PTCL Wins Global HR Excellence Award 2011

Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) has won the prestigious “2nd Global HR Excellence Award 2011” in recognition of its outstanding organizational performance in the telecom sector.
“This award is an acknowledgement of PTCL’s pioneering efforts undertaken to transform our HR policies and practices,” said PTCL Senior Executive Vice President Human Resource, Syed Mazhar Hussain on the occasion.
“We have won this award because of the tireless efforts of our HR team, which has demonstrated exceptional commitment towards elevating PTCL to new heights of success by overcoming atypical challenges”, he added.
Proffered by Global Media Links and Business Milestones, the Global HR Excellence Awards recognize leading organizations that have achieved excellence in the sphere of Human Resource and Organizational Development.
In the post-privatization period, PTCL’s organizational transformation has been spearheaded by the company’s HR Department, which has played an instrumental role in creating a new momentum and infusing vigor within the organization to bring about a paradigm shift in its organizational culture.
“The Global Excellence Award has increased PTCL’s visibility on Pakistan’s corporate horizon and enhanced its image vis-à-vis our employer branding,” said PTCL SEVP, Syed Mazhar Hussain.
The Award’s judges unanimously selected PTCL for this year’s honor in view of the fast-paced progression of its HR Department, and its exceptional achievements in successfully leading the company’s massive post-privatization transition by introducing HR best practices in a very short period of time.
“Starting with a major rationalization of headcount to introducing a merit culture whereby performance determines the annual salary increments to the employees, our HR department has been at the forefront of our organizational change,” said PTCL Executive Vice President Organizational Development, Shahzad Safdar Khan. “We now place a strong emphasis on the development of our human capital by providing them with numerous learning opportunities that are in sync with our corporate objectives.”
In recent years, PTCL has firmly established its reputation for redefining and realigning the industrial relations paradigm. In line with contemporary business requirements, it has led organizational development and employee welfare by successfully creating a win-win situation, both for the employees and the organization, to emerge as an employer of choice.

Zong Introduces Weekly Internet Package

After monthly, hourly and various other bundles – Zong today introduced a weekly internet GPRS bundle that will help customers to use GPRS while on the go without looking at their counters.
Keep reading to know the details:
Zong Weekly Internet Details:

• First time Subscription Charges: Rs. 10
• Weekly Charges: Rs. 35
• Flexi Minutes (Weekdays): 120 Minutes every day
• Flexi Minutes (Saturday & Sunday): 48 Hours
• Charges after Flexi minutes: Rs. 0.25 per minute

Note: GST and other taxes are not applicable on GPRS usage
What are Flexi Minutes:
Flexi minutes are basically the free minutes that you can use without paying anything (other than weekly charges). So if you use less than 120 minutes in a day then you won’t have to pay anything extra. Saturday and Sunday are flat free.
For instance if you have consumed 120 flexi minutes in one day – then you will be charged Rs. 0.25 per minute for rest of the day – however internet usage during Saturday and Sunday will remain free.
How to subscribe Zong Weekly Internet Package:

• Though USSD: Call the USSD *910#
• Through SMS: SMS “sub<space>weekly” to 906 for package subscription.
• Your subscription will be renewed automatically after 7 days.

How to unsubscribe Weekly Internet Package?

• SMS “unsub” to 909 to unsubscribe from this package
• Charges for sending sms to 909 are Rs. 5/sms.

PTCL Hints a Celco Buyout

Mr. Walid Irshaid, Chief Executive Office of PTCL has urged a cellular buyout from local market to handle falling margins in a competitive market with devolving tariffs.
“I don’t rule out an acquisition,” Chief Executive Officer Walid Irshaid said in an interview to Bloomberg. “We are not selling, we are buying.”
Mr. Irshaid was quoted as saying:

Pakistan cellular rates are the cheapest in the world. This can’t continue. This market has to consolidate, otherwise this will be a losing proposition for every operator.

This is not the first time that Mr. Irshaid has advocated consolidation in Pakistani market. He had expressed similar thoughts back in 2009 in a conference in Singapore when PTCL was in reported for being in talks with Warid for a buyout. However deal didn’t go through.
But its a difference time now – and appears that consolidation moves are pretty much over, particularly after Warid officially announced not to go for a merger/sellout.
However a lucrative business proposition can change investors mind at any given time. We aren’t aware of any such situation so far – but we will keep an eye to update you if and when any such thing happens.

