By Sonya Rehman

With internet usage on the rise, Pakistanis are turning to the blogosphere and citizen journalism to share their opinions. Hosh Media epitomizes the growing popularity of locally-based, online portals for citizen journalism in Pakistan.

According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the number of broadband internet subscribers rose from 26,611 in 2005 to 1,656,800 in September 2011; an increase of 1.5 million subscribers. It is also estimated that as of 2011, Pakistan’s population stands at approximately 187 million; of this, the internet penetration is estimated at over 20 million.

Given the proliferation of internet usage in Pakistan, local citizen journalism portals have also seen a rise in popularity. SeenReport, Gawaahi, Maati TV, and other blogs and websites initiated by local media outlets and independent journalists/bloggers have given Pakistanis with access to the internet the chance to have their voices heard.

Hosh Media, though, has a specific focus as a citizen journalism portal. ‘Hosh’ is an Urdu word that loosely translated means ‘to awaken,’ and that is precisely what it hopes to do. By connecting the blogosphere and traditional reporting in Pakistan, founder and Pakistani journalist, Sahar Habib Ghazi, wanted to create a fresh way to engage the public while infusing news with youthful perspectives and voices.

Ghazi credits her time at Stanford University in California as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow in 2010 for inspiring her to launch this citizen journalism initiative for Pakistanis.

“I came to Stanford with a proposal that aimed at countering the breaking news oriented tilt of our TV newsrooms,” Ghazi explained. “But the fellowship program exposed me to many exciting narratives on the digital and social media front. Within a few months, I was hooked. I decided I needed to bridge the divide between my people – journalists – and online communities – bloggers, activists and tweeters – in Pakistan. Stanford proved to be the perfect incubator for turning that concept into Hosh.”

While at Stanford, Ghazi met Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi and Shahid Saeed via blogging and tweeting. These two young Pakistanis proved to be vital to Hosh Media’s founding in May 2011, as well as its subsequent development.

Primarily known for his social activism in Pakistan, Zaidi is the portal’s Community Lead, while Saeed, a blogger, helped Ghazi establish the portal’s basic set-up. Saeed now works as an Archivist for Hosh along with Technical Lead Haleema Mehmood, Marketing Lead Farhan Kamal, and Operations Lead Nadia Zaffar.  All 5 employees comprise of the initiative’s core team of young Pakistanis.

“Our contributors – bloggers, students and activists – can now log onto hoshmedia.org and send in their videos, images and thoughts. Our team packages these crowd-sourced contributions into news stories for mainstream networks in Pakistan,” Ghazi stated in a Knight Fellowship talk.

Sahar Habib Ghazi during her Knight Fellowship talk

The role of citizen journalism in Pakistan today is “essential,” according to Ghazi. “The more voices straight from the ground,” she said, “the more representative and democratic our media will be.”

Hosh Media recently added six online journalism tutorials to its website which are short, interesting, well-packaged videos featuring veteran Pakistani journalist Abbas Nasir highlighting important subjects within journalism such as, “Covering Survivors of Abuse,” “Quoting Anonymous Sources,” and “News vs. Opinion,” among other topics. These tutorials serve as a reservoir of information and articulate instruction for budding citizen journalists and bloggers.

“Our larger goal is to make media in Pakistan more representative of the majority of Pakistan – the youth,” said Ghazi. “Two in three Pakistanis have yet to celebrate their thirtieth birthday; we are overwhelmingly a young country, and we believe these young voices need to be on the mainstream media.”

Hosh Media’s content is quickly gaining attention after its first digital article, “The Youth Speaks” was published on the website of the well-known Pakistani daily newspaper DAWN. The piece focused on youth reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden with crowd-sourced videos and text, according to Ghazi.

In response to that criticism citizen journalism lacks of objectivity, Ghazi argues that broadcast journalism in Pakistan can be biased too. “Our goal at Hosh is to take not one citizen report, but many crowd-sourced reports, curate and edit them into an objective, balanced news piece,” Ghazi said. “Take our story ‘The Youth Speaks,’ for example. It starts with a video featuring three individuals saying they don’t believe Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan, followed by another video featuring three individuals critiquing the army and the government’s role in the bin Laden affair. Balance is essential, and that is the value our editorial team adds to our crowd-sourced citizen reports.”

