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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Ufone continued its remarkable track record in the telecom industry with handsome growth in revenues by 16 percent and in profit by 78 percent in the third quarter of current fiscal year ended in March 2010.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) financial report said that it wholly-subsidiary outperformed again to consolidate a quite strengthening position of the company in terms of its financial stability.

Ufone, the wholly owned subsidiary of PTCL, revenue could be increased to 14 billion in the third quarter of 2010-11 whereas and profit could be to reach at Rs1.5  billion as per estimate of last calendar and quarter earnings and profitability.

The report did not disclose the absolute number of profit and revenue of Ufone, which is also called as Pak Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML).

Ufone revenues and profits were considered as significant for the overall earning of the parent company, PTCL.  The remarkable results once again support the whole group to announce better result in the third quarter despite high overall operating cost and multiple losses on different accounts.

The PTCL net profit of Rs. 7.91 billion showed a 14 percent decline compared to same period last year. The Profit-after-Tax stood at Rs. 4.97 billion was 37 percent lower than the same period last year mainly because of increased employment cost.

Ufone earning witnessed record growth with handsome in crease in profit by 82 percent and revenue by 16 percent in first half of current fiscal year 2010-11.

Its revenues and profit were estimated to cross Rs 25 billion and Rs 2 billion benchmark on growing earnings and profitability.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) made an announcement this Thursday that it has started Internet filtering on its smartphones in Indonesia. The Indonesian government had issued a deadline for RIM to begin blocking porn websites. RIM complied with it. This is the first time that such a move has been made in any country.

“RIM is now in the process of implementing an Internet content-filtering solution that addresses our carrier partners’ regulatory obligations in Indonesia” RIM said.

In response, Indonesian Communication Minister Tifatul Sembiring—who has been at the forefront of the government’s efforts to clamp down on pornography—said on his Twitter account; “Thank God RIM has complied with Indonesian regulations. Pornography has been blocked. Please go ahead with business as usual in compliance with the law.”

In Pakistan since May 2010, BlackBerry users continue to face difficulties in web browsing and connectivity due to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) instructions to telecom companies which called for blocking access to blasphemous content following the now-lifted ban on Facebook.

After successful content restriction in Indonesia few questions arise:

1. Why can’t the same be done for Pakistan? What stops them?
   
2. When RIM can block porn, why can’t they block selected blasphemous content for Pakistan?
3. Is it because of lack of efforts from PTA and Pakistani mobile operators OR RIM intentionally does not wish to do so?

Also to note here is that RIM also has been under pressure in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to provide access to data on its secure networks. The company averted a ban on key BlackBerry services in both after the countries said regulatory requirements had been satisfied. The encryption is central to the company’s appeal to corporate customers, which say that secure communications are necessary. Across border, in India, the government has sought access to data on RIM’s secure networks, fearing that encryption makes them convenient for terrorists and RIM is in ongoing and positive talks with them.

We will close here and look forward to your opinion/comments on the matter.

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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 has given PTCL a time duration of 6 months to improve quality of service to avoid strict legal action of the authority as per the law.

This penalty would be resultant of PTA’s show cause notice to PTCL on February 4th, 2010.

Background:

PTA’s February 4th, 2010th show cause notice was issued to PTCL based on the results of a nationwide quality of service survey. Results were as following:

PTA termed these results below the benchmark defined by the authority and issued a show cause notice to PTCL.

In response to which, PTCL responded multiple times to entertain PTA’s queries, but apparently authority wasn’t convinced and it passed an order against PTCL to enhance its services or to face the action.

Confusion in Determination:

In a PTA order, published on PTA’s website, two members of the authority ordered 6 months as notice period for PTCL to enhance its services, while the PTA chief contracted both the members and said that 29 days are enough for the PTCL to improve service quality.

