Now leading VERSCOM Solutions - Teletimes

CommunicAsia 2012 

Latest Technologies 

came to Life 

Microsoft 

holds Windows 8 

Workshop in Amsterdam 

O3b Networks 

to provide Ultra Fast 

Internet Communications 

to Royal Caribbean Cruises 

Telecom veteran Mehmet Balos - 

Now leading VERSCOM Solutions 

July 2012 

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In this edition 

Interview 

22 

Internet Society aims to influence policy makers, civil society, 

industry and others to advance Internet policies and strategies - 

Rajnesh D. Singh, Regional Director - Asia-Pacific, Internet Society 

Reports & News 

15 

26 

30 

33 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

46 

54 

55 

57 

VERSCOM started International Gateway 

projects in Africa 

Comptel Survey reveals operators believe pre-emptive 

care and targeted services must be prioritised to reduce churn 

Joanna DiTrapano 

GSMA highlights success of Mobile Asia Expo 2012 

ITU Telecom World 2012 to convene in Dubai 

WCIT 2012: An opportunity for an open, innovative, 

sustainable and more secure ICT environment 

ICANN reveals the possible list 

of new top level domain names over Internet 

Aslam Mumtaz 

The future of mobile computers is rugged! 

Jerker Hellström, CEO, Handheld Group 

My experience with airtime 

Khawar Nehal 

China Mobile to expand 4G network 

Shen Jingting 

STC: A strategic partner and a national supporter 

of Al Ehsaa shopping and entertainment festival 

Huawei CEO underscores importance of Information Security 

Amidst projections for Global Traffic Growth 

Cisco recognizes channel partner successes 

at its Partner Summit UAE 2012 

Golden Systems launches KINGMAX’s 

new mSATA SSD MMP20 in UAE 

Nirmala D’souza 

Thuraya appoints Sanford Jewett as V.P Marketing 

Mini Sree Narayanan 

PM inaugurates 

Cellular Village Connection Trial (CVCT) project at AJ&K 

National ICT Policy - Suggestions 

Rehan Allahwala 

Teletimes International participated 

in National ICT Policy Consultations 

Aslam Mumtaz 

21 

27 

55 

04 July 2012 


In this edition 

Special Reports 

13 

16 

19 

19 

20 

21 



Khalid Athar 

Latest Technologies came to Life at CommunicAsia, 

EnterpriseIT and BroadcastAsia 2012 

Khalid Athar 

Thuraya provides reliability and value to marine market 

Showcased SF2500 voice satellite terminal 

at CommunicAsia 2012, Singapore 

Lucy O’Brien 

Prysmian Group made its South-East Asia debut 

at CommunicAsia in Singapore 

O3b Networks and AMRTUR Corporation 

commit to provide private ultra-fast internet access to Brunei 

Darussalam and regional clients in collaboration with Datastream 

Technology 

Singapore and Brunei to lower mobile roaming rates 

16 

Research & Analyses 

08 

10 

11 

27 

29 

31 

43 

51 

Southeast Asia: Crossroads of Mobile Innovation 

Dr. Madanmohan Rao 

Ovum report confirms 147 million devices 

managed by broadband forum’s TR-069 protocol 

Rebecca Armstrong 

Cloud Computing - A not so obvious opportunity for telcos 

Viktor Kovács, Sophie Papasavva 

Are governments fulfilling their role 

in meeting the Digital Agenda? 

Nadia Babaali - Communications Director, FTTH Council, Europe 

Microsoft holds Windows 8 Workshop in Amsterdam 

Raheela Anjum 

DNSSEC – Securing domain name infrastructure 

Naveed ul Haq 

M2M device connections will increase twentyfold worldwide in 

the next ten years, Analysys Mason reports 

Kate Brown / Alistair Young 

e-Village: Empowering rural women and youth 

and much more .... 

41 

46 

July 2012 


05

Letter to readers 

Khalid Athar 

Chief Editor 

Dear Reader, 

Welcome to the July edition of Teletimes 

International. 

Global discussions surrounding the upcoming 

World Conference on International 

Telecommunications (WCIT-12) scheduled to 

be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 

3-14 December 2012 are catching up pace. 

This conference is anticipated to review the 

current International Telecommunications 

Regulations (ITRs), which serve as the binding 

global treaty outlining the principles which 

govern the way international voice, data and 

video traffic is handled, and which lay the 

foundation for ongoing innovation and market 

growth. The ITR review document attempts to 

extend standard forms of telecommunications 

regulatory authority over international Internet 

connectivity arrangements. 

Recently, during its annual session in Geneva, 

the ITU’s governing body debated the issue 

of making ITU documents publicly available, 

especially those submitted to review and 

update the International Telecommunication 

Regulations (ITRs). ITU aims to carry out open 

and online consultations with key communities, 

such as civil society stakeholders. This decision 

has been highly appreciated in view of the 

significance of ITR revision over future of the 

global Internet. The upcoming months will 

bring more heated deliberation over the WCIT 

proceedings and the member states will be 

presenting their consent to ITR revisions in 

December. 

In this month’s edition, we are bringing an 

exclusive interview with Mr. Rajnesh D. Singh, 

Regional Director, Asian Bureau of Internet 

Society. The Internet Society or ISOC is an 

international, non-profit organization founded 

in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related 

standards, education, and policy with a mission 

“to assure the open development, evolution 

and use of the Internet for the benefit of all 

people throughout the world.” The interview 

highlights various details of ISOC and their 

presence in Asia region. 

An editorial on VERSCOM Solutions is also 

presented in this month’s edition featuring 

business strategies, operation details 

and outreach of the company. It is worth 

mentioning here that Mr. Mehmet N. Balos 

recently joined the VERSCOM as the new Chief 

Executive Officer. Mr. Balos brings along a vast 

carrier and enterprise experience in wireline 

and wireless technologies. Industry experts are 

anticipating that his inclusion will bring more 

value to VERSCOM solutions and its future 

growth. 

This edition also brings a post-event report 

on CommunicAsia2012, an important regional 

event held from 19-22 June at Singapore. The 

event also incorporated EnterpriseIT2012 and 

BroadcastAsia2012 as part of its proceedings. 

CommunicAsia is considered as Asia’s focal 

industry venue for ICT, digital broadcasting 

and entertainment technology industry 

professionals. The event was attended by 

49,000 participants representing more than 

56 countries and regions whereas near 2,000 

exhibitors showcased latest technology 

products. Teletimes International was the media 

partner to the event and participated as well. 

The month’s online survey inquired the 

respondents to have say on their level of 

satisfaction over quality of mobile phone 

services. The results show balance responses 

where 48.33 % said that they are satisfied with 

the quality of their mobile services whereas 45% 

showed dissatisfaction. 

Readers will also enjoy a worth range of 

articles covering various topics. The wide 

range of articles featured this month include 

‘The future of mobile computers is rugged’ by 

Jerker Hellstrom, ‘Are governments fulfilling 

their role in meeting the digital agenda’ by 

Nadia Babaali, ‘Cloud Computing – A not so 

obvious opportunity for telcos’ by Viktor 

Kovacs and Sophie Papasavva and ‘Southeast 

Asia: crossroads of mobile innovation’ by Dr. 

Madanmohan Rao. 

As our regular feature, the edition also presents 

“Teletoons” and upcoming events calendar for 

Global ICT and Telecom events. 

We always look forward and encourage 

your comments and suggestions to assist 

us in catering improvements to Teletimes 

International. 

Enjoy your reading. 

July 2012 


07

Southeast Asia: 

Crossroads of Mobile Innovation 

Southeast Asia has been 

a trade crossroads for 

thousands of years, and now is 

a digital crossroads for Internet 

and mobile innovation as well. 

Some local markets are large 

enough or resource-rich to nurture 

homegrown industry giants 

that are expanding across the 

region and outside as well. New 

players from South and East 

Asia are moving into the region, 

along with market leaders from 

the US and Europe. 

Though Singapore is a small 

market, the government 

and universities are actively 

promoting mobile innovation 

and facilitating digital testbeds. 

Singapore is regarded as the 

most mobile payment-ready 

nation in the world, and is also 

home to a number of regional 

incubators and accelerators for 

mobile startups. 

Indonesia is the region’s largest 

mobile market, and is considered 

to be the ‘Blackberry 

capital’ of Asia. Mobile marketing 

firms are experimenting with 

cutting-edge augmented reality 

(AR) apps. But the government 

does not yet have systematic 

large-scale plans for accelerating 

mobile innovation. 

Malaysia has an active mobile 

developer community, and 

is both a testbed and market 

for mobile. Malaysia is also a 

‘fantastic testing ground for the 

huge Indonesian market.’ 

The Philippines has a strong 

consumer appetite for mobile 

payments and remittances. In 

terms of access to gadgets and 

the Internet, Filipino children 

are ahead of their peers in more 

developed countries. 

Thailand has bounced back from 

the impact of the 2011 floods, 

and Thais spend more time on 

mobile devices than TV or landline 

Internet. The Thai government 

has also announced a deal 

for what has been regarded as 

the widest tablet deployment to 

date (close to a million tablets 

for educational use). 

Regarded by many as the New 

Asian Tiger, Vietnam’s 88+ 

million population boasts of a 

large and young workforce and 

increasing prosperity. Mobiles 

are playing an increasingly 

important role in purchasing 

cycles. 

Many parts of Southeast Asia 

are not just ‘mobile first’ but 

‘mobile only.’ For such users, 

mobile is more important as a 

medium than landlines, fixed 

line Internet, TV and newspapers. 

Mobiles are also being 

creatively used by social entrepreneurs 

and activists in the 

region, eg. mobile apps for mute 

people in Indonesia, and citizen 

journalism in Malaysia. 

Though smartphones are hogging 

lots of media attention, 

there is still plenty of room for 

feature phones and basic SMSrelated 

services. Android-based 

smartphones are becoming 

cheaper and could become a 

game-changer in the region. 

Southeast Asia is now home to 

not just a large mobile subscriber 

base (see Table 1) but also a 

number of innovation networks, 

accelerator programmes, 

incubation facilities, competitions 

and awards for mobile 

startups. These include the MobileMonday 

network in the six 

key Southeast Asian countries, 

Clearbridge Accelerator, NUS 

Entrepreneurship Centre, NTU 

Ventures, and Echelon. 

Innovation networks and meetups 

have been active in Southeast 

Asia since 2006, especially 

Dr. Madanmohan Rao 

in the capital cities of the six key 

mobile markets: Jakarta, Kuala 

Lumpur, Manila, Singapore, 

Bangkok and Hanoi. 

Dozens of mobile startups are 

emerging in the region, but factors 

like language (which can increase 

costs of localisation and 

globalisation) and high revenue 

share by operators come in the 

way of scaling up startups. 

Sustainability of the innovation 

ecosystem requires the 

right blend of bottom up 

entrepreneurial energy and topdown 

facilitation of investment 

policies and infrastructure, and 

both can be found in varying 

amounts across the diverse 

southeast Asian region. 

Dr. Madanmohan Rao (http:// 

twitter.com/MadanRao) is the research 

projects director of MobileMonday 

(www.MobileMonday. 

net) and editor of the Asia-Pacific 

Internet Handbook (http://bit. 

ly/TU12l). He is the author of the 

recently released “Mobile Southeast 

Asia Report 2012.” 

08 July 2012 


Broadband passes 600m subscriber milestone - 

Asia dominates with 42% market share 

Broadband has passed 

another major milestone, 

according to the latest figures 

published by the Broadband 

Forum and prepared by broadband 

industry analysts Point 

Topic. The global total of broadband 

subscribers soared to over 

600 million in the first quarter 

of 2012, indicating a further acceleration 

in growth as over 100 

million new lines were added 

(20% of the total) in less than 18 

months. 

Globally, the growth in broadband 

during Q1 of 2012 was 

estimated at 16,118,210 lines, 

up from just over 14 million in 

the last quarter of 2011. This 

represents a quarterly rise of 

2.7% and an annual increase 

of 11.48%. Announced during 

CommunicAsia in Singapore, the 

figures also highlight again the 

dominant position of Asia, led 

in both broadband and in IPTV 

by China. 

“This is another significant 

milestone in an exciting arena 

that shows no sign of slowing 

down,” commented Robin 

Mersh, CEO of the Broadband 

Forum. “It is just 18 months 

since we celebrated the 500 

million subscriber watershed 

and even less time since IPTV 

subscribers reached 50 million 

– yet in both cases growth is 

still accelerating. It is especially 

rewarding to be making this announcement 

in Asia, which has 

contributed so much to fuelling 

this phenomenal success. I am 

also particularly pleased to see 

how exceptionally well fiber is 

doing, a clear indication of the 

importance of our continued efforts 

in testing and certification 

of G-PON.” 

Regional Rankings for Broadband 

Asia continues to be the biggest 

overall region with 262,080,147 

subscribers in total, having 

added 8,575,397 new lines at 

a growth rate of 3.38% in the 

quarter and 15.19% in the year. 

Few changes have emerged in 

the Top 20 Broadband Country 

Rankings; however Russia, 

Brazil and India all continue to 

show above average growth 

rates both in the quarter and annually, 

with Ukraine and Turkey 

also showing high growth. 

China can celebrate the highest 

number of new subscribers with 

annual growth of 26.4 million 

(19.17% annual growth rate). 

The highest annual growth 

rates are Russia’s 27.43% and 

Ukraine’s 26.82%, with China, 

India and Brazil also posting 

double-digit annual increases. 

The five Asian countries in the 

Sheila Lashford 

top 20, together serve 239 

million broadband subscribers 

more than one-third of the 

global total. 

“DSL is the most popular access 

technology on a global basis: 

although its market share has 

dropped by 0.5% in the quarter, 

there is a long way to go before 

the copper-based access technology 

is overtaken,” said Oliver 

Johnson, CEO of Point Topic. 

“For fiber, the cost-effectiveness, 

from the operators point 

of view, and the significant 

increase in bandwidth over DSL 

in particular is hitting the sweet 

spot at the moment in terms of 

technology market share.” 

IPTV grows to 65.6 million, 

China outshines in numbers and 

growth rates 

IPTV, the most demanding 

application for high speed 

broadband, now has 65.6 million 

subscribers, up 3.8 million 

in the quarter. The Asian market 

July 2012 


09

Ovum report confirms 147 million devices 

managed by broadband forum’s TR-069 protocol 

new report published 

A by global research & 

analyst firm Ovum confirms 

the widespread market 

adoption of TR-069 CPE WAN 

Management Protocol, in 

numbers triple what originally 

was publically known. The 

report, based on surveys of 

operators, auto-configuration 

server (ACS) vendors and CPE 

vendors, plus Ovum’s own 

forecasts and a wide range of 

other data, shows that - by the 

end of 2011 - TR-069 enabled 

devices globally totalled 

more than 147 million and are 

growing fast. 

Commissioned by the 

Broadband Forum to give an 

independent assessment of 

the standing of TR-069 in the 

market of connected home 

devices, the Ovum Report 

states, “In the medium term, 

we expect the development 

of integrated experiences 

which bridge multiple screens, 

applications, and content to 

increase in relevance. This 

demands greater control over 

the underlying “infrastructure” 

of the extended home than 

has previously been necessary, 

especially on the device-side, 

on cloud software platforms, 

and in integrated network 

access. TR-069 has an 

important role to play here, 

allowing operators to monitor, 

manage and control the 

increasingly complex collection 

of connected devices in the 

home. This in turn will enable 

operators to ensure quality 

of experience and will also 

provide them with the tools 

to improve customer service, 

two important factors for 

a successful multi-screen 

proposition.” 

With such a huge influx 

of new devices coming 

TR-069 enabled devices: total installed base by region 

YE 2011 

Asia/Asia Pacific 59,825,000 

Europe 46,703,000 

Americas 28,230,000 

Middle East & Africa 13,218,000 

Source: Ovum TR-069 Report, 2011 

online, it is critical that 

these devices adhere to the 

TR-069 protocol so they 

can be easily recognized, 

provisioned and maintained 

over their lifecycle. To ensure 

that the TR-069 protocol 

is followed consistently, 

enabling interoperability, the 

Broadband Forum is launching 

protocol conformance testing 

that will lead to a global 

certification program. This 

will be the only program in the 

broadband industry that will 

certify TR-069 functionality of 

CPE. 

According to the Ovum Report, 

Rebecca Armstrong 

Broadband Gateway devices 

make up the largest proportion 

of TR-069 enabled devices in 

today’s market – they account 

for around 70% of devices 

managed by TR-069. The 

remainder includes IPTV set 

top boxes (15%), VoIP phones 

(2.5%) and femtocell access 

points (5%). 

“TR-069 is recognized 

throughout the broadband 

industry as a major enabler of 

the connected home, and we 

at Broadband Forum are proud 

of its widespread acceptance 

and its continued progress, 

confirmed and reinforced 

in this important piece of 

work by Ovum,” said Robin 

Mersh, CEO of the Broadband 

Forum. “As the number 

and range of new devices 

continues to grow, particularly 

in home networking and in 

enterprise communications, 

in the retail environment 

and M2M amongst others, 

interoperability and consistent 

protocol adherence will be key 

factors. 

Contd. from page 30 

Broadband passes 600m subscriber milestone 

is advancing the fastest with 

the strong leader China added 

over three times as many IPTV 

subscribers in the quarter as 

any other country. This gap is 

likely to increase even further 

though both France and the US 

are reporting strong numbers 

and accelerated growth in the 

report period. 

Broadband Forum 

The Broadband Forum continues 

to provide the tools and 

resources that enable interoperability 

and expedite broadband 

deployments; helping service 

providers worldwide provide 

the services their customers 

demand both in quality and 

cost-effectiveness. Whether it 

is aiding the migration to IPv6, 

empowering remote management 

of the Connected Home 

via the TR-069 protocol, improving 

multi-service architectures 

to prepare for the next generation 

of services or setting the 

stage for network convergence, 

the Broadband Forum is central 

to extend the reach of broadband. 

Robin Mersh commented: “The 

demand for connectivity and 

the efforts of the industry all 

point to a world in which billions 

of devices are connected via the 

Internet. 

As this happens, the need 

for robust standards and the 

importance of interoperability 

will grow. Our new Broadband 

Forum TR-069 testing program 

joining the Broadband Forum 

G-PON Certification Program are 

just two of the many preparatory 

steps we are taking to enable 

new M2M, Cloud and Connected 

Home applications, amongst 

others. We are engineering 

smarter ways to manage smart 

access technologies and applications.” 

10 July 2012 


Exclusive for Teletimes International 

Cloud Computing - 

A not so obvious opportunity for telcos 

ITU estimates 1.2 billion 

of the world’s 5.8 billion 

mobile subscribers were 

active mobile broadband 

users at the end of 2011. At 

20% smartphone penetration, 

the business opportunity for 

cloud services to penetrate 

1.2 billion subscribers is 

clear, with e-mail, unified 

communications, collaboration 

and storage type services being 

the most obvious. What many 

telecom operators have yet to 

recognise is the opportunity 

that lies with the 4.6 billion 

mobile users worldwide who 

do not have access to latest 

technology devices. Telcos 

should look to cloud service 

providers’ expertise in cloud 

enablement services for 

feature phones. Strategic 

partnerships with players that 

can assist the telco in quickly 

monetising the cloud for low 

ARPU, pre-paid subscribers 

are key. The benefits of 

partnership are clear: faster 

conversion from feature phone 

to smartphone and all the 

benefits of higher ARPU. 

Positive Market Dynamics 

In the past five years, 

smartphones have grown in 

market share as subscribers 

purchase them for both 

business and personal 

communications. As voice 

ARPUs continue to decline and 

telecom operators seek data 

solutions to compensate for 

revenue losses, smartphone 

has been hailed as the solution 

encouraging higher spend. 

Gartner offer forecasts on 

the sale of mobile handsets 

by technology. Their analysis 

implies that whereas 3G 

phones are indeed by far the 

most widely bought device 

globally in 2012, 2.5G devices 

remain very relevant in Eastern 

Europe, the Middle East and 

Africa, for at least another 

three years. 

Despite just 20% worldwide 

smartphone penetration, 

analysts have focused heavily 

on developed markets where 

latest technology devices 

are driving data growth and 

recovering ARPU trends. 

Viktor Kovács 

Founder - CE On-Demand - Hungry 

Telecom operators in emerging 

markets and others with 

majority pre-paid subscribers 

are looking to their 3G rollouts 

and GDP growth in great 

anticipation. The opportunity 

to penetrate with a low-cost 

smart device that will stem 

voice ARPU decline and lead 

back to revenue growth 

is certainly worth striving 

towards. Whilst penetration 

varies from region to region 

and country to country, market 

analysts also point towards the 

eventual demise of the feature 

phone and the proliferation of 

smartphones. The question is 

Sophie Papasavva, 

Partner at EM Finance Consulting - UK 

what happens in the interim? 

The not so obvious 

opportunity 

At the end of 2011, there were 

5.8 billion mobile subscribers in 

the world, 80% of which were 

not users of a smartphone 

device. Gartner forecast that 

2.5G devices will account for 

37%, 29% and 22% of all new 

handset sales in 2012, 2013 and 

2014 respectively, emphasising 

the continued relevance of 

feature phones in several 

markets. 

A recent survey by Analysys 

Mason on ‘connected 

consumers’ in seven countries, 

July 2012 


11

describes smartphone usage 

as an occurrence that is 

“disrupting the mobile voice 

market.” Yet, according to their 

findings, 31% of regular users 

of mobile content and apps 

do not own a smartphone. 

Such subscribers consume 

content on feature phones that 

may have a less user-friendly 

interface, smaller screen, 

or lack a qwerty keypad, 

making the whole experience 

far more cumbersome than 

with a smartphone; yet they 

persevere, with younger 

mobile subscribers most likely 

to use mobile content via a 

feature phone. In Indonesia, 

where average monthly ARPUs 

are about US$2.7, 70% of 

teenagers reportedly own a 

mobile phone. This immediately 

points to an opportunity 

in enabling popular mobile 

content and apps for feature 

phones, with games and social 

networking being the two 

obvious categories. 

India is the 3rd largest 

consumer of Facebook in the 

world, reporting 45.8 million 

users, 20.5% growth in the 

past six months, albeit at just 

4% population penetration. 

Indonesia, the 4th largest 

consumer, reports 42.3 million 

users, equating to 17.4% 

penetration of its population. 

Both markets are characterised 

by low fixed-line internet 

penetration to the home, a 

majority of pre-paid mobile 

subscriptions, frequent topups, 

average monthly ARPU 

levels of below US$5 and a very 

young, growing population. 

Just as mobile games have 

been one constant area of 

growth in mobile content, so 

social networking is becoming 

more and more relevant. 

If social networking is not 

available through fixed-line 

connections to the home, 

then (young) users will seek 

alternative ways to access 

their favourite sites. Telecom 

operators can no longer afford 

to ignore their feature phone 

subscribers for three key 

reasons: 

●● 

Feature phone handset 

sales will remain relevant in 

several markets during the 

next three years; 

●● 

As pre-paid subscribers and 

as non regular users of data, 

they will not have contracts 

that are inclusive of data 

(as in developed markets), 

instead, they offer a better 

opportunity for higher profit 

margins; 

●● 

Although a small proportion 

of pre-paid users own a 

smartphone, according to 

Analysys Mason, more than 

60% of them would consider 

buying one as their next 

handset purchase. 

Telecom operators will see 

that, once able to access their 

favourite social networking 

sites, feature phone users 

will quickly tire of the 

cumbersomeness of their 

device and thus consider 

upgrading to a smartphone 

(even a low cost one) that 

much sooner. As telecom 

operators report that 

adoption of smartphones 

immediately increases ARPU 

by at least 10%, with Turkcell 

reporting a phenomenal 

500%, the facilitation of such 

is imperative. In summary 

therefore, the opportunity lies 

in maximising revenues from 

feature phones while they 

are still relevant, at the same 

time encouraging the faster 

adoption of smartphones as 

they become more affordable. 

The fastest, most efficient 

and least costly method 

to tap into the significant 

opportunity of services and 

apps for feature phone can 

only be the cloud. As Informa 

Telecoms & Media note, the 

cloud has the ability to help 

telecom operators further 

capitalise on their investments 

in broadband, thus defending 

their very core. The cloud 

offers flexibility, scalability and 

limited infrastructure costs. 

However, telecom operators 

only have a limited time during 

which feature phones will 

remain relevant and thus, fast 

commercial deployment is 

absolutely essential. 

Partnerships - The business 

rationale 

Telecom operators face 

challenges in the cost and 

time it takes to deploy 

a bespoke technology 

platform accommodating 

value added services. 

Additional impediments to 

fast commercial success lie in 

the 9-18 months of internal 

preparation for commercial 

launch for any such new 

service. As many telecom 

operators may not be able 

to develop their own new 

services due to a lack of the 

requisite, budget, skills and 

other resources, so technology 

partners have an important 

part to play in enabling 

operators to successfully 

deploy new services to their 

subscriber base and in their goto-market 

efforts. 

Given the current economic 

downturn in many countries, 

telecom operators may 

unlikely offer the same focus 

or budget as in previous years, 

for new services. Even where 

a budget is made available, it 

may be vulnerable to being 

withdrawn if the new service 

does not show early success. 

Telecom operators therefore 

need to demonstrate quick 

wins if they are to help 

build momentum in the 

value added services space. 

Partnering, rather than internal 

development, is certainly the 

quicker, more efficient route to 

market. 

Cloud enablers such as CE 

On-Demand help telecom 

operators and system 

integrators deploy their 

cloud strategies effectively, 

but more importantly, with 

fast commercial launch and 

immediate results. By utilising 

the enormous capabilities 

of the cloud, coupled with 

their specialised expertise, 

cloud enablers offer their 

telecom partners a variety 

of solutions with which to 

improve data ARPU from their 

2.5G subscribers, with just two 

examples being the availability 

of social networking feeds 

and e-mail on the move. While 

access to such applications has 

to-date only been available on 

more advanced mobile devices, 

the cloud paves the way to 

deliver basic smartphone 

functionality to most 2.5G 

handsets, thus expediting 

the much-needed upgrade to 

smartphone. 

Telecom operators are uniquely 

positioned not only as trusted 

IT partner to their business customers, 

but also as one-stopshop 

entertainment centre 

for their vast consumer base. 

Partnership with cloud enablers 

offers the advantage of 

tried-and-tested solutions with 

fast deployment, even when 

bespoke configuration is required. 

The right cloud enabler 

has both the data integration 

solutions and the expertise to 

bundle and market white-labelled 

cloud solutions to cover 

the needs of more than just the 

most affluent segment of an 

operator’s subscriber base. 

12 July 2012 


Khalid Athar 

VERSCOM Solutions has recently 

appointed renowned 

Telecommunications Veteran 

Mr. Mehmet N. Balos as its Chief 

Executive Officer and President. 

Mr. Mehmet N. Balos has 

twenty-five years of telecom 

and networking experience 

spans strategic marketing, product 

planning and management, 

engineering, sales, customer 

support and services and operations. 

Mr. Balos served as Executive 

Vice President and Chief 

Marketing Officer at GENBAND 

Inc. since February 2008. Mr. 

Balos served as Chief Marketing 

Officer and President of Americas 

of Actelis Networks, Inc., 

since May 2006 and President 

of Worldwide Marketing, Sales 

and Services since June 2007. 

He was responsible for setting 

the strategic marketing direction 

of Actelis worldwide, and 

oversees commercial operations 

in the Americas region. He also 

served as Senior Vice President 

of Global Marketing and North 

American of Advanced Fibre 

Communications, Inc. He also 

served Ericsson as Vice President 

of Enterprise North America, responsible 

for Direct and Channel 

Sales, Marketing, and Business 

Development. 

Mr. Balos has heavy carrier and 

enterprise experience in wireline 

and wireless networks technologies, 

including: transport, access, 

switching, datacom, and services 

for voice, data, and video platforms. 

He has years of experience 

working with decision 

makers at service providers such 

as, RBOCs, national, local and 

long distance carriers, MSOs, 

international PTTs, enterprise 

networks, OEM suppliers and 

venture capital organizations. 

Mr. Balos studied industrial 

and systems engineering at the 

Georgia Institute of Technology 

and holds a B.S. in Industrial 



Engineering from Middle East 

Technical University. 

