Ufone Solid Offer is Expiring Today [Apparently]

We have come to know through sources in company and official words from Ufone support, that company is not going to extent its famous “Ufone Solid Offer”.

Ufone’s Solid Offer allowed customers to make on-net calls of any duration for Rs. 2.99 plus tax.

First introduced in January this year, offer was extended multiple times against a subscription fee for each month.

Ufone wasn’t offering “Solid Offer” for new subscriptions, in fact it was just renewing the already subscribed customers. This move had made those Ufone numbers invaluable which had Solid Offer subscribed on them.

However, this time,it looks like Ufone is not going to extent this offer – to support its recently launched Uth Package. Just to mention, Uth Package offers hourly calls for Rs. 2.99 plus tax for FnF numbers between 12 AM to 5 PM. From 5 PM to 12 AM calls are charged at 45 Paisas per 30 seconds for FnF numbers.

As per Ufone Support, Solid Offer is expiring today 11:59 PM.

Specturm: The new Source of Income?

With revenues from telecom companies not looking as good as they were once projected, Ministry of Information and Technology Pakistan is considering 3G spectrum auctions to boost revenue. According to one estimate, this can generate Rs 60 billion during the financial year 2010-11. The big question is if the buyers are will willing to pay that price. At the same time, US is said to be planning to release 500 MHz for broadband. Rohan Samarajiva asks – When will Asian governments get to work on refarming spectrum distribution to help mobile broadband thrive?

Aslam Hayat, a regulatory consultant provides a concise history of spectrum allocation policy in his article – How Pakistan Handled Spectrum: Lessons for Others?

Pakistan introduced mobile cellular telephony early, in 1990. Although there was no clear spectrum management policy or roadmap available prior to 2004, the issuance of four mobile cellular licenses and the assignment of spectrum to those licensees were remarkably well thought out.

…In 2003, when action was taken to issue two more mobile cellular licenses, the need for a proper spectrum allocation mechanism and road map arose. At that time only 2×5 MHz of the 900 GSM band was unassigned and it was expected that the clear preference of the new entrants would be GSM

…The auction design for two mobile cellular licenses was not ideal but a number of steps were taken to find the winner as quickly as possible instead of focusing on maximizing the initial fee…as a result of the regulatory principles, predictability, transparency and clarity of the Mobile Cellular Policy 2004, Pakistan managed to attract foreign investors to participate in the auction.

PTCL to add Digit ’9′ For Karachi, Lahore Number

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) has announced that it will add “9″ digit with all public sector telephone numbers for Karachi and Lahore – those starting with 9 digit, with effect from July 01,2010.

For instance, 042-920-4466 will become 042-9920-4466

Earlier, Digit “3” was added to all existing 7 digits numbers of Karachi and Lahore except the numbers starting with “9”.

It is important to understand that extra digits have been added to the existing phone numbers and not the area codes. Army exchanges are exempted from this change and their numbers would remain the same.

For customer with awareness and facilitation for PTCL requested PTA that the new series plan should run parallel to old one for a period of one year w.e.f July 01, 09 till July 01^st, 2010. However at the completion of this period to ensure connectivity and customer convenience, customers would now hear an announcement advising them to add digit 3 or 9 to get through on PTCL Karachi and Lahore incase they forget to dial the new required digit.

SEVP Commercial Naveed Saeed said PTCL in this regard also plans to run an awareness campaign to save our customers from any inconvenience and connect them without any problems.

Aasif Inam EVP Consumer Services said this will apply to all callers calling on PTCL landline in Lahore and Karachi from PTCL landline, Mobile, NTC, SCO or other LLOs and we are specially focusing upon publicizing the change to save our customers from facing any inconvenience.

a Private Social Network for Cell Phones

Researchers at Microsoft have developed mobile social networking software that lets users share personal information with friends but not the network itself, Technology Review reports.

“When you share a photo or other information with a friend on [a site like] Flickr, their servers are also able to read that information,” explains Iqbal Mohomed, a researcher at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, who developed the new network, called Contrail, with several colleagues. “With Contrail, the central location doesn’t ever know my information, or what particular users care about–it just sees encrypted stuff to pass on.”