 AudienceScapes

Almost at the verge of its operational collapse in India as a result of its license being cancelled on account of spectrum auction curruption case, the Ab Mera Number Hai operator Telenor is reported to shift its financial focus in Pakistan and double their investment here.

Report from an English daily in Norway, The Foreigner, also states that Telenor is content with relaxed policies of Pakistani Authoriries as compared to the counterpart in India.

It is worth mentioning here that the news of such investments from Telenor comes at the time when it has posted 20% revenue growth in the last quarter and is in the race to bid for the upcoming 3G spectrum auctions in March 2012.

Excerpt from the report follows:

Telenor representatives immediately approached the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman to set their forthcoming agenda in Pakistan following the revocation of partner Uninor’s license in India. Senior sources in the office of the PTA Chairman informed The Foreigner that Telenor is to invest double the amount in Pakistan after winding up their business in India.

These officials also revealed that Telenor is content with the PTA’s relaxed policies compared with the very strict rules and regulation and their implementation in India.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Dr. Muhammad Yaseen, who has already been the subject of media criticism for being extra favorable to Telenor, refused to comment on this issue when approached by The Foreigner by mobile.

No senior Telenor representatives in Pakistan would make any statement to The Foreigner regarding the current situation and revocation of the Uninor license in India either. Company Corporate Media Communication heads are trying to the stop the publication of the news by major media outlets in Pakistan by pressuring journalists and media moguls.

Telenor in Norway has not commented on the issue after being contacted by The Foreigner.

via The Foreigner

PTCL leads PTA’s 2011 Broadband QoS survey

Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) is leading all operators in the country by providing to consumers the highest quality Broadband Internet service, according to the second nationwide Quality of Service (QoS) 2011 survey conducted by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

Released last week, the PTA survey places PTCL in category A (more than 95%) at Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta, and in category B (more than 80%) at Karachi for the 1Mbps wire-line broadband service.

Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) is leading all operators in the country by providing to consumers the highest quality Broadband Internet service, according to the second nationwide Quality of Service (QoS) 2011 survey conducted by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

Released last week, the PTA survey places PTCL in category A (more than 95%) at Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta, and in category B (more than 80%) at Karachi for the 1Mbps wire-line broadband service.

The survey was carried out in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi/Islamabad and Muzaffarabad for categories of 512Kbps and 1Mbps in both wire-line and wireless broadband services offered by different operators.

The survey measures operators’ overall performance based on PTA’s key performance indicators (KPIs), including service availability, download and upload bandwidth speed, round-trip time, and service retain-ability.

“Pakistan is the world’s 4th fastest growing broadband market, and PTCL is the country’s single largest broadband service provider with 95% market share,” said Senior Executive Vice President, Naveed Saeed. “In line with the Government’s vision for Broadband growth in Pakistan, we are leading the country’s broadband revolution from the front by making this technology affordable through lowered entry barriers; by geographically bringing the service within the reach of a common user across the country; and by continuous improvements in customer care.”

The PTA terms Broadband as “a significant economic stimulus for any country”, and PTCL DSL is spearheading its exponential growth in Pakistan with a footprint in over 1,100 cities and towns. PTCL is the world’s first operator to introduce “UltraNet” using VDSL2 bonding technology with speeds up to 50mbps on a copper network; and it has deployed the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) technology.

Last year, PTCL again became the world’s first operator to commercially launch 3G EVDO Rev B service. In the form of EVO NITRO, it gives consumers the market’s maximum speed of 9.3MBPs. PTCL has Pakistan’s largest and fastest growing 3G EVDO wireless broadband network, with connectivity and roaming in nearly 200 cities.

“PTCL is one of the most progressive data connectivity providers of the world and Broadband is now a driver for Pakistan’s national GDP,” said Mr. Saeed. “We have a responsibility to develop Pakistan’s technology and data network for establishing the echo system conducive for our country’s economic growth and social uplift, and PTCL is fully primed to facilitate that.”

