Mobilink Imposes 2 % Operational Fee on Card Reloads: ProPakistani

Mobilink Imposes 2 % Operational Fee on Card Reloads
Easypaisa to Provide G2P Payment Service to EOBI Pensioners
We May Join Facebook Again!
Warid’s Revenues up by 10 % in Q3 2011
PTA Sets $1,000 Fee for Satellite Bandwidth Providers
Is The Tablet Revolution Coming to Pakistan?

Mobilink Imposes 2 % Operational Fee on Card Reloads

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 02:24 AM PST

Mobilink is up with this news for it's prepaid customers, that it will deduct 2 percent operational fee (in addition to already applicable fees and charges) for those who will recharge their accounts through scratch cards.

Moreover, 1 percent operational fee will be applicable on all Jazz to Jazz reloads.

These additional charges will be applicable from November 22nd, 2011.

It was just in June 2011 when all cellular operators imposed 1.1 to 1.5 percent charges on reloads, and all operators gave different names to these charges (probably to avoid CCP's axe).

We aren't sure if other operators will follow Mobilink's lead on this or not, but from what we know from past, other operators might impose similar charges on reloads, though in phases and with different names.

Operators defend these additional charges due to increased operating expenses, however, several additions of fee and charges in an year is likely to trigger the customers with worst possible reaction.

Here's a notice published by Mobilink in various papers today:

Easypaisa to Provide G2P Payment Service to EOBI Pensioners

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 02:20 AM PST

Tameer Microfinance Bank and Telenor Pakistan will provide money transfer services through Easypaisa channels to hundreds of pensioners registered with Employees Old-Aged Benefits (EOBI).

Nadeem Hussain, CEO Tameer Microfinance Bank, revealed this in an interview with ProPakistani correspondent.

He said the Tameer Bank will be signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project with EOBI official shortly to initiate the first ever project of Government-to-Persons (G2P) payment system through branchless banking.

The project will facilitate 0.3 million pensioners of EOBI who will be capable of collecting their pensions from Easypaisa outlets, he said.

"The first G2P project will drive its new field in the branchless banking through Easypaisa which has been leading the market and will be leader in the market, Hussain affirmed.

"There will be more such projects to be exploited by corporations and people will get benefit from the technology and system," he said while referring to the potential of corporate and public sectors regarding salaries and pension distributions to their staff members and ex-employees.

Tameer Microfinance Bank has decided to go for salary disbursement program through Easypaisa service and it will first transfer salaries of its own employees through branchless banking where they can collect their money from the outlets or save their cash in the account, he added.

Easypaisa is a fastest mobile-banking service in Pakistan with an average Rs 1.5 billion are transacted every month between individuals through its branchless banking system.

The overall volume of countrywide money transfer have been increased to Rs 45 billion so far with number of account reached 0.5 million, Hussain further said.

Almost 70 percent of Easypaisa users live on less than $3.75 per day; 41 percent live on less than $2.50 per day; and 5 percent live on less than $1.25 per day, the findings of a CGAP survey said earlier.

Survey also revealed that 45 percent of Easypaisa users lack access to bank accounts, suggesting that Easypaisa has already achieved relatively strong penetration into poor and unbanked populations.

Three-quarters of the respondents (76%) felt the service has a positive impact on their lives and a high majority of users (88%) thought the service was easy to use.

We May Join Facebook Again!

Posted: 15 Nov 2011 02:02 AM PST

If you remember, we at ProPakistani boycotted Facebook and all it's services on May 20th 2010 for not removing DMD Page and we have not used Facebook or any of it's service since then. We removed the Facebook commenting system, share buttons, like buttons, our fan page that had 24,000 fans then.

Here were our arguments for not using the service:

We are Boycotting the Facebook on May 20th, 2010 and we will abandon all our activities on Facebook ever after. We have this stance because:

Staying on Facebook for reporting the bad URLs is pointless, as Facebook has made its mind to not to listen you

ProPakistani can't preach at a platform where people are abusing and using indecent language

The point was simple, unlike anti-Jewish or anti-Israel pages that were put down by Facebook with-in 20 minutes after they were reported for spreading hatred, Draw Mohammad Day Page was not banned despite hundred of thousands of users reported it for same reasons.

It was clear that Facebook administration was siding the anti-Muslim community.

Few weeks ago (Thanks to Shahid Saleem, a commenter on ProPakistani) I had this discussion with multiple Islamic Scholars from Pakistan and abroad on boycotting Facebook and most of them believed that boycotting Facebook isn't a good idea, here is the summary of what they concluded:

Staying away from Facebook will not stop the abusers, it's like closing your eyes and allowing the evil to happen
Remaining on Facebook will give you a chance to dialogue with the haters and to change their beliefs

When I argued that they (Facebook and those haters on Facebook) won't listen just because they have made their mind and they have an agenda, so it's useless to argue with them, Scholars opined that it's not our duty to bring someone on right path (It's purely in Allah's hands), but we will be asked on our account if we communicated with the haters to bring them on the right path or not, when we had a chance.

Based on this discussion, we are planning to re-join Facebook here at ProPakistani's Fanpage on Facebook.

We aren't sure when exactly we will start sharing our content on our Facebook page, or when we will re-embed Facebook services on ProPakistani.PK, (probably I am still confused) but we will keep coming back in phases over a certain period.

We look forward to our readers to feed us with your sincere feedback on this in below comments. We take your words seriously.

