Aug 2007

L e a d i n gT e l e c o mNe wsMa g a z i n e A u g u s t 1 5-S e p t e mb e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7

a r e . c o m. p k o n l i n ee d i t i o nf o rf r e ed o wn l o a d fl

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SIMs & SINs Grow Together PTA Out to Thwart Cellphone Swindlers Activities Mobilink Facilitates 'The Citizens Foundation' Ericsson’s Enriched Messaging Architecture Mobile Phone Users Hit 63.1 Million Mark Expansion or Turmoil Bluetooth's Amazing Makeover

Cover Story: 46-

WiMAX: Revolution Begins

46 WiMAX: Revolution Begins IT: 247578-

RAID for IT Based Television Bringing Bollywood to Video Games Intel Claims Breakthrough in High-Speed Computing

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Coming Mobiles Current Mobiles Mobile Reviews In Pictures Enemy Engaged 2 Hot Laptops

8 SIMs & SINs Grow Together

Branding: 1922-

Launch of the Month Building Brands

Facilitates 'The Citizens Foundation' 12

Tourism: 26-

Zaver Pearl Continental Gwadar

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World in Focus National International

19 Launch of the Month

Press Release: 90-

Latest ZRG Achievements

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80 Bluetooth's Amazing Makeover

Nokia 7900 Prism

Mobile Phone Manufacturing Plant n a developing country like Pakistan, where greater amount of heads have played their role in taking the Telecom sector to record heights along with the tremendous amount of investment made by foreign and national cellular companies, now this is the time to think beyond the numbers of cellular consumers and the revenues generated by the cellular companies. Cellular companies are penetrating new market areas, mostly the rural, with their full strengths. Market analysis expose that around 40 million more mobile phone users can be added in coming few years. Despite of regulation policy, 65 million current users, 6 operating cellular companies, billions of foreign direct investment and many other favorable motives, Pakistan is still unable to attract any mobile phone manufacturer to set up its plant here for the local market. Pakistan has got world's lowest tariffs available - making the cellular communication affordable for every one, yet the high prices of mobile phone devices remains a dilemma for Pakistani consumer. After sale services require months if not weeks, leaving the owner in despair. Manufacturing in Pakistan can shave costs by 3-4 percent - an attractive edge for handset makers whose margins are being eroded by fierce competition and heavy advertising costs. Low cost manpower and local market potential makes the most suitable condition for a manufacturer in Pakistan. Unavailability of locally manufactured mobile phones and high cost of imported phones is creating a situation of great demand of grey market and pirated phones with low quality standards and durability. Nokia produces over 4 million GSM and CDMA phones and Samsung getting well over million mobile devices from its plant in India. Others include Motorola and LG who are also playing key role in the production of cell phones. Mobile phone plants can not only cut down the mobile needs of our market, but they can play very critical role for the economic betterment of Pakistan. These plants can earn employment of thousands of technicians and heavy exports. In a recent statement by Chairman PTA, Maj. Gen. (R) Shezada Alam, he has urged for manufacturing facility in Pakistan, but feels like there is more needed in this regard to achieve the desired results. „

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Zubair Ahmed Kasuri

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Good News PR Network

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(Vol. 3

Issue: 11)

Khuda Keh Liye

Telephone Complaints PTCL's enquiry No 17 and complaint registration No 18 in Karachi exchange are not maintaining the required standard of service. Contrary to the service standard claimed by PTCL many system faults still exist without improvement even after its privatization and the services are unreliable, undependable and unsatisfactory. In general, the 17 service system is disabled and not equipped with updated information; as a result the customer enquiries are responded with either misinformation or lack of knowledge. Telephone faults reported in repetition through PTCL No 18 are not rectified for months and the written complaints are not given any attention and subscribers have to run here and there experiencing physical and mental agony without any gain. When the calls in systematic waiting sequence are transferred to PTCL staff identified by operator number (1, 2, 3, 4 and so on) they are heard already talking to someone else around them rather than responding to callers. Talk Freely No 106 is found always busy and most of the operators attending to calls are not aware of No 16. At times, the operators attending calls talk in most rude, discourteous and proud tone and handle customers in most unprofessional, ignorant and negligent way. The automated system at No 17 is not equipped with option to transfer the call to Duty Officer or AE/DE in case the attending operator fails to satisfy customer or misbehaves. In such cases, all operators neither provide nor advise telephone contact of their seniors to discourage complaints against them, which shows operators' monopoly, indiscipline, negligence and mismanagement. PTCL high-ups are requested to please cross check and update information not only in PTCL system but also provide training of customer services to its operators at 17 and 18 exchanges, improve their attitude and maintain discipline. MUHAMMAD TAIMUR HASAN, KARACHI

The Pirated Books Many of us who are found of books do not like to buy pirated books but are forced to buy them because of the exorbitant prices of the original books. When I was a student in the UK, I was getting a scholarship of 500 pounds and spending 25 or 30 pounds on a book was not considered very expensive. These days I ask my relatives in England and USA to buy books for me and send them to me when some one comes to Pakistan as I think this is a cheaper option that buying the same book in Pakistan. One way to combat piracy is to ensure that publishers have affordable prices for books for local market so that all booklovers do not have to buy pirated books. DR IRFAN M ROY, Karachi

Students'plea WE, the students of final year (BSCS) in the Computer Science Department, would like to bring to your notice the practice that the students of final year have the right to choose their own supervisors for their final project, and the teachers are willing to help them in this regard. But this time, the head of the department has appointed himself as the supervisor along with a single teacher and who consider themselves responsible for all the students. No consideration has been made regarding what the students require. This decision is not in any manner beneficial for the students in terms of their final projects and as a result the future of the students is at stake. We request the Chancellor of the Karachi University to please look into this matter and come up with a solution that is in favor of the students. FINAL YEAR STUDENTS Computer science department Karachi University, Karachi

Khuda Key Liye by Shoaib Mansoor is a great film. The movie is a good effort towards presenting a timely depiction of controversial issues. It should serve as an example for others in our film industry to make films with other objects than glamour. After a long time, this film offers an opportunity for families to go to the cinema together. However, the film sometimes falls short of viewers' expectations, as in the character played by Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah. Shah is a great actor, but he was the wrong choice for the role he played in Khuda Key Liye. Overall, the film is a welcome change because it deals with real life issues. One hopes that more directors will emulate it and revive our nearly dead cinema. M SHAHAAB LODHI, Rawalpindi

Seeking Admission For the last two years I have been trying to enroll in the Master of Library and Information Sciences (MLIS) programme at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU). I believe I am quite eligible for this programme but have not yet secured admission. I assured the university that I would attend workshops anywhere in Pakistan which is compulsory for MLIS students. I am serving in a well known private university in Karachi as a librarian in lower grade and wish to improve my qualifications. As AIOU is an open university and offer their programmes to all candidates in the country, I do not understand why the MLIS programme is not being extended to candidates all over the country and is only reserved for Islamabad. I request the authorities to kindly consider my case. HUMERA JAMSHED, Karachi

Tobacco Hazards Recently Philip Morris announced the closing of one of its two US cigarette producing plants. The report stated: "The Richmond plant also will switch from making cigarettes destined for both US and international markets to a strictly domestic market." However, Bangladesh, Beijing, and Budapest most likely will get a different and more deadly cigarette than Beverly Hills that will not be produced and tested in the United States. Big and Brutal Tobacco in the US continues to stay a step ahead of the health of humanity. MIKE SAWYER, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

All for Making a Cut Privatization means depriving Pakistan of its properties and assets which are in fact the major source of our economic strength. So far we have privatized over a hundred industrial units and business enterprises and received billions in return. May I ask, where has the money gone because we see no improvement in the country's economy? The contention that privatization brings in foreign investment seems dubious to me. Why not invite the foreigners to install new units and run them rather than selling the already established ones? As far as the efficiency and profitability of these units is concerned, there is hardly a criterion. Many units running in profit have been privatized. I remember Kot Adhu Power Plant getting privatized many years ago while it was making a profit of over Rs.7 billion per year. It was sold out because the people in power wanted to make a cut from the deal. RAFI NASIM, Lahore Cantt

Funds for Education Everyday one comes across large billboards advertising the huge allocation of funds for education in the province. But if you get to visit the village schools, you will find a lot of them still in dilapidated condition, usually roofless with no electricity, sparse or no furniture and runaway staff. The government should have proper surveys and a mechanism for follow up and monitoring before such large sums of money is spent. DR.ZULFIQR HAIDER, Lahore

Send us your letters at [email protected] or at our postal addresses. Flare reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and space.

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Telecom

Zubair Ahmed Kasuri

The role of mobile phone is declared vital in all criminal activities ranging from terrorism, dacoities, kidnapping for ransom, blackmailing and offensive telemarketing. Amount of unregistered SIMs has created lawbreaking heaven and an atmosphere where incidents of mobile misdeeds have reached at alarming heights ncreasing terrorist attacks in Pakistan is shaking thoughtful minds of officials and law enforcement agencies. The role of mobile phone has been declared vital in all criminal activities. Amount of unregistered SIMs has created law-breaking heaven and an atmosphere where rising incidents of terrorism, dacoities , kidnapping for ransom, blackmailing, offensive telemarketing and other mobile misdeeds are taking place in different parts of the country. Recently the subcommittee of the Senate's

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Standing Committee on Interior expressed its concern over the numbers of unregistered SIMs floating in the market. Procedure adopted by the mobile phone franchisees and distributors for the issuance of Subscribers' Identification Modules (SIMs) and the system adopted by them to ensure that SIMs are not issued to the subscribers on the basis of bogus and fake identity cards is in top news these days. Senior officials of the Ministry of Interior, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)

and Nadra have gathered their sources and are jointly stepping forward for streamlining the process of issuing SIMs. Senate's Standing Committee was briefed that the process has been initiated to verify the connections and that cellular phone companies have been directed to verify the subscribers' data from Nadra. However Nadra disclosed that only 20.106 million out of 63 million connections have reached Nadra for verification; Nadra said that 2.849 connections were found unregistered. It has been observed that franchisees nor-

Telecom

Only 20.106 million out of 63 million connections have reached Nadra for verification; out of which 2.849 million connections were found unregistered mally register 5000 connections on 1000 identity cards. Front and back side of identity cards are replaced in such a pattern that all 1000 front sides of cards are replaced with alternate back sides. The process is known as "PUNNI" amongst the distributors and franchisees. In order to stop cellular misdeeds including tele-marketing, the registration process of all mobile connection must be ensured. Annoying telemarketing calls, especially in the middle of business meetings, hospital emergencies and overseas trips that refuse to spare even kids, are becoming a big concern, violating the privacy and piece of mind of cellular subscribers. With 63 million subscribers currently and growing rapidly every month, telephony in Pakistan is witnessing an unimaginable boom but carries one terrible downside 'Unsolicited calls'. Banks are the biggest offenders. Car loans, home loans, personal loans, even loans to pay off other loans, and an unending list of unsolicited calls subscirbers receive daily. More terribly, the tele-sales persons have complete personal and private information about subscribers, including name, business and personal contact details, the bank where you have maintained your account, your company name and even balance of your account and the transactions you have made recently. Obviously such information is very important for a money lending salesman, who can use it for any good or bad purpose other than just selling his/her product. There are various approaches used in many countries to restrict painful telemarketing calls. A quick look at those methods used to control tele-marketing calls uncovers that registration of each mobile phone connection is foremost. However in Pakistan the practice is not exercised. "Once your cellular number is exposed to tele-marketers, you will find that there are more calls you get each day, furthermore. A notable increase in the ratio of marketing calls will be seen once you have posted a positive response to any package. This gives a clear feeling that these telemarketing companies share their data with-in their departments or even with other telemarketing companies likely to be based on barter system" said Ali Hassan, Senior Professor at a local university. Banks also arrange data from other sources as well; hotels, restaurants, online communities, directories and yellow pages are the big sources. A survey conducted by Flare revealed that data obtained from bank accounts generates fifty percent of response however these stats showed a fall to only ten percent response when the data was collected from any other source. Survey further revealed that 35 percent of calls receive positive response when the product is long term loan; short term loans normally get 30 percent response. Tendency of response for credit card is seen very minimal that is only or below than

five percent. The story does not end up with just voice calls but the bundle package includes text messages floating on to your mobile phones. Despite of the fact that these calls may not be that money-spinning activity for tele-marketers, decreasing tariff plans are fanning the fire with more affordable calls and text message rates, hence the number of telesales calls is increasing with each passing day. Telemarketing calls involves privacy invasion and identity theft. Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person's personal information to take on that person's identity. This personal information can even be of your cell number or email address. Thus sharing this information and using it for any marketing/commercial purpose comes in the segment of Identity Theft. This Identity theft is considered as chargeable illegal offense in many countries but not in Pakistan unfortunately. Developed countries have introduced rules and regulations to cap unsolicited calls. Voiding identity theft is yet impossible even in United

100 million telephone numbers into the system. Altogether, there are 240 million telephone numbers in the U.S., so the registry holds 43% of the total. Such regulations are introduced in many countries other than United Sates; latest in India where Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued regulations to set up a National Do-Not-Call Registry (NDNCR) by end-August 2007. Regulator said it will come into force on September 5 2007. The registry will have a list of numbers to which telemarketing calls shouldn't be made or text messages

The process is known as "PUNNI", which involves registering 5000 connections on 1000 identity cards. Front and back side of identity cards are paired in such a pattern that makes the number of NIC 5 times higher States but the practice adopted there to eliminate the chances of unwanted calls is by maintaining a database named as 'Do Not Call Registry', where any one can register his/her wired/wireless number to get included into national do-not-call list for five years. Managed by Federal Trade Commission and enforced by Federal Communications Commission, 'Do Not Call Registry' is a regulation, by which calling a person whose number is listed in the registry is unlawful. Under the law, if consumer receivers any telemarketing call, despite his/her number in 'Do Not Call Registry', he/she can register complaint against the marketing company, who will have to pay US 11,000 dollars (approx Rs. 665,280) for one instance of violation. It merits mentioning here that 'Do Not Call Registry' system does not allow you to register business voice number or fax numbers. Started on June 27th, 2003, 'Do not Call Registry' witnessed more than 27 million telephone numbers registered during the first month. At its peak, the system handled 4 million registrations in one day. System developed by AT&T was found successful when it took only 2 years to register

sent. If telemarketers call anyone on the list, they would face penalties up to Rs. 500 per instance. Fifteen days after the establishment of the NDNCR, telephone and mobile phone companies will have to set up do-not-call (DNC) lists. Anyone not wanting to receive telemarketing calls will have to instruct their respective telecom companies to include their number in the list. Analysts consider this approach not much practical in countries like Pakistan because of countless flaws in the enforcement of law. In a situation where the market is unsaturated and there is plenty of room for tele-marketers to earn, it would be difficult for the regulator to make such a law exercisable in Pakistan. To achieve maximum results from such a system regulator, after blocking the telephone number, has to make sure that tele-marketing company should not be issued other communication line. Another methodology to restrict unwanted calls is to block all calls other than your contact list saved at your operator end. This will make sure the maximum of your privacy however, you are at a risk of not getting calls if some one from your friends or family calls from a new number particularly in emergency. „

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Telecom

Iftikhar Butt

Every invention or device is vulnerable to new risks, challenges, fraud, swindling and of course thefts. This is happening around the globe from cell phone gadgets to nuclear technology. But these criminal activities only stimulate the caretaking endeavors of authorities' responsibility for safeguarding the interests of the owners/customers his is a space age and an era of latest technologies boom in the world of telecom. Yesterday's dream to "Reach Whenever and Wherever" has become a reality now. The globe has undergone tremendous communicational metamorphosis resulting these little cellular gadgets to reach anywhere on planet earth in seconds. Pakistan is not lagging behind in this race. There is phenomenal growth of state-of-the art cellphone devices, which is playing a vital role in the socio-economic life of the masses providing assorted programmes. In fact the desire to have a gadget has assumed the form of techno mania. This technology, once a status symbol, is pervading all segments of society without any exception. The telecom sector of Pakistan has been on a roll of huge development and growth. This is the result of efficient regulation and visionary policy making on part of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). PTA has never rested on its laurels, since its inception a decade back in 1996. It should be rightly proud of its accomplishments as by adhering to the

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ors of authorities' responsibility for safeguarding the interests of the owners/customers. PTA has been successfully tackling with problems concerning cellphones thefts etc, has girded up its loins to save the mobile phone users from a novel menace-swindlers. These swindlers are using the cellphones to make hoax calls and unsolicited text messages, alluring the users to buy prepaid scratch cards and convey back the concealed numbers to the caller to win attractive cash prizes. The victim is lured into the snare and loses the amount plus the 'prize', as there is no such prize. Meanwhile, the PTA has geared up its efforts to foil the malicious designs of the swindlers and advised the cellphone users to immediately contact their cellular operators to verify the information. According to PTA, some instances have also been reported wherein mobile phone users were deprived of the prepaid balance when they were asked to answer a particular SMS which contained a secret message transferring the prepaid balance from customer's account to the swindler's account in case of a desired reply.

On average, over 300 complaints are being registered daily by PTA and CPLC. Out of total 96,000 stolen/snatched cellphones which were blocked by PTA, Karachi leads the stats with around 51,000 phones from the city

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mandate to regulate and promote telecom services, it has taken quantum jumps. More vistas are being opened to promising investments at home and from abroad. In fact PTA is always looking for fresh challenges every moment to ensure progress and development of country's economy, and of course a rapid growth in the telecom segment. The credit goes to its dedicated and indefatigable teams, which played a catalytic role not only in the growth of an economy but also in the entire social, cultural, educational and in general all aspects of human life. Every invention or device is vulnerable to new risks, challenges, high-jacking, fraud, swindling and of course thefts which result in robbing the owner/user of his/her peace of mind, privacy and the purse. And it is happening around the globe from cell phone gadgets to nuclear technology. The thieves and swindlers have devised their own scientific techniques and technologies to defy security barriers and silence alarms. But these criminal activities only stimulate the caretaking endeav-

The PTA has set up a complaint cell with phone number 051-9225329-31 ext.155 and e-mail address [email protected]. The PTA is determined to take appropriate action against those involved in these criminal activities. Similarly, hundreds of cellphones are stolen or snatched everyday from all over the country. The PTA is not a law enforcement agent but perhaps it is going beyond mandatory commitment to the mobile operators and users to mitigate latter's sufferings caused by loss of not just the gadget but secrecy and privacy too. The authority has devised an anti-theft solution mustering cooperation, coordination and collaboration of mobile operators, City Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), Federal and Provincial police departments. The solution called Blocking of snatched handsets through International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) system renders the mobile set inoperative. Within about 9 months, these desperados onslaught has been significantly checked proving the experiment formula very effective.

Since the initiation of IMEI system, about 96,000 handsets have been blocked. According to the Chairman PTA, Maj. Gen. (R) Shahzada Alam Malik, the Authority has devised a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The SOP was delivered to mobile operators and others concerned providing easy method to report mobile phone thefts. A vital factor-awareness and education of users has already been undertaken in the form of electronic and print media campaign-which is a good head start. This is bound to hold the criminals at bay. Every mobile set owns its specific numberIMEI number, which, if blocked, turns the gadget into a piece of scrap. The global mobile system (GSM) network uses the IMEI number, identifies valid devices which helps stop the instrument in reaching the network. The mobile companies have their respective Equipment Identity Register (EIR). They block the handset using IMEI number in case of a reported theft. The consumer reporting the theft has to provide the IMEI number along with the SIM (phone) number. PTA makes it obligatory on the user to provide his/her IMEI number, SIM number and national identity card number prior to the registration of the complaint. A subscriber may check the status of any mobile handset by putting in the IMEI number on Authority's website www.pta.gov.pk Its database has been established by PTA. PTA pushes up the complaint to mobile phone operators who immediately blocks the working of handset using their IMEI number which can be accessed by dialing *#06# from the mobile handset. The Authority, extending further cooperation, has dedicated a countrywide toll free number 0800-25625 besides an e-mail address [email protected] for booking the complaint. Complaints are also entertained at CPLC Karachi at PH: 021-5682222, Fax: 0215683336 and at their website www.cplc.org.pk The IMEI system is yielding encouraging results as the fall in incidence of mobile sets snatching is noticeable. On average, over 300 complaints are being registered daily by PTA and CPLC. Out of total 96,000 stolen/snatched cellphones which were blocked by PTA, Karachi leads the stats with around 51,000 phones from the city. So far, PTA efforts are testament of the fact that it is pursuing a consumer-oriented approach since its inception. The concerted efforts of the regulator have resulted in enhanced telecom services across the country. It has also protected interests of the telecom users by taking effective measures. „ This article is being printed on a request from PR Department PTA

Telecom

Flare Report

Mobilink believes in playing an active role in supporting the community and social development in Pakistan. Mobilink's welfare has eyed 'The Citizens Foundation' to assist them provide high quality education by funding two schools in Lahore and Karachi Children should epitomize all that is good, pure and hopeful about our world. The sad reality is that for millions, today's world is a harsh, uncompromising and frightening place….Children in need cross all cultural, racial, religious and international divides but there are no barriers to helping fellow human beings. Humankind is one and we need each other to survive" (Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu) For any developing society to be successful and flourish a major part depends on the involvement of its local members and its organizations. In most developing countries, various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) are working actively in a variety of sectors, such as sanitation, education, health, and human rights etc. During the last few decades NGO involvement in the development sector has been phenomenal and has borne positive results. Pakistan ranks amongst the lowest countries according to the human development index of UNDP. With an estimated 162 million people, it is the 7th most populous country in the world. Annual population growth rate is

"

Mobilink has provided funds to TCF for the construction and operations of two schools, a primary school in Lahore (Nathoki) and secondary school in Karachi (Gulshan-eMaimar), which will be operational by August 2007; Mobilink will also fund the running cost of these schools on an annual basis

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2.0% and with this growth rate Pakistan's population is expected to cross the 295 million mark by the year 2050. With an increasing population every year, only half will have access to any formal education - the remaining will never see the inside of a school. Out of 162 million Pakistanis, 83 million adults of age 15 years and above (51%) are illiterate. 38% of all male adults of age 15 years and above are illiterate whereas for females the percentage is as high as 65%. The state of government schools is very poor; 15% of them are without a proper building, 52% without a

boundary wall, 40% without water, 71% without electricity and there is frequent absenteeism of teachers. Government Expenditure on Education is only 1.8% of GDP. TCF (The Citizens Foundation) is one such organization which is diligently working on developing the education structure and creating opportunities for children all over Pakistan. TCF schools are located in rural areas and urban slums where sending a child to school means losing a bread-earner. To make education affordable to such families, 'pay-as-youcan afford' system has been setup, where, scholarships up to 95% are awarded on the basis of need which is assessed on the grounds of the overall household income of each family, its circumstances and education related expenses. TCF has Created more than 3,600 jobs; of which more than 2,400 are teachers and principals, 311 school units in 42 locations across Pakistan and about 40,000 enrolled students. This percentage comprises of 50% female students. TCF has very dedicated groups of supporters in Pakistan, USA, Canada, UK, UAE and Bahrain who have established TCF's presence in their respective countries as well. One of their ardent supporters in Pakistan is Mobilink. The company supports TCF in an honorary capacity to create awareness about TCF and coordinate fund-raising effort to raise donations for various TCF programs. The company is devoted to the cause of providing quality education to the less-privileged masses of Pakistan and is working closely with the TCF to help take education opportunities for children to newer locations. Mobilink has provided funds to TCF for the construction and operations of two schools, a primary school in Lahore (Nathoki) and secondary school in Karachi (Gulshan-e-Maimar). The funds will support to TCF in the construction, operations and provision of furniture/equipment for these schools. Mobilink will also fund the running cost of these schools on an annual basis. It is planned that the schools will be operational by August 2007. A large-scale education program, with a growing network of schools, requires support in various capacities and large resources of funds. TCF's Education Program is funded entirely with donations and Mobilink has joined them in their cause to fight illiteracy. Mobilink

also had a presence at the "TCF Ilmathon", a walk organised to rid Pakistan of illiteracy and ignorance. The walk takes place every year in DHA and finishes with a 'Mauj Mela' held at the Marina Club. Mobilink will also support a marketing campaign for TCF as well as an SMS donation campaign. TCF is also working on rehabilitation and reconstruction in the earthquake affected region (TCF Relief Fund) and aims to build up schools wherever possible in these areas. Out of the total number of 172 houses, Mobilink has helped TCF in Rehabilitation and reconstruction of 50 houses including supporting infrastructure, and water supply in Chamman Kotli Nawab Khan village in AJK. Mobilink CSR team monitors the projects funded by the company. A recently received progress report of, construction of houses in Chamman Kotli village shows, 58 houses reaching the roof stage while 60 houses are at various levels of plinth construction and 21 are at site preparation and excavation. A future goal of TCF is to establish 1,000 school units educating 360,000 children and Mobilink plans to maintain a long-term commitment with the NGO and will be even more visible as a corporate partner in the future. „

Telecom

Åke Gustafsson and Anders Lenman

To achieve simple, efficient interworking between messaging services, Ericsson has introduced a new architecture with a common interworking function (IWF) that features a dispatcher and a common message store. Ericsson communalized other aspects of messaging servers. The resultant design is a horizontalization of traditional, vertical messaging solutions which gives rise to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and fewer, better-quality components, and yields a simple, scalable, and robust messaging architecture that maintains all states in the shared message store file system tudies and market trends show that messaging solutions must be easier to use if they are to facilitate communication and increase traffic. Today, for example, to use SMS, MMS, email, instant messaging (IM), voice mail, and so on, end users must be aware of the underlying technology and their intended recipients' capabilities. Ericsson's enriched messaging architecture addresses this matter by allowing end users to exchange messages with anybody, at any time, and from any place without having to give the associated technologies a thought. The new architecture provides mechanisms that accommodate interworking between messaging services. Some key functions in this context are addressing, routing, and message header mapping. Traditional interworking is typically achieved by means of an interworking function component between two separate messaging services. An IWF component contains protocol handlers (PH) for each service, and logic for handling message header mappings. Each messaging service typically routes messages independently. Ericsson's enriched messaging solution introduces a new architecture with a common IWF function that features a dispatcher and a common message store. These two key components provide a generic IWF function and common message routing logic. The dispatcher, which is both the brain and the heart of the enriched messaging core, ensures that messages are routed properly (brain). It also safeguards messages by means of scheduled retry events that make certain they do not get stuck in the system (heartbeat). The message store, which is a common storage function for all messages, regardless of messaging service used, is structured into mailboxes - one mailbox per user. Enriched Messaging Core Architecture In essence, the enriched messaging core is a store-and-forward engine that consists of a dispatcher, the common message store, and messaging servers. Messaging server, such as MMS, SMS, IM, voice mail, and e-mail servers handle protocol of external interfaces. The three entities, dispatcher, common message store, and messaging servers, interact with every message that passes through the enriched messaging solution. Figure illustrates this interaction. Box A describes the flow of messages in the enriched messaging core architecture. To preserve flexibility and optimize interworking, messages are stored both in native and MIME formats. Any messaging server may thus easily pick up a message for delivery. Message Store Message store is a standard networkfilesystem-mounted (NFS) file server that hosts

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one mailbox folder per user. The folder contains all of a given user's messages regardless of messaging service used. Every mailbox folder has a set of subordinate folders, for instance, an Inbox and an Outbox. Border Gateways Border gateways are a set of proxies that

translate access-dependent protocols into instructions that can be read by messaging servers. The voice gateway, for instance, translates circuit-switched (CS) voice into voice over IP (VoIP). Enablers Enablers are resources that perform common functions with service-independent business logic used by, say, the messaging servers, to fulfill their business logic. The Media Adaptation enabler, for example, is a Interworking between messaging servers

resource that can transcode any given message content from one format to another. It can also change image size and resolution, the audio coding of a sound clip, and so on… Common Functions Common functions are a set of functions that support a horizontal service network of user provisioning, charging, single sign-on (SSO), and network node operation and maintenance (O&M). VASP Gateway The VASP gateway gives value-added service providers (VASP) a single point of access for interacting with operators' service

layer components. It exposes services to applications in order to simplify the integration of these applications. VASPs may then provide message content - short video clips, birthday greetings, and so on. Deploying enriched messaging components The architecture is designed for stateless business logic, yielding a simple, scalable and robust messaging architecture (n+1 redundancy) that maintains all states in the shared message store file system. To achieve near-linear scalability and robustness, the messaging servers and dispatcher are preferably co-located. This way, the dispatcher is local and can invoke outgoing messaging servers without the need for cross-host/blade communication. This configuration also reduces the need for copying data (the message) over the internal network. Instead, the design relies on local caches on the blade or host. Each blade or host thus becomes its own entity and can be managed independently (start/stop/restart). Enriched messaging architecture as a tool for integration The open, enriched messaging architecture is a powerful toolbox for integrating legacy solutions. One can easily integrate legacy systems via their network-to-network interface (NNI). These systems may either send all messages to the enriched messaging solutions for routing analysis and interworking, or solely those messages that need to be interworked, as determined by the legacy system. Ericsson provides a prepackaged messaging integration solution that converges vertical legacy solutions and IMS. The enriched messaging gateway, for instance, contains lightweight messaging servers that provide a suite of interfaces for integrating multivendor legacy messaging solutions. These lightweight messaging servers basically only support an NNI with associated business logic, hence the name messaging gateway. Conclusion Ericsson's enriched messaging architecture gives operators and end users full interworking between legacy messaging solutions. In addition, it makes the network smarter, so end users can concentrate on the message instead of on underlying technology. Remember, a message is a message, regardless of the technology used. „ This article is contributed by PR Department Ericsson Networks

Banking

nd then we blame our local Banks for not providing service. Let me tell you something; I applied for an AMEX Charge Card some years ago. The card was then being issued by Union Bank that had recently been taken over by Shaukat Tareen and party and AMEX cards was one of the buy outs that they made to take the Bank to new heights. I remember using the card in US while I was traveling and the service was seamless; no issue in carrying a co brand card. The system put in place was very nice and despite the poor hope shown by people in the co-brand card, the Bank was able to decently live up to the expectation of its customers both new as well as old ones. The Bank believed in providing service of quality and to ensure that it set up a whole department of service quality whose only job was to ensure that each and every service in the Bank is being provided at a level that should create a WOW experience for every customer at one stage or the other. The Bank was then taken over by Standard Chartered Bank that has been shouting of providing customized services to its customers. It believes in providing quality service but there is no one to ensure that; the logic is that every one should provide a quality service so that every thing is of quality. But that requires inculcation of the concept at all levels that Standard Chartered has not been able to do so. Despite the fact that a reasonable time has been passed since the final merger of Union Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, the new entity has not been able to provide same level services to all the customers. The Bank still treats the customers as Union Bank customers and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) customers, the staff still is being treated as Union Bank staff and Standard Chartered staff and the funny part is that separate HR policies apply to the Union Bank staff and SCB staff. Some of the staff got promoted early this year and because they were Union Bank staff they were given the next grades as per Union standards and the even more funnier part was that for the cars of their entitlement they were given money as per old grid; one staff member whose entitle was a Honda Civic VTi Oriel PT got the price of a 1600 cc Honda Civic (i.e. Rs 1,282,500) because as per Union Bank his entitlement was a 1600 cc Honda as mentioned above and since Honda had stopped producing that model he was given the money to pool in the extra dough and buy the new Civic or what ever he wants. On top of all this the car that the staff will buy by pooling in extra money will be registered in the Bank's name and the Bank is then going to claim depreciation on the whole amount without passing any benefit to the staff. That is one example of quality service to internal customers so you can well imagine what the external customers are going through. I mentioned about the AMEX card that I got from Union Bank. I returned the same to the Bank over three years back when the bank also issued me an AMEX credit card. Talking

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Flare Report

about the quality of service, I recently received bills for annual fees of the basic as well as supplementary charge cards that I had returned as I mentioned. When I called at the call centre to ask what this is, they told me that I don't need to worry because the system shows them as

Mergers in Pakistan's financial industry began in 2001 after the central bank advised the country's 42 commercial banks to double their minimum paid-up capital to Rs 1 billion from Rs 500 million. Since then we have seen plenty of mergers and takeovers in the sector returned cards. Upon my explaining the situation and inquiring about the bills that I had received, I was told that I should not worry because this was due to some system error that will be taken care of. And you know how it was taken care of; the next month I got the bills again with immediate payment request and I am sure all of you would know what that means. That is some quality that SCB has added to Union. Another similar stupendous behavior is now being shown in ABN AMRO Prime Bank merger. The recent announcement of the management structure for the combined entity shows that ABN AMRO has completely shown that

they are going to rummage the Prime Bank staff. No matter how junior, but wherever ABN could fit its existing staff, ABN has done that. Prime staff has only been given a chance to work where ABN has virtually or actually NO expertise. Some of the people have either been retained on contract or have been given much lower positions than their caliber and experience and junior people are much senior to them. And then they console by saying that these management layers do not matter; it is the job that matters. If that was true why at the first place were all these structures created. The fact of the matter is that ABN has not been a performer in the international market also and no matter what the management says and claims about the bank and the management's capabilities, the truth is that the shareholders have taken a decision of divesting from this non-profitable business. The local bank has also not been doing well. Though the books showed profit, but their assets are bleeding and the collection has been poor; the team was unable to deliver. After all what do you expect out of a risk head who has been out of country most of the time during the year to attend trainings and courses because he was a business manager who was made the risk head who now needed to learn how to manage it. The best part is that every body at ABN AMRO is a head of something or the other. There are so many heads that it makes you wonder if we really have a body any where. Every one at ABN is also stunned by the fact that they have grown to over 80 branches and they have so much to do now. Prime staff is acting relatively calm because they have grown from about 70 so they have only faced an addition of about 12 branches. ABN plans to cut away from Peshawar, Quetta, Mardan and the like areas due to security reasons. God knows what they are up to. „

Telecom

Azhar Javed

Mobile Phone Users Hit 63.1 Million Mark elenor users up by 200%, Warid users up by 118%, Ufone users up by 87%, Mobilink users up 54%. In the country, the number of mobile users has exceeded by 63.1 million with an addition of 28.6 million during the fiscal year 2006-07. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) statistics, during the previous fiscal year, the most increase was seen in Telenor users, who went 10.7 million with 200 per cent addition. Other cellular companies include Warid Telecom with 10.6 million users up by 118 per cent, Ufone with 14 million users up by 87 per cent, while Mobilink users count was calculated at 26.4 million up 54 per cent increase. Meantime, the number of users of Insta and Paktel services went down to 1.024 million and 333000 respectively. Keeping in view, the tough competition among the mobile phone service providers in the telecom sector, operators of Paktel, Instaphone, Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor and Warid have started introducing attractive packages to all mobile users, which is clearly evident from their aggressive advertisements. According to an estimate investment in telecom sector has reached up to US$3 billion. In telecom sector alone government revenues has increased from Rs. 3.7 billion to Rs. 15.6 billion during the last fiscal year 2005-2006. As a result of the development in Telecom sector, a large number of youth got employ-

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ment. In 2005-06 alone, 114,734 people got good jobs in the telecom sector. During this one year, there was direct foreign investment of $1 billion in the telecom sector. By the end of this year, the number of telephone users would increase to 40,000,000. By now mobile phone is more or less available in every house. Wireless local loop and broadband are becoming popular. The rate of long distance calls has come down by 38%, while the rate of international calls has come down 67%. The international calls from mobile phones have become 83% cheaper.Its as cheap as Rs.2 to call to USA per minutes (that is 3-4 cents per minutes). The mobile phone use is very common nowadays, be it a rehriwalah, a laborer, student, lawyer, journalist or executive in a multinational company, cell phone is contemplated as an essential part of core necessities of life. One can imagine that currently and in near future, opportunities from investment point of view in the telecom sector are huge. It is forecasted that the sector would grow further at accelerated pace with right impetus that has

been provided by the government. However, it has put much responsibility on the regulator to keep check on the sector to avoid the burst of bubble in telecom sector like estate business in the country. If this scenario prevailed in the telecom sector, it is hoped, the mobile subscriber will cross 66 million by end 2007. The growing competition has forced the cell phone companies to lower tariff and other charges. All the operators will have to come up with new packages to retain their customers in this era of MNP and withstand the competition in the sector effectively. „

Telecom

Ahmed Saeed

Investments, takeovers, mergers, network rollouts, price war, attractive advertisements and many more are the keywords of the news we see daily in papers. Yet the most important element of telecom sector is yet to be discussed in our forums; that is customer satisfaction here is an extensive influx of international telecom giants persistently trying to ensure their footprints in a market that is saturated with users with basic buying prowess. Over the last 3 years, Pakistan has witnessed nation wide launch activities of Telenor and Warid Telecom. Both these telecom giants have been successful in taking away the share of existing cellular companies and reducing the price of phone calls all over the world. Yet, the undermining question of all these acquisitions and moves is to focus on customer satisfaction and the ratings that the customer concludes from these changing times and events. New entries are now on the radar as well. Qatar telecom has recently purchased shared in WorldCall Corporation and SingTel has moved forward in buying certain elements of Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. China Mobile has purchased Paktel. With all these movements and activities, new towers are being established, networks are being optimized and services enhanced. Words like coverage capacity, implementation, and signal strengths are becoming the key successors in the lexicon of the leaders. Yet the primal and most conducive element - customer understanding - still remains secluded from the daily activity of the policies and strategies of theses telecom giants. Time is a pertinent factor that drives customer satisfaction. In a world where information is the harbinger of financial freedom, intellectual enlightenment and emotional apogee, the pace at which information is shared and delivered is truly the benchmark. Even with the fast past movement of telecom infrastructure, the importance of concluding launch services has been an uphill task for almost all of the vendors that now have presence in this part of the world. Time is really the pertinent differentiator in the market. Customers tend to move with new trends and packages. "Time to market is an ingredient that even successful companies do not administer," states Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in their highly acclaimed book 'In search of excellence.' The authors further conclude in their book that time is the catalyst that changes the entire market scenario.

