helps unleashing their talents. Our youth is strongly connected with cricket in Pakistan and we believe that this country is greatly rich in terms of its human capital, with the best talent in the world and certainly our youth is our future.

By the virtue of our youth focused brand GLOW, we are deeply associated with the dynamic preferences of our youngsters. At the end we don't just take it as 'numbers game' and our approach towards understanding our youth in true spirit is broader enough to bring them physical means.

As a responsible corporate organization we are committed and our supporting this large tournament reflects our earnest desire to promote the young leaders of Pakistan. Warid is all set to serve its community and we have some very exciting plans for future as well."

Glow is broadly admired by youngsters for its tailor made products and services. It is the most active brand of society that is involved in doing a lot of different activities to support the youth of Pakistan. Glow recently organized 3rd Inter School and Inter collegiate games in which over 225 schools and colleges participated.

Warid Glow also sponsored 'Pakistan Racer Hunt' SLUMS (Sports Society of Lahore University of Management Sciences), GCU (Government College University), Superior Group of Colleges, FCC (Foraminate Christian College) and many others.

To share cricket enthusiasm Glow also introduced a new SMS bundle, 100 SMS @ 50 paisas/day to any number, any network in Pakistan. Also an interesting IVR based VAS called 'Fantasy Cricket' is launched that can be accessed by calling 1200. This exciting service brings Warid customers more closer to live cricket experience. Fantasy Cricket is based on International Cricket series events including Test Matches, ODIs and T20s. The game offers lots of attractive prizes to game winners every month.

For Warid customer's travelling to World Cup destinations company has also introduced exclusive discounted International roaming rates for roaming in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Not only this, Warid is also offering the most competitive international dialing rates for calling Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. (Bangladesh for as low as Rs 6/min on landline and Rs 7/min on Mobile, India Rs 6/min on landline and Rs 5/min on mobile, Sri Lanka Rs 10.24/min on landline and Rs 12.14/min on mobile)

Continuously exploring the best ways to serve the dynamic needs of active youth who always desire more from their connection, Warid Glow proves to be a brand full of energy that is unparalleled and smartly positioned to best cater the communication needs of our young leaders.

PTA Issues List of Telecom Equipment for Type Approval

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 09:35 PM PDT

PTA Issues List of Telecom Equipment for Type Approval is a post from: ProPakistani

32811 PTA Issues List of Telecom Equipment for Type Approval Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has updated the list of advanced Telecom Equipment, which is subject of its type approval by its manufacturers, importers and users for the purpose of trade and operate within the boundaries and airspace of the country.

The authority has identified equipment of eight categories under its type approval with varied fees separate for imported and locally-manufactured telecom equipment.

Type Approval is granted to a product that meets a minimum set of regulatory, technical and safety requirements.

Generally, type approval is required before a product is allowed to be sold in a particular country. Further approval or no-objection certificates are is issued to users of the equipment by the authority.

Local manufacturers, importers and users are provided certificates while maintaining full details and information about equipment and accessories supplies, its purpose of use and place of installation.

PTA's regulation said that "It issues Type Approval Certificate to any person, class of persons, company or corporation.

Any concealment of material facts, whatever may be, by the applicant or his agent at the time of submitting application or thereafter shall render the certificate liable to be cancelled, PTA Type Approval Regulations 2004 added.

The telecom watchdog special test committee assesses the functions of telecom equipment against the providing details and its purpose of use by the applicants,

Following are categories for Type Approval Telecom Equipment

1. Wireless Module

This category will include module used for data communication using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE, 3G (HSDPA) and other such terminal modules. It fees are set at US $ 100 for imported and Rs 5000 for locally-made items.

2. Wireless Radio Sets

Radio device like Toys, I.T equipment or any portable device where two way communications is involved, and whose working range is up to 50 meters will be allowed to operate on non-interference basis without getting any type approval. However all other radio equipment will be type approved. The charges are fixed at US $ 500 for imported and RS 5,000 for local brands.

3. Vehicle Security Devices

This will include the Vehicle Tracking Device, Remote Keyless Entry System devices and other such terminal equipment. The fees are set at US $ 100 for imported and Rs 5,000 for local brands.

4. RFID Equipment

RFID equipment are type approved operating in approved RFID bands. The fees are fixed at US $ 100 for imported and Rs 5,000 for locally-made equipment.

5. VoIP Terminal Equipment

This category contains only the desktop IP Phones. Other such terminal equipment can be added whenever required. The authority has set charges for type approval at US $ 500 for imported and Rs 5,000 for local brands.

6. Fixed Wireless Terminal Equipment

This category includes CDMA Desktop Phone, GSM Gateway and other such terminal equipment. PTA will issue Type Approval certificates at US $ 100 for imported and RS 5,000 for local item.

7. Broadband Terminal Equipment

This includes the WiMAX Terminal, Wi-Fi Terminal, CDMA USB/PCMCIA Modems and other such terminal equipments. The type approval fees will be US $ 100 and Rs 5,000 for imported and local items.

8. PABX/IP-PBX

This category contains the PABX/IP-PBX and other such terminal equipments can be added whenever required. The type approval fees have been set at US $ 500 and Rs 5,000 for imported and local machines, however US $ 100 and Rs 1,000 will be charged separately for additional 1,000 lines.

Intel Unveils Thunder Bolt Technology: 10 GBps File Transfers

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 09:30 PM PDT

Intel Unveils Thunder Bolt Technology: 10 GBps File Transfers is a post from: ProPakistani

The need for high speed transfer of data has spurred many technologies like eSATA and USB 3.0 but Intel's newest offering might just one up the others.

Codenamed Light Peak, Intel has launched it under the title Thunder Bolt. The reason to be excited about this particular technology is that it features two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to 10Gbps each.

It allows external devices to connect directly to the PCI-e interface on computers, which allows for the incredibly fast transfer speeds. The interface also provides power so users don't have to worry about connecting extra power adapters to external hard drives. Thunderbolt is compatible with existing DisplayPort displays and adaptors.

clip image0011 Intel Unveils Thunder Bolt Technology: 10 GBps File Transfers

According to Intel, Thunderbolt's speeds will allow users to transfer a full high-definition movie (between 10 gigabytes and 20 gigabytes in size) in less than 30 seconds.

Intel also says that the interface is backward compatible with other standards; it depends only on the cable used. Using the appropriate adapter to the port Thunderbolt can connect any accessories designed to work with USB 2.0, FireWire, or eSATA.

Apple is the first company to have adopted the new technology. Their updated line of Mac Book Pros has Thunderbolt connectivity. LaCie have also released a hard drive compatible with Thunderbolt. Other manufacturers like Western Digital have entered contracts to use it and are expected to adopt it later this year or by early 2012 at most.

Warid Introduces MircoSIM

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 09:29 PM PDT

Warid Introduces MircoSIM is a post from: ProPakistani

micro sim glow Warid Introduces MircoSIM After Ufone, Warid has also introduced MicroSIMs, primarily used for iPhone 4 and iPad devices.

Warid says that its MicroSIMs are designed for use in the iPhone4, iPad 1 & iPad 2 and all other Micro SIM compatible devices.

Price:

This 32KB MicroSIM from Warid is priced at Rs. 500, little pricy!

Availability:

These SIMs are currently available at Warid Business centers in the following cities:
- Lahore
- Gujranwala
- Faisalabad
- Multan
- Islamabad
- Peshawar
- Karachi
- Hyderabad
SIMs are available in limited stock only