The first to bring to Pakistan EVO dongles with Internet connectivity, PTCL has followed by launching its innovative 3G EVO Wi-Fi Cloud to connect multiple Wi-Fi devices simultaneously and the first ever PTCL 3G Android EVO Tab with built-in wireless broadband offering Internet connectivity on the go.

This month, PTCL launched Pakistan’s first 3G enabled Android Smartphone, IVIO Icon Pro that offers dual support for both EVDO and GSM/CDMA network.

Via: PTCL Media Center

© Pakistan Live News

By Ali Aftab Saeed:

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority blocks access to porn sites in Pakistan. The central theme of this piece is not porn per se, but the pros and cons of the decision to ban it. In principle of course, if we decide as a nation that we shouldn’t have porn only a click away, then we should have the right to ban it. What is unacceptable is for some agency to control the flow and content of information. Because when authorities decide the content people should have access to, it is usually not for the sake of providing quality information. The concern shown by people about the potential misuse of SOPA and PIPA is a valid one. Porn may be very few Pakistanis’ cup of tea (or is it?), but authorities getting a free hand to ban it will certainly raise similar issues. This is of course a land where sane, reasonable things are routinely labeled as blasphemous. There’s very little doubt, as far as I am concerned, that a lot of babies will be deliberately thrown with the bath water. Even as it is, two Gazans killed by Israeli helicopters somehow get more attention by us than twenty Baloch killed much closer to home.

Let’s leave terrorism, freedom fights, and religious fanaticism aside for a moment, and come back to the issue at hand, that is, porn – or the banning of it to be precise. I think the ball of the PTA ban was set rolling by the report published back in 2010 claiming that among all nations of the world, Pakistan was numero uno on the porn search list. The report appeared in all our leading newspapers. The interesting thing is that nobody found it hard to believe, although we predictably got to hear the usual western-conspiracy-to-defame-us comments, in addition to the self-righteous outrage on Fox News’s multiple orgasms via the Pornistan taunt.

From the report it seems the spirited Pakistanis absolutely blew away the rival nations in all categories, including the bestiality searches. I don’t want to believe the explanation put forward by ‘The young Turks’, namely: the Pakistanis believe that sex with animals is less sinful than with fellow humans. Rape and child sex searches are of course two other disturbing categories we topped in, which would negate TYT hypothesis, but then, these could easily be distinct user groups.

I recently watched an audience-based TV program on the issue. Two of the four panelists in the program were convinced that internet was the root cause of all evil, and that the PTA should ban internet if banning porn sites was a difficult task. The audience seemed to agree with them. Understandable, in a country where having reservations about legislation can be seen as being in favour of the crime, as Salman Taseer found out.

Personally I don’t buy the different arguments presented from time to time in favour of pornography. I am however convinced that just like we couldn’t eliminate prostitution, alcohol and gambling from the society by prohibiting them nationwide, we won’t be able to stop people from watching porn by banning websites. A lot of people are killed every year by ill-prepared, unregulated alcohol; and a lot of horror takes place in underground, non-accredited, unmonitored gambling houses, where the gamblers play on credit and pay with their life or limb. Now I am certainly not for giving legal cover to porn or prostitution because that will be adopting the worst of the western culture. However, since economics determine most everything, the Hall Road DVD shops are sure to again enjoy the old patronage from the porn customer – if they haven’t already – as the ban becomes more and more extensive. That will likely provide the lurking crazies with more motivation to bomb such markets, where a majority of buyers will have nothing to do with porn. And even if a porn buyer or seller is killed, should death be the penalty for this immorality? These simple-in-principle matters are not very simple when it comes to application, are they?

Another particular search that got me (and many others, I should assume) thinking is ‘camel sex’. It’s obvious that ordinary mortals can’t do it with a camel (well I guess nothing is impossible if one shows enough motivation and determination; but as far as animals go, having sex with a camel has to be the most amazing feat, with the probable exception of a giraffe). My curiosity has been aroused but unfortunately I have no way to find out now that the relevant sites have been banned. Assuming that the search had nothing to do with bestiality (as is likely in view of the above), hats off to the geniuses who think that watching two camels making out would be sexually arousing or even aesthetically gratifying (whichever comes first; pun not intended)! I mean, if indulging in this type of activity happens to be one’s thing, why camels, of all things? Could it be yet another way on the part of our wannabe Arabs of associating, and showing solidarity, with the ‘ship of the desert’, which features so prominently in the Arabic holy folklore? TYT may have a point after all.

