The iphone fame in Pakistan is at rise despite the fact that it is not officially launched here at yet. Interestingly a number of people attempt to buy the fake iphone by considering it the original one. Something similar I had experienced few days back but luckily saved my $250 from wasting it on the so called iphone. So here I am to unhide the mockery of fake iphone. By look it is appealing enough that it is certainly difficult to recognize it as the copy of iphone. This inferior iphone has the same size of touch pad screen, an apple logo & the statement manufactured in California assembled in china on the back side. You can’t say it a crap phone until you play with it for a while. Yes! After being annoyed by its poor touch pad sensitivity you must say, this is the worst iphone I had ever seen.

This iphone lacks almost every superior function that original has, it didn’t support Wi-Fi internet connectivity nor you can install apple applications from the application store, music store & iTunes. If you like to play roulette on you mobile, you will find it very difficult to enjoy a proper game using this iPhone. Its low pixels camera is crap. It didn’t support GPS navigator, it can’t even play mp3 & the funniest part is its poor touch sensor where you need a touch pen to browse. A touch pen is the part of this phone. Its sound quality is worst, listing to songs on its headphone is like listening the radio transmission of your neighboring countries at MW frequency.

I don’t know the exact price of this iphone in Pakistan but it deserves nothing more in the range of $100. Yes the credit goes to china for copying apple but remember buying this phone is a mistake, if you had ever used the genuine iphone you will prefer to throw it after using it for a couple of days. So be aware:)

Identity fraud in SIM registration process is one of the major problem that is in the scenario since the arrival of telecom companies in Pakistan, I believe telecom companies, government & the users itself are responsible for it, First it is the responsibility of telecom companies to allow only the authorized sales points for the sales & registration of there SIMs (subscribers identity module). They are required to actively monitor the sale points & ensure fair registration from the users. However we can expect them unfair at this, because every company likes to have more subscribers to gain more revenue. So ultimately for achieving this they can try every possible sales channel without caring about the consequence.

Ok! Now turning towards the government which holds a major responsibility in this regard, unfortunatly it seems me that the government was finding it difficult to direct the telecom operators with a fair & strict policy regarding the registration of new SIMs, Before the serious involvement of PTA (Pakistan telecom authority) the sales & registration process of telecom subscribers are not fair, SIMs of different companies were selling without the requirements of proper identity document, that is as easy as finding classifieds from Craigslist. Even a kid can purchase these SIMs from any retailor.

Franchises & the retailors are the great contributors in the occurrence of fake entries, every franchise owner gets a good profit margin on every SIM that is registered & sold in a defined region. They make fake entries for their sales in most of the cases when a buyer didn’t submit their original CNIC with the purchase. Similar is the case with retailers, they get Rs 20 to 30 on each registration form they submit to the franchise for registration, they attach anonymous CNIC with the registration forms that resulted in the fake entry for a particular mobile number. However, PTA has make these things easier now. you can register your SIM directly by calling them from your mobile phone.

I think what makes print media alive in a long run is the trust & believe of readers. i have seen many people, specially those who born before 80s. they uses all the print, electronic & web for news updates & the bottom line of their perception only agreed with the reports taken from print media editorials. so in this case, internet can be described as a good medium for information but not journalism. you get information in bulk & raw shape from the internet & you interpret it after checking it on some other sources of news.

But however, the graph of internet journalism & its effectiveness will be higher then any other source in a long run. all the reliable & trusted news providers are working to establish a smooth & successful setup at which the online readers of their news website will be charged for monthly subscriptions. they are also focusing at online social media tools such as the facebook & twitter to use for news purposes in order to boost up the readership. so will you pay for the online news content?

Apple the legislative of iPhone has announced an update for the users of this decent phone. The updated firmware 3.1 with bug fixes. apple also released a new series of itunes, its a 9th version. if you’re into phones, specially the iphone, then this must be a good update for you. though i am not a big fan of iphone becasue it dont like phones with touch pad, but yes, it influence me due to its unique design & attractive features. its a good entertainer rather then just a phone. you can enjoy your web presence at the best level if you are using iphone.

I have read few reviews in a forum about this update which reveals that the iphone OS 3.1 updated is not that bombastic, people are expecting more. there is no such additional features provided in it. Except few improvement in making it user friendly, the modem firmware & easy synchronization.

The features provided in this firmware included, itunes U content organisation, save the vedio from mail & MMS into camera roll, using mobileMe remotly lock your iphone, paste phone numbers into the dial pad & an improved iPhone Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is on.

With the growth of broadband users in pakistan, different broadband companies emerged in the market. most of them offers a broadband connection with relatively different technology. so lets discuss about the main competitors & the technology they are using.

In Fixed line broadband services with ADSL “Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line” & HFC “Hybrid Fiber Coax” technology etc, the main competitors are PTCL & linkdotnet, both have a strong portfolio but PTCL got extensively wide network then linkdotnet where their services are limited to main cities in pakistan.