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Sprint was no better than AT&T, but the simple fact that Sprint was able to get out of the mud and introduce voice services faster than MCI and AT&T allowed for Sprint to delve into a market segment that still are not open to changing providers. It takes a hefty load off of sales and numbers in the long run if companies can produce average or above average packages within timelines. There is no exception to the rule. Japan on the other hand ensures quality with each delivery within time. Second element that churns customer satisfaction is the ideology of expansion and optimization at the expense of the current cus-

catching on over the past few years. Randy Collica, a specialist in the CRM modules and comprehensive analysis of data and launch activities, working partner of SAS communications states that all top corporations requires to reinvigorate their strengths and dimensions to cater to the masses. Each mass element is required to be handled separately and uniquely. These bench markets allude to the fact that the telecom infrastructure in Pakistan has certainly not bought into the practices that is currently being executed upon in other parts of the world. With all this expansion and growth, the true element of the show is still not clear

New towers are being established, networks are being optimized and services enhanced; words like coverage capacity, implementation, and signal strengths are becoming the key successors in the lexicon of the leaders. Yet the primal and most conducive element - customer understanding - still remains secluded from the daily activity of the policies and strategies of telecom service provider tomer market. A recent study done by Brian Lande, an analyst for ICMI (international customer management institute) states "Whilst the transformation programme had reduced costs and refocused the organization, customers railed against the closures and enforced migration to direct channels. The real clincher, though, was when executives started to field customer complaints directly at social and other gatherings. Something had to be done!" This study was catering to the optimization of the IT component of the banking sectors. Third but not the least is the overall decline of understanding customer satisfaction through the eyes of the customer. While the eastern part of the world still meditates about ensuring business acumen and retaining customers, the western part is working closely regarding the segmentation engineering approach which is

An Apple customer tries out the Apple MacBook laptop at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif. AT&T Inc. wiped some of the glow off Apple Inc.'s iPhone, releasing numbers that showed fewer people than expected signed up for service in the first two days of the multimedia cell phone's release.

about their options and commitment from the IT revolution. Bandwidth is scarce and many places within the country face signal outages. Roaming is still an option in remote areas and far flung areas. The expectations that the overall IT boom is providing to the consumers seem to be fugacious and not meeting the long term vision. Companies need to be extremely assiduous to the long term effects of these changes irrespective of their intent and forecast. Customers should not face a disparity in voice quality, downtime, and airtime due to expansions that revolve around eradicating the issues and not expanding them. „ Writer of this article works for a multinational telecom company

Picture shows Japanese an electronics giant Hitachi auto teller machine (ATM) using a biometric security system to read venous patterns of users' fingers in Tokyo. Taking the idea of a cashless society to a new level, Hitachia said it will try out a way to let customers pay simply by scanning their finger.

Branding

Forum

It is all about setting up brands; through advertising campaigns. The mobile phone services advertisements are seen in the media, on billboards and everywhere else imaginable. The competition for building a brand name is driving this trend of intense advertising campaigns. On an internet open forum this discussion took place about Mobilink's 'Jazz'. Let's have a look, what advertising gurus think over the brand and how do they predict its developments to take place in the time to come BILAL MUGHAL Do you guys feel its high time for Jazz to introduce the English side of the brand alongside the cultural/current - maybe a different logo style, theme, a bit of change in brand identity colors and with a slightly different sales pitch?

Best, Kashif.

Thanks Bilal

Haris Shek

"Bushra Haider"

No please don't. Jazz is on a high. You never disturb the brand when it's on a high! Besides it's like a commodity. It's like daal chawal in a kiryana store. We haven't changed the name of daal. It still is daal, and it sells. :) Jazz is masses. Let's not disturb them and admit they're too good.

I think Indigo is catering to that English side'. The color is chic; the type face of the logo gives the brand a compliment for its style and positioning. "Ahsan Shamim" Very brief; My gut feel says that launch of English channels from DAWN, Jang group and others and proliferation of English programming will induce brands like Jazz, Talkshawk and etc to show their English side. Up till now, English speaking audience was deemed analogous to that of A+ class in our segmentation dictionaries. I like to think that the trend will change. Postpaid market has been largely disturbed by Warid via its free SIM offerings, but I don't think it has only potential to further grow that aggressively. The real effort in this segment will be to induce ARPU, while prepaid should segment itself for various markets, including the English viewers as well as the rural. Regards, Ahsan

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I agree in perspective of the US audience. Most of the companies have realized the importance of segmentation in advertising to blacks, Hispanions and Chinese. Same trend should be followed in countries with such language or SEC based segments.

"kashif_nasir79"

movie even if they're calling you in the name of God for sponsorships. Still some time to enter that era - I'm sure you don't want Mobilink aka Orascom Telecom's name rhyming with something inappropriate putting harm on the image of both. Using movie stars in the commercials is a different base all together. Yes, being a communications partner (minus advertising just a line when the movie begins) is a viable option instead of putting your name up on the whole thing. Telenor sponsors local cable channels, which is probably the best way to penetrate into the b/c/semi-metros but it's not in the business ethics of a company like Telenor to sponsor something running pirated version of movies. This encourages piracy and it would go best for Telenor to pull out all such sponsorships.

SH3K

Thanks, Bilal

Zulfiqar Chaudhary

"balochwarrior"

Hi,

I cannot see what the issue here is. I agree with Bushra and to an extent Kashif also. First of all, I think telecom is a very good example of effective segmentation in Pakistan. Take any telco Brand, since Telenor and Mobilink are in question, Djuice and Octane (Youth Oriented, English, Funky), Jazz Budget and TalkShawk (More filmy, musical and Awami), Telenor Azadi and Jazz Easy (The more universal Awami, Urdu based communication for masses), Personna and Indigo (More English catering to more affluent and educated market) and then of course the corporate brands. I think it would be utterly stupid for Jazz to suddenly go English unless it changes its target market which would also be a very senseless move as it has a few million loyal customers and growing by the day from the claims they make. I also doubt Dawn News and Geo English would have any impact on Telco brand com-

Right now Jazz is enjoying a big market share which is "Desi" not English, yes if they change the logo and the way of communication for the "Desi" market then why not, but I don't think so that Mobilink will ignore this Desi segment by giving jazz an English look, although jazz sounds English. Regards, Zulfiqar BILAL MUGHAL I heard some weeks back that Mobilink is planning to jump into sponsoring the Pakistani cinema? I mean whatever man! It's kind of not in the decorum of a telecom company at this point in time to attach its label with a Pakistani

Branding municating in English. I think these channels would be utilized more by the likes of corporate and persona and indigo. Please don't forget, the television channels are just a medium to communicate not the deciding factor on how to re-brand. And now finally to the movies, I would thank Mobilink or frankly any company who works towards getting me good English movies. I don't care if it's a telco, I don't care if it's a car manufacturer, frankly I don't even care if it's a washing powder. When companies do CSR, it doesn't mean they have to work on something sad and morbid only nor does it mean that it has to be something directly related to their area. This is why it's called corporate social responsibility and not brand diversification or anything else. I don't think Mobilink has sponsored Khuda key liye though I haven't seen any advertising but perhaps I missed out on it. I have also heard that local cable advertising is illegal. I suppose I agree with Bilal. Thank you Asif BILAL MUGHAL My mistake - There's an error statement in my note below. I was out of touch from the local press/media, just got caught up. Mobilink is working on the revival of the Pakistani cinema not as wrongly stated by me that it is planning to sponsor the existing set of Pakistani movies. In other words I thought soon we're going to see Mr. K2, Gama BA or Daddy of all Grand Daddies sponsored by Mobilink. The revival part looks pretty neat - and this will definitely get them with a good consumer backhaul. At least some of the Pakistani movie stars would learn to communicate, not that my communication skills are exceptional but these public figures would be able to talk to the press in a more proper approach. Thanks and Sorry to Mobilink folks :) Bilal "balochwarrior" WOW Bro, you seem to either have something against Orascom or Paki Film Industry. I don't think it has anything to do with marketing. Best of luck with the crusade! BILAL MUGHAL Relax Max! - You need to read the email again. I actually complimented their move. :)

he asked: "What's that you're sitting on?" "Nothing," replied the beggar. "Just an old box. I've been sitting on it for as long as I can remember. "Ever look inside?" asked the stranger. "No," said the beggar. "What's the point, there's nothing in there." "Have a look inside," insisted the stranger. The beggar, reluctantly, managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold. I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Excerpts from the book "Power of Now - A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment." What you commented and how you commented on not segmenting the market for English audience is the biggest hurdle at this point in time the marketers face around the world. In short you're that hurdle :) Thanks, Bilal BILAL MUGHAL Mobilink Indigo Bushra, the reason for Indigo's popularity in the postpaid circle is because of the continuous push it gets from the Mobilink's corporate advertisement end - otherwise apart from the first Indigo-story commercial, all succeeding ones give you an archived look - the same thing going over and over again. In addition to this I think it would be better to have the BlackBerry campaign running on the side - so people know the seriousness of the brand itself instead of the complete cut-off from the Indigo business user. If you just talk about sales then Indigo will sell even if you limit it to BTL but when you are going through the line then your communication should look wrinklefree.

You never disturb the brand when it’s on a high! It’s like daal chawal in a kiryana store. We haven’t changed the name of daal. It still is daal, and it sells To sum it up: -BlackBerry should go on air. -The situation inside the Indigo story needs to change. -Need to bring in the "Zap" factor in commercials. -Eliminate the disconnect for the business user. Jazz Advance.

BILAL MUGHAL If you know so much about telecom marketing how could you miss the latest trend running in the telecom industry called the "stop-gap branding"? Segment each and every possible target consumer. Again, you responded to this haphazardly just reading the tail and leaving the rest...the discussion that we're having over here involves segmenting Jazz for the English audience apart(leaving at it is) for the Urdu ones. One day a stranger walked by. "Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, "I have nothing to give you," said the stranger. Then

You guys nailed it. For a second there I thought I'm watching a commercial from an Indian operator. Very lively/different and full of humor TVC and selection of the actor - spot on, you get a smile by just looking at him! Definitely more of this stuff required - crispy commercials challenging creativity. Thanks Bilal Farah Chinoy Hi,

I have seen Mobilink ad on CN after Telenor with a good frequency. It seems that both the clients are neck to neck now. I think CN is growing day by day. good work . Farah Zunair Shah Thanks Farah, The main reason for the above subject is Good Programming flavor and Good sponsorship proposals, and people loves to watch CN, We have Top Cartoons here on CN and some of our originals are listed below: „ The Powerpuff Girls „ Dexter's Laboratory „ Johnny Bravo „ Ed, Edd n' Eddy „ Courage the Cowardly Dog „ Miky, Lu & Og „ Cow & Chicken „ Sheep in the Big City „ Time Squad „ I am Weasel „ Samurai Jack „ Whatever Happened to Robot Jones „ Grim Adventurers of Billy & Mandy „ Megas XLR „ Codename: Kids Next Door „ Foster's Home for the Imaginary Friends CN is also watched by people in their early teenage - who are potential customers for Telenor, Mobilink and others even those who are about to reach their teenager will have Telenor & Mobilink as the top brand. Farah Chinoy What I think is they are focusing their future market; if I am wrong please correct me. Plus i have seen few changes in programming also. "balochwarrior" I would have to thank pester power for that. Cartoon Network is on TV for most part because kids are glued to it. I suppose just like parents don't have a choice but to watch cartoon network, similarly advertisers have no choice but to advertise there. "Yasir Riaz" Loads of money; cheaper CPRP on moms/females, Telcos are on everything else so why leave CN. No offense to Cartoon Network team, they have done very good selling and justified it to the client. If they were targeting Kids then the message should have been customized for them and more of brand building instead of currently airing campaign. Coming soon on CN …. Banks & Automobiles! Regards Yasir Yasir Riaz wrote: Yes you are right Yasir, Banks are also coming to Cartoon Network very soon + some new brands. „

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IT

Shahid Zahid

Typically, RAID systems work by storing a little bit of extra information called parity bits along with the regular data. If a disk fails, these parity bits allow the array of disks to rebuild data. This article focuses on key features and considerations for RAIDs used in the IT based Television Broadcast, Television production and Post-production

y now, most broadcasters have heard the term RAID. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. Typically, RAID systems work by storing a little bit of extra information called parity bits along with the regular data. If a disk fails, these parity bits allow the array to rebuild data. There are several features that are important in generic RAID applications. The following are a list of features and considerations that are especially important for broadcasters who are contemplating using RAID in their facilities for video and audio content.

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Hot-swappable Drives Many RAID arrays are designed so that drives can be replaced while the unit is still in service. If the objective of having a RAID solution is to avoid downtime, then this feature can be a key. Hot-swappable drives have special connectors that are designed to break and make connections in a specific order so that components are not destroyed as the drive is removed or installed. Many people think that hot swappable also means that the drive will automatically rebuild: however, this is not necessarily the case. Rebuild in Background This feature allows the data on a drive to be reconstructed from the data on other good drives in the array. As noted above, RAID arrays can recreate missing data on the fly so the application never notices a drive has failed. RAID arrays also can put this capability to work to recreate the data and write it to a new drive once it is installed in the array. Of course, you would expect this functionality to be available. But be careful: You may or may not be able to rebuild the data on the new drive without having to shut down the array. This is used to be an exotic feature, but it is becoming much more common. If this functionality is important to you, be sure to ask for it.

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Online Spare When a drive fails, the extra drive can be put online - in some cases, automatically. This can be a valuable option for critical RAID arrays. Remember, however, that the drive will still have to be rebuilt, because there is no way to know in advance which drive will fail, it is impossible to have the extra drive ready to go at a moment's notice.

SNMP and Other Remote Monitoring This is one of the important topics when it comes to RAID arrays, and it is one which would encourage you to think about carefully. If one of the characteristics of a RAID array is to keep on working even when a drive fails, how will you know the failure of drive? If you lose a drive in a RAID array and then lose another drive in the same array before the first drive is replaced and rebuilt, will the RAID array keep working? The answer to the first question is that you can not notice the failure of drive unless you are not monitoring the RAID's status. The answer to the second question is that the RAID will not work if second drive fails. It is extremely important that you monitor the health of the RAID array on regular basis. In some cases, RAID monitoring is built into the application. If a drive quits, the application lets the operator know. But many times, especially when using generic (non-broadcast) applications, there is no notification to the user that a drive has failed. With that said, every RAID array have ever seen has provisions for monitoring drive status, and almost all of them have remote monitoring provisions. Be sure to incorporate monitoring of RAID arrays into your overall maintenance system. If you fail to do this, you are wasting the value of RAID. Eventually, two drives will fail. Dual Power Supplies and Redundant Cooling Dual power supplies and redundant cooling are quite common in RAID arrays. If you have an important service that you want to protect with a RAID array, be sure your array has these features. The array should continue to work with a failed cooling fan. Most RAID arrays that incorporate fan speeds and temperature alarms into their remote monitoring facilities. Because drives can fail when they get too hot, it can be important to have remote monitoring on cooling systems. Redundant Controllers If you are looking to eliminate downtime, then you should look at the entire system, not just at the disks. RAIDs were developed to provide redundancy for rotating storage media, and they perform this task well (especially when vigilantly monitored). However, electrical components do fail, and a RAID array connected to a single controller

will not protect you from a controller failure. The disk controller is the electrical interface between the computer and the storage unit. In many higher-end systems, you can purchase a second controller as an option. If one of the controllers quits, the other takes over. Occasionally, you will see this described in literature as dual redundant controllers, but this seems a little redundant. Rebuild Time It is important to know how long it takes your system to rebuild after a drive replacement. The more time it takes to rebuild and place a new drive online, the longer you're exposed. If during the rebuild time you lose another drive, the entire RAID system will fail. While the chances of experiencing two drive failures within a few hours of each other are remote, it is important to know that during the rebuild time, your system is vulnerable. Testing The best way to know for sure that your RAID system supports the features you expect is to test it. Assuming your system supports hot swapping and rebuilding in background, try the following: 1. Pull out a drive while the system is in operation (hopefully during commissioning tests, and not when it is actually on-air!). Does the system keep running normally? Do you see any indication that the drive has failed either in the application running on the RAID or on your monitoring system? 2. Plug the drive back in. Do you see any indication that the drive has been installed either in the application running on the array or on your monitoring system? Does the drive begin rebuilding by itself, or do you have to do something to initiate a rebuild? How long does it take before the drive is online again and ready to use? RAID systems are great examples of how broadcasters can leverage Information Technology (IT) to create more reliable platforms for their applications. But it is important to understand the features available and how they work to be sure that you get the expected performance from your array. „ The writer is a TV Broadcast & Satellite Communication Engineer with a National Broadcaster of Pakistan, ATV

Tourism

Tahir Khan

hairman Hashoo Group, Sadruddin Hashwani's role in the development of Gwadar - the future city of Pakistan, is unparalleled. Most advanced 5-Star Zaver Pearl Continental Hotel, Golden Palm, a mega real estate project, desalination plant and electricity generation plant are to his credit. The desalination plant would ensure hygienic drinking water for the local population once the Golden Palms project that is being developed over an area of 1,000 acres, is complet-

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facilities and expansive banquet halls. A comfortable, intimate lobby with seating areas greets families and other vacationers coming into the hotel. Clean and comfortable modern bedrooms are equipped with hi-speed internet, big plasma TV screens, having an ambiance of relaxation, privacy and casual elegance. The hotel is surrounded by incredible aquatic life, exposed to the naked eye viewing from the cozy rooms, meeting rooms, banquet halls or from one's private balcony. One can experience the thrill of exploring the Arabian

Zaver Pearl Continental Gwadar, inaugurated on 16 November, 2006 by the President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, has 120 fully furnished rooms including 56 twin rooms, 60 king rooms, and 04 suites

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ed. As a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, the group is in process of establishing primary to secondary schools for the locals and a hospital on modern lines. Zaver Pearl Continental Gwadar, inaugurated on 16 November, 2006 by the President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, has 120 fully furnished rooms including 56 twin rooms, 60 king rooms, and 04 suites. Besides restaurants serving traditional, continental and exotic food and beverages, it also offers spacious meeting rooms equipped with state of the art

Sea and all its wonders and also discover what life is like season by season when one is surrounded by the sea. Gwadar Port is very near to the hotel. Ferries bring people and supplies to the shore, fishermen prepare their nets for fishing, variety of boats are either sailing or moored, all is in sight. If one is looking for a beach getaway, a quiet time or a wide variety of activities, ZPCHG is the abode which facilitates its valued guests, a breezy atmosphere and plenty of recreational fun such as boat rides, beech vol-

leyball, picnicking, shell hunting, orienteering, camping, fishing, dune rides etc. The land allocated for Golden Palms has the best dune riding area, high as well as flatter dunes riding which includes numerous trails and beach access. Owing to zero crime rates, some of the reputed enterprises, on regular basis organize big concerts and events at the ZPCHG, and thereafter take their clients to experience the said merriments. It is a place which really raises one's heart rate, lets one's worries float away, and revitalizes one's mind, body and soul. There is something for everyone at Zaver Pearl Continental Gwadar. „

Tahir Khan Director Public Relations & Marketing PC Hotel Rawalpindi

World in Focus

LG's Summer Line Show Unveiled Michael Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics North America Headquarters, discusses the company's strong emphasis on design and innovation at LG's summer line show, an annual mid-year update in New York City. LG Electronics is experiencing explosive growth in its key product categories, from mobile phones and plasma HDTVs to digital appliances and computer products. "At LG, 'Life's Good' is more than a marketing theme. It captures the essence of what LG is all about - our products and technologies and their impact on peoples' lives," Ahn said, as an introduction to his remarks highlighting progress in three key areas: revenues, brand and market penetration. Ahn discussed the success of the 'LG: Life's Good' campaign and its premium brand positioning: "With this effort, LG's brand awareness, particularly in mobile phones and premium home appliances, is continuing its healthy upward trend." In consumer electronics, he explained that LG already has established a strong market position in flat-panel digital TVs. In fact, since the fourth quarter last year until June, LG maintained the Number 2 market share position in plasma, while continuing to expand its share of the LCD TV market. "And we are capitalizing on our global leadership in HDTV technology to address the world's largest HDTV market, the United States," Ahn added. At LG's summer line show, the company showcased its broad product portfolio, including its digital displays, digital audio/video products, home appliances and mobile phones. „

Siemens to Produce new Generation Trains for Russia The German company, Siemens has started manufacturing highspeed electric trains Velaro RUS for exploitation in Russia. The technological benefit of Velaro platform is that it allows placing all towing equipment in the under-car space. The National Russian Railway Company President Vladimir Yakunin (L) poses for a photo beside a high-speed Velaro train at the Siemens plant in the western German town of Krefeld where the official ceremony marking the beginning of the first train production was held. In May 2006 Russian Railways and Siemens had made a contract on supplying 8 trains that will be fully manufactured in Germany. The total cost of the deal is US 576 million dollars. A high-speed train Velaro Rus can accelerate up to 330 km/h. Each 250-metre long electrical train will consist of 10 carriages for transportation of 600 passengers. The trains` construction has been developed taking into account the technical and climatic conditions of exploitation in Russia. Production of the first train is to finish in December 2007. Russian Railways is planning to use the German trains on such routes as Moscow-St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg-Helsinki, and later on some other routes too. „

SanDisk Intros RacingSponsored Memory Cards

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SanDisk founder and chief executive Eli Harari is flanked by models as he sits on a Ducati motorcycle for the first time during a press conference at his company's headquarters in Milpitas, California. SanDisk has partnered with Italian motorcycle racing team Ducati to offer a line of high-speed memory cards and USB flash drives. The Ducati Extreme CompactFlash and SD Plus cards will offer the fastest data transfer rates currently on offer from SanDisk. Product packing will feature emblems from Ducati, an Italian motorcycle racing company. The CF line will be available in 4GB and 8GB capacities with data transfer speeds of 25MBps while the SD Plus card will ship in 4GB capacities, achieving a 20MBps transfer rate. SD Plus cards snap open to reveal a USB pin for connecting to standard USB ports. According to SanDisk, the new CF card is 5MB/s faster than its new Extreme IV card, previously the company's fastest. The cards will ship in August through photo specialty, "high-end niche" dealers and high-end department stores alongside Ducati network shots and online. The 4GB CF card will retail for a suggested $164, the 8GB CF card will retail for $314. The 4GB SD plus card will retail for $129. SanDisk will also ship a 4GB Ducati Edition USB flash drive, styled like a Ducati motorcycle, with a 20MBps transfer speed. It will ship in August for a suggested $129. SanDisk's founder says Apple's iPhone is increasing worldwide interest in sophisticated portable electronics and driving up demand for flash memory cards for the devices. Harari expects prices of flash memory to continue to drop, making mobile devices more affordable. The decline of prices will be more modest than the 60 percent plunges in each of the past two years, according to Harari. Harari estimates the current form of flash data storage will last for a maximum of four more generations, about eight years, before needing to be replaced with new technology, making it vital to invest in innovation. SanDisk is credited with inventing flash storage and bills the Ducati-themed devices as the fastest it makes. „

World in Focus

Reliance to Invest US$ 3.96 Billion in 2007-08 India's Reliance Communications plans to spend US 3.96 billion dollars on network expansion in 2007/08, and will spin off its business process outsourcing unit, its chairman said. India is the world's fastest growing mobile services market, with more than 6 million subscribers added each month, lured by tariffs as low as one US cent a minute and the extension of networks to rural areas. "If version 1.0 of the Indian telecom story was all about affordability, version 2.0 will be about reach," Anil Ambani, who took control of the firm in 2005 after a bitter split with elder brother Mukesh, told shareholders at its annual meeting. "It is expected that the usage of telephony will continue to grow at the present rate of 6 to 7 million additions per month over the next several years to reach the 500 million connections mark by year 2010." Reliance Communications, India's second-largest mobile services firm after Bharti Airtel, said in April it was planning to spend over 100 billion rupees in the current fiscal year on expanding its infrastructure. Earlier on Reliance Communications Ltd. sold 5 percent of its 270 billion rupee telecom tower business, and could sell more through an IPO or further placements. Reliance Communications would spend 80 billion rupees in the fiscal year ending March 2008 to add another 23,000 telecom towers to its existing network of around 14,000 towers, Ambani said. Telecoms operators, including reliance, are looking to share infrastructure such as mobile towers to keep costs down and boost profits amid intense price competition and a surge in low-income subscribers. Reliance Communications provides voice and data communication services on the CDMA platform across all of 23 circles or zones that make up India's telecoms market. It also offers GSM-based mobile services in seven of the circles. „

Giant Leap for Space Fashion: Skintight Spacesuit It's sleek. It's chic. It's very, very, tight. BioSuit: a prototype spacesuit recently completed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been introduced. When the white high-tech design is finalized in a few years, it will be the first new look for astronauts in more than four decades, replacing the lumpy, awkward 300-pound outfit. "The current spacesuit dates back to Apollo," said Robert Cassanova, director of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, which partially funded the work. "It's a gaspressurized bag that provides the atmospheric pressure humans need to survive, but they're heavy and bulky." The Michelin-man-like outfit is also exhausting - about 70 percent of the energy astronauts expend is spent wearing the suit. On the other hand, the BioSuit, made of nylon, Spandex, and a shape memory polymer, looks like a fullbody ACE bandage. And feels like one, too. "It's definitely very tight," said Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and engineering systems at MIT who has been working on the suit for seven years. "But it's amazing how adaptable we are - I can wear it for three or four hours and I'm fine." The suit is of growing importance under President Bush's plans to send humans back to the moon, and eventually to Mars. Current outfits -- though suitable for short spacewalks outside the International Space Station, where gravity is almost nonexistent - are far too awkward for the surface of the moon or Mars where astronauts will need greater mobility, Newman said. So far, the prototype of the suit is complete, but two challenges must be resolved before it can be used: Wrinkles that occur along the joints, particularly the elbows and knees, need to be eliminated to allow the pressure of the suit to remain constant. That pressure is the second concern. Because humans are used to living with a certain amount of pressure from the atmosphere, the suit has to provide that as well. The current bulky suit allows for 25 kilopascals (a unit of pressure), but Newman wants her suit to reach 30 kPa, about onethird of the pressure exerted by Earth's atmosphere. Sometimes it gets there, but not consistently. But she's got some time to work out the kinks. When the NASA institute first proposed the suit, officials said they wanted something that could be ready in a decade. That was seven years ago and around $500,000 in funding. „

Ericsson Profit Climbs but Misses Forecast Ericsson, the world's biggest mobile network maker, reported softer-than-expected secondquarter earnings but said the company continued to outperform the market. Chief Executive Officer of Ericsson Carl-Henric Svanberg, presented the company's second quarter earnings. Ericsson said second-quarter pretax profit rose to US $1.40 billion from US 1.25 billion dollars a year earlier. Sales totaled US 7.17 billion dollars in the second quarter, just missing a US 7.19 billion dollars forecast. The company said cash flow from operations rose to US 0.63 billion dollars from 0.03 billion a year earlier. Cash flow has been a worry for investors as it has been declining for several quarters. Ericsson repeated its forecast that growth in the GSM/WCDMA market -- 2G and 3G technology -- would be in the mid-single digits in 2007. "We continue to outpace the market," Ericsson Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said in the earnings statement. Ericsson has benefited from surging demand for mobile technology, with big contracts in emerging markets such as India making an increasingly large contribution to company coffers. Recently, Ericsson won it's largest-ever contract - a US 2 billion dollar deal to help India's top mobile operator expand. Sales in Asia-Pacific climbed 32 percent from a year earlier but revenue in Europe during the quarter was flat and it was down 18 percent in North America. „

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World in Focus

Kenwood Announces Joint Venture with JVC Japan's electronics giants (L-R) Kenwood chairman Haruo Kawahara, Victor Company of Japan (JVC) president Kunihiko Sato and Matsushita Electric Industrial president Fumio Otsubo join their hands as they announce that JVC, part of the Matsushita empire, agreed on a capital tie-up with Kenwood This tie up came after months of rumors that JVC and Kenwood would merge; there are certain reports that this tie-up may eventually lead to a merger. Consumer electronics maker Victor Co of Japan Ltd and car navigation and audio product maker Kenwood Corp agreed to integrate their car electronics R&D units, prior to a planned integration. Kenwood announced that they and JVC will be teaming up to bring products to market in the car and home electronics arena to pool development and save costs. The deal would have JVC issuing $290 million in new shares to Kenwood and top Kenwood shareholder, Sparx Group. Kenwood would then pay $167 million for 17% of JVC with Sparx buying an additional $125 million in JVC shares for a 12.8% stake in JVC. Matsushita's stake in the company will fall to 36.8 percent from 52.4 percent, and JVC's status will change from subsidiary to affiliate. JVC, which developed VHS-format videocassette recorders, was once a strong player in consumer electronics but its earnings have declined because of mounting competition in the audiovisual market from lower-cost producers. It is the only subsidiary that loses money at booming Matsushita, which makes Panasonic brand products. Founded in 1927, JVC was originally a subsidiary of the U.S. record company Victor, but cut those ties during World War II. It continues to use Victor's symbol of the dog Nipper listening to his master's voice over a gramophone in Japan, but is not allowed to do so overseas. „

