KARACHI JANUARY 28: Pakistan’s first organized web television channel was launched here in Karachi at a local hotel here. 247online.tv, which is the media arm of a multi-platform initiative, www.speakforchange.org, a website providing an opportunity to bloggers to express themselves, and interact with their audience through the Facebook page.

Explaining the concept behind the venture, the CEO, Faisal Qureshi said www.247online.tv provides the visual medium to discuss issues and ideas, using the social media platform with which the youth is more familiar. Its audience is mainly the youth that has somehow been neglected by the mainstream media.

Explaining the cross media platform, he explained about the website, www.speakforchange.org, that supports original content by bloggers. 247online.tv is the media arm of thisinitiative, while the Facebook page of Speak For Change allows for interactivity by the readers and viewers, over 230,000 of whom are following the page.

The venture was started in September, 2011, and has been steadily adding programming for different categories of audiences. In a short span of two months, its bouquet of bi-lingual content earned it the Pakistan Blog Award for the best video blog of 2011.

The launch was attended by the IT Minister of Sindh, Raza Haroon, prominent media personalities like Tahir A Khan and Seema Tahir, businessmen, civil society activists, and politicians like Ikhtiar Baig, Khushbakht Shujaat, Faisal Sabzwari, Nihal Hashmi,Dr. Arif Alvi, Jamil Yousuf, Nazim F. Haji, Hamid Maker, members of the academia, and prominent bloggers of Karachi.

Babar Iqbal, a 14 year old whiz kid from Dera Ismail Khan, has set a world record by publishing his first research paper on digital forensic science. The field of Digital Forensic Science covers the recovery and investigation of data in digital devices and is often used to aid computer crime investigations.

Babar’s research pertains to Apple iDevices (iPad, iPhone, iPod) and has been accepted by the 8th IEEE International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology. He has been invited to present his research at the conference as well.

What sets his method apart is that it doesn’t require jailbreaking and can image an iDevice in less than 30 minutes.

Jailbreaking is gaining illegal root access to iOS, Apple’s operating system, through use of custom kernels. Devices which run iOS include the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. On a jailbroken device, one could download application, themes and other stuff that is unavailable through the official Apple store.

This new method can aid law enforcement agencies in retrieving digital forensic evidence present on the phone including contacts, texts, all multimedia items as well as GPS info and Cellphone tower logs which can triangulate location of device at certain point in time.

This isn’t the first time Babar has been in the spotlight, a programmer since the age of 5, he became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) as well as the youngest Certified Internet Web Professional (CIWA) at the age of nine.

He then went on to become the youngest Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA), youngest Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) and youngest Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) in .NET 3.5 at the age of 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

Babar is currently in Dubai, where he is training and working with Microsoft. The links for his website and Students Café, his initiative to create awareness about Information Technology in Pakistan and around the world at all levels of education, are given below:

Pakistan will auction third generation telecom licenses on March 29th, 2012 with each licenses to be base priced at USD 210 million and auctioned through bidding, reported Reuters citing Dr. Muhammad Yasin, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

Revealing preliminary details about the 3G license auction, Mr. Yasin said that the amount bidders will have to deposit with initial expressions of interest – to indicate the seriousness of a bid – would be $31.5 million and license terms would be from eight to 15 years.

Chairman PTA expects to attract at least 10 to 15 potential investors for initial bidding process. For the purpose, PTA is undergoing investors’ conferences in Islamabad and Karachi.

Dr. Yasin, further detailing the auction procedures, noted that existing telecom operators could start offering 3G services immediately after being awarded a license, while in case of new operators, they will have to wait till March 2013 to commence 3G services in the country.

He said that there would be no minimum and maximum requirements for foreign equity and foreign controlled companies would be allowed domestic borrowing.

Responding to a question put by ProPakistani, analysts said that base price is little higher than they had originally expected. Earlier estimates suggested that the base price for 3G licenses would be $195 million, they said.