In wireless broadband, the technology such as WiMAX & EVDO “evolution, data only” is targeting the customers in the market. Wateen telecom being the first wimax operator has more subscriber then the recently launched wordcall & wi-tribe, One the other hand wordcall & PTCL are offering Wireless broadband with EVDO technology.

The race among the broadband companies is still on the move, the competition in this sector ultimately leads them to provide the consumer the best broadband services at cheap price.

Lately one of my blog post discussed about the expansion of Wimax technology in Pakistan. So here I am with new evidence. Augere a Netherlands company with a team of highly skilled & experienced personals aimed to Start Wimax broadband services in Pakistan. I came to confess this news after going though a list of new job apportinities announced by Augere in Sunday’s newspaper. Here I want to let you people know that Augere has been assigned by telecard to start their operations in Pakistan. Lately they are having disputes with Wi-Tribe another Wimax operator regarding licensing issue. While looking at the current scenario regarding wimax we came to know that currently Wateen has the monopoly to offer wimax based internet service. Wateen subscribers faced speed problem at many places & they has yet to work on making it to meet the required quality standards. I believe it is good to have more competitors in the market where the customers can have more options. Wi-tribe & augere in the future will be the sharp competitors in the industry. I wish they soon ended up with more coverage & quality of services that the current Wimax operator provides in Pakistan.

PTCL (Pakistan telecommunication company limited) one of the monopolist in the area of line telephony in Pakistan is continuously making progress when it came’s to quality of services they provide. The progress starts from the very beginning when they alter their corporate identity (brand mark) followed by the launch of their new products, packages & new ways of customer services management. Infect every new product they introduced in the market was appreciated. So the journey they start after being privatized & acquired by Etisalat they experienced rapid growth & very positive internal rate of return.

It was while talking to one of my friend who is employee with PTCL at islamabad. I came to know that despite growth the company also suffers loss in land line telephony services during the last couple of years. According to him customers of the land line (fixed line) is moving towards other alternative products like Wireless phone, mobile phone at a very high ratio & this happens to be a big challenge to the company. Infect they deal with this problem very boldly by launching additional services with the fixed line. PTCL broadband is one among them. similarly they also makes there customer service depaetment punctual in handling complaints. One can get a high speed internet connection while maintaining their land line telephone. The good news to tell you folks is that, if you are PTCL broadband user, now you can enjoy double speed at existing price. This was announced couple of weeks back. Similarly you can also enjoy your favorite movies & dramas while suffering their entertainment portal ptcl buzz. This service is exclusively for PTCL broadband users.

Yes, another serious note I would like to highlight! It’s about one and half years since PTCL announce its broadband internet services in Pakistan. But however this is very unfortunate to reveal that they are totally failed to provide it for all land line users. Infect people belongs to big cities where there is other DSL providers also exists can get PTCL broadband connection. The fact remains that Only about 50 % of the customers can avail this facility & there is no PTCL broadband service yet functional at remote areas or even well populated towns & cities.

During the last couple of months I am hearing from few of my friends that they are using free GPRS internet service while using their zong number. Since I am not personally using zong that is why I didn’t take keen interest, nor did I surely believed in their words. but however when they do it practically in front of me. It was then I belived when i came to know the way they are using it. Infact i was surprised & it was hard for me to believe that how it is easy to crack zong data center to enjoy free GPRS . Although I am not certain about other places in Pakistan but the place where I live (around 70 Km north from Islamabad) this free service exist till last week. Then finally the engineers from zong get awaken to fixed the bug. So onwards it start charging balance when one connects GPRS from their cell phone. Yes! Another interesting thing I came to know is that the bug of free GPRS exists in the network since last year (June 2008). A little no of people knows about it. Infact they dont want the officials of ZONG to know about this bug & they can enjoy free GPRS for maximum period of time.

The method to use free GPRS is simple, you didn’t need any special settings to do with your cell phone, all you need to do is to activate the GPRS for your zong number by Sending an SMS like ” All-Space-Maker of your cell phone-Space-Model No and send to 131″. Once your gprs setting is done. Then you have to make sure that you have zero balance in your account. The answer is yes? So you are ready to enjoy free GPRS from zong.

I assume there might be two possibilities that resulted in the procession of free GPRS for zong users. One, since zong came in line with the GSM operators in Pakistan during the first quarter of 2008. Being new in already establised market by strong competitors. Zong in order to demonstrate a uniqe practice of direct marketing, there is a posibility that the engineers are ignoring this bug as an order from the management to boost up the sale, I witnessed when this interesting news was spread around the teens at my town, zongs Sims in the market sells like hot cake. Secondly there is also a probability that zong has not done with the secure data protection solution at there high end like MSC & data centers & there happened to be a serious fault in zong network during that perioud of time. PS: If anyone is still using free GPRS service (another bug) from any mobile operator in Pakistan, it would be highly appreciated if they share their experience with us. Cheers