Charlie Chaplin's Camera Up for Auction A movie camera used by Charlie Chaplin in the making of classic films such as ‘The Gold Rush’ and The Kid is expected to fetch up to US$183,000 when it goes under the hammer. The screen legend purchased the Bell and Howell camera in 1918 for his newly-established Chaplin Studios at Hollywood, and used it to make many of his silent movies over the next eight years. The machine is going on sale at Christie's in South Kensington, London, with a copy of the original purchase order. It is estimated to fetch between US$141,000 and US$183,000 when it goes on sale as part of an auction of motion picture cameras. Chaplin, who was born into extreme poverty in Walworth, south London, in 1889, left the UK for America in 1912 and began working in films a year later. The camera was bought on February 23, 1918, just a month after the star and his brother set up Chaplin Studios to allow themselves greater creative control over their film-making. Christie's said they believed the camera was used to shoot classics such as ‘A Dog's Life’ and ‘Shoulder Arms’. The auctioneers said it was possible that the Bell and Howell camera was also used for Chaplin's "silent" productions of the 1930s such as the acclaimed ‘City Lights and Modern Times’. „

Toyota Unveils Plug-in Hybrid

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Toyota Motor Corp. has unveiled a "plug-in" hybrid car based on its popular Prius model, claiming it would test the fuel-saving vehicle on public roads - a first for the industry. But the world's biggest automaker said the car, called the Toyota Plug-in HV, was not fit for commercialization since it uses low-energy nickel-metal hydride batteries instead of lithium-ion batteries believed to be a better fit for rechargeable plug-in cars. Unlike earlier gasoline-electric hybrids, which run on a parallel system twinning battery power and a combustion engine, plug-in cars are designed to enable short trips powered entirely by the electric motor, using a battery that can be charged through an electric socket at home. Many environmental advocates see them as the best available technology to reduce gasoline consumption and global-warming greenhouse gas emissions, but engineers say battery technology is still insufficient to store enough energy for longdistance travel. "It's difficult to say when plug-in hybrids could be commercialized, since it would depend largely on advances in battery technology," said Executive Vice President Masatami Takimoto, in charge of Toyota's powertrain technology, told a news conference. The Toyota Plug-in HV, which is due to be tested also in the United States and Europe, has a cruising range of just 13 km (8 miles) on one charge, even with its trunkful of batteries. Detroit's General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are also working on plug-in hybrids, with cooperation from battery makers such as Germany's Continental AG and Korea's LG Chem. GM in January showed a concept version of the plug-in Chevrolet Volt that would be powered by a lithium-ion battery. It has set 2010 as a target for production. „

World in Focus

China hits 162 million Internet users Chinese students playing online computer games at an internet cafe during their summer holidays. China looks set to overtake the US as the world's biggest user of the Internet as Chinese Internet users hit 162 million at the end of June, growing at the fastest rate since 2004. The latest numbers show China's Internet "entered a new stage of rapid growth” the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a report. The number of Chinese Internet users increased 31.7 percent since June 2006, said CNNIC, which oversees the .cn top-level domain and tracks Internet usage in China. Thanks in part to a change in CNNIC's definition of an Internet user, that was the fastest growth seen in China since mid-2004, when the number of Internet users grew 34.5 percent to reach 79.5 million. Numbers released by CNNIC in the middle of 2005 and 2006 showed annual growth of 18.2 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively. In its latest report, CNNIC changed the definition of an Internet user from someone who spends at least one hour online each week to someone who accessed the Internet at least once during the previous six months. The previous definition had been in use for 10 years. Most Chinese Internet users -- 122.4 million people -- get online using wired broadband, CNNIC said. Wireless Internet access is also widely used, with 55.6 million people using this method, including 44.3 million people who access the Internet from mobile phones, CNNIC said, noting that some users access the Internet with more than one type of connection. The latest numbers bring China's Internet penetration rate to 12.3 percent, slightly below the global penetration rate of 17.6 percent, CNNIC said. The number of Internet users in China is expected to grow to 200 million by the end of this year, second only to the 211 million Americans and if the rate of growth continues then China should have the world's largest online population by the end of 2008. „

Lenovo to Increase Global Presence with New Manufacturing Plants Global PC maker Lenovo has announced that it would invest 31 million U.S. dollars to set up two new manufacturing plants in India and Mexico, in order to meet the growing demand in those regions. Vice President Global Manufacturing Lenovo Jeff Gallinat revealed information in New Delhi, of a new manufacturing plant in Baddi, a city in India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Lenovo expects the plant to be operational in the third fiscal quarter of 2007, with an approximate annual production capacity of 2 million PCs. The plant will manufacture both Think and Lenovo-branded PCs. Meanwhile, the new plant in Mexico will be set up in Monterrey, a city in the north of Mexico, and is anticipated to carry out production by mid-2008, with a planned annual manufacturing capacity of 5 million PCs. Baddi manufacturing facility is Lenovo's second plant in India. "India is an integral part of Lenovo's global manufacturing strategy. With our second plant in India, we expect to improve our supply chain efficiently and better serve our growing base of customers in this region," said Jeff Gallinat, vice president of Lenovo's global manufacturing. In December 2006, Lenovo opened an innovation center in Mumbai, India's financial center, to accelerate innovation and create solutions for challenges faced in the markets. More recently, in July 2007, Lenovo also announced its worldwide marketing hub in Bangalore. The hub facilitates adoption of best practices from across the globe, standardizes brand communication, enables a faster and more cost-effective response management system, and delivers consistent application of common metrics across markets. This ‘distributed centralization’ marketing model will allow Lenovo to produce higher-quality work, use the best talent available no matter where they reside and accelerate its market responsiveness. According to Lenovo, the Monterrey plant will supply PCs to customers throughout the Americas and represents Lenovo's largest manufacturing investment to date outside of China. The Baddi plant, measuring 130,000 square feet (12,077 square meters) will employ approximately 350 people. It will support regional customer requirements including product assembly, distribution services and reverse logistics. It will also offer additional value-added services such as product configuration including custom imaging, asset tagging, and bundled and “over packed” orders. „

Animation takes off in Hong Kong Animators work at their computer terminals at a computer animation company Imagi in Hong Kong. While Hong Kong's signature gangster and kung fu flicks are losing ground to Chinese historical epics, the computer-animated cartoon TMNT made in the city has earned an estimated US 93 million dollars worldwide since its March release. Hong Kong company Centro Digital Pictures also has been chosen to make Disney's first-ever non-Hollywood Chinese movie, "The Magic Gourd," which mixes animation and live action. Animators here boast that they offer a unique sensibility that combines Hong Kong's action cinema legacy and a deep awareness of both Asian and Western cartoon traditions in an English-speaking environment. Industry experts say, however, that Hong Kong animators are merely taking outsourcing jobs from Hollywood by offering cheaper pricing while not generating creative ideas on their own - a point that people here concede is true, at least for now. At Imagi, which designed the turtle fighters in TMNT, Co-Chief Executive Douglas Glen is gung-ho about the prospects of a company that once made artificial Christmas trees and furniture and switched over to animation completely in 2002. The former Mattel executive said computer artists in this Chinese-ruled former British colony blend the best of the East and the West. During a visit to Imagi's Hong Kong offices, animators worked on computer drawings in cubicles cluttered with figurines including Mr Potato Head and the popular Japanese character Doraemon. Neighbouring shelves were lined with Japanese comic books. But while Hong Kong's computer graphics industry dates back some two decades, it's still growing. A survey of 57 "digital entertainment companies" in 2004 - the most recent study of its kind - found that most employed fewer than 10 people and about a third had annual revenues of under $A73,700. "Hollywood's interest in Hong Kong animation is mostly financial," „

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World in Focus

EU Charges Intel with Monopoly Abuse EU regulators have charged Intel Corp. with monopoly abuse for blocking rival computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s access to customers. Intel immediately said its conduct had been lawful and said it welcomed the chance to finally respond to allegations made by its main competitor. The European Commission claimed that Intel gave "substantial rebates" to computer makers for buying most of their x86 computer processing units, or CPUs, from Intel; that it made payments to manufacturers to get them to delay or cancel product lines using AMD chips; and that it sold its own chips below cost on average to strategic server customers on bids against AMD products to try to muscle into that business. It said each of these alone broke EU law by shutting out AMD from the market. Together they amounted to a strategy that damaged the rules of fair play in an effort to keep AMD from eroding Intel's market leadership, it said. Intel has a chance to defend itself before the EU's executive arm takes a final decision that could order the company to stop abusive behavior or charge it fines that can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is the world's biggest chipmaker. The company's general counsel, Bruce Sewell, said Intel was confident that the microprocessor market was functioning normally and that Intel's behavior had been lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to customers. Intel has 10 weeks to reply to the preliminary charges and can seek an oral hearing to put its side. The EU's executive arm has been investigating Intel's business behavior since 2001, looking into complaints from AMD and computer manufacturers that it used its power as a market leader to shut out rivals for chips that run on Microsoft software. The case has run hot and cold over the last six years. EU regulators had to shut down one line of inquiry when Taiwan's Via Technologies withdrew its complaint about computer circuits or chipsets in 2002. At the time, they also said they did not have enough evidence to pursue an AMD complaint on microprocessors. AMD filed another complaint in 2004 that EU officials said they had no choice but to investigate or risk AMD taking court action for negligence. In 2005, EU regulators raided Intel offices in Britain, German, Spain and Italy two weeks after AMD filed another set of lawsuits in Japan and the United States. The EU investigation widened last year to include AMD's allegations that Intel had pressured Europe's largest consumer electronics retailer Media Markt not to offer computers that carried AMD chips. Microprocessors from Intel dominate the global market in desktop computers that run Microsoft's Windows operating system. „

Japan Tunes in to Birth of Giant Manta ray A giant manta ray, measuring more than 1.8m (6ft) wide, has become the first of its kind to be born in captivity, scientists have claimed. The baby, a female, was born in a huge fish tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, Japan. Footage of the birth shows the youngster unfolding like a carpet from her mother before spreading her fins and swimming around. News of the new manta has generated huge interest in Japan and its birth, which was recorded by the aquarium, was broadcast nationwide by TV channel NHK. Officials say the birth will provide an invaluable opportunity for researchers to study the little-known species. Aquarium spokesman, Minoru Toda, said: "My heart was heavy at first because I thought it had been still-born, but we were so relieved when she finally started swimming around. Now we have to make sure the baby grows in good health." Giant manta rays, the world's largest species of ray, can grow up to 7.6m (25ft) in diameter and feed on plankton and small fish throughout the world's tropical oceans. Scientists believe they have evolved from other bottom-feeding species and have adapted to become filter feeders in the open ocean, allowing them to grow much bigger. The mantas are most commonly black on their backs and white underneath. Their distinctive diamond shape and pectoral fins allow them to glide through the water. Keepers at the aquarium have admitted they will now have to rely on intuition to care for the new baby, as knowledge surrounding its development is so limited. The mother manta, which was brought to the aquarium in 1998 after being caught in fishing net about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, was pregnant for 374 days. She was successfully mated with a male manta at the aquarium on June 8 2006. „

Alibaba.com Gets Enlisted in Hong Kong SE

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Alibaba.com is going to enlist its shares in Hong Kong Stock, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley will be the lead underwriters of Alibaba.com's IPO who declined to say when the listing would occur or how much money it would raise. A person familiar with the plan said earlier this year the offering could raise about $800 million and was slated for the third quarter. Alibaba.com is the biggest source of revenue for Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group, in which Yahoo Inc. holds a 40% stake. Alibaba.com uses the Internet to help match manufacturers in China and elsewhere with potential buyers of their products. Alibaba.com spokeswoman Christina Splinder said Alibaba Group Chief Executive and Chairman Jack Ma told employees during a meeting over the weekend that the first steps toward the unit's IPO had begun. She didn't elaborate. Alibaba Group said earlier this month Maggie Wu will take up the newly created post of chief financial officer at Alibaba.com at the end of this month. Alibaba Group said 39-year-old Wu was formerly a partner with KPMG and was involved in the audits and initial public offerings of companies such as China Telecom Corp. and China Merchants Bank Co. Wu graduated from Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing in 1990. The person said in June that Alibaba Group had chosen to list Alibaba.com in Hong Kong because the city is a global trading and financial center. Alibaba.com's choice of Hong Kong for its listing is in contrast to many Internet firms' choosing to float on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where the investor base is more familiar with technology companies and valuations are relatively higher. But Alibaba is well known to the Hong Kong market and is still likely to attract strong demand without having to pay the higher costs of a U.S. listing. „

World in Focus

General Motors Hopes to Lead the Electric Car Race Robert Luntz, vice president for Global Product Development for General Motors Corporation, addresses a question from the media during a break at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminar, at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, in Acme, Mich. Behind him is a zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicle the Volt, GM's first range-extended electric vehicle. General Motors Corporation has signed an agreement for the development of a new lithium ion battery that could power it ahead of Toyota Motor Corp. in the race to bring plug-in hybrid and electric cars. GM has signed an agreement with Watertown, Mass-based A123 Systems Inc. for developing a new lithium-ion battery which is safer and manages heat better than the technology Toyota was using, vice chairman Bob Lutz said. He also hopes to be first to market with a pure electric vehicle that has a piston engine as an emergency backup, similar to the Chevrolet Volt prototype that the company unveiled in January. A123 Systems Inc already produces millions of nanophosphate lithiumion batteries for use in cordless power tools, and it plans to apply the technology to automobiles. Lutz said the deal, which comes amidst reports that Toyota Motor Corp. would delay launches of lithium-ion battery powered hybrids for up to two years, could give GM the lead in bringing the new clean technology to market. ''I think that our No. 1 competitor has some problems with their technology, and I do think that it very definitely opens a window of opportunity for us to be first to market with a genuine plug-in hybrid,'' Lutz said at an automotive industry conference in Traverse City where the battery deal was announced. The Wall Street Journal, had reported that problems with lithium-ion technology has forced Toyota to back away from plans to roll out the vehicles between 2008 and 2010. „

Elderly Tends Towards Hi-tech Gadgets A high-tech grandma used to be considered an oxymoron. But in Japan, with its love of technology and a declining birth rate, a growing number of elderly are learning to surf the internet, finding it to be a crucial lifeline. "I turn on my computer first thing in the morning. It's a pleasure to see the emails that came overnight," Computer Grannies Society was launched in 1997 to nurture a new breed of net-savvy elderly. The group, which accepts men as well, now has 200 members, mostly in their 70s, across the nation. The oldest member is a 97year-old woman who lives alone in the western Japan. The members exchange messages and photos, and show each other their creative work paintings, novels, poems and music. They organize off-line gatherings such as tours of big electronics stores. They also shop online. As bookstores are becoming bigger these days and it's hard to find a book they want. It's quite easy online for these elderly guys. The group set up a temporary internet cafe to offer computer lessons to fellow senior citizens at the end of July in Sugamo, a part of Tokyo known for its large elderly population. The event, held in co-operation with chipmaker Intel, drew more than 400 visitors over four days. Electronics companies have also become increasingly aware that seniors are important customers, and have thus launched a range of seniorfriendly products, such as the RaKuRaKu Phone mobile series by NTT DoCoMo. The basic model of the line - whose name is a colloquial phrase for 'easy' - tells the user the name of the person sending a call or e-mail. It also features the 'Slow Voice' function which enables the user to press a button and slow the pace of the caller's speech for better understanding. According to official data, internet use among seniors is surging, with nearly half of Japanese in their late 60s now surfing online. The number of new young internet users is nearly flat in Japan, which has a declining population and where more than 90 per cent of people under 40 surf online. „

Endeavour Lifts off for Space Station The space shuttle Endeavour and its seven crew members have successfully lifted-off and are heading for the International Space Station. Following last night's launch Nasa administrator Mike Griffin said that "a launch operation doesn't get any better than this". Included in the STS-118 crew is Barbara Morgan, a teacher-turned-astronaut whose association with NASA began 22 years ago. It is the first time a teacher-astronaut has launched into space since Christa McAuliffe died along with the rest of the crew onboard the Challenger shuttle when it disintegrated after take-off in 1986. Morgan was originally selected as the back-up teacher-astronaut for McAuliffe. After the accident she assumed the duties of teacher in space designee and worked with NASA to speak to educational organizations throughout the country. Speaking before take-off, Endeavour's commander Scott Kelly said: "This is serious business we're in here. We'll see you in a couple of weeks, and thanks for loaning us your space shuttle." At least three spacewalks have been planned in which the astronauts will install a new gyroscope (device measuring orientation) and external spare parts platform. A new system will be trialled that enables docked space shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend visits to the outpost. If successful Endeavour's mission will be extended by three days and an additional spacewalk added. It is the first flight for Endeavour in more than four years as it has undergone extensive modifications including safety upgrades. Picture shown is NASA handout image of the Space Shuttle Endeavour clearly showing its payload bay and upper surfaces. The image was photographed by one of the Expedition 15 crewmembers aboard the International Space Station shortly before the two vehicles docked in Earth orbit.

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World in Focus

New Liquid Cooling System for Desktop PCs Hitachi will provide its newly developed Liquid-Cooling System for the latest model of AMD Opteron-based workstations by HP. With the increasing performance of computers and increasing capacity of memory chips or other components, heat dissipation today is becoming more of an issue. Hitachi developed the Liquid-Cooling System to significantly reduce heat and noise typically generated in high-performance workstation applications. The new system, which is superior to traditional air-cooling with improved performance and reduced noise, will be used in the high-end HP xw9400 Workstation. Since the company released the world first liquid-cooled notebook PC, Hitachi's Liquid-Cooling has been used for Desktop PC and server products. Hitachi also is known for its state-of-the-art technology in cooling mainframe computers, which are used for today's PCs and workstations. Hitachi's Liquid-Cooling System provides an acoustic improvement for idle and CPU max load states, as well as a lower pitch tone that blends easily into background noise. This is made possible by the removal of the CPU heat sink fans and by implementing a higher air flow (low speed) chassis fan for liquid-cooling, utilizing high heat transfer capacity of the liquid. The new system also provides reliable and safe countermeasures with high control of liquid permeation, degradation, and corrosion, which are Hitachi's core competence. In addition, Hitachi's leading-edge technology in key components such as micro-pumps, has contributed in large part to the product development. With increasing performance of CPU, graphic chips and other components in the high-end PC or workstations, the demand for liquid-cooling systems is expected to increase. The company expects to see high demand for liquid-cooling in various applications where high-performance and quietness is required. Hitachi aims to grow the business as a market leader in liquid-cooling systems for PC, workstation and server applications and intends to create a new market in consumer products and industrial fields. „

Robot Hubo: Albert Einstein goes all Robotic At first glance, the bulky white figure looks like a prancing astronaut - until it turns round and its features reveal it to be a Korean scientist's concept of a 21st century Albert Einstein. Then the robot "speaks" and proves that, as Albert would himself doubtless have pointed out, matters such as gravity and resemblance are all relative. "Hi. My name is Albert Hubo. I come from South Korea and I am very happy to be in Valencia," says the creature, after having demonstrated some rather bizarre hip-hop moves. Albert's head bears the Einstein's instantly-recognizable facial features and his characteristic shock of white hair. But Jun has taught the robot a few tricks that the iconic scientist never managed. He can walk, talk, smile and even have a go at the gentle movements of Tai Chi, thanks to the advanced technology packed into 66 motors, most of which are situated in his head. According to Jun, in a few years busy householders might find a use for an Albert in the home undertaking the daily chores that humans would rather live without. "They will be able to help human beings in daily tasks," says Jun. Albert, who stands one metre 37 centimetres (4 foot 5 inches) tall is "based on a Windows XP platform that allows us to make him as intelligent as we want", he adds. The concept has aroused interest from the military and law enforcement agencies as well as athletes, architects and real estate professionals, says the company. „

Space-age Safety Helmet Loaded with Gadgetsall obotic If you think that a lot of the newest technology from Japan is focused on safety then you'd be right, which is why the country is at the cutting edge of robotics , earthquake monitoring and rapid-response equipment . In the latter category comes a high-tech helmet from Tanizawa. The U-Met Utility Helmet is packed with technology that records events, keeps wearers in touch with base and even creates its own power. Available in two different configurations according to intended use, the U-Met includes a solar panel, a 3G phone, head-mounted lights and a video camera, IC tags, a GPS sensor and vibrating panels that operate as alerts in noisy areas. Among the scenarios Tanizawa describes for the U-Met are fire-fighters being able to relay video and location data precisely from an incident, security guards recording and tracking assailants, rescue services efficiently coordinating efforts and teams keeping in touch when working in dangerous environments. Although the current prototype weighs almost 1kg, Tanizawa hopes to halve that before long. There's no word on pricing yet, but if they can fit in a drinks dispenser and a laser-guided paintball gun then we'll take two. „ 34

World in Focus

US eyes $ 200 mn Program to Encourage Tourists The US travel industry and its allies are pressing Congress for a marketing program of as much as 200 million dollars to help restore America's "brand image" with international visitors. With overseas visits still below levels from the 2001 terror attacks and America's image battered, the travel industry is pinning its hopes on a new promotional effort led by the federal government. Industry leaders are lobbying for legislation to create a government-led corporation for travel promotion. This would be funded by voluntary business contributions and a 10-dollar fee imposed on visitors from countries qualifying for visa "waivers." "Other countries are spending hundreds of millions of dollars, the US is spending zero for visitor promotion," said Geoff Freeman, executive director of the Discover America Partnership, a coalition led by the travel industry with other business partners. "The idea is to create a nationally coordinated brand for the country," he said. According to Britain's Office of National Statistics, visits by Britons to North America decreased one percent to 4.5 million in the 12 months to May 2007, even as travel to other parts of the world rose by nine percent. US government figures cited by the coalition show a 17 percent decline in the number of visitors from outside North America between 2000 and 2005. Industry leaders say the US needs to counter the perception of being unwelcoming to foreigners, despite tighter security imposed after the September 11 attacks. This effort could be helped by a marketing and informational campaign, accompanied by improvements in staffing and training for US customs personnel. "The US, as opposed to every other industrialized country, doesn't invite people to come to the US," said Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and a member of the coalition. The key measure, travel industry leaders say, would be the 10-dollar fee that may be assessed on international travelers under the visa waiver program. This would be in addition to a fee planned by the Department of Homeland Security for screening of visitors, to be paid through a website before arrival in the US. „

China Will Increase Safety of Toys For Export China will introduce new rules to improve the safety of its toys, as the country's massive industry faces international condemnation over its exports. The world's biggest maker of toys, China's toy industry has recently come under the same type of international scrutiny as many of the nation's other export sectors for its low safety standards. China will test the safety of every new product because of the recalled toys, and will conduct random tests in factories. China will test the safety risks of every new product before it is released into production, said Wang Xina, the head of the department for inspection, at the Chinese agency for quality control. The agency will also implement random inspections of factories, and testing samples, he said. "Toys are always our largest concern, because children use them", said Wang. Totally removing all dangerous products intended for export will represent a big challenge, because a huge amount of products is in question. Last year, China exported 17.8 billion dollars worth of toys. In the report of the Chinese agency for quality control, it says that more than 20 percent of the toys intended for the local market are not of acceptable quality, or potentially dangerous. According to EU data, Chinese toys have overtaken household appliances as a type of product, for which they will most probably raise warnings about the safety of the products. 24 percent of those warnings by the European Union were aimed at Chinese toys, mainly for containing small parts which children can swallow, sharp edges and traces of dangerous chemicals. „

Germany - World's Leading Solar Power Generator The sky is reflected in a 40,000 square meter roof-based solar system, the world's biggest, in the southern German town of Buerstadt. It rains year round in Germany and clouds cover the skies for about two-thirds of all daylight hours yet the country has still managed to become the world's leading solar power generator. Even though millions of Germans flee their damp, dark homeland for holidays in the Mediterranean sun, 55 percent of the world's photovoltaic (PV) power is generated on solar panels set up between the Baltic Sea and the Black Forest. So far just 3 percent of Germany's electricity comes from the sun, but the government wants to raise the share of renewable to 27 percent of all energy by 2020 from 13 percent. It is a thriving industry with booming exports that has created tens of thousands of jobs in recent years, posting growth rates that surpassed the optimistic forecasts made by the fathers of a pioneering 2000 renewable energy law. This law, known by the acronym EEG, has helped this cloudy, rainy country on the northern rim of central Europe become a solar giant. The EEG was the single most important vehicle to boost the solar energy market. The law, which offers cash incentives to people introducing renewable energy sources, was designed to help fight climate change and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. "There has also been an enormous interest for solar power from the public in general," told ," Frank Asbeck, chairman of SolarWorld AG, told, who in 1988 started his Bonn-based company making and marketing PV products. It's 1,350 staff have doubled in number in the last two years. "Germans have a fondness for inventing and developing technologies - especially when it might lead to big export rates. Helping fight climate change is a bonus," said Asbeck, who plans to nearly double the staff again within two years. „

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World in Focus

BBC Launches Free Internet TV Service Billed as the biggest change in the way viewers watch television in 40 years, the BBC launched an online service that allows people to download many programs from the last week. BBC Director General Mark Thompson says the arrival of the "ondemand" iPlayer is as important as the first color broadcasts in the 1960s. Viewers can choose from 400 hours of programs, between 60 and 70 percent of the total TV output, including hit shows such as "EastEnders, "Doctor Who" and "Planet Earth." It faces competition from similar services provided by Channel 4 and ITV and from increasingly popular video-sharing sites such as YouTube. The growth of the Internet, mobiles and hard-drive recorders that save hours of programs, has destroyed the notion of fixed TV schedules delivered through a TV in the corner of the room. Broadcasters are under pressure to hold on to viewers by letting them watch programs when and where they want. "Our vision is for BBC iPlayer to become a universal service available not just over the Internet, but also on cable and other TV platforms, and eventually on mobiles and smart handheld devices," said the BBC's Ashley Highfield, director of future media and technology. The service, at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer, is free, but people will not be allowed to save permanent copies to their computer. It could take 30 minutes to download an hour-long show. It is only available to people living in Britain with computers that run the Microsoft XP operating system. Programs will be automatically deleted after viewing or after 30 days. Copyright protection software will prevent the copying of shows. „

Windows Vista Sales Hit 60 Million Microsoft moved to counter criticism about the uptake of Windows Vista by announcing it now has shipped 60 million copies of the operating system. "By our math, we eclipsed the entire install base of Apple in the first five weeks of shipment," Kevin Turner, Microsoft's COO, said at the company's annual financial analysts meeting. Turner said there are 42 million PCs covered by volumelicensing annuity agreements for Vista. He said strong renewals for enterprise agreements are driving the uptake. "Customers are purchasing the rights to Vista because they are planning deployments," he said. He said Continental Airlines plans to roll out 10,000 seats of Vista by year-end, and Banco Bradesco in Brazil has rolled out 70,000 seats this year. Microsoft itself has rolled out 100,000 seats. He said deployments were being driven by corporate rollouts, governments and midmarket customers. Microsoft said its Windows install base will reach another milestone in the next 12 months. "The install base of Windows computers this coming 12 months will reach one billion," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO. "If you stop and think about that for a second, by end of our fiscal year '08 there will be more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles, which to me is kind of a mind-numbing concept." „

Hacking Is a Booming Business It's a good time to be a malicious hacker. That's because even though it's not a time of revolutionary new techniques in hacking for profit, business is booming for the established methods. Despite increased investment in information security defenses, the good guys continue to lag badly behind. According to a report by Sophos more than 250,000 websites were hosting malicious code and more than 8,000 were being added to that total every day. A sample of the deluge: Hackers compromised Google AdWords so that links on certain sponsored ads were redirected to the attackers' website first, where an attempt was made to install a keylogging bot. Zero-day exploits in Windows were discovered, including a critical flaw in animated cursor files that would allow an attacker to commandeer a PC. Incidents of iFrame malware - code that lives in an invisible-to-the-eye frame on a website and delivers bots onto the PCs of people visiting the site--have increased. Credential-stealing bots like Gozi and Torpig continued to troll for personal banking information on infected computers. A hacker won US$10,000 breaking into a Mac through the Safari browser, which was followed by Apple

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releasing a patch for 25 vulnerabilities. A researcher announced she is planning to demo ways to install rootkits and perform encryption attacks on Microsoft's new Windows Vista product at this summer's Black Hat conference. A 17-year-old was charged with hacking into AOL, using a phishing scheme against AOL employees and using unauthorized instant messaging accounts, with the intent to transfer confidential data. The only response for many information security professionals is to stay on top of the latest developments and prioritize response according to need. But that's getting harder to do with the sheer volume of information on new attacks. „

World in Focus

Logitech Unveils Comfort Wave Keyboard Logitech has unveiled its new Comfort Wave keyboard for Mac and PC. It'll be available for $49.99 for a corded version, $89.99 for a cordless version bundled with a mouse. The Comfort Wave utilizes a "wave key-frame design," a U-shaped constant curve and a cushioned, contoured palm rest. Logitech explained that the design helps guide handles and cradles fingers in a more natural and comfortable typing experience. The keyboard also features hot keys that work with both the Mac and Windows PCs (using included Logitech software), to activate software such as Web browsers, Apple's Front Row software, photo applications and music software. The Cordless Desktop Wave is bundled with a cordless, ambidextrous laser mouse with soft rubber grip, designed to match the Comfort Wave's design. Both mouse and keyboard sport low power indicator lights.The Cordless Desktop Wave is anticipated for release first, in late August. The corded Wave Keyboard will ship in October. „

Nokia Opens India Design Studio Nokia on has opened a global design studio in India to stay ahead of rivals such as Motorola in the world's fastest-growing wireless market. The studio will be located in Bangalore, known as India's Silicon Valley, and will be the first of a series of "satellite" design centers being established by Nokia, which plans to open the next in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The world's second-most populous nation is adding six million mobile-phone users every month, and the location of the studio testifies to the impact that India is having on the development of handsets, Nokia officials said. "Design is not just about the look and feel of the handset but equally important is what it can do for people and how it fits into their lives," said Hannu Nieminen, head of innovations at Nokia Design. "Designers must be exposed to how people live and work in different places around the world," Nieminen told a news conference. India's mobile revolution is mainly confined to cities, but the real prize for phone companies is the vast rural market where nearly 70 percent of the population lives, analysts say. Nokia designers will work with students at the Bangalore-based Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology to conceive new handsets for India and global markets in the Internet era. The studio will explore design trends and themes including research into color and material trends in India, mobile use of the Internet and its implications for design, including new features and uses for mobiles. "The first experience of the Internet for many future users will be on the mobile phone," said Nieminen. "India will play a crucial role in designing handsets for them". The Indian studio involves a "considerable investment," said Bangalore-based Jan Blom, senior designer manager at Nokia Design. India, along with China and the United States, is among the three biggest markets for Nokia. The first mobile-phone call made in India in 1995 was on a Nokia phone on a Nokia network. The Finnish company introduced the first Hindi-language mobile menu in 2000, following it up with the first camera phone in 2002, and Hindi short messaging system in 2004. Nokia, with a 6,000-strong workforce in India, is competing with global handset makers including Motorola of the US and Ericsson of Sweden in an expanding market that has 157 million cellular subscribers. „

Biggest and Most Complex Spacecraft The vehicle - the biggest, most complex spacecraft ever built in Europe - will launch in January with up to 7.5 tons of supplies for the space station. The ship has been under test for three years at the European Space Agency's technical centre in the Netherlands. Named as Jules Verne or Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to give it its generic name - had been split into three parts and put in containers for the journey to its launch site at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou. The craft reached Kourou spaceport as part of a 400-ton, 50-case shipment that incorporated all the associated parts, apparatus and tools needed to reassemble it and check it prior to launch. The Jules Verne is the first of at least five ATVs that will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) over the coming years. Developed at a cost of US 2 billion dollars, the ship incorporates sophisticated automated rendezvous and docking systems. Once launched on an Ariane 5 rocket, the craft can find its own way to the ISS, to deliver air, water, fuel, scientific equipment, food, clothing and even personal items to the platform. It will also re-boost the station, which has a tendency to drift back to Earth over time. The ATV was placed in an acoustic chamber and blasted with sound to ensure it could withstand the noise and vibration of launch; and in a giant vacuum chamber to see that components would function properly in the extreme conditions of the space environment. The Jules Verne was also checked to make sure it met rigorous electromagnetic interference standards; its electronic systems cannot be allowed to interfere with those of its rocket launcher or the space station. In Kourou, an 18-week launch preparation campaign has begun. The ATV will be put back together, fuelled and loaded with its dry and wet cargoes. Finally, it will be placed atop its Ariane 5-ES launcher. „

