Burq Broadband has announced the commercial launch of its WiFi broadband services in Pakistan to become the first WiFi broadband operator in the country.
Burq is a broadband brand of Argentina based ICONDOR Telecom Group having footprints in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay since the early eighties.
Launch of Burq in Pakistan was officially marked by a brief ceremony held in Argentinean embassy in Islamabad.
Burq is first of its kind Internet Service Provider that offers broadband services to end users through WiFi hotspots that are deployed at various locations. Users will be offered WiFi internet at major markets, outlets, restaurants and bus stops. The number of locations with service availability will naturally increase with time.
Sources told ProPakistani that Burq commercially commenced the WiFi broadband service in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Moreover, Burq Broadband service is partially available in Bannu, Kohat and D.I.Khan as well.
We were unable to find the details of areas in these cities where Burq services are available. An attempt to contact Burq management went in vain.
Sources tell ProPakistani that Burq Broadband is going to offer time bound and speed bound WiFi broadband services to customers for which scratch cards will be available in the market starting next week.
Customers will be able to load their accounts with scratch cards to use WiFi broadband on Burq’s network.
Burq scratch cards of various denomination will be sold, including Rs. 50, Rs. 100, Rs. 300, Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000.
Speed, validity and amount of time allowed against each card is different. All these limits are explained in below table:
Burq Broadband Tariff
| Amount of Time Allowed | Speed | Validity | |
| Rs. 50 | 2.5 Hours | 512 Kbps | 7 Days |
| Rs. 100 | 5 Hours | 512 Kbps | 10 Days |
| Rs. 300 | 15 Hours | 1 Mbps | 15 Days |
| Rs. 500 | 25 Hours | 1 Mbps | 20 Days |
| Rs. 1,000 | 50 Hours | 1.5 Mbps | 25 Days |
Example: If you have bought a Rs. 500 card, then you will be able to use 25 hours of internet at a data transfer rate of 1Mbps. Validity of this card will expire after 25 hours of usage or after 20 days of first login.
How to Use Burq Broadband
If you are in an area where Burq Broadband is available then it will start appearing in the list of available WiFi networks on your PC/Laptop or smartphone. Simply connect to Burq WiFi network. Upon browsing, you will be asked for user name and password, which you need to enter from the scratch card.
Once the scratch card is authenticated, you will be able to use Burq Broadband till the expiry of the card.
Currently, as per sources, the service availability is in limited area. For instance only Commercial Market is covered in Satellite Town for Rawalpindi, however, we may see service expansion with time. Especially if the feedback and demand from customers get high.
Burq has previously said that it has plans – down the line – to partner with cellular companies to offer their subscribers the broadband services through WiFi but they will be charged based on their mobile-internet subscriptions.
Data communication over WiFi channels are always preferred when compared with GSM or 3G networks. Similar kind of partnerships are successfully running across various regional and global markets.
Burq Raftar Boardband is an expensive one. Telenor’s 3G speed is better that offers 8GB for Rs.1000 only. Suppose you are getting Telenor 3G as well as Burq which you will prefer to use? I think Telenor 3G Na!
8GB means data download cap. Do you see any data download cap on either of the packages above? For a 1000Rs you get 1.5Mbps speed and unlimited download as per the tariff plan above.
Also, what most people dont understand here is that this service looks to be a nationwide hotspot network. What that means is that you will get the same service inside your house, in your car at work etc (when they truely go nationwide). But at this point in time, the areas that are covered will have seamless Broadband Internet in that locality.
Now no one will need to get PTCL, Wateen, etc broadband connections for their home. That mean no capital expense of devices such as ONT’s (incase of nayatel) and yes it costs Rs.20,000+ etc.
Everyone wants to compare it to 3G and 4G but you have to understand that this is a complete game changer. Eventually, your telco provider will be shifting you to such networks for data usage (which globally is called data offloading) so that they dont choke their networks.
Now i’ll leave the discussion open to people who will believe they are much smarter than the people investing millions in this business, smarter than the global phenomenon of wire meshed networks and wayy smarter than I am.
JM.
So u r saying that global phenomenon is offering 1.5Mbps on wired meshed network.
AND Yes by the above statement I am way smarter….wifi will be preferable over 3G/4G only when it provides speeds greater than 3G/4G and cheaper….
100 Mbps are offered on wifi in countries where this is a global phenomenon
As I said earlier (which i believe you did not have the courtesy to read) the phenomenon of wire meshed networks is what is being introduced here. I was not commenting on the packages and the speeds being provided. This is the medium used to provide broadband internet (however fast or slow).
Talking about speed, does PTCL, Nayatel (THE best ISP in pakistan right now) provide 100Mbps Over wire-line? how can you argue when you are comparing apples and oranges. You took two words out of comment (way out of context) and proved how smart you are. Well Done!
So as someone mentioned bellow, the backbone of our internet pipeline is run by PTCL. The pricing per MB (volume and speed) is based on the charging rates of PTCL.
The point where anyone would prefer moving to services like Burq would be the no hassle internet access which is the MEDIUM to connect to the internet.
