July 7th, 2005
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority [pta.gov.pk] is ramping up efforts to introduce 3G technology [wikipedia.org] for mobile phones in Pakistan. The PTA recently gave a presentation [pta.gov.pk] on moving current networks from 2G to 3G technology to PTA officials, representatives of PTCL, mobile and fixed line operators, telecom experts and students.
While explaining the importance of 3G technology, Gen. Shahzada (ed - Chairman PTA) said that PTA was putting every endeavor to bring home latest cellular mobile technologies including the 3rd Generation. He said that it has always been difficult to introduce new telecommunication methods and technologies but like in the past, PTA would facilitate all operators to switch over to the latest technologies.
Pakistan currently has 2.5G based networks and according to the PTA and this [wikipedia.org] the switch to 3G will require a lot of effort and money because of the underlying infrastructure change. The main benefit in moving to a 3G network is higher data transmission rates. The increase in bandwidth is substantial, from a maximum of 128kpbs in existing 2.5G networks to up to 2mpbs-10mpbs in 3G networks.
Posted in IT, Telecom | 1 Comment »
July 4th, 2005
A story running on NewKerala estimates some figures on the impact of the internet outage in the range of 40-60 million dollars (revised to 1.5 million dollars). There are 40 call centres with 3000-3500 people in their employ. One of the call centres claimed they had complete outage for 3 days and 10% bandwidth on the fourth day. The best bit:
The paper quoted Wahaj-us-Siraj, an IT and Telecom expert, as saying: “It has been a criminal negligence on part of the PTCL as well as the government. They knew about the likelihood of such a fault in the cable that was the sole provider for the entire country’s linkage to the outside world.”
A class action lawsuit seems to be in order here.
The current status is that the repair work has started. The repair is being performed by a Etisalat which won the PTCL bid (overbid actually by more than $1 billion, coming out ~80% on top of next highest bidder) for a 26% profit sharing stake and 58% voting rights just 9 days before the outage. Wierd coincidence. Could Etisalat have something to gain from this outage? Doesn’t a bid topping the competitor by more than 1 billion dollars seem conspicuous?
Update (5 Jul, 2005): Dawn reports that the actual repairs have not yet started. Currently the repair crew aboard Niva are still trying to localize the faults (initially localized to a 5 kilometre using sonic testing and electroding). India, Djibouti, Oman and the United Arab Emirates will be affected by the repairs and have agreed to a 2 hour downtime during repairs.
Posted in Business, IT, Internet, Offshoring | 9 Comments »
June 28th, 2005
I came across an interesting entry at a blog which refers to issues dealing with IP losses and job insecurity in Pakistan. The author talks about how people are quickly employed at new start-ups, they work hard, and when the time comes for a pay cheque, they are fired and their intellectual property consumed by the “saab’s” that run the business, essentially, for free. The author then leaves us with the dillemma of a) leaving the country and working elsewhere causing the country braindrain, or b) being patriotic, and staying in the country and finding menial work elsewhere.
His arguments for what is and isn’t patriotic are also worth reading.
What are the legal ramifications for the case that he mentions? Is there any avenue of escape for the hard worker who simply wants his paycheque at the end of the day?
Posted in Business, IP/Copyrights, Legal | 4 Comments »
June 27th, 2005
2 months ago, we covered the youngest MCP, Arfa Karim at age 9. One of her wishes was to meet Bill Gates. Didn’t think her wish would be granted this soon. She will be visiting Microsoft headquarters in Remond, Washington, to meet with CTO, Bill Gates.
We raised the question as to what can be done to promote the youth and intellectual capital in Pakistan. Granting her wish and generating more press around this seems like a good start.
I might be meeting her on July 12 to give her words of encouragement. If you have any questions or would like to relay words of encouragement, post them here.
Posted in Academia, IT | 7 Comments »
June 27th, 2005
One of Pakistan’s main pipes to the global internet, the SEAMEWE-3 cable developed a fault on Monday at about 9pm Pakistan standard time. As of 11:30pm engineering at ITI informed me that the relevant parties were still trying to locate the fault, and there was no ETA on the fix. The fault has caused major data congestion on the few backup satellite uplinks Pakistan has to the outside world resulting in extremely slow to no connectivity in the entire region.
Update 12:38am: Seems like this is problem is not localized to Pakistan, it is also affecting India and Singapore’s bandwidth (and possibly everyone else who depends on SEAMEWE-3). ITI informs me that the SEAMEWE consortium is investigating this issue. Also – SEAMEWE-3 is Pakistan’s main pipe to the global internet.
Update 8:22am: Still no word on what the problem is or the ETA for the fix. All ITI says (or knows) is that work in on-going to fix the fault. They continue to work off backup satellites. Connection speed early morning (4am - 6am) was decent (60kbytes/sec on a 1mbs direct ITI link), presumably because of off peak hours. At the time of writing the 1mbs link is transferring at about 10kbytes/sec or about 10% of its capacity. It will probably get worse as the country wakes up and starts hitting the net.
Update 9:21am (Wednesday): Just spoke to an engineer in Islamabad (some guy from ITI Karachi gave me the number). The cable has not been repaired yet and Pakistan is still working off backup satellites. Apparently the repair crew is ready to fix cable fault, but has not received the green signal by all the countries who’s bandwidth will be effected by the repair operation (mostly countries in Asia and some in Europe). This story is also being covered on Slashdot as well as other sources .
Another interesting issue - Air Blue, a Pakistani airline carrier says that the fault has caused huge losses for them because they depend on their online reservation system for most of their business.