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Singapore Airlines Sells Seats for First A380 Flight on eBay Singapore Airlines Ltd. plans to auction off seats for the first commercial A380 flight on eBay Inc.'s Singaporean auction site, with all proceeds from the auction going to charity. The A380, built by Airbus S.A.S., is the world's largest commercial jet liner and can seat up to 555 passengers, although the aircraft ordered by Singapore Airlines are designed to seat fewer than 480 passengers. Singapore Airlines is the first airline to put the new jet into service, with the inaugural flight set to take off in October from Singapore to Sydney. Anticipating high demand from aircraft enthusiasts for a seat on the inaugural A380 flight, Singapore Airlines decided to auction off tickets on eBay's Singapore Web site. Proceeds from the auction will be split into thirds, with onethird going to Singapore's Community Chest; one-third split between the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, and The Children's Hospital at Westmead; and one-third donated to Midecins Sans Frontihres. "Bids will be invited for seats on this history-making flight, and winning bidders will know that every dollar they pay will go to worthwhile charities," the airline said in a statement. Exxon Mobile Aviation will donate fuel for the flight, it said. Singapore Airlines did not say when the auction for A380 tickets will start, but is accepting registrations from people interested in bidding for the tickets. The lowest price for a single round-trip ticket from Singapore to Sydney costs US 597 dollars. However, that price is only valid until Sept. 30. „

British Airways to Pay US$ 550 Million Fine British Airways was fined nearly 550 million dollars by British and US authorities after the airline admitted colluding with rival Virgin Atlantic over fuel surcharges on long-haul flights. Britain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said its fine of 245.9 million dollars was the highest yet imposed for an infringement of competition law. Virgin, which first reported the BA approach to the OFT, has been given immunity and is not expected to be fined, the competition watchdog said. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said BA has agreed to pay an additional 300-million-dollar fine for what it described as an "illegal cartel" that forced up the extra fuel charge on Atlantic flights from 10 dollars in 2004 to almost 110 dollars by 2006, when the cartel was first investigated. The DoJ said the British airline had also colluded on fuel surcharges for passenger and cargo flights with Korean Air, which has separately agreed to pay 300 million dollars for its role in the price fixing scandal. "When British Airways, Korean Air and its co-conspirators got together and agreed to raise prices for passengers and air cargo fares, American consumers and businesses ended up picking up the tab for illegal conduct," said US acting Associate Attorney General William W Mercer. BA earlier this year said it had set aside 350 million pounds to cover fines and the costs of legal action. Virgin Atlantic said in a statement Wednesday: "We informed regulators as soon as our legal team was made aware of the nature of contacts that had occurred between some individuals at British Airways and Virgin Atlantic." "We take complying with competition laws extremely seriously and regret that contacts were made between the two companies," Virgin Atlantic added. The fine ends a civil case, but a criminal investigation is still continuing, and the OFT said no conclusions could be drawn about whether charges against individuals would be brought. „

Virgin Group to Get Stakes in Fly Asian Express

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Virgin Group is close to acquiring a stake in a budget long-haul airline that plans to fly between Asia and the UK. Fly Asian Express will launch later this year and it is understood that the Virgin Group is in advanced talks to buy a 20% shareholding in the business. The Kuala Lumpurbased business is the brainchild of Tony Fernandes, the co-founder and chief executive of AirAsia, one of the most successful low-budget carriers in Asia. In an interview earlier this year, Mr. Fernandes has said that he was in talks with private equity firms about selling a stake in his latest venture: "We have enough capital to last us but if there is cash available we should take it." Sources close to the talks confirmed that a deal was close. If the deal goes ahead, Virgin will have established position at both ends of a polarizing airline market. The success of all-business class airlines has led to Virgin Atlantic and British Airways announcing plans for first classonly services. In turn, budget airline executives including Mr. Fernandes have predicted that the industry will split into two camps: 5-star airlines and 3-star airlines, with no-frills carriers making aggressive moves into the long-haul market. Fly Asian Express expects to launch its first UK flight - from Kuala Lumpur to London Stansted - around next Easter. Return flights will cost between Rs. 15,900 and Rs. 24,500. Food and in-flight entertainment will cost extra and the airline plans to offer a number of flat-bed seats at the front of the aircraft at a considerably higher cost. With about 380 seats per plane, the venture is expected to break even when the plane is 56% full. It is backed by an initial investment of $30m from Mr. Fernandes and fellow AirAsia investors. „

World in Focus

Romanians - The Best Programmers Romanian programmers are among the most sought-after as companies turn to the country for strong computing and language skills coupled with cheap labor In the mobile phone version of the 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' video game, the torches hanging along the dark walls of Hogwarts glow in an eerily realistic fashion. General Manager of Romania's mobile phone branch of Electronic Arts Inc, the world's biggest video game publisher, says that this technology called 'dynamic lighting' is particularly invented for this game. Romanian programmers are among the most sought-after in the world as large international IT companies turn to the country to take advantage of strong computing and language skills coupled with cheap labor. Its computer literacy is not without its dark side - the country has an unenviable reputation as a hotbed for computer fraud and a large community of hackers. But legitimate IT is one of Romania's fastest growing export sectors with turnover of about US 1.38 billion dollars. Roughly 90 percent of some 1,000 IT companies in Romania are foreign-owned and the government hopes exports will reach 1 billion euros in the next couple of years. In February, Bill Gates opened a Microsoft Corp. technical support centre in Bucharest. The investment followed, among others, the launch of a development centre by Amazon.com Inc in the university town of Iasi in 2005. That is the online retailer's only software development hub in Europe besides one in Scotland's Edinburgh. Other centers are located in India, the United States and South Africa. Prospects for large cash inflows from the European Union after Romania joined the bloc this January, cut-rate taxes and low wages add to Romania's appeal.

In Eastern Europe, Romania is appreciated as having the biggest growth potential together with Turkey and Russia. Oracle, a Software maker, which has a support and software development centre in Romania, has doubled its local staff to 1,000 over the last year since opening a tower office in central Bucharest. It plans to hire an additional 500 employees. Romania's low wages of around $600 a month compare with $1,050 in Poland and $950 in the Czech Republic. Both countries also attract hefty investment in the IT sector. However, some see a risk the sector is overheating. Double-digit wage growth and a shortage of skilled labor is dampening the enthusiasm of some investors and Romania is struggling with emigration as workers leave for better pay. Industry observers say this state of affairs has prompted companies to focus on building support or software development centers, which need cheaper and lower skilled labor, rather than hiring highend programmers. Romania remains good for outsourcing but not for first-class software authors, the brains are already with companies that have good salaries and it is costly to buy them. A good senior programmer can earn 2,000 euros gross a month. Plus a 30 percent raise to buy him, and you have a salary of a good programmer in Germany. FBI data show Romania may be the biggest single source of online auction fraud in the world, a multi-million dollar industry that scams people using Web sites like eBay. "It's highly organized. They create fake accounts to trick people into thinking they are insured," said Gary Dickson, FBI representative in Romania. It is forecasted that if Romanians were stopped, the amount of online fraud would drop significantly. Experts say some 70 percent of software used in Romania is pirated, and salesmen still visit office buildings in central Bucharest to sell pirated CDs and DVDs. Some hackers hope their skills will help secure employment, although breaking into other people's networks for fame or as part of a job CV has its dangers. „

Rivals Race to Map the World A pioneer of the digital map business, Navteq produces the maps and software found in automobile navigation systems, portable navigation devices made by Garmin and other companies, and Internet map sites like AOL's Mapquest, Google Maps and Yahoo Maps. Thanks to global positioning systems and recent technology advancements, Navteq is fine-tuning ways to let consumers use a phone or other handheld device to track everything - from where to jog in another city to learning where the nearest 24-hour gas stations are. Its Dutch rival Tele Atlas has its own projects under way. "There's a lot of competition going on," said an analyst for Gartner. "Both companies are trying to show that their data is better." The mapping duel heated up last week with the announcement that Tele Atlas agreed to a $2.6 billion acquisition by TomTom, the world's largest maker of personal navigation devices. While that should make the combined European company a more formidable foe, Navteq's stock also soared. Analysts said TomTom's competitors such as Garmin may now go to the Chicago company for their maps rather than buy from a rival. But the biggest threat facing the two competitors in the future may be user-generated map content - a mapping equivalent of YouTube. Google also could be a rival. The Internet search leader is deep into research, development and even acquisitions related to its mapping services, which include Google Earth as well as Google Maps. A pair of acquisitions for a combined $216 million in the past nine months underscore that effort: Traffic.com, which produces live traffic reports for cities around the country, and Map Network, producer of special maps for travel destinations, major hotels and events like the Super Bowl. It's not clear if that will be enough to stave off Tele Atlas and any nascent competitors. The company is pushing aggressively into information for pedestrians and is eyeing mobile phones as a huge developing market. "The next wave of location-enabled devices will be cell phones, and there we're penetrating less than 1 percent," said CEO Green. "That opens up all kinds of opportunities if you know where you are." „

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World in Focus

Samsung's Chip Production Halted Due to Power Outage Samsung Electronics Co., the world's second-largest chipmaker, resumed production earlier than expected at lines that remained down for one day because of a power outage. The company, which had expected a shutdown of as long as two days and up to US 54 million dollars in lost sales, cut projected losses to US 39 Million dollar. The disruption at the facilities, which make NAND flash used to store songs and videos in Apple Inc.'s iPod music players and iPhones, may extend a shortage of the chips through at least the first half of August,' potentially boosting prices. The outage at Samsung, the world's biggest NAND flash maker, will also benefit other producers such as Toshiba Corp. ``ISuppli Corp. previously predicted that the shortage would evaporate near the start of August,'' the El Segundo, California- based researcher said in a note dated yesterday. ``The Samsung outage will have a direct benefit for those other major NAND suppliers.'' Last year, Samsung had a 45 percent share of global NAND sales, followed by Toshiba Corp. with 26 percent and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.'s 18 percent. The outage at the facilities, in the K2 production area in Giheung, south of Seoul, was caused by a blown fuse in a power substation, Samsung had said. Prices of 8-gigabit NAND chips rose 6.3 percent to a record $19.02 only in one day, extending this year's rally to 67 percent, according to Taipei, Taiwan-based Dramexchange.com, Asia's biggest spot market for the chips. The stock was unchanged at 590,000 won at the close in Seoul, before Samsung released a statement on the outage. „

Airtel Ties Up With Google For Web-Based Services (L-R) Google India's Head of Products Vinay Goel, Bharti Airtel's President of Broadband & Telephone Services (B&TS) Atul Bindal, Google India's Managing Director Shailesh Rao and Bharti Airtel's Director of IT & Innovation Jai Menon pose with placards at a news conference in New Delhi. Bharti Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services (B&TS) and Google entered into a strategic alliance to work together in bringing web-based services to Airtel's broadband internet customers. As part of the agreement, Airtel will offer its broadband customers a world-class portal including Google Search for web-based queries, Google Gmail with 2 GB storage, Google Talk instant messaging/ chatting service, Google Docs and Spreadsheets so users can share and collaborate in real-time, and other services like Desktop & Internet Security Services (consisting of Antivirus, Anti-spyware, Firewall & Parental Control); Web SMS, On-demand gaming service and music download service, etc. Airtel Broadband customers will be able to access all these services with a single sign-on completely free of cost. The portal will make it easy for customers to access their email, search the web, share ideas, connect with friends and publish content. More offerings like e-commerce applications will be added to the portal over a period time. "In India, it is rich and differentiated services and content riding on an innovative internet experience that will drive the adoption of broadband. Airtel is delighted to partner with Google, a company that has led the creation of innovative internet experiences, to bring its innovative products to our broadband consumers," said Atul Bindal, President, Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services. Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Google India said, "Google is committed to enriching the online experience of users in India. The alliance will provide an ideal platform for Airtel users to enjoy the best possible online experience with customized access to Google's evolving suite of innovative products." It will become very easy for customers to access their email, search the web, connect with friends and publish content. Airtel plans to add more offerings like e-commerce applications to the portal over a period time. „

Sharp Plans Major LCD Plant

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Sharp Corp. is to build an LCD (liquid crystal display) manufacturing plant in Japan that is likely to be the most advanced of its kind when it begins production. The new plant in Osaka will be a "10th generation" plant. That means it will be able to accept sheets of mother glass - from which several panels can be made - of 285 centimeters x 305 centimeters. The area of each sheet is 60 percent larger than the 8th generation sheets used at Sharp's current cutting-edge Kameyama factory in Japan. LCD panel makers are racing to use ever larger sheets of glass because production efficiency increases with each jump in size. That means screens can be made more cheaply, which in today's cut-throat market can be a critical advantage. Sharp says it will be able to produce six LCD panels in the 60-inch class, eight panels in the 50-inch class, or 15 panels in the 40-inch class on each 10th generation sheet running through the Sakai plant. Initial capacity will be 36,000 mother glass sheets per month, increasing to 72,000 sheets over an undisclosed period of time. Construction of the plant will begin in November and operations will begin by March 2010, Sharp said. The factory will cost about US$3.2 billion. Alongside the LCD plant, Sharp will also make a new factory for solar cells. Sharp is a leading solar cell producer and the new Sakai plant will have an output equal to around 1,000M watts (megawatts) per year. The plant, which is expected to be the largest solar cell factory in the world, will start operations at about the same time as the LCD factory, the company said.In addition to its own two factories, Sharp will invite suppliers to build factories on adjacent plots of land. „

National

Mobilink's License Renewed for Another 15 Years obilink has got extended its license for another 15 years at a cost of 291 million dollars to provide cellular services in the country. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Shahzada Alam Malik and Mobilink Chief Executive Officer Zouhar A Khaliq inked the license renewal agreement. Speaking on the occasion, the PTA chairman said cellular subscribers' base would go up to 100 million in next few years from present 65 million as all the mobile phone companies are expanding their networks. Chairman PTA said, "I see a healthy trend in the cellular growth, it is not only bringing substantial revenue to the exchequer, but is also helping people communicate more frequently and easily at affordable tariffs." Mr Khaliq, President and CEO, Mobilink, expressing his views said, "Leading the growth in Pakistan's telecom sector has been an exciting journey and Mobilink has spearheaded the industry and reshaped the lives of millions of Pakistanis." "The government's policy framework has been especially encouraging. Pakistan is now one of the most deregulated markets in the world and this industry is an example of a successful public-private partnership," he added.

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Chairman PTA, Major General (Retd) Shahzada Alam and CEO Moboilink Pakistan, Zouhair A Khaliq exchange documents after a signing ceremony

Mobilink continues to lead the industry with over one million customer additions every month and offers the most diverse value added services platform of business tools such as the Blackberry and personal services such as ring back tones and song dedications for a diverse customer base. „

Etihad to Fly Daily From Karachi ncouraged by high passenger growth, Etihad Airways has increased its frequency between Karachi and Abu Dhabi to 11 weekly flights and the airline now offers daily flights with effect from August 1, 2007. With this increase one flight will operate four times a week on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, while another one will operate daily, the airline said in a press release. Joost den Hartog, Etihad Airways' Area Manager in Pakistan, said: "The additional flight from Karachi is an indication of how important the

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Pakistan market has become for the Etihad network in the past three years. The growth for Etihad over the past year has been especially strong: from four weekly flights in February 2006 to 28 flights and three additional cities." This flight is part of the Etihad Summer programme in which Pakistan gained five additional flights. The additional flights and changed flight times minimize connecting times to major European and North American destinations, the airline said. „

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Telecom

Punjab Chief Minister Ch. Pervaiz Elahi attending the inauguration ceremony of M3 Industrial City.

Newly American Ambassador in Pakistan, N.W. Perterson visits computer lab after inaugurating Parliamentary Information Technology Resource Centre (PITRC) at MPA hostel in Lahore

A shopkeeper displays a huge size of National Flags to attract the customers for the upcoming 60th Independence Day celebrations will be marked on 14th of August.

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Computerized complaint centre at Liaqatabad town Karachi to help citizens in registering complaints regarding local administration. Policy and strategies will be made by reviewing complaints on monthly and yearly basis

US Cultural Attaché T.J. Grubisha giving away the certificates among the students during a farewell ceremony to 58 high school students which selected from all over Pakistan for the Youth Exchange and Study programme 2007-08 and will be spending one academic year in US schools.

Despite the provision of computers to the staff for speedy work, the GPO, Rahim Yar Khan, staff still adopt the traditional way of work with paper and pen.

Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) employees taking shelter under a cloth to save themselves from scorching heat during their work at Meezan Chowk in Quetta.

People pass near telephone cables laying on dug up road near Jahangir Park in Saddar area needs the attention of concerned authorities, in Karachi

National

Reforms Create Enormous Growth in Telecom Sector: PM Deregulation and reforms in the telecom sector accompanied by high disposable income has created enormous growth in this field, said Prime Minister Mr. Shaukat Aziz. The Prime Minister was talking to the Chief Executive Officer of PTCL, Walid Irshaid who called on him at PM House. The Prime Minister said as a result of reforms, the foreign investment had rapidly increased, with a total number of mobile phones crossing 60 million, teledensity increasing by 40 percent and tariffs reduced dramatically for local and foreign calls thus benefiting the people. The Prime Minister said thousands of new jobs had been created in the telecom sector and more would be created in future as this sector expands and grows. Walid Irshaid updated the PM on growth plans for PTCL on fixed lines and cellular business. He said the company would continue to expand and serve the market with new services and products. He said Pakistan telecom sector was attractive, growing and the de-regulatory policy framework was world-class. „

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz talking to the President Chief Executive Officer of PTCL Walid Irshaid who called on him at Prime Minister House.

Wateen Signs Fibre Optic Accord with CMPak Wateen Telecom is Pakistan's first and largest private sector complete communication and media solutions company. The company has ushered the country into a digital revolution with its ability to seamlessly connect every individual, home, office and business throughout the country. Details of the agreement exposed that Wateen Telecom will provide fiber optic cable services to CMPak under which the cellular company will be able to shift its load of long distance calls to the long haul fiber optic network of Wateen Telecom, which covers the length and breadth of Pakistan. The deal allows CMPak to utilize a single pair of dark fibre on Wateen's fibre optic network, on an indefeasible right of use (IRU) basis, for the purposes of offering its cellular mobile services all over the country. The agreement between the two giants of the Pakistan telecom industry heralds the beginning of a new telecom revolution to offer the people of the country better services. While commenting on the deal, CEO Wateen Telecom, Tariq Malik said that this agreement strengthens Wateen Telecom's commitment to become the preferred telecom carrier in Pakistan. He unveiled that this US 50 million dollar agreement will revolutionize the telecom sector of Pakistan by providing quality and economical calls to end user. „

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National

Pakistan Railways Introduces E-ticketing The introduction of the e-ticketing system by the Pakistan Railways from July 20 is a welcome development though its benefit may be limited given that many of passengers are not expected to have easy access to the Internet. This innovative scheme of e-ticket or e-reservation is of much convenience to the passengers who will now be able to book railway seats online, make payments through the credit card, take a print of the reservation slip and undertake the journey without carrying the regular railway ticket. It will also lead to decongestion of the passenger reservation counters at railway stations and booking agencies. Also, passengers, who have access to computers and are in possession of credit cards, will no longer have to wait in long queues to obtain their reserved tickets from the computerized reservation counters. The Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz launched the E-ticketing in Pakistan Railways by pressing a computer key. The Prime Minister, on the occasion, said the digitalization of Pakistan Railways will help facilitate the passengers, who are the real asset of Railways, as it was a service-oriented organization. He said the government was committed to improve and upgrade the railway system in the country as it was not only an effective source of journey but was a Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz inaugurating e-ticketing and credit card facility at Pakistan Railways mean to bring the different people, cultures, provinces and areas closer. He said in order to modernize the country's railways the government besides importing new railway engines and coaches was also working on fast pace to double the railway track from Karachi to Rawalpindi. The Prime Minister said old signal system was also being replaced with the new digital signal system along the railway track across the country. He appreciated the efforts of Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad for improving the railway system in country and said he has given a new dimension to old railway system. He stressed for outsourcing of various services in railways through public-private partnership and corporatization and said it would benefit the employees as well as the passengers. The Prime Minister also mentioned the broad gauge in Pakistan Railways as a challenge and there should be standard gauge to be at par with the world and for improving efficiency. Minister for Railways Shaikh Rashid Ahmad speaking on the occasion said 24 new passenger trains have been introduced during the last one year and old trains were being renovated. The number of railway passengers has been increased to 85 million per annum and it would further go upto 90 million this year, he added. The Railways Minister mentioned various initiatives being taken to upgrade the country's railway system, aimed at facilitating the passengers across the country. Director IT, Rizwan Ahmed briefed the participants about the new E-ticketing system and said the facility was being introduced at 32 stations, while another 15 will be added by December next. Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan and Secretary Railways, Shakil Durrani were also present on the occasion. „

PM urges Pakistani Investors to Set Up Venture Capital Fund for IT Industry Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz urged Pakistani investors to establish a venture capital fund for the Pakistan IT industry to promote an innovative and knowledge based economy in the country. Presiding over a high level meeting on the establishment of the fund, the Prime Minister said that the establishment of the fund will lead to creation of jobs, growth of the IT sector, training and awareness among the stakeholders. The Prime Minister said the fund should be managed by professional managers and the government would play the role of an enabler and facilitator for the creation of innovation by the Private sector. Shaukat Aziz said that Pakistani IT institutions and universities are producing world class IT experts and there is a need to capitalPrime Minister Shaukat Aziz chairing a high level meeting regarding the ize this potential. He said the large pool of IT professionals with the capacity to proestablishment of venture capital fund for IT Industry vide the IT solutions should encourage both the local and foreign companies to benefit from this resource. Earlier Managing Director Pakistan Software Export Board Yousaf Hussain informed the meeting that the IT industry of Pakistan exceeded US $ 2.2. Billion during the financial year 2005-06 with over 1000 world class leading IT companies. He said currently Pakistan has 50% annual export growth and Pakistan is growing as offshore outsourcing centre in South Asia. Asad Jamal, Chairman E-Planet Ventures said his company is planning to start its operation in Pakistan during the current year. E-Planet is the pioneer in global venture capital and is considered as a model since 1999, he added. Umair Khan of the Entrepreneurs Fund-III (TEFs) also made a presentation on IT sector in Pakistan and said that there is a huge scope in this field and Pakistan can capitalize the opportunity to cater for the requirements of the whole region especially GCC countries. The meeting was attended by Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr. Salman Shah, Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Ishaq Khan Khakwani, bankers, businessmen and senior officials. „

PTA's Workshop on "Distance Learning Practices for Asia Pacific Region"

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Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) hosted a five-day Task Force Meeting on "Distance Learning Practices for Asia Pacific Region" from July 23-27. The meeting was arranged at the International Telecom Union (ITU) Centre of Excellence (CoE) Node established at PTA in June, Chairman PTA, Maj. Gen. (R) Shahzada Alam speaking on the opening ceremony of Task Force 2007. Participants from Korea, Iran, Malaysia and Switzerland attended Meeting on “Distance Licensing Practices” the meeting. The workshop covered current practices on e-learning, online courses structure and tools for information, communication and management. Speaking on the occasion of opening ceremony, Chairman PTA, Maj. Gen. (Retd) Shahzada Alam Malik said that PTA would continue to support ITU in its efforts to empower the member countries to build up their Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). He appreciated the initiative taken by ITU for arranging this program. He said that this workshop has been arranged to impart training on methodology to design and conduct online courses. He said that after this training, the participants of the workshop will be able to arrange online training courses themselves from the respective nodes. „

Cover Story

Mudassar Jehangir

Internet Broadband in Pakistan experienced the slowest growth, thanks to PTCL which contributed the most. PTCL has been manipulating the broadband players since they planned to strengthen themselves. Gone are the days, pendulum has been shifted towards private operators. The only thing to do now is advance ahead on a road that leads to technological dominance 46

Cover Story pparently long night of monopolistic behavior in the broadband sector is soon going to be over. The light of technological advancement will welcome all the players equally to perform aggressively. PTCL has been stopped recently by PTA to discontinue its practice of atrocities towards local internet and broadband service providers. It happened when the victimized operators had complained against PTCL for its unfair attitude in the sector. Among various charges the focus point was PTCL's non professional and unethical practices to humiliate and hinder the private broadband operators so they could not provide the high speed internet services to their customers at competitive prices, hence, increasing the market share of PTCL's broadband customers. The dilemma is that PTCL, even after doing these evil deeds, could not perform well. Due to internal corruption and absence of customer services, it had to shut down PAKNET (PTCL's subsidiary for internet and broadband) operations and suffered heavy losses all born by

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Tayyab Shafi Chief Business Officer, Wateen Telecom

government of Pakistan and its public. In response to the complaints from the ISPAK, association for internet service providers in Pakistan, PTA conducted an inquiry by listening to both the sides. Finally on August 3, 2007, PTA gave decision through order No. 15-70/07(CA)/PTA. 13 point judgment has been welcomed by the service providers and other telecom players. PTCL has been refrained from deceiving other private service providers by stop publicizing its lowest package to public. The entity has been directed to create a healthy atmosphere among players by offering them justified and competitive bandwidth rates so the later could offer their customers affordable packages. Broadband services started in Pakistan in 2002. Due to very slow growth, lack of awareness among people and few service providers, PTA in 2004 allowed ISPs to provide these services besides regular dialup connections. Government set a target of 200,000 broadband users within the first two years and another 300,000 users by the year 2009. But due to heavy interference from PTCL and weak policy

Aamer Manzoor Director Marketing World Online

The dilemma is that PTCL, even after doing these evil deeds, could not perform well. Due to internal corruption and absence of customer services, it had to shut down PAKNET (PTCL's subsidiary for internet and broadband) operations and suffered heavy losses all born by government of Pakistan and its public

Dr. Shahid Alvi Director Braintel

making, Pakistan could create only 65,000 broadband users up till 2007 country wide against the targeted figure. It only showed a 15% growth rate against the 40% in India. Besides other key elements responsible for the slow growth of broadband, another important factor is non availability of wired connections. It limited the technology to the urban areas only. In order to compete the other countries in this particular area Pakistan has joined the race of high speed internet through WiMAX, the largest ever network of Motorola's 802.16e-based MOTOwi4 WiMAX is going to be launched by Wateen Telecom, sister concern of Warid Telecom, in a month time. The company will offer broadband data services covering residential and corporate voice, Internet access, corporate IP virtual private network (VPN) and public hotspots at a very competitive prices both for corporate and regular consumers. Chief Business Officer, Mr. Tayyab Shafi told Flare that "we are going to offer the largest 802.16e WiMAX network in the world, it will launched in 22 cities of Pakistan. This is an important milestone in realizing our vision of "Broadband Pakistan" and eliminating the digital divide by providing coverage to areas that are currently underserved. He further commented that "we are coming with pure WiMAX technology which is 802.16E. Technically we are much more advanced than any of our competitor. The service will be a turning point for the communication industry in Pakistan. To a question he said, "DSL has not even fulfilled the 20% requirement of Pakistan

due to its slow and costly availability of copper wire. Since we are coming for both, corporate and general user, our price will be competing with any of the DSL provider in the market. We can provide a connection from 512 KB to 2MB at every corner." About the competition from other player he commented, "We had started work 12 months back and with the backbone of fiber optic we are technically very ahead of others. Though its Motorola's first largest operation in the world, so we had some challenges, but fortunately, they have been according to our expectations. The engineering staff has really performed well in Pakistan. Initially we are expecting 1 million customers, corporate and general, within one year time." "WiMAX is likely to play a key role in Pakistan by providing Internet access to many people and businesses. The communication infrastructure in many places in Pakistan is poor. WiMAX, being a cost effective technology, connects villages and buildings to local and broad content. This can translate into economic growth and improvement in the quality of life and education opportunities," said Mr. Shafi. The technology has already been launched in Pakistan in 2006. ZTE has tried a pre launch trial in Islamabad for Wimax. The company intended to cover the entire city as the broadband users were limited due to non availability of high speed wired internet services. Due to certain reasons, ZTE could not continue with operations. Dancom is another player who is offering WiMAX services in Lahore, Karachi and Islambad. After it has been acquired by Orascom, the company intends to launch these services in other cities like Peshawar, Faisalabad, Sialkot etc. Mr. Atif Rauf, Incharge of Corporate Sales-North told Flare that, "we are currently having around 400 customers of Wi-MAX in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Our plan is to focus on corporate customer instead of regular consumer". To a question about the competition with coming giant, Wateen Telecom, he said, "that Wi-MAX services are dependant on the quality of hardware used and in the potential urban areas, customer is very much conscious about the quality. We are using Redline, which is known for its good hardware products for Wi-MAX services, whereas Wateen is using Motorola's MOTOWi4 which is Motorola's first ever operation of this kind". More companies are planning to start the WiMAX services as well; PTCL, Orascom (after Dancom's acquisition) are the major players. In order to show big aggression Orascom has acquired World Online (WOL) as well. Well before starting its operations, it has already created big customer base from the current subscribers of Dancom and WOL. One good thing that Orascom has done is that it is not disturbing the management of both the companies. The group has purchased the vehicles along with drivers as well. "Initially it will be a little slow and only affect the corporate market. But with the passage of time it will start giving tough competition on general consumer's end as well. Wireless technology has its own benefits; access to everywhere regardless of boundaries is the largest among many. We are fortunate enough to compete the other regional countries in the race of technology adoption" told by Mr. Aamer Manzoor, Director Marketing World Online. Since the services will be available to regular consumers at competitive prices, therefore, it is likely to see the rates and packages offered by any of the WiMAX operator well within the reach of normal user. Currently the rates offered by various operators are around

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Cover Story

Key components of Motorola’s WiMAX solutions for Wateen Telecom’s customer premises equipment (CPE)

Rs. 1,100 to Rs. 1,500 per month for a 128 K DSL and Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 2,000 per month for a 256 K DSL. One can easily believe that WiMAX could slash the cost of bringing broadband to remote areas, and potentially open the doors to new broadband competition, leading to lower prices and faster consumer adoption. The main requirement for the rural areas today is to break the digital divide. Technologically, WiMAX systems have the capability of providing connectivity from existing Points of Presence on a village-by-village basis today. This is achieved via superior lineof-sight propagation capabilities of these systems. However, the applications and content,

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which are relevant for the communities, must also be available on such networks to be effective in helping rural population. Furthermore, the local distribution within the village will be addressed by a cost effective technology today and may migrate to WiMAX with the reduction in the cost of technology ownership. WiMAX is an excellent fit, as one does not need to install cables, and thus installation becomes hassle free. It can be an excellent technology to connect remote villages and sites, and also for wireless access within the village. It can prove to be a real competitor to DSL and cable, but this is based on applications, costs and availability. Today, the advantage of DSL and cable is the cost of ownership. The CPE and overall cost of DSL is

Pakistan has a huge appetite for broadband services it has not been explored fully. It requires WiMAX as fast as it can be rolled out; but the successful deployment of these services will depend on the practicality of the technology, its cost-effectiveness and above all the customer services. Customer's satisfaction is important. Game will change now; big pockets will survive but this will dependant on good customer services

extremely affordable, and therefore ripe for mass consumption. However, availability and applications are not sufficient today for mass deployment. Today, we see that DSL is available in pockets, and hence the true growth potential has been, at best, stunted. The disad-

Cover Story has not created any damage to us. Technically we are providing higher services to corporate clients. Our fiber network can provide 1 Gigabit data transfer facility where as the limit of WiMAX is only 25 Megabit. Currently we are enjoying around 16000 customers on our fiber in Lahore. We also have around 9000 Wireless customers in the city and surroundings. We also have acquired STM4 and will soon be able to proThese are the selected pages from PTA’s decision over the complaint of internet service vide bandwidth providers against PTCL; complete determination is available on flare.com.pk to other operators as well." vantage is DSL and cable does not have reach WiMAX may replace the current Cable and in to rural Pakistan. Dr. Shahid Alvi, Director DSL connections but it will be mainly used in Braintel comments on the situation, "WiMAX is places where these services are not available. already operative in the country. In Lahore it

There are close to 300 million broadband subscriptions worldwide, the vast majority of the world's population does not have access to broadband. Only a handful of countries have exceeded 60% broadband penetration. Even in highly developed telecom regions like Europe and the USA, typically less than half of all households have broadband, and most of these are in urban areas - rural areas have been left behind. Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) has a higher potential in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for fixed wireless service deployment in rural areas, in contrast to many other countries where the infrastructure exists for Internet access in less populated areas. The challenges are two fold. As a new technology - design and verification of WiMAX products pose a challenge to design engineers. The other challenge is in the economic implementation. This will be driven by cost reduction through higher level of integration at the device level, and through mass production of these RFICs. Pakistan has a huge appetite for broadband services it has not been explored fully. It requires WiMAX as fast as it can be rolled out; but the successful deployment of these services will depend on the practicality of the technology, its cost-effectiveness and above all the customer services. Customer's satisfaction is important. Game will change now; big pockets will survive but this will dependant on good customer services. „

Hierarchy of Wimax 802.16e Solution

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Cover Story

Statistical tables and Graphs are provided by ‘Internet World Stats’ Note: Internet Usage and World Population Statistics, Usage and World Population Statistics and other information graphs are as of June 30, 2007. Demographic (Population) numbers are based on data contained in the world-gazetteer. Internet usage information comes from Nielsen//NetRatings, by the International Telecommunications Union, by local NICs, and other sources.