Warid Sponsors Tombola Night

This year again Warid Telecom sponsored Islamabad Club’s Grand Tombola Night.
The event was attended by over 2500 people from all walks of life. Everyone enjoyed the evening thoroughly by playing the exciting game of Tombola.
Free Blackberry handsets and other prizes were given out to the winners by the Sponsor.

Sony to Acquire Ericsson’s Share in Sony Ericsson

Sony today announced that it will buyout Ericsson’s 50 percent stakes for USD 1.47 billion in Sony Ericsson to completely hold the the control of mobile handset manufacturing unit.
Sony Ericsson will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony and company has plans integrate it’s handsets/smartphones into Sony’s broad range of consumer electronics products including PCs, Laptops, TVs and Tablets.
Based out of Tokyo and Stockholm respectively, Sony and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson announced the deal in a press release to end a partnership that was tabled back in 2001.
Ericsson President Hans Vestberg said in a release,

“Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture, thereby combining Sony’s consumer products knowledge with Ericsson’s telecommunication technology expertise, it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones.
Today we take an equally logical step as Sony acquires our stake in Sony Ericsson and makes it a part of its broad range of consumer devices. We will now enhance our focus on enabling connectivity for all devices, using our R&D and industry leading patent portfolio to realize a truly connected world.”

Sony Ericsson, the sixth largest mobile phone maker, has lately struggled to retain it’s market share in a competitive and innovative handset industry. Sony intended to take the lead in the partnership to compete with the rivals in getting back the user share.
Unlike Sony, Ericsson is more tending towards wireless network and infrastructure business and hence Sony made this a case to buy back all the shares in Sony Ericsson.
Sony Ericsson is headquartered in London and had 7,500 employees as of December 2010. Company has R&D sites in Beijing, Lund, Silicon Valley and Tokyo. Company has 11 percent market share in Android and 80 percent of it’s sales are Android based smartphones.

PASHA Fund Declares Four Winners for Social Innovation Program

Pasha Fund has declared four winners for the first round of its sponsorship under its social innovation program.
The winners and their proposed projects names are:

• Alif Laila for Sabah Rehman,
• Farhan Masood for Bloodline,
• Waqas Ali for Online Store for Handmade
• Shoesand Usman Siddique for “Audible” for Urdu – Urdu Online.

It also announced the shortlisted candidates who will be provided grants in the next rounds.
The proposed projects are Beopar, Pakistan Student Loans, Qeemat, Integrated People, Innovative BioGas Generator, Mobile Ustaad, and Pak Donor.
The winners have been asked to hold consultation with local assigned mentors and chalk out ten step plan to be carried out in next six months as per set goals and milestones.
Afterwards, they will receive their first check for US$2,000 equivalent. They will be asked to define goal for the next four deliverables and get US$2,000 for each round.
The total funding allocation for each project is US$10,000 however the mentor must sign off on progress and milestones to get payment released in 5 phases in total.
P@SHA Social Innovation Fund was launched in April 2011. There are more than 64 applications shortlisted out of more than 300 proposals submitted.
The judges unanimously picked four winners and seven shortlisted candidates for the next round of funding.
Pasha Fund will arrange technical sessions for the winners and shortlisted candidates who will start planning for the next round of applications in consultation with their respective mentors.
The purpose of the social innovation fund is primarily to aid talented young people having innovative ideas for identifying and driving solutions of social and community challenges.
The idea is not to fund the creation of software but to fund ideas that use Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a platform for delivery and as a means for empowerment.
The initial seed money for this Fund has been provided to P@SHA by Google Inc in the form of a grant. As the Fund proves its worth, there is a likelihood of more organizations adding to it.