The very first landmark achieved 

by VERSCOM Solutions under 

Balos leadership is acquiring 

services from QiComm, a leading 

provider of advanced telecommunication 

services. QiComm 

has selected VERSCOM Centralized 

Routing System: VCRS to redefine 

call routing performance 

and economics of its Carrier 

Voice division. The VERSCOM 

solution will enable QiComm to 

migrate its main UK switching 

centre to a brand new facility 

in London’s Docklands, providing 

a carrier grade centralized 

routing system with a clustered 

real-time database for increased 

performance and operational 

efficiency. 

QiComm undertook the migration 

to further strengthen its 

industry-leading service quality 

and to reduce its OPEX. VCRS 

enables QiComm to simplify its 

network operation through the 

centralization of key routing 

control, resulting in savings in 

both OPEX and CAPEX. 

It is anticipated the inclusion 

of Mr. Mehmet N. Balos as 

July 2012 


13

the company head will bring a 

more value and further boost 

to the operations and outreach 

of VERSCOM Solutions on the 

global scale. 

VERSCOM Solutions as a lead 

designer and integrator of bestof-breed 

packet voice networks 

enjoys global momentum with 

leading NGN solutions and critical 

IP services. The company is 

incredibly well positioned as a 

strategic partner to over 120 service 

providers in more than 30 

countries, building cutting-edge 

and cost-effective IP infrastructures 

and operations. 

VERSCOM Solutions has built 

a reputation for groundbreaking, 

innovative services and is 

recognized as the top regional 

solutions provider for combining 

best-of-breed packet voice and 

convergent OSS/BSS solutions 

available in the market today. 

Through a “service-oriented” 

solutions infrastructure development 

methodology, VERSCOM 

meets its clients’ specific 

network, process and business 

requirements and expedites 

the deployment of seamless, 

scalable and highly reliable nextgeneration 

voice networks. The 

company is also driving aggressively 

through advanced carrier 

architecture solutions, comprehensive 

consulting, strategic 

outsourcing, knowledge services 

and delivering sustained service 

profitability. 

During the course of its International 

operations, VERSCOM Solutions 

has successfully deployed 

various end-to-end packet voice 

solutions, enabling clients to 

transform their legacy networks 

to IMS ready, all IP, and fixedmobile 

multimedia networks. 

These solutions are wrapped by 

professional services and world 

class support. As a next generation 

communications solutions 

provider and IP services enabler, 

it acts as a strategic partner for 

wireline and wireless carriers, 

network operators and service 

providers to build solid and 

cost-effective infrastructures and 

operations. 

As a subsidiary of VERSCOM 

group companies established 

in 2005, VERSCOM Solutions 

is headquartered in Istanbul 

with regional offices in Dubai, 

Lahore and London. VERSCOM 

Solutions TAC and field engineering 

centers are located in the 

geographically strategic city of 

Istanbul, Turkey, within +4/-4 hrs 

time zone coverage of its operation 

base. This strategic location 

plays an important role for meeting 

the customer requirements. 

VERSCOM Solutions has so far 

successfully delivered hundreds 

of NGN projects in more than 30 

countries. These solutions vary 

from mid-size standard VoIP 

interconnect platforms to large, 

highly complex international 

gateway (IGW) networks that 

combine VoIP and TDM interconnects. 

Some of the noteworthy 

clientage detail includes industry 

leaders such as Superonline 

(a part of the Turkcell Group), 

Mada (a Zain Group Company), 

Borusan Telekom (a Vodafone 

Group Company), Wateen (a 

subsidiary of Warid Group), 

Mena Telecom (a subsidiary of 

Kuwait Finance House), Qicomm 

(a leading UK system integrator 

& carrier), Ancotel, WorldCall 

(a subsidiary of Omantel) and 

Samatel. 

One the of the significant product 

brought by VERSCOM group 

is the ODINE suite which is an 

integrated suite of applications 

featuring flexible, scalable and 

event-driven real-time routing, 

route optimization, addressing, 

number portability, rating, billing, 

financial reporting, analytics 

and engineering / OSS tools. 

ODINE suite is uniquely positioned 

to help carriers and 

operators efficiently manage all 

aspects of their voice interconnects 

and wholesale voice business 

while achieving maximum 

profitability and competitive 

advantage through optimized 

routing and operational efficiency. 

With ODINE, individual 

switch limitations are eliminated. 

ODINE’s components are easily 

integrated with carriers’ existing 

network either individually or as 

an intelligent ecosystem. 

The ODINE Suite is comprised of 

four products: VERSCOM Billing 

System-VBS, VERSCOM Route 

Optimization System- VROS, 

VERSCOM Centralized Routing 

System- VCRS, and the latest 

addition, VERSCOM Operating 

Support System- VOSS. 

VERSCOM Billing System- VBS is 

a scalable, reliable, and robust 

BSS solution, which drives profitability 

through advanced trading, 

sophisticated billing, powerful 

analytics, and reporting. Realtime 

mediation, dial code management, 

automated supplier 

rate and dial code import, rating, 

invoicing and prepaid balance/ 

credit management are some of 

the features of VBS that help carriers 

improve their profitability, 

accelerate their ROI, minimize 

losses due to human-errors and 

lower their OPEX at the same 

time through the improved efficiencies 

it brings. 

The primary role of the VER- 

SCOM Route Optimization 

System- VROS application is to 

analyze call traffic volumes, sell 

rates, route costs, and qualityrelated 

data and generate 

optimized switch routing plans in 

order to maximize carrier profitability. 

VROS also maintains Service 

Level Agreements (SLA) and 

adapts to the market dynamics 

and networks in today’s wholesale 

voice business. At its core is 

a comprehensive route management 

module for management 

and rapid implementation of 

optimized and granular routing 

plans based on a combination of 

origin, network quality, cost considerations, 

policies, user defined 

exceptions, and overrides. 

ODINE Routing Server-VRS is 

a high-performance carrier 

grade SIP Redirect, ENUM and 

SS7 based routing server with 

number portability correction. 

The VRS application overcomes 

route management issues in 

multi-vendor, multi-node and 

multi-site packet voice networks, 

allowing existing infrastructures 

to support higher call volumes, 

more complex routing and an 

ever growing number of carrier 

interconnects. Highly scalable, 

flexible and resilient, the VRS is 

developed to help carriers overcome 

the challenges brought by, 

and to meet the requirements 

of their network’s evolution to 

all-IP. 

ODINE Operating Support 

System-VOSS, the latest product 

in the ODINE Suite, supports 

telecom carriers with real-time 

visibility into their networks to 

gather advanced traffic analysis 

and network performance 

information for more efficient 

management of their interconnect 

voice business. With the 

tools in its arsenal, VOSS empowers 

carriers to rapidly find, 

diagnose and fix issues before 

they become revenue affecting 

problems. Built on top of a high 

performance and flexible mediation 

with enrichment layer, VOSS 

provides adaptive drill-down Call 

Detail Record (CDR) analysis, unified 

dashboards which provide 

a condensed graphical view of 

key business data, built-in and 

customizable reporting, and 

powerful multi-threshold monitoring 

and alarming on KPIs and 

metrics including Answer Seizure 

Ratio (ASR), Average Call Duration 

(ACD), Network Effectiveness 

Ratio (NER), Mean Opinion 

Score (MOS), R-Factor and many 

others. 

14 July 2012 


Major UK Telecom Service Provider Qicomm Consolidates Call 

Routing with VERSCOM Centralized Routing System: VCRS 

VERSCOM Solutions, a leading 

next-generation solutions 

provider and IP services 

enabler for wireline and wireless 

carriers, today announced that 

QiComm, a leading provider of 

advanced telecommunication 

services, has selected VERSCOM 

Centralized Routing System: 

VCRS to redefine call routing 

performance and economics 

of its Carrier Voice division. The 

VERSCOM solution enables 

QiComm to migrate its main 

UK switching centre to a brand 

new facility in London’s Docklands, 

providing a carrier grade 

centralized routing system with 

a clustered real-time database 

VERSCOM started International Gateway projects in Africa 

VERSCOM has been expanding 

its activities to African 

market by proposing its 

solutions portfolio to International 

Gateway operators. 

The liberalizationof the African 

market has been increasing 

the complexity of the interconnection 

between the carriers. 

This complexity is affecting 

mainly the International Voice 

Traffic in Africa. As a matter of 

fact, the carrier revenues are 

mainly coming from Incoming 

International minutes and consequently 

international traffic is 

the primary focus and income 

for these operators. 

VERSCOM Solutions has been 

proposing a unique end-to-end 

solution that simplifies the interconnections 

to International 

Carriers . The solution combines 

IP and TDM interconnection 

capabilities while bringing 

enhanced application and management 

layer via ODINE Suite. 

Applicable to all segments of 

for increased performance and 

operational efficiency. 

“We knew that we could proactively 

design a new network 

to meet our business needs if 

we partnered with the right 

vendor,” said Chris Joseph, CTO, 

QiComm. “After an extensive 

review, QiComm selected 

VERSCOM’s Centralized Routing 

System for its performance, capacity, 

flexibility and reliability.” 

A central component of VER- 

SCOM’s ODINE suite, VCRS 

delivers a high-performance SIP 

Redirector route that resolves 

route management issues in any 

multi vendor, multi node and 

multi site packet voice network. 

the voice industry, ODINE is an 

integrated suite of applications 

featuring flexible, scalable, and 

event-driven routing, route 

optimization, numbering, rating, 

billing, financial reporting, 

and engineering OSS tools to 

manage all aspects of the IP 

Voice interconnect and wholesale 

voice business efficiently 

and accurately. The VERSCOM 

solution fits the market requirements 

by providing high reliability 

and high scalability. 

The VERSCOM Network Infrastructure 

combines TDM-IP 

gateways, Session Border 

Controllers, Media Gateway 

Controllers and Softswitches. 

The distribution of these components 

over various Points 

of Presence (POP) introduces 

the need of a Centralized 

Management that is being 

addressed by the ODINE Suite 

and more specifically with the 

VERSCOM Centralized Routing 

Server (VCRS). All active voice 

“We are very pleased to support 

QiComm’s world class 

network and forward thinking 

modernization approach” said 

Mehmet Balos, CEO of VER- 

SCOM Solutions. “With VCRS, 

VERSCOM was able to support 

QiComm’s migration with zero 

service disruption, on schedule 

and on budget while ensuring 

QiComm’s specific requirements 

were implemented successfully. 

As a result, QiComm’s network is 

handling record volumes of traffic 

and customer traffic partitioning 

levels are being exceeded.” 

QiComm undertook the migration 

to further strengthen its 

industry-leading service quality 

components are then 

taking benefit from a 

dedicated resource for 

routing optimization. 

The ODINE Application 

Suite is a key element 

in the IGW (International 

Gateway ) solution 

being introduced 

by VERSCOM Solutions. The 

network optimization is directly 

linked to the ODINE application 

that enables real time monitoring, 

analysis and route optimization. 

Thanks to ODINE, IGW 

operators are now able to: 

● Optimize the routing of the 

International Voice Traffic 

● Maximize the Quality of 

Service 

● Improve the profitability of 

the Business 

● Last but not least, Increase 

the end customer satisfaction. 

The ODINE Application serves 

the requirements of: 

● Business managers that need 

and to reduce its OPEX. VCRS 

enables QiComm to simplify its 

network operation through the 

centralization of key routing 

control, resulting in savings in 

both OPEX and CAPEX. 

“VERSCOM Solutions’ ODINE 

Team partnered with us at a 

strategic level to define and 

implement the capabilities we 

required,” said Charles Grant, 

Head of Strategy and Business 

Development, QiComm. “VCRS 

has contributed significantly to 

the success of this migration 

by optimizing performance, 

supporting profitability and 

enabling ongoing growth in our 

market.” 

clear visibility on the traffic 

volume evolutions 

● Voice Infrastructure managers 

that have to implement 

the complex requirements 

for business department. 

● Network Operations Managers 

that need a constant real 

time status of the system 

activity and sanity 

● And Finance Manager who 

needs to follow the business 

income and cash flow balance. 

The deployment of VERSCOM 

Solutions has enabled IGW carriers 

to increase the reliability 

of their network and the end 

customer satisfaction. 

July 2012 


15

Latest Technologies came to Life 

at CommunicAsia, EnterpriseIT and BroadcastAsia 2012 

Attendees to establish industry trade shows immersed in the latest innovations 

and key discussions with business leaders 

Khalid Athar 

products. 

Addressing the trends and 

issues facing Asia’s ICT market 

today, CommunicAsia 2012 

featured extended sessions on 

cloud computing and mobile 

value-added services. The conference 

summit also covered 

the latest developments in 

next-generation broadband, 

security issues and the ever 

growing mobile marketing 

industry. Some new topics 

brought in this year included 

Machine 2 Machine (M2M) & 

Internet of things, Mobile payment 

strategies, Over-the-Top 

Technology (OTT) business 

models, Mobile health strategies, 

Mobile commerce and 

mobile security. 

The event also featured some 

200 distinguished speakers 

from companies such as Amazon 

Web Services, Pacnet, Paypal, 

Huawei, Tata Communications, 

Vodafone and Telstra. 

For the first time the summit 

invited two visionary speakers: 

Aliza Knox, managing director 

of commerce for Google Asia 

Pacific and Ambassada David 

A. Gross, partner at Wiley 

Rein LLP to deliver key note 

addresses. 

“The shows brought together 

like-minded industry professionals 

to network, discuss 

current trends and challenges, 

Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim 

Minister for Information, 

Communication & Arts, 

Government of Singapore 

Billed as Asia’s largest 

integrated Information 

and Communication Technologies 

exhibition, the CommunicAsia2012 

was held from 

19-22 June at Sands Expo and 

Convention Center, Singapore. 

The event also incorporated 

EnterpriseIT2012 and BroadcastAsia2012 

as part of its 

proceedings. CommunicAsia 

is considered as Asia’s focal 

industry venue for ICT, digital 

broadcasting and entertainment 

technology industry 

professionals. The event was 

attended by 49,000 participants 

representing more than 

56 countries and regions 

whereas near 2,000 exhibitors 

showcased latest technology 

16 July 2012 


exchange ideas, and forge 

new partnerships. This year, 

we received positive response 

to the new conference tracks, 

increased hospitality suites 

and new tech zones,” says Mr. 

Stephen Tan, Chief Executive 

of show organizer, Singapore 

Exhibition Services (SES). 

“We will continue to evolve 

the content and format of our 

shows to be in tune with the 

latest trends and technology 

advancements, to meet the 

most current needs of the 

industry. This is why exhibitors 

and visitors, speakers and delegates, 

return to the shows, 

year after year. Our gratitude 

goes out to all participants 

who have contributed to the 

success of the event and we 

look forward to staging yet 

another successful event in 

2013,” Mr. Tan adds. 

Inaugural Ceremony 

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, 


Communications and the 

Arts officially inaugurated 

the CommunicAsia 2012, 

together with BroadcastAsia 

and EnterpriseIT. In his 

opening address, he touched 

on several topics such as 

Next Generation Nationwide 

Broadband Network, or Next 

Gen NBN, the development 

of the data.gov.sg portal 

which provides more than 

7,000 government datasets 

for public usage, the 

nationwide switch to digital TV 

broadcasting, the auction of 

the 4G spectrum and plans to 

construct a Data Centre Park. 

He said that IT spending in 

Singapore has been predicted 

to grow 5.5 percent year-onyear 

in 2012, driven by the 

innovative use of ICT, adoption 

of mobile devices and services 

and increased demand for 

ubiquitous and high-speed 

connectivity. Dr Yaacob 

announced that Singapore’s 

free-to-air TV channels will go 

fully digital by the end of 2013 

using the DVB-T2 standard. 

Singapore will complete the 

switchover from analogue 

to digital broadcasting by 

2020, in line with ASEAN’s 

agreed timeframe for making 

the switch. The Information 

Development Authority, 

or IDA, allowed Singapore 

mobile operators to deploy 4G 

services using their existing 

spectrum and have sought 

views to allocate a total of 320 

megahertz of spectrum for 4G 

services. Once this framework 

is finalised, IDA intends to 

conduct a 4G spectrum 

auction by 2013. 

Key Highlights 

Huawei, a leading 

global information and 

communications technology 

(ICT) solutions provider, 

received the Green Technology 

Award at the CommunicAsia 

2012, recognizing its successful 

Green Integration Outdoor 

Power System. During the 

exhibition, Huawei stood as 

individual largest exhibitor, 

wowed the crowd with its 

new, sleek range of consumer 

and enterprise products, 

including the Androidpowered 

Ascend handsets and 

mobile Wi-Fi devices. 

ST Electronics also attracted 

a continuous stream of 

visitors with its Smart Cities 

showcase of the latest in data 

management and resource 

utilization for public utilities 

- a technology concept that 

is making waves across the 

globe. 

Human IT Solutions in the 

Korea pavilion unveiled 

‘Human Gate – Lite’, an 

indoor gate ball system using 

infrared motion capture of the 

whole body so that the player 

does not need to wear any 

equipment or use a handheld 

device. The new system is set 

to hit the market in August 

this year. 

MAVEN - a robot from 

Nanyang Technological 

University’s Institute for Media 

Innovation - excited the crowd 

with its ability to recreate 

a 3D representation of its 

surroundings as it travelled 

the exhibition floor. MAVEN, 

in addition to Singapore 

Polytechnic’s Express Melody, 

a solution that leverages 

on cloud technology and 

helps businesses to attach a 

unique sound to their brand, 

were amongst some of the 

innovations showcased at 

the new Discovery Lounge at 

CommunicAsia2012. 

The special OTT feature area, 

one of the star attractions 

at BroadcastAsia2012, saw 

a huge number of visitors 

stopping to catch a glimpse 

of the Euro2012 on various 

platforms including TV, laptop, 

tablet and mobile phone; and 

July 2012 


17

other content contributed by 

Sony Pictures. A consortium 

of exhibitors facilitated this 

multi-platform delivery of 

content. 

An interesting draw was the 

photography subject Sony 

used to demonstrate the 

features and versatility of its 

cameras - a sparkling Mini 

Cooper. Sony showcased its 

PMW-100 professional camera 

that is particularly popular 

in broadcasting stations 

and production houses for 

gathering news and producing 

documentaries. 

South Korean firm GEONAS 

presented a product title 

‘LuckyCharger’, a charging station 

that the company claims 

can recharge all types of mobile 

devices. Using it is simple: 

First make a payment using 

the built-in coin receptacle, 

key in your four-digit PIN lock 

code, and insert your mobile 

phone battery into the autolocking 

drawer for charging. 

That’s right — the charger will 

automatically detect the battery 

type and charge it using 

the fastest charging method. 

The Pakistan Pavilion was 

represented by Rehan School. 

com where the visionary originator 

of Free Education idea 

Rehan Allahwala was briefing 

the gathering of enthusiasts 

and imminent scholars on the 

functionality and usability of 

video-based mobile education. 

Rehan School.com uses low 

entry, low cost mobile phone 

systems as a education tool, 

by producing educational 

videos based on nursery to 

metric system curriculum. The 

project is free of charge. 

The magnificent feature of the 

4-day event was the formal 

launch of Rehan School.com 

by H.E. Syed Hasan Javed, the 

High Commissioner of Pakistan 

to Singapore. 

After the formal inaugural 

ceremony, H.E. Syed Hasan 

Javed gave a brief and impressive 

speech. He informed the 

participants who had gathered 

to have a glimpse of him that 

there are approximately 2.2 

billion illiterate people in the 

world who do not know how 

to read and write any language. 

He said that Rehan- 

School.com which is a new 

platform launched in CommunicAsia 

2012, Singapore 

will allow people anywhere in 

the world to learn to read and 

write their own language using 

a simple $15 mobile phone 

in 1 to 3 month’s time. 

“This system will revolutionize 

the learning process in the 

world starting from Pakistan. 

Pakistan has a great potential 

and I invite people to look at 

Pakistan and exploit the talent 

of Pakistan people which 

have one of the best telecom 

infrastructure having 7 mobile 

operators, 4 wimax operators 

and fiber available in majority 

of the country and salaries 

as low as $100 a month and 

definitely you should explore”, 

further said the High Commission 

of Pakistan in Singapore. 

The founder of RehanSchool. 

com Mr. Rehan Allahwala also 

spoke on the occasion and 

H.E. Syed Hasan Javed, the High Commisssioner of Pakistan to 

Singapore and Mr. Rehan Allahwala at CommunicAsia 2012 

said while explaining the salient 

features of RehanSchool. 

com. “Take your mobile phone 

to a nearest phone shop and 

ask them to copy the data 

from rehanschool.com on the 

memory card of your phone 

like you ask for songs and 

movies. This content will allow 

them to watch videos which 

are fun to watch and you can 

watch it for entertainment or 

learning and end up speaking 

and reading that one particular 

language in 1 to 3 month’s 

time.” 

This system is supposed to 

revolution the idea of learning 

using simple mobile technology. 

This does not require 

any application or any smart 

phone system, it works on any 

phone which can play video. 

More information is available 

on RehanSchool.com. There 

is no fee for downloading the 

content and all the services 

and content is provided free 

of charge. Anybody can start 

selling it for fee if they want 

to. 

The CommunicAsia2012 

Summit, EnterpriseIT2012 

and BroadcastAsia2012 

International Conference 

received overwhelming 

response from delegates, 

with exciting questions and 

discussions generated during 

the sessions, workshops and 

panel discussions. 

Close to 2,000 exhibitors 

presented the latest 

technologies in next 

generation fibre broadband, 

M2M technology, cloud 

security, DVB-T2, Over-the- 

Top Technology (OTT) and 

more. Conference speakers 

addressed pertinent industry 

topics and presented 

insightful industry trends 

and views. About 49,000 

attendees including 

exhibiting staff, visitors, 

conference speakers and 

delegates, and members of 

the media were at this year’s 

CommunicAsia, EnterpriseIT 

and BroadcastAsia. 

“The shows brought 

together like-minded industry 

professionals to network, 

discuss current trends and 

challenges, exchange ideas, 

and forge new partnerships. 

This year, we received 

positive response to the new 

conference tracks, increased 

hospitality suites and new 

tech zones,” says Mr. Stephen 

Tan, Chief Executive of 

show organiser, Singapore 

Exhibition Services (SES). 

“We will continue to evolve 

the content and format of our 

shows to be in tune with the 

latest trends and technology 

advancements, to meet the 

most current needs of the 

industry. This is why exhibitors 

and visitors, speakers and delegates, 

return to the shows, 

year after year. Our gratitude 

goes out to all participants 

who have contributed to the 

success of the event, and we 

look forward to staging yet 

another successful event in 

2013,” 

Teletimes International was 

the media partner for the 

CommunicAsia 2012. 

18 July 2012 


Thuraya provides reliability and value to marine market 

Showcased SF2500 voice satellite terminal at CommunicAsia 2012, Singapore 

Thuraya Telecommunications 

Company unveiled at 

CommunicAsia 2012 in Singapore 

its SF2500 maritime satellite 

voice terminal, developed 

jointly with partner Addvalue 

Communications Pte Ltd. 

Thuraya is using its existing 

success in providing satellite 

communications to more than 

140 countries around the globe 

to diversify into selected vertical 

sectors. Having sold over 

600,000 handsets worldwide, 

the move is another significant 

step for Thuraya as it continues 

to expand its marine product 

line 

SF2500 is the latest offering 

available to end-users under 

the recently created Thuraya 

MarineComms brand, which was 

launched to provide dedicated 

support for the marine market 

and enables Thuraya’s community 

of distributors and channel 

partners to provide training and 

support for marine end-users. 

The Indonesian Fisherman 

Association is already an early 

adopter of the SF2500 terminal, 

and Thuraya expects the 

product’s reliability and value 

to rapidly attract other global 

marine end-users. 

Mr Samer Halawi, Thuraya Chief 

Executive Officer, commented: 

“Our first customer for the 

SF2500, the Indonesian 

Fisherman Association, is exactly 

the kind of organisation we 

expect the product to appeal 

Samer Halawi 

to, and we are very pleased to 

see them sign up even before 

the product’s official launch. 

Fishing is one of the three most 

dangerous occupations in the 

world, but lack of affordability 

has placed reliable satellite 

communications outside the 

reach of many fishermen until 

now. Smaller form factors and 

more affordable technology 

mean it’s easier to keep satellite 

equipment onboard even in very 

small vessels, making it safer for 

fishermen to do their jobs and 

stay in touch with shore.” 

The world’s fleet is growing 

at a rate of 10% per annum, 

and commercial arrivals at 

major ports have been stable 

or increasing since 2009. The 

leisure and fishery sectors are 

no exception to these growth 

trends, and pressure for 

greater and more cost-effective 

connectivity is on the rise across 

the marine market as fuel 

prices increase and disillusion 

grows with traditional at-sea 

communications. 

Prysmian Group made its South-East Asia debut 

at CommunicAsia in Singapore 

First appearance in since the merger of Prysmian and Draka 

Prysmian Group, world 

leader in the energy and 

telecom cables and systems 

industry, made its South-East 

Asia debut at CommunicAsia 

in Singapore (19-22 June 

2012).Created last year by 

the merger of Prysmian and 

Draka, Prysmian Group has a 

wealth of experience across 

the entire Telecoms sector and 

will showcase a wide range of 

products that are highly suited 

to the Asian marketplace and 

a perfect match for the overall 

scope of the CommunicAsia 

event. Bringing together the 

world-class expertise of two 

leading organisations in the 

energy and telecoms cables 

and systems industry, the new 

Prysmian Group is the global 

leader with sales of some 

€8 billion in 2011 and 22,000 

employees across 50 countries 

and 97 plants. 

CommunicAsia is Asia’s 

leading communications event 

covering a comprehensive 

range of key and emerging 

technologies from FTTx, LTE, 

mobile broadband, mobile 

commerce and innovations, 

next generation services, 

satellite communications, 

smartphones & devices and 

many others. It is an ideal 

venue for the Telecoms 

sector of Prysmian Group to 

showcase its latest innovative 

solutions into the Asian market 

and for the company to 

present its new organisation, 

with operations in Singapore, 

Jakarta and several Chinese 

locations. 

Regionally, Prysmian Group’s 

recent projects in the telecoms 

sector include a major contract 

worth more than €200 million, 

to supply high-tech optical 

fibre cables for the construction 

and management of the 

National Broadband Network 

in Australia. 

The Telecom Solutions 

business operates in the 

telecommunications sector 

with a wide range of cable and 

system solutions addressing 

the high bandwidth provision 

needs of major network 

operators and service 

providers. The portfolio 

covers all areas of the market 

– including long distance, 

submarine and metro systems 

– although the area of greatest 

activity at present is within the 

Lucy O’Brien 

‘last mile’ access networks for 

which Prysmian has developed 

the xsNet suite of products 

and systems which will be 

present at CommunicAsia. 

xsNet addresses the passive 

access network and provides 

tailor-made solutions for all 

parts of the FTTx network – 

indoor, outside and POP applications. 

The building blocks of 

xsNet include a number of familiar 

products which have already 

proven themselves to be 

highly reliable solutions. These 

include SiroccoXS (Blown fibre), 

VertiCasaXS (MDU cabling 

system) and VerTVXS (optical 

satellite solution) – all former 

Prysmian developments. From 

the Draka side have come the 

blown cable families including 

JetNetXS and EaseNetXS. 

July 2012 


19

O3b Networks and AMRTUR Corporation 

commit to provide private ultra-fast internet access to Brunei Darussalam 

and regional clients in collaboration with Datastream Technology 

O3b Networks has announced 

a multi-year, 

multi-million dollar agreement 

with AMRTUR Corporation Sdn. 

Bhd. based in Brunei, to provide 

private high-speed, satellitedelivered 

internet to various 

industries with a particular focus 

on oil and gas activities in Brunei 

Darussalam as well as to other 

regional clients, in a strategic 

business alliance with Data 

Stream Technology (DST), the 

leading mobile telecommunication 

service provider. A single 

O3b beam will be deployed to 

cover the 200 oil rigs and other 

services currently using microwave 

or expensive traditional 

satellite systems in and around 

Brunei Darussalam. 