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Informative

Samsung S720i

Samsung P260

Size Dimensions 96.5 x 46 x 17.7 mm, Weight 83 g Display Type TFT, 65K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels) Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 20 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Yes, EDGE Yes, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 1.3 MP, 1280 x 1024 pixels, video(CIF), Doja 1.5 MP3/AAC/ACC+ player, T9, Picture editing, Organizer, Built-in handsfree Voice memo

Size Dimensions 101 x 50 x 17 mm, Weight 119 g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 25 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE Yes, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UMA Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF) Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/ACC/ACC+ player, T9 Organizer, Voice memo Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 960 mAh, Stand-by Up to 220h, Talk time Up to 3h

Samsung S720i presents a more modern look, although fewer specs, it has a camera of 1.3 megapixel, but it is also capable of CIF recording. The slider packs GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. This handset too comes with a microSD card slot with 20MB of internal memory also available.

The P260 has WiFi and is UMA enabled. Weighs 119 grams and is 101×50×17 mm. Decked out with a 2 megapixel camera and 262k color 320×240 resolution display

Samsung P520 Size Dimensions 88 x 54 x 8.9 mm, Weight 102 g Display Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 50 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Yes WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UMA, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB Yes Features Camera 3 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, video(QCIF), Java MIDP 2.0 MP3/ACC/ACC+ player, FM radio, Document viewer (.pdf, .doc, .ppt, .xls) TV out, Organizer, Voice memo Battery Stand-by Up to 220h, Talk time Up to 3h The design of Samsung P520 is somewhat similar to the card phones - with dimensions of 88×54x8.9 mm. Only P520 does away with the keypad and comes equipped with 2.6? 262K color 240 x320 pixels touch screen. Other specs include GSM/EDGE connectivity, 3 Megapixel camera, 50 MB of internal memory and microSD memory card slot, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Samsung L600 Size Dimensions 97.5 x 44 x 16.5 mm, Weight 84 g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 15 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Yes, EDGE Yes, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF) Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/eACC/WMA player FM radio with RDS, Document viewer (.pdf, .doc, .ppt, .xls) T9, Picture editing, Organizer, Built-in handsfree Voice memo Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 500 mAh, Stand-by Up to 220h Talk time Up to 3 h30 min This device actually looks kind of cute. Very basic 262k color 176×200 resolution display with a 2 megapixel camera and expandable with microSD, I expect this to be a hit among the teenage girl crowd. At only 97.5×44×16.5 mm and weighing jus 84 grams, it is very petite.

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Japanese electrmocs giant Toshiba employee displays the company's Portege smart phone (R) and prototype model of an external direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) battery at the Wireless Japan exhibition in Tokyo.

Samsung L760 Size Dimensions 100 x 47 x 15 mm, Weight 93g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 40 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE Class 11, 236.8 kbps, 3G Yes, 384 kbps Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF, MPEG4 H.263), flash Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/eACC/WMA player, Blog function FM radio with RDS, T9, Picture editing, Organizer, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 370h, Talk time Up to 3 h30 min Clever parts of the Samsung L760 are in software; designed as a bloggers phone, it comes with an RSS reader and tools to upload content directly to providers such as YouTube and Buzznet. It's the first "L" series handset we've seen, so we don't know for sure if this designation will be used for "blogging phones" in the future.

Informative

Samsung G600 Samsung S730i Size Dimensions 100 x 50 x 14.8 mm, Weight 83g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 40 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Yes, EDGE Yes, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QVGA), flash, Doja 2.5 MP3/AAC/ACC+ player, T9, Picture editing Organizer, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo, Battery Stand-by Up to 200h, Talk time Up to 6h Samsung S730i comes with 80 MB internal memory card and if you want to increase your memory then you have a microSD card in this phone. You get all the required features in this phone. This stereo Bluetooth enabled phone can be your best partner while talking.

Size Dimensions 102 x 47.8 x 14.9 mm, Weight 105g Display Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic, MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 55 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus, image stabiliser, video, flash Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+/WMA player, Stereo FM radio T9, Organizer, TV out, Voice memo, Bluetooth printing, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 3 h30 min Samsung wants you to ditch your digital camera and just use their phones for all your picture-taking needs. At least that's what the upcoming G600 leads one to believe, what with it having a 5-megapixel camera crammed inside. The G600 is in a slick package, similar to the other Ultra Edition sliders. Other than the beefed-up phone, it'll have 3G connectivity, USB, Bluetooth 2.0, 2.3-inch TFT QVGA display and a microSD memory card slot.

Samsung Z630 Size Dimensions 101 x 52 x 12.5 mm, Weight 95g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), buy memory 28 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE Yes, 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB Yes, v1.1 Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QVGA), flash; secondary QVGA videocall camera Video telephony & streaming, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA player T9, Document viewer (.pdf, .doc, .ppt, .xls), Organizer, Voice memo Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 200h, Talk time Up to 3 h30 min

A campaign girl of mobile phone giant Sony Ericsson dislays the colorful interchangeable jackets for the company's mobile phone during the Wireless Japan exhibition in Tokyo.

Sony Ericsson K850 Size Dimensions 102 x 48 x 17 mm, Weight 118 g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic (72 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2)/microSD , 512 MB card included 40 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Yes, 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps (K850i only), Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera, 5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus, video(QVGA@30fps), xenon flash and 3LED video light; auto lens cover, secondary videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, Motion sensor (with UI auto-rotate), TrackID music recognition T9, Image viewer, Picture editor/blogging, Organiser, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo/dial Battery Stand-by Up to 400h, Talk time Up to 9h Sony Ericsson K850 comes with a mind-blowing 5 megapixel autofocus camera with a real xenon flash, a dedicated shutter button, and the ability to record video in QVGA resolution at 30 fps. Users would be pleased to know this handset not only takes pretty pictures (still won't beat a dedicated digital camera though) but is a capable communications tool with quad-band GSM/EDGE/HSDPA support, MP3 playback, 40MB of internal memory, and support for both M2 and microSD cards.

The phone combines several features such as a 2.1? 240×320 pixel display, 2 megapixel camera with a secondary camera for video calls, 27Mb of internal memory with microSD expansion, stereo Bluetooth and a multimedia player. This slider phone is quite lightweight for a 3G class.

Nokia 7900 Prism Size Dimensions 112 x 45 x 11.3 mm, 55 cc, Weight 101g Display Type OLED, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory 1GB internal memory Data GPRS Class 32, 107 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 32, 296 kbps, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 USB Yes, microUSB Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF), flash Java MIDP 2.0, UPnP technology, MP3/AAC/eAAC+/WMA player FM radio, T9, Calendar, Calculator, Built-in handsfree Voice memo, Living wallpaper Battery Stand-by Up to 240h, Talk time Up to 3h Measuring a mere 14mm thick, the 7900 will be equipped with Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, a 2 megapixel camera with flash, an integrated FM radio, email support, integrated audio and video players, 1GB of internal memory, and a very capable display that shows up to 16 million colors in 320 x 240 resolution, all packed into a little body!

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Informative

Nokia 1112 Rs. 2,350 Size Dimensions 104 x 44 x 17 mm, Weight 80g Display Type Monochrome graphic, 4-way scroll key Ringtones Type Polyphonic (20 channels), with MP3 grade tones Memory 4 MB shared memory Features T9, Built-in handsfree, Picture messaging Speaking alarm and clock, Reminders, Demo mode for phone, Exchangeable covers Battery Stand-by Up to 380h, Talk time Up to 5h Placing special emphasis on ease-ofuse, the Nokia 1112 has a user interface that makes use of graphical icons and large font sizes to make user navigation simple for firsttime mobile phone users. Timekeeping is made convenient with the Speaking Clock and Alarm, which announces the time in a range of local languages. Design: Features: Performance:

7.6 7.4 7.5

LG KG110 Rs. 2,250 Size Dimensions 102.8 x 44 x 16.5 mm, Weight 70g Display Type CSTN, 65K colors Ringtones Type Polyphonic (40 channels) Memory Phonebook 500 entries Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps Features Java MIDP 1.2.1, T9, Calculator, Scheduler Unit converter LG KG 110 is a stylish and a handy entry level phone. The device is equipped with all basic fundamentals with GPRS as an addition. This phone can a fit your pocked well with a mere 70 grams of weight. Design: Features: Performance:

7.5 7.2 7.3

Javier Jova, the father of Angelica Cajamarca uses a mobile phone at Zaventem airport, as he came to protest against the deportation of his eleven-years-old daughter Angelica Cajamarca and her mother Ana from Ecuador.

Samsung C160 Rs. 3,900 Sony Ericsson J220 Rs. 2,350 Size Dimensions 102 x 44 x 18 mm, Weight 82g Display Type STN, 65K colors Ringtones Type Polyphonic (32 channels) Memory 500 kb user memory Data GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps Features T9, Calculator, Exchangeable cover Image viewer, Calendar, Stopwatch Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 280h, Talk time Up to 6h 220i is a mobile phone designed for optimal ease-of-use and with a feature set which will appeal to most mobile phone users. Calling is easy, messaging is easy and when your J220i rings, clear-ringing polyphonic ringtones sing out. Enjoy sending pictures and sounds in SMS text messages or MMS multimedia messages. Design: Features: Performance:

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Above prices are subject to change as per market

7.6 7.5 7.6

Size Dimensions 106.5 x 43.5 x 15.4 mm, Weight 70g Display Type CSTN, 65K colors, Size 1.5 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic (16 channels) Memory 600 KB shared memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps Features FM radio, T9, Organiser, To Do list, Calendar Currency converter, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 180h, Talk time Up to 2h30 min

The SGH-C160 is an introductory marketlevel color GSM mobile phone incorporating FM radio in a basic but undeniably stylish bar design perfect for news and music lovers. E-mail and Web access also enhance usability while not affecting ease-of-use. Entry-level, but aiming high and wide for the best value basic handset! Design: Features: Performance:

7.7 7.5 7.6

Informative

Nokia 6151

Rs. 9,550

Size Dimensions 108x47 x 19 mm, 88cc, Weight 98g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 29 x 35 mm, 5-way navigation key, Downloadable wallpapers, screensavers Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, AAC Stereo speakers Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), hotswap 30 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps HSCSD Yes, 43.2 kbps, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0, Pop-Port Features Camera 1.3 MP, 1280 x 960 pixels, video(QCIF) Push to talk, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/M4A stereo player, 3GPP/MPEG4 video player FM stereo radio, Visual Radio, T9, Calendar Calculator, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo Voice command Battery Stand-by Up to 340h, Talk time Up to 4 h30 min The Nokia 6151 introduces the benefits of 3G to consumers - such as streaming multimedia audio and video content, or downloading of their favorite music or video. The classically designed, compact handset offers a comprehensive range of features, combining Nokia's easy to use Series 40 user interface with modern day essentials like a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity and music player with microSD memory card support. Design: Features: Performance:

7.7 7.5 7.6

TREND T 300 Rs. 9,999 Size 240 * 320 QVGA 2.4' LCD, 98g weight Display 3.2 Mega Pixels camera, Auto Focus (AF) Ring tones Type polyphonic 64 Polyphonic chord ring tones, MP3 music playback, built in various equalizers, support various playback mode MP4 support MIDI and MP3 music support Memory T-Flash card, 256 MB T-Flash Card Free 87 MB user free internal memory Data Java, FM radio with recording option Bluetooth, WAP 2.0, T.V Out, Loudspeaker USB Support Features SMS, picture editor, hands free, PC Syn, Email, TV output lines Battery Talk time 2-3 hours, Standby time 90-130 hours

Vice President and Head, CDMA Division Samsung Telecommunications India Pvt. Ltd., Hyunbai Kim, left, and President-Enterprise Solution, Tata Teleservices Ltd., Vinayak Deshpande hold a Samsung Duo phone at its India launch in Mumbai, India.

Sony Ericsson W200i Rs. 6,500

Samsung E250 Rs. 7,750 Size Dimensions 99 x 50 x 13.9 mm, Weight 80g Display Type TFT, 65K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 10 MB shared memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE Yes, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB Yes Features Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video(QCIF) Java MIDP 2.0, Stereo FM radio, MP3/AAC/AAC+ player, T9, Organizer Built-in handsfree, Voice memo, Battery Stand-by Up to 250h, Talk time Up to 5h Premium design meets VGA Camera in the feature-rich SGH-E250, a stylish slider with all the moves. Multimedia options run the gamut from VGA Camera to camcorder capabilities, MP3 player with A2DP Bluetooth, and trouble-free Email and Web access. Boost 10MB end user memory with invaluable Micro SD external memory and experience speedier downloads with EDGE software. Design: Features: Performance:

8.0 7.7 7.8

Above prices are subject to change as per market

Size Dimensions 101 x 44 x 18 mm, Weight 85g Display Type UBC, 65K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, AAC Memory Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2) 27 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps HSCSD Yes, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes Features Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS, Walkman Media Player 1.0, T9, Image viewer, Picture editor, Organiser, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 7h With stamina for up to 18 hours of music listening, the W200a can store up to 37 full length tracks. For sharing music with friends, a 128 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card lets users do this in an instant. With memory cards up to 1 GB available, each card will hold up to 255 full-length tracks. Users can even use the radio as an alarm clock, using the in-built speakerphone rather than the stereo headphones. Design: Features: Performance:

7.5 7.6 7.5

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Sony Ericsson K200 Rs. 4,800 Size Dimensions 103 x 46 x 16.7 mm, Weight 82g Display Type STN, 65K colors, Size 1.6 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic (32 channels) Memory 2 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps, Infrared port Yes Features Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video(QCIF), T9 Slide show, Full screen viewer, Stopwatch, Timer Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 8h The Sony Ericsson K200 is all about having a camera on your phone just when you need it. The VGA camera and photo album are immediately accessible with just one click on the dedicated button. Given that the Sony Ericsson K200 has a slideshow view and will store up to 40 images, it's easy for users to view their pictures in full screen and share them with friends. Design: Features: Performance:

7.6 7.5 7.5

LG KG200

Rs. 5,600

Size Dimensions 100 x 46 x 15 mm, Weight 89g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels) Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 60 MB shared memory Data GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps USB Yes Features Camera 1.3 MP, 1280 x 1024 pixels, video Java MIDP 2.0, MP3 player, FM radio, T9, Organiser Voice memo Battery Stand-by Up to 250h, Talk time Up to 3h The other phone is the LG KG200 includes 1.3megapixel camera and a 65K colour screen. This bar phone consist of features such as 56 MB in-built memory, plug and play, external memory card slot, USB charging, MP3 player, FM radio and recording, video recording and playback, video caller ID, call recording, speaker and ring tones and in-flight mode. Design: Features: Performance:

Nokia 6070

NEXT Buddy x-103 Rs. 2,650

FM- Radio Color Display Built-in MP3 & MP4 Polyphonic Ring Tones T-9 Dictionary Language English & Arabic Standby Bettery Time =60 to 70 Hrs. Charging Time = 1.30 hrs. to 2 Hrs. Call Time = 150 to 180 MTS

Above prices are subject to change as per market

Rs. 5,650

Size Dimensions 105.4 x 44.3 x 18.6 mm, Weight 88g Display Type CSTN, 65K colors, Size 28 x 35 mm Ringtones Type Polyphonic (24 channels), MP3, MIDI Memory 3.2 MB of user memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps HSCSD Yes, 43.2 kbps, EDGE Class 6, 177.6 kbps Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, Pop-Port Features Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0 FM stereo radio, Push to talk, Video player, Voice memo, Voice command, T9, Calendar, Calculator Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 3h The classically styled Nokia 6070 represents Nokia's most accessible camera phone, a solid range of functions for easy messaging, including SMS, MMS, Nokia Xpress audio messaging, email and instant messaging. For additional entertainment, the phone comes with a stereo FM radio and supports true tones, MP3 and polyphonic MIDI ringing tones. Design: 7.8 Features: 7.6 Performance:

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7.9 7.8 7.9

7.7

Informative

Nokia 6288 Rs. 17,200

Sony Ericsson K810 Rs. 19,000

Size Dimensions 100 x 46 x 21 mm, Weight 115 g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 35 x 45 mm, 4-way navy key, Downloadable screensavers, Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot miniSD, 512 MB card included, hotswap, buy memory, 6 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, 3G Yes, 384 kbps Bluetooth Yes, v2.0, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0, Pop-Port Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, VGA video, flash; secondary video call VGA camera, Push to Talk Java MIDP 2.0, Stereo FM radio (visual radio) MP3/AAC/M4A/eAAC+ player, T9, Organiser SyncML, Voice dial/memo, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 250h, Talk time Up to 4h 30 min

Size Dimensions 106 x 48 x 17 mm, Weight 115g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 2 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic, MP3 Memory Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 128 MB card included, 64 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps HSCSD Yes, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 3.2 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, video(QCIF), xenon flash; secondary videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, TrackID music recognition, T9, Image viewer, Picture editor, Picture blogging, Organiser, Built-in handsfree Voice memo/dial Battery Stand-by Up to 400h, Talk time Up to 10h

Nokia 6288 is a compact slide phone device, bundled with a 512 MB memory card making it ideal for watching favorite video clips on its bright QVGA, 262,144 color display. Outfitted with a 2-megapixel and a VGA camera, the Nokia 6288 makes it easy to share videos and participate in two-way video calls. Nokia 6288 is for people who want features of the N-series but don't wish to pay the price and can do with the sacrifice of some of them in turn for a price cut. Design: Features: Performance:

The K810 Cyber-shot phone is a sleek, high-performance device boasting a 3.2 megapixel camera including auto focus and Xenon flash. Innovative applications such as photo fix help to further improve the quality of your pictures, even after you have taken them. When in camera mode, the Xenon flash with red eye reduction will help to achieve great picture results in low-light conditions. Equally, the new illuminated Camera Icons will allow the user to select advanced camera settings (such as picture size & self timer) by simply clicking on one of the hardkeys; so no need to navigate into the full camera menu and risk missing that special shot.

8.1 8.1 8.2

Design: Features: Performance:

Nokia N80 Samsung U600 Rs. 18,200 Size Dimensions 103.5 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm, Weight 81g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 34 x 44 mm Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 60 MB embedded memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 3.2 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, video, flash, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/eACC/WMA player FM radio, T9, Yahoo search, Organizer, Business card recognition, Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) Voice memo, Built-in handsfree Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 690 mAh, Stand-by Up to 250h Talk time Up to 3h30 min Member of the Samsung Ultra Edition II range, The Samsung U600 is a slim & stylish slider opening mobile phone; phone is equipped with a powerful camera which allows the user to take still photos & video recordings at any time. The user can use the high resolution 3.2 megapixel camera feature to capture their memories as a photograph or as a video recording. The camera feature comes with an auto focus feature & all the useful camera features that are present on a stand alone digital camera but this camera is built into a stylish & desirable mobile handset. The large high resolution screen works as a view finder for the camera & video feature which provides up to 262,000 colours on a 2.2 inch LCD colour screen. Design: Features: Performance:

8.4 8.1 8.1

Above prices are subject to change as per market

7.8 7.9 7.8

Rs. 22,700

Size Dimensions 95 x 50 x 26 mm, 97cc, Weight 134g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 35 x 41 mm Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), Monophonic, True Tones, MP3 Memory Card slot miniSD (up to 2GB), hot swap, 128 MB card included, 40 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE Class 11, 236.8 kbps, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11g, Bluetooth Yes, v1.2, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0, Pop-Port Features OS S60 3rd edition (Symbian OS , Series 60 UI) Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, video(CIF), flash; secondary VGA videocall camera UPnP technology, Push to talk , Java MIDP 2.0 MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, Stereo FM Radio T9, Voice dial/memo, PIM including calendar, to-do list, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 192h, Talk time Up to 3h The Nokia N80 lets users to network all their compatible home media with its userfriendly, advanced UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) technology allowing the N80 to be used as a remote control enabling secure and simple access to compatible PCs, audio systems and TVs. Users can view images and video from the N80 or their compatible PC on a television while simultaneously listening to stored music through their audio system. The 3.15 megapixel camera features a capture key for fast, stable camera activation, a fullscreen landscape capture, dedicated close-up mode switch as well as a CIF video camera with inbuilt video stabilization. Design: Features: Performance:

8.1 8.2 8.2

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Samsung X830 Rs. 17,400

Nokia N95 Rs. 45,500

Size Dimensions 84 x 30 x 20 mm, Weight 72g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 220 pixels, 1.46 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, Customization Download, order now, Vibration Yes, 3D sound Memory Phonebook 1000 entries, Call records, 30 dialed, 30 received, 30 missed calls, Card slot No 1 GB embedded memory, 4 MB for Java apps Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps HSCSD No, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps 3G No, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v1.2 with A2DP Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0 Features Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, Games Yes + downloadable, Colors Black, Pure White, Orange, Pink, Camera 1.3 MP, 1280 x 1024 pixels, video(CIF) MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+/WMA player, Video player Flight mode, Organizer, Calculator, Unit converter Timer, Voice memo, Battery Standard battery, Li-Po 800 mAh, Stand-by Up to 120 h, Talk time Up to 3h The Samsung X830 is a highly fashionable mini music phone which comes with a swing opening mechanism. The handset has a stylish & sleek design with built in powerful multimedia features. The X830 is a music lovers dream with its easy to access music feature & controls. The user can download music in MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC+e & WMA format & enjoy 3D stereo music on their portable music playing mobile phone. The user can use the music library to organize their downloaded music in order by album name, song title or artist name. The user can search through their playlists & playback all their favorite songs with ease. Design: Features: Performance:

8.3 8.0 8.0

Size Dimensions 99x53x21mm, 90 cc, Weight 120g Display Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 40 x 53 mm Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), Monophonic, True Tones, MP3 Memory Card slot microSD (up to 2GB), hot swap, 128 MB card included, 160 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 32, 296 kbps; DTM Class 11, 177 kbps, 3G HSDPA, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0 miniUSB Features OS Symbian OS 9.2, S60 rel. 3.1, Camera 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, video(VGA 30fps), flash; secondary CIF videocall camera, Built-in GPS navigation Installed Maps application covering over 100 countries, Dual slide design, Java MIDP 2.0 MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA player 3.5 mm audio output jack, TV out, Stereo FM Radio, Organiser, Office document viewer T9, Push to talk, Voice dial/memo, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 220h, Talk time Up to 6h30 min The Nokia N95 is an all-in-one multimedia device with an innovative 2-way slide concept, integrated GPS functionality, a 5-megapixel camera and support for high-speed mobile networks. With its integrated GPS, the Maps application includes maps for more than 100 countries, enabling users to explore the world, find specific routes or locate services such as restaurants and hotels and covering more than 15 million points of interest. With the Carl Zeiss optics on the 5-megapixel camera, consumers can capture print quality photos and DVD-like quality video clips. Photos and video clips can be enjoyed on a compatible television thanks to the device's TV out feature and support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology. Design: Features: Performance:

8.0 8.4 8.4

Sony Ericsson W880 Rs. 21,200 Sony Ericsson W950 Rs. 21,200

Size Dimensions 106 x 54 x 15 mm, Weight 112g Display Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors, Size 39 x 53 mm, Handwriting recognition Ringtones Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, AAC Memory 4 GB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE W958c only, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0 Features OS Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0, Java MIDP 2.0 RDS FM radio, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, T9 Image viewer, Picture editor, Organiser, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree Battery Stand-by Up to 340h, Talk time Up to 7h30 min The W950 is an ultra-slim, ultra-stylish device with 4GB of onboard storage complete with touch screen for simple navigation through music genres, play-lists, individual songs or music albums. More than a music phone, broadbandfast email and Web browsing plus a suite of high performance entertainment applications add to its capabilities, making it one of the most highly specified phones in the Sony Ericsson portfolio Design: Features: Performance:

7.9 8.0 8.0

Size Dimensions 103 x 46.5 x 9.5 mm, Weight 71g Display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 1.8 inches Ringtones Type Polyphonic, MP3 Memory Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 1 GB card included, 16 MB internal memory Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps HSCSD Yes, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0 Features Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF); secondary VGA videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0 Walkman player 2.0, TrackID music recognition T9, Image viewer, Picture editor, Picture blogging Organiser, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo/dial Battery Stand-by Up to 425h, Talk time Up to 6h 30 min At just 9.4 mm thin, the W880i is the slimmest Sony Ericsson phone yet and combines the full Walkman phone experience with a device that fits easily into a pocket. The 1 GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) provided in-box gives users room to store up to 900 full length tracks, whilst the host of innovative music applications (such as Walkman Player 2.0 and Disc2Phone) make it easy to get music onto their phone and search through play lists. With Bluetooth Audio Streaming, music can be enjoyed wirelessly on a Stereo Bluetooth Headset. And a 2.0-megapixel camera is integrated along with support for picture blogging. Design: Features: Performance:

8.1 8.0 8.0

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Above prices are subject to change as per market

The Sony Ericsson K810 is the replacement of the K800 3-megapixel shooter, building on its platform. The new phone is slimmer by a few millimeters, and greatly reduces the camera bulge on the back, so the phone now can easily slip into your pocket. The camera-cover is redesigned and it is now smaller and covers almost only the lens itself, but opens with less efforts and a lot more smoothly. Keep in mind that even that dimensions are reduced, the camera module is the same and quality of images will not suffer. The K810 has more mature look than its predecessor, and it is more elegant. The numeric keys are round, made of metal and reflecting the light. An improvement when working with the camera is the addition of shortcut keys - the left column has blue characters indicating what the function of each key is. In picture taking mode, the short-cuts can adjust the focus, picture size, timer and flash. The keys are not-programmable, so their function cannot be chanted. In video capture mode, the short-cuts backlit is off, but the #4 and #7 keys still function as allow image stabilization and focus adjustment. The two keys above the display also have that blue backlight and act as camera shortcuts. Sony Ericsson K810 is the first Cyber-shot phone to have PhotoFix functionality, which when was under development was called BestPic. The option allows to automatic brightness and contrast adjustment on images, which is standard functionally or most image editing software packages. Overall, the new K810 is a good next step for the Sony Ericsson and their Cyber-Shot line. „

Sony Ericsson W200i is a music device that can store up to 37 full length tracks. This latest addition to Sony Ericsson's musical family has stamina for up to 18 hours of music playback. There's no exact equivalent to the W200i in the non-Walkman range, in terms of hardware specification it's somewhere between the K310 and K510 devices. It has a 128x160 pixel display and a VGA resolution camera. Of course, as a Walkman phone the Sony Ericsson W200 comes with Sony's Disc2Phone software and a range of media playback enhancements. Because of the W200's somewhat limited feature set, the phone's weight is only 85 grams To make it easy to get to music, the W200 features a dedicated Walkman key that goes straight to the Walkman player menu. For sharing music with friends, a 128 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card lets users do this in an instant. With memory cards up to 1 GB available, each card will hold up to 255 full-length tracks. To catch up with the news or listen to live music, the FM Radio allows consumers to pre-set up to 20 stations. Listen-in via the color-matched Stereo Headset HPM-64; the first to feature Bass Reflex, an innovation that preserves audio quality when the bass is turned up. Users can even use the radio as an alarm clock, using the in-built speakerphone rather than the stereo headphones. As well as being a music player, the W200 is a fully featured multimedia device. It features a VGA camera with 4x digital zoom and integrated photo album so consumers can capture and store spontaneous snapshots, or share them with friends and family. It is also fully equipped for video messaging, offers a full HTML web browser and delivers business-friendly tools such as push email and PC synchronization. „

Informative

Samsung G600 Samsung Mobile has announced a sleek new camera phone, the Samsung G600. Housed in a fashionable black two-toned slider shell and equipped with a 5 mega-pixel camera, the Samsung G600 is a fusion of design, photography and the ultimate in phone functionality. No matter where it's being used, for phone or camera, the Samsung G600 guarantees to make its users look and feel great. Additional benefits, such as creative shot modes, microSD external memory and the Image Editor will make the Samsung G600 a digital must have. For a better viewing experience, the Samsung G600 incorporates a 2.2" LCD with 16 million colors, a 5 mega pixel multi function imaging system and full Bluetooth v.2 connectivity. This will enable people to view larger pictures and graphics and helps users read text or Web pages in full. What's more, these features are bundled into a tiny 102 mm by 47.8 mm by 14.9 mm frame. The Samsung G600 is also equipped with a host of multimedia features designed for those on the go. Music lovers will enjoy the embedded MP3 player, which can be customized to individual tastes and preferences. With improved internet browsing, users will benefit from NetFront Browser v.3.4, which provides PC-like browser capabilities on your mobile. In conjunction with the Samsung G600 launch, Samsung has partnered with an online digital development retailer, to help users capture their fashion conscious moments. The partnership offers each customer 50 prints, a photo memory book and a collage poster, so people can capture and share their fashion moments. No word yet over the availability and pricing of this gadget. „

LG Shine (KE970) Titanium Black The LG Shine is a pretty familiar device to all of us, but this time the Shine has gone much darker with a Titanium Black color scheme. At present, LG have announced this scheme for the KE970 (GSM) version of the Shine, and not the almost identical KU970 (3G) version. Whether or not this dark colored Shine is actually appealing remains to be seen - it's not always easy to judge how a handset really looks from press photography. It's certainly a striking looking handset, and as the LG Shine is pitched firmly in the fashion phone marker then it should turn a few heads. Just in case you're not already familiar with the technical specifications on the LG Shine KE970, it comes with a 240 x 320 pixel display in 262,000 colors, a 2 megapixel camera camera with a Schneider-Kreuznach lens, auto-focus and a multi-shot capability. Memory expansion is through a microSD slot, stereo Bluetooth and the LG Shine also has the usual combination of MP3 player, email client, web browser and everything else you'd expect. It's a bit heavier than most similarly sized GSM phones at 119 grams, mostly due to the metal parts in the construction. Although the original KE970 is a great looking handset, there have been criticisms about signal strength, battery life and that the handset scratches easily. This latter problem is common to a lot of fashion phones - the solution is to take better care of it!. „

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Samsung P520 The upcoming Samsung P520 touch-screen mobile phone claims to become Samsung's iPhone killer. We yet don't know how the P520's UI will look like, but there's a serious doubt that Samsung will come up with something more or equally impressive. Looking a little like an iPhone that has been through a hot-wash, Samsung’s P520 cellphone might be the ideal non-Apple alternative for those with smaller hands or pockets. Just 88 x 54 x 8.9mm and weighing a mere 102g, it’s a triband GSM handset with, frustratingly, EDGE rather than 3G. That 262k colour, QVGA touchscreen - measuring around 2.6-inches - makes up for it a little, though there’s no word on whether it’s a traditional display or fancy capacitive one like the LG and iPhone. Other fancies include a 3-megapixel camera, 50MB of internal memory with a microSD slot to augment it, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi with UMA, a document viewer and a flip-case that looks similar to the company’s earlier designs which had extended batteries built in. The P520 under its own steam can manage up to 180 minutes talk time or 220 hours standby. There’s been some talk about whether this could be a potential Google Phone, and while it’s tempting to believe that the search company would partner with someone producing a handset similar in design to the celebrated iPhone but with all the joy of Google’s online applications, the lack of 3G seems like the biggest indicator that it’s not. „

Samsung G800 Only a few days after Samsung announced the release of their G600 phone model, we receive news of an even newer model ready for release. Samsung G800 will not hit the markets pretty soon, although many people will be expecting it. The main feature that this handset holds special as to arouse the interest of a large number of customers is the 5 megapixel camera. Many people thrill over the possibility of having an evolved camera and highly capable mobile phone in one device. Samsung has brought several devices with huge performances when it comes to taking captures. The mobile phone supports a 5.8-17.4 mm focus length along with the 5 megapixel resolution, which makes it one of the most evolved devices at this time with support for such capabilities. Unfortunately, Samsung has offered no official specifications for this handset, although that is expected to happen quite soon. Images show the Samsung G800 camera phone as a stylish, evolved device, with a large screen. This feature will prove to be highly useful especially for viewing images and videos at a considerably high quality. Such a phone should also include high performances when it comes to 3G, HSDPA or at least Bluetooth and USB connectivity, matching the evolved camera functions. There are still things that Samsung should reveal about this device. It is still unclear whether it is a slider phone or one without a keypad. In this case, it will also include the touchscreen technology, as it has proved to be highly appealing in recently developed mobile phones. „

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Nokia 6288 Nokia 6288 is a high end phone, having quite advanced features, such as, enhanced voice dialing, an integrated hands-free speaker, email and Nokia Xpress audio messaging. The 6288 is a slider-phone having 3G capabilities along with EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) support. The Nokia phone supports a larger than usual 2.2? QVGA (Quarter Video Graphics Array) bright screen, with a resolution of 320 × 240, 4.5 MB of internal storage memory, Blue Tooth 2.0, IrDA, Camera with 2 Mega Pixel resolution and appropriate flash light. It also features a video camera, FM radio and PTT (Push to talk). The slide mechanism of the phone is quite smooth, and the slide moves up and down with very little effort. The alpha-numeric keyboard appears to be well-built and has soft touch key buttons. Nokia 6288 comes with a stereo player, which is compatible with MP3, MP4, AAC and eAAC+ formats, With a 512 Mbyte memory card, for storage of lots of music tracks. In switch-on condition, the screen of the Nokia 6288 is never turns off in the sense that you can always see the date and time directly under the sun, even when the backlight is off. It has a TFT display with 320 x 240 pixels and 262,144 colors. The video player in Nokia 6288 is capable of playing back 3GP and MP4 video, up-to the QVGA resolution that it has without dropping any frame. Nokia 6288 is considered to be a good all-round mobile phone, with crisp audio quality having enough volume adjustment. The 2 MP camera produces good pictures. The music player has an excellent audio quality and adding a audio adapter with a high quality head-phone, gives you the best out of the player, where the ear phones, which come along with 6288, does not have much improvement in the audio effect. „