Members PTA Ordered:

The Authority has considered the submissions of the licensee and took a lenient view for this time and decided to dispose of the show cause notice dated 4th February, 2010 in the following terms:

- Since the licensee has failed to satisfy the Authority on the aforementioned contraventions made by it regarding mandatory level and standards of Quality of Service, however, keeping in view the difficulties being faced by it and the progress made so far on this account after the issuance of show cause notice, the licensee is, therefore, directed to remedy the aforementioned contraventions by bringing and maintaining the required standards of quality of service within six (06) months of the issuance of this order.

In case of failure strict legal action will be initiated against the licensee under the provisions of the Act, the rules/regulations and the license conditions.

While on other hands Chairman PTA said:

Since, the Authority is unanimously not satisfied with the reply of the licensee and has reached to the conclusion that the licensee has failed to provide the QoS to its customers as per the standards laid down in license and the regulations on the subject, therefore, I disagree with the enforcement order passed by both the members for granting six month time for remedying the contraventions.

I am of the view that the enforcement order should be passed according to the rules and regulations.

According to rule 9(4) of Pakistan Telecommunication Rules, 2000 if the Authority is not satisfied, it can grant time to the licensee for remedying the contravention which shall be less than thirty days from the date of service of the enforcement order.

In the instant case the time period should be less than thirty days. Secondly, grant of six months period to the licensee will create discrimination in the circumstances that the Authority has already passed orders against five mobile operators on the issue of poor QoS and required them to remedy the contravention within twenty nine days.

You can download PTA’s Determination by clicking this link (PDF File – 208 KB)

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

Ever since the WiMAX industry saw its first commercial roll-out courtesy of Wateen, which was arguably the biggest commercial WiMAX network in the world, it has not enjoyed the glory the investors may had anticipated. Situation is not different for other WiMAX operators too, though they are making some money but balance sheets are not that catchy.

Reason is: We, as Pakistanis, are not used to pay for data services – probably because paying for data services is a secondary stage that comes after the primary understanding of what data services actually are.

When Mobilink launched its WiMAX services under the marquee ‘Mobilink Infinity’, it was termed as the 10^th best launch by the WiMAX Forum. Quite an achievement, right? To me, on the other hand, it appeared like a cart about to sail down a steep unobstructed path straight into the slums because:

• Common users did not have a hint of what WiMAX is; they did not care and they should not have cared too!
• To a good educated majority it seemed to be as just another internet connection able enough to take them to their Yahoo inboxes
• Our marketing was as un-educating as anything you might think of

This argument is valid for Qubee too. Along with WiMAX providers other broadband operators kept venturing in, for instance PTCL released its EVO connections, and the market grew tougher. It became gruesome for the operators to strive for their share of customers and survive the brutality.

Mobilink perhaps did not try getting serious with the situation; it did not look ready to give Infinity a refresher. Things worsen so much that the sales and operations staff had to rely on door-to-door sales services to register few bits on the work sheets.

Those working in Infinity’s teams are worried for their future; for the future of WiMAX; for the return of time and energy they have put in thus far. We have heard that WiMAX arm of Mobilink is certainly not doing well financially, and it is evident from its long awaited spread out in Lahore and Islamabad – which is yet to happen. The parents (Orascom) are a little offhanded about their child and are reluctant to float in some cash for obvious reasons.

Industry, as a whole, has started to show some sort of a shape:

• Wi-tribe rising above all as the most rigorous – if not efficient – service provider in terms of its customer support and problem resolution services. Though limited data packages remain their biggest constraint when compared to Wateen.
• PTCL cashing its status of a blind king and utilized its deployed network, established lines and age old customers to grasp a decent figure of subscribers
• Abundance of managerial issues, financial mishaps and having more than one core product, Wateen never managed to shine the way it could have
• Qubee trying to expand
• Mobilink Infinity…waiting for the right time

Broadband industry is perhaps waiting for that alleged data boom in the country and all shareholders are saving their money for that time.

One may argue that regulatory bodies as well as service operators should have been more pragmatic on their marketing, educational and sales fronts rather than deducing their bits of satisfaction by registering the country as the first good-for-nothing WiMAX hub.

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.

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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