A technology innovator, AMR- 

TUR will be able to offer its 

customers – which include all 

oil and gas operators as well as 

O3b Networks unveils O3bMaritime at CommunicAsia 2012 

The ultimate connectivity solution for cruise ships and super-yachts 

During CommunicAsia in 

Singapore, O3b Networks 

has launched O3bMaritime – a 

first-of-its-kind broadband 

solution capable of providing 

cruise ship guests and crew 

with more than 100 times the 

average Internet access rates 

at sea. 

Innovative cruise ship operators 

will be able to significantly 

enhance guest satisfaction 

through fast, affordable 

broadband connections. In 

game changing performance 

unmatched and unrivalled by 

current and future maritime 

offerings, O3bMaritime will 

deliver over 500 Mbps in 

service providers in Brunei Darussalam 

and regional operators 

– private high-speed internet 

and VoIP. Furthermore, AMR- 

TUR is the first local company in 

Brunei to venture successfully 

into Integrated Intelligent Smart 

Well System (IISW) technologies 

for down hole pressure, and 

distributed temperature measurements. 

As Brunei drilling rigs 

and service providers operate 

advanced Instrumentation and 

Enterprise applications, they will 

generate huge volumes of data 

that need to be processed on a 

real-time basis and an efficient 

mechanism for transporting 

data will be required. O3b connectivity 

is the ideal solution to 

meet this demand. 

“We are proud and pleased to 

be a customer of O3b and look 

forward to achieve many great 

things together in the region. 

John Finney 

CCO - O3b Networks 

aggregate bandwidth to a single 

vessel. 

Cruise operators facing 

increasing competition from 

luxury shore based resorts 

no longer need to suffer the 

performance compromise 

This agreement with O3b will 

enable us to push our oil and 

gas technology offering even 

further by supplying private 

high-speed internet connectivity 

to the oil & gas drilling rigs and 

related services which support 

their daily operations in the 

Brunei Darussalam and regional 

territorial waters,” said, Lt Col 

(B) Mahmod Yakop, Founder & 

Managing Director of AMRTUR 

Corporation Sdn. Bhd. “The project 

is a significant milestone to 

AMRTUR’s contribution to Government 

of Brunei Darussalam’s 

in nation building and the realization 

of Vision 2035.” “We are 

delighted to announce AMRTUR 

as our second customer serving 

the oil and gas industry. This is a 

growing and very exciting market 

for us and we look forward 

to see our connectivity in action 

on board the many oil and gas 

necessitated by today’s 

maritime connections. Guests 

can surf, download, work, 

watch, speak and stream in 

the same way they do on 

land, unlocking new revenue 

opportunities for operators and 

reinforcing best-in-brand service 

in all aspects of the cruise 

experience. 

“For cruise ship guests and 

crew, heading for the high 

seas has meant leaving highspeed 

broadband services 

behind,” said John Finney, Chief 

Commercial Officer for O3b. 

“It’s an ocean travel tradition 

that O3bMaritime will turn 

into a thing of the past, with 

Steve Collar 

CEO - O3b Networks 

platforms it will serve” said 

Steve Collar, Chief Executive 

Officer, O3b Networks. “With 

O3b satellite connectivity, AMR- 

TUR will continue to lead the 

way in technology innovations 

in Brunei Darussalam and be 

recognized more and more as an 

enabler of systems currently not 

possible because of the lack of 

high-speed internet connectivity.” 

fast, fiber-like connections that 

deliver the same high-quality 

Internet access and broadband 

experience at sea as guests are 

used to at home.” 

The only offshore solution to deploy 

dedicated steerable beams, 

O3bMaritime will track a ship’s 

course continuously, optimizing 

performance for the guests onboard. 

In the competitive world 

of super and mega-yachts, only 

O3bMaritime can provide the 

range of benefits that overwhelm 

existing satellite based 

solutions today. O3b’s crystal 

clear voice and 65ms mouth-toear 

latency provides peerless 

voice quality. 

20 July 2012 


Louise Scott 

O3b Networks to provide Ultra Fast Internet 

Communications to Royal Caribbean Cruises 

O3b Networks has announced 

a milestone multi-year, multimillion 

dollar agreement with 

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. 

to provide high-speed satellitedelivered 

broadband service 

aboard the world’s largest 

cruise ship. By summer 2013, 

more than 8,000 guests, staff 

and crew members aboard the 

cruise industry leader’s flagship 

Oasis of the Seas – under the 

Royal Caribbean International 

brand – will be the first to enjoy 

O3b’s enhanced connectivity at 

sea as if connected to fiber at 

home or in the office. 

A true technology innovator, 

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. 

is the first to utilize O3b’s 

new maritime offering O3b 

Maritime, which delivers the 

reach of satellite and the 

speed and latency of fiber 

at a fraction of the cost of 

conventional providers. O3b 

is enabling maritime service 

providers to offer affordable 

fiber-like capacity across the 

Caribbean and ocean regions 

around the world. Providing 

unparalleled bandwidth, O3b’s 

steerable satellite beams 

will provide cruise industry 

Adam M. Goldstein 

passengers ultra-fast Internet 

communications throughout 

their voyage. “Royal Caribbean 

is committed to deliver the 

most contemporary vacation 

to our guests, and that includes 

pushing ahead for onboard 

technological advances that 

offer the modern conveniences 

that guests enjoy on land,” said 

Adam M. Goldstein, President 

and CEO, Royal Caribbean 

International. “This milestone 

agreement with O3b Networks 

enables us to provide our 

guests with unprecedented 

Internet service at sea aboard 

Oasis of the Seas and potentially 

in the future aboard other 

ships in our fleet. 

“From the moment we met 

Steve Collar 

the Royal Caribbean team 

we were struck by an intense 

customer focus and a determination 

to provide an unrivalled 

cruise experience to their 

guests on board” said Steve 

Collar, Chief Executive Officer, 

O3b Networks. “With O3b 

Maritime, Oasis of the Seas will 

experience connection speeds 

that are an order of magnitude 

higher and latency that is four 

times lower than offered in 

the market today. At O3b, 

we believe that affordable, 

high speed broadband should 

always be within reach – wherever 

you are in the world, on 

land and at sea - and we are 

delighted to showcase the 

unrivalled performance of O3b 

Maritime together with Royal 

Caribbean.” 

Oasis of the Seas shares the 

title of the world’s largest 

and most innovative cruise 

ship with sister-ship Allure 

of the Seas. With a cache of 

distinct onboard activities and 

amenities, Oasis of the Seas 

offers one-of-a-kind entertainment 

performances, culinary 

concepts, retail venues and 

technology innovations. An 

architectural marvel at sea, 

Oasis of the Seas is divided 

into seven distinct themed 

neighborhoods, which include 

Central Park, Boardwalk, the 

Royal Promenade, the Pool 

and Sports Zone, Vitality at 

Sea Spa and Fitness Center, 

Entertainment Place and Youth 

Zone. The ship spans 16 decks, 

encompasses 225,282 gross 

registered tons, carries 5,400 

guests at double occupancy, 

and features 2,700 staterooms. 

Oasis of the Seas and Allure of 

the Seas alternates a Western 

Caribbean with an Eastern 

Caribbean seven-night itinerary 

from her homeport of Port 

Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, 

Fla. 

Singapore and Brunei to lower mobile roaming rates 

Brunei Darussalam’s and 

Singapore’s telecoms 

ministers have announced 

a commitment to reduce 

the prevailing roaming rates 

for mobile phone users by 

the first quarter of 2013. 

The two Ministers made the 

announcement at the sidelines 

of the Ministerial Forum which 

was held as part of the annual 

Infocomm Media Business 

Exchange 2012, Asia’s largest 

infocomm and media platform. 

As part of building strong 

bilateral ties between Brunei 

and Singapore, the Ministers 

have tasked the telecoms 

regulators of Brunei and 

Singapore to work with mobile 

operators to reduce the 

roaming rates. 

Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim, 


Communications and the Arts, 

Singapore said, “Brunei and 

Singapore enjoy a long history 

of warm friendship with strong 

cooperation in a wide range 

of issues of mutual interests, 

including infocomm issues. This 

collaboration seeks to provide 

cross-border communication at 

a lower cost for the people of 

Brunei and Singapore. It would 

also enhance and reduce the 

cost of doing business between 

the two countries.” 

Both the wholesale interoperator 

charges and the retail 

subscriber charges will be 

reviewed. As mobile roaming 

charges involve different price 

components charged by operators 

in both countries, any effort 

to reduce roaming charges 

would require coordination 

and cooperation between both 

regulators and operators to 

ensure that users from both 

countries benefit from the decision. 

July 2012 


21

Internet Society aims to influence policy 

makers, civil society, industry and others to 

advance Internet policies and strategies 

Rajnesh D. Singh 

Regional Director - Asia-Pacific, Internet Society 

Teletimes Interview 

Teletimes - Please tell us about 

Internet Society, its inception 

and core principles. 

Rajnesh D. Singh - The 

Internet Society was founded 

in 1992, and this year we 

are celebrating our 20th 

anniversary. It was founded 

by people who pioneered 

the Internet, including Vint 

Cerf and Bob Kahn, who are 

creators of TCP/IP, on which 

the Internet and most modern 

IT systems run today. 

The mission of the Internet 

Society is to promote the 

open development, evolution, 

and use of the Internet for 

the benefit of all people 

throughout the world. There 

are several ways in which we 

work towards achieving our 

mission, and they include: 

Facilitating the open 

development of standards, 

protocols, administration, and 

the technical infrastructure of 

the Internet. 

Supporting capacity building 

initiatives in developing 

countries specifically, and 

wherever the need exists. 

Providing forums for 

discussion of issues that 

affect Internet evolution, 

development and use in 

technical, commercial, 

societal, and other contexts. 

Fostering an environment for 

international cooperation, 

community, and a culture that 

enables self-governance to 

work, and Serving as a focal 

point for cooperative efforts 

to promote the Internet as 

a positive tool to benefit all 

people throughout the world. 

TT - As a global institute for 

Internet-related issues, what 

are the core areas focused by 

Internet Society? 

RS - For the 2012-2014 planning 

22 July 2012 


cycle, the Internet Society has 

4 key strategic objectives: 

(i) Fostering an open, 

innovative, and trusted 

Internet worldwide. 

We are committed to advance 

the underlying open and 

interoperable architecture 

of the Internet, and its 

distributed and collaborative 

means of management 

and development, as these 

principles are essential for 

fostering a stable, open, and 

trusted Internet upon which 

innovation can flourish. 

(ii) Advancing policies and 

strategies that strengthen 

the Internet’s growth and 

evolution. 

We aim to influence policy 

makers, civil society, industry, 

and others to advance Internet 

policies and strategies that 

uphold the critical principles of 

openness, user-centricity, and 

stakeholder participation. 

(iii) Enabling a vibrant 

organisation and vital global 

community to advance the 

Internet’s future. 

We aim to further engage 

our members and the public 

towards positive action, 

as well as helping a new 

generation of Internet leaders, 

contributors, and innovators 

to emerge. 

(iv) Empowering people to 

achieve human potential 

through unencumbered 

Internet use. 

We aim to advance the access 

and use of the Internet on 

an open, nondiscriminatory 

basis, and empower 

individuals and communities, 

including the vulnerable and 

underserved, to maximize the 

transformative opportunities 

the Internet enables. 

TT - Please tell us about the 

Internet Society’s chapter(s) 

status around the globe 

and how does they work 

for their local communities. 

What benefits and support is 

offered by Internet Society to 

its chapters? 

RS - Internet Society Chapters 

bring together individual 

members who share the 

Internet Society’s principles 

and values to work together 

within specific geographical 

locations (cities and countries 

around the world) or in areas 

of specific interest (e.g. the 

disability and special needs 

chapter). We currently have 

over 90 chapters worldwide. 

Amongst other things, 

the Internet Society helps 

chapters through access to 

Profile 

The mission of the Internet 

Society is to promote the 

open development, evolution, 

and use of the Internet for 

the benefit of all people 

throughout the world. 

event funding and travel 

fellowship opportunities, as 

well as access to grant funding 

opportunities. Chapters also 

benefit from the network and 

relationships they are able to 

build up with peers around 

the world, and use this for 

information exchange and 

collaboration. 

TT - The next generation 

of Internet leaders are 

anticipated and required 

to more capable over the 

understanding of Internet 

technologies and issues. How 

ISOC does plays its part to 

build such capacity building 

among these upcoming 

leaders? 

RS - Building up the next 

generation of Internet 

leaders is something the 

Internet Society has always 

been committed to. In our 

early history the global INET 

July 2012 


23

workshops and conferences 

served to train many from the 

developing world, and you will 

see that many of the alumni 

from that period are Internet 

community leaders today in 

their respective countries. 

In the more recent past, the 

Internet Society introduced 

its Next Generation Leaders 

programmes that prepares 

the world’s next generation 

of leaders to address 

challenges in Internet 

technology, business, policy, 

and education. To apply to 

the programme you must be 

between the ages of 20 and 

40 years old. We take a well 

rounded approach with a 

blend of interactive, online, 

and participatory course work 

designed to help develop 

professional leadership 

potential. We also provide 

fellowship support to events 

such as the IGF (Internet 

Governance Forum) and IETF 

(Internet Engineering Task 

Force) meetings, as well as 

OECD and World Bank infoDev 

related forums. 

TT - Community building and 

volunteer passion is not an 

easy thing to build upon. 

What are your experiences at 

Asia Pacific region and please 

share some success stories of 

ISOC Chapter(s) in the region 

as well. 

RS - It does take a lot 

of personal time and 

commitment to bring about 

success. Key to this is having 

a core group of people who 

pitch in to help and share 

responsibilities, but equally 

important is to ensure that 

there is succession-planning 

and grooming the next 

generation of leaders. As 

people progress through 

life, priorities change – be it 

personal or professional – 

therefore its important that 

a community is not solely 

reliant on one person for 

its continued success. We 

encourage our chapters to 

bring in multi-stakeholder 

participation, as well as 

groom younger members to 

take up responsibilities, and 

eventually leadership. I should 

add its heartwarming to see 

the passion some people have 

to ensure the Internet and 

its benefits reach everyone 

– down to the remote and 

rural villages – and the time 

and energy they put in as 

volunteers. 

TT - The next billion Internet 

users are expected to arrive 

from Asia Pacific region. How 

do you foresee the Internet 

adoption in Asia Pacific 

region especially with regards 

to mobile and broadband 

technologies? 

RS - I think if you look at the 

statistics, and specifically 

the exponential growth in 

mobile devices in Asia-Pacific 

in particular, it quickly become 

obvious that this is where 

future Internet growth will 

come from. We have seen 

a lot of innovation on the 

mobile platform in the past 

couple of years, particularly 

in terms of device capabilities 

and applications. With 3G and 

other high speed services 

being rolled out, the mobile 

platform increasingly becomes 

very attractive for both 

service and content providers. 

Broadband and high speed 

services are becoming 

increasingly necessary to 

fully take advantage of new 

technologies, applications 

and services and more so for 

developing and emerging 

economies. One advantage 

some of these economies 

have is they can leapfrog 

technology cycles and deploy 

current era technology. 

TT - Are the users well aware 

of the privacy and security 

concerns over the Internet 

especially in developing 

As we become increasingly 

connected, we will also face 

new concerns – this is just a 

part of the development and 

evolution cycle. 

economies. How ISOC does 

strive to bridge this gap? 

RS - As we become 

increasingly connected, we 

will also face new concerns 

– this is just a part of the 

development and evolution 

cycle. The key is how we 

tackle the concerns – panic 

and paranoid responses 

will certainly not help, 

and they can even make 

things worse. Education 

is key, as well the need to 

have a multi-stakeholder 

approach to identifying 

issues and discussing them. 

It can no longer fall on 

to just the government 

or service providers, but 

needs to include all relevant 

stakeholders. Governments 

can play a key role as the 

facilitator of such discussions. 

One other point I want 

to make is that the whole 

concept of privacy is 

also changing. What my 

grandparents thought of as 

privacy is different to what 

my parents thought of it, and 

my thoughts are different 

again – this is how things 

evolve from generation to 

generation. I think we can see 

that the current generation 

tend to have a fairly liberal 

view of privacy e.g. what they 

share on social networks. And 

future generations will likely 

have different perspectives 

again. It is important to realise 

this and act accordingly. 

And I want to reiterate that 

that education on issues 

and concerns is the only real 

solution – online security 

and privacy issues need to 

be taught as part of school 

curriculum if we are teaching 

them computing as well. 

TT - What is the level of 

ISOC’s engagement with 

other International institutes 

and Governments? 

RS - The Internet Society 

engages with a range of 

regional and international 

organisations. Globally we do 

so with UN organisations such 

as ECOSOC, ITU, WIPO. In the 

Asia-Pacific region, we work 

with APEC and APT on matters 

of mutual interest concerning 

the Internet. In most of the 

organisations that we interact 

with in a regular manner, we 

have appropriate membership 

status, which allows us to 

engage and contribute to 

their work. 

TT - What gaps exist in Asia- 

Pacific region with regards 

to Internet’s regulatory and 

24 July 2012 


policy frameworks? 

RS - The Asia-Pacific region is 

very diverse, and this diversity 

spans many factors – including 

economic, cultural, societal. 

As a result, there is no one 

regulatory policy framework 

that can fit all economies. The 

key thing for policymakers 

to keep in mind is that the 

actions they take must 

consider the continued open 

evolution and development 

of the Internet. The Internet 

has brought about a whole 

lot of positive change to the 

world, and its openness and 

permission-less innovation 

model has been key to this 

success. This must continue 

for the benefit of current and 

future generations. 

TT - Recently ISOC celebrated 

its 20th Anniversary; please 

share few highlights of the 

celebrations. How do you 

predict the next 10 years of 

the Internet? 

RS - This year is the Internet 

Society’s 20th anniversary, 

and we are marking this 

with year-long celebrations. 

We had a global conference 

in Geneva in April to mark 

this, and local and regional 

events will continue to 

highlight 20 years of success 

throughout the year. We 

also established the Internet 

Hall of Fame (http://www. 

internethalloffame.org/), to 

highlight the contributions 

people have made to the 

success of the Internet, and 

we launched the Internet 

Wishing Tree (http:// 

wishingtree.internetsociety. 

org/) so people can share 

their wish for the future of the 

Internet. In May we officially 

launched the Internet Society 

Asia-Pacific regional office 

in Singapore, and this is yet 

another milestone for us, 

as we celebrate 20 years of 

success. 

TT - Internet is evolving in a 

great manner with new issues 

and challenges. What are the 

opportunities unseen with 

this evolution? 

RS - I think we are still falling 

a bit short in reaching out to 

rural, remote and underserved 

areas. Obviously cost is a 

factor, and we what we need 

is some thought in how areas 

with low ARPUs can be served 

effectively – that the digital 

divide does not leave them 

behind. The Internet Society 

initiated its Wireless for 

Communities project in 2010, 

where we are empowering 

communities to build, run and 

operate community wireless 

We encourage our chapters 

to bring in multi-stakeholder 

participation, as well as 

groom younger members to 

take up responsibilities, and 

eventually leadership. 

networks. This is perhaps one 

model we can look to. 

TT - What are the future plans 

of Internet Society in Asia- 

Pacific region? 

RS - We will strive to bring 

about wider participation 

from the Asia-Pacific region 

in both policy and technical 

forums. In particular, I would 

like to see more people from 

this region developing and 

contributing to the Internet 

standards-making process 

at the IETF. As well, we are 

looking at getting more 

people involved in local 

activities, and will look to our 

chapters in the region to help 

us with this. There are also 

various international policy 

related events taking place 

over the next couple of years 

that could impact the Internet 

and how it works. We look 

forward to encourage multistakeholder 

participation in 

these processes. 

TT - What message would like 

to pass on to our readers with 

regards to Internet Society? 

RS - The Internet has had a 

profound impact globally 

since being introduced into 

the public domain, and is 

now an integral part of the 

world economy. I would invite 

your readers to consider 

joining the Internet Society. 

Individual membership in the 

global member category is 

free. I would also encourage 

companies, policymaking 

agencies and organisations 

to consider organisational 

membership so that they can 

contribute to our work – we 

are always keen to get wider 

input. There are various 

organisational membership 

levels to join at, including 

discounted membership for 

non-profit organisations. Join 

with us and contribute to the 

future success and evolution 

of the Internet. 

July 2012 


25

Comptel Survey reveals 

operators believe pre-emptive 

care and targeted services must be prioritised to reduce churn 

poll conducted by 

A Comptel Corporation, 

at the annual Comptel 

User Group revealed 

that the vast majority of 

telecommunications industry 

executives consider the ability 

to anticipate subscribers’ 

needs and proactively and 

personally interact with 

users is critical for effectively 

managing the customer 

experience. 

Paralleling findings from 

consumer research conducted 

earlier this year, the survey 

found that two-thirds (67%) 

of respondents believe a lack 

of consistent quality, such as 

dropped calls, low bandwidth 

and the slow loading of files, 

and poor customer service 

are the biggest contributors 

to customer churn. Nearly 

half (46%), however, believe 

more targeted offerings 

based around individual usage 

patterns, in combination 

with personalised apologies, 

discounted upgrade 

opportunities or other special 

offers following a service 

issue, will help mitigate 

turnover. 

In the Comptel User Group 

survey, the majority of 


executives (55%) cited analytics 

as necessary to deliver on this 

and capitalise on business 

opportunities. Heralding how 

ubiquitous they are becoming, 

three out of four attendees 

reported leveraging analytics 

daily, weekly or monthly for 

customer retention, more 

targeted marketing or other 

performance improvements. 

Further, almost all survey 

participants noted that, 

when it comes to effective 

customer engagement, realtime 

capabilities to predict 

subscriber behaviours and 

understand the context of 

each customer interaction are 

essential. 

The poll findings support 

Comptel’s vision of 

Contextual Intelligence 

for Telecommunications 

(CIQ4T), which provides 

advanced analytical insights 

for a holistic customer view 

to improve engagement. 

It allows communications 

service providers (CSPs) to 

predict the optimal context 

(with which action and at what 

time) for engaging individual 

subscribers to, for example, 

combat churn by offering 

special discounts or upgrades 

and personalised service 

bundles, and in turn, creating 

new revenue and upsell 

opportunities. 

Other Key Findings 

Thirty-eight percent indicated 

that their marketing activities 

and network fulfillment and 

delivery were not closely 

aligned. CSPs, however, 

would reap benefits—such as 

reduced costs and improved 

customer interactions—from 

bridging the service order 

capture and service delivery 

process. 

Opinions were split nearly 

evenly on whether contextual 

intelligence is best suited for 

monetisation via up-selling, 

cross-selling, personalised 

advertising and new customer 

acquisitions; churn prevention 

via multi-SIM prediction, 

rotational churn identification 

and churn location; dynamic 

profiling and segmentation 

via usage, interests, location, 

propensity to churn and 

influence; and advanced offer 

management to track or 

manage successful promotions 

and popular service bundles. 

Supporting Quotes 

“Increasingly, the 


is realising that it must take 

a more proactive role in 

managing the customer 

experience. CSPs that can 

predict subscribers’ needs 

and wants, rather than simply 

reacting to them, will be in a 

much better position,” said 

John Myers, senior analyst, 

Enterprise Management 

Associates. “Analytics can 

play a critical role here. By 

really understanding the 

unique circumstances of 

each customer and network 

event, CSPs can translate 

that contextual information 

into intelligent actions that 

positively impact both their 

customers’ experiences and 

their bottom lines.” 

“To maximise a subscriber’s 

entire lifetime value, CSPs 

Joanna DiTrapano 

must look beyond the pointof-sale 

and instead think of 

each customer experience 

holistically,” said Juhani 

Hintikka, CEO, Comptel. 

“Analytics can go far beyond 

simple reporting by providing 

an understanding of individual 

customers’ behaviours, and 

enabling CSPs to convert that 

knowledge into intelligent 

actions, which can then 

translate into new business 

opportunities. This will help 

CSPs deliver an optimum level 

of customer engagement at 

every single touch point.” 

Resources 

●●To view the full Comptel 

User Group 2012 survey 

results, download the 

presentation here. 

●●For more information 

about Comptel, visit www. 

comptel.com. Learn more 

about the company’s 

Customer Engagement 

solutions, including its 

advanced predictive 

analytics product. 

●●Learn more about the CIQ4T 

concept. Watch this video 

featuring vice president 

of analytics Matti Aksela, 

and view this SlideShare 

presentation describing 

various use cases. 

●●Connect with Comptel 

on its blog, Compelling 

Conversations on OSS, 

and on Twitter, LinkedIn 

and Facebook. Also visit 

the company’s Vimeo and 

YouTube channels. 

26 July 2012 


Are governments fulfilling their role 

in meeting the Digital Agenda? 

In the mid-nineteenth century 

the French town of Alençon 

was an important crossroads 

between Paris and the West 

of France, similar in size to its 

regional rival, Le Mans. Then, 

the train arrived. Or rather, it 

didn’t for Alençon. The railroad 

between Paris and the West 

cut through Le Mans and 

Alençon was side-tracked; the 

latter town slid into a period of 

economic stagnation, while Le 

Mans boomed. 

Today it is ultra-high-speed 

broadband infrastructure that 

will become a determining 

factor in ensuring the 

economic fortune of 

cities and regions. The 

European Commission (EC), 

for example, estimates 

that every 10% increase in 

broadband penetration 

results in economic growth 

of between 1% and 1.5%. To 

spur this growth, EU Member 

States are being encouraged 

to implement the European 

Commission’s Digital Agenda, a 

multi-faceted project to create 

a single European market for 

digital services. 

At the heart of the Digital 

Agenda (DAE) is a broadband 

infrastructure project 

to ensure the delivery 

of the services that will 

boost Europe’s economic 

development. The EC 

estimates that if Europe is 

to remain competitive with 

other regions globally, by 2020 

it will need Next Generation 

Access (NGA) networks that 

ensure 50% of European 

households are subscribing to 

Internet connection speeds 

of 100 Megabits per second 

(Mbps) and that 100% of 

households have a minimum 

download rate of 30 Mbps. So 

far, 21 Member States have 

defined quantitative coverage 

objectives for the deployment 

of NGA with download targets 

ranging from 25 Mbps to 1 

Gigabit per second (Gbps) 

and with coverage footprints 

between 75% and 100% of 

households or population. 

However, these objectives are 

not yet translating into the 

widespread construction of 

much-needed ultra-high-speed 

broadband networks and a 

correlative increase in Fibre 

To The Home (FTTH) usage. 

As a result, Europe is lagging 

behind other regions. At the 

end of 2011 the European 

Union had 4.5 million FTTH/B 

subscribers, according to 

IDATE, compared to 54.3 

million FTTH/B subscribers in 

the Asia Pacific region and 9.7 

million in North America. And 

in the major economies of 

Germany, the UK and Spain, 

FTTH penetration was below 

1% of total households. 

To make DAE targets a reality, 

governments will need to be 

more proactive in creating 

the right legislation and 

incentives to ensure that 

enough NGA networks are 

built by the 2020 deadline. 

The pay-off will be a mixture 

of simplified legislation and 

new infrastructure that will 

ease cross-border trade and 

encourage economic growth. 

One of the key drivers of the 

Digital Agenda is the wish to 

eradicate potential future 

digital divides in countries 

where there could be little or 

no incentive for commercial 

operators to build high-speed 

infrastructure in certain 

areas. Again, action is still 

needed. One answer is for 

governments to develop 

Public-Private Partnership 

(PPP) models on a national or 

local level. This would facilitate 

the funding of high-speed 

networks and ultimately 

provide services that benefit 

taxpayers. 

A survey by the OECD1 found 

that cost savings derived from 

the use of NGA infrastructure 

in just four sectors of the 

economy—transport, health, 

electricity, and education— 

would justify the construction 

of a national FTTH network. 

Certainly, governments that 

facilitate the construction of 

FTTH networks will be able 

to provide key public services 

more efficiently: for example, 

delivering online health 

services will open up the 

possibility of providing remote 

consultations using video in 

rural areas and to patients 

unable to attend clinics. In 

addition, citizens with ultrahigh-speed 

network access 

at home will find it easier 

to engage in teleworking, 

which can greatly benefit 

companies in terms of saving 

costs and providing flexibility 

for employees. That in turn, 

Nadia Babaali 

Communications Director 

FTTH Council, Europe 

opens up new possibilities 

to re-invigorate rural or 

economically depressed zones. 