Wateen is Re-launching on October 31st

Highly anticipated re-launch of Wateen Telecom is to see the light of the day on October 31st, 2011 – we have confirmed with sources.
From what we have heard so far is that there’s a press conference planned in Lahore on the same day in the evening.
New products, network expansion and new logo will be unveiled to the press and select bloggers.
Wateen is availing it’s second chance of getting deeper into Pakistani WiMAX market with plenty of new offerings that include a 2 MB package and further decrease in price for it’s flagship 1 MB package.
We are told that conference’s main highlights would be:

• Change in management
• Change of Logo (a teaser can be seen in print ad published today)
• Network optimization and up time
• Price cut for 1 MB Package
• New Device

Wateen will target the masses with it’s industry best rate for 1 MB Package, which is now going to be cheaper than before. This will come bundled with powerful new device from GreenPacket.
Packages won’t be truly unlimited – but yes, they are capped at industry best rate.
We know that Wateen customers were not comfortable with the internet down time on Wateen, and this is where the company has worked in past few months. According to this source in company – Wateen has deployed 240 new sites plus optimized another 100 to make sure that there’s blanket coverage with minimum down time.
According to internal sources, Wateen’s downtime is now less than 4 percent – which of course they are trying to further optimize with time.
We will keep an eye on the launch – and will get the information to you as it will happen.

MCB Employs IBM and Misys to Streamline Treasury Operations

IBM and its Business Partner Misys have been employed by Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) Limited to automate the bank’s Treasury Operations.
The project will improve efficiencies and help the bank to comply with new regulations from the State Bank of Pakistan. IBM will provide implementation services alongside business partner, Misys, to deploy Misys Opics Plus which will standardize financial mechanisms and minimise complexity, helping to sustain MCB Bank’s position as one of the leading banks in the region.
The new solution will integrate bank’s financial instruments and departments, improving transparency and accountability of financial management and supporting decision making and governance. The bank’s clients will get a single point of access to a diverse set of services. 
The project is part of bank’s efforts to streamline their existing operations in line of the new regulations aiming at revamping and integrating financial services by making collection and credit operations much more efficient. MCB has more than 1,100 branches in Pakistan and growing. In an effort to drive efficiency and enhance operational speed and flexibility, IBM will provide MCB Bank a centralized approach to systems and operations enabling the bank to meet various challenges of complex capital markets and prepare for future growth. IBM will provide implementation, Project Management Office (PMO), testing and training services along with Misys Opics Plus, a leading treasury & capital markets solution.
Misys Opics Plus runs on the .NET service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform that delivers flexible customization features for business re-engineering along with high levels of scalability. It also allows financial institutions to manage risk more effectively, consolidate systems, reduce costs and get back to the business of serving the evolving needs of their clients.
“Innovation is what has helped MCB become one of the leading banks in the region,” said Mohamad Ramzan, Head of Treasury & Foreign Exchange at MCB Bank. “IBM’s services and the deployment of Misys Opics Plus will enable us to take new products to the market faster while meeting central bank’s regulatory requirements.”
Once it is completed, the MCB finance system will play an important role in providing faster and higher quality financial services that benefit individual citizens as well as the economy. Through its design it can have an important impact on the growth rate and allocation of resources in the local economy.
"The application of smarter solutions has a key role to play in the transformation of banking around the world," said Farhan Ashfaq, Financial Services Sector Leader at IBM Pakistan.  "In countries like Pakistan where companies are still building their infrastructures, banks have an opportunity to implement systems that increase efficiency, stability and manageability of their organisations, help manage risks. allowing them to leapfrog the competition and win new customers." 
“Now more than ever, banks require a comprehensive technology to handle the intricate requirements of the global marketplace,” said Michel Daenen, Sales Director for the Capital Markets Business in Middle East and Africa at Misys. “The flexible architecture of Misys Opics Plus ensures rapid pricing and risk calculations, allowing users to manage the high volume and complex financial instruments more effectively. This, in turn, means banks need fewer systems and less manual processing, enabling them to take new products to market much more quickly and more efficiently.”
Today’s announcement with MCB Bank Limited is another example of how IBM Global Services and IBM Business Partners team with clients to solve business problems and help them capitalize on new opportunities. Clients now are looking to IT service providers for more than just cost cutting. Global clients need help finding ways to better leverage IT into their business to stimulate growth and prepare for the future. By tightly weaving together business insights, an industry-leading software portfolio, world-class technology research and operations expertise, IBM, along with its partners, is redefining what it means to design, deploy and deliver IT services on a global scale. As a result, clients achieve faster return on investment while freeing up resources to focus on innovative projects.

Nokia Announces Lumia 800 and Lumia 710

Highly leaked Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 are dubbed as “True Windows Phones”, which boost the design that Nokia is bragging about plus the Windows Operating System that it is using as it’s last resort to retain the dipping smartphone share.
It merits mentioning here that you must not expect both the phones hitting Pakistani stores earlier than next year.

