As the upcoming license auctions draw close, news flows in that global telecom giants are cosnidering to participate in the bidding process. Prospective bidders to enter the Pakistan telecom market were informed to 3G/4G/LTE advisory committee.

As reported by Dawn News, they include:

• AT&T of USA
• British Vodafone
• Japan’s DoComo
• Qtel of Qatar
• Roshan Telecom from Afghanistan

The report further streghtens Warid’s un-fit financial position for the bid. Also, Warid can possibly make a joint bid with some telecom firm from Malaysia. Qubee is also reported to be in talks with current market players for a joint bid.

Complete report from Dawn News follows:

At least nine telecommunication companies including four world majors are likely to participate in bidding due by end-March for third and fourth generation telecom licences in Pakistan, raising hopes for a better foreign exchange yield.

An advisory committee on 3G/4G/LTE led by prime minister’s adviser on finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was informed on Thursday that British Vodafone, Japan’s DoComo, AT&T of United States, QTel of Qatar and even Roshan Telecom of Afghanistan were preparing for bidding to be new foreign entrants in the country’s fast growing telecom industry.

The information, based on market intelligence, was put forward by Ministry of Telecommunication and Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The advisory committee was also informed that among the existing players Ufone, Mobilink and Zong were keen to get the new licences to be available for 15 years. Another player Warid was not in a position to independently vie for the future licence due to financial constraints but was in contact with a leading Malaysian telecom firm for a joint bid, according to market intelligence.

Qbee another firm that currently operates wireless and internet services in Pakistan and Bangladesh was also reported to be making contacts with some market players for a joint bid.

The advisory committee, said these sources, discussed a proposal to appoint consultant or a consortium of consultants to assist the government in transaction structure and bidding process but was informed that this could delay the transaction in view of procurement rules while the government was interested in over $800 million sale proceeds during the current financial year.

The finance ministry was of the view that the government could exercise its right to bypass procurement rules to reduce time for the appointment of consultants because that would help the government to maximise sale proceeds. The committee members remained divided over the issue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said the decision would be made in a couple of days after consultations with the ministry of law.

In the meanwhile, the PTA was directed to enhance its coordination with the major telecom players for wider participation in the bidding process. The committee decided to appoint a media consultant for the transaction. The committee also considered replies to objections raised by cross-party members of the senate over the base price fixed by the PTA for the bidding. It also decided to issue an international advertisement for competitive bidding.

The government plans to auction three 3G and one cellular licence for 1900/2100 MHz (3G/4G/LTE) band and 800 MHz Band. The base price for 3G licence to be effective for 15 years has been set at $210 million while the base price for cellular licence for 8 years has been set at $155 million.

Likewise, the earnest money to qualify for the bidding has been set at $31.5 million for each bidder of 3G and $23.25 million for cellular license. The spectrum capacity allocation has already been fixed for three 3G licences.

The bidders would be required to start their offers from the base price fixed by government with each increment of at least $2 million multiples. The successful bidder would be required to deposit 50 per cent of the auction price within 30 days of the auction and remaining 50 per cent in five equal instalments. The bidder would be allowed to launch its operations on 100 per cent payment of bid money.

The senators had objected to the bid price saying it was too low given the fact that cellular companies had paid $291 million per license in 2004 for 2G services (GSM), now considered an obsolete technology. The advisory committee was, however, told that base price did not mean a sale price that would go up on competitive bidding and reminded the senators that the base price for 2G licenses was set at $61 million that had increased to $291 through bidding.

The meeting was informed that base price for cellular licence was set at $155 million because it was being issued against the remaining 8 years period of the defunct Instaphone instead of other cellular licenses that were for 15 years. Even the bidding result for one GSM license would also go up.

The committee was informed that base price was arrived at after taking into consideration the 2004 auction result of 2G (GSM), expected service revenues, subscriber growth, economic growth, per capita income, political situation and population of the country.

via Dawn News

Jazz introduces Apna Background Music service which allows you to set-up a background music or effect of your own choice to play in the background during your calls. You can have different background music for different friends or family. Once you have the service activated you can easily make a background music call by dialing 22 followed by the callers numbers e.g. 2203xx1234567.

How-to Manage?

You can activate the service on your Jazz number by sending SUB to 5200. To unsubscribe you can sms UNSUB to 5200. To manage your Apna Background Music service account you can dial 5200 from your Jazz number.

Service Charges: A charge of  Rs. 3.75 +tax would be charged for the weekly subscription. Any calls made to 5200 will be charged at Rs. 2 +tax per minute & any sms sent to 5200 would be charged at Rs. 3.99 +tax per SMS. All calls dialed with the prefix 22 will be charged at Rs. 2+tax per minute.