Yet so far the EC describes 

progress by the region’s 

governments in terms of 

implementing the Digital 

Agenda as ‘moderate’. 

Many factors are stalling 

government action, not least 

of which is cost. Providing 

access speeds of 100 Mbps to 

50% of European households 

would cost between 181 billion 

euro and 268 billion euro, 

according to estimates in the 

Digital Agenda’s Broadband 

Communication. The initial 

results of a cost model, 

currently being developed by 

the FTTH Council Europe, show 

that the cost of meeting the 

Digital Agenda targets with 

FTTH would be on the low 

side of this range, requiring an 

estimated total investment of 

192 billion euro. In addition, 

there is potential for huge 

savings, for example through 

reuse or sharing of existing 

infrastructure. Coordinating 

such cost-saving measures 

must be a key task for 

governments and regulators. 

There are encouraging signs 

that private and municipal 

organisations are increasingly 

taking steps that mean 

national governments will not 

have to foot the bill alone. 

This will result in an increase 

in wholesale and retail fibre 

access networks that will 

underpin future innovative 

services. 

In Europe, a number of cities 

July 2012 


27

Friendi eyes Malaysia MVNO launch later this year 

Dubai-based mobile 

virtual network operator 

(MVNO), Friendi Group, aims 

to launch an operation in Malaysia 

by the end of the year 

after signing an agreement to 

form a joint venture with a local 

partner in the country. 

Friendi Group signed an 

agreement with Malaysian 

sovereign wealth fund, 

Kumpulan Perangsang 

Selangor Berhad, as its local 

MVNO partner in the country. 

Friendi, which already runs 

MVNOs and brand licencing 

agreements in Oman, Jordan 

and KSA, will have a majority 

stake in the Malaysian 

venture, according to Mikkel 

Vinter, CEO, Friendi Group. 

“The company has been 

formed, we have secured a 

licence and we are moving 

forward. We have a majority 

stake. With a little bit of luck 

we will launch later this year,” 

Vinter said. 

The new venture will be run 

from a new Friendi Group 

office in Kuala Lumpur. The 

operation will be headed 

Mikkel Vinter 

by Jonathan Marchbank, 

a former COO of Virgin 

Mobile in the USA, a MVNO 

with more than 5 million 

customers, according to a 

statement from Kumpulan 

Perangsang Selangor Berhad. 

The news follows closely from 

a deal between Friendi Group 

and Virgin Mobile South Africa 

that will see the two companies 

merge their regional telecom 

operations to create a 

combined entity called Virgin 

Mobile Middle East & Africa 

(VMMEA), which will develop 

and operate mobile telecommunications 

businesses across 

the region. 

Contd. from page 

Are governments fulfilling their role in meeting the Digital Agenda? 

have already recognised the 

importance of ultra-high-speed 

FTTH networks in securing 

their economic future and 

have encouraged investment 

by private companies. In 

Munich, for example, the 

utilities company SWM in 

conjunction with telecoms 

operator M-net is investing 250 

million euro in building FTTH 

networks and expects 350,000 

dwellings, or half of all homes 

in the city, to be connected 

by 2013. In Stockholm the 

municipality created a body, 

almost entirely funded by 

commercial organisations, 

to build a wholesale FTTH 

network and lease the fibre to 

private service providers. 

In the Netherlands, private 

investors have teamed with 

the incumbent KPN to offer 

FTTH to the vast majority of 

the population within 5 to 10 

years, resulting in 1 million 

homes already covered, of 

which 40% are subscribers. 

Meanwhile in the UK, CityFibre 

aims to deploy FTTH at speeds 

of at least 100 Mbps to one 

million homes and 50,000 

businesses in second-tier cities. 

But in order to ensure strategic 

national frameworks, it is 

Europe’s governments that 

will need to play a crucial 

role in ensuring coordination 

between all stakeholders 

including local and regional 

authorities, private investors 

and regulators. Portugal, for 

example, has invested funds 

from the European Economic 

Recovery Plan to deploy Next 

Generation Access networks 

in 140 rural municipalities, 

requiring bidders to connect 

at least 50% of the population 

in a region to speeds of 40 

Mbps or more. The country 

has also provided an 800 

million euro credit facility to 

investors in NGA networks. 

France, meanwhile, has put in 

place regulation to facilitate 

inter-operator co-operation 

on FTTH roll-out with the aim 

of providing ultra-high-speed 

broadband coverage to 70% 

of the population by 2020, 

spreading to 100% by 2025. 

And at the end of 2011 the 

French telecoms regulator 

foresaw approximately half of 

the estimated 19 billion euro 

cost of building nationwide 

very high-speed broadband 

networks coming from public 

funding. 

The reality for governments 

and their partners is clear. As 

new public and private services 

and devices are developed that 

demand increased capacity, 

priority should be given to a 

future-proof infrastructure 

that can accommodate growth 

and changes in bandwidth 

usage. Unlike Fibre To The 

Cabinet (FTTC), which is limited 

by its reliance on copper 

networks to transmit data on 

the last leg to the home, FTTH 

provides ultra-high-speed fibre 

connections to the building 

from the outset. 

Ultra-high-speed broadband 

FTTH networks are set to 

play a key role in ensuring a 

competitive and prosperous 

future for Europe, but those 

networks can only fulfil their 

potential for transforming 

local and national economies 

if they are widespread. 

Given the huge scale of such 

an infrastructure project, 

governments and decisionmakers 

will need to step in to 

coordinate private and public 

investment, so that networks 

are built in a cost-effective and 

timely manner. 

Unfortunately, many governments 

are still shying away 

from the real challenge of 

deploying truly future-proof 

NGA infrastructure. Indeed, 

some of them still question the 

need for setting Digital Agenda 

performance targets. But history 

illustrates that economic 

transformation depends on 

infrastructure. If Europe does 

not begin seriously implementing 

the broadband networks 

of tomorrow, it is in danger of 

mirroring the fate of nineteenth 

century Alençon and 

not experiencing the economic 

growth that it now so desperately 

needs. 

28 July 2012 


Microsoft 

holds Windows 8 Workshop in Amsterdam 

Being at the launch of 

Microsoft windows 8 

workshop, in which Microsoft 

introduced their new operating 

system was a phenomena of its 

kind. 

As we all know the competition 

in electronics and operating 

systems has increased beyond 

our imagination. Especially 

between Apple and Microsoft 

there has been a constant 

competition. Apple released OSX 

Lion, and introduced many user 

friendly features. Microsoft has 

coped with this by releasing a 

new operating system, Windows 

8, which is believed to surpass all 

the other OS. 

But what is so prevalent about 

the new operating system and 

the windows 8 features? 

Windows 8 has introduced a 

Tiles based interface as the 

Start menu. These Live Tiles 

work in real time and the user 

can receive updates constantly 

in like news, weather etc. For 

example the weather tile 

shows current weather and 

projects it for the next two 

days without actually opening 

the app. This new feature has 

made the Windows 8 easy to 

use, especially on tablets and 

smartphones. Also in laptops 

and desktops this feature can 

still be easily used with the 

mouse or keyboard. 

Also to ease accessibility 

Microsoft has introduced a new 

language of touch, which was 

not available in any previous 

version of Windows. Users can 

now easily perform multitouch 

functions such as swipe, drag, 

pinch or stretch. This makes 

Windows 8 easy to use in 

tablets and multitouch laptops. 

However this feature has no use 

in Desktops which use a normal 

mouse and a keyboard. 

Another feature includes the designing and 

developing of apps on windows 8. A platform 

exists for the user to freely use any sort of 

programming language that they are familiar 

inorder to write native windows 8 app. Web 

developers who also know java script can use 

such skills to build windows 8 apps. This is a 

great opportunity for those who have never 

really done app development. 

Windows 8 is also said to be 

cloud connected thus you can 

sign in using your Microsoft 

account and it will automatically 

connect and update with the 

user’s Mail account, Facebook, 

Special Report: Raheela Anjum 

Twitter etc. Introducing this 

feature has been a real great 

step for Microsoft as it has made 

Windows 8 very convenient 

for the user and avoided all the 

hassle which the user has to 

go through to stay up to date 

with his business and social 

networking. 

Microsoft has also taken 

Internet browsing to whole 

new level by redesigning the 

internet explorer. In Windows 8 

the whole screen is dedicated to 

web browser and controls only 

appear when they are needed. 

This new improvement in the 

web browser will definitely make 

Internet explorer the most used 

browser with the release of 

windows 8. 

Another feature includes the 

designing and developing of 

apps on windows 8. A platform 

exists for the user to freely 

use any sort of programming 

language that they are familiar 

inorder to write native windows 

8 app. Web developers who 

also know java script can use 

such skills to build windows 8 

apps. This is a great opportunity 

for those who have never really 

done app development. 

Along with the release of 

Windows 8 has introduced a Tiles based 

interface as the Start menu. These Live Tiles 

work in real time and the user can receive 

updates constantly in like news, weather etc. 

For example the weather tile shows current 

weather and projects it for the next two days 

without actually opening the app. This new 

feature has made the Windows 8 easy to use, 

especially on tablets and smartphones. Also in 

laptops and desktops this feature can still be 

easily used with the mouse or keyboard. 

windows 8, Samsung released 

the Slate PC tablet which is 

especially designed for Windows 

8. With it’s Intel designed 

chip and unambiguous touch 

technology, the tablet allows the 

user to use Windows 8 features 

to its fullest. 

Finally the question is; will 

Microsoft outbid its competitor? 

For the answer, we will have to 

wait and see the response from 

the consumers. 

(Raheela Anjum is the Executive 

Editor of Teletimes International. 

She participated in Microsoft 

Windows 8 workshop, 

Amsterdam on behalf of 

Teletimes.) 

July 2012 


29

Teletimes Report 

GSMA highlights success of Mobile Asia Expo 2012 

The GSMA reported that 

more than 15,500 unique 

visitors from 81 countries attended 

the three-day Mobile 

Asia Expo 2012, held recently in 

Shanghai. The conference and 

exhibition attracted executives 

from the industry’s largest 

and most influential mobile 

operators, software companies, 

device makers, equipment providers 

and Internet companies, 

as well as government delegations, 

and, for the first time at 

a GSMA event, consumers. The 

conference programme drew 

more than 1,800 attendees, 

with more than 60 per cent of 

delegates holding C-level positions. 

“The strong attendance to 

John Hoffman 

the first Mobile Asia Expo is 

indicative of the impact and 

importance of mobile in China 

and throughout Asia,” stated 

John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA 

Ltd. “We are entering a new 

era where mobile truly is 

transforming how the world 

communicates, how business 

is conducted and how people 

live their lives. We are very 

proud of the contribution that 

the GSMA and the Mobile Asia 

Expo have in furthering this 

transformation.” 

China dignitaries and Industry 

leaders gather at Mobile Asia 

Expo 2012. 

Mobile Asia Expo opened on 

June 20th with a ceremony 

featuring Chinese dignitaries 

and industry executives 

including Mr. Zhang Xiaoqiang, 

Vice Chairman of the National 

Development and Reform 

Commission, Mr. Wang Zhixue, 

Vice Minister of the Ministry 

of Science and Technology, 

Mr. Liu Lihua, Vice Minister of 

the Ministry of Industry and 

Information Technology, Mr. Ai 

Baojun, Vice Mayor of Shanghai 

City, Mr. Xi Guohua, Chairman 

of China Mobile, Mr. Lu Yimin, 

President of China Unicom and 

Ms. Liu Zhengyi, Vice District 

Mayor of Pudong New Area. 

Over the conference, CEOs 

and senior executives from 

companies including Alcatel- 

Lucent, Bharti Airtel, China 

Mobile, China Unicom, 

Datang Telecom Group, HTC, 

Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Smart 

Communications and ZTE 

delivered keynotes exploring 

the trends and issues that 

are shaping the mobile 

industry today and into the 

future. Beyond the keynote 

programme, the conference 

included focused sessions on 

topics including applications, 

devices, embedded mobile, 

mobile advertising, mobile 

broadband, mobile health, 

mobile Internet, mobile money, 

mobile operator strategies, 

network evolution, NFC, retail 

in mobile and social media, 

among others. 

Mobile Asia Expo also hosted 

several GSMA seminars and 

meetings, as well as partner 

meetings including the GTI 

Asia Conference and the China 

Unicom Partner Meeting. 

Mobile Business and Lifestyle 

Exhibition 

Approximately 200 exhibiting 

companies occupied over 

8,000 square metres of 

exhibition and business 

meeting space at Mobile Asia 

Expo. Notable exhibitors 

included BMW, China Mobile, 

China Unicom, Cisco, Datang 

Telecom Group, Huawei, IBM, 

MasterCard, Mozilla, NEC, 

Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, 

PayPal, SanDisk, Telecom 

Italia Sparkle, Tencent, Visa, 

Yahoo! and ZTE, among 

others. Other highlights of 

the exhibition included new 

consumer-focused features 

such as the Angry Birds Zone, 

the Augmented Life Zone, 

the Mobile Gaming Zone and 

the Mobile Fashion Zone, as 

well as the Innovation Lab, 

which hosted 25 company 

presentations over three days. 

The Shanghai event also 

included App Planet, a 

focused event designed to 

bring together the many 

critical elements of the broad 

mobile application ecosystem 

together in one location. 

Companies including China 

Mobile, Nokia and Research in 

Motion each held application 

developer conferences in 

the programme. App Planet 

also featured the MNO Cloud 

Forum and the mPowered 

Brands Open Forum, as well as 

a presentation of the winners 

in the Smarter App Challenge 

developers’ competition. 

GSMA Hosts First Public Policy 

Forum 

The GSMA held its first Public 

Policy Forum, bringing together 

delegations from 15 countries 

and international organisations 

to discuss the key enablers 

for mobile broadband growth 

and development. The 

one-day meeting included 

keynote speeches as well 

as panel discussions, where 

stakeholders debated and 

reflected on the key drivers to 

stimulate investment in mobile 

broadband in Asia Pacific, and 

how industry and governments 

can work together to achieve 

this. China Mobile was 

the Platinum Sponsor and 

Qualcomm was the Bronze 

Sponsor for the Public Policy 

Forum. 

30 July 2012 


DNSSEC – 

Securing domain name infrastructure 

The Domain Name 

System (DNS) is the 

addressing system for the 

Internet. Almost anything 

that interfaces with the 

Internet (e.g., computers, 

mobile devices, laptops, 

ATMs, and POS terminals) 

relies on DNS services to 

exchange information. DNS 

uses specialized servers to 

translate (or resolve) names 

such as www.verisign.com 

into numeric addresses that 

allow data and information 

to reach its destination. All 

Internet applications—ranging 

from Web sites, email, social 

networking, and online 

banking to Voice over Internet 

Protocol (VoIP), file sharing, 

and video on demand— 

depend on the accuracy and 

integrity of this translation. 

Without the DNS, the Internet 

cannot function. The DNS is 

integral to a nation’s critical 

infrastructure, online business 

operations and financial 

transactions, and all Internetbased 

communications. 

To reach a computer (or 

any other resource) on the 

Internet, some form of 

addressing is needed. The 

address has to be unique, 

so the network can route 

your requests to the correct 

destination. For this purpose, 

every computer connected to 

the Internet has an IP address 

– a numerical identifier which 

routers and other networking 

equipment can understand. 

IP addresses, however, are 

meant to be used by machines, 

not people. They are hard 

to remember, and have no 

logical structure people can 

relate to. For that reason, 

Internet resources usually 

have a logical name in addition 

to an IP address. In order to 

translate logical names into 

IP addresses, a translation 

system is needed. This 

translation system is called 

the Domain Name System 

(DNS). DNS translates logical 

names, such as www.google. 

com, into IP addresses, such as 

216.239.51.99. 

BIND (Berkeley Internet Name 

Daemon) is the de facto 

standard DNS server. It is a 

free software product and is 

distributed with most UNIX 

and Linux platforms, where it 

is most often also referred to 

as named (name daemon). It is 

the most widely deployed DNS 

server in the world. 

The Domain Name System 

was designed during the 

early years of the Internet. 

During this era all users 

were academia, military 

organizations and computer 

enthusiasts, who – in general – 

could be trusted not to abuse 

the network. All the above 

implies that security was not 

one of the main design goals 

of the Domain Name System. 

As a consequence, there are 

vulnerabilities in the system 

(some of which are even by 

design). The most significant 

vulnerability results from the 

fact that name servers query 

each other, without a method 

to verify that the results are 

genuine, or even originate 

from the proper name server. 

This allows for multiple types 

of attacks on the DNS: 

DNS cache poisoning - 

At any point in the DNS 

architecture, the DNS cache 

of a name server (or even a 

simple workstation client) 

may be poisoned with the 

wrong information thereby 

redirecting unsuspecting users 

to incorrect websites as in the 

example above. 

Inherit weaknesses in a 

particular version of BIND - As 

with any software, updates are 

in part designed to overcome 

flaws in previous versions; 

older versions of BIND are 

more susceptible in general to 

certain types of attacks. 

Denial of Service attacks 

- Although not unique to 

DNS servers DoS attacks can 

potentially cripple the entire 

Naveed ul Haq 

Internet if root name servers 

are not accessible. 

Illegitimate Zone Transfers 

If master and slave name 

servers are not secured it is 

entirely possible for would 

be intruders to acquire an 

entire copy of your DNS 

information, including internal 

DNS information and thereby 

have a partial or perhaps entire 

picture of your internal IP 

structure. 

Search Engine “Page 

Ranking” - Although not 

directly related to BIND per se 

this is an interesting naming 

threat issue as well as that 

of “autocompleters” in web 

browsers. Page ranking can 

be manipulated so that key 

words bring up Pharming sites 

that unsuspecting users may 

click on assuming they are the 

appropriate site. 

Compromising the BIND 

daemon - If the BIND daemon 

is compromised, an attacker 

may be able to access other 

resources on the system as 

the root user. (Those not 

familiar with Linux systems 

should note the daemon for 

the BIND service is called 

‘named’ and that root is the 

name given to what would 

generally be referred to as the 

administrator account.) 

Vulnerabilities in DNS can 

affect the entire Internet 

operations both at global and 

local level(s). Dr. Dan Kaminsky 

is a security researcher and the 

Chief Scientist for Recursion 

Ventures. He formerly worked 

for Cisco, Avaya, and IOActive. 

He discovered a serious 

vulnerability in DNS during mid 

2008.This vulnerability could 

allow an attacker to redirect 

July 2012 


31

Internet clients to alternate 

web servers of his own choice, 

presumably for any misuse 

purpose. 

Briefly, the Kaminsky attack 

allows an attacker to put 

incorrect data into the cache 

of a recursive resolver, which 

allows the attacker to return 

any answer it wants to future 

DNS queries for a given 

domain. 

DNSSEC stands for “Domain 

Name System Security 

Extensions”. DNSSEC is an 

extension to the DNS protocol. 

It is defined by the Internet 

Engineering Task Force (IETF). 

DNSSEC is an extension to the 

DNS specification that permits 

the cryptographic signing of 

DNS records, using public key 

technology. The main goal 

of DNSSEC is to introduce 

authentication of answers to 

DNS queries. 

DNSSEC was created to 

protect the Internet from 

above mentioned threats, 

especially DNS cache 

poisoning. DNSSEC allows 

DNS resolvers to check the 

validity of DNS data, using 

a public key cryptography 

mechanism that ensures 

that once a user begins to 

navigate to a web site, they 

cannot be hijacked on the 

way. DNSSEC is designed to 

address man-in-the-middle 

attacks and cache poisoning 

by authenticating the origin 

of DNS data and verifying its 

integrity while moving across 

the Internet. It protects the 

Internet user from forged 

DNS data by using public key 

cryptography to digitally sign 

DNS data when it comes into 

the system and then validate 

it at its destination. Digital 

signing helps assure users 

that the data originated from 

the stated source and that it 

was not modified in transit. 

DNSSEC can also prove that a 

domain name does not exist. 

These capabilities are essential 

to maintaining trust in the 

Internet. 

In a scenario of an ISP, when 

an ISP supports DNSSEC it 

enables that ISP to provide 

their end users with an 

enhanced level of Internet 

security by providing DNS 

servers with the ability to 

validate domain names and 

make sure that the DNS has 

not been altered. 

DNSSEC works by digitally 

signing answers to DNS 

lookups using public-key 

cryptography. To do this, 

several new DNS record types 

were created, including the 

RRSIG, DNSKEY, DS, and NSEC 

DNS records. When DNSSEC 

is used, each answer to a 

DNS lookup will contain an 

RRSIG DNS record, in addition 

to the record type that was 

requested. The RRSIG record 

is a digital signature of the 

answer DNS resource record 

set. The digital signature can 

be verified by locating the 

correct public key found in a 

DNSKEY record. 

DNSSEC has moved from an 

experimental deployment 

to a mainstream initiative in 

2010. Many Top-Level Domain 

(TLD) registries have either 

deployed or plan to deploy 

DNSSEC soon. Among generic 

Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), 

the .ORG domain leads the 

way, while more than 20 

country codes TLDs have also 

deployed DNSSEC. Along the 

way, a lot of organizations 

are also deploying DNSSEC 

in their networks in view of 

its important to secure the 

Domain Name Infrastructure. 

Following are some of the 

implementation details of 

DNSSEC around the globe. 

Sweden 

Sweden was the first country 

in the world that in late 

2005 announced the signing 

of .se ccTLD domain. In 

Sweden, DNSSEC was part 

of a pilot program by the 

Swedish registry of ICANN 

to implement DNSSEC 

as a commercial service. 

Participants were the 

Ministry of Enterprise, Energy 

and Communications, the 

registry of .SE, Swedish ISP 

TeliaSonera, Swedish bank 

Swedbank group and the 

Swedish National Post and 

Telecom Agency. .SEDNSSEC 

is a supplemental service to 

.SE’s domain name system. 

The objective of the service 

is for the domain name 

registrant to be able to 

secure his/her domains with 

DNSSEC. The service consists 

of .SE providing the customers 

with the possibility of 

administrating and publishing 

their DNSSEC keys, a hash of 

the customer’s public keys – 

DS resource records, in the .SE 

zone, while .SE verifies them 

in accordance with .SE’s policy 

for its handling of DNSSEC. 

Bulgaria 

On October 30th, 2007, 

Bulgaria (.bg) successfully 

completed the 60-day 

period of the integration 

of the automated DNSSEC 

administration interface in the 

.bg zone and the subzones. 

On August 29th, 2007, 

register.bg provided the users 

access to DNSSEC interface 

which allows each domain 

registrant to manage and 

setup DNSSEC using digital 

signature certificate. Register. 

bg is the first ccTLD registry in 

the world that has introduced 

a technology for automated 

DNSSEC management and 

setup. The DNSSEC service 

is provided byregister.bg 

without an extra fee. As of 

August 2008, over 80 DNSSEC 

enabled zones exist in .bg. 

United States 

In February 2010, Comcast 

which is the largest ISP in 

United States announced 

a public trial for DNSSEC 

implementation. Comcast is 

targeting year 2011 to roll out 

DNSSEC validation throughout 

all of Comcast’s DNS resolvers. 

Comcast will also be signing 

all of the domains it hosts, 

including comcast.com, 

comcast.net, and xfinity.com. 

Czech Republic 

On September 30, 2008, the 

cz.nic association, allowed 

to use DNSSEC for securing 

DNS records. The public key 

used by cz.nic in order to 

validate the correctness of 

DNS records, for .cz domain. 

Furthermore, Czech Republic is 

the first country to implement 

DNSSEC for ENUM domains, 

which consists of telephone 

numbers, published by their 

owners in order to allow 

calling them over the Internet. 

DNSSEC is a mechanism to 

secure DNS from accepting 

false data by cryptographically 

signing DNS data. This is a 

critical part of preventing 

“man in the middle” attacks 

or counterfeiting data. The 

problem has long been known, 

but was not thought to be 

easily exploitable before the 

attack method discovered by 

Dr. Dan Kaminsky. 

DNSSEC provides a mechanism 

by which an end user can 

guarantee that the DNS data 

they have is the same as that 

which was published by the 

holder of the zone’s private 

key. Currently when an enduser 

visits a web site they 

cannot be sure that the site 

they are visiting is the one 

the zone owner published. 

With a completely DNSSEC 

signed DNS tree, the end 

user can be sure (and prove 

cryptographically) that the 

DNS data they have in their 

hand is correct. 

32 July 2012 


ITU Telecom World 2012 to convene in Dubai 

The world’s leading experts 

attending the International 

Telecommunication Union’s 

upcoming ITU Telecom World 

2012 Forum will promote 

leadership and innovation to 

expand broadband services 

in a competitive marketplace 

and achieve global connectivity 

while ensuring equal access 

and transparency, according to 

the conference agenda. 

These core issues and many 

others will be on the agenda in 

Dubai at the meeting of high 

ranking delegates bringing 

WCIT 2012: An opportunity for an open, innovative, 

sustainable and more secure ICT environment 

The ITU Secretary General, 

Hamadoun Touré, and 

the ETNO Executive Board 

Chair, Luigi Gambardella have 

reiterated the importance 

of the WCIT to be held in 

Dubai from December 3 - 14, 

2012 to lay the framework 

that will facilitate the further 

growth of an innovative, and 

sustainable future for the 

telecom and information and 

communication technology 

sector (including the Internet). 

Dr. Hamadoun Touré, ITU 

Secretary General, said: “The 

1988 ITRs opened the door 

for the telecommunications 

revolution of the 1990s – 

and notably privatization, 

liberalization, and new 

technologies such as mobile 

and the Internet. Now it’s time 

to take the next step and open 

the door for the broadband 

revolution of the next decade 

– so that all the world’s people 

can gain access – affordable, 

equitable, high-speed fixed or 

together Heads of State 

and Government, leading 

government representatives 

and business chiefs including 

Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel- 

Lucent; Osman Sultan, CEO, 

mobile access – to voice, video 

and data.” 

Luigi Gambardella, ETNO 

Executive Board Chair, said: 

“The WCIT is an opportunity 

to address the need for a new 

eco-system for the Internet 

enabling operators and service 

providers to meet the huge 

challenges driven by rapid data 

increase and allowing users to 

continue enjoying the benefits 

and opportunities brought 

du; Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, 

CEO, Etisalat Group; Eugene 

Kaspersky, CEO Kaspersky Lab; 

Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohamed 

Saud Al-Thani, Chairman, Q-Tel; 

Romain Bausch, President and 

CEO, SES; and Franco Bernabè, 

CEO, Telecom Italia. 

ITU Telecom World 2012 will 

convene in Dubai, on 14-18 

October. This landmark event 

is organized by ITU and hosted 

by the Government of United 

Arab Emirates. 

“Creating awareness of the 

new technologies and trends 

about by the Internet”. 

The ITRs, which will be 

revised at WCIT, set the basic 

principles for interconnection 

ensuring that networks can 

connect smoothly. However, 

the environment has changed 

dramatically since the latest 

revision of the ITRs. The 

growth in traffic puts a strain 

on network resources and 

risks to worsen the user 

experience. ITRs need to 

revolutionizing our industry 

is just the beginning,” said 

Dr. Hamadoun Touré, ITU 

Secretary-General. “We want 

to help people understand 

the impact, opportunities 

and challenges that these 

create. Above all, we want 

to make sure that the new 

ICT ecosystem which is 

developing is one that is fair, 

safe, resilient, open to all and 

fully transparent. I believe 

that ITU Telecom World 2012 is 

the platform to achieve these 

aims.” 

reflect changes in markets 

and technologies, while 

allowing Internet innovation 

to continue developing. 

The ITU membership, which 

includes ETNO, believes that 

the WCIT is an opportunity to 

improve the current basis that 

has, to date, facilitated the 

growth of telecommunications 

(including the Internet) and 

the information society. There 

are opportunities to agree on 

a new sustainable economic 

model favouring innovation, 

openness and consumer 

choice. In this context, ETNO 

has submitted an innovative 

proposal for the revision 

of the ITRs ensuring the 

futureproofness of the current 

model. 

By allowing commercial 

agreements between 

undertakings on end to end 

quality of service delivery 

ETNO believes that innovation 

and improved user experience 

would be encouraged. 

