The recent MIT Conference on Corporate Innovation Entrepreneurship was an excellent proof that entrepreneurship activities in Pakistan continue to thrive. There are a number of dedicated and talented people who have taken the initiative and shown that given the right people and processes, an ecosystem of entrepreneurs can be nurtured.

Read Jawwad Farid’s latest blog post and see the pictures of this impressive event. Congratulations and Kudos to the MIT CEF BAP 2009 team for their work.

The recent war to crush terrorism has cost us a lot at all levels. Business Recorder quotes a Rs 329.88 million loss in telecom sector during the NWFP/Fata war on terrorism.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has suffered a loss of Rs 329.88 million in NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) during the current war on terrorism, as on October 30, 2009. In a written reply, the Minister In-charge of the Cabinet Division informed the National Assembly here on Thursday that total amount of loss suffered by telecommunication networks in NWFP/FATA during the war on terrorism stood at Rs 329.88 million.

During the war 127 buildings/establishments, 51 towers and 87 PTCL Exchanges were completely or partially damaged. The operators have successfully restored the network in Districts Swat, Bannu, Mingora and Malakand Division etc.

At present the network in Districts Dir, DI Khan, Bajour Agency, Peshawar, Bannu, Kurram Agency is being restored by the respective operators. At other areas/locations like, South Waziristan, Orakzai Agency and Khyber Agency, the operators shall undertake the restoration and rehabilitation of their network when the law and order situation improves, he added.

Smart bundle is a new offer from Warid for new postpaid customers where they get a BlackBerry plus all the works – voice, sms, data as one bundle. With this deal you can avail a BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone along with discounts and waivers on line rent & security. For the first 6 months you will get Black Berry smartphone services free of cost, based on the quota that your plan provides (described below).

Here are the special rates for the first 6 months. Note that the free SMS go away after 6 months and the line rent kicks in.

On exhausting your quota of free minutes, free SMS & free data units you will be charged as per your Warid Postpaid plan.

The deal costs with packages are:

And the line rent according to the package is:

Our conclusion – its a good deal for those looking to start using a BlackBerry. Hey, if you change your mind after 6 months and want out, they will let you keep the phone!

tynt.com

Telecom industry insiders reported today that Telenor is interested in buying majority  (63%) of Warid Telecom. The news has not been confirmed by Telenor or Warid yet. Warid Telecom is currently owned by Abu Dhabi Group and Singapore Telecom (SingTel).

If this deal goes through, it would be a significant development for Pakistan telecom industry. On one hand this kind of chatter or rumors show that Pakistan telecom has reached second stage of maturity where consolidation and deal making has started. On the other hand it ushers a new era of competition. Giants like China Mobile (Zong) were in talks to buy Telenor at one time as well. Also at one time speculations were high of complete takeover of Warid Telecom by SingTel.

It merits mentioning here that telenor is near to launch operations in India along with Unitech under brand name Uninor and if the Telenor-Warid deal gets confirmed, Telenor will be the largest mobile network operator in Pakistan. We will keep you posted as the details of this deal emerge.

When you have a telecom market with a large number of packages available and fierce competition, how do you make a new package stand out? One approach is to cut through the clutter and go for simple. This is the approach used by Zong: Cheap, Simple, Done. Here’s a quote from their website about Zong 45 pacakge.

Ladies and Gentleman, we bring you ZONG 45, the new pre-paid package of ZONG which offers lowest call rates in the industry, with calls at 45 paisa only.

We promise to provide our customers with best services and offers that are transparent, simple and miles ahead of competition; just like ZONG 45 Package.

I like the focus on simplicity but if you go through the rate list, it is not THAT simple. I mean, if you really want to make things simple for consumers then the rates should also be mentioned for a 1 minute call. That comes out to be Rs.1.35.  Warid has a 60 paisa package but only for 9-5 and the pulse is 60 seconds. But they clearly say ‘Rs.1.20 per minute’. So a direct comparison is not possible, but you get the idea.

Now can someone explain the elephant in the ad?

And yes I know – ignore the typo for ‘Gentleman’. Maybe this page was created by a female team member and she wanted to mainly address the ladies :)

PTA is very seriously monitoring the SIM Data Correction process and aims to regularize it, curbing all the misinformation. In order to facilitate mobile users seeking correction in their SIM data, has removed the condition of CNIC copy being provided by the consumers.

Presently, extensive monitoring of the “SIM Information System – 668” is being carried out after its successful deployment throughout the country. In view of difficulties of consumers of far flung areas to approach Customer Services Centers (CSCs), designated franchisees of each mobile company were also permitted to only receive the complaints pertaining to “668” and forward the same to concerned company for correction/deletion/regularization of SIM data, as the case may be.

However, in order to facilitate both CSCs/franchisees and consumers to handle and process maximum number of complaints in short span of time, provision of copy of CNIC by consumers has been removed. Consumers are now required to fill the undertaking form prior to which they have to show their original CNIC to the representative of CSC/Franchisee. The irregular SIMs registered against complainant’ CNIC shall then be immediately removed  from his/her name.