Nokia 2626 Nokia 2626 is a phone designed for the style-conscious users. Nokia 2626 is a colorful phone, keeping up with the users in the emerging markets. It is available in quite ambitious colors of Fiery Red and Spatial Blue, and to go with the trend, it has a FM Radio for music on the go. The phone is constructed out of three different plastic materials, with the inset made of tinted glass, having mirror coating on the front. Two loudspeakers are situated at the top and right hand sides of the phone, and the charger input jack and the 2.50mm audio jack, are situated at the bottom of the phone. Nokia 2626 has a 27×27 mm STN-matrix display, with a resolution of 128×128 pixels, having 65K colors, while the picture quality is good. Nokia 2626 has a similar keypad as that of Nokia 2610, being made in ledges which make it comfortable to handle. The numeric buttons are a bit larger than the others, which prevents wrong dialing of numbers. Nokia 2626 measures 104×43x18 mm, and weighs 91 g. The phone uses quite a powerful Li-Ion battery at 970 mAh, and has a specified 300 hours of standby and 3 hours of call mode time. The battery can sustain up to 2 hours of game play. The phone has a 300-entry phone book, and allows accessing the SIM card memory, along with the use of the internal phone memory. The user can also use the SIM card memory simultaneously. The phone offers the feature of SMS and MMS in the conventional way. Nokia 2626 has an internal memory of 2 MB, and as for smart features it has a clock and built-in games. It has GPRS capability enabling high speed data transfer. „

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Nokia 7900 Prism Nokia 7900 Prism is a 3G fashion phone with a radical design that some people will love. The 7900 uses a lot of metal in its construction, including an aluminum back cover and laser etched detailing. The Nokia 7900 Prism is a dual-band UMTS/quad-band GSM phone, giving it useful worldwide capabilities when it comes to wireless communications. On the back is a 2 megapixel camera with flash, and inside is an impressive 1GB of memory, although this is not expandable. The screen on the Nokia 7900 is a little different from most, as it uses 240x320 pixel OLED display rather than the traditional TFT LCD. OLED gives much lower power consumption (which is always useful) but in the past this type of display has been criticized for its short lifespan, particularly with blue colours which typically last for only around 5000 hours (200 days) of continuous use. There are plenty of lighting effects with the Nokia 7900 Prism - the display changes colors according to the time of day, battery life and signal strength. The 7900 also has an illuminated keypad that coordinates with the display. Whether or not people will stare at the phone muttering "it's-so-beautiful" remains to be seen. The Nokia 7900 Prism is quite a slim 3G phone at 11.3mm thick, it's slightly taller than average at 112 mm too. The 7900 weighs 101 grams and has up to 3 hours talktime with a maximum of 10 days standby time. The Nokia 7900 has Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE plus of course a multimedia player, web browser and email client. Nokia say that the 7900 Prism is slated to be available sometime during Q3 2007. „

Nokia 6070 Nokia 6070 is a mid-ranged device with basic camera phone capabilities and stereo FM radio at an affordable price point. The easy-to-use and reliable handset offers excellent usability with its large color display and clear keypad layout, combined with the intuitive and well-known Nokia Series 40 user interface. The Nokia 6070 presents a solid range of functions for easy messaging, including SMS, MMS, Nokia Xpress audio messaging, email and instant messaging. Voice communication features include push to talk, voice recorder and an integrated handsfree speaker, complemented by an infrared interface. XHTML browser enables easy browsing for news and uploading images and videos for sharing using fast EDGE data communication. For additional entertainment, the phone comes with a stereo FM radio and supports true tones, MP3 and polyphonic MIDI ringing tones. The classically styled Nokia 6070 represents Nokia's most accessible camera phone. Nokia 6070 underlines Nokia's continuous commitment to offer consumers a variety of innovative products to choose from, based on their individual needs and lifestyle. „

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Motorola W156 / Motorola W160 The Motorola W156 (left) and W160 (right) are two identical looking monochrome phones with 128x128 pixel displays and an illuminated keypad. The W160 comes with an FM radio, where the W156 does not. There's a standard jack plug connector on both, although it's hard to see what the W156 would use it for as you can bet it doesn't have MP3 playback! There's a USB connector too. The display does look rather like the digital paper unit found on the FONE F3, but we can't say exactly what it is. One characteristic of these very low end Motorola phones, tend to be light weight and very long battery life. If Motorola stick to their past form, then the W156 and W160 will probably make very dependable low-end handsets. „

Motorola W175 / Motorola W180 Add a color screen to the W156 and W160 and you get the W175 (left) and the W180 (right). The W180 is the variant with the FM radio, and both handsets have the same illuminated keypad Technical characteristics of these devices are not reveled yet, but one can expect them to weight around 80 grams and have 5-7 hours talk time. Neither of these handsets has a digital camera, and we can't expect them to have Bluetooth either. „

Motorola W206 / Motorola W213 A return to the styling that Motorola was using a couple of years ago, the W206 (left) and W213 (right) are both quite low end handsets. Again, the W213 has an FM radio; the W206 doesn't appear to have one. Surprisingly, neither handset has a digital camera. It's a little hard to see what differentiates the W175/W180 from the W206/W213 as they both have similar features. Despite the basic features, in our view the W213 looks to be a very attractive and well-proportioned handset. With the built-in FM radio it should be a welcome Christmas present for many consumers. „

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Fujifilm Revamps its Compact Digicam Line Fujifilm announced their S8000fd bridge camera, the latest addition to the 18x optical zoom club. With an 8.3MP sensor and CCD-shift Image Stabilization Technology, the camera looks set to rival the latest equivalents from Panasonic and Olympus, and like previous models in the company's range, a Real Photo Processor features alongside a maximum ISO of 6400. The lens stretches from 27-486mm with other key features including a 15fps burst shooting rate (at a 2MP resolution) and a face-detection technology, capable of identifying up to 10 faces per image. Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd, styled like a digital SLR model, boasts such a complete suite of features that film buffs might be swayed to keep their rolls in the fridge — if only for a little while. The S8000fd dodges the usual groans about a fixed lens, traditionally weak on digital cameras, because of its powerful 18x optical zoom, wide-angle lens. The FinePix S8000fd puts its 8-megapixel sensor to good use: You can take a high-resolution shot at full power, or sacrifice some resolution to enable various features, such as the ability to take 15 snaps in a single second at 2 MP. Family shutterbugs will also enjoy the S8000fd's ability to track 10 different faces at once, automatically adjusting so each will be as crisp as possible. And face recognition allows for the age-old picture plague — red-eye — to stay a thing of the past. With so much packed behind the lens, you'd expect the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd to have a hefty price tag, but it's expected to debut at the consumer-friendly price of $400 when it comes out in September. Four further cameras have also been announced within Fujifilm's range. The F50d model (approx. $299.95) features a 12MP sensor and CCDshift image stabilisation, alongside a 2.7in LCD screen and the latest version of its face-detection technology, v.2.0. The Z10fd (approx. $199.95) meanwhile, has been targeted at the youth market with its sleek, curvaceous styling and features such as infrared transmission to compatible devices and easy posting of images onto Internet blogs. The F480 (approximately $179.95) model boasts a wideangle lens, 8.2MP sensor and a 2.7in LCD screen, while the A920 ($199.95) model builds on the success of its entry-level range by incorporating a 9MP sensor and 4x optical zoom together with 15 scene modes and a dual-media slot, supporting xD, SD and SDHC cards. „

Foot Controlled Mouse Dubbed the Foot Controlled Mouse, this device comes with a slipper-like device for you to move the pointer about, while the other foot is used to manipulate the programmable buttons which include double click, left click, right click, and a scroll function. This would certainly work great for those who have lost the use of their arms. Completely foot-operated, thus it eliminates the wasteful "travel time" it takes to move the hand and eye from the keyboard and monitor, to the mouse and back. Computer users are realizing up to 30 percent increase in efficiency! Avoid carpal tunnel syndrome associated with desktop mice. The Foot Controlled Mouse virtually eliminates stress on the delicate hand-wrist area by moving mouse control to the feet. „ Allows use of standard desktop mouse at the same time. „ One pedal controls cursor movement, the other is for mouse clicks. „ Compatible with Windows, OS/2, and Mac. „ Heavy duty, injection molded plastic shell. „ 360-degree, pressure sensitive mechanism. „ Pedal dimensions: 10.0 inches long, 1.5 inches high, 4.0 inches wide. „

New Electric Car from Reva Indian car company, Reva Electric Car Company (RECC) has announced the launch of their latest product named REVAi. This is the advanced version of their regular Reva car and is going to be sold both in India and international markets. The company said in a statement that this new model came with a host of technological advancements and features to benefit the customer and the environment. The Deputy Chairman of Reva Electric Car Company (RECC) Chetan Main said in a statement: “The new model can drive at 80 km per hour as compared to 65 km per hour by its earlier models, with acceleration from 0-40 km in seven seconds as against 10 seconds earlier. The capacity of its torque has been increased by 40 percent for quicker acceleration, climbing and negotiating slopes.” It has been priced at Rs.349,000 (ex-showroom) in the Bangalore market and would be able to support two adults in the front seats and two kids in the back. Maini further said: “The unique feature of this electric vehicle is the AC drive train for higher speed, range and acceleration. With trip odometer and automatic computer controlled indicator for power consumption and regeneration and electronic control panels, the car will have more battery life to cover about 200 km without recharging as against 80-100 km by its earlier models.” The company had invested 20 million dollars since December which would be spread over the next a year and half towards its expansion programme, which included marketing, infrastructure and upscaling of current facilities. Nearly 70 percent of the sales were exports with 30 percent alone constituting domestic sales. The company had sold 600 vehicles in all last year and had chalked out target sales of 3000 vehicles for next year. The company also planned to introduce one new model every year with new features and technological advancements, announcing the expansion of its operations in new European markets of Norway and Spain; he said the existing model is also available in Spain, Cyprus, Malta and Greece. „

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Apple Shares Fall on iPhone Numbers AT&T the iPhone's exclusive carrier, wiped some of the glow off Apple Inc.'s iPhone, when it officially released numbers that showed fewer people than expected signed up for service in the first two days of the multimedia cell phone's release. AT&T reported that it activated 146,000 iPhones on June 29 and 30, 2007, a number that disappointed investors following some analyst forecasts that Apple would sell 500,000 or more iPhones in its first weekend. Analysts cautioned against reading too much into AT&T's activation numbers, saying the actual number of iPhones sold may be much higher but was not reflected in the figure because many users had activation problems and couldn't sign up for a few days. Also weighing on Apple's stock, demand for the iPhone has experienced a "significant decline" after 15 days of its release, a slowdown driven in part by dissatisfaction with the slow data transfer speeds on AT&T's network.. Analysts expect from Apple and AT&T to boost their marketing push for the iPhone and the companies could introduce a new model in November - earlier than expected, that operates on a faster network. The two models now available cost $499 and $599. Apple is expected to release more information on the iPhone's sales in its third-quarter earnings report very soon. The company has been tightlipped about its near-term sales forecasts, saying only that it hopes to sell 10 million worldwide by 2008. Analysts are expecting Apple to continue its strong profit growth. According to a survey, Apple is expected to earn 72 cents a share on $5.29 billion in revenue for the third quarter. „

Email Your Refrigerator You are at work and forgot to remind your children to buy milk; no worries as now you can e-mail your fridge, which will communicate this email with your kid! Taiwanese high-tech firm Winbond Electronics Corp. has developed prototypes of devices with software maker Microsoft Corp that transmit data from a computer to a portable screen, such as one on a refrigerator magnet. The devices incorporate a technology called SideShow, a feature in Windows Vista, which was released earlier this year. They can connect to a computer up to 100 meters (yards) away with a Bluetooth wireless connection, even if the PC is turned off. The gadgets allow you to write notes, check and send e-mail, view pictures and read news, stock reports and more. Among the devices Winbond is introducing the Scribbler, a palm-sized, one-inch thick magnet with a touch-pad monitor. If the computer is switched on and connected to the Internet, people can use the devices to transmit and receive information through the Web. The quality of the online connection depends on a separate Internet services provider. Using a stylus pen commonly used for pocket computers, a person could scrawl on The Scribbler notes to leave their children or send e-mails from work that they can read on the device and also reply back from the same device as well. There are no plans to develop similar technology for Macintosh or other Windows operating systems. Other gadgets that incorporate the SideShow technology includes a remote control that works with Windows Media Center, which allows you to record and watch multimedia content on the computer. Another is The Chatter, a hand-held device used mainly to send text messages to and from a PC. The gadgets are powered by a battery that can be charged with a USB connection to a computer and lasts up to several days. They and can store up to hundreds of megabytes. „

Sony India launches Colorful VAIO CR Collection of Notebooks

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Sony India has launched a new range of ultra-hip and colorful notebooks, creating a new and modern VAIO collection called the CR series. Unveiling these chic and trendy laptops was Mr. Masaru Tamagawa, Managing Director, Sony India and MTV VJ Nikhil Chinnapa who were present at the launch in Delhi. The all new VAIO CR series of laptops have a great youthfully fashionable design. These notebooks feature a lustrous coating, framed with a smooth rounded silver, luminous trimming. The new and stylish Sony VAIO CR range of notebooks comes in five awesome colors: „ Blazing Red- This model has a black interior and according to Sony, has been designed for those who want people to look twice. If you ask me, the combination of red and black looks extremely stylish. „ Indigo Blue- This notebook has a very trendy color and comes right in time to match this season's favorite runway color. „ Pure White- This model offers a modern take on the classic look. „ Beauty Pink- This notebook features mixed shaded of pink, making it look really cute and is bound to be a hit with the girls. „ Aroma Black- This one has a sophisticated look. The Sony VAIO CR series of notebooks have a 14.1-inch, 1280×800 ClearBright LCD Lite screen, making them perfect for viewing movies and pictures. This notebook also features a high resolution web cam. Then there's the all new AV mode button that enables one to reach directly to stored music. One can even play DVDs with the single click of a button. The Sony VAIO CR notebooks come loaded with a suite of multimedia tools that enables the easy backup of data, photos, videos, and music. Some of the software includes DVgatePlus and Click to DVD for creating customized DVDs. The Aroma Black model (VGN-CR14GH/B) comes for a price of Rs.64,990, while another black model (VGN-CR12GH/B) costs Rs.54,990. The Sony Vaio CR notebooks in Beauty Pink, Indigo Blue, Pure White and Blazing Red also carry a price tag of Rs.54,990. „

Informative

Iris Recognition to Protect you Phone from Unwanted Access The Japanese company Oki Electric has announced that they are developing the new technology for mobile phones. The iris recognition application will be the first one to use the existing camera on the phone in order to recognize the owner. As you see the phones for that applications need to be smartphones or PDAs and the application will give you the highest level of protection known these days, well, except for not giving it to anyone. When the phone is blocked they will not be able to do anything with it: calls, access the web, no, forget about those. These actions need to be authorized by you and your iris. Iris Recognition Software version 1.0 is going to need at least 1 or 2 MP camera in order to function properly. How does it work with a usual phone camera? They use some kind of proprietary algorithm that was specially designed to work with standard cell phone cameras. This program will also have support on Symbian and Windows Mobile and the majority of smartphones are using these systems to run. So feel safe with this application on your phone. However, there is no word on when this wonderful application will come out and how much is it going to cost. „

Panasonic Unveils Camera with 18x Optical Zoom Panasonic expanded its LUMIX family of digital still cameras with the introduction of the LUMIX DMC-FZ18, an 8.1 Megapixel compact camera with an impressive 18x optical zoom. In addition to a premium 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC lens, the DMC-FX18 joins the LUMIX DMC-FX33 and DMC-FX55 as the first Panasonic digital cameras to offer the revolutionary Intelligent Auto Mode, which include Face Detection, Intelligent Scene Selector and Continuous Auto-focus functions, allowing users to easily capture clear, professional-quality images in any situation or setting. When this powerful camera, with an optical zoom up to 18x, is put into Intelligent Auto Mode, the multi-faceted functions engage automatically, so there is no need to adjust settings every time conditions change. "The Intelligent Auto Mode in the DMC-FZ18 does all the work for you, making photo-taking trouble-free", noted Alex Fried, National Marketing Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. "When taking into account the camera's 18x optical zoom, which is among the industry's longest zooms, and then adding 8.1 Megapixels, a 28mm wide-angle lens, MEGA Optical Image Stabilization, and Intelligent Auto Mode, the DMC-FZ18 delivers professional-level photo quality, in a powerful camera packed with advanced features that is still easy to use." Similar to the entire 2007 line of LUMIX digital still cameras, the camera sports advanced countermeasures against blurring - the Intelligent Image Stabilization system, which combines MEGA Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S.) to compensate for hand-shake and Intelligent ISO Control to detect and adjust for motion blur caused by subject movement. The LUMIX DMC-FZ18 also is equipped with a 2.5-inch large, high resolution LCD with 207,000 pixels, a 0.44-inch Electric Viewfinder with 188,000 pixels, f/2.8 brightness and is powered by the high-quality, high-performance, Venus Engine III, which boasts shooting at ISO 1600 in normal recording mode. The DMC-FZ18 has been redesigned to make the camera more stylish and easier to use. The auto focus, auto exposure lock, and Macro buttons are now independent, to allow quick and direct operation, a metal-finished mode dial adds design strength and an enhanced rubber grip makes the camera easier to hold. The redesigned body also incorporates the joystick made popular by the DMC-FZ8 model, which enables a host of settings, such as manual focusing and exposure, to be done quickly and easily. „

Sony Ericsson Unveils a Range of High-End Phones Indian VJ Tee Jay Sidhu, right, photographer Dabu Ratnani, second right, General Manager Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication India Limited Sudhir Mathur, second left, and Indian Model Joey Matthews display new models of Sony Ericsson handsets at its launch in New Delhi, India. Sony Ericsson launched eight new high technology handsets in India, consolidating its presence in the Music category with upto 8GB space, imaging category with 5 mega pixel camera and with various smart phone categories. "With the launch of high-end phones in Cyber-shot series, Walkman series and emotive series, we are aiming to register a strong presence in all these categories and the doubling sales target on year on year basis," Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications India General Manager Sudhir Mathur told media persons here after rolling out high-end new offerings. In the walkman phone category, the company unveiled three models. It has also introduced a Cyber-shot phone. „

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Samsung to Launch Giorgio Armani Branded Mobile Phone Samsung Electronics Co. said, it may cooperate with luxury name brands such as Italian fashion house Armani in its mobile phone business. The Samsung/Armani phone will come with exclusive content and a unique user interface. "We are currently reviewing the possibility with various firms including Armani,'' Lee Soo Jeong, a spokeswoman for Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung, said."We will make an official announcement once it is finalized.'' "The company is going to make a new category called 'IT luxury products' jointly with Armani. The Armani phone will be launched in Europe in October and we plan to expand the brand to other businesses as well," spokesperson said. This could include the rumored plans to launch a range of televisions in conjunction with Armani. Samsung has previously designed phones under other brands including the good looking but impracticable Serene by Bang & Olufsen pictured below. If all goes well, can we expect to see handsets from Nokia/Gucci, or Sony Ericsson/Louis Vitton, in the near future?. „

Nokia Acquires Twango to Offer Media Sharing Nokia has announced the acquisition of Twango, a media sharing provider for organizing and sharing photos, videos and other personal media. By acquiring Twango, Nokia will be able to offer people an easy way to share multimedia content through their desktop and mobile devices. Twango, a privately-owned company founded by former Microsoft veterans, is headquartered in Redmond. Twango's platform makes organizing, sharing, and republishing media such as photos, videos and audio clips easy. Unlike many other social media services, Twango supports multiple media types and offers options for people to manage, share, and repurpose their personal media content. Twango offers a destination experience on desktop computers and mobile devices, as well as a platform that allows developers to create companion applications, connect with mobile devices, and integrate with other Web services. Equipped with cameras and mobile broadband connections, Nokia devices have changed the way people create content, blog and participate in online communities. In 2006, Nokia sold over 140 million connected cameras, and its devices are rapidly becoming the world's primary source of images and videos. Nokia offers people new media sharing experiences, such as combining GPS-based location information with photos and videos. „

Sony Ericsson P3i Rumors Rumors, rumors and rumors…everything starts with it right? This time the rumors involve handsetmaker Sony Ericsson. We can see pictures of the rumored Smartphone that Sony Ericsson is said to be “developing” and it already even has a name! But if you look at the Sony Ericsson P3i you can’t help but be impressed because of its really unique design. The most visible pat of the Sony Ericsson P3i is its huge touchscreen display. This display takes up the whole front part, so you’ll wonder where on earth is the keypad? Well, the keypad slides out from it. The SureType-style keyboard is said to be its winning feature. Where lots of handset makers favor the new QWERTY keypad, Sony Ericsson chooses to reroute. But based from the pictures of this rumored P3i Smartphone there’s no button for accepting and ending calls. But it would be too early to say exactly about the features and availability of this big phone. „

Motorola Plans Mobile Phone with Display Projector Motorola is planning to design tiny display projectors in its mobile phones and has signed a deal with US-based Microvision to develop the miniature laser-based display systems. The attraction to Motorola is that miniature projectors could enable a larger viewing screen for mobile handsets, by projecting content displayed on the device screen onto a wall, object or even a curved surface. “Working together with Microvision, we are pursuing ways that projection technology can redefine how mobile consumers view and interact with the media they take with them," said Rob Shaddock, CTO, Motorola Mobile Devices business. The firms are working together to integrate Microvision's PicoP projector inside a functioning mobile handset as a demonstration system. The prototype handset will use the a 854x480 color pixel wide angle scanner, which was first demonstrated by Microvision in May 2007 at the Society of Information Display annual conference.„ 68

Informative

A show girl holds a Canon camera at the opening of the Taipei Computer Application Show in Taipei. More than 200 computer and peripherals companies from Taiwan and elsewhere in the world were there to display their latest line of products at the five-day exhibition.

A model displays the world's smallest high-definition digital video camcorder "HDC-SD7" produced by Japanese electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial in Tokyo. The camcorder has three 560,000-pixel CCD to record high-definition images on a stamp-sized SD memory card.

An employee of Japanese camera giant Fujifilm displays the new digital cameras, "FinePix F50fd" (bottom) and "FinePix Z100fd" (top), during a press preview in Tokyo. FinePix F50fd, equipped with a 12.0 MegaPixel Super CCD on its image sensor, a 8-24mm/F2.8-5.6 optical zoom lens (35-105mm in 35mm film camera) and new dual image stabilization, will be put it on the market on August. Fine PixZ100fd, equipped with a 8.0 MegaPixel CCD on its image sensor and a 5.929.5mm/F3.8-4.8 optical zoom lens (16-180mm).

A model displays the world's first Blu-Ray disk (BD)/harddisk drive (HDD) camcorder "BD cam Wooo", produced by Hitachi, equipped with a 5.3 mega-pixel CMOS image censor with a 30GB HDD and the world's first 8cm-diameter BD recorder which has a 7.5GB capacity and can record one-hour of high-definition video images (1,920 x 1,080-pixel) in Tokyo. Hitachi will put it on the local market from August 30 and will export abroad from October.

Sony unveils a design study model for the company's notebook computer, covered by various leathers and other fabrics, at a Sony design exhibition in Tokyo. The fashionable personal computers, for a selection of lifestyles, were produced as design prototype models.

Japanese model Moe Oshikiri shows off a Sony Ericsson mobile SO704i covered with a jewelled panel, worth three million yen 24,500 US$. The mobile maker will present the "Jewelry Twinkle Panel" designed by Oshikiri to one person by a lottery.

A boy films tropical fish in Tokyo's Ginza fashion district. Some 1,500 colorful tropical fish, brought in from Japan's southern island of Okinawa, are displayed at a large fish tank at Tokyo's Sony building for summer vacationers through.

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A model displays new tiny digital camera "Lumix DMC-FX33", equipped with a 8.1 megapixel CCD and a 4.6 - 16.4mm/F2.8 - 5.6 zoom lens, equivalent to 28 - 100mm in 35mm camera at a press preview in Tokyo. Cameras will be put it on the market on 25 August.

Models display Japanese electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial's new refrigerator "Compact-big" which has a large capacity, but a space-saving footprint, for the sixdoor refrigerator, in Tokyo. The new refrigator has the world's first antibacterial technology that uses a silver ion filter and blue LED lighting, which is said to eliminates 99.99 percent of bacterias in the refrigator.

A group of show girl dance at a display by Taiwan computer maker Acer at the opening of the Taipei Computer Application Show in Taipei. More than 200 computer and peripherals companies from Taiwan and elsewhere in the world are there to display their latest line of products at the five-day exhibition.

The latest models of Aquos LCD televsion sets, the "Aquos R (top) and G (bottom) series", made by Sharp are displayed at a show room in Tokyo. Japan's Sharp Corp. will create an industry center of liquid crystal display (LCD), with the total investment projected to be some (5.03 billion$), the company said.

Casio Computer employee displays the new digital camera "Exilim EX-S880 during a press conference at a Tokyo hotel. The camera features a pre-installed YouTube Capture software to easily upload videos to the website.

The latest Lenovo notebook model is shown at a computer shop in Hong Kong. Lenovo Group, the world's third-largest personal computer maker, record a near 13fold increase in net profit for the first quarter as it reported strong growth in PC shipments. The Chinese company posted a net profit of 66.84 million US$ in the quarter to June, compared with 5.21 million US$ a year earlier as sales soared 13 percent year-on-year to about 4.0 billion US$.

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th ITCN Asia held during August 9-11, 2007 in Karachi not only served as a good platform to showcase expertise but it also portrayed a soft image of Pakistan across the world. ITCN is the biggest event in Pakistan where Gurus from Telecom and IT sector gather under one roof to exhibit their exciting range of products and services for local as well as global buyers. Exhibition couldn't gather a large number of crowds due to unusual weather conditions in Karachi but nevertheless the platform made possible the get together of IT and Telecom lovers to exchange their experiences. It was the first exhibition for Wateen Telecom. The company participated in an energetic way displaying its products and services which are going to be offered for the first time in Pakistan. Crowd took deep interest in high speed wireless internet (WiMAX), video conferencing, IPTV and other services. Warid joined the pool in its traditional manner. The stall remained the point of attraction as no other GSM operator was in the scene. "We are getting tremendous response and really enjoying being here told by Warid representative".

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Following are the pictorial highlights of the exhibition;

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Publisher: Strategy First Publisher 2: G2 Games Developer: Gameyus Interactive Release Dates:05/25/2007 Category: Simulation

C games nowadays are having a hard time appealing to the masses. Casual gamers are leaning towards playing World of Warcraft and are often play their favorite Sims title to death. Meanwhile, hardcore niche games are struggling to gain a lot of attention on the PC side of things. Enemy Engaged 2, a helicopter simulator, falls in line with the latter of the two. Let's begin with the basics; Enemy Engaged 2 is a hardcore sim - gamers looking for something else should move on. If players love the more technical side of controlling a helicopter, then Enemy Engaged 2 will be a sweet spot for them. Oddly enough, the game starts off with a painful installation that tested my patience. The next time I started up the game, it asked for me to do it all over again something I didn't want to do in the first place. The gameplay for EE2 is old-fashioned but easy to pick up and play. It plays at a snails pace and I can never imagine helicopter pilots dreaming of their lives being this dull. Though, I do bet that helicopter pilots wish for the career EE2 presented - long and full of missions. The campaign plays out in real-time with each mission having an expiration time before the AI accepts the mission on their own and completes it. Players are encouraged to rush through and finish the missions - at the expense of potentially completing all the objectives. Regarding the campaign, the mission interface isn't user-friendly. It took me a few tries before I realized what I was doing due it being clunky. I ended up screwing up in the first few missions due to the lack of an intuitive guide to

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aide me through the game. As for the storyline, the gamer is thrown into hypothetical wars such as a second Korean War, the liberation of China, and a few others. The entertainment value of the combat is minimal. Control over the helicopters is simple but with constant glitches, such as clipping and frame rate problems that I ran into, the game wasn't as smooth as it could have been. It's unacceptable for a game to ship with this many bugs that I encountered. But alas, the developers put a lot of emphasis on the campaign. The campaign continues along with or without the player when they are selecting their missions. This may be enough to draw simulation fans into purchasing EE2 - the feeling of a living and breathing war. The graphics are terrible and at some points they resemble the first generation of PlayStation 1 titles. The landscapes are ridged and offer no visual experience of flying a real helicopter. The presentation is ugly and menus are boring to shuffle through. Ground textures are blurry and the scenery leaves a lot to be desired. Outside of the helicopters themselves, the graphics are overall poor.

The multiplayer maps aren't any smaller than the single-player maps. It may be impressive that the maps are big but there's nothing really to them. One thing that is impressive, at least in my eyes, is that the bridges are destructible. There's nothing better than shooting down bridges with missiles with a helicopter. But with the larger maps, one-on-one matches are even less entertaining. With all things being considered, there is a good game in Enemy Engaged 2 deep down inside the belly of the beast. It is Windows Vista compatible, so it has one thing going for it. On the other hand, the two joysticks I have were not recognized by the game. Enemy Engaged is a below average game that should cater to only the smallest percentage of simulation fans. „

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The Indo-American start-up is concocting games based on Bollywood movies. In a twist, however, the games won't come out after the movies, or even at the same time. They'll be released about two weeks before. Gamers will then gather for LAN parties and competitions. Winners will get invites to the premiere, meet the stars and receive merchandise espite being one of the increasingly growing gaming industry and also a large number of young Indians using internet, gaming in India has not gained an equal rise in business. However, with the association of Indian film industry, Bollywood, the current scenario displays change within a couple of year. The Indo-American start-up is concocting games based on Bollywood movies. In a twist, however, the games won't come out after the movies, or eve n at the same time. They'll be released about two weeks before. Gamers will then gather for LAN parties and competitions. Winners will get invites to the premiere, meet the stars and receive merchandise.

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number was closer to 14 million.) Cell phone gaming is better established and cell phones have a far higher penetration. But another problem has been content. Many of the multiplayer games available in Asia are based loosely on pseudo-historical dramas that don't resonate with Indian audiences. The game-playing demographic (males between 15 and 30) in the subcontinent also isn't that interested in local folk tales. Indian game publishers such as Indiagames have come out with games for Indian audiences, but mostly concentrate on selling established international titles. Young men do watch movies, though, and big movie stars are major celebrities. In the games, players will adopt characters from the

Because the games will primarily be sold in India, they have to be cheap, which means an ultra-low development cost. The titles will sell for around $1 to $2, close to the price of pirated software. Rather than sales, the company will try to mostly garner revenue from advertising and cross-promotion If you lose, don't worry; there will be one to four new games a month to keep up with the rapid-fire release schedule of India's movie industry. Although PC gaming has exploded in China, Korea and other parts of the world, it's still a relatively small phenomenon in India. Partly, that can be attributed to a comparatively small number of PCs. There are roughly about 25 million to 27 million computers in India, versus more than 1 billion citizens. (In 2005, the

films as avatars, grab virtual weapons and go to town. The company will concentrate on shoot them up games initially. Bollywood3D, which is based in Fremont, Calif., and Mumbai, India, won't be making games for dance spectaculars just yet. The nuances of the Indian market forced the company to adopt a somewhat novel business model. First, because the games will primarily be sold in India, they have to be cheap, which means an ultra-low development cost.

