Chairman PTA, Mohammad Yaseen, presenting a memento to Mr. Artem Koreneveskiy of General Satellite at CONNECT ICT Forum-2011, at Karachi Expo Centre.

The local assembly and manufacturing of low priced “smart phones” will start soon in the country by Pakistani companies in collaboration of chip designer and Chinese manufacturers.

This was stated by the chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr Mohammad Yaseen while talking to media persons at the interactive session for ICT stakeholders – Connect ICT Forum 2011, organized by Pegasus Consultancy at Karachi Expo Centre here Wednesday.

He said several memorandum of understandings (MoUs) have been signed recently, between local companies and Chinese manufacturers and chip designer Falcom for producing smart phones in Pakistan.

The event was organized by PTA in an effort to start local assembly and manufacturing of smart phones, which are currently being imported.

Responding to a question about the misuse of sims, he said that PTA has blocked 16.5 million mobile sims and during the on-going data cleansing under third phase, PTA is receiving 400,000 quests per day on its complaint number 668.

Yaseen hoped that no unidentified sims will remain in cellular phone network after 17 May, which is the last to confirm the validity of your sim and clean your mobile phone record.

He said the sales of handsets will not be affected due to the on-going data cleaning campaign.

Replying to a question about smuggled hand sets, he said that PTA has submitted its input to IT Ministry in which we have suggested to two-pronged policy. First, to impose ban on these handsets at Customs stage where IMEI numbers are not mentioned, and second, impose a ban on the sale of such phones in the country.

He pointed out that currently imported mobile phones do not contain type approval. During the fast growth period, the government had relaxed this condition in 2005 and therefore these sets were allowed without type approval, he added.To a question on mobile phone banking, he said that a final meeting will be held between PTA and State Bank of Pakistan to discuss and come out with consensus on modalities and authentication issues on May 11.

Earlier, speaking at the Forum he said that PTA will again arrange meetings between service provider and academia to encourage development in ICT sector.

Executive vice president PTCL Niaz Malik talked about the importance of data centers in Pakistan. He said that PTCL’s data centers are 50 percent more efficient than yester years.

Dr Sarfraz Alam of CEO Texpo Pakistan talked about the skills gaps in the current age of advanced network infrastructure. Dr Asif Ijaz Sheikh, country head Pakistan and South Asia Oracle Corp discussed the issue of convergence from “tele” to true communications.

Fouz Sattar of Alcatel – Lucent Pakistan, Talha Khalid of Telenor Pakistan and Artem Korenevskiy of General Satellite talked about innovative technologies in ICT.

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As we mentioned in our post, earlier today, Dr. Babar Awan is visiting various Telecom and IT organizations (as part of ministerial round), and for this he today visited PTA head office.

We are expecting him to visit NTC, R&D and other places in coming days.

A statement issued by PTA said that during his visit Dr. Awan emphasized on the need of pro-consumer telecom policies, which should be revised every year.

Just for the records, it merits mentioning here that most of our telecom policies (IT Policy, Broadband Policy, Telecom policy) have got expired and are bound to be revised, since 2009. This means government needs to renew policies now (with 5 years expirations date), let alone their yearly renewal.

PTA’s Statement said that Chairman PTA Dr. Muhammed Yaseen, Secretary Law, Mr. Muhammad Masood Chishti, Member Finance, Syed Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi, and Member Technical, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar and senior officers of the Authority were also present during the visit.

Mr. Awan was quoted as saying:

Complaint handling system should be made effective and all service providers should make arrangements to remove grievances of the consumers.

The minister stressed that awareness campaigns should be launched in Urdu and regional languages. “Grey trafficking is a serious issue and it needs to be dealt effectively, in this context laws may also be thoroughly checked and applied”, the Minister emphasized.

He said that telecom sector in Pakistan has made decisive contribution towards the national economy therefore challenges faced by the telecom sector are being addressed in an appropriate manner.

The Minister said that for the prompt disposal of telecom related cases, Telecom Tribunals would be set up soon. He also stressed the need for coming up with out of box ideas for implementation of ongoing activities regarding the development of telecom sector.

The Federal Minister offered PTA, his full support, for smooth access of telecom services to the people of Pakistan residing in the far-flung areas. He appreciated the role of PTA in the uplift of telecom sector.

During the visit, Chairman PTA briefed the Minister about the latest developments taking place in the telecom industry.

Chairman said that Pakistan telecom industry was growing at an astounding pace after the deregulation of the sector. The broadband sector growth has been extraordinary and this sector has become a model for other countries across the world. He said that number of factors have played role in it, including investor friendly government policies and healthy competition introduced by PTA which has encouraged operators to an extra mile for making a strong subscriber base. On this occasion Chairman PTA Dr. Muhammad Yaseen presented souvenir to honorable Minister.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued regulations for all telecom operators to synchronize the clock, time, date of telecommunication systems for error free data recovery, accurate reconciliation of Call Data Record and Internet Protocol Records.

The regulation has been named as “Telecommunication System Clock, Time, and Date Synchronization Regulations 2010,” which has been made public recently.