July 2012 


33

ICANN reveals the possible list 

of new top level domain names over Internet 

Internet Corporation for Assigned 

Names and Numbers 

(ICANN), the organization in 

charge of basic Internet name 

and addressing revealed on 

Une 13, the much awaited list of 

possible new top level domain 

names over the Internet. This 

has happened after six years 

of debate, embarking ICANN’s 

plans to liberalize Internet domain 

name space. 

At a press conference in London, 

ICANN chief executive Rod 

Beckstrom, revealed there had 

been 1,930 applications for new 

gTLDs. “This is a historic day for 

the Internet and the two billion 

people around the world that 

depend on it,” Beckstrom said. 

“These are just applications. 

They are not yet approved and 

some of them may not be. None 

of them will enter the Internet 

until they have undergone a 

rigorous, objective and independent 

evaluation.” He added 

further. 

More than half of the applications 

have come from North 

America, home to Internet 

giants like Google, Yahoo, 

Microsoft and Amazon. While 

a total number of 303 applications 

came from Asia Pacific and 

17 from Africa. This list release 

begins a 60-day comment period 

where both the general public 

and parties such as trademark 

owners will have the opportunity 

to comment or object to 

possible new domains. 

For the first time, brands like 

Adidas and Apple have been 

able to apply for their own Top 

Level Domains (gTLDs) - or 

even secure generic “strings” 

like .sports and .music. The 

potential new top level domain 

names vary widely in their 

descriptiveness. In many cases, 

they represent brand names or 

trademarks that were applied 

for by the trademark or brand 

owners. Some of these include 

.bananarepublic, .dupont, 

.goodhands, .macys, .nissan 

and .swatch. Notably while 

Google applied for .google and 

Microsoft applied for .windows, 

Apple applied for .apple, IBM applied 

for .ibm, neither Facebook 

nor Twitter applied for their 

respective names. Other names 

are descriptive of the applicant’s 

business or interest, such 

as .stroke from the American 

Heat Association and .kosher 

from the Kosher Marketing Assets, 

LLC. The list also includes 

geographies and communities, 

including .nyc, .hamburg, .wales, 

.africa and .tokyo. In addition, 

under the gTLD program, non- 

Latin characters are also made 

available which would result 

in availability of the proposed 

gTLDs in Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese, 

Japanese, and Korean alphabets 

and characters. 

Interestingly, a significant number 

of potential new top-level 

domains are common in nature, 

descriptive terms that may or 

may not be associated with a 

particular brand or industry. 

These include two applications 

for .docs—one from Microsoft 

and another from Google—also, 

.hotel and .hotels, .blog, .news, 

.inc, and .kids, many of which 

were proposed by several applicants. 

There were some big 

surprises, like the multitude 

of companies going after .APP 

(13 applicants in all), the most 

aggressive applicant was a company 

called “Charleston Road 

Registry Inc.” that applied for 

101 domain names. Charleston 

Road Registry Inc. actually is an 

entity that will manage Google’s 

gTLD portfolio. This means that 

Google has in fact topped the 

position for applying for one 

more than a hundred new Top 

level domains. They include 

name such as .goog, .google, 

.youtube, .gmail, .android and 

other properties associated 

with Google. It has also applied 

for many extremely common 

domain names such as .baby, 

.blog, .buy, .boo, .lol, .fly, .free, 

.game and many more. ICANN 

will take in about $357,000,000 

for the $185,000 per application. 

So, we can say that Google has 

invested a small country’s GDP 

for new gTLDs. 

The potential list of new gTLDs 

is available and the comment 

window is now open. While 

many may not survive, it is likely 

anticipated that several hundred 

will and have a significant impact 

on the Internet as we know 

it today. 

Etisalat applies for generic top level domain with ICANN 

Etisalat Group, the 

telecommunications 

corporation with operations 

in 17 markets across the 

Middle East, Africa and Asia, 

has said that it has applied 

for the .etisalat, top level 

domains with the Internet 

Corporation for Assigned 

Names and Numbers 

(ICANN), the organisation 

that coordinates the 

worldwide Domain Name 

System (DNS) to ensure that 

the single global Internet 

works properly. TLDs refer to 

the suffix attached to Internet 

domain names. 

Etisalat is among the 1,930 

applicants announced to the 

public on June 13th, 2012, 

who have participated in this 

unique opportunity, which 

includes 116 applications for 

Internationalized Domain 

Names, or IDNs, for strings 

in scripts such as Arabic, 

Chinese, and Cyrillic. 

Commenting on ICANN’s 

announcement, Essa Al 

Haddad, Chief Commercial 

Officer, Etisalat Group, said: 

“Securing the .etisalat. TLDs 

is important to a company 

like Etisalat that serves 

170 million customers in 17 

markets across the Middle 

East, Africa and Asia. It will 

be a leap forward for Etisalat 

in establishing our brand 

globally in the public space, 

and we are looking forward 

to have our applications 

accepted by ICANN. 

“The unique .etisalat domain 

Aslam Mumtaz 

will help further enhance the 

value of the Etisalat brand 

through building an even 

greater bond of trust with our 

customers and through the 

security we provide across 

our various telecommunications 

platforms. Once operational, 

the TLDs will also allow 

us to strengthen existing 

relationships with current and 

future global network partners 

and help us to deliver 

new, transformative telecommunications 

services.” 

34 July 2012 


True mobility trend 

The future of mobile computers 

is rugged! 

We are going through a 

radical shift in the way 

people work and use computers. 

Increasing availability and 

affordability of wireless broadband 

is giving the global workforce 

true mobility, for the first 

time in history. Many of them 

will use smartly designed mobile 

rugged computers for their 

everyday computing 

and communication 

needs, instead of 

traditional laptops. 

”We live in interesting 

times”, said 

Robert Kennedy in 

1966. I am prone to 

agree, although Bob 

and I surely refer 

to vastly different 

developments and 

scenarios. I would 

like to suggest that 

we are presently going 

through a real, 

radical shift in the 

way in which people 

work and use computers. 

It is about true mobility, 

for the first time in history. 

With increasing availability and 

affordability of wireless broadband, 

people are no longer 

confined to the traditional office 

environment. Soon we will all 

be connected, everywhere and 

always. Mobile operators are 

expanding networks and increasing 

capacity to handle the 

explosion of data traffic stemming 

from the increasing use of 

smartphones (that are in reality 

more computers than phones). 

Working from home or closer to 

the customers can have several 

positive effects: it may make 

staff more content and also 

more productive. It may make 

the organization slimmer by reducing 

the need for office space. 

And the society as a whole 

may reap great environmental 

rewards if this newly found true 

mobility leads to fewer trips by 

car, bus, train or plane to and 

from the office. 

Another strong trend that drives 

true mobility is the availability 

of much improved so-called 

rugged, or ruggedized, computers. 

As opposed to traditional, 

or commercial, computers, 

these computers are specifically 

designed to operate reliably in 

harsh usage environments and 

conditions, such as strong vibrations, 

extreme temperatures 

and wet or dusty conditions. 

Standard computers are simply 

not suitable for use in outdoor 

environments. They have poor 

battery life and cannot withstand 

shock, dust and water. 

They break too easily and too 

often, thus making the pricebenefit 

analysis inferior to that 

of rugged computers (although 

the latter are more expensive 

to purchase). The total cost of 

ownership is much lower, as 

much as 65 per cent lower per 

year, for rugged computers, 

mainly because their durability 

minimizes or eliminates the loss 

of productivity that is the result 

of computers breaking down. 

Ordinary office workers embrace 

rugged devices 

Traditionally, rugged computers 

have been used by field workers 

operating in tough and ‘naturally 

mobile’ environments such as 

logistics, geomatics, forestry, 

public transportation, construction, 

mining, public safety and 

military. But a strong parallel 

trend is that even ‘ordinary’ office 

workers are now also starting 

to use rugged computers for 

Jerker Hellström 

CEO, Handheld Group 

a life ‘on the go’ to avoid having 

to replace commercial laptops 

or handheld devices or even 

smartphones so often. Many 

blue collar workers, like garbage 

collectors and train staff, have 

also started using rugged computers 

and handheld devices 

to make their work 

more effective and 

productive. 

But what is a rugged 

computer? 

There are two 

main standards for 

classifying rugged 

computers: 

The American 

military standard 

for equipment, 

MIL-STD-810. This 

is a broad range 

of environmental 

conditions that 

include: low pressure 

for altitude testing; 

exposure to high 

and low temperatures plus 

temperature shock; rain; humidity, 

fungus, salt fog; sand and 

dust exposure; leakage; shock 

and vibration. The standard is 

comprised of 24 laboratory test 

methods. Generally speaking, 

the more methods tested (and 

passed), the more rugged the 

unit. So a rugged computer 

would on one level be classified 

by how many test methods it 

has passed. 

The IP scale. Not to be confused 

with Intellectual Property or IP 

address, IP in this case stands 

for Ingress Protection and the 

Contd. on page 36 

July 2012 


35

My experience with airtime 

The first time I found out 

about airtime was from the 

financial times. 

The article mentioned that celebrities 

asked to try it out were 

disappointed with the results. 

The application crashed. The 

developers said the demo was 

not on the actual site and the 

site was much better. 

Ok so I typed in airtime.com 

assuming the domain to be that. 

The site seemed to work on my 

Linux + firefox browser. Good. 

The technology seemed tested 

enough to work. 

Used it on the 6th and 7th of 

June 2012. It was launched on 

the 5th of June. I saw a person 

with an android figire on the 

monitor at least 2 times in 

maybe like 100 connections. So 

maybe there were not too many 

people on at the time. There 

were only about 4000 likes on 

the facebook page so my estimate 

is about 100 to 500 users 

on the 6th of June and maybe 

about 10,000 users on the 7th 

of June or maybe even up to 

30,000 but not likely. 

Ok my take on the results. If the 

software does peer to peer then 

expect this thing to take off 

like a rocket. Because there are 

likely to be more than 1 million 

users by the week 1 end. That is 

by 12 June 2012. If the software 

does not do peer to peer and 

uses a central server to route 

the video then the service is 

likely to crash or restrict usage 

severely. My guess is that it is 

peer to peer routing. I have not 

checked it yet. 

OK the good thing about it is 

that it solves the boredom issue 

better than Facebook. You get 

to connect to strangers on a 

video chat when we hardly ever 

chat on video without facebook 

friends. 

Bad news. Shall be a waste of 

two weeks per user average like 

IRC was when it got discovered 

by a user in the 1990s. 

Personally I used up about 10 

hours in total so far on this new 

technology to find out what is 

likely to happen. 

Also the software seems to be 

updated in realtime. 7Th June 

morning (Dubai time) the star 

button vanished. 

Afternoon 7th June the automatic 

connect to another 

person stopped and expected 

someone to press “talk to 

someone” after a few connections. 

Good for quality control. 

Less blank cameras staring at 

empty chairs or walls shall be 

the result. 

OK that is my take on the 

airtime so far. My prediction 

is that the media reaction may 

be by some that it shall fail but 

the product shall improve very 

fast to cater to a good need 

for reducing loneliness and 

boredom over boundaries. As 

airtime connects people from 

opposite sides of the globe, 

expect more understanding 

and cooperation. Inshallah also 

synergies to be developed. The 

founder of this looks like he was 

the main facebook programmer 

or core fast developer. Airtime 

code changes fast and works 

Khawar Nehal 

while it is being changing. 

Friday 8th June test. Met the 

person wearing a Fox costume 

and turned out to be a student 

studying business in the US. The 

topic became energy and I was 

wondering. Here I am explaining 

the potential future of energy 

to a person who I would never 

have met otherwise. Hopefully 

more people shall use airtime 

to create connections to share 

their experience and create a 

better future. There was one 

person who works in computers 

repairing and he was giving 

lessons on airtime 101. Explaining 

how to change setting and 

buttons and how to use them. 

Learned at least 3 new functions 

in airtime from him in less 

than 5 minutes of discussion. 

Excellent learning tool if people 

are willing to share their time on 

“air”. 

Contd. from page 35 

ratings are displayed as a 2 digit 

number. The first digit reflects 

the level of protection against 

dust. The second digit reflects 

the level of protection against 

liquids (water). So an IP67-rated 

unit is totally dust proof and is 

capable of immersion in water 

for at least 30 minutes to a 

depth of 1 meter. 

As everybody knows Apple 

has been hugely successful 

with the iPhone and the iPad. 

This success has also spread 

into the ruggedized market 

where some enterprises who 

traditionally would have bought 

rugged devices have opted 

for an iPhone or iPad as their 

enterprise mobility hardware. 

The future of mobile computers is rugged! 

The tremendous success of 

Apple has more than anything 

taught the broad masses that 

usability is important, that 

design matters and that the 

essence of mobility lays in the 

size and weight (or lack thereof) 

in a device. The manufacturers 

of rugged equipment are 

learning quickly and are now 

launching rugged smartphones 

and other user-friendly and 

smartly designed devices. 

Rugged computers have 

become much more 

sophisticated and advanced in 

the last few years. They now 

have faster processors to offer 

better and broader use, and 

the ability to bring desktop 

functionality out into the field. 

Their batteries can work for 

eight hours on a single charge 

– a full work day. They may 

work on any choice of wireless 

frequency anywhere in the 

world. They have high quality 

cameras that allows in field 

image capture. 

Rugged is cool 

Rugged mobile computers have 

also become much lighter and 

have much better functionality 

overall, including better displays 

and improved ergonomic design 

– all contributing to an improved 

user experience. New screen 

technology provides spectacular 

screen clarity and brightness 

in any outdoor condition, even 

direct sunlight. 

They also look better – it has 

become cool to own a rugged 

computer (also because 

many famous athletes and 

adventurers use them). Design 

and functionality are two 

strong reasons why the rugged 

computer segment is growing 

faster than other computer 

segments. 

Jerker Hellström is a pioneer and 

industry veteran in the mobile 

rugged computer industry. 

In both entrepreneurial and 

managerial positions, he has 

more than 25 years of experience 

from developing, designing, 

manufacturing and marketing 

rugged computers globally. 

36 July 2012 


China Mobile to expand 4G network 

“The rollout of China’s homegrown fourth-generation wireless networks will take off and expand at a rapid pace 

if mature 4G terminals are ready” Xi Guohua, chairman of China Mobile Ltd. 

The rollout of China’s homegrown 

fourth-generation 

wireless networks will take off 

and expand at a rapid pace if 

mature 4G terminals are ready, 

according to Xi Guohua, chairman 

of China Mobile Ltd. 

Xi, speaking at the GSMA Mobile 

Asia Expo in Shanghai, said 

the development of China’s TD- 

LTE 4G technology is proceeding 

smoothly both at home and 

abroad. 

China Mobile is conducting its 

Phase 2 scale-trial in 10 cities 

and aims to construct more 

than 20,000 base stations 

through new builds and upgrades 

this year, Xi said. 

The company revealed in March 

that it hoped to have a total of 

more than 200,000 TD-LTE base 

stations by 2013. 

“China Mobile has the ability 

to build as many 4G base 

stations as it wants in a short 

period of time,” said Xi, a 

former vice-minister of industry 

and information technology, 

who succeeded Wang Jianzhou 

in March to become China Mobile’s 

chairman. 

The target of building 200,000 

TD-LTE base stations is realizable, 

since the company can 

directly upgrade its 3G stations 

to advanced 4G ones. According 

to China Mobile’s annual 

report, the number of 3G TD- 

SCDMA base stations reached 

around 220,000 last year. 

However, the lack of TD-LTE 

devices could hamper the company’s 

4G rollout, Xi continued. 

Though a dozen mobile phone 

manufacturers have expressed 

interest in developing TD-LTE 

handsets, a mature device 

has yet to emerge, said Cao 

Shumin, president of the China 

Academy of Telecommunication 

Research of the Ministry 

of Industry and Information 

Technology. 

“Several TD-LTE handsets are 

being tested, but their capabilities 

do not meet the standards 

for everyday use,” Cao said. 

The other LTE 4G technology, 

FDD-LTE, has around 64 smartphone 

models. 

‘Dawn’ nears 

China Mobile has aggressively 

promoted TD-LTE to become a 

truly global telecommunication 

standard and wants to prevent 

it from meeting the same fate 

as its predecessor TD-SCDMA, 

which failed to achieve its goal 

of going global. 

TD-SCDMA had fewer compatible 

chipsets and terminals compared 

with other popular 3G 

standards. For example, Apple 

Inc’s iPhone cannot support the 

technology. “China Mobile’s 

hope lies in TD-LTE. The dawn 

is drawing near, and we have 

almost passed the dark night,” 

Xi. Without its experience in 

TD-SCDMA construction, China 

Mobile could not have achieved 

such rapid development in TD- 

LTE technology, Xi said. 

It will take some time before 

TD-LTE handsets really become 

mature, but China Mobile could 

use the time to fully test its TD- 

LTE network, he added. 

China Mobile started building 

the world’s largest TD-LTE 

trial network in the Chinese 

mainland in January 2011, when 

the Phase 1 scale-trial began. 

Among the 10 pilot cities, Hangzhou, 

Shenzhen and Guangzhou 

will conduct in-depth testing 

and offer pre-commercial 

4G services to the public. 

The company realized two-way 

roaming between the FDD-LTE 

network in Hong Kong and the 

TD-LTE network in Hangzhou. 

The central government has 

also showed strong support for 

accelerating the development 

of TD-LTE. 

Zhang Xiaoqing, deputy director 

of the National Development 

and Reform Commission, 

said at the expo that the central 

Xi Guohua 

government fully supports TD- 

LTE and an “important window 

has opened for China’s development 

of TD-LTE technology”. 

Shi Lirong, president of ZTE 

Corp, the world’s fifth-largest 

telecom gear maker and fourthlargest 

mobile phone manufacturer, 

said the company would 

introduce its first TD-LTE smartphone 

by the end of this year. 

In contrast to domestic phone 

vendors, some international 

mobile phone makers remain 

hesitant and tend to have a 

wait-and-see attitude. 

Magnus Ahlqvist, president of 

Sony China, that the company 

may wait after China Mobile 

receives its 4G commercial 

license. Sony had previously 

revealed that it was developing 

TD-LTE phone models at its 

Beijing research center. 

Eight telecom carriers across 

the world have so far deployed 

nine TD-LTE commercial networks. 

As announced in the recent 

GTI operator’s action plan, 

500,000 TD-LTE base stations 

Shen Jingting 

are planned to be deployed 

globally by 2014 with more than 

100 terminal models covering 

more than 2 billion people. 

Technical issue 

Xi said it is hard to predict 

when Apple Inc’s iPhone device 

could finally be used on China 

Mobile’s networks, but Apple 

and China Mobile have frequent 

communication. 

“Apple’s business in China will 

be incomplete if it does not 

cooperate with China Mobile,” 

said Xi. 

China Mobile had 677 million 

mobile phone subscribers by 

May, with 64.3 million 3G service 

subscribers, according to 

the company’s latest figures. 

The biggest obstacle to launch 

TD version iPhones is related to 

technical issues, because Apple 

has a demanding standard 

regarding chipsets, but there is 

no mature and capable chipset 

to support the device, he 

added. 

“Maybe you should ask Qualcomm 

when the TD version 

iPhone will come out, instead of 

turning to us or Apple,” Xi said. 

With the sharp rise in data 

traffic on networks and growing 

numbers of people surfing 

the Web on mobile phones, 

China Mobile will build a smart 

pipe, open platforms, featured 

businesses and an integrated 

interface to establish a leading 

position in the mobile Internet, 

Xi said. 

Reports have circulated that 

China Mobile would get a 

fixed-line network license from 

Chinese regulators to complement 

its wireless business. Xi 

said it was up to the ministry to 

decide whether China Mobile 

should get the permit. 

July 2012 


37

STC: A strategic partner and a national supporter of 

Al Ehsaa shopping and entertainment festival 

STC hands over prizes to “Asrar App” contest winners 

STC’s “Asrar App”, an exclusive 

digital content service 

for women launched for the 

first time in the Kingdom, has 

received tremendous customer 

response. The application, 

which has been downloaded 

more than 27,500 times so far, 

is available to STC’s prepaid 

and post-paid subscribers. 

Asrar App includes a number 

of distinguished features catering 

to the interests of women, 

such as “beauty, lifestyle and 

health”. 

The application offers the best 

information and advice from 

experts in the fields of beauty, 

cooking, fashion, parenting, 

maternity, health, fitness, 

psychology, women’s affairs, 

religion, community, and 

women’s activities locally and 

globally. It comes with more 

than 20 features, in addition 

to a special section devoted to 

communication with professionals 

in beauty, maternity 

and social consultations in 

complete privacy and confidentiality 

updated daily. 

Asrar App is compatible with 

any smart mobile phone that 

supports Java and Android 

operating system, BlackBerry 

operating system and iOS. 

Customers can receive a link 

to download the application 

by typing Asrar and sending an 

SMS to No. 806161 to 902. 

Meanwhile, STC has handed 

over iPod Touch as prizes to 

STC provides BlackBerry Curve 9320 and 9220 

STC has provided BlackBerry 

9320 and BlackBerry 9220 to 

its customers in which operated 

by BlackBerry 7.1. 

BlackBerry Curve 9320 made 

available for free to STC 

customers of Extra package 

of smart devices in which 

included monthly BlackBerry 

package of 1000MB plus 5MB 

roaming, and also included 300 

voice calls within STC network, 

300SMS within the same 

network, 300 MMS of STC 

network at SR 249 per month 

for 12 months contract. 

Customers also have an option 

of SR 299 with Basic package 

of smart devices in which 

included monthly BlackBerry 

package of 1000MB plus 5MB 

roaming with 200 voice calls 

within STC network, 200SMS 

also within STC networking 

operators, and 200MMS. 

There is also an option with SR 

149 per month with 12 months 

contract. Customers can also 

buy the devices for SR949 

without package. 

Prince Badr bin 

Mohammed bin Jlawi 

STC has been honoured with 

an award by HRH Prince 

Badr bin Mohammed bin Jlawi, 

the Governor of Al-Ehsaa, for 

its support to the first Shopping 

and Entertainment Festival 

of Ehsaa, launched under the 

patronage of Prince Badr. 

Mohammed bin Hussein 

Alassaf, Marketing Communication 

Director, STC group 

received the honorary award 

on behalf of STC from Prince 

Badr, who is the sponsor of 

the festival. 

STC has assured its continued 

participation through sponsorship 

in events that support the 

local economy. 

Through its sponsorship, STC 

has been supporting a number 

of activities and programmes 

for the benefit of local people. 

It also aims to attract more 

visitors to the event from 

different parts of Saudi Arabia 

and other Gulf states as well as 

encourage interactive activities 

throughout the “Summer of 

the East”. 

STC’s sponsorship of the 

festival is a part of its social 

responsibility programme in 

accordance with its comprehensive 

plans to enhance community 

audiences to services 

and tourist programmes and 

activities directed at various 

The BlackBerry Curve 9220 is 

available for STC customers 

starting from SR 149 for the 

Basic package in which the 

segments of the society. STC 

supports entertainment and 

shopping events which contribute 

to development of the 

local economy, in line with the 

company’s vision assuring its 

community presence for the 

benefit of all the segments the 

society. It is worth mentioning 

that Ehsaa is considered one 

of the most promising areas 

in tourism and investment in 

view of its unique location, 

population, and it has attracted 

visitors from different 

regions of the Kingdom and 

the Gulf states. 

the winners of the “Asrar App 

Competition” that it launched 

on E-“M3com portal” www. 

m3com.com.sa. Majority of the 

participants were women. 

To enter the competition, subscribers 

registered for free by 

logging in to “M3com portal” 

in order to obtain a username. 

STC offers a wide range of 

unique services making it a 

leader in the world of digital 

content services and diversified 

exclusive programs. 

BlackBerry package includes 

1000MB plus 5MB 

roaming, and 200 voice 

calls within STC operating 

networks, 200SMS 

within the network, 200 

MMS with 12 months 

contract. And it is also 

available with SR 749 

without the package. 

The BlackBerry Curve 

9320 operates on a 3G network 

and QWERTY keyboard famous 

for its ease, provided also with 

a camera of 3.15 megapixel. 

38 July 2012 


Huawei CEO underscores importance 

of Information Security 

Amidst projections for Global Traffic Growth 

The public appearance by Huawei Founder and CEO Mr. Ren Zhengfei further marks 

company’s emphasis on being more transparent in its own work in the security field 

During a presentation at the 

recently held St. Petersburg 

International Economic 

Forum (SPIEF), Huawei Founder 

and CEO Mr. Ren Zhengfei 

outlined the company’s commitment 

to addressing global 

issues of information security 

while emphasizing Huawei’s 

dedication to being open and 

transparent in its own approach 

to data security topics. 

The company—a leading 

global information and 


(ICT) solutions provider— 

projects that worldwide 

network traffic will grow by 

75 times over the next 10 

years with mobile broadband 

in particular growing by 

more than 2,000 times. On 

a regional level, analysts at 

research group Informa have 

already suggested that mobile 

subscriptions in the Middle 

East will push past the 250 

million threshold sometime 

in 2012. The Middle East and 

Africa region as a whole will 

also lead the world in terms 

of the percentage of mobile 

broadband subscriptions 

through 2012, according to a 

new report from analyst firm 

Pyramid Research. 

Mr. Ren believes one of the 

factors key to the development 

of the global telecoms industry 

is not just the creation of 

networks wide enough to 

manage huge amounts of 

data, but matching these with 

more robust security features. 

Huawei has been providing 

security solutions to the global 

telecom and enterprise market 

since 2002, and has served 

more than 100 operators 

and numerous enterprise 

customers in more than 40 

countries worldwide. 

Late last year, Huawei 

even went so far as to buy 

security solution provider 

Symantec’s 49% stake in the 

two companies’ joint venture 

Huawei Symantec for $530 

million—integrating the 

venture’s security and storage 

technology with Huawei’s 

existing products. 

“Data by nature tends to 

be open,” commented 

Mr. Ren. “As data flooding 

increases far faster than 

prevention technology 

develops, the whole industry 

faces information security 

challenges. Cyber security 

is a common issue that the 

whole industry has to face. We 

must join hands to proactively 

address this issue.” 

Ren Zhengfei 

Having kept a low profile 

in the past, Mr. Ren’s 

speech marks yet another 

instance of increased public 

exposure for the Huawei 

Founder and CEO this year, 

following a presentation at 

the EU Competition Forum in 

February. Based on Huawei’s 

commitment to be more 

open and transparent, the 

company’s Annual Report 

released earlier this spring 

included updated information 

about Huawei’s management 

team—including Mr. Ren— 

while disclosing more detailed 

information about the 

company’s three business 

groups and the members of 

the Huawei Supervisory Board 

Committee. 

During the SPIEF 2012 forum, 

Mr. Ren also highlighted 

Huawei’s plans to deepen its 

roots in Russia responding 

to Russian President 

Vladimir Putin’s call for more 


investment in Russia to develop 

its electronic information 

industry. Mr. Ren believes that 

Russia is poised to experience 

another golden age as the 

country possesses the talents 

and resources necessary to 

advance its ICT industry. Since 

entering the Russian market 

15 year ago, Huawei has kept 

its commitment to localization 

and currently has more than 

1,300 employees in Russia—of 

whom 80% are locally hired. 

“The key to the future 

development of the electronic 

information industry lies 

in cyberspace technology. 

Cyberspace is a new strategic 

domain unlike physical 

territory. What makes the 

two domains different is that 

competition in cyberspace is 

not characterized by occupying 

territories and forming closed 

positions, but by being openly 

accessible,” noted Mr. Ren. 

“We must utilize information 

to benefit mankind and adopt a 

positive attitude towards data 

floods—not merely look at the 

ills or complexities that they 

create.” 

Working towards this goal, 

the Middle East is currently 

one of the fastest growing 

regions for Huawei around the 

world. The company’s regional 

headquarters in Bahrain was 

established over a decade 

ago with offices today spread 

across 10 countries with over 

3,500 employees in markets 

such as Bahrain, Kingdom 

of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, 

Oman and Kuwait. 