Finally after having a long wait we get particular date for 3G Auction in Pakistan. In recent press release Dr. Muhammad Yasin, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority described that Pakistan is going to auction third generation telecommunications licenses on March 29th, 2012 and every licenses will be generally be starting at valued from USD 210 million as well as will be sold by way of highest bid taker.

Exposing original information about the 3G license auction, Mr. Yasin declared that the total amount bidders will need to deposit with preliminary expressions of interest – to point out the importance of a bid – might possibly be $31.5 million and license terms and conditions could be from 8 to 15 years. Chairman PTA is expecting to catch the attention of a minimum of 10 to 15 potential buyers pertaining to very first bidding procedure. With the objective, PTA is actually in the process of investors’ conferences within Islamabad and also Karachi. We all know How 3G Technology Changed the World Dr. Yasin, additionally describing the auction methods, mentioned that current telecom providers could quite possibly get started providing 3G services soon after being granted a license, before the new operators start it, they’re going to have to wait right up until March 2013 to begin 3G services in the Pakistan.

He was quoted saying that there might be possibly that no minimum and maximum specifications for international equity and international operated organizations and it could be permitted domestic financing.

Giving an answer to a question he declared that prices are minimal more than that they had initially anticipated. Previously estimations recommended that the starting price for 3G licenses might possibly be $195 million, .

According to Experts the successful bid should not rise above $270 tag, although our current telecom participants who may have intends to not to choose 3G will have their finest to improve the bid worth; in serious situation $300 million level may perhaps be entered.

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The license for the 3G spectrum is announced to be held on March 29, 2012 reports Reuters. On the same subject PTA today conducted an Investors Conference in Islamabad attended by the Chairman PTA, Secretary Cabinet Division and Finance Minister.The tentative auction schedule and brochure have been uploaded on PTA website. You can also check them here:

• Auction Schedule
• Auction Brochure

Pakistan will hold an auction for its first licenses for third-generation (3G) mobile telecom services on March 29, an official at the country’s telecoms authority said on Tuesday.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Mohammed Yaseen said the base price for the auction would be $210 million.

“We’re expecting 10 to 15 potential investors in the initial bidding process,” Yaseen told Reuters.

He said the amount bidders would deposit with initial expressions of interest — to indicate the seriousness of a bid — would be $31.5 million and licence terms would be from eight to 15 years.

Pakistan had more than 111 million mobile phone users in October 2011, according to the PTA, equivalent to around 65 percent of all Pakistanis.

Pakistan’s existing operators include Mobilink, a unit of Egypt-based Orascom Telecom, Norway’s Telenor , Warid Telecom, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Group and SingTel Group, China Mobile Communication Cooperation’s Zong, and Ufone, owned by the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation Group, Etisalat, according to the PTA website.

Yaseen said existing licence operators could start offering 3G services immediately after being awarded a licence, while new operators would be able to provide 3G services from March 2013.

Update:

According to the tentative auction schedule, some important dates for the 3G auction are:

March 2, 2012 – Pre-Bid Conference in Islamabad

March 9, 2012 – End Date for Submission of EOI along with Application

March 12, 2012 – Qualification of Bidder Before Auction

March 22, 2012 – Receipt of Earnest Money in PTA’s Bank Account

March 29, 2012 – 3G Spectrum Auction

Picture Courtesy: Parvez Iftikhar

Like me, if you live on Internet and Pakistan, strong are the chances you’re already familiar with the Authority of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). We know PTA from their active involvement in our SMS, Watching us online, and yes banning Facebook and other websites in general.

Most recently over 1,000 porn sites were blocked by internet service providers (ISP), directed by PTA. It was also stated by a source, “They are adding to the list on a daily basis.”

Here is where I and PTA get face-to-face, my problem is not like they have blocked my favorite porn site. History is history, we all share it. Instead they added my innocent site in the list too, and it is blocked today.

