ProPakistani

Zong Offers Truly Unlimited Mobile Internet

M Mathar — Mon, 21 May 2012 07:15:31 +0000

Zong, after rocking the market with all sorts of mobile internet packages, has once again set a new standard by introducing truly unlimited mobile internet – that is: without any data limits on downloads/uploads at all.

This truly unlimited mobile internet comes at a daily subscription charge of Rs. 10 (including taxes) per day.

This new package will replace old daily mobile internet package of Zong with no download limits – which was earlier capped at 50 MB per day.

Also, with this new daily internet package, Zong customers of monthly mobile internet package will revert to daily mobile internet package – with which they can enjoy the daily charging instead of paying Rs. 200 in advance for whole month.

Though, paying Rs. 10 per day will translate into Rs. 300 per month – but you will get truly unlimited mobile internet, plus daily subscription model, instead of monthly subscription – which would be useful for majority of Zong subscribers.

That’s not all. You can enjoy unlimited download on every fourth consecutive successful subscription of daily package, without any extra charge. Check Update at the end for more.

Daily Unlimited Mobile Internet:

Unlimited Mobile Internet
Daily Charges: Rs. 10 (auto re-subscription)
Activation Charges: Rs. 10 (One time activation)
Subscription: dial *909#
Un-subscribe by sending an SMS: unsubunlimited” to 909
Un-subscription charges: Rs. 5

Note

This package is available to all Prepaid Zong customers on all commercial packages.
The package is truly Unlimited with no usage caps.
Limited Time offer.

Update:

That’s not it, if you use Daily Unlimited Mobile Internet for three consecutive days, you will get fourth day for free as Bonus.

Activation of the loyalty program is automatic; meaning that you just have to use the package for three days consecutively – to automatically get fourth day for free.

This bonus comes with no extra subscription charges. Just the daily subscription charges for the day.

This package is available to all Prepaid Zong customers on all commercial packages.
The customer will be eligible for unlimited browsing after successful charging of fourth day.
Unlimited browsing starts after 5:00am on the fourth day and ends at 11:59pm

Thanks Qamar for the update.

Thanks for Reminding us of Draw Mohammad Day by Blocking Twitter

Aamir Attaa — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:08:26 +0000

It was a wonderful Sunday yesterday with beautiful weather in Islamabad. I was enjoying my relax hours during weekend – longtime readers know that we usually don’t work on weekends – when a friend called me to tell that Twitter is blocked in Pakistan due to Draw Mohammad Day.

Honestly, I didn’t know of Draw Mohammad Day until that moment and would have never known of it if access to Twitter wasn’t blocked in Pakistan.

Just to ask you – did you know of it? Please vote below:

Government of Pakistan say that Twitter didn’t respond positively to their request for removal of content which could be blasphemous in nature, and hence they had no option but to completely block the website in Pakistan.

Facebook, on other hands, complied with the government’s demands and made sure that no blasphemous content would reach Pakistani audience.

It is evident that government’s action of blocking twitter was to restrict the access of blasphemous content. But you will agree that it didn’t work. Instead, the blockade acted like an advertisement for Draw Mohammad Day by recalling everyone – even those who had forgotten this evil day.

Moreover, if authorities concerned may know, Twitter doesn’t host pictures itself, rather it uses other services for hosting images. Hence chances of circulation of blasphemous content were minimal, as we got no reports of circulation of blasphemous content even when Twitter was un-banned later in the night.

Having said this, I must note here that Twitter isn’t angel in itself too. Twitter, earlier in January 2012, had announced that it could filter content (tweets) by country – to meet local laws and standards.

Twitter had Noted following in a blog post:

Starting today (January 26th, 2012), we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.

Then why not to block tweets in Pakistan? Maybe they took Pakistani government lightly, or even worse, Pakistan government probably couldn’t communicate the need properly. We don’t know what was the case.

ProPakistani is awaiting a reply from Twitter to learn what exactly Government of Pakistan had asked for.

So what did we achieve by banning Twitter? Only one thing: Bad press.

Blocking internet (twitter, Facebook or any other website or service) is considered as vital as a plane crash. Whole world covers it; every website, newspaper, magazine, tabloid will curse you for blocking internet.

I will recommend authorities concerned to make sure that blocking something is worth it. For instance, Draw Mohammad Day on Facebook was harmful indeed. Ridiculous cartoons had started appearing in news feeds. They were popping up whenever someone commented on it (even when cursing the cartoonist), or when your friends were tagging you to report the image and so on.