Corrected: It is SEAMEWE-3 cable that developed the fault, not SME-3.
Update 11:27pm (Wednesday): Just spoke to an engineer at ITI again. He confirmed what the local media is saying about repairs taking atleast 4-5 days and even as long as week. According to him, the repair crew has not reached the site yet, once they do they will need to physically trace the cable along the seabed and see what kind of damage has been done to it. Meanwhile, 3 backup E3 connections (one E3 connection is 33mbp/s I am told) have been deployed to cope with the bandwidth, though that doesn’t even meet half the bandwidth requirements of the Karachi at offpeak hours.
Posted in IT, Internet | 15 Comments »
June 24th, 2005
The New York Times reports:
Even as it proceeds with layoffs of up to 13,000 workers in Europe and the United States, I.B.M. plans to increase its payroll in India this year by more than 14,000 workers, according to an internal company document.
…An experienced software programmer in the United States earning $75,000 a year can often be replaced by an Indian programmer who earns $15,000 or so.
Countries like India and to a lesser extent Pakistan redefine the landscape. Simply put, the workers in these countries work harder and cheaper. Many work on contracts, making them easily dispensable without any repercussions. They have lesser health costs and don’t file whimsical lawsuits.
As the software development methodologies and business processes evolve, this trend will only escalate. If and when can we expect to see a software development assembly line where individual intellectual capital has diminishing value?
Posted in Business, IT, Offshoring | Comments Off
June 24th, 2005
BBC reports that The Sun newspaper was able to purchase customers’ personal information from call center in India. This impacts not only on the reputation of Indian call centres but also Pakistan and adds to the risks of offshoring.
Credit card theft is already a very prominent problem which is getting increasingly harder to mitigate. As global boundaries diminish, identity theft may become a problem half way across the world; get medical treatement on someone else’s health plan and by the time the foriegn company or person gets the bill, it’ll be too late. The problem will only escelate.
Corruption is quite high in these parts of the world at the lower echelons of society. Are information workers in these regions more ethically challenged than the west?
Posted in Business, IT, Offshoring | Comments Off
June 21st, 2005
Pakistan’s National Committee for the World Summit Award announces the launch of nation wide WSA Pakistan competition to recognize and award the best e-Content practices in Pakistan
The World Summit Award in Pakistan is the first of its kind in the country, which emphasizes the importance of Content in bridging the digital divide. The main aim and purpose of organizing this competition is to recognize, encourage and further disseminate Pakistan’s best e-Content practices to bridge the information gap, break the information barrier and let the rest of the world know about Pakistani e-products.
Read on for more from Digital Opportunity.
Posted in Academia, Government, IT | Comments Off
June 18th, 2005
UAE based Etisalat has won a 26% stake in PTCL by offering a whooping $2.598 billion dollars or $1.96 per share. Etisalat’s bid overwhelmed China Mobile’s bid of $1.4 billion ($1.066 per share) and Singapore based SingTel’s bid of 1.16 billion ($0.88 per share). With this purchase Etisalat also gets 58% voting rights on the board of directors and a 26% stake of PTCLs profits. After the sale, the GoP now have a 62% stake in the company.
This is Etisalat’s first major acquisition since the UAE government announced an end to Etisalat’s telecom monopoly in UAE.
Posted in Government, Telecom | 5 Comments »
June 15th, 2005
An estimated 500 workers were detained while 29 were fired for threatening property damage. Union leader Shahid Ayub claimed some 200,000 phonelines were disrupted in southwestern and eastern Punjab province. Another fire in Lahore and a bomb in Balochistan to topple over a tower were amongst the attacks. Police claimed to have detained about 60 people in Lahore. Sabir Butt from the PTCL Employees Action Committee accused police of intimidating and harassing workers and their families.
Leghari claims the situation is under control during the launching ceremony of National IT Development and Promotion Unit (NIDU). Quite a shame that the launch of the IT development centre was overshadowed by issues surrounding PTCL. No details on the development centres in the news either. Anyways, Leghari stated, security was neccessitated at only 130 of the 3500 PTCL installations. Further, the strike was declared illegal by NIRC.
Yahoo provides some details:
Ali Qadir Gilani, a senior PTCL official, told Dow Jones Newswires that management and the leaders of PTCL Telecom Employees Union - the largest of the nine unions forming PTCL Action Committee - have reached a settlement to end a strike against a company stock sell-off set for Saturday.
PTCL management agreed to enhance workers’ pay by 35% instead of the previously announced 30% as well as increase other benefits for employees, such as education grants, Gilani said.
Shahid Ishaq Butt, a leader of the union, said the strike is being called off and the union won’t oppose privatization.
“We are now asking all employees to attend office in the larger interest of the country,” he said.
“We have accepted PTCL privatization because over 60% share would still be with the government even after divesting 26% stake,” Butt said.
Not the most ideal climate for privatizating and selling to foreign investors, a 26% chunk of the nations largest Telecom company which has a market cap of well over Rs.250 billion (about $US450 million) and comprises 15% of the weighted-average index of 100 shares. The stock is still holding out and the bid is still scheduled for the revised date of Jun 18 bringing to a hasty end, the 10-day standoff between 55,000 employees and 9 unions. The bidders are requested to deposit the money by Thursday (Rs40 million deposit).
Interesting turn of events. Is this the climate under which you would want to sell off a major stake in large company? Was all this trouble for a 5% increase in pay or is Shadhi Ishaq Butt (and the other 8 union leaders) a wealthier man? Or was this all military coercion?
Posted in Government, IT, Telecom | 1 Comment »