My website (http://hometownshoes.com/) is about selling shoe, not even close to porn. But who knows, when the ‘athletes foot’ is banned. May be they found a link between shoes> athletes foot>something unethical, but I don’t know about.

This is what I see, when I open my website

When you visit the link in Pakistan, it reads: “THE SITE IS RESTRICTED” and site name appears as PTCL. So I instantly called to PTCL helpline inquiring them the problem my website is facing. But after a 13 min long wait, their busy CSR told that it is blocked from PTA and PTCL has nothing to do with it.

While writing this post, too much to my surprise, I find I am not alone. In fact, PTA has blocked all sites in Pakistan which contain the word ‘shoes’ in its URL and first of it took place one Nov 01, 2011. Now somebody please explain me what is wrong with sites containing shoes.com in its address. That is totally ridiculous.

From its website, PTA claims ‘‘To promote and protect the interests of users of telecommunication services in Pakistan.” But instead from my experience PTA is causing loss to my business and now I’m insecure about running my website in Pakistan. How sad..!

Any ways, I visited PTA website assuming for some help, but in vain. No one answered my call from any of their contact numbers. More, I wrote an email, hoping that they would solve my problem at an earliest when they see my complain message.

This is not at all childish or minor mistake. PTA has the responsibility to make our life easier on web and telecommunication in general. But such continuous stupid mistakes are making it worse for people like me. I am angry and sad at the same time.

PTA is keeping to over use its authority. Shall we stop them?

Filed under: Hello, Pakistan

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority today launched various application services on its online National Rabta Portal. The primary focus behind the launch is to assist local Internet users in retrieving various information specific to Internet resource information and content of the country.

National Whois application will help the user to access ownership and management information of an IP address of Pakistan. The Whois service is linked up with APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Center) database. ICT rabta pages service will assist a user to retrieve contact and general information about ICT industry of the country whereas educational portal service will help the students and general community to access information regarding public & private educational institutes, scholarships and skill development programs available in the country.

Another significant service launched is a local search engine for the country titled as ‘Raftaar Pakistan’. The search engine will entertain a particular search string by fetching the relevant information from websites registered under .pk ccTLD. This is first of its kind online search platform offering filtered and Pakistan-based content. It is anticipated that the search platform Raftaar will catch the attraction of broadband internet service providers in order to encourage and promote local search facility.

PTA would welcome to work with Broadband services providers to host Raftaar.

via Press Release

It is an outrage and a violation of freedom of expression that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) continues to block Baloch Hal in Pakistan at a time when this voice needs to be heard across the country now, more than ever.  Reproduced below, BH editorial pegged on the target killing of Dr Baqir Shah (emphasis added):

Editorial: War Against Baloch Doctors

Balochistan: Doctors sit in protest at the murder of their colleagues. Photo: Baloch Hal

The late police surgeon was somewhat an easy target for terrorists for a host of reasons. His situation could enable any murderer to immediately vanish in thin air because of the circumstances that shrouded the late doctor. He gained enormous national and international media attention after conducting the postmortem of five foreigners who were killed on May 17 in what is now remembered as the infamous and tragic Kharotabad incident.

Dr. Shah impressed everyone with his absolute honesty and professionalism when he contested the unconvincing official description of what had actually happened in Kharotabad. He contradicted the version of the events as narrated by the Frontier Corps (FC) and the police.

Police in Quetta say it is premature to say whether or not Dr. Shah’s murder was a case of targeted killing. Such assertions are simply meant either to delay investigations or exempt the government from its accountability. What have the law enforcement agencies been doing in the past two months regarding the murder cases of two other Baloch doctors? It is not a coincident that all doctors being killed in Balochistan are Balochs. While we do recognize the government’s limitations given its poor and slow investigation apparatus but does it mean that the law enforcement authorities have utterly failed to make an inch of progress in chasing elements who killed Dr. Mazhar Baloch, the provincial president of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on October 15? Whether these killers linked to each other and share a common hit-list of Baloch doctors and professionals remains unknown but still guessable.

In another similar case two weeks ago, on December 16th to be precise, Dr. Naseem Baloch, the chief medical officer of Gwadar’s District Headquarters Hospital, was shot dead by unidentified persons.