These regulations shall apply to all Long Distance Interconnects (LDI), Landline (LL)/Cellular mobile/CVAL Data licensee for the purpose of synchronization of their system clock to ensure fair reconciliation of call detail record (CDR) and IP detail record (IPDR) data in line with the criterion/ratings determined by the PTA from time to time.

All licensees shall be obliged to align their frequency of their telecommunication system in accordance with the Primary Reference Clock (PRC)* and Synchronization Supply Unit (SSU)** for provision of error free data of intelligence transmitted over various network nodes, the regulation stated.

All licensees with high speed backhaul networks shall have at least two alternative sources of PRCs.

The telecom operators shall be obliged to maintain frequency of their telecommunication systems containing NTP (Network Time Protocol) secondary server at least NPTv4 complaint wherever applicable. They shall be obliged to upgrade their telecommunication systems as and when are required by authority, it stated.

The operators are asked to provide complete information of their telecommunication clock system to the authority which includes clock, date and time synchronization architecture and degree of accuracy.

On the basis of PTA findings and/or at least 10 complaints filed to the PTA against a licensee in one month, the authority shall initiate an investigation process through a nominated officer.

The PTA will conduct manual test/inspections that may be replaced with an automated process subject to the availability of advanced tools. It may place the relevant data for public information. PTA’s designated division shall present the test results to its board within a period of 30 days from completion of the Date and Time verification survey process.

The operator will provide access to the authorized representative of the authority for obtaining information, inspection and audit of the telecommunication systems network in order to ensure the compliance of parameters as provided in these regulations.

*Primary Reference Clock (PRC): It means an autonomous clock, operating independently of other sources that provide the reference synchronization signal to all other clocks within a network as referred in ITU-T G.811 Recommendation.

**Synchronizations Supply Unit (SSU): It means the logical system for frequency referencing, its processing and distribution as prescribed in ITU-T G.811 Recommendation.

For detail view, click the below link: http://www.pta.gov.pk/media/clock_sync_reg_280311.pdf

Mobile Monday (MoMo) event was held last Monday in the faculty cafeteria, Faculty Block, CIIT, Park Road, Islamabad.

More than 100 participants (Faculty and students) participated in the event. As PTA was seeking expert’s opinion on implementation of 3G/4G in Pakistan so the theme of this event was declared as “3G/4G wireless Network implementation in Pakistan: Is this required”.

The program started with short introduction about the theme of the event. Later, a presentation was delivered by Mr. Shahwaiz Iqbal on the generation of Mobile networks.

The presentation was focused on the difference between 1G, 2G, 2.5G, 3G and 4G and what further hardware/software etc. will be required to implement 3G/4G in Pakistan. After Presentation, an open discussion was started among the participants. Everyone took part in the discussions and presented their point of view. The gathering was dominated by final year students of EE department and CS department and they took part in this lively discussion.

The recommendation made in this event will be forwarded to PTA

In a latest development today, Dr. Babar Awan was given the minister-ship of Telecom and It Ministry, told us sources in the IT ministry.

Dr. Babar Awan today visited the Ministry to take charge and to get familiar with the heads of Organizations under MoIT and staff, added our sources.

In addition to Minister-In charge of Telecom and IT Ministry, Dr. Awan will retain headship of law Ministry.

Ministry of IT and Telecom was minister-less since February 2011 when Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister Pakistan had dissolved the federal cabinet.

Earlier, Sardar Assef Ahmed was made Minister for the MoITT in December 2010, however, he had to move out in February 2011 when federal cabinet was dissolved.

Appointment of Dr. Babar Awan is made at a time when ministry has remained back to back minister-less or secretary less for almost three years. His appointment is particularly important as USF is going to begin its operations after a halt of 11 months. Dispute between Chairman PTA and Member Finance of PTA is going to be riddle to solve for Dr. Awan.

PTA has been working with State Bank on third party regulations and we would be able to come up with these regulation this year, said Dr. Mohammad Yaseen while addressing at 4^th International Mobile Commerce Conference-2011.

Addressing the conference as chief guest, which was attended by CEOs of banking and telecom companies, he said that mobile money is still in its emerging phases, there is consensus that regulations must be implemented gradually and designed to evolve as the industry expands and matures – an approach that seeks to respond to risks in the mobile money space as they emerge. Our Regulatory responses should then be proportional to the risks.

He said that World Bank study reveals that only 12% of the adult population of Pakistan has access to formal banking services. Only 24 Million people in Pakistan have bank accounts. Today only technology in Pakistan can bridge the digital divide.

Considering the scope, he added that PTA would like to introduce third party payment system with help of State Bank.

The introduction of third party payment networks also known as MPSP (Mobile Payment Service Providers) would be of immense advantage since these third-party payment handing agents can work with many providers, rather than the closed networks. We could foresee opportunities for service providers (both from Banks and Mobile Sector) who move quickly to create new products, especially if they can establish shared networks of third party agents.

Chairman PTA said that another critical concern will be consumer trust. Consumer protection is critically important in the mobile money space. The need will become even more pressing as the industry expands into unbanked segments (We would for sure address this critical factor as well while enabling true mobile commerce system for the people of Pakistan.

