Nokia to Hold a Global (Handset) Launch Event in Pakistan: ProPakistani

Nokia to Hold a Global (Handset) Launch Event in Pakistan
Glow Supports Young Media Leaders
Protection from SPAM, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulation 2012
Telenor Pakistan’s Revenues Grow by 23 % in Q1 2012
Average Internet Connection Speed in Pakistan Stands at 741 Kbps

Nokia to Hold a Global (Handset) Launch Event in Pakistan

Posted: 08 May 2012 01:41 AM PDT

Nokia has finally selected Pakistan for a global launch event for two of its handsets, most likely to be feature phones with mid-range specs.

More details about the phones are embargoed but we can tell you that these two phones will have internet rich features specifically aimed for emerging markets like Pakistan.

Event is scheduled for May 15th, 2012 in Karachi.

Nokia has said that they chose Pakistan for the global launch of its upcoming devices to demonstrate the importance of Pakistani market for Nokia.

An invite sent to media men and bloggers read:

"Nokia envisions is to connect the next billion people and the first ever announcement from Pakistan of the upcoming devices have been planned specifically with this goal in mind.

Keep a watch here to know further about new Nokia devices that are going to see a launch on May 15th, 2012.

Glow Supports Young Media Leaders

Posted: 08 May 2012 01:35 AM PDT

Being one of the most active, happening and aware brand – Glow by Warid continues supporting young leaders. This time, it was the Media Fest event of Kinnaird College for women which was presented by Glow.

It was aimed at helping Media students unleash their talent and expose their inner journalistic skills. KMS (Kinnaird Media Society), the college's Mass Communication department, organized this festival in which over 550 KC students participated in four competitions including "Reporting LIVE From Kinnaird", "News Bulletin Competition", "Photo Essay Competition", "The Round Table Talk Show" and short film competition.

The day one started with 'Reporting Live from Kinnaird' contest in which participants presented videos which was a coverage of staged acts by media studies students. It was judged by reporter Shumaila Jaffery and news anchor Ajmal Jami.

The second half of the event comprised of 'Photo Essay Competition' in which various teams presented a sequence of photographs to narrate a story on their chosen topics. Head of Media Studies Department Ms. Shazia Saeed presented Media Fest Glow shields to the judges as a token of gratitude and acknowledged the efforts of the teams for pioneering the first day of Media Fest in Kinnaird College.

Kinnaird College concluded its second day of the Media Fest with the competitions Roundtable – Talk Show competition and The Short Film Competitions. The second day started off with the talk show competition, judged by talk show host Mubashir Luqman. In total, 5 teams enacted talk shows on stage while their topics ranged from entertainment, social issues and education. Shields were awarded to the winners and the participants received certificates.

Also present at the event as guests were news anchors Madiha Naqvi and Ajmal Jami. They had an interesting interactive session with the audience and appreciated the initiation of such events for enhancing the journalism skills of media students. For the Short Film Competition, Top 11 short films were screened at the event.

The judges for the contest were television actors Noman Ijaz and Seemi Raheel. The topics for the short films comprised of various social issues. The winning film was 'Subh Honay Tak,' presented by the M.Phil student Sehrish. The event ended with a closing ceremony in which Media Fest Glow shields and certificates were handed over to the winners, participants, management, coordinating faculty members, KMS advisor Miss Shazia Saeed and President Werdah Munib by the judges.

Collectively outstanding efforts were made by each participant and students genuinely put their hearts in all what they presented in these competitions, especially highlighting the social issues of the society. Glow by Warid always recognizes the potential and provides platform and means to the youngsters of our nation to show their talents. The KMS President appreciated the role of Glow for supporting them in conducting their first Media Fest successfully.

To read more, click: Glow Supports Young Media Leaders
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Protection from SPAM, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulation 2012

Posted: 08 May 2012 01:24 AM PDT

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is up for an upgrade in the regulation concerning SPAM and unwanted call/SMS communication that authority had regulated back in 2009.

With this revised regulation draft called: "Protection from SPAM, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulation 2012" authority has asked the stakeholders for their input before it is made a policy.

As per draft, protection from SPAM communication regulation says that all operators, with the approval of authority, will establish standard operating procedures for controlling spam.

PTA will require all operators to upgrade their SOPs if and whenever asked by authority to make sure that SOPs are synced and updated between operators at any given time.

All operators will have to maintain grey and and black lists of subscribers along with their complete user information for those who were found involved in fraudulent communication.

Those customers who will repeatedly get involved in fraudulent activity will be put in the black list.

For marketing communication, regulation will require all business to use short-codes to market their business. Operators will have to establish a DNCR (Do Not Call Register) to manage all those customers who don't want to receive marketing calls.