Forget the $10 million-plus budget of some U.S. publishers. These games will cost $100,000 or less and take a team two months or so to crank out. Most of the games will be generated out of a game development engine created by Daniel. The titles will sell for around $1 to $2, close to the price of pirated software. Rather than sales, the company will try to mostly garner revenue from advertising and cross-promotion. "Advergames" like this, if priced right, can sell. Burger King came out with some relatively inexpensive games for Xbox games. The games were a key factor in a rise in net income in the fourth quarter of last year. The average lifetime of a Bollywood film about the same as the life span of an avocado in a supermarket - also dictated that the games come out before the movie. Were they to come out afterward, there's more of a chance consumers wouldn't remember the film. By coming out in advance, the game can ideally give the movie a bit of buzz. The promotional aspect also helps deter piracy. Gamers will figure out ways to copy the discs, but only owners of legitimate copies can participate in the contests. Churning out games so quickly creates the risk that they will start to seem repetitive, but the low price should, ideally, also keep consumers from complaining too much about that. The company hopes to create a Second Life-type social-networking site and also branch out into the Indian immigrant community. The first Bollywood3D game will come out in December. It is tied to a futuristic crime film intermingled with a love story. Deals have already been struck with various studios. Meanwhile, Bollywood3D is opening Silicon Valley offices so it can work closely with chip companies like Nvidia. „ 75

Informative

HP Compaq nx6110 Rs. 46,000/Like most mainstream business laptops, the HP Compaq nx6110 is far from flashy, though its all-black case lends it an air of sophistication. Likewise, its components don't inspire awe, but round Rs. 50,000 nx6110 performs well enough for basic productivity work and it delivers almost four hours of battery life. Inexpensive; long battery life; good keyboard, touch pad, and mouse buttons; well-labeled ports and slots; betterthan-average speakers. Lacks multimedia controls; it's neither fast nor fancy. If you're looking for a low-priced laptop to create documents and keep up with e-mail at the office or on the occasional business trip, the HP Compaq nx6110 will meet your needs. Laptop's case measures 12.9 inches wide and 10.5 inches deep, its 1.2-inch thickness gives it a slender, the nx6110, at 6 pounds, is light. The broad touch pad has a line down its right side to guide your finger for scrolling, and the mouse buttons have a handy lip that catches your fingers. HP Compaq nx6110's big 15-inch display comes with 1,024x768 XGA native resolution. Sound from the internal speakers comes through the grill spanning the front edge. On the left edge lie four-pin FireWire, VGA, and two stacked USB 2.0 ports. The left edge also features Ethernet and modem jacks as well as one Type I/II/III PC Card slot. On the right edge sit headphone and microphone jacks and the built-in DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive. nx6110 in standard setting has a 1.6GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of memory, an Intel 915GM graphics engine that swipes up to 128MB of VRAM from main memory, and a 40GB hard drive spinning at an average 5,400rpm. „

Asus W5fe Rs. 135,000/The first laptop to take advantage of Windows Vista's much-hyped SideShow feature, the Asus W5fe lets you read e-mail, play music, and access photos and other content via a secondary 2.8-inch, full-color display integrated into the outer lid of the laptop. The idea is a good one: SideShow offers a quick window to your data, without requiring you to boot up your laptop--or even open it. At 12 x 8.6 x 1.3 inches, the W5fe's case is average sized for a laptop with a 12.1-inch display; at four pounds, it's portable enough for regular travel. The keyboard is a bit spongy and cramped, but the keys are roomy enough for reasonably comfortable typing. The W5fe's primary 12.1-inch widescreen display, featuring a standard 1280 x 800 native resolution, delivers bright, crisp images and enjoyable DVD video quality. The SideShow concept shows promise. The secondary display, with a 320 x 240 resolution, is more than adequate for checking your calendar, reading e-mail (Windows Mail only, a new feature that comes with Vista), checking stock prices, and playing music files from Windows Media Player 11. The two stereo speakers, placed directly below the display, deliver the thin audio. For an ultraportable, the W5fe comes equipped with a solid assortment of multimedia features as well as a standard batch of ports and connections. On top of a dual-layer DVD burner, which can read and burn all of the major DVD and CD formats, the W5fe has three well-distributed USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, S-Video and VGA outputs for connecting to an external display, one ExpressCard slot, and a 4-in-1 media card reader (as well as an expansion module that supports another four media card types). The W5fe's built-in networking features include Ethernet and modem jacks, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. Also on board is a wireless on/off switch. „ 76

Informative

Lenovo ThinkPad T61 Rs. 120,000 The ThinkPad T61 is a premium product with a durable build; it is geared towards business users. For somebody that travels a lot or relies on their notebook to earn a livelihood, the build and reliability factor is probably more important than having the latest and greatest components inside. The T61 body is a rugged plastic that does not flex. Inside the stiff and thick plastic casing is a magnesium roll cage in both the lid and main chassis. The keyboard is spill proof and has two drain holes to make sure if you do happen to spill your morning Starbucks coffee, the liquid is carried away from sensitive components and out through the bottom of the notebook The thick metal hinges that attach the screen are very rigid and ensure the screen does not wobble. The hard drive is protected within the magnesium roll cage and shock mounted. Even if your T61 is dropped the included Active Protection System (APS) software will work with the on board accelerometer to detect a fall situation and end hard drive activity to prevent data loss. The new widescreen format screen for the 14.1" T-series is either good, bad or somewhere in between depending on your personal preference. What the T61 screen lacks is brightness, which has always been the case with ThinkPad notebooks. The T61 speakers are located on the sides of the keyboard, taking advantage of the extra real estate width due to the wide format while headphone jack on the front side of the laptop to make it easier to quickly plug in your headphones and get superior audio. The ThinkPad T61 uses the Intel Centrino Duo (Santa Rosa) platform. You get a faster processor front side bus (800MHz), more processor cache (4MB) and an improved integrated graphics solution in the form of the Intel X3100. The included 2GB of memory and 100GB 7200RPM hard drive will help you to to light a bit of a fire under Windows Vista. „

Sony VAIO SZ2 Rs. 125,000

The VP features a carbon fibre top casing, yet there is much discussion as to how much carbon fibre is actually present in the laptop! The palm rest and keypad area have a brushed aluminum finish which makes a great change from the plastic of many other machines and gives great aesthetic appeal. There are a total of 5 switches located above the keyboard; two shortcut switches, a wireless on/off switch, power button and the graphics switch. The 1280 x 800 resolution works excellently on the 13.3" screen. It features Sony's X-Black technology, which gives the typical glossy effect to the screen. The Core Duo seems to live up to the task very well with the same 1GB of RAM. The dual graphics are a fantastic feature and allow you to switch between the integrated Intel GMA 950 chipset, or the dedicated nVidia GeForce 7400 with 128mb dedicated memory. Use the Intel while running office applications to conserve battery life, or the nVidia for more extreme use. The fingerprint reader is located between the two touchpad buttons which can be used for logging onto Windows, launching applications (assign an app. to each finger) or entering passwords into web windows. It does the job very well and recognizes my fingers first go around 95% of the time. Expresscard 34 and a PCMCIA slots both feature on the laptop, yet the Expresscard is filled with Sony's included card reader which seems to cope with all the main formats such as SD and MMC. A built-in Sony memory stick duo reader takes care of their own format. „

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Intel Claims Breakthrough in High-Speed Computing ata-carrying light can transmit terabits of data per second on a single chip, making it possible to download full-length movies in seconds. There is, it turns out, a significant difference between sending data at the speed of light and processing that information at the same speed once it gets there. The telecom industry has struggled with this dilemma in its fiber optic networks for years now. With data streaming at 186,282.397 miles per sec., service providers have to slam on the breaks in order to run the data it through the electronic switches and routers that direct the appropriate signals to their destinations. Similarly, processing data on computer chips using photonic technology is something of an epic race in the PC industry and it looks like Intel is in the lead. The chipmaker achieved a breakthrough in data-carrying light that holds the promise of being able to transmit terabits of data per second on a single chip, by using lasers to increase the bandwidth of interconnects between the components of a microprocessor. Researchers at Intel's Photonics Technology Lab have built a silicon optical modulator that can encode data on an optical beam at 40 billion bits per second speed. Intel said it has achieved a breakthrough in data-carrying light that holds the promise of being able to transmit terabits of data per second on a single chip, making it possible to develop computers capable of downloading full-length movies in seconds and quickly performing other data-intensive tasks. The latest achievement is in the area of silicon photonics, which is the use of lasers to increase the bandwidth of interconnects between components of a microprocessor. Intel researchers are working on the use of

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light to transmit data on silicon, which is the material used to make processors. Silicon is used in building chips because the material is inexpensive and perfect for high-volume manufacturing. Unfortunately, it presents a challenge to scientists trying to use data-carrying lasers, which are typically used on more exotic materials. “What researchers at Intel's Photonics Technology Lab have done is build a key component needed for a silicon-based photonic integrated circuit,” Ansheng Liu, principal engineer with Intel's corporate technology group, said in a blog. That component is a silicon optical modulator that can encode data on an optical beam at 40 billion bits per second. While Intel scientists have built optical modulators before, it's the first time one has been developed that can encode data at speeds that match the fastest devices deployed today using other materials. The results of Intel's

research were first introduced in July 2007 to a small group of scientists at the Integrated Photonics and Nanophotonics Research and Applications conference in Salt Lake City. In 2004, Intel published in a journal the first silicon modulator to reach gigahertz speeds, which were 50 times faster than previous attempts. In January of this year, the chipmaker demonstrated a modulator with data transmission rates of 30Gbits per second. Intel is not saying when photonic integrated circuits incorporating the new technology will be used in products to provide affordable optical interconnects within computers and other devices. Nevertheless, the use of the technology, along with Intel's previously developed silicon laser, will one day make it possible to integrate multiple devices on a single chip that can transmit terabits of data per second, "truly enabling tera-scale computing". „

Top Most Common Passwords e all use passwords every day; they have become very common today. Checking out mail, transferring money, using ATM machines, shopping online, all those actions involve introducing a password. So if you use a password it is supposed to be a long difficult one in order not to get your account stolen. We are always told of stories about breaking easy passwords and stealing money. Very many people have read and heard these stories, but let us see what password we use the most.

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8. 'monkey' (0.133%) Why monkey? I don’t understand it too. Maybe people think that no one would think of this password if they wanted to brake into your account. Usual there is a 6 minimum letter passwords and monkey is a 6 letter word, besides it is memorable so maybe this is what played its role.

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7. 'charlie' (0.139%) We have got one more name in our top list. Maybe such famous persons like Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Sheen or the Charlie from the Chocolate Factory persuaded people to choose that password. Or maybe people just

use its Slang Meaning which means cocaine and that's not a very good thing. 6. ''qwerty (0.141%) QWERTY is the word that is the easiest to type. Our keyboard set is called like that and this is what comes first to mind for those who use a 10 finger fast typing technique. It made 1 person out of 700 pick this word as their password or maybe not. 5. '123456' (0.176%) Another easy combination that is even easier for the users '123456' it meet the requirements of minimum 6 letter password and this password contains numbers in it which is another requirement on some web sites. Just count to six and you get a password. 4. 'letmein' (0.176%) A good desire when you want to check out your account or see if you received any money there. It is a modern equivalent of 'open sesame' which is longer and takes one second more to type. It is something like 'trustno1' password from X-Files series. 3. 'liverpool' (0.182%) Liverpool is one of the most popular soccer teams in the world and here is the result: one person out of 550 picks this word as their

password. So many people trust their team and their password. 2. 'password' (0.378%) Here we come; we have got to the 2nd place with password 'password'. Well, when it says "Type Password" you start typing a password. And 1 person in 250 is doing that. 1. '123' (0.3784%) It has not gone too far from 'password' but it is even easier to count to 3 then to count to 6. Apparently not that many websites require users to have a minimum 6 letter passwords. And it brings us to 4 people out of 1,000 that type the simplest combination possible '123'. It is a good thing they don’t type something like '111' or '222' etc. If you add up all those percentages you will get that 1.8 % of people worldwide use one of the passwords from the top 8 list. As a matter of fact 6.5 % of people use passwords from the top 100 list. We are glad that the remaining 91.7 % has nothing in common when they pick a password. It is up to you to decide whether to use a longer and stronger password or to use a more memorable one. „

Joke The gentleman replied, "Oh, I havn't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times!" ------------------------------------------Dream

Teacher "If there are any idiots in the room, will they please stand up?" said the sarcastic teacher. After a long silence, one freshman rose to his feet."Now then mister, why do you consider yourself an idiot?" enquired the teacher with a sneer. "Well, actually I don't," said the student, "but I hate to see you standing up there all by yourself." --------------------------------------------------------------Hearing Problem An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again."

A woman awoke excitedly on Valentine's Day and announced enthusiastically to her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Valentine's day! What do you think it means?" With certainty in his voice, the man said, "You'll know tonight." That evening the man came home with a small package and handed it to his wife. With anxious anticipation the woman quickly opened the package to find a book entitled - " The meaning of Dreams". --------------------------------------------------------------Making Happy President Bush, First Lady Laura and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One. George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy." Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy." Cheney added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy." Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his

eyes and said to his co-pilot, "Such big-shots back there. Shit, I could throw all of them out of the window and make 56 million people very happy." --------------------------------------------------------------Teacher: TEACHER: Ellen, give me a sentence starting with "I". ELLEN: I is... TEACHER:No, Ellen. Always say, "I am." ELLEN: All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet." --------------------------------------------------------------Traffic light camera A man was driving down the road. He passed a traffic camera and saw it flash. Astounded that he had been caught speeding when he was doing the speed limit, he turned around and, going even slower, he passed by the camera. Again, he saw it flash. He couldn't believe it! So he turned and, going a snail's pace, he passed the camera. AGAIN, he saw the camera flash. He guessed it must have a fault, and home he went. Four weeks later he received 3 traffic fines in the mail, all for not wearing a seatbelt. --------------------------------------------------------------Girl: Teacher, can I become mother? Teacher: No Baby, you are too little to become a mother! Boy pointing to girl: see… hadn't I told you that nothing will happen.

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A new version of wireless technology will soon allow consumers to beam data from devices and use their cell phone to make purchases here are a billion Bluetoothenabled devices in the world - cell phones, headsets, cameras, keyboards, printers. Another 13 million of them are being sold every week. But that's primary change compared with the growth that analysts expect to see once a new version of the short-range wireless technology makes its way into products later this year. Here's why: Pairing up Bluetooth devices is a laborious process that requires as many as 15 steps. So far, the pairing aspect has been a barrier to entry compared with headsets that you plug into the phone. Now it will be much easier for first-time users. The most significant challenge that Bluetooth has faced is making the technology more usable, especially when it comes to setting up connections. There is no doubt that there are more viable business models for the technology. They just need to be better supported at the most difficult point. That should happen later this year, when the first Bluetooth upgrade in three years, Bluetooth 2.1, starts shipping. Devices will be paired in as few as three clicks. Encrypted data transfer means no need for passwords. And lower power consumption means that Bluetooth 2.1 devices will have as much as five times the battery life of their predecessors.

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All of which means that mass-market Bluetooth use is expected to expand far beyond the cyborg-style phone headset. Users will be able to easily beam photos from cameras to printers or digital picture frames. Wireless keyboards, mice, and videogame controllers will get a boost too. Bluetooth 2.1 will be integrated with near field communication, or NFC, a standard for mobile payments, so consumers will have more opportunities to pay with their phones. Companies like Jabra, Motorola, and Plantronics are developing Bluetooth 2.1 gadg-

The new Bluetooth lets cell phones make payments via special readers at cash registers ets that should be out in time for the December 2007. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group -a consortium backed by Intel, Microsoft, and Nokia - says the number of Bluetooth devices in the world should double to 2 billion by 2010. The best of ultramobile PCs Sales of Bluetooth headsets alone, now at $8 billion worldwide, are expected to hit $14 billion within three years - aided by an increasing number of bans on driving while talking on

handsets. In 2008, Bluetooth 2.1 will itself be replaced by Bluetooth 3.0, code-named Seattle. That version is expected to integrate ultra-wideband technology, meaning Bluetooth that can handle the transfer of much larger amounts of data: Seattle should be a whopping 228 times faster than its predecessor. Bluetooth's supporters expect that upgrade to have a major impact in the entertainment and consumer electronics industries, since it will enable users to transfer video between TVs and cell phones. „

National

40 Million SMSs, 10 Million Calls in a Single Day Restoration of the Chief Justice brought windfall to the mobile phone companies, as approximately 40 million short text messages (SMS) and 10 million calls changed hands to celebrate the historic decision of the Supreme Court on July 20th, 2007. According to estimated figures, provided by the officials of different mobile phone companies, the subscribers of Mobilink made about 13.2 million SMS worth around Rs 5.6 million and four million calls, costing around Rs 16 millions. Ufone users also enjoyed this day with provisionally estimated 12.4 million SMS, costing nearly Rs 5.8 million and three millions calls worth Rs 6.4 millions. Besides, the users of Warid and Telenor mobile phone operators sent nearly 13.4 millions SMS, costing Rs 6.3 millions and three million calls of about Rs 7.1 millions. Mobile companies faced similar situation last year after the Nishtar Park bomb blast incident when the service of the country's mobile phone operators was badly damaged as people started using their cell phones massively. „

School children learning computer in the special summer classes organized by Taiser Town of Lyari Expressway Resettlement Projects.

Pak- India Fiber Link Delayed Over Revenue Sharing

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Disagreement between Pakistan and India over the price and revenue sharing on the planned direct fiber link through the Wagah border has delayed the firstever direct cyber contact between the two countries. The two countries had almost completed infrastructure development, but it's testing and commissioning could take time due to continuing talks on its commercial benefits. "It's not a big issue, but it has to be resolved first before it gets operational," a paper quoted source, as saying. "There are more bottlenecks on the Indian side compared with Pakistan, as India believes the project would benefit Pakistan more," he added. He said the Pakistani side had completed all due process for laying a fiber optic cable network in April 2006. "Similarly, work on the Indian side is also ready to take off, but due to some discussions going on between the two sides, it may take time to become operational," added the source. The source said the designed feasibility of the project suggested companies involved on both sides would get a share of the revenue under a commercial agreement, in which the government of each country was not expected to interfere. The link with India has, however, attracted praise from experts and operators, who say the project would increase reliability and performance of Pakistan's telecom infrastructure. "Link with India would provide both the countries with access and opportunity to interconnect traffic originating to and from India and Pakistan," said Haroon Rasheed, a telecom consultant associated with the International Chamber of Commerce and Industry. „

Mobilink in Gujranwala Mobilink has opened its new state-of-the-art Customer Care Centre in Gujranwala. Mobilink Customer Services Vice President Mustafa Paracha, inaugurating the centre, said, "Mobilink aims at taking a further step for its customers' needs by delivering more than what is expected. We feel pride in facilitating the people of Gujranwala who are an integral part of our country and a fast-growing commercial hub." The service centre will serve thousands of customers with offering service, sales, and finance services and for further queries. The centre is designed to cater to the present and future needs of people in and around the city. The centre extends its services through eight fully functional front-end counters operated by highly qualified and well-trained staff. An integrated queue-management system is installed for smooth functioning of daily chores. „

Online Security System Launched For the first time in Pakistan, Data Security System Solutions (DSSS) has been launched for the enterprises and financial institutions. "We are set to deliver most reliable and effective solutions in Pakistan, Africa and the Middle East", said Sales Director of Foresight Technologies Javed Wadood in a seminar on "Online security for the enterprise and financial institutions". He said that the solutions reduced information technology (IT) operational cost, improved efficiency and security, thereby empowering valued customers with total control over their IT investments for prudent utilization of their IT assets. He highlighted the data security and identity management and also informed the participants about some of the initiatives taken by the Foresight Technologies in introducing new generation technology to help businesses take advantages of e-commerce and IT automation. "The solution features internet banking security, enterprise remote access and 2-factors authentication", said Wadood. A large number of high corporate personalities, representing the reputed financial institutions, attended the seminar. "The global trend suggest how the corporate and financial institutions are more conscious about data security and need such solutions", said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Data Security System Solutions Tao Teik Guar. „

Suo motu Action against Open Sale of Cellphone Connections Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has directed to issue notices to Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Attorney General for Pakistan and call report from Chairman, PTA and fix the case in the court. The suo motu action was initiated on a written complaint lodged by an Advocate, complaining that connections of different mobile phone companies are being sold at every nook and corner of the city to the customers without any identity card, verification and identification. „

National

PTA to start setting up 400 Telecentres in August Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will start setting up 400 telecentres in rural areas. The Authority has undertaken scrutiny of applications, negotiations with operators and cost factors process and is set to provide all necessary equipment. In the first phase, the Authority is establishing 400 telecentres across the country with the support of telecom operators to provide the latest telecommunication and Internet facilities in rural and far-off areas. The PTA is also in process of imparting training to individuals selected under a scheme for establishment of telecentres. All the necessary equipment worth Rs 50,000 for a single telecentre like payphone, fax machine, printer and a computer would be provided free of cost to selected individuals for the establishment of telecentres. PTA's telecentres would be provided to those individuals who are unemployed with at least intermediate qualification. The females of the rural areas fulfilling the criteria would also be eligible to apply for allotment of centers. Individuals from only those villages/union councils were considered for the facility where total population is between 4,000 and 10,000 with non-availability of public telephone or net-cafe facility in the radius of five kilometers. Besides basic necessary training, PTA in collaboration with Allama Iqbal Open University will provide all the relevant information including CDs and a manual to ensure day-to-day running and trouble shooting of various equipments. Higher official from PTA had stressed that Telecom operators are extending their support to PTA for setting up these "telecentres" including PTCL (100), Mobilink (100), Ufone (50), Instaphone (15), Intel (10), Worldcall (Payphones in all Rabta Markaz). He said PTA would also sponsor 125 such centers that would bring the total number to 400. He said a telecentres' owner could earn approximately Rs 5,000 per month, adding that National Bank had included the plan in its President Employment Scheme whereas negotiations with other financial institutions for issuing soft loans were under process. „

HP Appoints 1st Country Manager for Pakistan HP has announced the appointment of Mr. Rizwan Alam as the first Country Manager for HP Pakistan, with immediate effect. Previously, HP managed its Pakistan operations as part of Asia Emerging Countries (AEC), a group that also included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. HP Pakistan will now operate as a country office and report directly into HP Southeast Asia. As country manager, Rizwan, is responsible for overseeing HP Pakistan's operations and leads the Technology Solutions Group (TSG) business in the country. "This change is driven mainly by the strong growth potential in Pakistan and it is a reflections of our increased commitment to move from being just a service subsidiary in Pakistan, which was set up last August, to a country office primarily involved in Pre-sales, post-sales services and business development," said Tan Lee Chew, Vice President and Managing Director, HP south-east Asia. "Rizwan is not new to our Pakistan operations, having been managing the TSG business there since 2002. He is a natural choice as our first Pakistan country manager, as he has been instrumental in building our presence and setting the stage for our expansion in the country." With 10 year's experience with HP in various roles, Rizwan has extensive knowledge of the enterprise business and strong relationships with channel partners. Rizwan holds a post graduate degree in Business Administration as well as a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Karachi in Pakistan. „

First India-Pakistan e-Sports Event Indiagames has decided to take a step ahead in uniting the nations through sports and have sent word that they will be hosting the first ever Indo-Pak e-sports event in India. After the WCG India finals, the national "Counter Strike" champions of India and Pakistan will go head to head. The team from Pakistan has already been decided. Havok, consisting of five members will be visiting India. They have met an Indian team before, at the ESWC 2007 in Paris, where they took on A+E. Havok has won a lot of awards in their native Pakistan.. The event is being supported by NASSCOM and CII. "The youth of today are getting more involved in this new phenomenon of e-Sports. We believe sports often succeed over politics and diplomacy in improving relations between countries and there is no reason why we should not go beyond Cricket and Hockey into the e-Sports arena. We are very excited and see this as an important milestone in the history of Indo-Pak cultural ties. Events like this will help the growth of computer gaming, internet and broadband in both the countries," said Vishal Gondal, Chief Executive Officer of Indiagames. Ahmed Mamoor Amimi, CEO, Playdium.Net, Strategic Partner of World Cyber Games, Pakistan says, "I would like to see Pakistan and India competition on this e-sports arena and I am sure it will create more space for love and harmony between both countries. I would also like to invite the Indian team next year for our WCG2008 National Final event, in Pakistan." The Indo-Pak Counter Strike match will take place on September 10, 2007. „

Children attending a computer class during the summer camp organized by Children’s Library Complex, getting educational Recreational and sports Facilities for Children between ages 4-14.

India, Pakistan Allow Bank Branches Across Border India and Pakistan agreed to open bank branches in each other's territory after talks aimed at boosting trade ties between the South Asian neighbors. Banking ties between the two countries will start in six months, Pakistan's Commerce Secretary Syed Asif Shah told reporters in the Indian capital New Delhi. Two banks from either side will be allowed to open a branch each, he said. A joint committee will also work on how to start truck services across the heavily fortified border. Pakistan has also proposed cooperation on capital markets with India, which will respond to the plan by Sept. 30, both sides said in a joint statement. The countries plan to start truck services through the Attari-Wagah land route. Goods are now brought to the border and carried across by porters to trucks waiting on the other side. Bilateral trade between the two countries has grown at ``an impressive rate'' in the past two years. Pakistan's exports to India increased to $323.19 million in the year ended March 31 from $94.97 million two years earlier. India's exports grew to $1 billion from $521.05 million. India and Pakistan are trying to achieve annual trade of $10 billion by 2010, India's Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai said. „

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PTA Starts Inspection of Franchises to Ensure Authorized sales of SIMs Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has started checking the unauthorized sales of new SIMs across the country to ensure that new mobile connections are issued after proper documentation. A statement issued by the authority said that various teams of PTA zonal offices at Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Multan would carry out surprise visits and inspections in their respective areas. The PTA would start sealing those franchises which were not complying with PTA instructions on issuance of new cell-phone SIMs and concerned company will be asked to cancel its franchise. After these inspections, companies will also be asked to take remedial measures and ensure the implementation of PTA directives. It may be added that PTA has taken a number of steps to deal with this issue and has directed cellular mobile companies to ensure that new SIMs are sold only through its franchises or their authorised sale points. PTA has also launched a campaign in newspapers to make mobile phone franchises aware on this issue. Similarly, mobile companies are running ADs in the press wherein they have advised their users to get their connections transferred in their names if they have not done yet. Companies are also sending SMSs to their subscribers in this regard. PTA has directed the mobile companies to get their data streamlined at their end by August 31. Companies will provide complete data of their subscribers' base to Nadra for verification purposes. „

Electricity cable is being laid alongside the road in front of Mazar-e-Quaid

Teradata Keen to Increase Investment

Mobile Phone Repairing Plant to be Setup in Pakistan With tremendous growth of telecom sector and increasing demand of Mobile Phones in Pakistan and, world's largest cell phone manufacture has announced to set up a mobile phone repairing factory in Pakistan. Reliable sources told 'Flare' that the factory would be set up in provincial capital city of Lahore. The factory would be fully equipped to repair the handsets into their original setting thus getting the optimum performances from these sets. The mobile phone repairing factory will open up new job opportunities for hundreds of technical and skilled people. On contacting a senior official of the manufacturing company, told 'Flare' that the factory installation work is being accomplished and the factory would be set ready very soon. He told that the factory is already operational and initially about 200 mobile sets are being repaired each day; however the capacity will increase with the completion of factory. Sources have revealed that no mobile phone is sent to any foreign country for repairing purposes and now the technical defects of the phones will be rectified in record time. Along with job opportunities for local skilled engineers, technical assistance from foreign will also be attained to achieve the global standards for mobile phone repairing. „

Telenor Pakistan Helps Establish Medical Helpline in Skardu Now people of Skardu and neighboring areas can call up a professional health service for their immediate medical needs. As part of its Corporate Responsibility programme, Telenor Pakistan has provided free handsets and connections to the Baltistan Health & Education Foundation (BH&EF) to enable its medical staff to make their services easily available to the people of the area. Commenting on the initiative, Executive Vice President Irfan Wahab Khan said, "Telenor Pakistan is the first mainstream mobile operator to open its network in the area. It gives us an opportunity to put our telecommunications expertise at the service of the people here. Due to the "tyranny of distance," people living in remote mountain villages often cannot afford to go to Skardu to avail health facilities, lest alone consult a medical doctor, as none is available in their villages. This service should help." Giving details of the service, Chairman Baltistan Health & Education Foundation Dr Hans Frey said, "Now the people of Skardu and surrounding areas can call for emergency first aid and transport, midwife assistance, and medical information. In turn, medical staff can easily contact community health-centers, hospitals and clinics for further advice or referrals." "Different Telenor Pakistan numbers have already been dedicated for different services with more to come: 0344- 95 111 00 for the 'Baltistan Medical Helpline' 0344- 95 111 09 for 'Ambulance Services', "The aim for the future is to take tele-health further and explore how hospitals and clinics can be linked via mobile camera phones connected to mobile networks. Instead of traveling long distances, people should easily be able to contact from remote health centers to seek diagnosis and advice with the help of multimedia content (sound, images, video)," Frey explained. „

"Teradata is keen to increase its volume of investment in Pakistan owing to the tremendous potential growth in the IT sector", said the Vice President-of Teradata for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Hermann Wimmer during a recent visit to Pakistan Teradata is the global leader in enterprise data warehousing and a division of NCR Corporation. According to a press release issued on Thursday "the company will provide employment opportunity to more IT specialists in Pakistan and groom them as consultants to represent Pakistan in the international market" Mr. Wimmer who manages more than 70 countries in the region also added that he could oversee immense investment opportunities in Pakistan. "Teradata Pakistan has more than 250 IT specialists working in its consulting to be increased up to 300 by the month of December", said Khuram Rahat, the Country Manager, Teradata Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. „ 84

National

Malik Urges Mobile Manufacturing Unit

Software Export Target Fixed at $165 Million

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman, Gen. (R) Shahzada Alam Malik has urged local businessmen to set up mobile phone manufacturing units since the country was spending a huge foreign exchange on import of mobile sets. He observed that the number of mobile subscriber had considerably increased to 65 million and two million PTA Chairman, Maj. Gen. (R) Shahzada Alam were being added every month as 45 Malik, addressing members of LCCI Lahore percent of the population is reportedly recorded as mobile users. While referring about the line phones, Malik said that the conventional telecom system was now stagnant. "More lines were being provided to facilitate with triple play facilities comprising Internet, telephone and television in the towns like Lahore and Islamabad." Furthermore, the chairman highlighted the business-friendly policies that had attracted a foreign direct investment of up to US $1.9 billion in the fiscal years 2006 and 2007. He focused on the future of mobile phone sector and termed it as the vital segment of country's economic growth and development as the number of cell sites in Pakistan has touched the level of 11,800 in June 2007 from 360 in 2003. The LCCI President, Shahid Hassan Sheikh, urged the PTA to ensure the provision of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service to industrial zones. However he maintained, the PTCL was earning a profit of Rs 20.77 billion in the year 2006 as it was charging high line rent, therefore, should be curtailed with immediate effect. He lamented the PTCL for charging a surcharge of 10 percent on late payment whereas banks were charging a 15 percent interest on loans for whole year. The PTA should improve services offered by the ISP in a sense of better Internet connectivity, concluded. „

The government has fixed 165 million-dollar target for software export for the 2007-08 fiscal year, which is 52 million dollars higher in value as compared to the last year's target of 108 million dollars. Country's software export had witnessed a smart growth during the 2006-7 financial year, successfully achieving the target set by the government. Keeping in view the excellent growth of the local market's share in the global trade, the government has given the fresh task to the software exporters to achieve 165 million-dollar target by the end of current fiscal year. Exporters believe that the newly assigned export target would not be a difficult task to achieve because the potential foreign investors are diverted to the Asian region to get their projects completed at comparatively much cheaper rates as compared to the developed countries, which were considered information technology (IT) giants. "The software export target of 165 million dollars would not be difficult for us as a number of international business houses, which have their headquarters in the West, are in negotiations with their Pakistani counterparts," said President of Pakistan Software Houses Association Ashraf Kapadia. "The potential foreign buyers are coming to Asian markets, particularly to Pakistani ones and this fact is also evident from the achieved export target of software and relevant products, which is commendable," he remarked. The country's IT industry has emerged as the fastest growing sector this fiscal, mainly supported by phenomenal jump in the operations of call centres during the last two years. More than 140 such centres are currently operational mainly in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, offering employment to around 5,000 people. Defined as a unit, the call centres have adequate telecom facilities, trained manpower and access to database providing precise information to customers. „

Five Districts to Get Computerized LIMS Initially Punjab Information Technology Minister, Abdul Aleem Khan has said that Licenses Issuance Management System (LIMS) to be computerized initially in Lahore, Multan, Sheikhupura, Sialkot and Layyah, at the cost of Rs 295 million. A local news agency quoted an IT Department official saying that while addressing a meeting Khan said that, as per Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi's his Vision 2020 programme, all departments should be computerized immediately. He also informed the meeting that different projects of Home Department being processed by IT Department and Punjab High way Patrol posts are being connected through latest technology. "Heavy amount of Rs 447 million has been allocated for this purpose. I hope that after undertaking these projects crime rate would further decrease and law and order situation improve, subsequently," said the minister. „

Telenor Pakistan Continues its Successful Financial Run Telenor Pakistan added a solid 1.6 million subscriptions during the second quarter (April-May-June) 2007, contributing 32% of the Group's net additions worldwide. Telenor Group's President & CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas has called Telenor Pakistan's quarter-to-quarter successful performance: "impressive." The latest financial figures were presented by Telenor Group's President & CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas and CFO Trond Westlie. CEO Telenor Pakistan Tore Johnsen, while talking about the excellent second quarter figures, said: "The figures prove that we continue to do things in a way that our customers expect of us. In future, too, we are committed to providing quality products and services that offer the best value and are easy to use. Our other major areas of focus are to keep at building a customer-intimate organization and constantly outperform other networks in terms of reach and reliability." Earlier, commenting on the Telenor Group's overall impressive growth, Baksaas said: "We are delivering another good quarter. The trends from the first quarter have continued, with high underlying revenue growth and stable EBITDA margin”. Telenor's consolidated mobile operations added more than five million subscriptions worldwide during the second quarter. Telenor's pro forma revenues increased by 19 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2006, reaching NOK 26.2 billion. The underlying pro forma revenue growth was 13 per cent. Pro forma EBITDA was NOK 9.1 billion. „

Mobilink Introduces Jazz Advance Mobilink launched a new feature Jazz Advance for all its Jazz subscribers. The new feature allows the customers to access instant credit anytime, anywhere. The company pioneers in bringing the latest technology features, which benefit millions of its subscribers. Jazz Advance allows customers to request for credit from their prepaid accounts once the balance reaches a minimum threshold. The recharge amount can be transferred into the user's account by simply dialing 123 and then selecting 6 from your JAZZ connection. On each Jazz Advance request, the customer will get instant balance, which is later deducted from the next recharge. Akbar Khan, Director Brands said, "Jazz customers are our greatest strength and we would like to facilitate as much as possible. This facility will give the Jazz subscribers freedom, flexibility and also provides a safety net when there is an emergency and allows the user to talk freely without worrying about sufficient balance." He also said, "I think this facility will help thousands of people as it is very convenient." The new JAZZ Advance service gives communication freedom to the users while providing them with a buffer and saves them the hassle of repeated recharging especially when they are in a busy schedule or on the run. The service allows you the satisfaction and comfort to keep on talking. Rs. 5 is allowed on Jazz advance request at a balance below Rs. 3.50. „

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Oracle Launches R&D Network Oracle has announced that it had formed a single research and development (R&D) network by linking its 18 development and solution centers in Asia Pacific and Japan to build, test, and showcase leading-edge technology innovations across the region. A company statement said that to date, Oracle has six Oracle Asia Research and Development Centers (OARDC) in Beijing (China), Gurgaon (India), Seoul (Korea), Shenzhen (China), Singapore, and Toyko (Japan), and 12 solution centers placed strategically across the Asia Pacific region. It said that those centers focused on developing cuttingedge solutions for the local markets in addition to contributing to global product development. "This new collaboration will significantly enhance our Asia Pacific innovation development process and ultimately benefit our customers and partners in this region," said Kevin Walsh, chief technology officer, Oracle Asia Pacific and Japan. The statement said Oracle's solution centers operated as centers of expertise, centers of excellence, competency centers or partner solution centers and were strategically placed across the region to represent local requirements and showcase innovative solutions from the OARDCs to the markets they were based in. The focus of the solutions centers varies in terms of industry and market focus, with many dedicated to country-specific projects of national importance. The Asia Pacific and Japan R&D network is also linked into the global Oracle Development Centers world-wide. Oracle recently reported an investment of 2.2 billion dollars on global research and development during its full fiscal year 2007, a 17 percent increase from the previous year in fiscal 2006.„

Google Net Profit Falls Short of Estimates Web search leader Google Inc reported a 28 percent rise in profits that fell short of consensus expectations, as a recent jump in operating expenses offset market share gains against rivals. Shares tumbled 5.5 percent in extended trade after Google said net income rose to $925 million, or $2.93 a diluted share, compared with the year-ago quarter's $721.1 million, or $2.33 per share. Excluding one-time items and stock option expenses, Google posted a profit of $1.12 billion or $3.56 per share, which was 3 cents per share short of targets. However, second quarter net income dropped from the $1 billion reported in the first quarter of 2007. Gross revenue rose 58 percent to $3.87 billion - matching consensus forecast. Revenue included $1.15 billion in payments to affiliated Web sites who run Google Web search advertising, so-called traffic acquisition costs. Other expenses, including the costs of operating its computer data centers, credit card processing costs and the cost of acquiring programming, jumped to $412 million from $345 million in the first quarter of 2007. These costs represented 11 percent of revenue from 9 percent earlier this year. „

Technologies Making Difficult for China to Block Negative News The Internet, mobile phones and other new technologies are making it harder for China's communist rulers to block negative news, a top government official said in comments published in papers. "It has been repeatedly proved that information blocking is like walking into a dead end," the state-run Daily newspaper quoted Wang Guoqing, a vice minister with the cabinet's information office, as saying. "Wang revealed that some local government spokespeople used to believe that 90 percent of bad news could be muffled while only 10 percent would be unluckily exposed by the media," the Daily said. Wang said the central government's commitment to transparency, as well as new information technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones were making it more difficult for local officials to hide bad news. However, Reporters Without Borders describes the Chinese government as an "enemy of the Internet." In its annual report in February, the global media watchdog said that China, using "armies" of cyber-police, was spearheading an increasingly sophisticated movement by repressive regimes around the world to restrict the Internet. „

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A woman checks her mobile phone on a Beijing subway line. China's economy expanded at a roaring 11.9 percent in the second quarter, official data showed, prompting warnings that the government will clamp down hard to stop serious overheating.