Earlier last week, Ufone also launched a similar kind of service called MyTunes.

Charges for the Ufone service are:
Daily subscription charges are Rs. 1.20
Content download charges are Rs 5.98
Call to 666 will be charged at Rs. 2.99 per minute

Mobilink foundation and JAQ trust recently joined togather for an activity to build a wall at the Pehli Kiran School No. 8 , a school for underprivileged children in Islamabad.

The school provides primary education to over 100 students in the slum areas of Islamabad. The school consists of basic infrastructure and the children sat in a basic shed with a tin roof. It was open from all sides so cold winds made it very difficult for the students to sit there.

20 Mobilink Volunteers spent 4 hours at the school where they participated in hard labor building a wall. They also took time to do some fun face painting and played cricket with the children. Mobilink helped build the wall to give students some protection from the elements, and to create a safe environment for them to study in.

We appreciate Mobilink on taking up this initiative and encouraging their employees for participative CSR activity.

More pictures on their facebook page.

Mobilink Volunteers Building a Wall

I joined Mobilink in August 2011 as Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility. Having worked my entire career in the development sector, I was apprehensive about the switch to the corporate world which is driven by a desire to maximize profits rather than a commitment to human development.

I have always imagined corporations to be profit maximizing entities that will snatch bread from babies if it means increased profits for their own books. The mandate of every corporation and its primary responsibility is to generate returns for its investors and profits that can turn into salaries and benefits for the people that they employ. Factoring in impact on human development or communities is something that is far down the list of any corporation’s priorities. However, corporations have formidable funds, human resources and expertise that they can channel towards human development. Mobilink has all these resources in abundance.

It is the only telecom operator in Pakistan to have a registered philanthropic organization – the Mobilink Foundation. Mobilink wants to take CSR seriously and use their resources to make a measurable impact in the communities they work in. It was with the desire of tapping this resource that I joined Mobilink’s CSR team.

The Pakistani corporation has been a pleasant surprise. While we are a corporate entity focused on building a strong business that can provide communication solutions to people across Pakistan along with livelihoods and employment to thousands of others – Mobilink is definitely a company with a soul.

While Mobilink has earmarked funds for development activities, the enthusiasm of its employees for volunteer work has been the most pleasant surprise. One of my jobs as Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility has been organizing events that Mobilink volunteers (known as Mobilink Torchbearers) can participate in. I was pleasantly surprised when events planned for the weekend drew the largest crowds. Mobilinkers at all levels of the company were willing to sacrifice weekend hours to volunteer at hospitals, schools and in disaster hit areas.

Weekends are a precious commodity for those of us who work. Therefore, I was amazed to see the enthusiasm with which Mobilinkers volunteered on weekends. The average corporate slave is supposed to be driven by nothing other than a desire to make money. At Mobilink I have found this to be rather untrue. The average Mobilinker is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to donate time to community service initiatives. The Pakistani corporation, like the country that it is a product of, is an entity that will surprise you when you least expect it.

Looking forward to more pleasant surprises at Mobilink!

Tagged: Career, Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Mobilink, Mobilink CSR, pakistan, Telecom, Volunteers

Right after our cricket team makes us proud with winning the test series with England with 3-0, Mobilink Jazz have launched their facebook page “MobilinkJazzPK”

The page has been kicked off with a competition to enhance the celerbation of what many on facebook are calling the green-wash. The idea behind the competition is about nations support the team in green.

They are asking the supporters to join us and “Be the force behind team Pakistan” by telling the world that “WE are team Pakistan”.

If you want to be the force behind team pakistan you just have to register yourself with us. This will give you 1000 points or 1 entry into the competition. Every time you nominate a friend of yours to be the force behind pakistan team, you score 100 points if the friend accepts your request. If you are able to convince 10 people you will get 1000 points and another entry in the competition. Every 10 people you can recruit to support this cause will give you an additional entry into the Lucky Draw

The big prize is an an all paid trip to Abu Dhabi for 5 lucky winners to witness the Final T20 between Pakistan and England.

We had covered on the subject early this month when the Telenor and Mobilink franchise attacked in December last year. As Januray draws to close we have more. In a recent attack Warid sales officer was shot dead and just today we have another attack on Telenor franchise taking life of women and a security guard.

This brings the death toll in Karachi telecom franchise attacks to 5 in last two months and 4 in particular to Telenor franchise.

More on the matter from Express Tribune excerpts:

A security guard and a woman was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire at Telenor’s franchise in the Nazimabad area of Karachi on Tuesday, reported Express News.

Three other people sustained injuries in the incident and have been shifted to a hospital.

The police reached the franchise to investigate into the incident. SP North Nazimabad Chaudhry Asad said that four men came to the franchise on two motorcycles and opened fire at it.