Nokia Lumia 800

If you look from top – there’s nothing magical unlike Stephen Elop repeatedly described the the Lumia 800. There’s no catchy innovation or killer application that comes with Nokia Lumia 800 – however, with the looks and feel in a single piece body, Lumia is set to win countless aesthetic hearts.
Windows Mango has already managed to impress the reviewers, especially with it’s new expressive icons and user interface. From what we have seen and heard so far, integration of Nokia’s solid hardware with OS is pretty smooth.
Nokia’s renowned Bright AMOLED ClearBlack display with toughened glass stretching to the sides of the phone is what will catch your eyes in the first contact. The Back, Start and Search buttons on the front of the screen are set in the glass on the front of course.
On the back, there’s an eight-megapixel auto-focus camera with Carl Zeiss optics.
Inside, there’s a 1.4GHz processor and graphics co-processor driving the operating system to deliver smooth user experience. In addition there’s 16GB of internal user memory, with cloud computing integrated to offer 25GB of free SkyDrive storage.
Connectivity includes up to HSDPA 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth. Talktime is rated at up to 13 hours, or standby for up to 335 hours.
Price and Availability:
Nokia says that Lumia 800 will be priced at or around PKR 50,000 – while it’s availability is not possible before next year. Company said that Nokia Lumia 800 will ship to 6 European countries in November while to another 5 Asian countries (including Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan) by year end. More markets including Middle East and Pakistan to follow after that.

Nokia Lumia 710

Nokia Lumia 710 was the other launched smartphone by Nokia today. This affordable smartphone aims to cover the masses who want to get going with a Windows Phone, enhanced with features that bring Nokia’s great strengths to bear.
The 3.7-inch screen offers an 800 x 480-pixel resolution with a ClearBlack TFT for great colors and readability even in bright sunlight. At the rear, there’s a five-megapixel auto-focus camera with an LED flash. The camera can also shoot HD video at 30 frames-per-second.

It’s designed for social, offering full integration of Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In, and photo-sharing can be done in just a couple of taps.
The Internet experience on the Nokia Lumia 710 is powered by Internet Explorer 9, offering excellent performance and compatibility with a wide range of modern HTML5 web apps.
Packing the same 1.4GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 offers exceptional performance at this price point.
Inside there’s 8GB of user storage memory and 512MB of RAM. It has quadband radio reception, 3G up to HSDPA, WiFi and Bluetooth, so the communications options are covered.
Price and Availability
Lumia 710 is likely to be priced at PKR 32,000 – and is suppose to hit Pakistani shelves not earlier than year 2012.
Nokia Lumia 710 will first appear in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before becoming available in Middle East in 2012.

Nokia Unveils Four Asha Series Mid-Range Phones

Nokia has announced four models for it’s newly announced Asha range, mid-end phones that comes between feature-phones and smartphones at an affordable price.
Primarily aimed for emerging markets, Nokia targets Asha series for the next billion to get themselves equipped with low-cost phones that will offer more than just the basic telephony features.
Four Asha Phones, namely the 200, 201, 300 and 303 hold their specific target audience based on features and price. Keep reading to know further:

Nokia Asha 303 – Smarter QWERTY with Touch

The Nokia Asha 303 comes with a large 2.6" capacitive touch screen with a QWERTY keypad. The Nokia Asha 303 is built with Internet and social networks ease in mind.
The device harnesses a powerful 1Ghz engine, 3G and WLAN to deliver a fast Internet experience. Social networks, email and IM are at the center of the experience, easily accessible from the homescreen.
The Nokia Asha 303 is powered by the cloud-based Nokia Browser, which by compressing the web by up to 90%, provides higher speeds and a more affordable access to the Internet.
Angry Birds Lite, the popular mobile game, comes preinstalled, together with support for other globally relevant applications such as Facebook Chat, Whatsapp messaging and the latest release of Nokia Maps for Series 40 (in selected markets).
Price:
Nokia says that the estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 303 will be approximately PKR 13,500. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Pakistani Footballers to Get Trained by Manchester United

