The World’s Number 1 Best Selling BlackBerry Application is ‘Made in Pakistan’!: ProPakistani

The World’s Number 1 Best Selling BlackBerry Application is ‘Made in Pakistan’!
Sardar Aseff Ali Designated as IT and Telecom Minister
Now Use Twitter Via SMS [Mobilink Users Only]
Cellular Companies Urge not to Pay USF and R&D Fund

The World’s Number 1 Best Selling BlackBerry Application is ‘Made in Pakistan’!

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:58 PM PST

The World’s Number 1 Best Selling BlackBerry Application is ‘Made in Pakistan’! is a post from: ProPakistani

Photo Editor, the World's number one seller, in all categories, on Blackberry App Store happens to be 'Made in Pakistan'.

Developed by a Lahore-based software company Pepper.PK, the Photo Editor for blackberry has made it to the top of list for paid applications.

Tech Lahore has detailed post on the topic, it says:

Pakistan's IT industry has come a long, long way. The capabilities and skills of our companies are developing not just in the area of software engineering, but project management, product marketing and promotion.

It's no easy feat to leave HUGE names like Facebook and Monopoly, among dozens of others, behind! But what Pepper.pk's laudable achievement proves is that not only are Pakistan based software companies ultra-competitive, they are, quite literally, second to none.

Sardar Aseff Ali Designated as IT and Telecom Minister

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:30 PM PST

Sardar Aseff Ali Designated as IT and Telecom Minister is a post from: ProPakistani

Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali has been designated as Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication, reported Telecom Recorder.

Earlier, Sardar Latif Khan Khosa was deputed as Minister In-charge of the federal ministry, who retained the portfolio for brief period of five months amid serious tussles with the bureaucracy of the ministry.

He continued to serve as Advisor of MoITT for couple of months after he was removed as minister in-charge by PM on serious allegation of corruption and mismanagement against him.

Assef Ahmed served the country as Federal Education Minister earlier, however, he has been handed over the charge of MoITT subsequently his ministry has been declared as provincial subject and dissolved at federal level.

In his tenure, Sardar Assef Ahmed had been under fire as minister on the issue of fake degrees. He continued to challenge the functions and mandate of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Standing Committee of National Assembly on Education Affairs for their action against fake degree holding MNAs and MPS.

For further reading: Telecom Recorder, Wikipedia

Now Use Twitter Via SMS [Mobilink Users Only]

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 10:01 AM PST

Now Use Twitter Via SMS [Mobilink Users Only] is a post from: ProPakistani

Mobilink has become first operator in Pakistan to officially support SMS-based access to twitter services in Pakistan.

Till now users in Pakistan could send/receive tweets on phones through GPRS or third-party solutions such as Mobi2Tweet, Pring, iSMS and others.

With the inclusion of Mobilink in the Twitter's list of official carriers, while others gonna follow this, there are good chances of boost in Twitter usage in the country.

How to Register your number:

First thing: For now, you need to have a Mobilink account (assuming you are already a twitter account holder).

Once you are logged in on Twitter, point your browsers to this link: http://twitter.com/devices
choose 'Pakistan' as country
Enter your phone number and let the carrier as preselected 'Mobilink' and follow the wizard to complete registration.

After Registration you will be enabled to

Send tweets with text messaging on your phone.
Receive texts for DMs and the tweets from users you want to be notified about.

Twitter commands

Send SMS on 40404 with following commands:

FOLLOW username > Start following a user
UNFOLLOW username > Stop following a user
ON/OFF > Turn all Tweet notifications on or off
ON/OFF username > Set Tweet notifications for a user on or off (you’ll still be following
them even if you set it to off)
GET username > Shows you the latest tweet from any user
RT username > Retweet a user’s latest tweet
FAV username > Favorite a user’s latest tweet
D username your-message > Send a direct message to a user

Tariff:

Charges for sending SMS to 40404 is Rs. 1 plus tax

Cellular Companies Urge not to Pay USF and R&D Fund

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 06:00 AM PST

Cellular Companies Urge not to Pay USF and R&D Fund is a post from: ProPakistani

Development projects by USF, worth more than Rs. 15 billion, came to a halt about nine months ago, resulting in non-utilization of Universal Service Fund (USF), reported 'Dawn'.

As a result, telecommunication companies have threatened to stop making mandatory contributions in the form of access promotion charges to the USF which has now swelled to over Rs. 35 billion.

At least four leading companies are on record as having asked the government to stop collecting USF contributions for subsidizing telecom access in less developed areas under international obligations that envisage providing telecom and IT facilities to all citizens as a basic right.

"We propose that the further collection of USF and R&D contribution may kindly be capped till the current funds are efficiently consumed," said a joint letter sent to the ministry of information technology and telecom by the four companies Mobilink, Telenor, Warid and China Mobile.

Dawn further reports that the USF has not awarded any contract for the launch of rural telecom services, broadband access, laying of optic fibre cables and multi-purpose community telecentres in more than 6,000 villages since March this year.

Similar projects in about 3,000 villages could not be completed or put into operation because the USF board of directors has failed to hold its meeting since March. In many cases, the bidding process has been completed but contracts could not be signed because of a legal authorization that the board of directors have to issue.

Interestingly, the USF has not been able to get its annual budget approved either by the government or its board of directors and has exhausted its reserve money while paying the staff salaries. The employees are unlikely to get salaries next month.

The USF is run on an ad hoc basis by a chief executive officer whose contract expired a few months ago. Its sister organization the IT Research and Development is without a head for almost a year.