But twitter has different mechanism. Like, you can’t tag someone, images won’t pop up if a friend of yours comment there or reports it, unless he retweets it. Twitter is all-together a different thing. And above all – Twitter isn’t as big as Facebook, locally or globally.

So we will have to evaluate the decision and its impacts, the bad name it could earn for you. Is it all worth while or you are just shooting in the air to earn nothing.

Rs. 17 Billion Allocated for Broadband Development in Pakistan

Aamir Attaa — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:51:17 +0000

Yousaf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan, has announced that government of Pakistan has plans to allocate PKR 17 billion (USD 190 million) in next year’s budget for stretching the broadband services in un-served and under-served areas of the country.

It is anticipated that this money will be taken from USF’s pocket, which was specifically created for the development of telecom, broadband and ICT in far flung areas of the country where doing business isn’t viable otherwise.

Mr. Gillani revealed that his government had already spent Rs. 22 billion on IT, without mentioning that this amount was disbursed in five years, and that too by Universal Service Fund (not by his government) that is funded from 1.5 percent yearly revenues of all telecom companies.

It is said that PKR 62 billion is lying in USF’s account (that is bound to increase in July 2012 – as the end of fiscal year nears) which the government has plans to disburse on development projects to get the credit in upcoming elections.

Regardless of the goals Mr. Gillani has in mind, if spent well, this PKR 17 billion grant can change the course of internet reach in Pakistan in one year. Internet Service Providers are eagerly waiting for new bids to work on with USF.

Access to Twitter Restored in Pakistan

Aamir Attaa — Sun, 20 May 2012 17:47:21 +0000

After a ban for a day, amid any possible access of blasphemous material to Pakistani audience on Draw Mohammad Day, access to micro blogging website has been restored in Pakistan.

Concerned officials have confirmed ProPakistani that access to Twitter has restored after they received orders from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

As per reports we are getting, Twitter is now accessible on majority of ISPs, while the completion of restoration process may take couple of hours on remaining ISPs.

As we reported earlier, this ban was of temporary nature and was supposed to get lifted after Draw Mohammad Day.

However, as per our sources, ban was lifted before time due to bad name the incident had earned for Pakistan, especially in foreign media.

Pakistan, earlier in the morning had blocked access to Internet for Pakistani internet users – fearing that blasphemous material could reach the users through internet – because organizers of Draw Mohammad Day for 2012 had plans to share cartoons of Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H) through Twitter, to protest the arrest of Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari for writing “insulting” tweets about the Prophet.

PTA, the regulatory authority for telecom and internet in Pakistan, had contacted Twitter administration to make necessary arrangements for blocking access of blasphemous content in Pakistan, to which Twitter didn’t agree resulting into a ban to website in Pakistan.

In a related news, Dr. Rehman Malik, Interior Minister, is claiming that the restoration of Twitter should be credited to him. He tweeted following just minutes ago:

Twitter Blocked in Pakistan for One Day [Updated]

Aamir Attaa — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:27:10 +0000

Twitter, a famous microblogging website, has been blocked in Pakistan since morning. Action has been taken on direct orders from Raja Parvez Ashraf, Minister for Information and Technology, our sources tell us. ~~Though it is unclear if the ban is temporary or permanent in nature.~~

ProPakistani users are already reporting that Twitter isn’t accessible on almost every ISP in Pakistan.

It merits mentioning here that Twitter is still accessible in Pakistan through proxy websites and third party applications.

According to reliable sources, Mr. Ashraf directed for stern action against websites that are directly or indirectly publishing blasphemous content.

According to reports that we have got so far, PTA contacted Facebook and Twitter to them to restrict the access to the pages that were showcasing the blasphemous content but Twitter didn’t oblige.

PTA is of the view that it constantly asked these websites to restrict these pages in Pakistan until they threatened that if even one page reached viewers in Pakistan both websites will be banned.

We are awaiting for an official stance and more details on the incident. We will update this story when and if we get any updates (We have updated, check below for more).

Industry sources say that Facebook is under threat as well, however, blockade of Facebook isn’t sanctioned so far.

The Blasphemous contest that encourages drawings of Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) started in May 2010. These contests, that happen every year now, have cause agitation in many Muslim countries especially in Pakistan.

More details to follow.