To read more, click: We May Join Facebook Again!
ProPakistani.PK

Warid’s Revenues up by 10 % in Q3 2011

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 08:17 PM PST

Warid Telecom reported 10 percent growth in revenues for third quarter fiscal year 2011, however, it contributed in loss loss to Singtel's profit.

Singtel, while reporting it's share of 30 percent stakes in Warid, said that despite 10 percent growth in revenues in Q3 2011, Warid posted net loss; including fair value losses and the 12% depreciation of the Pakistani Rupee against the Singapore Dollar.

Singtel in it's quarterly financial report said that Group's share of overall pre-tax losses amounted to 14 million Singapore Dollars, 1.4% higher compared to the same quarter last year.

Financial report said that the Group's share of pre-tax losses from Warid increased by 17% or 2 million Singapore dollars when compared to preceding quarter on increased financing costs and fair value losses.

Singtel holds 30 percent interest stakes in Warid through a deal with Dhabi Group, while remaining 70 percent shares are still owned by Dhabi Group, a privately held group based out of UAE.

Singtel said that Warid's EBITDA improved by 21% on operating revenue growth.

Report revealed that Warid is currently in discussions with certain of its lenders in relation to a proposed restructuring of its loan facilities.

As at 30 September 2011, the outstanding principal value amounted to approximately US$752 million, and was secured by a floating charge on Warid’s assets. US$90 million of these loan facilities were guaranteed by SingTel and US$512 million was secured by guarantees of the other shareholder group of Warid.

PTA Sets $1,000 Fee for Satellite Bandwidth Providers

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 08:15 PM PST

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has set US $ 1,000 annual license fee for Satellite Bandwidth Providers (SBP) for their commercial services within the designated regions.

The authority has taken initiative to revisit the satellite licensing framework in order to increase the efficacy of the SBP with streamlining their business operations, terms and conditions with different telecom operators.

The proposed regulatory framework for satellite services and licensing 2011 defines that SBP is a PTA licensed seller of a satellite bandwidth with one or more transponder capacity or one or more satellite having footprint over Pakistan.

It further said that SPB will not be a user of bandwidth within Pakistan. It could be the original owner of the satellite, or a sole entity having entire bandwidth selling rights with footprints over Pakistan.

Class license holders including DNOPs and NVCNS etc, have to obtain capacity through the LL and LDI operators because they are disallowed to operate their own PSTN or core networks.

PTA stated that SBP will obtain satellite bandwidth through Long Distance International (LDI) and Landline (LL) operators within the scope of their license. The SBP will be license shall obtain security clearance from the government of Pakistan via PTA.

All eligible licensees of PTA desiring bandwidth shall first approach LDI and LL to obtain bandwidth through terrestrial, satellite or VSAT links. PTA will intervene if LDI and LL operators do not provide bandwidth to applicant after certain period for settlement of issue, the proposed regulation of PTA said.

The licensed SBP with bandwidth selling rights will also provide satellite links to applicants with a time period of 3 years or less.

PTA suggested regulations stated that satellite bandwidth provisioning through SBP will be provided through a local hub for all links (time and space switching not allowed) m maintained and operated by LDI or LL operators.

The logs shall be maintained by the licensee who is operating the hub and shall be maintained it for a period of one year.

Hub is a password protected O&M terminal which shall be used to monitor essential traffic information, billion information, QoS parameters, terminal GPS, bandwidth utilization and capacity flow, the PTA regulation stated.

You can check this regulation for Regulatory Framework For Satellite Services & Licensing – 2011 (PDF File – 717KB)

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

Is The Tablet Revolution Coming to Pakistan?

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 08:15 PM PST

Read this post in Urdu

Apple iPad was introduced in USA in March 2010 and that moment in history can be acknowledged as the precise point when the 'Tablet-Boom' came to USA. Tablets were suddenly popular and people were lining to buy them at stores.

Pakistan has not seen such a drastic change in its smartphone-cum-tablet market but many can see that a gradual change is underway even in the local Pakistani market and tablets are gaining popularity.

We can remember the last regime during whose time the mobile phone industry in Pakistan boomed to acquire a wide subscriber base in a very short span and now the same is predicted to happen and has even started to happen to some extent for the local tablet industry.

I remember that only a year or a year and a half from now; tablets were almost nonexistent in Pakistan. Shops and mobile plazas in particular did not sell tablets at all. However, the condition is totally different now. Most of the large 'Mobile Plazas' in all major cities are now selling tablets.

As I am a resident of Rawalpindi, I go to the famous 'Singapore Plaza' to buy mobiles or get price updates. I can vividly remember that there were no tablets except for in one or two shops and even in those; the only tablet available was the Apple iPad or iPad 2. However, now 85% of the shops in the plaza sell tablets . The most commonly available tablet is the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 which is available in almost all shops for around Rs. 30,000. Dell Streak, ZTE V9, and Apple's iPad are also available.

One of the major reasons of introduction of tablets is the reduced cost at which they are now available. Most users who liked to buy high end HTC phones are now going for tablets as they lie in the same price range and offer a variety of better features. Another reason is the need of consumers to have a device which is more powerful than an average smartphone and more portable than even a mini laptop.

Even many local Telecom Giants have seen the boom coming and are trying to make the maximum by offering many tablets at discount prices. PTCL, Wi-Tribe, Mobilink, and Ufone are already into the tablet business and have launched different tablets in Pakistan.

The tablet market is indeed growing in Pakistan. I can assure you, that pessimistically thinking, two years from now; most of you will have bought a tablet!