July 2012 


39

Cisco recognizes 

channel partner successes 

at its Partner Summit UAE 2012 

Ongoing Commitment to 

Partners Highlighted with 

Cisco Awards for Top Performing 

UAE Channel Partners for 

2012 At its recent Partner Summit 

2012, held at Zabeel Saray 

– The Palm, Cisco demonstrated 

its ongoing focus and commitment 

to its Channel Partners by 

recognizing the achievements 

of its top performing ones in the 

UAE for 2012. 

The company used the event to 

launch its FY13 Partner Program 

– Partner Plus – a new global 

channel program targeting midsized 

customers. Partners who 

participate in the program will 

receive increased preference, 

investment and support in the 

form of business accelerators 

such as incremental incentives, 

engineering support, marketing 

and demand generation, 

sales enablement, and customer 

intelligence. Partner Plus is a 

key pillar of Cisco’s Partner Led 

strategy, which is designed to 

empower and reward channel 

partners to lead the sale with 

small and mid-sized customers. 

This approach combines the 

power of the partner sales force 

and Cisco’s sales force in an 

innovative way to go after these 

market segments. This is part of 

the $75 million investment that 

Cisco announced in 2011 for enablement, 

systems, and support 

capabilities. 

Themed “Partnering for 

Growth” this year, the annual 

Cisco Partner forum serves as a 

platform for partners to interact 

and build relationships with 

company executives and learn 

about Cisco’s strategic direction, 

business priorities, products and 

products for channel partners. 

The event also highlights emerging 

market trends and Cisco’s 

plans to capitalize on these 

opportunities together with its 

partners via successful innovation 

and collaboration. At this 

year’s event the three key topics 

of focus were Cloud, Services 

and Partner Led initiatives. 

Cisco is putting a concerted 

focus around channel partner 

initiatives, and currently more 

than 80 percent of its business 

goals through the channel. 

Cisco’s strategy is to accelerate 

the Partner Led model at a 

global level and Middle East level 

to create new growth opportunities 

for partners and help them 

accelerate the growth of their 

businesses. 

“In the UAE and on a regional 

level, our partners are core to 

our business and a key driver 

for future growth,” said Claire 

Jones, Regional Manager, Cisco 

UAE. “We are using the opportunity 

through Partner Summit to 

acknowledge that our channel 

partners who are critical to the 

company’s success. The forum 

gives us an opportunity to recognize 

our partners’ achievements 

and reinforce our commitment 

to working with them to ensure 

that Cisco retains its leadership 

position in the industry.” 

The Cisco Partner Summit UAE 

2012 Awards winners are: 

1. Best Select Partner of the 

Year: Fujisoft 

2. Commercial Partner of the 

Year: GBM 

3. Commercial Distribution 

Partner of the Year: Logicom 

4. Services Partner of the Year: 

GBM 

5. Transformational Partner of 

the Year: Honeywell 

6. Enterprise & Public Sector 

Partner of the Year: Emircom 

7. Data Center Alliance Award 

of the Year: Bios ME 

8. SP Partner of the Year: Etisalat 

9. Partner Marketing Award of 

the Year: Teksalah 

10. Fastest Growing Partner of 

the Year: Site Technology 

Cisco continues to invest in initiatives 

and programs designed 

to supporting partner in the 

form of marketing resources, 

incentive programs and access 

to Cisco Technical Engineers 

Network to accelerate partner 

growth. Those measurable 

initiatives will be targeted mainly 

towards two important goals: 

Channel enablement & lead 

generation. Enablement will 

accelerate Cisco’s channel relationship, 

reputation & trust with 

customers. 

40 July 2012 


Golden Systems launches KINGMAX’s 

new mSATA SSD MMP20 in UAE 

Golden Systems Middle East 

(GSME), a distributor of 

IT products in the Middle East, 

has announced the launch of 

the new KINGMAX mSATA 

SSD MMP20 in the Middle East 

region. The new mSATA SSD 

MMP20 is not only convenient 

for users to make their own 

hybrid disk (HDD+SSD) but it 

is also suitable for small form 

factor systems. 

Commenting on the new 

product, Ms. Chantelle Tavid, 

Marketing Manager at Golden 

Systems Middle East, said 

“We are happy to launch the 

KINGMAX mSATA SSD MMP20 

in the Middle East region. The 

new KINGMAX SSD features 

‘Premium Selected’ quality, 

where all flash ICs are strictly 

screened and the whole SSD 

is 100% tested before shipping. 

This mSATA SSD MMP20 is 

compact and light and can be 

easily installed in notebooks or 

PCs.” 

For many notebook users, it 

sounds appealing to upgrade 

their system by SSD. However, 

it might compromise capacity 

or overspend when replacing 

original HDD by 2.5” SSD. 

KINGMAX MMP20 mSATA 

Chantelle Tavid 

reconciles this dilemma. It 

can be directly installed inside 

notebook on Mini PCI-E slot, 

and even tiny size is capable 

as normal 2.5” SSD. Using 

mSATA SSD as a system disk 

and keeping original HDD allows 

the “Hybrid Disk” to have 

qualities of fast booting, high 

performance and large capacity. 

In addition, mSATA SSD is 

becoming economic storage for 

system upgrade in mainstream 

PC market since more and 

more Z68 or Z77 motherboards 

support Intel ®Smart Response 

Technology (SRT). Intel® SRT 

is an Intel® Rapid Storage 

Technology caching feature; 

it allows a user to configure 

computer systems with an SSD 

used as cache memory between 

the hard disk and the system 

memory. Installing KINGMAX 

MMP20 mSATA SSD with HDD, 

a user is able to keep maximum 

storage capacity and SSD-like 

overall system performance; it 

is no doubt a smart and costefficient 

way to upgrade system. 

Nirmala D’souza 

KINGMAX mSATA SSD MMP20 

is compact and light; compliant 

with JEDEC MO-300B, it is not 

only applicable for notebook 

and desktop systems, but also 

very suitable for small form 

factor and embedded systems, 

such as popular tablets. MMP20 

adopts SATA II 3GB/s interface 

and equips with a powerful 

controller which optimizes the 

flash memory management to 

maximize system reliability and 

performance. The SATA interface 

optimizes the translation 

between host devices and flash, 

which results in the most efficient 

data read/write transfer, 

enhances boot times/ application 

load times and reduces 

power consumption. 

KINGMAX MMP20 meets 

RoHS regulations (Restriction 

of hazardous substances in 

electronic and electrical and 

electronic equipment) and was 

certified CE and FCC. Moreover, 

all KINGMAX products have 

been 100% tested under strict 

quality control system to 

meet all requirements before 

shipping. The KINGMAX product 

warranty service ensures 

premium product quality and 

flawless customer services. 

Booming smart-phone adoption in UAE 

Smartphone adoption in the 

Arab World is booming. 

According to new insightful 

surveys from the Arab 

Advisors Group, smartphones 

constituted around 37%, 51%, 

55%, 44%, and 42% of total 

cellular handsets in Lebanon, 

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE and 

Jordan respectively. 

The expanding smartphone 

base in the Arab World presents 

great opportunities for players 

in smartphones and smavrt 

handheld devices ecosystem. 

Challenges include enticing 

smartphone owners to make 

more use of the functionality 

and applications on their 

smartphones. The 2nd Smart 

Handheld Summit 2012 will avail 

a platform for all industry stakeholders 

to discuss and debate 

this industry’s key issues. 

The Arab Advisors Group 

divided the survey reports 

questionnaires into seven main 

sections. The sections provide 

a balanced focus on the following 

areas: 

●● 

General information on 

respondents 

●● 

General cellular usage habits 

●● 

Handset brands 

●● 

Smartphones adoption and 

usage patterns 

●● 

Smartphones awareness 

●● 

Tablets availability 

●● 

Detailed analysis of handsets’ 

models. 

July 2012 


41

Kazakhstan spearheading 

future Internet in Central Asia 

KazRENA deploys first IPv6 network and regional centre of excellence in Central Asia 

Celebrating World IPv6 

Launch Day at the 

beginning of this month, 

Kazakhstan becomes the first 

Central Asian country to join 

the global deployment of the 

future Internet addressing 

system, known as IPv6. The 

growth of the web will now 

be able to continue unabated, 

with the new Internet Protocol 

allowing more users and 

devices to communicate on 

the Internet by providing 

a vastly bigger pool of IP 

addresses which were about to 

run out under the predecessor 

protocol IPv4. 

Always at the forefront of 

innovation, many national 

research and education 

networks (NRENs) across the 

world have acted as early testbeds 

for the new technology. 

In Kazakhstan, KazRENA is the 

first IPv6 compliant NREN in 

Central Asia, offering global 

IPv6 connectivity, as well as 

more reliable web access and 

ultimately better network 

performance to thousands of 

researchers, academics and 

students. 

As an early adopter, KazRENA 

is acting as a catalyst for IPv6 

deployment in other Central 

Asian countries, served by 

CAREN, the region’s highperformance 

broadband 

Internet for research and 

education. CAREN facilitates 

communication, information 

exchange and collaboration 

between universities and 

research centres within Central 

Asia and provides access 

to the European and global 

research community through 

interconnection to GÉANT, 

its European counterpart. 

Operational since July 2010, 

CAREN currently interconnects 

scientists and students 

in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, 

Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, 

with Uzbekistan also a 

candidate country. CAREN 

is funded by the European 

Commission and managed 

by research networking 

organisation DANTE, in 

conjunction with NRENs of the 

countries involved. 

KazRENA joined CAREN at 

the beginning of January 2012 

with a 155Mbps connection 

from Almaty to Frankfurt, 

Germany, thus bringing the 

idea of upgrading the Silk 

Road from an ancient trade 

route to high-speed data 

highway closer to reality. “We 

are very proud to be part 

of the CAREN community,” 

said Boris Japarov, Head of 

KazRENA. “As it is fibre-based, 

CAREN delivers improved 

connectivity through a more 

stable, cost-effective network 

infrastructure. By recreating 

the links of the old Silk Road 

between East and West 

researchers in Kazakhstan and 

across the whole region are 

able to benefit from increased 

collaboration and can bring 

their skills and expertise to the 

global research community.” 

Existing and future projects 

that benefit from CAREN span 

areas such as environmental 

monitoring, radio astronomy, 

telemedicine, e-learning, 

the digitalisation of cultural 

heritage, palaeontology 

and solar cell technology 

Zoe Davies 

deployment in line with 

sustainable development 

policies in Central Asia. 

To raise awareness and 

prepare the local Internet 

community for the transition 

to IPv6, in July last year 

KazRENA held a training 

workshop at its premises in 

Almaty which saw the opening 

of a CISCO-sponsored IPv6 lab; 

it is set to become a centre 

of excellence and a catalyst 

of IPv6 expertise throughout 

the region offering attendees 

from universities and other 

institutions an ideal platform 

to discuss best practises in 

the adoption of the new 

technology. 

Far from being solely an 

academic training site, the lab 

assists also engineers from 

telecoms operators, such as 

Kazakhtelecom, in getting 

hands-on experience with IPv6 

implementation, configuration 

and usage, which is testament 

to KazRENA’s commitment to 

contributing to Internet development 

in Kazakhstan and 

throughout Central Asia. 

VIVA Bahrain on a regional telecom body 

VIVA Bahrain has become 

the first telecommunication 

provider to join the ‘SAMENA 

Council CMO Committee’, 

launched by the SAMENA 

Telecommunications Council, a 

tri-lingual industry association 

of the leading telecommunications 

organizations. 

“We are very excited about this 

initiative and the responsibilities 

it holds,” Andrew Hanna, 

VIVA Chief Commercial Officer, 

said. 

“There is a great deal of experience 

among CMOs in the 

region and we anticipate much 

benefit from the exchange 

of knowledge and expertise. 

As an innovator in the field, 

VIVA welcomes a forum where 

industry leaders can pool their 

resources to explore new 

drivers of growth and tackle 

common challenges.” 

VIVA Bahrain is now the first 

Andrew Hanna 

and only Bahraini telecom provider 

to join the CMO Committee, 

further consolidating their 

position as an innovator in the 

telecommunications field in the 

kingdom. 

The committee was recently 

launched by SAMENA Telecommunications 

Council with the 

aim to organize conferences 

and forums that will enable 

sharing the best practices, 

innovations and ideas, creating 

new value add revenue generation 

concept, and facilitating 

networking opportunities. 

42 July 2012 


M2M device connections will increase twentyfold worldwide 

in the next ten years, Analysys Mason reports 

More than 2 billion devices to be connected worldwide by 2021, with the industry 

set to grow at a CAGR of up to 50% in some sectors. 

new report from Analysys 

A Mason predicts that 

machine-to-machine (M2M) 

device connections worldwide 

will grow by a factor of 20 

in the next ten years, from 

100.4 million to 2.1 billion. 

Revenue associated with M2M 

connectivity will also increase 

dramatically over the same 

period, from USD5.7 billion in 

2011 to USD50.9 billion in 2021. 

The report, M2M device 

connections, revenue and 

ARPU: worldwide forecast 

2011–2021, presents the annual 

update of Analysys Mason’s 

M2M device connections 

forecast, which includes 

detailed ten-year forecasts 

of connections, revenue 

and average revenue per 

user (ARPU) for 7 sectors 

and 20 M2M applications, 

in 8 geographical regions 

worldwide. 

The report predicts that 

ARPU rates generated by 

M2M connectivity will decline 

markedly throughout the next 

decade, from a worldwide 

average of USD4.71 per month 

per connection to just USD1.98 

in 2021. 

“This per connection revenue 

decline will be caused by 

increasing price pressure 

and growth in the number of 

M2M device connections in 

emerging markets,” explained 

Steve Hilton, lead author of the 

report and Principal Analyst of 

Analysys Mason’s Enterprise 

and SME Strategies research 

programmes. “ARPU rates for 

M2M applications are generally 

lower in emerging markets 

than in developed markets.” 

According to the report, 

the share of worldwide 

connections attributed to 

developed markets will decline 

over the next decade, from 69% 

in 2011 to 59% in 2021. Similarly, 

developed markets’ share of 

worldwide revenue will have 

declined from its current level 

of 76% to 64% in 2021. 

In 2011, slightly less than 20% of 

M2M connections were over 

Kate Brown / Alistair Young 

fixed-line networks, and it is 

predicted that this figure will 

decrease to just 7% by 2021. 

According to the report, almost 

all fixed-line M2M solutions 

are in developed countries, 

because reliable, affordable 

fixed-line connectivity is 

difficult to purchase in 

emerging markets. 

“However, mobile operators 

in developed markets are 

offering mobile connectivity 

at attractive prices, and most 

M2M solutions have fairly 

low bandwidth requirements. 

As a result, more and more 

enterprises are choosing 

mobile M2M rather than fixedline 

M2M,” added Hilton. 

Umniah launches 3.75G service in Jordan 

Telco has invested $140m in licence and deployment of 3.75G 

Jordanian operator Umniah 

has launched mobile 

broadband using 3.75G 

technology. 

The service, which is branded 

as ‘Evo’, is capable of downlink 

speeds of up 42.2Mbps, 

according to Umniah. 

Umniah paid JD50 million 

Myanmar to loos state controls on telecoms market 

The mobile phone market 

in Myanmar is tightly 

controlled, with handsets 

being limited to well 

connected business people 

($70.5m) for a 3G licence in 

January 2012 and invested a 

further JD50 million sum in 

deploying the network, which 

included about 1500 3.75G base 

stations. 

Ihab Hinnawi, CEO, Umniah, 

said that Evo was the outcome 

of “hard work and thorough 

and the military. Attempts 

to loosen the controls have 

been hampered by the high 

costs that are beyond that 

of most citizens, though the 

Ihab Hinnawi 

government plans to loosen 

the state’s grip on several 

key industries, including the 

telecoms market. 

Myanmar’s President Thein 

research that aimed to develop 

an optimal internet experience”. 

“Evo brings along an 

exceptional experience for 

our customers, who can now 

enjoy a technological revolution 

ensuring safe internet with 

effective and affordable 

packages,” Hinnawi said. 

Sein outlined a “second wave 

of reforms” that would aim 

at tripling the country’s GDP 

by 2016 after decades of 

stagnation, during a speech. 

July 2012 


43

Nawras partners with Huawei to turbocharge 

its network and rev up the customer experience 

Nawras, Oman’s customer 

friendly communications 

provider, has signed an 

agreement with Huawei, a 

world-leading information and 


(ICT) solutions provider, to 

turbocharge the Nawras Radio 

Access Network (RAN) by 

upgrading all sites to enhanced 

3G+ and increasing coverage, 

in-building penetration, 

capacity and speed of the 

entire network. At the same 

time Nawras will be launching 

the highly anticipated 4G LTE 

technology, introducing one 

of the world’s most advanced 

wireless communication 

technologies to provide highspeed 

mobile data with an 

exciting new level of customer 

experience. 

Amidst a crescendo of sound 

and lights, the signing ceremony 

took place at Muscat Grand Mall 

and was attended by Nawras 

Executive Committee members, 

Huawei Management, officials 

from the Telecommunications 

Regulatory Authority (TRA), 

members of the press and 

Nawras family members. An 

energetic and colourful 

display bridged the two 

rich and vibrant cultures 

as a band of Omani 

drummers and Chinese 

lion dancers performed 

in tribute to the heritage 

and dynamism of the 

two companies. Live 

demonstrations of the 

new technology showed 

the incredible speed 

and capabilities that 

customers will soon be enjoying 

for superfast file downloading, 

seamless streaming of films 

and videos and a myriad of 

multimedia opportunities. 

“We are delighted to be joining 

forces with Huawei who have 

a wealth of experience and 

undisputed track record after 

building many of the world’s 

most advanced LTE networks,” 

said Ross Cormack, CEO of 

Nawras. “4G LTE will essentially 

revolutionise the way we 

communicate with superfast, 

high quality broadband internet 

service, unlocking a world of 

communication opportunities 

beyond imagination. With this 

cutting edge technology, we 

will introduce exciting services 

to give a seamless, smooth 

multimedia experience, whether 

it’s watching HD television or 

reading an interactive online 

news story with animation, 

audio and video feeds. We will 

be making communication even 

more exciting and even more 

rewarding.” 

He added, “We would like 

to thank the TRA for their 

tremendous support and for 

making it possible for us to 

launch LTE FDD in the 1800 

spectrum, which is one of the 

industry’s de facto standards, 

providing access to a very 

high number of devices for 

customers. Together with this 

100 participate in Nawras workshop 

More than 100 Nawras 

employees including 

senior management 

participated in various 

interactive social media 

workshops held over a fiveday 

period to develop a more 

active social media culture. 

The nine sessions conducted 

by The Online Project, Middle 

East’s leading social media 

agency, focused on innovative 

ways to leverage social media 

and integrate the platform as 

part of the company’s holistic 

approach to communicating 

with customers. 

Omar Azar, head of marketing 

communications at Nawras, 

said: “Everything we do at 

Nawras revolves around 

delivering an outstanding 

customer experience. With 

social media rapidly becoming 

a natural extension of our daily 

lives and changing the way we 

communicate, we are taking 

advantage of this powerful and 

influential medium to continue 

building strong bonds with 

all our valuable customers, 

especially the youth.” 

“We have embraced social 

media networks such as 

Facebook and Twitter with 

full force to engage with 

Julie Amann 

decision and the TRA’s 

release of two more 3G+ 

frequencies, we will at 

least triple our mobile 

broadband capacity to 

serve our broadband 

hungry customers. As we 

turbocharge our network 

by increasing and enhancing 

3G+ sites and introducing 

4G LTE, we will continue 

to update customers at 

every step. This exciting 

development programme is 

due to begin this August in Al 

Amerat and will continue as we 

roll it out throughout the whole 

country.” 

Around 30 percent of sites will 

be turbocharged before the end 

of December 2012 and customers 

will immediately notice 

the difference as they start to 

receive fast 3G+ and 4G services. 

The 4G LTE network will cover 

all major areas of Muscat Governate 

including Ruwi, Central 

Business District, Wadi Kabir, 

Muttrah, Qurm, Azaiba, Al Khuwair, 

Ghala, Baushar, Mawaleh 

and The Wave, by the end of the 

year. All major cities will enjoy 

LTE coverage by June 2013. 

customers in an attentive 

and intuitive manner to make 

us better attuned to their 

needs and expectations,” 

he said. “This has allowed 

us to interact instantly with 

customers and identify 

more ways to make their 

communications simpler 

and more meaningful in our 

signature pleasingly different 

style.” 

44 July 2012 


SingTel pledges support for National Paralympians 

Will be the Exclusive Multimedia Partner to SNPC for the London 2012 Paralympic Games 

Singapore 

Telecommunications 

Limited (SingTel) has 

announced its support for the 

Singapore National Paralympics 

Council (SNPC). As part of its 

continuous commitment to 

Singapore’s sporting quests, 

SingTel will be the Exclusive 

Multimedia Partner to SNPC 

for the London 2012 Paralympic 

Games. 

The eight Paralympians 

who will benefit from the 

sponsorship are Theresa Goh 

and Yip Pin Xiu for Swimming, 

Jovin Tan and Desiree Lim 

for Sailing and Laurentia Tan, 

Maxmillian Tan and Gemma 

Foo for Equestrian, and 

Nurulasyiqah Binte Mohammad 

Taha for Boccia. 

This follows SingTel’s ongoing 

five-year commitment as 

Official Telecommunications 

Partner to the Singapore 

National Olympics Council 

(SNOC) in March, in support of 

athletes participating in SNOCsanctioned 

games overseas. 

“SingTel is a dedicated 

supporter of local sports,” 

said Ms Chua Sock Koong, 

Group CEO of SingTel. “Two 

years ago, we were the 

Official Multimedia Services 

Partner for the Youth Olympic 

Games and the sponsor of the 

national Swimming, Sailing and 

Football teams. We took our 

commitment to local sports to 

another level when we secured 

our partnership with SNOC in 

March this year; and today, 

we are proud to be supporting 

SNPC to help grow our pool 

of local sporting talent and 

create an inclusive sporting 

environment.” 

Ms Chua added, “Our 

paralympians, in particular, 

have shown us that being 

physically disabled should not 

be an impediment to success. 

With hard and determination, 

anything is possible.” 

“We are heartened to have 

SingTel share in our vision to 

build an inclusive sporting 

culture in Singapore and 

support the development of 

local disability sports. This 

partnership is also timely for 

our paralympians who are 

training hard in preparation for 

the upcoming Games and will 

appreciate the added support 

from SingTel,” said SNPC’s 

General Secretary and Chef-de- 

Mission (CDM) to London 2012 

Paralympic Games, Mr. Frankie 

Thanapal Sinniah. 

InfiNet Wireless launches 

new interference mitigation technology 

InfiNet Wireless, a global 

manufacturer and provider 

of carrier-grade wireless infrastructure 

solutions for Fixed 

Broadband Wireless Access 

(FBWA) and wireless connectivity, 

has announced the global 

launch of Instant Dynamic 

Frequency Selection (Instant 

DFS), the latest major technology 

addition available for its 

family of high capacity wireless 

solutions. 

Instant DFS is available with 

immediate effect as an option 

for the company’s InfiLINK 2x2 

Point-to-Point range of solutions 

as well as for its InfiMan 

2x2 Point-to-Multipoint base 

stations. This new development 

is fully compliant with the 

FCC and ETSI standards and is 

Kamal Mokrani 

typically deployed for point-topoint 

connectivity as well as in 

networks where link stability 

and reliability are mission 

critical. 

With Instant DFS, operators 

and service providers are now 

able to offer their customers a 

complete and unique set of interference 

mitigation benefits, 

which not only provide more 

stable links but also ensure 

higher reliability across some 

of the most challenging and 

congested radio environments. 

An InfiNet Wireless radio unit, 

which has been enabled with 

Instant DFS, will continuously 

monitor the available frequency 

bands, scanning each channel 

for noise, radar signals and 

interference sources. The data 

collected is then thoroughly analysed 

and stored in the unit’s 

memory, without impacting on 

the unit and network performance. 

Equipped with this realtime 

information, the unit’s 

management software is then 

able to switch frequency channels 

instantly and automatically 

as soon as external sources 

of interference or noise are 

detected, without stopping or 

interrupting the wireless link, 

i.e. with no packet losses. 

“We wanted to provide our 

partners and customers with 

a differentiating benefit that 

would drastically reduce the 

impact of interferences on our 

radio solutions in noisy environments”, 

said Kamal Mokrani, 

Global Vice President at InfiNet 

Wireless. “By preserving the 

integrity of the wireless links 

we provide, we are able to provide 

our end users with much 

higher network availability and 

reliability, especially in areas 

where critical communication is 

vital. We have achieved exactly 

that with our new Instant DFS 

technology.” 

July 2012 


45

Thuraya appoints Sanford Jewett as V.P Marketing 

Thuraya 

Telecommunications 

Company, a leading 

international mobile satellite 

operator, is pleased to 

announce the appointment 

of Mr. T. Sanford Jewett as 

their new Vice President, 

Marketing. 

Mr. Jewett brings his expertise 

in international markets to 

Thuraya and will play a major 

role in leading the expansion 

of Thuraya’s global marketing 

strategies. Sanford has over 

25 years of experience in the 

T. Sanford Jewett 

wireless, internet and satellite 

industries. His experience 

includes an extensive focus 

on introducing technology 

companies into new markets. 

Before joining Thuraya, Mr. 

Jewett oversaw Strategy & 

Business Development for 

the mobile services group 

at Time Warner Cable, the 

number 2 cable TV operator 

in the US market with over 15 

million residential and business 

customers. 

Over the years, he has held 

management positions with 

several leading communication 

service providers including 

America Online (AOL,) Skytel, 

Inspirational 60,000 km fundraising campaign: 

Wissam Al Jayyoussi reaches Russia 

Mini Sree Narayanan 

Millicom International Cellular 

and Reliance WiMax World. 

During the start-up of Iridium 

Satellite in the late 1990s, 

Mr. Jewett worked in the 

marketing department, where 

he led the development 

and global marketing of the 

Iridium satellite pager product. 

More recently, Mr. Jewett 

ran Operations and Business 

Development for WorldCell, 

a US-based service provider 

serving US Government 

customers in the US, Europe, 

Middle East and Asia. 

Thuraya provides reliable communication as Al Jayyoussi travels through remote terrain 

Mr. Wissam Al Jayyoussi 

is travelling alone 

along the historic Silk Route 

from the Middle East to 

Southeast Asia by motorbike. 

He has now completed yet 

another challenging leg of his 

60,000 kilometer “Goodwill 

Journey” after safely reaching 

Chelyabinsk, Russia, the 

15th stop on his 22-country 

voyage. Wissam, a Jordanian 

national with Palestinian roots, 

embarked on this inspirational 

quest to create awareness 

and raise funds for the first 

freestanding pediatric cancer 

center in Palestine. As he faces 

several precarious and remote 

areas, Mr. Al Jayyoussi has been 

relying on communications 

equipment provided by Thuraya 

Telecommunications Company, 

the leading international mobile 

satellite operator. 

Proceeds from the extraordinary 

“Goodwill Journey” 

charity project will be used to 

purchase much needed medical 

equipment for the Palestinian 

Children’s Relief Fund Pediatric 

Cancer Center in the West 

Bank. The sophisticated satellite 

communications equipment 

provided by Thuraya is enabling 

Mr. Al Jayyoussi to stay in 

contact with his sponsors and 

his Dubai-based team as well as 

to upload photos, videos and 

other material from the epic 

journey. Al Jayyoussi expects to 

complete the monumental trip 

in approximately 132 days. 

“I am thrilled to be sharing 

the experience with all those 

who are supporting me and 

closely following the ‘Goodwill 

Journey’. The success of this 

campaign depends largely on 

the support of our key sponsors 

as well as the individual benefactors 

who genuinely believe in 

our cause,” said Al Jayyoussi. 

“Thuraya is committed to serve 

humanity. We are delighted to 

be supporting Mr. Al Jayyoussi 

on his inspirational project,” 

said Samer Halawi, Thuraya’s 

Chief Executive Officer. 

Among the equipment provided 

by Thuraya is the innovative and 

durable Thuraya XT handset 

which Wissam has been using 

to make phone calls and for 

online tracking. The device has 

already shown its value to Wissam’s 

journey. As he was driving 

through the mountains of Baluchistan 

in Pakistan, the Thuraya 

XT fell off his motorbike. Several 

miles later, Wissam realized he 

was missing his Thuraya. Luckily, 

he had the last coordinates 

from it, which later helped the 

Police locate it. When found 

two days later, true to its highly 

robust nature, the phone was 

still on! 