In this photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, a man takes photos of a flooded street with his cellphone in Bishan County of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality file photo.

Motorola and Mena Telecom Sign Contract Mena Telecom on Wednesday signed a contract with Motorola Inc to plan, deploy and manage a nationwide 802.16e-based mobile WiMAX and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The 802.16e WiMAX standard delivers significant advantages over the fixed 802.16d standard that is being used by some operators, including advanced antenna technology to improve capacity and range performance. This agreement will enable Mena Telecom to leverage Motorola's leadership in mobile WiMAX and deliver wireless broadband connectivity as well as advanced voice and nomadic broadband data services to both business and residential customers across the Bahrain. With Motorola's WiMAX solution, Mena Telecom's infrastructure will be compatible with technology to be embedded in numerous future devices, including laptops. The end-to-end network, operating in the 3.5GHz frequency band, will comprise WiMAX infrastructure, IMS core, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), voice and data applications, and operational and business support systems. „

International

Malaysia Delays WiMAX Rollout to 2008 Malaysia expects to roll out WiMAX, a high-speed wireless telecoms service, by the middle of next year, delaying from an earlier target of end-2007. The government also wants the country's four WiMAX licence holders to share their infrastructure, he told reporters at a product launch. "The operators should own the infrastructure through a consortium," Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik said. In March, the government awarded the much-coveted WiMAX licenses to YTL E-Solutions's unit Bizsurf, Green Packet Bhd's unit MIB Comm, telecoms service provider Redtone International and infrastructure maker Asiaspace Dotcom. Industry regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had expected the winners to start rolling out the service by the end of 2007. Malaysia is scrambling to boost Internet transfer speeds and catch up with its more technologysavvy Asian neighbors. „

Etisalat Launches New SMS News Services Etisalat has launched SMS breaking news services from Asia through its Weyak service. This service from Weyak will bring breaking news from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines directly to customers' mobiles. Khalifa Al Shamsi, Vice President - Marketing (Consumer & SMB), Etisalat, said: 'Etisalat has always prided itself on its understanding of the requirements of the UAE communities. We regularly try to come out with services to meet the needs of UAE's multicultural society. Etisalat's portal 'Weyak' now brings our Asian expatriate customers SMS-based news services which will keep them abreast of developments in their home countries on a continuous basis.' Weyak offers the following eight subscription-based breaking news services: India News, Kerala News (in English & Malayalam), Pakistan News, Philippines News (in Tagalog), Bangladesh News, Sri Lanka News and Nepal News. Weyak has ensured that the services are of high quality run by experienced journalists and obtained from trusted sources, with the emphasis on content accuracy. Subscribers pay 10 dirhams a month for news SMS subscription with updates five to six times a day. „

Softbank to Launch Fibre Internet Protocol Phone Service Japan's Softbank Corp will launch Internet Protocol (IP) phone service using a fibreoptic network in August 2007, aiming to lure customers away from rival Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT). Softbank subscribers, including the 5 million customers of its "BB Phone" IP phone service provided over an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) network, will be able to make calls for free after a small monthly charge. Softbank believes offering IP phone service over both ASDL and fibre-optic networks will help it better compete with NTT, which is investing aggressively to quadruple users of its fibreoptic network to 30 million by 2010. Softbank will look to compete on price. While subscribers to its fibre-optic service will be able to speak to each other free of charge, customers of NTT's service are levied a fee for each call.„

Call for lower roaming cost in SAARC The Indian government is likely to play a role in paving the way for a steep reduction in the ultrahigh global roaming rates within the SAARC group of countries, comprising India, Sri Lanka Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan. At present, it costs more to avail international roaming while traveling within some Saarc countries, when compared to Europe and the US, as international roaming rates in subcontinent are amongst the highest in the world. According to sources, the communications ministry of India is likely to ask the Centre to take up this issue with India's neighbors as efforts by telecom regulator TRAI to facilitate better cooperation between telecom operators in SAARC countries has failed to make any serious headway. "If TRAI were to approach us, the government would be able to facilitate the platform for both regulators across SAARC and well as operators. The Center's roll is vital, since inter-roaming pacts between countries in SAARC will require security clearances," a government source told. When asked on the issue, Chairman Nripendra Misra has just told: "I'm afraid; TRAI's communiqué to the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) on exploring ways to bring down international roaming charges within the SAARC region along the lines of the European Union (EU) model has not elicited any response even after six months. TRAI can only make a suggestion in its capacity as regulator. I have no idea at this stage whether the Indian government will take up the issue with APT." „

Students from Japan's Waseda University demonstrates an ultra light weight, fuel cell powered vehicle, which uses a fuel cell and capacitor hybrid batteries, and is two meters in length, reaching speeds of 50kph, at the university's open campus in Tokyo.

Indian Telecom Industry Revenue Hits US$ 27 billion India's telecom industry sales exceeded one trillion rupees (24.76 billion dollars) for the first time in the last business year on the back of an increasing subscriber base, according to a survey. Sales reached 1.07 trillion rupees in the year ended March, a 22 percent increase from a year earlier. Mobile-phone company revenues grew 56 percent to 561.8 billion rupees while fixed-line sales declined 11 percent. The number of cellular and fixedline users rose 46 percent to 206 million in a country that has become one of the world's fastest growing telecom markets as economic growth accelerates, reaching 9.4 percent last year. With increased connectivity, one in five Indians now has access to a phone, said the survey. Cellular subscribers increased almost 73 percent to touch 157 million, making up for a 3.3 percent decline in the number of fixed-line users to less than 50 million. A steep decline in the cost of owning a cellular handset and a connection has led to a surge in the use of mobile phones in the nation of 1.1 billion people. In the last financial year, India added more mobile-phone users per month than China. An average 5.5 million cellular lines were sold every month. State-owned Bharat Sanchar remained the top service provider, posting revenue of 401.35 billion rupees in the year to March, followed by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Hutch and Videsh Sanchar. „

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Low-cost Laptops Likely by December A non-profit group that designs low-cost computers for poor children may start selling 350 dollars laptops on the commercial market by December. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation's chief technology officer, Mary Lou Jepsen, said the computer could sell initially for about 350 dollars, or twice its production cost, although the group is also considering a higher price tag. Its entry to the commercial market would be a challenge to traditional PC industry companies, including Microsoft Corp, Dell Inc, HewlettPackard Co and Lenovo Group Ltd. "The PC industry will be watching this very closely," reported by an analyst. Although the green-and-white XO was designed for elementary school children in poor countries, analysts say that some of the features make it attractive to kids in wealthier countries as well as adults. The foundation has kept its costs down by developing its own technology, including the display, and using a relatively inexpensive microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. It also uses free Linux software, saving the cost of paying to use Microsoft's Windows operating system. Designed to withstand severe weather common in areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America, it is waterproof and features a high-resolution display that can be read in direct sunlight. Its battery can run for 12 hours on one charge. The battery can also be charged with a hand-crank. OLPC is in talks with several companies that would handle consumer sales and technical support for the foundation. "Our whole goal is to maximize the number of units shipped," CTO said. She talked about plans for commercializing the product as the foundation said it has formally authorized mass production of the device to begin in October, with an original order of some three million machines. The machines will be manufactured in China by Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc. „

Satellite Multimedia for Mobile Phones

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The European Space Agency's (ESA) Telecommunications Department says that it is supporting the development of technology needed for satellite systems to broadcast digital multimedia content and data to mobile telephones and vehicle-borne receivers. The development of mobile video services through satellites will provide content providers and operators with alternative or complementary solutions to terrestrial based networks and will bring the benefit of the universal coverage and broadcasting that satellites can provide. High-power satellites in geostationary orbit have the ability to broadcast to large coverage areas and reach huge numbers of users. The proposed system will employ a mixture of satellites and Earth-based repeaters. Satellites ensure global coverage and repeaters make it possible to receive the signals inside buildings. The system will be able to be integrated into modern mobile telephone and vehicle-mounted receiver designs at very low cost, making it ideal for the mass-market. ESA is supporting European industry and satellite operators as they open up this important market sector by partially funding the development and qualification of important components and subsystems. ESA Telecom's existing satellite infrastructure has also been made available for feasibility testing. ESA's technology support for this application area is being provided under several elements of its Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. „

A shopper looks at Japanese electronics maker NEC's personal computers at a Tokyo store. NEC Corp. said its April-June profit more than tripled, helped by reform efforts in its overseas mobile phone operations.

Nokia Profits Climb A robust appetite for new phones in emerging markets boosted secondquarter sales and profits at Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, and hoisted its shares to their highest level in more than five years. Nokia said its underlying second-quarter earnings per share rose 39 percent from a year ago to US 0.44 dollar, compared with expectations of US 0.344 dollar, when adjusted for the performance of its networks venture with Siemens. Shares in Nokia soared 9 percent to US 31 dollars, levels they last saw in early 2002, pulling European indexes higher. Shares in Nokia are up 44 percent so far this year. "We are kind of hitting on all cylinders," Nokia's Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson told a conference call. Operating profit margins at Nokia's handset units rose to 20.9 percent, their highest level since end-2003 and well above analysts' average forecast of 16.9 percent. Nokia sold 100.8 million phones in the quarter, more than its three closest rivals combined, and estimated its market share at 38 percent, above analysts' consensus of 37.7 percent, and up from 34 percent a year ago. Strategy Analytics said Nokia should reach 40 percent market share during the second half of the year, helped by its strong lead in emerging markets such as China and India. Average selling price for Nokia cellphones in the second quarter was Rs. 7500. Nokia said it expected global sales of mobile phones to grow 10 percent or more this year from 978 million phones in 2006, compared with its earlier forecast of at best 10 percent growth. Nokia stock trades at 15.7 times expected 2008 earnings, valuing the firm at around US 123 billion dollars, but below many other technology firms' valuations, as many investors think the dominant player in the market has more to lose than to gain. Nokia Siemens Networks, which started operations in April, reported an operating loss of US 1.79 billion dollars, including restructuring charges and inventory write-downs. Excluding the one-off items, Nokia said the loss from operations was US 88 million dollars. „

Customers browse through the digital camera floor at the Kimuraya discount chain shop in Tokyo. Canon Inc. said that its profit jumped 17 percent in the April to June quarter on hot-selling copiers, printers and digital cameras, as well as a weaker Japanese yen.

International

Arab Firms Eye Africa bank & Telecom Stakes

Astronauts Flew While Dangerously Drunk

Arab investors are looking to buy stakes in a bank and telecoms company from Ivory Coast-based Groupe Atlantique to tap business in West Africa and growing trade links with the Middle East, Atlantique's adviser said. An Arab bank is close to buying a minority stake in the Ivorian company's Banque Atlantique unit while two Gulf Arab firms are competing for a stake in affiliate Atlantique Telecom, Dubai-based investment bank Millennium Finance Corp said. Arab interest in investing in Africa has grown over the years, as companies in Gulf oil producers expand abroad and run into tougher competition in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Telecom companies including Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co (MTC), Saudi Arabia's Oger Telecom and Abu Dhabi's Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) have led the way. MTC bought Celtel, a mobile phone provider in 13 African countries, for $3.4 billion in 2005. Millennium is advising Banque Atlantique on the sale, which will probably take a few months, Keinde said. "They see that the market is under-banked," he said, declining to identify the Arab lender. Banque Atlantique, based in the Ivorian city of Abidjan, has seven branches in West Africa, including Mali, Niger and Benin, according to its Web site. Groupe Atlantique is also selling a 20 percent stake in mobile phone provider Atlantique Telecom, which is controlled by Etisalat, Keinde said. Two Gulf Arab investors are competing for the stake, he said, declining to identify the two investors. Millennium, which is planning to set up a $1 billion fund investing in Africa, is advising Groupe Atlantique on the sale which may take place by the end of October, Keinde said. „

Astronauts were allowed to fly although their colleagues and flight surgeons warned they were so drunk that they posed a flight-safety risk The panel reported "heavy use of alcohol" within the standard 12-hour "bottle to throttle" abstinence rule applied to NASA flight-crew members. In anticipation of the report's formal release, one US lawmaker was primed to seek answers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The internal NASA panel was set up to review astronaut health after astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested and charged with trying to kidnap a woman who was dating another astronaut. The panel found that drunken astronauts were allowed to fly on at least two occasions. „

Ericsson Wins $2 Billion Order From Bharti Airtel Ericsson won a $2 billion order from Bharti Airtel Ltd., securing India's biggest phone contract. The contract will run for two years, Ericsson said in a statement released in New Delhi. Ericsson, which manages Bharti's networks in 15 of the 23 zones that make up India's telecommunications market, will expand Bharti's network based on the Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, platform. Overseas wireless network makers such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and AlcatelLucent are competing for network orders in India, where phone companies are investing to accommodate new users. India, one of the fastest-growing mobile- phone markets in the world, added 5.39 million GSM users in June. ``This contract is an important part of realizing Bharti's vision of a converged network and of expanding coverage in rural India,'' Mats Granryd, Managing Director at Ericsson India, said in the statement. „

Indonesia Lowers Foreign Ownership for Cellular Operators Indonesia has lowered a limit on foreign ownership of cellular operators from 95 percent to 65 percent, as part of new restrictions aimed at protecting national security. Meanwhile, trade minister Mari Pangestu said that the restrictions see the number of closed sectors rise to 25 from 11 previously, while 69 sectors would now be more open to foreign investors. Pangestu had told a press briefing that under the new rules, foreign ownership in insurance companies would also be cut from 99 to 80 percent and the pharmaceutical company limit would drop from 100 to 75 percent. Fixed line telephone companies have a foreign ownership limit set at 49 percent. Indonesia's fixed line business however is currently monopolized by state-owned Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom). Minister for the economy, Budiono, said in the statement that the new rules did not apply retroactively. They apply to newly established companies, or to those which are still seeking a license to operate from the government. „

A private guard watches as a visitor has his identification checked on a computerized scanner at the entrance of the media center for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila.

Indonesia Targets MNP in 2008 Indonesia aims to introduce mobile phone number portability next year, in order to stimulate competition by allowing customers to reselect carriers without changing numbers. The country's mobile phone sector has enjoyed strong growth in recent years, although with among the highest tariffs in the world, analysts say the pace is not as fast as it should be. The new policy, already in place in countries such as Britain, Japan and South Korea, should encourage operators to provide a more competitive tariff and better service to lure users from their rivals. "We hope all of the programmes will be set up for next year," a government official told reporters. The number of mobile phone users in Indonesia is expected to top 100 million by 2010, but with competition heating up in the sector, operators may start seeing their margins squeezed. „

Over 3 Billion Songs Sold Online at Apple's iTunes Store Apple announced on July 31 that it has sold more than three billion songs at its iTunes online store exclusively paired with its popular iPod MP3 players. According to statistics from market tracking firm NPD Group, iTunes is the third largest music shop in the United States, ahead of real-world Target stores and pioneering Internet retailer Amazon. "We'd like to thank all of our customers who have contributed to this incredible milestone," said iTunes vice president Eddy Cue. „

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Press Releases

LATEST ZRG ACHIEVEMENTS Delivering Success to Contact Centers RG International is an IT & Telecom solutions and system integration company that specializes in the area of Telephony, CTI and Contact Centers. ZRG has helped organizations increase customer satisfaction and revenues by improving business communication and customer contact management functions. ZRG solutions are deployed in majority of the contact centers in the country, and are being used by millions of users who use self-service applications and the contact center agent services. Majority of the contact centers in the country are using open standards based contact center solutions and have achieved great productivity, faster deployment, quick and simplified integration and a one-window support model. These customers include leading Banks, Telecoms, Shipping, Courier and

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Insurance companies. ZRG has been growing and expanding faster like any other IT and Telecom solutions company in terms of customers, revenues and team members, and have continued to do so during the past few years. ZRG provides a full range of innovative customer interaction and contact management solutions that are flexible, cost-effective, easily extended and customized and can be integrated with any CRM, any ACD switch and any database(s). These features enable businesses to improve business communication and customer contact management in a customized and cost-effective way, while retaining maximum freedom. ZRG solutions aim to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of customer contact centers. Our flagship solution, OneView is a proven and flexible communication platform

that provides a revolutionary approach of handling multiple channels of communication including Voice, Fax, SMS, Email and Web chat. The use of the open standards based approach enables the customer to incorporate any type of technology, data source and applications. „

Mobilink PCO accessible in New Revolutionary Package obilink recently announced new reduced rates for its PCO with an aim to facilitate a broader market. The new promotional offer is designed with additional Airtime and Reduced upfront cost of the Mobilink PCO. This project of Mobilink brings them one-step ahead in providing additional income opportunities in the rural and urban areas of Pakistan. Since the launch of this PCO project, the service is already providing sustenance to over 30,000 families whose source of income depends on the Mobilink PCO. Bilal Munir Sheikh, Vice President Marketing, Mobilink stated, "We are extremely happy that the new offer of lower prices for the Mobilink PCO will meet our primary objective that is to sustain livelihoods and alleviate poverty in the country. Moreover, we are proud to have personal endorsement of the President of Pakistan on this project".

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The new price for Mobilink PCO is only Rs. 4,500 which is a 20% reduced price from the last offer and also includes Rs. 2,000 worth of free airtime. Mobilink PCO is a shop in a box solution which comes with numerous benefits. The PCO kit has a wireless payphone system and includes items for shop branding. The customers can instantly start their business activity after acquiring this PCO package, which is also available through the President of Pakistan ROZGAR Scheme. The offer includes a Rs. 2000 scratch card, banners, Tariff sheet and call log. The increase in free scratch card amount from Rs. 600 to Rs. 2,000 is an additional support to the entrepreneur helping him or her recover the investment quicker. It is estimated that the potential revenue generated from the use of Rs. 2000 is more than Rs. 5000. „

IT at its Rise he Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) held an international level CEO Forum in Karachi, with an aim to showcase the rapid strides made by the Pakistani IT sector over the last few years and also to increase foreign financing through effective interaction with foreign companies. Title of the Forum was "Corporate Success in the Knowledge Economy". CEO Forum provided a rich opportunity to thought leaders of the Knowledge Economy - captains of industry, financiers and authors - to apprise them of what the significant progress Pakistani companies have achieved in the IT sector. Earlier on in Islamabad, PSEB Managing Director Yusuf Hussain briefed the media persons about the future targets, performance and achievements of the PSEB. About the rising image of Pakistan in the outer world, Yusuf Hussain disclosed that A.T. Kearney, a Chicagobased research and strategic management consulting company, in its latest annual survey report for the first time has ranked Pakistan amongst the top 50 countries for its offshore services market potential in the field of information technology. The PSEB Managing Director also informed the media that the Board is launching the PSEB IT Job Board Portal for the Pakistani industry and said that talent acquisition is the first step in the talent management. In this connection, he said, the PSEB and Brightspyre have joined hands to help the IT industry by upgrading their talent acquisition to international standards besides providing help to the foreign investors in acquire talent pool from Pakistan. Regarding the future targets of IT exports, Yusuf Hussain informed the media that with the Pakistan's present over $ 2.2 billion revenue in 2005-06 and US dollars one billion IT exports, the PSEB is eyeing for

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Managing Director Pakistan Software Export Board Yousuf Hussain

the total size of the IT industry at $ 10 billion in 2010. He revealed that over 1000 companies are registered with the PSEB, out of which 100 are ISO certified and there are, at this point 90,000 IT professionals employed in Pakistan. He also said that the PSEB has urged the local investors to establish a venture capital fund for the local IT industry to promote an innovative and knowledge-based economy in the country. The fund should be managed by professional managers and the government would play the role of an enable and facilitator for the creation of innovation by the private sector, he explained. The PSEB has been facilitating the IT industry through its programmes in Human Capital, Office Space, Marketing, Company Capability Development, Telecom Bandwidth, Industry Finance, Public Policy, Strategy & Research, and Facilitation. „

Flare Report

Telecom

After the completion of Wateen's backhaul fiber optic cable, Pakistani Telecom companies and internet service providers are granted with multiple options to obtain their LDI voice and internet data services; 6 companies have agreed with Wateen Telecom to shift their LDI load on its backbone fiber optic network merging multinational telecom companies in Pakistan are offering rich and parallel services to their customers. With heavy investment brought into the country, Pakistan is now hitting the heights in terms of quality telecom services. With each passing day, there are new horizons opening for the industry and more options for industry to choose their services from. In an impressive ceremony, Wateen Telecom (Pvt) Limited formally announced its partnerships with the leading telecom operators of the country including CMPak Limited, Warid Telecom, Telenor Pakistan, Callmate Telips, Wise Communications and Great Bear International Services. According to the accord signed, the business partners would invest US 200 million dollars in the country. CFO, Warid Telecom, Abdul Aziz, CTO Telenor, Peter Anthony Dindial, CTO Paktel, XU-Hiayong, CEO Dialogue, Artem Orange, Director Wisecom, Shamsul Haq, GM sales, Callmate, Omar

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ing Telehousing PTA Chairman, Maj. Gen. (R) Shahzada Alam Malik addresses after an agreement signing facilities, satelceremony between Wateen Telecom, Telenor, Warid Telecom, CM PAK, Callmate Telips, lite connectivity Wise Communications and Great Bear in Islamabad. Chief Business Officer of Wateen Mr. Tayyab Shafi is also seen. and international gateway business throughout the country, he said. solutions. He said our 5500 km fibre-optic cable netSpeaking at the occasion, The PTA work across Pakistan; and soon to be Chairman said the telecom sector was a launched wireless broadband through WiMAX booming sector that was generating hundreds would connect millions of people. of thousands of jobs opportunities for the local While speaking with 'The News' Mr. Tayyab people. said this is first instance in Pakistan's history He said the investors were foreseeing that this amount of telecom companies have tremendous potential of growth in the sector shown their trust over a single backhaul netand today we witnessed a new era in commu- work. He said that Wateen has deployed conications that would not only revolutionize this located sites every 50 to 100 distance to sector but undoubtedly laid the foundation for make sure the quality and the reliability of the connectivity for our future generations. network. Chairman PTA highlighted the laying fibreHe added that this is beginning of new era, optic cables across the country by multiple in which telecom operators and resultantly operators, and termed the competition in the end consumer will have consistent and seamtelecom sector as positive and stressed that less and cost effective communication medithe future of the country is linked with wireless um. technology. He was of a view that in coming time

This is beginning of new era, in which telecom operators and resultantly end consumer will have consistent, seamless and cost effective communication medium. Pakistan's telecom sector is set ready to get benefited from the technological advancements and sheer value added services Swati, Chief Business Officer Wateen Telecom, Tayyab Shafi and CTO Wateen Telecom, Shahid Mian witnessed the ceremony. Chairman Paksitan Telecommunication authority, Maj. Gen (R) Shahzada Alam Malik was also present at the signing ceremony. Under the agreement these telecom operators will be able to shift their LDI load on the backhaul fiber optic network of Wateen Telecom that reaches the width and breadth of Pakistan. They will be able to use Wateen's state-of-the-art Telecom Infrastructure includ-

Wateen's Chief Business Officer, Mr. Tayyab Shafi said their company would invest 600 million dollar in next two years to bring latest and most advanced technologies in the country. Mr. Shafi said that Wateen Telecom is Pakistan's first and largest private sector, complete communication and media solutions company. The company has ushered Pakistan into a digital revolution with its ability to seamlessly connect every individual, home, office and

Pakistan's telecom is set ready to get benefited from the advancements and sheer value added services. Speaking on the occasion representatives of the telecom operators expressed their confidence in the Wateen services and hoped that the partnerships shall herald the beginning of a telecom revolution to offer the people of the country better and improved services. They said that their investment in Pakistan's telecom sector is aimed at bringing the latest in communication technology to the country. At the ceremony future possible partners from internet service provider and telecom industry were also present at the signing ceremony. After the completion of Wateen's country wide fiber optic network, telecom operators have a choice now other than only relying on PTCL's backbone cable. With 3 out of 6 cellular operators using Wateen's fiber network will not only create an environment of competition but also a chance for operators to provide the best out of them. „ 91

Interview

Flare Karachi Panel

Abbas Ali Mirza General Manager, Relacom Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd

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Flare: How Relacom came into existence? Abbas Ali: The story begins with Flextronics, a Swedish Electronics manufacturing company which came into being back in 1998, a contract electronics maker which provides electronics manufacturing facilities to original equipment manufacturers (OEM). We are the major manufacturer behind the Sony Ericsson, Nortel BTS, Ericsson BTS and lot of other brands including Xbox as well. The company had a division know as Flextronics Network Services, which came into being a little later which was only concerned with the services part of it and one of the problems why Flextronics couldn't go directly to the operators because we were selling our stuff to companies like Ericsson and Nortel. But then 2 years back we had a merger with Network Services Company and then the Relacom came into being which is now a total independent service provider

company and operates in multi-vendor environment where we can go to all the operators and vendors and provide them our services. Flare: When you started operations in Pakistan? Abbas Ali: We registered our name in Pakistani Market back in 2004 and since then its quite a roller coaster ride, industry is booming, we started off with Telenor Phase1 and being partner of Siemens. From then, it's no more stopping, now it's Phase 4 of Siemens going on. We have worked with Nokia before the merger and now it is Nokia-Siemens and we are still working. Other than that we have been working with Warid directly, few things are going on with Ufone as well on operation and maintenance side. Hawaii and Ericsson are the other customers and in the year 2008 we see Ericsson to be our major customer.

Abbas Ali Mirza is utilizing his professional exposure and expertise with the objective of making a difference in the leading Telecom Industry. Previous to his association with Relacom since September 2004, he worked with Nortel Networks in the capacity of team leader-South. Mr. Abbas's strong Management back ground, his expertise and excellence in strategic planning, budgeting (P&L) and efficient management of a multi-departmental organization has led him to successfully run the operations of Relacom Pakistan. Under his dynamic supervision Relacom has achieved the landmark of conducting the fastest GSM roll-out for Telenor Pakistan. In recognition to his efforts he has been awarded with the certificate of excellence by Nortel Networks Pakistan and several times by Relacom Pakistan. He is a telecom engineer and holds a Bachelor in telecommunication engineering from NUST

Interview

Performing construction, installation and maintenance services as an independent player, Relacom is able to offer unique synergies, cost savings and quality improvements on both a local and global basis for many of the world's leading operators and system vendors Flare: What sort of services do you provide? Abbas Ali: Our job starts from very initial design of a cell site; for an example, a site is acquired by the operator, this is what we don't do at all. Starting right from civil works, we prepare its civil design, we go through the civil works, erect the tower, erecting shelters, painting it, electric cabling, you name it and we do it. Then we deploy the equipment - the good thing is, as I have said earlier, we work in multi-vendor environment; we can install Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens. After the equipment deployment, we test and integrate it; we do the microwave part as well unless the site is linked with its core network. Now we are coming into operational maintenance as well. Since we know building the structure, we can also maintain it better than any one else. Flare: What is the contribution from Relacom in Pakistan's Telecom Market? Abbas Ali: Our major contribution in Pakistan is for Siemens and now NokiaSiemens Networks - we have deployed over 550 towers already till the phase 3. Roll outs of phase 4 are other than these. As far as locations are concerned, we started from Karachi. This is the question people ask that why the head office is in Karachi when the entire Telecom is sitting in Islamabad. At that time when we got here, it was deployment phase of Telecom in Pakistan; Karachi being metropolitan hub of Pakistan and main projects of Siemens were based in south. So we selected a station where the action was going

on, as we were to be on the site to build the network. Afterwards we moved to Peshawar in N.W.F.P when we were working with Nokia for Telenor project. We contributed 132 sites there in north including in tribal areas. We utilized our strengths and in-practice European quality standards by educating locals and we prepared a highly skilled local force to work with us. At the time of earthquake, when there was immediate need of building a network medium for quake affected areas, we played the major part for Nokia and Telenor achieving the goals in desired time. Our people showed spirit at that time, by contributing their salaries and helping those who were in need then. Flare: How do you see competition in Pakistan? Abbas Ali: It's very interesting when we talk about competition in Pakistan in this particular domain. There were lots of multinational companies who stepped along with us back in 2004/2005, faced a crucial problem that is lack of skilled manpower. This deficiency played a big role in failure of many entities. This is the one of main reason that we don't have competition any more with us is as its not easy to get your hands on with the technology in a tough market without skilled manpower. What we did, during those early days, we trained local people and multiplied them to generate a healthy and powerful force. There is defiantly competition with compa-

nies operating in the market. But rather than giving it name of competition, it's more like coop-itition, co-operation and competition amongst us. Flare: Quality and standards are not being followed in Pakistan while building a site, how would you comment on it? Abbas Ali: Every region has its own culture and way of working. It's a fact that mobile network infrastructure needs very strong and reliable design. But sometimes the quality part is overlooked, I would say it like this, when Telenor and Siemens came into Pakistan, they were surprised to see the way sites were being built here. The Concrete used and installation was quite different from what they were expecting as things were less descriptive but it is more descriptive after the earth quake. Since our start, we have tried to bring that international standard into Pakistan and we had to reengineer those sites. Starting right from the design work until the completion and operation of site, we meet European quality standards in terms of core network, infrastructure and the civil works. Standards are always maintained on the shoulders of manpower. We are improving in this segment; however, there is lot more to be done yet. Flare: Network flaws occurring on and off in cellular networks, should we hold you responsible for this as you build the sites and network? Abbas Ali: We don't directly interact with the consumer that is the cellular operator. We don't own any imperfection in the equipment or the technology used. We just put that equipment up and set it working. Flare: How do you see the size of cell sites in future? Abbas Ali: This is where we are going towards the micro sites and polar sites. Socially, it's not a healthier sign when we see towers over buildings, near hospitals and so on. I think this issue must be taken care of. Another very important matter is tower sharing, co-located sites, the need is to minimize the load of pillars in the city. This will help to control the operating and installation cost, also it will help reduce the density of cell towers. „

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