Breaking: Link Dot Net Considering to Quit Operations in Pakistan: ProPakistani

Breaking: Link Dot Net Considering to Quit Operations in Pakistan
3G Auction to be Timely and Fair: Pervaiz Ashraf
Djuice, Qualcomm Conduct Mobile App Development Workshop
PTCL Holds Painting Exhibition on Energy Conservation
Zardari Meets ZTE Delegation
Google Drive Launched, Officially!
Mobilink Rewards its Retailers

Breaking: Link Dot Net Considering to Quit Operations in Pakistan

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 11:32 PM PDT

Link Dot Net, Orascom's fully owned subsidiary for DSL broadband services and sister concerns of Mobilink, is considering to wrap up its operations in Pakistan, amid low returns and to shift the group focus on core cellular services and branchless banking.

Sources familiar with the development have confirmed ProPakistani that LDN has decided in principle to exit Pakistani market.

Link Dot Net has DSL operations and a WiMAX license through Dancom, which it might quit, told us a company official.

However, final decision is yet to come after annual board meeting of Pakistan Mobile Communication Limited, a company under which Orascom operates in Pakistan. Meeting is scheduled for May 15th, 2012 in Islamabad.

Another source in the company told ProPakistani that decision is yet to be made, hence nothing can be said as of now. But yes, group is considering an option to quit operations in Pakistan.

Orascom had bought World On Line and Dancom to offer DSL broadband services in Pakistan. Link Dot Net, after in operations, has been facing tough competition from PTCL, country's largest DSL broadband service provider. In addition to competition, analysts say, LDN was victim of anti-competitive practices by the telecom giant.

Update:

Link Dot Net has a WiMAX license, we were just told, though Dancom, which it is considering to quit.

Mobilink Infinity won't be impacted with the decision.

3G Auction to be Timely and Fair: Pervaiz Ashraf

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 11:30 PM PDT

Federal Minister for Information Technology Raja Pervez Ashraf held an interactive session in Ministry of Information Technology with its officials on Tuesday.

Minister IT and Telecom, on the occasion, said that the would try his level best to ensure the timely and fair auction of 3G licenses. Though he didn't give any deadline, something he is largely known for.

He said it was big challenge for him to under-take this challenging task of uplift of the IT Ministry. He said his first and foremost effort would be to spread the network of IT in each and every corner of Pakistan including far off areas of Gilgit–Baltistan.

E-governance is the governance of tomorrow and the government would try its utmost to introduce e-governance in almost all sectors of Pakistan and CDA would be made first model.

He said his main focus would be on timely completion of various best policies of the IT.
He said the government is fully committed to launch various pilot projects of e-governance in country and computerization of whole of revenue system including Patwar-khanas would be encouraged by federal government.

Djuice, Qualcomm Conduct Mobile App Development Workshop

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 11:25 PM PDT

djuice has launched a series of free mobile application ('app') development workshops for university students. As part of the initiative Qualcomm, a wireless technology and services provider, held their first workshop at a local hotel.

djuice is running the workshops to help students prepare for the Apportunity 2012 contest 'APP Mein Kitna Hai Dum!' – launched earlier this month – by providing them hands-on experience of app development.

The ultimate aim is to provide opportunities to Pakistan's youth enabling them to showcase their skill and talent at the global level.

The workshop was attended by students from Iqra University, NUST School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Comsats, FAST, and International Islamic University; it provided training on Augmented Reality technology and how it can be integrated into mobile apps.

Speaking on the occasion, Usman Javaid, Director Marketing Telenor Pakistan appreciated the interest of Qualcomm — one of the world’s leading providers of technology to the mobile industry and to application developers — to work with djuice on providing a platform for local talent to shine. "djuice welcomes Qualcomm as a partner to offer opportunities to Pakistan's youth to learn and excel in their fields. We appreciate the effort Qualcomm is putting into these workshops and look forward to working with them."

Ziad Matar, Qualcomm's Senior Director and Head of Middle East and Central Asia Region also addressed the participants.

djuice and Qualcomm together plan to conduct more workshops in Lahore and Karachi over the next two months.

PTCL Holds Painting Exhibition on Energy Conservation

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 11:20 PM PDT

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) held a painting exhibition on the theme of "Energy Conservation for Future Generations" for its employees and their families as part of its employee engagement drive.

Held at the PTCL Headquarters, the colorful exhibition was inaugurated by PTCL President & CEO, Mr. Walid Irshaid. Senior Executive Vice President HR, Mr. Syed Mazhar Hussain; Director Jharoka Art Gallery, Mrs. Nahida Raza; Senior Art Professor, Ms. Geytee Ara; and Contemporary Artist & Curator, Ms. Shehlla Moazzam were also present on the occasion.

More than 500 paintings were submitted by PTCL employees and their families from all over Pakistan, which were evaluated by the guest artists. Of these, 40 paintings have been short-listed from all regions for participation in the final event of the 'Painting Extravaganza' to be held later this month.