These killings have triggered a wave of insecurity among Baloch doctors and also tremendously infuriated the already enraged Baloch population. Besides the common Baloch in the streets even professional doctors and seasoned politicians are holding the government and its certain shadowy wings responsible for this wave of fatal violence. Even some Baloch members of the the provincial cabinet have criticized their own government.

During a session of the Balochistan Assembly on December 17th, one could see the level of legislators’ powerlessness that they walked out the assembly session against the killing of Dr. Naseem Baloch.

“The provincial government allocates Rs11 billion for the maintenance of law and order, but still police and other law enforcing agencies have failed to give an output or a positive result,” said Asadullah Baloch, minister for agriculture who is also the secretary general of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Awami), “The senior police officers must be held accountable for their failure to protect the life and property of the people”

The Pakistan Medical Association and Baloch Doctors’ Forum (BDF) have jointly announced three days of mourning and a strike in Quetta’s Bolan Medical College Complex and the Civil Hospital. Yet, the strike is likely to have a deeper impact in the Bloch-dominated districts where it may prolong for more than three days. The BDF has also highlighted the cases of two disappeared Baloch doctors, Dr. Din Mohammad Marri and Dr. Akbar Marri whose families hold the state intelligence agencies responsible for their disappearance.

Doctors in any society deserve profound respect for their commitment to serving the humanity. In a backward area like Balochistan, where the health indicators are extremely murky, very few young men and women manage to accomplish their medical education. They strive tirelessly for at least seven years to get a degree in medicine. The first thing most of the non-local medical students (do) who study on reserved seats at the province’s lone medical college, Bolan, quit Balochistan as soon as they complete their eduction. Only some  professionally committed doctors, who surely receive a number of better offers and opportunities to go to Europe and USA for a better personal and professional life, turn down these attractions and agree to serve in the conflict-stricken province of Balochistan.

Hence, it is total senselessness to subject doctors to enforced disappearance for several months and deny him the primary human right of free trial. International human rights groups and Doctors Without Borders should quickly take up the issue with the provincial and federal authorities to ensure the recovery of the missing Baloch doctors.

Doctors like Mr. Shah are role models for our society because they selflessly cure the ailing humanity and also firmly and professionally stand against all pressures intended to urge them to compromise on their professional integrity.

Chief Minister Raisani’s intervention and approval of an inquiry into the murder is a welcome decision although dozens of such investigation committees formed in the past have culminated into stark failure. Yet, we wonder what apologies to Balochistan from leaders like President Zardari or Imran Khan mean when elements responsible for Baloch genocide are not exposed and brought to justice.

(MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR)
Editor-in-Chief
The Baloch Hal

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority seems to have obtained the instruction from Ministry of Information Technology (MOIT) for making planning for auction of third generation (3G) cellular licenses, mentioned bye an announcement from PTA . This news is confirmed after a lots of setbacks and after that positive affirmations.

Announcement declared that PTA has become intending to Auction Frequency Spectrum for Cellular Mobile Broadband Solutions and license is going to be technology basic and the licensees have the ability to set up any technologies including 3G / 4G / LTE / almost every other upcoming technologies.

The information Memorandum (IM) with regard to auctioning procedure has been made by PTA. The auction will probably be organised tentatively in March 2012 in which specific timetable will be released later on.

The auction method is going to be supervised by way of a joint professional group (Auction Supervisory Committee) containing public sector stakeholders, which include reps of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Information Technology, PTA and FAB etc.

PTA has got constituted an exclusive panel in making formulations to carry out the auction within the most possible transparent method.

For the consciousness and knowledge of prospective traders, PTA is additionally preparing to maintain Investors Conferences in Karachi and Islamabad. Worldwide Road Shows may also be arranged. The actual agenda for this auction could be presented in the near future, explained by PTA.

It can be important to say that the release of Cellular Mobile Broadband solutions in Pakistan will start a whole new financial cycle in the country and accumulate wonderful benefits for the nationwide economy. It will likewise usher in new trend for growth of a wide variety of new apps for data intense value added services. This can significantly match the condition and needs of Cellular Mobile Phone users and experts who are excitedly looking forward to this particular service.

