Sunday, 30 October 2011

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.
1 thumb Warid Sponsors Tombola Night3 thumb Warid Sponsors Tombola Night5 thumb Warid Sponsors Tombola Night6 thumb Warid Sponsors Tombola Night

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.