On another occasion, Wissam 

had a minor accident where he 

suffered a fall. Wissam reported, 

“I fell off my bike, sustained 

injuries to my ribs and the bike 

was also damaged. But, yet 

again, the phone was still on 

and working! Thuraya XT has 

proven to be tougher than me 

and my motorbike!” 

46 July 2012 


Informa Analysts comment 

on recent announcements from Google 

Denise Duffy 

David McQueen, Principal 

Analyst at Informa Telecoms 

& Media. 

The announcement of the 

Google Nexus 7 tablet is 

sure to ruffle a few feathers, 

notably its other OEM Android 

partners who also have 7” 

Android tablets in market. 

Aimed squarely at taking on 

Amazon’s Kindle Fire, the Nexus 

7 is packed with high-spec 

hardware, including a quadcore 

processor, and the new 

Android v4.1 software, Jelly 

Bean, that is claimed to offer 

a faster, smoother and more 

consistent user experience. In 

combination with a number of 

applications optimised for the 

Nexus 7, including Youtube, and 

some bundled content out-ofthe-box, 

the introductory $199 

price point it is sure to bring a 

welcome shot in the arm for the 

Android platform in its effort to 

crack the tablet space. By also 

using this set of differentiators, 

notably price point and screen 

size, the Nexus 7 has positioned 

itself far enough away from the 

Apple iPad that it can grow volume 

in the segment and carve 

out significant market share, 

whilst also hopefully pulling its 

OEM partners along with it. 

Andrew Ladbrook, Senior 

Analyst at Informa Telecoms & 

Media. 

Despite some very high 

specifications and a very 

attractive unique design, 

the Google Q device is 

underwhelming. The majority 

of the features on offer can 

already be found in Apple’s 

Airport express devices and 

Apple TV. It is also an ill fit 

into Google’s wider Android 

strategy; its high price point 

will depress sales reducing 

its role as compliment to 

the Android handsets. 

Consequently Google Q 

devices are unlikely to have 

the same lock in effect as 

Apple’s cheaper Airport 

express and Apple TV devices. 

It is particularly strange that 

the media sharing feature at 

the heart of Google Q has not 

in some form been pushed 

into Google TV, this could 

have been a real boon for the 

struggling TV OS. It is hard to 

say if this device marks the 

first of many Google devices, 

but if it does, it suggests that 

Google’s purchase of Motorola 

really is just the start of 

Google’s transformation into a 

hardware player. 

Omantel selects Aito for customer experience analytics 

State-of–the-art customer experience analytics provider to deliver the bigger picture 

of customer lifecycle for leading Middle East telecoms operator 

Aito Technologies, the leading 

provider of customer 

experience analytics (CEA) 

for communications service 

providers (CSP), has announced 

Omantel, Oman’s leading 

telecommunications company, 

has selected Aito’s customer experience 

analytics solution, Aito 

CEA, to provide greater insight 

and intelligence into Omantel’s 

customer usage. 

Using Aito CEA, Omantel 

intends to gain a better 

understanding of the customer 

lifecycle and ultimately deliver a 

superior customer experience. 

Specifically, Aito CEA help 

Omantel obtain insights into: 

● Market trends, such as market 

segments, market share, 

market growth, etc. 

● Customer trends, such as 

usage patterns, customer 

segments, profitability, churn, 

etc. 

● Service usage patterns, offers, 

campaign performance, 

etc. 

● Network statistics, utilization, 

device information, etc. 

Omantel selected Aito CEA for 

its ability to quickly and easily 

unify the business, customer 

and network traffic data and 

provide centralized, easy-to-use 

real-time analytics out-of-thebox. 

Jalal Hussain Abdullatif, 

Manager Business Intelligence 

at Omantel Corporate Strategy 

Unit commented: “Great 

customer experience is at the 

very heart of our business 

and we strive to provide the 

best possible service and the 

most attractive products to 

our customers.” Abdullatif 

continued: “The choice of Aito 

CEA will enable us to achieve 

this through analysis of a broad 

combination of data and obtain 

insights into market, customer, 

service and network trends 

resulting in improved customer 

experience and reduced 

churn.” 

Anssi Tauriainen, CEO of Aito 

Technologies commented: 

“As Aito continues to expand 

Anssi Tauriainen 

rapidly across the globe we 

are delighted to be selected by 

Omantel, a leading telecoms 

operator in the Middle East, 

to provide deep and broad 

understanding of their 

customer lifecycle.” 

July 2012 


47

Optimus wins three awards from 

leading regional technology publications for 2012 

Optimus Technology and 

Telecommunications, 

a regional Value Added 

Distributor (VAD) of IT and 

telecommunications products, 

announced that it has won 

three awards this year from 

independent juries instituted by 

leading technology publishers in 

the region. The distributor was 

recognized for its value-added 

services, partner programmes, 

loyalty programmes, channel 

growth initiatives, training 

programmes, support services 

and strong commitment to its 

vendors, channel partners and 

customers. 

Optimus won the Network 

Middle East Innovation Awards 

2012 for the ‘Best Networking 

Distributor’ category and the 

Reseller Middle East Partner 

Excellence Awards 2012 for 

the ‘Reader Choice Value 

Added Distributor of the year’ 

category. Earlier this year, 

Optimus also won the Editor’s 

choice ‘Fastest growing VAD 

of the year’ by VAR magazine 

at their Choice of the Channel 

awards 2012. 

“2012 so far has been a 

fantastic year for Optimus. We 

are thrilled to win four major 

industry awards this year, 

which is a big achievement for 

our team. These awards are 

HTC wins patent dispute against Apple in the UK 

The UK’s High Court has 

delivered a rare victory for 

HTC in its patent disputes with 

Apple and ruled that HTC did 

not infringe on four of Apple’s 

patents. 

The Judge, Christopher Floyd 

also ruled that three of the 

testimony of our company’s 

dedication to our vendors 

and to our channel partners 

in providing the latest and 

best networking solutions 

and round-the-clock support. 

Winning these awards would 

not have been possible without 

the support of our customers, 

channel partners, vendor 

partners and employees, who 

have been an integral part of 

our growth and success. We 

would like to thank them for 

placing their trust in us,”said 

Ms. Meera Kaul, Managing 

Director, Optimus Technology 

and Telecommunications. 

Over the last four years, 

Optimus has worked hard to 

increase its footprint in the 

Middle East while remaining 

committed to technological 

innovation. It is one of the few 

patents are invalid. 

The patent that the court 

agreed was valid related 

to photo management in a 

smarthone - but the Judge 

decided that HTC hadn’t 

infringed it anyway. 

The more significant ruling 

companies that has innovated 

its channel approach, services 

portfolio, value added service 

offerings by continuously 

being ahead of the curve. 

Optimus has proven that a pure 

play ‘Value’ model is indeed 

successful, even in a market 

where success is determined by 

volume parameters. 

The company created a range 

of value-added services and 

channel programs to assist its 

partners in lead generation, 

pre-sales and post-sales 

support, training, capacity 

building, implementation and 

marketing support. These 

awards are recognition of 

Optimus’ commitment to 

provide the highest level 

expertise, excellence, customer 

service and support while 

further strengthening its 

could be the one relating to the 

slide-to-unlock patent, which 

Apple is seeking to enforce 

in the USA against Samsung. 

A victory for HTC in the UK 

may help undermine Apple’s 

argument in the US courts. 

Apple declined to comment 

Denise Duffy 

relationships with its vendors 

and channel partners. 

Optimus’ Managing Director, 

Ms. Meera Kaul was also 

honoured at the Reseller 

Middle East Partner Excellence 

Awards 2012 with the 

‘Women Executive of the 

year’ award for her role in 

bringing about innovation to 

the Value distribution model 

and the Middle East channel 

ecosystem. Ms. Kaul is wellknown 

amongst the IT and 

channel community for her 

achievements in such a short 

span of time in the technology 

and networking space. 

Over the last four years, Ms. 

Kaul has been instrumental 

in growing Optimus’ business 

across the Middle East and 

Africa by signing on leading 

global vendors to their 

portfolio as well as introducing 

several value-added services, 

which helped Optimus stand 

out from other Value Added 

Distributors in the region. Optimus 

also penetrated the market 

with products that haven’t 

traditionally been sold in the 

Middle East region. She can be 

credited with putting together 

a strong team of technically 

qualified professionals with the 

skills, knowledge and expertise 

in the IT domain. 

beyond a statement that 

competition is healthy but 

companies should not steal 

ideas from each other. HTC 

sad it was pleased with the 

outcome but regretted that 

the matter had come to court 

action. 

48 July 2012 


Mobile services top IT priority for airlines 

Ninety-three percent of airlines 

have mobile services 

for passengers as a top investment 

priority over the next 

three years, with 58 percent 

investing in major programmes, 

a report said. 

Airlines are focusing IT 

investment in the key areas of 

improving passenger service, 

reducing the cost of business 

operations and revenue 

generation, said the 14th 

annual SITA/Airline Business 

IT Trends Survey, which 

represents the views of more 

than half of the world’s top 

100 carriers. 

Passenger service is the top 

priority and mobile services for 

passengers tops the list with 

58 percent of airlines planning 

major programs in the next 

three years. An additional 

35 percent are investing in 

research and development. 

In the area of sales and 

distribution, mobile has taken 

hold with more than half of 

airlines already selling tickets 

du has announced that Dubai 

Silicon Oasis (DSO) has 

signed up as a strategic partner 

for its upcoming reality TV 

show, the ‘The Entrepreneur’. 

The show, which will be broadcast 

on Dubai One, is a reality 

show contest that aims to find 

the most promising SME entrepreneur 

in the UAE. 

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority’s 

wholly-owned technology 

incubator, The Silicon Oasis 

Founders, (SOF) will assess 

the business proposals of the 

winner of the show, and the top 

five runners-up, to find the most 

via mobile devices and by 2015, 

89 percent of the airlines plan 

to do so. 

But the real transformation is 

not just in the area of sales, 

this year’s survey shows that 

airlines are using mobile apps 

right across the business. 

By 2015, almost nine out 

of ten airlines plan to have 

the following core services 

available via mobile: flight 

search, check-in, boarding 

passes, ticket purchase, flight 

status notification, ancillary 

services, with customer 

complaint handling and 

missing baggage management 

following closely. 

Half of the airlines have 

already implemented mobile 

services for flight search and 

promising ventures for funding. 

The winner will gain one year’s 

check-in with close to half also 

providing boarding passes, 

ticket purchase and flight 

status notifications. 

Francesco Violante CEO SITA, 

said: “This year’s survey shows 

how airlines are committed 

to mobile across the whole 

business. Mobile apps are 

being used to improve the 

passenger experience, reduce 

operating costs and generate 

revenue.” 

“This is the second year 

that mobile services for 

passengers tops the list of 

investment programs and it is 

the adoption of mobile apps 

across sales, customer services 

and passenger processing that 

truly shows that airlines are 

committed to transformation.” 

Nine out of ten airlines are 

investing in social media 

over the next three years. 

Some 57 percent of airlines 

believe social media can play 

a significant role in promoting 

sales with 39 percent stressing 

its value in customer service. 

Dubai Silicon Oasis to support ‘The Entrepreneur’ 

office space at the SOF facility, 

while the top five runners up 

Francesco Violante 

Four out of ten promote flights 

via social media already, and 

almost 90 percent plan to do 

so by 2015. Both social media 

and mobile open the door for 

a more personalized service, 

and 78 percent of airlines 

in this year’s survey already 

have, or plan to, personalize 

sales offerings via their direct 

channels. 

Over the last number of years, 

the SITA/Airline Business 

annual survey has shown the 

migration to mobile but the 

results this year show an absolute 

commitment from the 

airlines to a mobile future. 

will get six months of free office 

space. 

Shahla Abdul Razak, deputy 

chief executive officer, Dubai 

Silicon Oasis Authority, said: 

“Encouraging technology-based 

entrepreneurship is vital for 

achieving sustainable growth 

for the economy of the UAE. 

We are proud to partner with 

du for this exciting, innovative 

and inspiring initiative. We are 

confident that ‘The Entrepreneur’ 

will encourage aspiring 

businesspersons and enhance 

their performance and commitment. 

July 2012 


49

Egypt’s first ‘Hosted Contact Center’ 

goes-live via C-Square Consulting 

IST Networks witness the designing, implementation and integration 

of the first-ever Hosted Contact Center Solution 

C Square Consulting mediates 

Software Upgrade at Alfa Mobile 

Alfa Mobile, a company managed by the ORASCOM Group contracts C Square 

Consulting for a Genesys Call Center Solution upgrade 

Taking up a larger number 

of projects from the Middle 

East, C Square Consulting, 

Pakistan’s leading IT Solution 

Provider has recently entered 

into an agreement with the 

ORASCOM Group of Lebanon. 

In association with its partner 

Computer Information 

System (CIS) s.a.l, C Square 

Consulting has signed a deal 

for the upgrade of the client 

company’s existing Call Center 

based on Genesys Software 

Solutions. 

In April this year, C Square 

Consulting (Pvt.) Ltd. was 

awarded the project to implement 

a Genesys-based “Hosted 

Contact Center” for IST Networks 

in Cairo, Egypt. C Square 

Consulting has now successfully 

designed, implemented 

and integrated the first ever 

hosted solution in Middle East 

and African region based on 

complete Genesys SIP-based 

solution with Genesys High 

Availability. 

Founded in 2009, C Square 

Consulting is an IT Consulting 

Enterprise aspiring to lead the 

industry globally, focused on 

providing the highest quality 

service to its customers 

tailored to their specific needs 

in all phases of the project. By 

specializing and offering solutions 

from a variety of vendors, 

C Square consulting is able to 

assess the customers’ business 

issues and offer the most 

suitable solution. It had only 

recently deployed a Genesysbased 

Contact Center Solution 

across Standard Chartered 

Bank, which stands succeeded 

by a similar implementation 

in Middle East. What makes it 

prominent is the fact the solution 

taken live is the first-of-its 

kind in the MEA Region. 

The solution deployed is highly 

dynamic as it runs a blended 

environment of inbound and 

outbound predictive dialer. The 

solution intelligently predicts 

traffic coming into the Contact 

Center and dynamically predicts 

availability of a Customer 

Services Representative and 

Alfa Mobile, a company 

managed by ORASCOM Group 

in Lebanon, has awarded a 

Call Center upgrade project 

to C Square Consulting. The 

project entails an upgrade of 

the Genesys Contact Center 

Software already functional 

within the client company, to 

its latest version. Phase ‘I’ of 

the implementation consists 

of an upgrade of Inbound, 

Outbound and Voice Self 

Service where as Phase ‘II’ 

will include deployment of 

Workforce Management and 

Proactive Notification modules. 

With the implementation 

executed successfully, C 

Square Consulting will become 

the first company in Pakistan 

to have overseen a maximum 

number of Genesys-based 

Contact Center deployments 

with upgrades. 

“C Square Consulting is our 

extended arm and 60% of 

our implementation were 

moderated by it. We trust 

the team and its technical 

then pushes an outbound campaign 

to the Customer Services 

representative. 

This is first multi-tenant implementation 

within the region 

using voice and multimedia 

channels to service customers 

with diverse preferences. 

Genesys Telecommunications 

has once again relied upon C 

Square Consulting to deliver 

one of the most strategic and 

technically challenging deployments 

in the region. 

“It was technically challenging 

for me to accept the project 

which will be the first ever 

implementation in the region 

of its kind. With dedication 

and a focused approach we 

have not only successfully 

completed the project but have 

received additional enhancements 

change requests now” 

says Hassan Shaikh, Chief 

Technology Architect. IST 

Networks was established in 

Saudi Arabia in 2004, and since 

then has expanded and grown 

offices in Australia, UAE, Egypt, 

Jordan and India. In April 2012 

IST Networks decided to set 

up a hosted Contact Center for 

multiple businesses. The technology 

that IST selected for a 

450 seat hosted Inbound and 

Outbound Contact Center was 

Genesys Telecommunications. 

Although selection of technology 

is the most critical element 

in implementing a hosted 

Contact Center, it is even more 

important to select a capable 

Partner that will be able to deliver 

a customized solution as 

per specific customer needs. 

abilities for the successful 

delivery of any project.” 

commented Muhammad Afifi, 

Director Middle East, Genesys 

Telecommunication. 

CIS is a leading HP and Genesys 

Partner in the Middle East 

Africa (MEA) Region, with C 

Square Consulting on board as 

its Solution Delivery Partner for 

Contact Centers. With a head 

office in Lebanon and presence 

in 12 African Countries, CIS is 

now increasing its reach to 

Afghanistan and Iraq. 

50 July 2012 


Muhammad Ali Aziz 

e-Village: 

Empowering rural women and youth 

Pakistan Social Association in 

collaboration with National 

Council of Social Welfare and 

Council of Science and Technology, 

Government of Pakistan, 

has organised a workshop 

recently on economic empowerment 

of women and youth 

through the use of information 

and communication technology 

or ICT. This paper analyses 

core elements and benefits of 

a national strategy to build an 

ICT platform on the foundation 

block of e-Village to take Pakistan 

into the 21st century. 

Some 30 years before World 

Wide Web was invented, 

Canadian communication guru 

Marshall McLuhan predicted 

that “electronic interdependence” 

will connect mankind 

in a collective identity into a 

“global village”. About 2.5 billion 

people now live in Marshal 

McLuhan’s e-Global Village 

that has become not only a 

multicultural reality, but a big 

e-Market. 

The world we know now is 

neither flat, nor round, but a 

digital cyber world, virtually 

ruled by Google, Microsoft, 

Amazon, Apple, RIM [Blackberry], 

Nokia, Facebook, eBay, 

and host of giant companies 

operating in telecom, mobile, 

internet, broadband, digital, 

IPTV, and converging markets. 

Top 15 publicly traded companies 

in these markets had a 

combined market capitalisation 

worth $1 trillion. Online 

advertising revenues have 

crossed $54 billion mark. 

There is a global digital market 

worth 2 trillion dollars that we 

can easily access with the click 

of a mouse. But we are still 

begging to get greater physical 

market access to North American 

and European markets to 

increase our exports. By 2016, 

internet revenue will grow 

to $5 trillion to become the 

fifth largest economy in the 

world by itself, after US, China, 

India, and Japan. In the US, 

the internet contributes 5% of 

GDP [$750 billion]. In Pakistan 

internet to GDP contribution 

is zero. 

Pakistan Internet penetration 

or individuals using Internet as 

a percentage of total population 

is 16%, slightly better than 

India’s 10%, but Indian internet 

economy is one of the fastest 

growing at 24%. Pakistan 

is far behind internet usage 

rate compared with Iran 47 

percent, Turkey 46 percent, 

Jordan 38 percent, Egypt 

27 percent, Philippines 33 

percent, Malaysia 56 percent, 

Indonesia 22 percent, and 

Vietnam 34 percent. 

There is a high correlation 

between Internet contribution 

to GDP and a strong internet 

supply ecosystem. The stronger 

the Internet infrastructure, 

higher the e-intensity enabling 

Internet access, therefore, 

the greater the contribution 

of internet to economic 

growth and jobs. The small and 

medium enterprises (SMEs) 

embracing the Internet are 

growing faster around the 

world. Small businesses run by 

rural women entrepreneurs 

will rapidly grow once they get 

connected with the customers 

and suppliers on the web. This 

will generate economic activity 

and spawn a lot of service providers 

down the value chain. 

We have seen small farmers 

benefiting from online agricultural 

advice. Internet banking 

can also provide easy access to 

micro credit to women entrepreneurs 

looking for start-up 

and working capital. 

Internet is a vital global resource 

and a powerful social 

and business tool but we 

missed the bus of digital revolution 

of 1990s because we 

were too busy fighting proxy 

wars, and taking a quantum 

leap in poor governance. Due 

to lack of national priorities to 

develop and extend the critical 

fibre broadband infrastructure 

to our villages we failed to 

provide information and communication 

technology to train 

our rural women and youth, in 

job and entrepreneurial skills. 

Had we utilised this great digital 

opportunity for Pakistan, 

we could have improved our 

market competitiveness and 

growth, generating millions of 

jobs. A Digital Pakistan would 

have become an emerging 

economy, ranked at par with 

Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore, 

China, Mongolia, and South 

Korea, in literacy, per capita 

income, and standard of living. 

The economic and social divide 

is actually a digital divide, as 

those separated by economic 

and knowledge barriers do not 

have access to information 

and communication technologies, 

and therefore, risk being 

left behind and marginalized. 

In the democratic knowledge 

economies, ‘digital discrimination’ 

is also a social inequality 

and a serious violation of human 

right to access information, 

knowledge, education, 

and to build capacity for 

communication with other 

communities world-wide. Role 

of media as a major stakeholder 

in civil society, and as 

a watchdog, is important to 

preserve human rights such as 

freedom of expression and access, 

not only to information, 

but also access to information, 

communication technology. 

Like safe drinking water and 

clean air, knowledge, education, 

information and communication 

technology or ICT are 

also a necessary resource for 

the well-being of society and 

not a luxury any more. If we 

can bridge the digital divide, 

we will also effectively narrow 

down the economic gap 

between the rich and poor. e- 

education and e-commerce are 

powerful tools for rapid progress 

of society and economic 

empowerment of youth and 

rural women, and the disabled, 

transgender and other vulnerable 

groups, can earn a decent 

July 2012 


51

livelihood by learning ICT skills. 

Acquiring right skills for the 

right job will also improve 

survival chances for these 

marginalized social segments 

to become more employable, 

or self-employed. 

The backbone of any digital 

economy is access to a critical 

broadband infrastructure 

and a strong Information and 

Communication Technology 

(ICT) supply ecosystem of 

international quality standards. 

It is also important to ensure 

efficient availability of low-cost 

electrical supply, especially 

to far-flung and remote areas 

of Balochistan. ICT equipment, 

computers accessories 

and software should be fully 

exempted from taxes so that 

they are within affordable 

reach of rural women and 

youth. Pakistan should also 

sign and implement the 2001 

Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, 

enforce cyber laws 

and beef up intellectual property 

laws to global standards, 

in order to give confidence to 

global investors and Internet 

giants like PayPal, operating 

in 190 countries but not in 

Pakistan, to bring its financial 

transaction system to Pakistan. 

The United Nations Millennium 

Development Goal [MGD] No 

3, Declaration of 2000, is about 

promoting gender equality and 

empowering women, setting a 

target for 2015 to achieve that 

MGD Goal. Furthermore, In the 

UN sponsored World Summit 

on Information Society [WSIS] 

in Tunis, in November 2005, 

19000 participants from 174 

countries, including Pakistan, 

committed to implement by 

2015, ICT applications in eight 

priority sectors namely, e-government, 

e-business, e-science, 

e-health, e-employment, 

e-environment, e-agriculture, 

and e-learning [multimedia 

technologies for marginalized 

groups such as rural women 

and youth not having access 

to formal education or where 

school dropout rates are high]. 

Fortunately, on government 

policy level, we have seen for 

the first time a demonstration 

of seriousness to fulfil 

our commitment to achieve 

the WSIS ICT standards that 

could benefit Pakistan and 

raise our level of economic 

development. Professor Dr. 

Mudassir Asrar, Chairperson, 

Pakistan Council of Science 

and Technology, Government 

of Pakistan, announced the 

formation of National Commission 

on ICT to examine 

the use of information and 


or ICT in rural development. 


and Technology will shortly 

launch a 4-year ‘Education for 

All’ programme, for ages from 

9 to 90 years. The course, with 

matriculation equivalency, will 

be designed to cover essential 

tools of ICT. 

During the workshop proceedings, 

Ammar Jaffri of 

Pakistan Social Association 

(PSA) announced the first 

Pakistani Model e-Village at 

Mera Begwal, near Rawalpindi. 

Fiber optics, broadband 

Internet and 10 computers 

were provided to the Model 

e-Village and 50 boys and girls 

were successfully trained in ICT 

skills. The best part of the e- 

Village concept is that it gives 

ownership of all ICT resources 

to villagers themselves. In that 

sense, each e-Village will be a 

‘Smart Village’ in terms of ICT, 

and connected to convenient 

community access points. The 

e-Village resource center will 

be fully equipped with videoaudio 

and e-books library on 

learning basic mathematics, 

English, effective communication, 

financial literacy, and 

other vital job skills. Each 

e-Village Resource Center will 

be e-linked to academic institutions 

and research centers and 

regularly updated. Local teachers 

will be trained as instructors 

for the e-Village Resource 

Centers. ICT experts in Pakistan 

and abroad can volunteer 

to help design a user-friendly 

interface and develop self-tutorial 

online course contents. 

Free of cost CDs can also be 

distributed to students. 

Pakistani diaspora and the 

private sector must come 

forward to sponsor 50,000 

E-Villages to help transform 

Pakistan digitally. E-Village is 

not just about putting computers 

in a village but it is more 

about empowering women 

and youth with earning 

power potential made possible 

with computer literacy and 

acquiring job skills or business 

management and marketing 

skills through information and 


or ICT. 

Ammar Jaffri also stressed the 

need for all NGOs to learn ICT 

skills, to support the e-Village 

project and also to compete 

for the upcoming projects such 

as e-health, e-education and 

e-environment that are on top 

of social development agenda 

and for which donor funds are 

available. For capacity development 

of NGOs in information 

and communication technology, 

PSA will soon launch 

several ICT workshops in 

collaboration with NCSW and 


and Technology. 

Dr. Fayyaz Bhatti, Director 

National Council of Social Welfare 

[NCSW], underlined the 

need for an accurate updated 

database as a basic requirement 

for effective planning 

for capacity development. He 

disclosed that baseline survey 

of transgender population was 

underway and requested NGOs 

co-operation in data collection. 

He said registration of NGOs 

should be the task of NCSW 

because it NCSW was basically 

responsible for NGO monitoring, 

evaluation and co-ordination, 

but surprisingly registration 

task is being handled by 

Ministry of Industries, who 

otherwise have no business 

with NGOs. 

Progressing from a stitch of 

the handicrafts to a click of the 

computer mouse can connect 

small rural business organisations 

run by women to a global 

network by creating a virtual 

value chain via the internet 

market. In most cases, the 

missing link between success 

and failure of business is computer 

technology. A low-cost 

investment in information 

technology can transform 

small operations and bring 

exponentially high returns to 

self-employed women entrepreneurs. 

What is needed is capacity 

development of women 

through training workshops by 

taking ICT to the doorstep of 

the rural households. There is 

also need to adapt computer 

learning programmes and 

software to Urdu and major 

regional languages such as Sindhi, 

Balochi, Brahwi, Pashto, 

Seraiki, Punjabi and Hindko. 

Click of the computer mouse 

can also replace the click of 

the gun to counter insurgency 

by making youth more employable 

through job skills. Instead 

of becoming a tool in the 

hands of militants, youth can 

become a more powerful tool 

for peace. Youth is our greatest 

resource, provided their 

energies are channelized into 

productive activities. Without 

information technology, our 

youth has no future. A youth 

with no future is a nation with 

no security. If we can manage 

to fill the information technology 

gap, not only will we pro- 

52 July 2012 


Kenya enhances investor interests courtesy InfoTech 

Infotech implements Capizar® Market surveillance at Capital Markets Authority Kenya 

InfoTech continues to 

achieve recognition for its 

proprietary Capizar® Capital 

Market Suite which has already 

been deployed successfully in 

Pakistan, Ghana and Bhutan. 

Infotech has now won the bid 

to deploy an advanced Market 

Surveillance System, Capizar® 

Capital Market Suite, in Kenya 

as part of its mandate to maintain 

an orderly, transparent and 

efficient market, and thus protect 

investor interests across 

Kenya. This win at the Capital 

Markets Authority of Kenya 

(CMA) followed a stringent 

public procurement process 

that commenced in June 2011 

with the release of an Expression 

of Interest (EOI) collected 

from around the globe. This 

followed a round of Request 

for Proposal (RFP) from the 

contending parties and finally a 

competitive bidder that was the 

Naseer Akhtar 

best market fit, was identified. 