Lahore Unlimited: Limited to Greater Lahore

By sana ali | June 27, 2010 |

Zong has an interesting offer for unlimited calls made within a geographical area – Lahore and its suburbs in this case. Here’s how Zong describes it.

Now make unlimited calls without worrying about the balance or the time of the day you are calling with Lahore Unlimited!

Make unlimited calls to all your friends and family and say it all with Zong ! You are one of the largest city of Pakistan, filled with rich cultural values and we know you enjoy to be in touch with others and be with them in all situations. Through this offer Zong is offering deals of the deals to Lahorites i.e. all you can talk and in 199+tax (terms & conditions apply)*, not just this, to double the heat customers would also get an amazing SMS offer, that too unlimited for whole month

telecome and IT informaton and news: Zong Launches Lowest Rate: 67 Paisa Per Min

telecome and IT informaton and news: Zong Launches Lowest Rate: 67 Paisa Per Min

Mobile Broadband Comes to Peshawar

PTCL has officially launched EVO service in Peshawar, with the usual time and volume based (starting at 799 Rs./month) packages. One wonders what took so long for PTCL to do that. In their announcement, PTCL does not adequately explain a few limitations of the service in Peshawar and how it impacts when users are outside the city limits. Here are 2 major things which PTCL users in Peshawar should keep in mind:

• EVO customers who have purchased their devices from Peshawar cannot use their devices in other cities such as Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad etc. This is because Evo works on 450 MHz frequency in Peshawar and 1900 MHz frequency in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad.

• In Peshawar EVO provides wireless roaming within the city at EVDO speeds with an auto conversion to lower 1X speeds in the 450Mhz CDMA coverage areas. Which means Outside Peshawar wherever there is 450 MHz CDMA coverage, you will be able to get internet connectivity but at lower speeds of up to 153 kbps.

As usual the official statement was full of statements which are toally out of line with reality. Read what PTCL “revealed”:

SEVP Commercial Naveed Saeed also revealed that the customers would receive more services, better care, and efficient trouble shooting and friendly environment from PTCL in the days to come.

Zong Launches Lowest Rate: 67 Paisa Per Min

Zong in an extraordinary move, has launched Pakistan’s lowest call rate of 67 paisa per minute with the same charge being applicable to calls to any other network at any time.

A subscription based package, for which charging for each subscription will be PKR 10 + tax. with auto subscription & multiple subscription in a day will be possible.

Offer details are :

• Rs 10+Tax will be deducted on subscription
• You will get 10 On-net minutes, 5 Off-net minutes & Unlimited SMS to any network
• The validity of these free minutes and SMS is one calendar day i.e. from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 every day.
• Once subscribed, you will get this offer everyday automatically.
• The call pulse will be per minute regardless of the base pulse.
• Multiple subscriptions are possible
• The newly purchased free minutes and SMS will not be added to the existing free minutes and SMS, the previous quota will be expired

How to Subscribe:

To avail this offer dial *670# or SMS Sub to 670

If subscriber has also subscribed to SMS Bundles, Family Pack, Super Free, BTO, LNO, the 67 Paisa/min Anytime – Any Network free resources will be given on top of other existing free resources.

If the customer exceeds either 10 on net minutes, 5 off net minutes or 125 SMS within the valid time period, charging will be as per tariff plan. For example, if the subscriber subscribes to 67 Paisa/min Anytime, Any Network at 10: 00 am and by 11:00 am has used 6 offnet minutes. The subscriber will be charged PKR 10 + tax for 67 Paisa/min Anytime – Any Network as well as 1 minutes as per tariff plan for the extra off net minute.

Salman Wassay, Head of Marketing, ZONG, said, “ZONG is repeatedly taking steps to provide the greatest value to our subscribers. Reduced call rates across the board is one benefit we are proud to give our loyal customers.”

He added that price moves are only one way in which we serve our subscribers but it is a key strength of the organization. Acknowledging the need to have economical ways to call off-net numbers is a central part of the philosophy of this package.