If you remember when cellular technology was introduced in pakistan (maybe you were not even born then), the pricing compared to today was much higher. Also, when introducing new services which are based on different technology, the initial pricing is higher compared to companies who enter later.
So all in all, i dont think you are as smart as you initially thought you were.
What was you commenting on in the very first paragraph, if not on packages.
And you said every one wants to compare it to 3G / 4G, so thats what I said that if 4G is offering one 25 Mbps ….why in the world is someone going to use this??
My whole point which you technically failed to understand that either or not ptcl is the service provider or the main pipeline supplier…..this global phenomenon is only feasable when internet is faster than on 3G/4G.
And by the way its 2014 and while the world has crossed 1000 Mbps …..100Mbps is no big demand…..*.though for a country like ours it is….but until we get out of this pipeline and smart hassle free internet like your opinion with slow connections…..We are never going to achieve this.
don’t try so hard. he seems to be one of official of burq :-p
i will prefer telenor 3g as its available all over the country. the above mentioned packages are just like electricity load shedding time table in Pakistan. use wifi almost 2 hrs a day and rest of 22 hrs is load-shedding. i mean who want time based internet? does burq comes from a very backward country where people is fed with internet only two hours a day? LOL
hahah bro what kind of backward place are you from? 22 hours load shedding? Sibbi se to nai aye aap? :P
Its expensive
Ye kiya mazahiya packages han yaar?
lol
Sahi baat hai 1000 rupay mein 25 din!! kia tk banti hai?
Aray Bhi Card loo or jitna marzi chahay use kero specific days k lye
I guess they are late now as 3G has already been launched in Pakistan. They should have launched it before arrival of the 3G.
Very Very Nice Packages.. Abhi start hai, asa he h0ga.. agay 0r b behtr h0jaengay packages ..
Behtr matlb competetive !!
Ab sb idar r0na shuru kr dengay k mehnga hy asa hy wesa hy salay jb kch nae ta tb m0t pariii rehti thi ab ye companies arae hyn toh “R Rona” daala hua haii ..
competetive hone se pahle he company band ho jaate hain. that have to realize that. pahle se he market capture karne ki koshish karne chaye
competetive hone se pahle he company band ho jaate hain. that have to realize that. pahle se he market capture karne ki koshish karne chaye
This is good for areas where 3g coverage is patchy and one needs a stable connection, it is expensive but that will probably phase out overtime. Good strart IMO.
Why will I use this when I have wifi in home, 3g on roads and wifi at uni?? :-)
roads 3g use karny k lye nhi dharna dany k lye hoty hai
hahaha nice one !!!!
Is not the submarine cable is one and only source of internet in Pakistan, and that cable relates to PTCL. From where companies other than PTCL get their internet.. from PTCL or somewhere else, if everybody depends on PTCL then how can they provide better services than their parent resource? ..
Quality, cs and thinking styles matter. :-)
Nayatel also using PTCL but look at their services!
Same regarding MAXCOM (Now extint), Linkdotnet and Micronet. They were relying on PTCL, but offering much better DSL services as compared to PTCL.
That is the reason they are unable to shutdown evo services by ptcl ;)
That is the reason they are unable to shutdown evo services by ptcl ;)
There are two submarine links SEA-ME-WE 3 & 4. Also there are two providers that i know of, one is PIE (Pakistan Internet Exchange) other is Transworld.
PIE is government owned. Transworld is private.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEA-ME-WE_3
Data communication over WiFi channels are always preferred when compared with GSM or 3G networks. Similar kind of partnerships are successfully running across various regional and global markets.
Apparently the statement is partially true.Wifi is preferred because of fast internet with speeds crossing 100 Mbps.USA companies are easily providing broadband of 300Mbps and that too cheaper than 3G/4G.
now comparing with pakistan where 512kbps and 1Mbps are offered….there is no need to prefer wifi channels.
Another big announcement.
Mera Pakistan aany sa bari announcement koi nhi ho sakti
way too expensive, will not last long.
way too expensive, will not last long.
Karachi is the biggest city and lahore is the second.
Fail company
if it worked out it be great deal in coming days.. i really like this idea..as it seems there are no cap’s on top it so it good thing if you ask me.. better then any operator who are giving you a service but also putting a limit on top of it.. If this works and we are able to access this hotspot nationwide.. man im going to love this.. no matter where i am.. i won’t have to worry about not having internet
I will definitely use it in peshawar ;)
kya is wifi sa main sheikh rasheed ko call kar sakta ho?? rply fast
O bhai islamabad k kis konay ma signal aa raha ha iska. Manay friends say pata kiya its not available in rawalpindi islamabad even its website consists of one page. no page of tarrif
bullshit look at the time usage limit but card system is sometimes useful
Why would someone go for this Burq when you have 3G/4G/LTE everywhere. (soon…) ??
well i think 3g or 4g se better hai ye q k 3g m apko just maximum 3gb downloading sy ooper nahe mily ga iss m hours hen lakin ap use unlimitted ker sakty hen
I live in a pretty big village and there are a lot of internet users here, is there a way I might deploy such a wifi broadband network here in my village?
Where is the services of Buraq in Twin cities ???