Following its inauguration, the exhibition was opened for all employees to visit along with their families and enjoy the colorful display of paintings depicting PTCL's rich diversity of age groups and regions.

Zardari Meets ZTE Delegation

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:57 PM PDT

Read this post in Urdu

A delegation of Zhongxing Telecom (ZTE) headed by Mr. Zhang RenJun, Senior Vice President, called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Bilawal House Karachi on Monday.

Zhang RenJun was accompanied by M. Luo PingFan, President South East Asia, Peng Aiguang, CEO ZTE Pakistan and Najeeb Sadiq, Executive Director ZTE.

Federal Ministers Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Senator A. Rehman Malik, Syed Naveed Qamar and Dr. Asim were also present during the meeting besides other senior officials of the concerned departments. Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar was also present.

Briefing about the meeting Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said that Zhang RenJun briefed the President about his company's business in Pakistan in the telecom sector.

The President appreciated their interest in further expanding their business in Pakistan reiterating that the Government would provide all possible facilitation to the foreign investors. He said that Pakistan offered excellent investment and business opportunities and would welcome Chinese investment in all the sectors especially in introduction of the latest telecom technology.

Zhang RenJun thanked the President for meeting and appreciated Government's support to them in their business pursuits.

To read more, click: Zardari Meets ZTE Delegation
ProPakistani.PK

Google Drive Launched, Officially!

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:36 PM PDT

The much rumored Google drive has been made official at last. It will offer 5GB of storage space for any file including documents, videos or photos and the service will integrate with Google Docs.

In simple words, Google Drive is an off-site storage where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you're working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload, access and share all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

There are a variety of paid plans available too. You can get started with 5GB of storage for free or choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month.

When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.

Storage Space	Price
25GB	$2.49/month
100GB	$4.99/month
1TB	$49.99/month

What Google Drive does is offer you an online storage and basically it could work as a folder on your computer in which all content would be uploaded to your Google Drive. Then you would be able to access that content from anywhere. A rundown of the main features is given below.

Google Docs Integration:

Google Docs integration with Google Drive means that you will be able to collaborate with other people in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. You can share content with others and receive notifications when somebody comments on your documents or files and also add and reply to comments.

OCR and Image Recognition:

An interesting feature is the ability to recognize text in your documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This means that you will be able to search text from scanned documents as well as text from other images you upload. Not only that, it offers image recognition as well which means that you can upload photos and later search according to location.

Smart Tagging:

"Smart tagging" can be used on content on your Google Drive. You can tag content and later when searching, it will show up in your search. Searches can be conducted by keyword, filtered by file type, owner, and other criteria.

Support for 30+ file types:

Regardless of whether you have the software or not, Google Drive can open files of more than 30 types in your browser, a very neat feature. So anything like files from Photoshop, Illustrator or High Definition video will be easily viewable without leaving the browser window.

Google Drive versus DropBox:

Most of the people who are familiar with DropBox will be wondering how Google Drive is any different. Well, there isn't much difference in basic functionality since both feature the same Drag-and-Drop syncing abilities.

The main difference is the amount of free storage offered, 5GB for Google Drive and 2GB for DropBox, and the set of features Drive offers (given above). The tight integration Google Drive will have with the whole Google universe, i-e Google+, Android, Gmail etc will be a big factor. By integration of all Google services, people will find themselves using Drive more and more often.

Just consider a function we'll soon have: Users will be able to attach files from their Drive directly in email as attachments.

Furthermore, Google says that it is working with third-party developers to allow users to "send faxes, edit videos, and create website mockups directly from Drive." But the third party apps currently available for DropBox make a compelling case for it as well. Not to mention that since DropBox has been in online storage for a while and Google just entered the market, the desktop version of DropBox is arguably better than Google Drive's.

So it would really come down to personal choice rather than a clear cut winner. I doubt heavy DropBox users will flood to Drive. However for users who did a lot of work with Google Docs will find that Drive is a solid product.

Google Drive is currently offered for both Macs and PCs and an Android app is available as well. An iOS app is in the pipeline and is expected to debut in the coming weeks.

You can access and configure your Drive here: https://drive.google.com/start

To read more, click: Google Drive Launched, Officially!
ProPakistani.PK

Mobilink Rewards its Retailers

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:22 PM PDT

Propakistani thumb Mobilink Rewards its Retailers Mobilink recently organized events to mark the success of its retailers of Jazz Inami Hungama Promo. The winning retailers were given the prizes in two ceremonies held in Mardan and Peshawar where Singers and comedian also performed.

The Grand prize of 800 CC Suzuki Mehran was won by Retailer Mansoor Khan from Temaragarh. The three 70 CC motorcycles were won by retailers from Swat, Bannu & D I Khan. In addition Super & easy prizes were also distributed among winning retailers by Management.

Speaking at occasion Regional Director congratulated the winning retailers. He also thanked the retailers for their level of participation in retailers promo & assured that such promos would be announced from time to time.