Update:

We have got the confirmation that decision for blocking Twitter was taken yesterday on account of Draw Mohammad Day, during a meeting held at Ministry of Information Technology and chaired by Raja Parvez Ashraf, Federal Minister for Information and Technology. Meeting was attended by MoIT members, PTA and other concerned stake holders.

A source who is directly aware of the meeting told ProPakistani that it was decided that Twitter will remain blocked on May 20th, 2012 to avoid any possible access of blasphemous content to Pakistani internet users.

We are told that this blockade is temporary and it is likely that Twitter will be made available to internet users in Pakistan later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Internet users in Pakistan are voicing against the blockade of Twitter, who feel that they even didn’t remember that May 20th was a Draw Mohammad Day. They opine that by blocking Twitter the government is kind of promoting something that wasn’t even in their minds.

Update:

Access to Twitter Restored in Pakistan

Telenor Wins Two PAS Awards in Two Different Categories

M Yasir — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:25:54 +0000

Telenor has outshined in Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) Awards – country’s premiere advertising awards – by winning two titles in two different categories.

Wateen and Nokia also bagged PAS Awards in their respective categories tonight.

Telenor’s Khamoshi Ka Boycott ad by ADCOM won the best ad award for “Telecommunication Service Provider” category.

Other shortlisted ads in this category were by Ufone namely “Ufone Mobile Internet” and “49 Paisa Offer” – both by Interflow.

Zong and Mobilink’s creative advertisement agencies had submitted their entries but failed to make it to final round.

There were total of 14 submissions for “Telecommunication Service Provider” category, out of which three ads were shortlisted for final round.

Telenor’s “Easy Paisa Mobile Account” by ADCOM also won the award for “Banking and Financial Services” category – beating HBL for their ads “Sila Mila” by Think Tank Advertising and “Shanakht Cricketers” by JWT.

Nokia’s “Nokia dual SIM plus” ad by JWT won PAS award for “Telecommunication Hardware Manufacturer” category. Nokia’s ad was only submission in the category and hence had no competition.

Wateen’s “Jo Chaho” ad by Adetude won the title for “Computer and Internet” Category.

Competition for Computer and Internet category was immense, as entries of three well-known broadband operators were shortlisted along with their agencies.

Other shortlisted ads were from wi-tribe for “Wi-tribe Pakistan Brand refresh” and “Live in your world connect in ours” ad by Pirana Advertising for Qubee.

Was this Print AD by USF Legal?

Aamir Attaa — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:54:23 +0000

Read this post in Urdu

First thing first. Let’s have a look at the print ad that I am going to talk about. (Clicking on ad will open the image in new window in full size)

A little background of the advert: this Print ad is by Universal Service Fund, published last month in various national newspapers and magazines. Though there is a scandal already propagating out of this media campaign by USF as reports are claiming that the money spent on this advert (valuing PKR 120 million) was not authorized by the company’s board. (You can read more details on it here).

I am not going to discuss the alleged embezzlement under the head of marketing spend, rather I will stick to the basics.

USF has every right to advertise its achievements, reports or anything they want to. They are private limited company (by virtue – though its non-profit organization and can’t use “private limited” word as per section 42 of Companies Ordinance 1984).

So the stats or content in above ad are absolutely valid to be advertised and there is nothing questionable about it.

The only thing which irked me were the pictures of political personalities from one political party, i.e. PPPP (except of Qaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah).

Why would a private limited company (by virtue, as mentioned above) will publish pictures of political leaders. While this company has nothing to do with the government – for policy making, decisions, audit, funding, spending or for anything else.

Thinking broadly, one may term that USF wanted to share the proud moments with the leadership of the country. But a critical view may call it an in-direct support by a non-profit organization for a specific political party, which is not allowed by Election Commission of Pakistan.

For the records, here is what ECP states:

Any contribution made, directly or indirectly, by any foreign government, multi-national or domestically incorporated public or private company, firm, trade or professional association shall be prohibited and the parties may accept contributions and donations only from individuals.

I asked the same question from a senior official of SECP, who wanted not to be named, and he was satisfied that this advert can be challenged on legal grounds. Though he mentioned that publishing the pictures of political leaders in adverts is an accepted norm, but he had to agree with me that ECP disallows it.

SECP official confirmed me that USF was registered under section 42 of Companies Ordinance 1984 and it could not support/assist any political cause/party.

Just to mention, this is not the first time that Universal Service Fund published an advert with pictures of political leaders. This has happened before as well.