As we reported earlier, Zong has entered into three year deal with Manchester United, and now according to Dawn, part of this arrangement will see 32 footballers from all over Pakistan to be trained by Manchester United players under the guidance of their coaches including Sir Alex Ferguson.
Country wide trials will be held from next year to select the best players between the ages of 10 and 18 who will receive training by Manchester United players and coaches.
However, it remains unlikely that any of the club’s staff and coaches would visit Pakistan because of the security situation in the country.
While speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Rizwan Akhter, the Director of Advertising at Promotion at Zong said:
“Seeing the popularity of football among youngsters in Pakistan, Zong has entered into a three-year contract with Manchester United. It is hoped that this one of a kind partnership will lead to prosperity, growth and triumph for the sport here.”
“Though we are focusing on the grassroots level for now, it is hoped that along with the inspiration gained from learning more about the famous English club with such an interesting history will come improvement in football grounds and academies here.”
He further said that the deal would allow Zong to look at the workings of the club. And by noting the positives about how one of the biggest clubs in the world is run, changes could be made to the footballing infrastructure in Pakistan.
The partnership already makes Zong the official telecom partner of Manchester United in Pakistan as well as providing the rights to exclusive interviews, news and footage of behind-the-scenes activities.
Manchester United have an estimated 10 million fans across Pakistan and this deal will further endear Zong to the clubs fans, footballing enthusiasts as well as inspire younger players to take up football as a sport.

Get 2nd Gen Laptops at Installments from Meezan Bank

We know that Meezan Bank had been offering financing facilities for laptops to businesses and individuals, and this deal just got better for those who seek laptops at monthly installments.
Meezan has partnered with Intel Pakistan to offer one-stop Shariah-compliant financing for consumers who purchase Hewlett-Packard laptop computers based on Intel® 2^ndgeneration Core processors through Meezan Bank’s Laptop Financing Scheme.
Features of the Laptop Financing Scheme include fixed payment installments over three to 24 months and a two-years warranty, including parts provided by New Horizon and free Takaful (Islamic insurance) cover for damage and theft of laptop.
Additionally, dedicated after-sales service will also be provided by New Horizon.
Following are few special features of this affinity program:

• Easy Installment options for financing period for 3 to 24 months.

• 2 years warranty with parts provided by vendor.

• Free Carrying Case will be provided by vendor.

• Dedicated Call Center by New Horizon (vendor) for addressing after-sale issues and providing after sales support to the customers at their door step

• Absolutely Free Takaful Coverage. All laptops acquired through Meezan Laptop Ease will be covered by Takaful (Islamic Insurance) before delivery to the customers

• Complete surety and peace of mind that purchased laptop is a genuine brand

• Laptop model offerings will vary from time to time in consistence with the latest & upgraded features and market demand.

Laptop Ease is currently available at branches in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi & Multan
Laptop Features Installation Plan:

You can contact at following numbers if you are interested:
Karachi:

Muhammad Shahid Habib
Cell No. 0321-6890138
Mohammad Sarim
Cell No. 0313-2620150
Faisalabad

Muhammad Nauman Saleem
Cell No. 0300-6688626
Islamabad

Roa MehboobCell No. 0332-6316602
Multan
Asif Altaf
Cell No. 0300-6362042

Ufone Introduces HTC Salsa in Pakistan

Ufone has partnered with Brightex to unveil HTC Salsa, a mid-range smartphone, in Pakistan.
With HTC Salsa you can instantly share photos, videos and more to your close ones, with a dedicated Facebook® share button. With integrated Facebook chat, the HTC Salsa lets catch-up with your friends whenever you like. Facebook widgets keep you up to speed by showing your friends’ latest status updates. Plus, the calendar updates you with upcoming birthdays and events.
Clocked at 800 MHz HTC Salsa comes with 3.4-inch touch screen. With sizeable RAM of 512 MB, HTC Salsa is powered by HTC Sense. In addition to 5 Megapixel camera with auto focus and flash there’s a VGA front Camera for video calling as well. Its anodized aluminum body and state of the art design makes this device very nice to have and to hold.
HTC Salsa has Internal GPS antenna as well.
Other Specs include:
CPU:

• 800 MHz

Storage

• Internal phone storage: 512 MB
• RAM: 512 MB
• Expansion slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

Battery:

• Talk time: Up to 585 minutes
• Standby Time: Up to 465 hours

Sensors:

• G-Sensor
• Digital compass
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor

Price:
Ufone says that HTC Salsa is available for it’s postpaid customers at Rs. 29,999.