Experts opined that the winning bid won’t go beyond $270 mark, though those existing telecom players who have plans to not to go with 3G will play their best to increase the bid value; in severe case $300 million mark could possibly be crossed.

Pakistan duly completed their first clean sweep against England in a Test series, an extraordinary achievement for a side with no home to call its own, a side that lives out of a suitcase and does it rather well. Along with the socks and the toothpaste they certainly unpacked quite a shock for the No. 1 ranked side.

Twice in a few months, the leading Test side in the world has been found wanting. India were whitewashed in England last summer and now England have suffered a similar humiliation. Test cricket in Asia, described by England's captain, Andrew Strauss, as "the final frontier," has proved as unconquerable as ever.

The sunny disposition of Saeed Ajmal, the Man of the Series, and the stiff-limbed tenacity of Abdur Rehman tormented England to the end. They shared 43 wickets between them in a three-Test series and England barely played a shot in anger. Even after dismissing Pakistan for 99 in their first innings, they could not summon either the method or confidence to prevail. Only when the game was as good as lost did Matt Prior, who has looked likelier than most throughout the series, play with gusto in making an unbeaten 49.

There was plentiful spin for Pakistan's spinners, not quick turn but leaping turn at times when the ball struck the rough. Fittingly, the match finished on an lbw referral as Monty Panesar swept at Rehman, only to find that his retro scoop bat had no magical qualities. DRS upheld the umpire's decision and the all-time record of 43 lbw decisions in a series was equalled.

Until then, Rehman had counted Strauss as his sole success as he bowled unchanged for two sessions, 30 overs sent down with unerring accuracy. He is the sort of spin bowler who looks slightly weary from the outset, but never noticeably tires after that.

The emphasis has been upon spin, but Umar Gul reminded England that the quicker bowlers carried their own threat. His four wickets set the course of the Test unquestionably towards Pakistan. Ian Bell averaged more than 100 last summer, less than 10 in this series and when he slapped a long hop wide of point it summed up his state of mind. Reverse swing accounted for Eoin Morgan, whose dance down the pitch was nothing compared to the merry jig from the wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal, after he had caught it. If Pakistan had doubts about taking the new ball, Gul allayed them as Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann risked all-out attack and got out almost immediately.

Cook had put up statuesque resistance, 187 balls for 49. Along the way he became the second youngest person, at 27 years and 43 days, to reach 6,000 Test runs. Only Sachin Tendulkar has reached the landmark at a younger age. His most attacking shot of the morning, a loft into the leg side against Rehman, caused the bowler to taunt him with applause. He lived on scraps, combating the turning ball with thoughtful defence and numerous works to the leg side and that proved his undoing as a leading edge was brilliantly held by Younis Khan, diving to his left at first slip.

England, 36 runs banked the previous evening, needed a further 288 at start of play. Strauss fell in the sixth over of the morning, lbw on the back foot once more. He reviewed it, although he would have been better advised to head smartly for the dressing room. When it comes to captain's reviews Strauss cannot match Misbah-ul-Haq. Misbah was lbw on five occasions in this series and took a review every time. It must be a captain's prerogative.

Without lapses in the field, Pakistan might have won sooner. They had dropped Cook the previous evening, a relatively simple chance to Taufeeq Umar at third slip and Gul's drop in the shadows of the stand at deep square gave him another reprieve as Pakistan lost the efficiency that has characterised their cricket throughout this series. Rehman made his frustration clear when he caught Jonathan Trott at deep square and flung the ball into the turf with feeling at the errors that had gone before.

Kevin Pietersen was bent upon playing enterprisingly. The first ball of the afternoon provided a reminder of his vulnerability when a bat-pad against Rehman flew high past short leg, but he had the fleeting satisfaction of striking him straight for six before Ajmal, from around the wicket, spun one through the gate and beamed at further bounty.

