Warid is to launch operations in 28 cities today. They have a current initial capacity to support 1.5 million people.
Warid has signed agreements with five companies: Nokia (to supply cellphones), Huawei (optical transmission network), Chimera (after sales services), Frontier Works (local expertise and laying out of 5000km Optical Fibre cable) and Ericsson (GSM/GPRS + core radio and network equipment).
Frontier Works Organization is an army-run company (often charged with monopolizing government contracts) and proposed the clifton underpass in a record 4 months, but the proposal puts the company to shame (they should have hired some civil engineers).
More interestingly though, their GM Sales & Marketing is Naveed Saeed. This is his NAB profile:
Name: Naveed Saeed
Occupation: Inspector Punjab Police
Allegation: Corruption and corrupt practices through known sources of income.
Court Decision: The Court has finally accepted the application u/s 9 (c) of NAO 1999 and closed the case against Naveed Saeed.
NAB Name: Lahore
Ref Date: 1/19/2005
Ref No: 1/C/2005
What does an inspector know about marketing a multi-million dollar telecom company? I didn’t bother googling the rest of the team.
Telenor is responding by offering free in-network MMS and cross network SMS (reported to have some problems). We previously covered Mobile Number Portability which should set the stage for competition.
stealth launchThis has been a very stealty launch.
Perhaps I’m blind but I havn’t seen any advertising or Warid offices open up in the clifton area. How does a regular end-consumer get a Warid connection? What packages are they offering?
The Bangladesh JournalThe Bangladesh Journal
“Abu Dhabi group which comprise of some ruling family members of Abu Dhabi along with prominent businessmen from the UAE has strategically decided to invest in the Financial sector and Telecom Sector through its majority owned companies namely Bank Alfalah Ltd and Warid Telecom.”
They are owned by the same party I understand. Apart from that one officer being named its sales exec, i see no other reason to worry about Warid. In particular this shows the expanding interest of Arab families in Pakistan, which only paves way for more international business eye on the Pakistani economy.
DO WE HAVE TO ENABLE THE GPRS??I WANT TO ASK THAT DO WE HAVE TO ENABLE GPRS IF YES THEN HOW AND WHAT IS THE PROCESS??ANY CHARGES???????PLZ REPLY!!