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The last we heard on the subject was about the policy approval for 3G. Despite the unstable political situation in the country PTA has decided to have the auctions for the 3G License tentatively in March 2012. It is worth mentioning here that the license will be technology neutral allowing licensee to put up any of the latest technology. Detailed press release from PTA follows:

In pursuance of the policy directive issued by Ministry of Information Technology (MOIT), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is planning to Auction Frequency Spectrum for Cellular Mobile Broadband Services. The license for this service will be technology neutral and the licensees be able to deploy any technology including 3G / 4G / LTE / any other upcoming technologies.

The information Memorandum (IM) for auctioning process is being prepared by PTA. The auction will be held tentatively in March 2012 for which exact schedule will be issued later.  The auction process will be overseen by a joint professional group (Auction Supervisory Committee) comprising of public sector stakeholders, including representatives of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Information Technology, PTA and FAB etc.  PTA has constituted a special committee for making preparations to conduct the auction in the most possible transparent manner.

For the awareness and information of potential investors, PTA is also planning to hold Investors Conferences in Karachi and Islamabad. International Road Shows will also be organized.  The exact schedule for this auction would be made available soon.

It is pertinent to mention that the introduction of Cellular Mobile Broadband services in the country will initiate a new economic cycle in the country and accrue great benefits for the national economy.  It will also usher in new era for proliferation of a number of new applications for data intensive value added services.  This will greatly fulfill the requirement and demands of Cellular Mobile Phone subscribers and professionals who are eagerly waiting for this service.

Yet again the Interior Minister gets in action. This times constituted a committee to examine draft bill regarding misuse of electronic equipment i.e. emails, SMS, MMS in anti-state activities detrimental to the national security. This comes in wake of the recent change in political winds and anti-state messages been floated on emails, mobile phones etc.. As reported by the APP:

The committee headed by Secretary Interior would brief the Minister within one week regarding the proposed legislation. He was chairing a meeting on the subject of “misuse of electronic equipments, i.e. internet, email, SMS/MMS and to take remedial measures to curb the menace of such illegal activities with iron hands.

Secretary Interior, Secretary, Information Technology,Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Inspector General Sindh, Members FBR and Representatives of Intelligence Agencies attended the meeting.

Once again the Multiple and illegal SIMs got under the gun:

It was observed that the criminals are still using unauthorized mobile SIMS for their criminal activities and terrorists’ acts, bank robbery, target killings and other heinous crimes.

The Minister directed Chairman PTA to revisit the whole system and ensure that all those illegal SIMS which are being used on stolen identity shall be blocked.

Mobile number portability (MNP) was also discussed to be banned in wake of misuse associated with them. Any kind of misuse to be booked under Anti-Terrorism Act.

The meeting decided that in view of the grave complaints, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) by the service providers is banned in future and anybody found violating should be booked under Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 as it is against the national security.

Anybody misusing, sending threatening emails or tampering with email address, mobile phone via SMS, MMS etc shall be dealt with under ATA and other relevant sections of law.

Chairman PTA and Secretary IT have been directed to immediately hold a meeting with service providers and convey the concerns of the government and ensure that their services are not misused by anti-slate and anti-social elements, putting the security of the country in danger.

The SMS filtering policy was also discussed.

The meeting also decided that the service providers shall have to have their own monitoring system to block such detrimental communication as mentioned above in coordination with the PTA.

The meeting decided to identify “obscene words” or anti state wordings, being used by anti-social elements and they shall be entered in the system to be blocked.

The service providers would ensure that they will not advertise anything against social norms and customs and they will not support any media programme with content that brings government into disrepute, scandalizes it or is against the national honour and security.

The Minister also directed PTA and other authorities that while taking such remedial measures, it would be ensured that general public may not face any problem and no site would be blocked.

All those who receive threatening messages or anti state messages,the same should be brought to the notice of Ministry of Interior through the following email and telephone numbers for taking legal action against the senders under ATA, 1997 & other sections of law.

via Associated Press of Pakistan

Update

Other point of views on the minister’s nonsense:

1. Rehman Malik back with Tech-Blunders
2. Government to ban MNP (Mobile Number Portability) – Another one by Rehman Malik