Adnan Akmal's fumble behind the stumps to reprieve Strauss, although not costly as the England captain was out in the next over, was the worst miss of all. Adnan has had a good series behind the stumps and has the opportunity to be Pakistan's first-choice keeper for many years to come but his excitable chatter was at times counterproductive. Strauss' edge flew to him at comfortable height but he put it down. For a few minutes he was quiet and you could hear your ears ringing.

Adnan's cacophony of cries often rent the air for inexplicable reasons. As do parrots, Adnan vocalises for many reasons. He may be excitedly greeting the day or summoning his family at sunset. He may be screeching when he is excited or when he is merely trying it on. He may screech when he thinks things have got too quiet or when he thinks it is his duty to scream. He just likes screeching. At one point he burst out coughing as if in sore need of a lozenge and Trott looked at him in deadpan fashion.

Adnan is also incorrigibly optimistic about reviewing umpiring decisions. "Do it, do it, yes, yes, all good," you could sense him saying from first moment to last. Misbah learned not to take his evidence into consideration and looked askance at him. He will not be looking askance tonight - every Pakistan player will share Adnan's excitement.

LAHORE - Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani inaugurated the country’s first private sector run train, ‘Pak Business Express’, which left Lahore Railways Station for Karachi at 03:30 pm on Friday. The first Pak Business Express was carrying around 250 passengers, though it had nine luxury wagons having capacity of 500 passengers.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony held at Lahore Railways Station, Gillani underscored, “It is the landmark example of public private partnership in the history of Pakistan Railways. This deluxe train service is equipped with the state of the art facilities, compatible with modern day’s demand of businessmen traveling between Lahore and Karachi. The train will set new standards for the public sector that will improve its level of performance on sustainable basis.”
He said that it was the first train, which was being run on public private partnership mode, which would give Pakistan Railways an insight about the functioning and potential of private sector. He said that the government was already well aware of the private sector’s potential and its capacity as an engine of economic growth. “Keeping this in mind, public sector monopoly is being increasingly outsourced to provide better services to the public, while protecting and enhancing revenues for the state at the same time,” he stressed. Prime minister said that he was confident that this partnership would infuse new spirit in providing efficient service to passengers and it would be instrumental in revival of Pakistan Railways. He said that he was delighted to witness that Pakistan Railways’ administration had fulfill the long awaited demand of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) for an express train connecting Lahore and Karachi. Gillani also appreciated the initiative of M/S Four Brothers, who had pledged to invest a minimum of Rs 225 million for the commercial management and passenger facilitation for the Business Express. He underlined that the initiative taken today would provide empathies to induct corporate culture not only in the Pakistan Railways, but also in other sectors of the economy. “We hope that we will have a beautiful interaction between the private sector and the government for future cooperation in other domains of railways activities, especially the freight sector, and perhaps also the manufacturing of railways machinery,” he maintained.
He indicated that Pakistan Railways was also on the verge of track access regime, which would provide a unique opportunity to private sector to avail untapped capacity on the railways network by importing locomotives, freight wagons and moving fleet across the country. It would relief pressure on main highways and also improve the efficient transportation of the goods in the country, he added.
Prime minister said, “Being an ex-minister for railways, Pakistan Railways is very close to my heart. During the recent past, I have been reviewing the progress of Railways with a view of putting it back on track. However, I can’t promise an overnight solution but the wheels are already in motion and we will succeed in providing a service of reasonable quality”.
He said that he was cognisant of all constraints. “Railways is facing acute shortage of locomotives, depleting rolling stock and slow pace of rehabilitation and upgradation of railways infrastructure. In the present scenario, revival of the railways depends in effectively utilising its available potential and resources”. It could best be done through greater collaboration between the public and private sectors, he stressed.
He appreciated the contribution of Pakistan Railways workers and all departments associated with this venture to make this enterprise a success. “I am sure that all employees of Pakistan railways will support the venture and prove that public private partnership is the key to economic growth for the future”, he said.
Prime minister said, “This also demonstrates that the democratic government is the key to have the participation of private business in sectors that had in the past remained strictly within the public domain. A strategy that marked the domination of the public sector organisation without participation of the private sector hampered the growth in the past. However, We are now in the process of removing all barriers in moving towards economic prosperity hand in hand with the private sector”.