Earlier, Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Yaseen Anwar told the conference that over 0.4 million branchless mobile banking accounts have been opened collectively and more than ten million worth financial transactions took place during one and a half year in the country.

“Banks today offer branchless services across the country in rural and urban areas with a network of over 14,000 agents,” he said.

He said the Central Bank issued branchless banking regulations in 2008 and today ‘we have Tameer Bank’s easy paisa, UBL’s OMNI, MCB Mobile, KASB Mobile and HBL-Ufone providing branchless banking services.

He also stressed upon the bankers to develop aggressive marketing plans and campaigns to attract customers to visit the agent location for their banking transactions.

On the occasion, the representatives of various leading banks presented papers and experience in mobile and branchless banking services being provided across the country.

At the end of session Dr. Mohammed Yaseen distributed mementos and awards. He also received “Visionary Telecom Leader 2010” on the occasion.

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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.

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As you may be aware from the numerous articles on this website, MNP (Mobile Number Portability) regime was implemented in Pakistan in March 2007 and this was a first MNP execution in South Asia.

MNP gives the user the advantage of changing their networks while keeping their number (with the code), and thus allows flexibility with respect to tariff plans, services etc.

PTA has been mandated to promote and protect the interests of users of telecom services in Pakistan, by proving them viable alternatives to the users and to “promote a wide range of high quality, efficient, cost effective and competitive telecommunication services throughout Pakistan; and promote rapid modernization of telecommunication services and systems”.

When the Government of Pakistan realized that subscribers were averse to switching networks since they could not retain their numbers, in order to boost competitiveness and establish market conditions, the MNP regime was established under the watchful eye of PTA.

Pakistan MNP Database (Guarantee) Ltd (www.pmdpk.com) is the company which is responsible for MNP implementation in accordance with Mobile Number Portability Regulations 2005, and it was formed in October 2005 and all six cellular operators in Pakistan are members of the company.

With the bulk of the customers on GSM (as per current PTA data, the number of subscribers have increased to 100 million plus), MNP has just focused on mobile service operators.

Given the fact that at least for fixed line numbers, customer have no options other than PTCL and for wireless local loop operators, the bulk of the customers are again on PTCL, with a total subscriber base of approximately 2.76 million subscribers, as per figures provided by PTA, it seems unlikely that MNP for WLL will catch the attention for PTA anytime soon.

Same is the case with SCO (Special communication Organization), that no one can port SCO number to and from any other network in the country.

When we called PMP and asked about any possibilities of taking WLL/LL operators onboard, it said there no such thing in their to-do-list for now. However, one can expect these WLL/LL operators to offer MNP as well, maybe in distant future.

Another factor which will also weigh-in, is the fact that any MNP solution will not be cheap and all relevant stakeholders will need to be convinced that it is cost effective, and that at the end of the day, will actually bring benefit to the customers and that the customers will port WLL numbers.

Unlike its GSM counterparts, the interest of multi-national companies in WLL licenses and the companies has not been very enthusiastic and there are hardly any WLL companies enjoying foreign backing and the much needed, foreign investment (not counting PTCL/Etisalat which is the only dominant service provider proving all kinds of services).

An analyst while commenting over the issue opined that PTCL won’t let this happen, ever. He said that significant market player, PTCL in our case, bears the maximum cost of MNP services – so there is no chance that PTCL will even considering listening to any such kind of proposal.

It is matter of fact that many PTCL/WLL customers may want to go to cellular services, especially those who have fixed line in their business offices.

Whether the concerned stakeholders i.e. the regulator & the companies can be convinced to take this next logical step is another question altogether.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has formed a Committee headed by Member (Technical) PTA, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar to analyze situation that arose after Mobilink’s outage on Sunday.

This was mentioned in a statement issued by the authority.

Statement said that DG (Enforcement), DG (Licensing) and DG (Law) at PTA are also part of this committee that is likely to prepare a report based on facts gathered during their visit to Mobilink’s office to formulate a way for better crisis management during any such events in future.

Mobilink’s in-house investigation on incident will also be made part of this report.

The Committee is deliberating further action on the issue from all technical and legal aspects and how such incidents can be prevented in future, said the statement.

According to Daily Times, Mobilink’s outage was also discussed in senate’s standing committee meeting for IT and Telecom. Paper said that committee has directed the regulator to take action against the company by imposing fine and/or arranging compensation for the customers.

We are not sure of any possible fine imposition on Mobilink, however, after our conversations with multiple PTA officials, it looks that Mobilink may end up paying something to each customer as a compensation – but again, there’s nothing decided so far at authority’s headquarter, its something that’s just on the PTA’s cards for now.

After this incident, and other relating fire eruptions in past, PTA is looking into its options to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. For this, according to our sources, authority may regulate to make it necessary for all operators to maintain backups of all core-infrastructure equipment, also termed as disaster recovery setup.

It was pointed recently at our facebook page that there are  no mobile signals in areas of Bannu and D.I.Khan, cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Mobile services in these areas had been suspended back in October 2009 on account of security reasons. Watch this BBC Urdu report discussing the present state of mobile communication in these areas.