In a telephonic conversation USF’s spokesperson told me that board was probably not aware of this rule by ECP. However, she told me, board will be notified of this rule for evaluation.

Generally, it is perceived that USF comes under Government’s umbrella, for which they take the credit as well – that’s because telecom is probably the only sector that they can proud of – but the fact remains that USF is non-profit organization, run by professionals who are paid from company’s private money.

Moreover, this money doesn’t come from government’s pocket, instead it is given by telecom operators for the development in un-served and under-served areas of the country.

In other words, Prime Minister shouldn’t be proud of over 1,000 community centers countrywide, over 500,000 customers who have broadband because of USF, or nation wide fiber optic back-haul covering 7,400 kilometers. Because, by definition, Prime Minister has nothing to do with this development. Instead, Prime Minister should be questioned for not attending the board meetings and eventually delaying this development projects.

To read more, click: Was this Print AD by USF Legal?
ProPakistani.PK

Ufone Announces The Return of Wasim Akram as Brand Ambassador

Mehwish Khan — Fri, 18 May 2012 09:53:06 +0000

Wasim Akram has once again joined Ufone as its brand ambassador, said an official statement issued by the company, recalling that Akram was part of the initial team when Ufone was launched.

Wasim Akram is a world famous celebrity and is one of the greatest heroes of Pakistan. He started his career as a fast bowler; then he went on to become a commentator, a recognized coach at country’s premier National Cricket Academy and last but not the least a successful television anchor.

To mark the renewal of Wasim’s tenure with Ufone, a brilliantly executed television commercial has been aired and it is wonderful to see Wasim Akram exude confidence, class and style coupled with success, the statement noted.

Wasim was associated with Ufone when it was at an infancy stage. Majority can easily recall the initial campaigns in which Wasim Akram was seen in an advertisement where the legendary cricketer visits a Ufone office.

Akbar Khan Chief Marketing Officer at Ufone said, ‘Seeing Wasim Akram return to Ufone is indeed a pleasure and privilege’. ‘We are pleased to have a celebrity with such a diverse profile associated with Ufone and we are proud to call Wasim one of our own’, he added.

Send Free SMS to Any Ufone Number from Gmail Chat

M Mathar — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:22:18 +0000

Read this post in Urdu

After Mobilink, Ufone recently partnered with Google to offer Gmail users an ability to send free text messages to any Ufone number from their Gmail accounts or through Google Chat.

Put in other words, Through this service, Ufone subscribers can get Gmail chat messages on their handsets and shall be able to communicate & reply to these messages through SMS.

Service Details:

Now you can send free SMS from their Gmail account directly to any Ufone mobile number from anywhere in the world.
Now you can connect with your friend’s Ufone mobile number directly from your computer
Send SMS to Ufone for free from Gmail.
Every time you receive an SMS in Chat (for example when a phone user replies to one of your messages) you get 5 complimentary SMS, up to a maximum of 50 SMSes.

As you might know, Gmail offers this facility for limited operators throughout the world, and Ufone has become the second operator they have collaborated with in Pakistan.

It merits mentioning here that first message has to be sent by a Gmail user via Gmail chat client. This means that Ufone subscribers cannot initiate chat himself/herself with his Gmail contacts from mobile phone.

How to send SMS to Ufone Numbers:

Gmail users will have to simply Log into their account. Enter your contact’s name or phone number in the ‘Search or invite friends’ box in Chat, and select Send SMS from the box of options that appears to the right of your contact’s name.

Or, if you already have a Chat window open for this contact, just click Options, and select Send SMS.

Next a window will appear (shown below) where you can check the country code and phone number of the SMS recipient to save this contact to build your address book.

Next time you will be able to send SMS to same number by typing his/her name.

Next a chat-window will pop on right bottom, simply type the message and hit enter… that’s it.

Your message will be sent to the phone number you entered.

Note:

Just to mention, this feature is only launched in selected countries. Click here for the list of supported countries and operators. If you are not located in one of these countries you can still use it, but you won’t see the SMS option in Chat until you enable it manually in the Chat settings page.

How Ufone Subscribers Respond to Gmail Chat SMS?

When Ufone users receive an SMS message from a Gmail contact, add the incoming number to your phone’s address book (this number is associated with the sender’s Gmail account, so you can use it to send Chat messages to that person in the future).

Then, you can reply to the message as you would any other text message, and your reply appears as a Chat message in your friend’s Gmail account. Reply will appear on Gmail interface of Gmail user.