Furthermore, with a view to facilitate mobile companies to cope up with the rush at Customers Services Centers/Franchisees and to effectively handle/resolve the complaints pertaining to “SIM Information System – 668”, an optional permission to mobile operators is being given to allow online facility to correct the customers’ antecedents and get the SIMs registered in their names through the procedure of “Activation of SIMs After Verification 789” by calling the helpline of respective mobile company. However, this facility is only meant/valid for those SIMs on which at least one warning SMS for correction of antecedents has been received, whereas all other users would visit CSC or designated franchises personally for correction of data.

I believe such steps will greatly reduce the frustration among consumers seeking data correction and eventually help in the real subscriber numbers coming forward soon.

via PTA Press Release

Just a decade ago, traditional media such as print, radio and tv dominated the marketing budgets. Today its a completely different world: two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10% of all internet time, according to a recently released report by Nielesen Media. With the rise of online media (Internet) and in particular the user generated social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook) there has been a clear shift in the way marketing messages are created and consumed. Smart companies now pay equal attention to social media as they do to other methods of communications and marketing. In case of  telcos in Pakistan we have recently seen Telenor embracing social media to engage its customers and to create buzz through bloggers. This post is a review of Telenor Pakistan’s efforts to promote its brand using social media.

Persona Weblounge Telenor’s first social media attempt was with their product ‘Persona Weblounge’, the service that allows you to take control of all your mobile communication needs by ensuring a continuous access to your Persona subscription via internet. It was with this product telenor interacted for the first time with bloggers and unveiled the service to them before the actual launch to stir up information on social media.

Along with this they also announced a blogging competition to appreciate the concern and efforts of bloggers. Eight bloggers participated and showed great muscle during contest. Neck to neck efforts was observed between two of them however we are glad to announce that Hamad Dar admin of Kool Muzone won Blackberry having maximum reference to Weblounge.

To spice up their product, telenor also launched weblounge blog/portal that has been updated regularly with weblounge event news and information. Here competition on Weblounge game was conducted in which more than thousand visitors participated. 10 lucky winners got gift hampers on completing all levels of the game.

Cricket Challenge Next attempt was to indulge in the cricket fever during the ICC Champions trophy with ‘Cricket Challenge’ a facebook game. It was based on predictions in which customers have to predict the winner of the upcoming cricket match. Points were allotted to the player on predicting the right answers. This experiment with social media engaged thousands of facebook users during ICC Champions Trophy who played. Farhan Raza from Karachi was the lucky winner of Blackberry however Mohammad Rizwan and Syed Raza (Both also from Karachi) got lucky in securing iPods.

EasyPaisa Then came guess the name win the game as a pre-launch teaser for easypaisa. The competition was run online in which people were asked to guess “What is EP”. More than 5000 visitors participated in the campaign and huge curiosity and excitement was observed in online social circles. Names of  seven winners who correctly answered “easypaisa” were announced last week and they will hopefully receive iPods soon.

The latest is again a competition over facebook and other online websites about the easypaisa TVC and questions based on it. Again more than 4000 visitors participated in the competition and provided easypaisa an impression on online social media. Winners for this are yet to be announced.

Overall, Telenor has used the social media channels effectively to promote and enhance their brand. They have started a trend which other companies will follow.

See the trend of global 3G subscribers – it seems that 2010 end will be a turning point for 3G worldwide as penetration is expected to go above 20%. May be this is why PTA is waiting for the 3G spectrum auction?

Source: Morgan Stanley (Economy + Internet Trends October 20, 2009. Web 2.0 Summit – San Francisco)

Telenor Pakistan is making good progress towards an anticipated cash flow break-even in 2010, with the unit increasing revenue for the quarter by 19.6% compared to the same period a year earlier. Telenor Pakistan market share is now 22%, driven by strong organic growth in 2009.

• Organic growth – 766k net subscriber growth boosted by 50% reduction in activation tax.
• ARPU remains stable – consistent with market conditions
• Revenue growth driven by higher subscriber base
• Profit margins edge higher – the EBITDA margin of 24% was the highest quarterly EBITDA margin reported so far by Telenor Pakistan.
• Network investments are still low, some catch-up expected in Q4

Source: Telenor Website – 3Q Report

Students are desirable customers for telcos (and most businesses). It is generally believed that youth spend more on mobile voice and data. Zong has created Student Entrepreneur Program for driving incentive driven word-of-mouth sales through students who are called ‘Zong ambassadors’. Here’s how the program is described by Zong.

ZONG has established a concrete earning opportunity for students. Selected ambassadors will be trained and briefed by Zong representatives at Customer Service Centers. These ambassadors will create awareness among the students by not only offering them to migrate to Zong’s network but also by offering different products like New Activation or recharging a currently owned Zong connection. These Ambassadors will become a part of the Zong Family with only a small deposit of Rs. 1000. In return of which they will get one free gold number, a telesales Sim through which they will perform Zong Sales, 5 Zong Sims and a Mini load worth Rs. 600 (The stated items are worth Rs.1500). In addition, this ambassadorship will add great value to their Resume as this would give them hands on sales experience.

Most educational institutes in Pakistan would be a part of this program through the appointment of ZONG’s Ambassadors, specifically in cities where Customer Service Centers are operational.