Telemarketing companies will have to sign service level agreement with operators. This agreement will include a procedure through which telemarketing companies will have a system in place to block calls to those who are on DNCR list.

Regulation emphasized that cellular mobile operators will have to handle complaints diligently. Regulation also talks about awareness and education campaigns to be run by operators to make customers aware of SPAM techniques.

You can download complete draft for regulation by clicking this link (PDF File – 392 KB)

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Telenor Pakistan’s Revenues Grow by 23 % in Q1 2012

Posted: 07 May 2012 10:50 PM PDT

telenor logo1 Telenor Pakistans Revenues Grow by 23 % in Q1 2012 Telenor Pakistan showed strong first quarter for 2012 with a growth of 23 percent in total revenues (in local currency) when compared to same duration last year.

Financial results announced by Telenor group today said that increased subscription base, higher ARPU – mainly derived through higher on-net calls – made Telenor Pakistan to generate Rs. 21.73 billion up from Rs. 18.769 billion during same duration an year ago.

Financial services contributed to 3 percentage points of the overall growth.

The EBITDA margin increased by 8 percentage points mainly due to strong revenue growth, as well as a 3 percentage points improvement in gross margins from a larger proportion of on-net trafﬁc and higher ﬁnancial services revenues. EBITDA in local currency increased by 52%.

Commenting on Telenor Pakistan's performance, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor Group said:

"I am delighted to see that Telenor Pakistan delivered an outstanding quarter on all financial parameters, clearly demonstrating this organization’s strive for continuous improvement,"

ARPU in local currency increased by 4%, resulting from increased usage levels following several on-net offerings, including "Poora Pakistan Offer".

Average traffic minutes per subscription per month (AMPU) in the quarter were recorded at 238, up from 202 minutes per subscription per month in first quarter 2011.

Telenor said that number of subscriptions increased by 1.2 million during the quarter and the subscription base was 14% higher than at the end of ﬁrst quarter last year.

Telenor reported 29,349,000 customers at the end of first quarter 2012, out of which 29,040,000 are said to be prepaid while remaining 309,000 subscriptions were postpaid.

Here is the official PR on quarterly results:

ISLAMABAD, May 8, 2012: Telenor Group has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2012. According to the results Telenor Pakistan's subscriber base grew 4% over the previous quarter. It added 1.21 million subscribers as compared with 822,000 subscribers in Q4 2011, ending with a customer base of 29.3 million. Both EBITDA margin and ARPU were higher in the reporting quarter as compared with the previous quarter. SIM market share was stable at just over 24%.

Chief Executive Officer Lars Christian Iuel, in his comments following the announcement, said: "The first quarter financial results show that Telenor Pakistan continues to grow in a sustainable manner. As a company that prides itself on offering innovative services such as Easypaisa, we are committed to not only meeting our customers' expectations but to exceeding them. We look forward to offering ever new products and services that are convenient to use to our customers to enable them to enjoy the benefits of telecommunications."

In the first quarter of the year, Telenor Pakistan began a major network modernization project in preparation for offering next generation services to customers. Its branchless banking service Easypaisa was recognized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation when it was offered a major grant to increase adoption of its mobile financial services among Pakistan's poorest households.

Also in the reporting period, Telenor Pakistan through its partner Sybrid launched a state-of-the-art contact centre, which will help create jobs for 500 talented Pakistani individuals. Telenor Pakistan also became the first cellular operator to agree to work with the Government of Pakistan on the '8300 Voter Registration Service'.

Average Internet Connection Speed in Pakistan Stands at 741 Kbps

Posted: 07 May 2012 10:16 PM PDT

Read this post in Urdu

Average connection speed for internet in Pakistan for both broadband and narrowband connections stood at 741 kbps in fourth quarter 2011, slightly down from 763 kbps in third quarter 2011.

According to stats revealed by Akamai in its 'state of the internet' report for fourth quarter 2011, 1.2 million unique IPs from Pakistan averaged 741 kbps data rates during the quarter. On another front average peak connection speed was recorded at 5,286 kbps for all the broadband users in Pakistan.

Average Connection Speed in Pakistan

Average Peak Connection Speed in Pakistan

Akamai said that stats are derived from the data gathered from all around the globe through Akamai Intelligent Platform.

Akamai report suggested that broadband adaption rate (for connections above 2 Mbps) in Pakistan was 0.8 percent, lowest since third quarter 2010. At the same time, narrowband adaption rate is on a consistent decline showing that dial-up customer base is shifting towards broadband internet.

Broadband (over 2 Mbps) Adaption Rate