The police said that it was planned attack.

The attacks on mobile franchises have been on the rise in the city.

Yet again, who are the attackers and what is their real motive behind these attacks still remains unclear. If is it about target killing, why suddenly did telecom franchises become the target?

via Express Tribune

Mobilink extends congratulations to the Pakistan cricket team on its test series win over England in the Jazz Cup 2012 being held in the UAE. Jazz partnered with the Pakistan Cricket Board to organize ‘The Mobilink Jazz Cup 2012’ in the United Arab Emirates as the home series for Pakistan. The two tests held so [...]

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In a recent media breif by Mobilink, Rashid Khan, President and CEO said that his company “is evaluating the information memorandum of 3G spectrum and has decided to participate in the bidding”. With this announcement Pakistan’s largest cellular networks comes forward as the first potential bidder for the 3G auction scheduled for March 29, 2012.

Going further, Khan said that despite the global economic recession there was an enabling environment for cellular business in Pakistan. This comes as a very expected statement from a mobile operator in market where the ARPU is near USD 3.

It must also be noted over here that, as advertised by PTA in local newspapers earlier this week, the base price of 3G license is USD 210 million with USD 31.5 million. The auction will be conducted through multiple rounds and open outcry method while each operator can secure 2 block of spectrum.

Commenting on the base price, Rashid Khan said it was a reasonable base price determined on the basis of telecom policy. He also ruled out that the five telecom sector companies were colluding for the bid.

On the other hand, Senator Pervez Rasheed of PML(N) has questioned on the transparency of 3G auction in the senate session that the base price of 3G license of $210 million is much lower than the base price at the time of 2G license which was $290 million. He demanded to immediately stop this process and review its conditions to avoid any chances of embezzlement.

Senator Pervez was supported by Haji Adeel, Ilyas Bilour of ANP, Col. Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (retd) of MQM, Prof. Khurshid of JI and others warning the government not to proceed with its auction plan without taking them into confidence. They also had reservation on the license being auctioned on “technology neutral” saying that this would be like a charity.

via Express Tribune and Business Recroder

The earlier version of the post had  a typo error in the base price of 3G license, the same has now been corrected.

Mobilink marks 2012 as the year of ‘Elevating Consumer Experience’

Mobilink has marked 2012 as the year it will create a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s cellular environment by elevating consumer experience to a level that is unparalleled within the local industry. Mobilink’s subscribers already have access to the best cellular service in Pakistan, as a result of the operator’s continuing investment in infrastructure and coverage footprint as well as focus on developing superior customer relationships.

This was highlighted during a presentation made to the media by Rashid Khan, President & CEO Mobilink, where he spoke about the achievements of Mobilink over the past year, and the cellular operator’s strategy for 2012.

Mobilink introduced per second package. with this package you can call 2 paisas per second. but there are daily charges 3.99+t. Below is the complete detail of this package. Posts that Relate to this ArticleGoogle Nexus is Available to Buy in U.SHowto change Windows 7 Logon ScreenWi-Tribe – Double Your DataF1-F12 Function keysUpgrade/Switch to new [...]

For the first time in Pakistan, Mobilink Jazz introduces “Pay As You Go” calling. Jazz per second charging is a promotional offer that allows Jazz users to call at 2 paisas (+tax) per second to any network in Pakistan. This comes is right after Ufone has offered a 10 second pulse package.

How to subscribe to Jazz per second charging?

Simply dial *222# to subscribe to this new offer and get only charged for the number of seconds you are on the phone. The offer is valid till 10^th  Feb 2012.

Details:

• Daily subscription charges are Rs. 3.99+tax.
• The offer will be available for the entire prepaid base and on all packages.
• The discounted tariff is applicable for all Mobilink to Mobilink calls and from Mobilink to all local operators calls.
• This rate is applicable for 24 hrs of the day.
• The offer will be non-recursive and customer will have to opt-in daily in order to remain subscribed.
• The subscription and incentive validity will be exactly 24 hours.
• Customer will dial a string *222 # to get subscribed and will be charged the base tariff of his respective package when not subscribed to the offer.
• 19.5% FED applies on usage and 10% applies on recharge.
• Prepaid customers will be charged 5% service fee and additional 2% operational fee on all recharge transactions.
• The offer is valid till 10th  Feb 2012.

First uncovered by Aamir Atta, Mobilink is caught copying. The whole concept of their latest and largely acclaimed TVC is very similar to an old AT&T commercial or you can say it is fully copied.

This is not the first time a copy act from cellular operators have come into notice, to name a few, we have had Jazz Jazba logo being copied and the ripped-off Djuice Revamp promotional video.

The two videos – Lack of Creativity or What? You decide.

Original – AT&T Commercial

Mobilink TVC