Note: Ufone subscriber can reply to the message received from Gmail user within 24 hours.

Commands for Ufone Subscribers:

Ufone subscriber can use below commands while chatting via Gmail SMS service through his/her mobile phone. Please note that these commands can be sent in response to SMS received from the Gmail user only.

HELP: Command can be used to get list of useful commands.
BLOCK: Command can be used to block messages from a specific Gmail user. This command should be sent in response to the SMS from that Gmail user whom you want to block.
UNBLOCK: Command can be used to un-block Gmail user. After the execution of this command, mobile subscriber will be able to receive messages from the Gmail user he has previously blocked

Following commands can be sent at 2434000.

STOP: To block all messages from all Gmail users.
START: To enables receiving SMS messages from Gmail if you’re currently blocking these.

Service Charges

SMS sent by Gmail users to Ufone subscribers will be free of cost, but with limited daily credits. Read below to learn on how to receive more credits.
SMS sent by Ufone subscribers to Gmail users will be charged @ Rs. 1+Tax/SMS.
No subscription is required to avail Gmail SMS service.

How to Get Google SMS Credits:

Gmail offers initial SMS credit for 50 SMS, which decreases each time you send an SMS from Gmail chat client.

Every time you send a message, your credit decreases by one.
Every time you receive an SMS message in Chat (for example when a phone user replies to one of your messages) your credit increases by five, up to a maximum of 50.
you can also send an SMS to your own phone, and then reply to that message multiple times to get 5 credits for each reply. This is legal, as you’re buying credits by paying your phone company.
If your SMS credit goes down to zero at any point, it will increase back up to one 24 hours later.

World Telecom Day Celebrated in Pakistan

Mehwish Khan — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:59:00 +0000

Pakistan, along with the whole world, yesterday celebrated Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD).

Theme for this year’s WTISD was: “Women and Girls in ICT”.

Telecom day is commemorated under the banner of ITU – United Nation’s body for information and communication technology – and celebrations stretch all over the world.

The purpose of World Telecom Day is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide.

There went several events in Pakistan, particularly in capital, to commemorate the day. The most significant of which was organized by Ministry of Information Technology at Pak China Center where Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani was the chief guest.

PM on the occasion announced a fund of Rs. 300 million for girls studying Information Technology (IT). He also announced the establishment of an IT center for women in Islamabad. This center will be named in honor of computer prodigy Arfa Karim, who became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in 2004 and remained so until 2008.

Prime Minister on the occasion also announced the creation of a venture capital of Rs. 1 billion, which he believes will encourage innovation, entrepreneurship research and development in the IT industry.

The government, he added, has established more than 1,000 educational and community broadband centers across the country, including some of the remotest areas.

Prime Minister, during the event, also inaugurated Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) celebration of achieving Pakistan’s first one million Broadband customers.

IT and Telecom Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, also present on the occasion said, “I believe that we can harness the power of information technology by focusing on improving the capacity of women, especially in underdeveloped and rural areas.”

Secretary IT & Telecom, Farooq Ahmed Awan also shared his thoughts at the event. Mr. Awan briefed the attendees about ongoing projects and said that the sector has shown marvelous achievements during the last four years.

He claimed that currently there are 1700 IT companies operating in Pakistan which is a symbol of customer service providers’ trust on the policies and services of the ministry and its allied departments.

Chairman PTA, Dr. Muhammad Yaseen also issued a statement on Telecom Day saying that almost 92 percent of population in the country has access to telecom services.

He said there are still many areas in the country where despite the prevalence of favorable telecom regime the fruits of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are not accessible to many especially the women.

Societies cannot develop without equal contribution by all segments, he said and added this year, 2012, the theme of World Telecom and Information Society Day (WTISD) “Women and Girls in ICT” is prove to the fact how critical it is to empower women to be a progressive nation.

In connection with World Telecom day celebrations, this year Secretary General ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Toure was in Pakistan for around a week. He visited various IT companies, PTA headquarters, and Ministry of Information Technology.

Pak Datacom also organized a event at Marriott Hotel to honor Secretary General ITU. The event highlighted the communal vision of ITU and Pakistan’s IT sector i.e. “Committed to Connecting Pakistan”.

Below is the clipping of print ads of telecom companies for World Telecom Day:

ProPakistani

Zong Offers Truly Unlimited Mobile Internet

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