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has imposed a surcharge of Rs5,000 on its DSL customers who exceed 300 gigabytes in downloads per month with effect from February 1, The Express Tribune learnt on Friday.

The largest broadband service provider is contacting and notifying its DSL customers who exceed 300GB about the newly imposed limit, said Ammara Durrani who is General Manager Public Outreach and Corporate Communication at PTCL.

Responding to a question, Durrani said a very small percentage of users fall in that category and the step is aimed at providing uninterrupted and quality service to the 99% of its customers who will not be affected with this limit, hence only 1% of total users download more than 300 gigabytes.

According to an industry official, when the broadband giant launched its DSL service it had no restrictions on bandwidth to its customers. However, in September 2011 it imposed a surcharge of Rs1,000 on its customers whose internet usage exceeded 50GB, added official.

An average user downloads around 20GB per month, which is very high, said an ISP official. Pakistani users download a lot of data, especially multimedia content, resulting in increased bandwidth consumption – that’s because data usage is determined by both uploads and downloads, something many users don’t even know.

Pakistan, according to sources, has 1.4 million broadband users and that number is increasing every day while internet users in the country are estimated at around 20 million. With the rise in data consumption, other ISPs are also likely to impose similar charges for their broadband users, sources said.

Some ISPs are already charging their customers for additional data usage. Wateen Telecom charges Rs100 per GB of data consumption – in excess of the original package – from its customers.

The newest entrant in the market for tablets and eBook readers – dominated by the likes of Apple, Amazon and Samsung – is none other than the Pakistani military.

The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Kamra, whose self-described mission is “to produce and support weapon systems for a high state of operational readiness of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF)”, has started up a new commercial venture with a Chinese company, which an official told The Express Tribune was to “strengthen the national economy”.

The first three products produced by PAC are a computing tablet, a notebook and an eBook reader.

A press release issued at the launch of the project on December 29 notes that “for the joint production of JF-17, PAF had established sufficient facilities which are appropriate for the production of both defence and commercial products.”

The PAC official, who asked not to be named, told The Express Tribune that the joint venture with the Chinese company Innavtek had taken off with the initial offering of three products. “We plan to expand this in the future.”

The venture website, cpmc.pk, states that “Innavtek jointly developed two products with Avionics Production Factory which are successfully flying on fleet of our JF-17 aircraft and three more products are under co development phase.”

The official said that while PAC would manufacture the products, marketing was Innavtek’s responsibility.

He said the products were initially being marketed in Rawalpindi, but modalities needed to be finalised so it could expand to other cities including Lahore and Karachi. “We will get in touch with courier companies to see if we can reach a deal to transport them,” he said.

The competitively priced products, he said, have several benefits because they are being manufactured in Kamra. “It comes with a joint one-year warranty of PAC and Innavtek. Because PAC is producing it, it will ensure quality. We will also provide backup support,” the official said. In the first stage of this venture, PAC will manufacture the products locally but there are plans for an exchange of personnel to be trained in China and Pakistan respectively.

PAC’s plan to “strengthen the national economy” via its new commercial venture means it has to capitalise on “current trends”.

Jehan Ara, the president of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA), said she was unaware of the venture. She was skeptical that customers would buy PAC’s products just because they were manufactured by the Pakistani military. “People with a fixed budget will test products, read reviews and get recommendations from friends and then buy something. They don’t buy just because of a name. They will test it out of curiosity and put up reviews etc.” She also said governments around the world and in Pakistan buy computers from vendors based on pricing and reliability, and should not be forced to buy from a specific vendor.

