Zong Introduces Weekly Internet Package: ProPakistani

Zong Introduces Weekly Internet Package
PTCL Hints a Celco Buyout
Warid Sponsors Tombola Night
Sony to Acquire Ericsson’s Share in Sony Ericsson
PASHA Fund Declares Four Winners for Social Innovation Program

Posted: 28 Oct 2011 02:24 AM PDT

After monthly, hourly and various other bundles – Zong today introduced a weekly internet GPRS bundle that will help customers to use GPRS while on the go without looking at their counters.

Keep reading to know the details:

Zong Weekly Internet Details:

First time Subscription Charges: Rs. 10
Weekly Charges: Rs. 35
Flexi Minutes (Weekdays): 120 Minutes every day
Flexi Minutes (Saturday & Sunday): 48 Hours
Charges after Flexi minutes: Rs. 0.25 per minute

Note: GST and other taxes are not applicable on GPRS usage

What are Flexi Minutes:

Flexi minutes are basically the free minutes that you can use without paying anything (other than weekly charges). So if you use less than 120 minutes in a day then you won't have to pay anything extra. Saturday and Sunday are flat free.

For instance if you have consumed 120 flexi minutes in one day – then you will be charged Rs. 0.25 per minute for rest of the day – however internet usage during Saturday and Sunday will remain free.

How to subscribe Zong Weekly Internet Package:

Though USSD: Call the USSD *910#
Through SMS: SMS “sub<space>weekly” to 906 for package subscription.
Your subscription will be renewed automatically after 7 days.

How to unsubscribe Weekly Internet Package?

SMS “unsub” to 909 to unsubscribe from this package
Charges for sending sms to 909 are Rs. 5/sms.

PTCL Hints a Celco Buyout

Posted: 27 Oct 2011 10:34 PM PDT

Mr. Walid Irshaid, Chief Executive Office of PTCL has urged a cellular buyout from local market to handle falling margins in a competitive market with devolving tariffs.

"I don't rule out an acquisition," Chief Executive Officer Walid Irshaid said in an interview to Bloomberg. "We are not selling, we are buying."

Mr. Irshaid was quoted as saying:

Pakistan cellular rates are the cheapest in the world. This can't continue. This market has to consolidate, otherwise this will be a losing proposition for every operator.

This is not the first time that Mr. Irshaid has advocated consolidation in Pakistani market. He had expressed similar thoughts back in 2009 in a conference in Singapore when PTCL was in reported for being in talks with Warid for a buyout. However deal didn't go through.

But its a difference time now – and appears that consolidation moves are pretty much over, particularly after Warid officially announced not to go for a merger/sellout.

However a lucrative business proposition can change investors mind at any given time. We aren't aware of any such situation so far – but we will keep an eye to update you if and when any such thing happens.

To read more, click: PTCL Hints a Celco Buyout
ProPakistani.PK

Warid Sponsors Tombola Night

Posted: 27 Oct 2011 10:30 PM PDT

This year again Warid Telecom sponsored Islamabad Club's Grand Tombola Night.

The event was attended by over 2500 people from all walks of life. Everyone enjoyed the evening thoroughly by playing the exciting game of Tombola.

Free Blackberry handsets and other prizes were given out to the winners by the Sponsor.

To read more, click: Warid Sponsors Tombola Night
ProPakistani.PK

Sony to Acquire Ericsson’s Share in Sony Ericsson

Posted: 27 Oct 2011 09:19 PM PDT

Sony today announced that it will buyout Ericsson's 50 percent stakes for USD 1.47 billion in Sony Ericsson to completely hold the the control of mobile handset manufacturing unit.

Sony Ericsson will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony and company has plans integrate it's handsets/smartphones into Sony's broad range of consumer electronics products including PCs, Laptops, TVs and Tablets.

Based out of Tokyo and Stockholm respectively, Sony and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson announced the deal in a press release to end a partnership that was tabled back in 2001.

Ericsson President Hans Vestberg said in a release,

"Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture, thereby combining Sony's consumer products knowledge with Ericsson's telecommunication technology expertise, it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones.

Today we take an equally logical step as Sony acquires our stake in Sony Ericsson and makes it a part of its broad range of consumer devices. We will now enhance our focus on enabling connectivity for all devices, using our R&D and industry leading patent portfolio to realize a truly connected world."

Sony Ericsson, the sixth largest mobile phone maker, has lately struggled to retain it's market share in a competitive and innovative handset industry. Sony intended to take the lead in the partnership to compete with the rivals in getting back the user share.

Unlike Sony, Ericsson is more tending towards wireless network and infrastructure business and hence Sony made this a case to buy back all the shares in Sony Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson is headquartered in London and had 7,500 employees as of December 2010. Company has R&D sites in Beijing, Lund, Silicon Valley and Tokyo. Company has 11 percent market share in Android and 80 percent of it's sales are Android based smartphones.

PASHA Fund Declares Four Winners for Social Innovation Program

Posted: 27 Oct 2011 08:56 PM PDT

Pasha Fund has declared four winners for the first round of its sponsorship under its social innovation program.

The winners and their proposed projects names are:

Alif Laila for Sabah Rehman,
Farhan Masood for Bloodline,
Waqas Ali for Online Store for Handmade
Shoesand Usman Siddique for "Audible" for Urdu – Urdu Online.

It also announced the shortlisted candidates who will be provided grants in the next rounds.

The proposed projects are Beopar, Pakistan Student Loans, Qeemat, Integrated People, Innovative BioGas Generator, Mobile Ustaad, and Pak Donor.

The winners have been asked to hold consultation with local assigned mentors and chalk out ten step plan to be carried out in next six months as per set goals and milestones.

Afterwards, they will receive their first check for US$2,000 equivalent. They will be asked to define goal for the next four deliverables and get US$2,000 for each round.

The total funding allocation for each project is US$10,000 however the mentor must sign off on progress and milestones to get payment released in 5 phases in total.

P@SHA Social Innovation Fund was launched in April 2011. There are more than 64 applications shortlisted out of more than 300 proposals submitted.

The judges unanimously picked four winners and seven shortlisted candidates for the next round of funding.

Pasha Fund will arrange technical sessions for the winners and shortlisted candidates who will start planning for the next round of applications in consultation with their respective mentors.

The purpose of the social innovation fund is primarily to aid talented young people having innovative ideas for identifying and driving solutions of social and community challenges.

The idea is not to fund the creation of software but to fund ideas that use Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a platform for delivery and as a means for empowerment.

The initial seed money for this Fund has been provided to P@SHA by Google Inc in the form of a grant. As the Fund proves its worth, there is a likelihood of more organizations adding to it.