LAHORE – Mobilink has developed and implemented an innovative content-filtering solution to reinstate internet services for the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), says a press release.

The initiative by Mobilink allows subscribers to fully access the internet, including social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, using their mobile devices. Omar Manzur, Director PR & CSR, highlighted, “Customer satisfaction is an essential driver at Mobilink, and this content filtering solution is our initiative to restore full functionality of internet services for our valued customers, while maintaining PTA regulations.”

Nokia Pakistan recently announced that Arif Shafique, previously Head of Sales, Nokia Pakistan and Afghanistan has been promoted to the position of General Manager (GM), Nokia Pakistan and Afghanistan. Backed by more than four years of experience with in Nokia Pakistan, coupled with his overall 20 years of work experience, Arif has an in-depth understanding of company’s critical management processes and is one of the few employees to have been associated with the company since its inception in Pakistan, says a press release.

During his tenure at Nokia, Arif has shown consistently remarkable performance and has made substantial contribution to company’s top-line as well as bottom-line growth.

He played a key role in taking Nokia brand to the next level in Pakistan, helping the overall telecom sector to flourish in the process as well. Under his able leadership, Nokia has achieved several notable milestones in Pakistan, most important of them being record-breaking sales last year. As Head of Sales, Arif has not just been developing sales strategies and having them implemented to achieve ambitious targets but also has a clear understanding of the market in which Nokia operates.

Lahore – 24th January, 2012: wi-tribe Pakistan, rated number one for customer satisfaction, and Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science, University of Engineering and Technology (KICS-UET) unveiled ‘wi-cam’ at a press conference held at the UET campus today.

wi-cam, a CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) Management and Administration tool, developed by students and graduates of KICS-UET using open-source technology, allows broadband companies, such as wi-tribe, to remotely configure and manage CPEs, while receiving instant notifications and access to live data. Not only does this result in an improved customer care experience, it also enables customers to continue enjoying seamless connectivity.

wi-tribe entered into a strategic public-private partnership with KICS-UET to conceive, develop and launch a fully funded research and development program, enabling the innovation of this breakthrough feature-rich management tool. With wi-cam, wi-tribe and UET jointly demonstrate that sourcing local development of critical customer service innovation is not only possible, but also essential to the proliferation of technical capabilities within Pakistan.

“At wi-tribe, we thrive on the potential of the Pakistani youth and are eager to foster innovative ideas that can elevate the local IT industry to international standards. With remote CPE management capabilities, providing real-time updates and support allows wi-tribe to stay focused on customer satisfaction”, said Dr. Tanveer-ul-Haq, Vice President Technical at wi-tribe Pakistan.

This is the first of many other locally developed business tools that will aid the industry in setting new global standards in customer care, operational efficacy and return on investment, while ensuring a long-term vision with public-private partnerships between academic institutions and the internet service industry.

“At KICS-UET, researchers are keen on capitalizing open source technologies and developing cost effective solutions for local telecom and IT industry. wi-cam is a product built with local talent and it has helped KICS-UET researchers better understand software needs of the telecom industry. With these leading steps we foresee significant growth in such collaborative arrangement in telecom industry in Pakistan”, said Dr. Waqar Mahmood, Director KICS-UET.

Lt. Gen. (R) Muhammad Akram Khan, Vice-Chancellor of UET, said “This is an achievement, not just for UET and wi-tribe, but for the entire telecom industry. KICS-UET is extremely proud of this successful collaboration with wi-tribe and looks forward to continuing the partnership. wi-cam is innovation brought to life by Pakistani students and graduates, showcasing local capabilities.”

By significantly enhancing customer care, wi-cam has already begun to revolutionize customer experience and promises to do so for the industry at large. Going ahead, wi-tribe is looking forward to continuing its contribution to the industry’s growth through such initiatives, especially those showcasing the technology-capable youth of Pakistan.