Earlier the CMA had embarked 

on a program to automate their 

Depository and Settlement 

(DSS) Operations in November 

2004, implement the Automated 

Trading System (ATS) 

in September 2006, their Wide 

Area Network (WAN) in December 

2007 and had successfully 

installed the Broker Back Office 

(BBO) in early-2012. Collectively 

these have helped transform 

Kenya’s capital market to globally 

accepted financial market 

standards and competitively 

positioned it as a safe and preferred 

investment destination. 

Speaking during the contract 

signing ceremony, Mrs. Stella 

Kilonzo, Chief Executive of 

Capital Markets Authority 

noted, ‘The Authority has 

stepped up its oversight role 

to ensure real time surveillance 

and any irregularities in trading 

are identified and curbed early 

enough through the successful 

implementation of an enhanced 

surveillance system called 

Capizar® Market Surveillance.’ 

Mr. Naseer Akhtar, CEO Info- 

Tech spoke on the occasion 

too and lauded the role of CMA 

in maintaining and regulating 

the capital markets of Kenya. 

“The implementation of the 

Capizar Market Surveillance will 

ensure that trading remains 

the foremost priority and that 

e-Village: Empowering rural women and youth 


it is conducted in a transparent 

manner”, commented CEO, 

Infotech. 

The new Market Surveillance 

System deployed at the 

CMA envisaged to “go live” 

by September 2012 and will 

enhance the monitoring of 

trading activities. It will help 

towards identifying unusual 

trading patterns and market 

conditions that indicate 

violations of the Capital 

Markets Act and Regulations. 

Mrs. Kilonzo further observed, 

‘The Authority reaffirms its 

commitment to create, maintain 

and regulate a market in 

which securities can be traded 

in an orderly, fair and efficient 

manner. The new surveillance 

system will enable us to 

monitor trading activities in the 

market on real time basis by 

providing early warning signs 

through the use of alerts.’ 

vide our 100 million youth with 

a secure and stable and secure 

future, but also succeed in 

achieving a high GDP growth. 

E-governance or e-government, 

will also improve efficiency 

of administration and 

law enforcement by ensuring 

a clean and efficient government 

through transparency 

and accountability based on 

independent performance 

audit of government functionaries. 

At the same time it 

will restore confidence of civil 

society in the government by 

closing the communication 

and co-ordination gap among 

several bureaucratic layers and 

myriad departments. According 

to Abdul Latif Leghari, 

Senior Joint Secretary, Ministry 

of Capital Administration, 

improving governance means 

giving equal protection of 

law to the vulnerable groups. 

In cases of violence against 

women, children and other 

vulnerable groups, e-Village 

Centres will offer free Helpline 

legal assistance. Psychiatric 

counselling can be provided to 

save lives of persons suffering 

from depression or suicidal 

tendencies. 

The government can correct 

also flaws in public policy and 

improve efficiency of public 

sector by encouraging free 

and fair market competition 

through public-private partnerships 

[PPPs]. Such publicprivate 

sector participation is 

necessary to mobilise technical 

and financial resources and attract 

foreign direct investment 

in ICT sector for speeding up 

the development of national 

information and communication 

technology platform for 

meeting UN WSIS ICT standards 

by 2015. 

Basic e-health prevention 

measures can save the Government 

of Pakistan Rs. 110 billion 

that is spent on treatment 

of infectious diseases such 

as diarrhoea, 80 percent of 

which are water-borne and 

preventable, with basic health 

education and safe drinking 

water. Telemedicine will link 

patients, doctors and diagnostic 

labs without geographical 

constraints in any part of the 

world. Patients can buy prescribed 

medicines from qualified 

online pharmacists. GIS 

system can locate and monitor 

epidemics or outbreaks, such 

as cholera, gastro-enteritis, or 

dengue fever, on the basis of 

an updated National Database 

Disease Profile. Similarly, in 

times of natural disasters such 

as floods and earthquakes, 

e-Village can become the 

operating hub for rescue, rehabilitation 

and reconstruction 

efforts. Similarly, creating an 

e-environment sector can help 

reduce Pakistan’s carbon footprint 

and promote green and 

clean energy from recyclable 

waste, thus saving Pakistan 

billions of dollars in fossil fuel 

imports. 

The writer is a corporate business 

strategist and publicpartnership 

specialist with 

expertise in social development 

sectors. 

July 2012 


53

PM inaugurates 

Cellular Village Connection Trial (CVCT) project at AJ&K 

Prime Minister Pakistan Raja 

Pervaiz Ashraf inaugurated 

the Cellular Village Connection 

Trial (CVCT) project at 

Athmuqam, Neelum Valley AJ&K. 

President and Prime Minister 

AJ&K, federal minister for 

information and federal minister 

AK&GB were also present on 

the occasion. Chairman PTA Dr. 

Mohammed Yaseen and DG SCO 

General Khalid Rao informed the 

Prime Minister about the efforts 

made for development of telecommunication 

facilities at AJ&K 

in general and at Neelum Valley 

at particular. The deregulation 

of the telecom sector brought 

about a revolutionary change 

which saw huge increase in 

subscriber base, teledensity and 

coverage area. 

People of Neelum Valley were 

however devoid of these state of 

the art telecommunication facilities 

due to security concerns. In 

order to address the issue PTA 

initiated Cellular Village Connection 

Trial (CVCT) project at 

Athmuqam. The equipment was 

provided to SCO free of cost 

by Huawei through efforts of 

PTA. SCO successfully launched 

the project which is not only 

providing cellular services to the 

people but also catering for the 

needs of the defense organizations. 

In order to extend the 

project up to Taobat, the last 

town of Neelum Valley, Universal 

Service Fund (USF) may be 

utilized. At present about 1.96 

billion Rupees have been deposited 

by the telecom operators as 

USF for AJK which is more than 

sufficient to provide telecom 

coverage to all the important 

towns of the Neelum Valley. 

The Prime Minister stressed 

upon need of telecommunication 

services for socio-economic 

development of the area. He 

appreciated the efforts made 

by PTA and ensured provision 

of necessary funds in order to 

expand telecommunication services 

to other parts of Neelum 

Valley. 

PTA held Workshop on ‘What can Telecommunication do for Agriculture’ 

Pakistan Telecommunication 

Authority (PTA) organized 

a workshop on “What Can 

Telecommunications Do for 

Agriculture” in Islamabad. The 

event was organized in collaboration 

with LIRNEasia, a 

regional ICT Policy Think Tank, 

based in Sri Lanka. The main 

theme of this joint initiative of 

PTA and LIRNEasia was to share 

international experiences and 

research with Pakistan, and to 

learn from successful telecomagriculture 

models and improving 

agriculture productivity 

through increased usage of ICT. 

The event was well attended by 

representatives from agriculture 

organizations, international 

experts, agriculture consultants, 

policy makers, government 

officials, farmers associations, 

telecom operators, value added 

service providers, agriculture 

credit departments and donor 

agencies including World Bank, 

ADB, USAID, DFID working in the 

agriculture sector. In his opening 

remarks, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, 

Chairman PTA said that 

Agriculture is the backbone 

of Pakistan’s economy as it 

accounts for 21% of national 

income, employs 45% of the 

country’s total workforce 

and provides livelihood to 

60% of our rural community. 

He said that farmer’s 

access to relevant information 

and adoption of ICT 

and telecom value added 

services by rural community 

can bring revolution in the 

agriculture production. Similarly, 

Pakistan telecom sector is considered 

as an exemplary growth 

model around the globe and our 

agriculture sector can also be a 

model by adopting telecom and 

getting its benefits. Today, we 

have total teledensity of more 

Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Chairman PTA 

awarding shield to Dr. Kevin Callagher, 

representaive of UN on Food & Agri 

than 72% with 119.9 million mobile 

subscribers. The Chairman said 

that after success in e-commerce 

and Branchless Banking initiatives, 

PTA is now encouraging 

the development of local content 

based mobile/ICT applications 

and willing to extend all sort 

of support to help the farmers 

through the provision of reliable 

and timely information, local 

content based applications, automation 

of agriculture production 

processes using specialised 

applications of mobile phones 

and ICT. The Chairman also 

thanked LIRNEasia for 

collaborating with PTA 

on this important aspect 

of Pakistan’s economy. 

Dr. Rohan Samarjiva, 

CEO & Chair LIRNEasia 

presented a research 

carried out by the organization 

on the subject 

how the underprivileged 

make use of ICTs and 

findings from worldwide 

studies of Teleuse at the 

bottom of the pyramid. 

He recommended that mobiles 

are the pre-eminent communication 

technology among the poor, 

among smallholders and those 

who interact with them. Yet, the 

use of mobiles for livelihoodrelated 

purposes is moderate in 

agriculture sector. 

54 July 2012 


National ICT Policy - Suggestions 

Rehan Allahwala had been 

personally involved in IT 

sector for the last 25 years 

and here are a few thoughts 

presented by him on National 

ICT Policy for Pakistan. 

I have traveled to 57 countries 

and in my opinion Pakistan has 

one of the best IT and Telecom 

infrastructure compared to 

anywhere else in the world 

followed by a very IT friendly 

policy in the world. 

The biggest challenge, I find 

in the country is that most 

people are unaware of this 

worldclass infrastructure availability 

and service availability 

and they do not know how to 

take advantage of this. Out 

of 200 million populations it 

is only 1 million broadband/ 

DSL user, there is almost no 

fiber to home network. There 

are approximately 7 million 

Facebook users and around 

20 million email users which 

means 90% of the market is 

still untapped and for any 

business to succeed you need 

critical mass which is still not 

available in Pakistan to boom 

and bloom the IT services in 

Pakistan. 

Therefore my single point 

agenda for the Government of 

Pakistan is to adopt awareness, 

awareness, and awareness. 

If we are able to increase the 

user base and demand of IT 

infrastructure and usage we 

will automatically attract international 

and local investors to 

come in and offer people an 

even better IT infrastructure 

and a very high per capita 

income for the country. 

AWARENESS OF ADVANTAGES 

OF INTERNET APPLICATIONS 

Jobs Awareness 

There are portals like rozee.pk 

which help people get better 

jobs locally and globally. Then 

there are websites like monster.com, 

hotjobs.com which 

help create job opportunities 

for people around the world 

to get better jobs. 

Working From Home 

Awareness 

Today in the developed world 

around 15% people are working 

from home, while in US and 

Europe around 10-15% people 

are working from home that 

means around 60-90 million 

jobs are available today 

online. According to elance. 

com Pakistan only made 2 

million USD from online jobs 

through Elance. This figure can 

be multiplied 1000 times very 

easily by awareness of online 

working from home which 

means that the housewives 

and women and jobless men 

can work from home using 

internet and make 10 times 

more money than what they 

are making home from their 

home. 

Working from home and 

Internet does not require a 

lot of electricity infrastructure 

because a lot of these works 

can be done in flexible hours. 

Laptops these days are very 

affordable and also work without 

electricity for a few hours. 

Creating awareness of these 

websites to the masses will 

help expedite this process very 

quickly and increase our GDP 

very quickly. 

There are websites like odesk 

freelancer and elance which 

help create work for people 

to work from home using the 

internet and computers and 

make at least 1000 to 2000 

USD a month easily. Example 

elance alone has a 500 million 

USD economy on its 

own. odesk even has biggest 

economy. Awareness to the 

masses will create income for 

the masses but will help increase 

the GDP of the country 

as well. 

Working Through Internet 

Awareness 

High speed Internet network 

allow people to work from 

home and have and feel as if 

they were in office by using 

communication tools like 

Skype, screen sharing tools 

like Google hangout etc. This 

allows less transportation 

cost, less fuel cost, more 

productivity by saving 2 hours 

a day in the large metro per 

person. No trust between 

employee and employer and 

eventually working globally 

for the employee in the same 

company. 

The person is close to family 

can enjoy lunch with family 

and can yet be in the office 

in 5 minutes with a click of a 

button. 

Research Through Internet 

Awareness 

Rehan Allahwala 

Internet is full of tools like 

google.com, yahoo.com and 

Google groups.com which 

allow people to do research 

and make learned decisions 

very quickly. However most of 

our 40+ education generation 

still is unable to find the data 

they need to make a better 

informed decision. We need to 

make sure that they are aware 

of what kind of collaboration 

and learning can be done with 

the help of the internet so that 

time is saved in the country 

and benefits of the IT and telecom 

infrastructure is properly 

utilized. Recommendations 

are given in the end. 

Email Awareness 

In a country of 200 million 

people only 20 million are using 

email according to Google. 

which means another 40% of 

educated Pakistan still does 

not use email. 

By creating awareness you can 

create a bigger market size in 

Pakistan of email infrastructure 

reducing the weight on 

postal services on transportation 

on fuel expenditure for 

the country and increasing 

productivity overall contributing 

to the higher GDP of the 

country and higher income. 

Social Media Awareness 

Social media has become the 

phenomena which is changing 

the world every minute. 

In Pakistan it has grown from 

50,0000 users to 7 million users 

in one and half year only. 

Globally it has grown from 0 to 

1 billion users in the last 7 years 

July 2012 


55

only. It is by far one of the 

most commonly used reasons 

for people to use internet today 

and the best communication 

platform by human beings 

till date. 

Just like traveling opens people 

had and shows them different 

things, good things and 

bad things of cultures around 

the world. Social medial 

particularly facebook does the 

same for people. We become 

equal in all ways and a truly 

global citizen by just joining 

facebook. We can start looking 

at other peoples lives and their 

learning as if you were now 

living with them and learning 

from them on a daily basis on 

how others from around the 

world are able to live. 

The growth of social media allows 

discussion, collaboration 

and creation of new ideas in 

a way, scale and speed never 

done before. 

Unfortunately most educated 

adults in Pakistan are unaware 

of usage and power of facebook. 

It is claimed by APMSO 

under a full page ad in Jang 

newspaper last week that the 

newspaper reach ability in 

Pakistan is 5.5 million people 

whereas facebook is used by 7 

million people in Pakistan. 

It is a tool which creates 

friendships around the world, 

friendships leading to business, 

business leading to 

higher growth and economy 

and education for the masses. 

It is imperative that we teach 

the masses the advantages 

of facebook and how we can 

take advantage to grow our 

economy and not only use it 

for wasting a lot of precious 

time of ours. We need to make 

aware of people how facebook 

can be used as one of 

the best collaboration, learning 

and earring platform. 

Online Education 

Virtual University of Pakistan 

MIT University / Howard 

University are all offering now 

free online education in higher 

education space. Similarly 

Khan Academy and rehanschool.com 

are offering free 

education in the lower education 

sector. 

We need to make awareness 

of this available to the masses 

so that the underprivileged 

and the privileged and grow 

and get great quality education 

by sitting at home, online. 

Links to MIT, Howard, 

KhanAcademy.org and Rehan- 

School.com 

http://www.edxonline.org 

http://www.khanacademy.org 

http://www.rehanschool.com 

High Speed Internet 

Awareness 

In a country of 200 million, 

PTCL is proud to claim that it 

has sold 1 million DSL connections 

in the last 7 years. 

In order to march towards an 

internet economy we need 

to make sure that we have at 

least 50% broadband penetration 

in the next 5 years. Most 

people do not know what is 

broadband and the benefits 

they can get out of it. 

Elance awareness, Odesk 

awareness, Moneybookers 

awareness 

Summary 

In my humble opinion if we 

take the growth of IT seriously 

we need to get 70% internet 

growth every year for the next 

6 years to get the penetration 

level of internet users to 100%. 

These are the numbers below: 

in 2012 20 million 

2013 30 million 






Recommendations 

Infrastructure company for 

fiber and telecom networks 

In my opinion it should be 

essential that all telecom 

companies and fiber and data 

service providers must buy 

the physical infrastructure 

of laying down the fiber and 

poles for example through a 

3rd party vendor so that there 

is room for competition in the 

growth which i personally see 

happening in the IT sector. For 

example the permission to dig 

roads and lay down tunnels 

for fiber should not be given 

to telecom companies but the 

infrastructure companies and 

telecom companies should buy 

the service from infrastructure 

company. I do not see any 

problem for the same group to 

own both the companies. 

Fiber is the future super 

highways and motorways and 

there should always be room 

for competition in that sector 

and by separating infrastructure 

companies and telecom 

companies would help create 

competition. Advertising budget 

expenditure of Telecom 

companies 

Most of the billboards and 

advertising campaigns are related 

to rates and not services 

offered by them. It is requested 

that it should be essential 

for them to spend 10% of their 

income at least on awareness 

billboards and ad campaigns 

by them for increasing the IT 

and Internet awareness. 

Awareness Center 

Every service provider must 

open a physical showcase 

outlet for 12 hours a day in all 

the regions they are providing 

service (Pakistan has been divided 

into 14 telecom regions) 

where anybody can walk in 

and get full awareness of how 

all the above mentioned can 

be used by them. 

This could be done collectively 

by the telecom operators in 

smaller areas and my recommendation 

would be to do in 

city halls and libraries of the 

country. 

Training Classes 

Companies should be compensated 

for trainings in IT sector 

and it should be tax rebate 

able. 

Wifi Centers 

In my opinion every library, 

university, school, city hall, 

every government office, restaurant 

with over 20 seating 

capacity should be equipped 

with free hotspot (wifi) service. 

The cost approximately 

to do this is no more than 600 

rupees per location / month. 

And many telecom operators 

would be more than happy 

to sponsor these services in 

these centers to advertise 

their products. 

If it was up to me I would 

make every single post office 

(14500 of them) a hotspot 

location in the country. 

Advertisement Campaigns 

Advertisement campaigns 

should be prepared for 

mass awareness in metros 

and smaller towns using tv 

channels and newspapers 

for explain the basic internet 

services to the masses. 

A planned approach to my 

above recommendations will 

help bring heavy foreign direct 

investment into the country. 

Data Center 

Pakistan still does not have 

good economical data center 

facilities which is a large obstacle 

towards creating large 

local content. Everyone hosts 

their servers in the US. My 

recommendation is to create 

a service under PSEB to offer 

web hosting services at the 

same rates as theplanet.com, 

hostgator.com. And a cloud 

based hosting service should 

also be offered free of charge 

to PSEB members. 

Just like hostgator.com 

launched a campaign in India 

last year offering 1 year free 

hosting for any .in domain. 

56 July 2012 


A multi-stakeholders 

consultation session on 

the draft National ICT Policy 

was organized in Islamabad 

by Ministry of IT (MoIT) in 

collaboration with Pakistan 

Software Export Board 

(PSEB) and Pakistan Software 

Housed Association (P@SHA). 

Teletimes International was 

also invited at this consultation 

session. During the session, 

the Draft National ICT Policy 

document was presented to 

the participants for necessary 

deliberations and later it was 

made available for public 

feedback. 

The draft Policy document 

was prepared by a number of 

stakeholders including: the 

Teletimes International participated 

in National ICT Policy Consultations 

Aslam Mumtaz 

Pakistan Software Houses 

Association, members of 

civil society, the technology 

industry in general, the 

telecommunication 

community, the services 

sector, academia, media and 

socio-political activists as well 

as various government entities. 

This National ICT Policy 

document contains actionable 

milestones and fundable 

projects, reflecting the point of 

views of primary stakeholders 

and the technology industry. 

The Policy document focuses 

on driving primary pillars 

and themes based on the 

technology and information 

technology interventions 

required in various sectors. 

The policy will also focus 

on tapping into economic 

opportunities within Pakistan 

through IT as an enabler to 

drive the local economy. 

The Policy also focuses to 

improve the quality of life of 

July 2012 


57

PTCL awards top performing regions for 2011-12 

In recognition of their 

outstanding achievements 

during 2011-2012, Pakistan 

Telecommunication 

Company Limited (PTCL) 

awarded Gujranwala and 

Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) 

as top performing regions 

during the company’s recent 

‘Way Forward Conference 

2012: Accelerating Customer 

Experience’ held in 

Muzzaffarabad, AJK. 

The awards were presented 

by PTCL President & CEO, 

Walid Irshaid, during a 

distinguished ceremony 

attended by top management 

officials from all over Pakistan. 

In the highest revenue 

increase category, the 

top award went to RGM 

Gujranwala, Naeem Shahbazul-Haq, 

followed by RGM 

Islamabad, Nadeem Akhtar 

Awan at 2nd; RGM Peshawar 

Muhammad Khalid at 3rd; 

RGM Faisalabad, Muhammad 

Abrar Chaudary at 4th; and 

RGM Multan, Shakeel Ahmed 

at 5th positions, respectively. 

Special awards were also 

presented to the top 

five regions for highest 

percentage revenue increase. 

RGM AJK, Nadir Zeb received 

the top award in this category, 

while RGM Rawalpindi, 

Zafar Shafique got 2nd; RGM 

Hazara, Usman Ali Khan got 

3rd; RGM Lahore, Ghulam 

Dastgir got 4th; and RGM 

Sukkur, Abdul Karim Danver 

got 5th prizes, respectively. 

As the largest integrated 

telecommunications 

company of Pakistan, 

PTCL has 18 operational 

regions spread across the 

country covering Islamabad, 

Faisalabad, Peshawar, 

Multan, Rawalpindi, D.I. Khan, 

Hyderabad, Gujranwala, 

Lahore, Karachi, Sukkur, 

Quetta, Northern Areas and 

AJK. 

National ICT Policy Consultations 

citizens by ensuring availability 

of accessible, affordable, 

modern and high quality 

IT facilities and services. 

Furthermore, it aims to 

accelerate digital literacy and 

integration in Pakistan, built on 

facilitating access, awareness, 

security, trust and fostering 

research and innovation. 

Presenting its views during 

the consultation session, 

Teletimes International 

appreciated the efforts put in 

by MoIT, PSEB and P@SHA for 

arranging such an important 

deliberation targeting the 

future policy course of 

Information Technology 

in Pakistan. Teletimes 

International also emphasized 

that requirement to announce 

the policy framework along 

with milestones and targets as 

IT and IT enabled services are 

going to bring a major impact 

on economical and social 

development of Pakistan. 

58 July 2012 


PTCL 3G EVO “NITRO Cloud”: 

Speeds of Future 

Mobility and ease have 

driven human potential 

towards newer developments 

from the invention of wheel to 

modern marvels of space travel. 

Man has evolved from primitive 

caves to modern technological 

age, yet the thirst for accessibility, 

flexibility and connectivity 

is as evident as the day Adam 

set foot on earth. The requirements 

of modern economic era 

have made 24/7 connectivity a 

need rather than luxury. Being 

a product of this modern age, 

continous connectivity with 

family, peers and business relations 

is hardwired in our minds. 

Access to latest developments, 

important emails and convenient 

access to data are all 

important part of our daily routine.. 

None of us would like to 

be tied to our desk or running 

around in search of Cyber Cafes 

to keep abreast with modern 

business needs. Wireless internet 

devices provide a solution 

for instant access to the internet, 

emai s and keeping in touch 

with clients, co-workers, friends 

and family – anywhere anytime 

There are several portable, Wi- 

Fi devices available in Pakistan 

but all suffer from bulky size, 

costly line rents, slow connectivity 

speeds or poor coverage. 

However, there are some good 

options available as well,. The 

latest offering by Pakistan 

Telecommunication Company 

Limited (PTCL) 3G EVO “Nitro 

Cloud”, the first mobile Wi-Fi 

router enables users to create 

an intelligent Wi-Fi hotspot with 

unmatchable 9.3 Mbps speed 

and that too on the go. 

3G EVO Nitro Cloud’s pocket 

size portability, high speed 

EV-DO Rev B technology, 

unmatched 9.3Mbps 

connection speed, universal Wi- 

Fi capability, password enabled 

security features and plug and 

play flexibility make it the most 

exciting product available in 

the market. 

With its sleek design, small 

size and light weight, 3G EVO 

Nitro Cloud combines fastest 

connectivity and portability 

more effectively than any other 

device available in the market. 

Measuring only 10cm x 6.3cm 

x 1.4 cm and weighing 180g, it 

is not much bigger then a deck 

of cards, allowing true mobile 

internet connectivity while travelling, 

sitting in a café, or working 

in an office. It’s a device 

that demands a second look!! 

Pakistan’s internationally 

renowned guitar maestro, Faraz 

Anwar, is featuring in PTCL’s 

3G EVO Nitro Cloud promotional 

campaigns. The passion, 

energy and life unleashed by 

the rock star in his breathtaking 

performance depicts the 

untamed and unrivaled powers 

of speed, mobility and flexibility 

contained within 3G EVO Nitro 

Cloud device, enthralling the users 

of this futuristic product. 

Nitro Cloud’s built in powerful 

multi-purpose 2700ma Li-ion 

battery provides up to 6 hours 

of fast downloading, 10-12 hours 

of seamless browsing experience 

and an astonishing 20 days 

of standby time. Giving PTCL 

customers the freedom to stay 

connected 24/7 without worrying 

for the long load shedding 

hours and long distance travels. 

Not only this, a handy USB cable 

included in the box allows user 

to charge their mobile phone 

battery from the device while 

on the move. 

The device comes with an easy 

to use one click, plug and play 

feature, allowing users to connect 

to their favorite PTCL Wireless 

broadband with ease and 

accessibility. Turn on the device, 

connect your Wi-Fi enable 

device and you are ready to go; 

connectivity has never been so 

easy. What if you don’t have 

a Wi-Fi enabled device? The 

solution is right in there in the 

box. Connect the device to you 

PC or laptop with the USB cable 

and now you have a wireless 

broadband modem unleashing 

the power of 3G technology at 

your doorstep. 

Allowing connections 

from 5 Wi-Fi enabled 

devices simultaneously and 

customizable security features, 

this revolutionary product 

enables professionals, students, 

families and friends to create 

a virtual Wi-Fi hotspot which 

makes working, sharing and 

entertainment a pleasing and 

Nasir Mehmood 

secure experience almost 

anywhere, anyplace and 

anytime. Supporting Micro 

SD card of up to 32GB and 

Universal Wi-Fi compatibility 

allows connections from 

multitude of gadgets like 

iphones, ipods, tablets, xbox, 

laptops and much more. 

With 3G EVO Nitro Cloud, the 

possibilities seem endless. 

Coupled with the fastest 

wireless broadband “Nitro” 

network, 3G EVO Nitro Cloud 

gives users an uninterrupted 

browsing experience at blazing 

speeds upto 9.3 Mbps for 

the first time in Pakistan. 

Stream your favorite videos on 

YouTube, download torrents, 

tweet, update your status 

on facebook, or enjoy video 

conferencing at the blink of an 

eye. Users can enjoy extreme 

broadband experience on PTCL 

wireless broadband network, 

the largest in the country, in 

more than 70 Nitro covered and 

200+ EVO covered cities. 

Generally, such a feature filled 

product would seem very expensive. 

However, 3G EVO Nitro 

Cloud comes with a dirt biting 

price. The initial launch offer of 

Rs. 12000 seems quite attractive 

with “Nitro Cloud” device coming 

absolutely free. This amount 

includes advance payment of 

4 months line rent as well. The 

unlimited downloads and reasonable 

monthly charges of Rs 

3000 makes 3G EVO Nitro Cloud 

an ideal choice for availing hyper-speed 

broadband internet 

experience. To sum it up, the 3G 

EVO Nitro Cloud is the pinnacle 

of portable, multipurpose and 

fast paced internet connectivity 

in Pakistan. If you are looking 

to be part of the future then 

3G EVO Nitro Cloud is the best 

option to consider!!! 

July 2012 


59

Huawei partners with leading operators 

to examine future of Mobile Broadband 

Huawei Pakistan hosted 

first ever 3G Series 

workshops in Islamabad 

building on long term 

commitment to support nextgeneration 

telecom services 

across the country. 

Huawei, a global information 

and communications 

technology (ICT) solutions 

provider, met with top 

telecom operators from across 

Pakistan this week to support 

the future development of 3G 

broadband networks during 

the company’s first ever 

“Huawei 3G Series” workshops 

held in Islamabad from July 

9 – 13. 

Led by a team of Huawei 

global business and 

technology consultants, 

the customized workshops 

leveraged the company’s 

great experience in the field of 

mobile broadband to provide a 

forum for operators to review 

monetization strategies for 

new 3G network infrastructure 

in Pakistan, as well as solutions 

for improving the quality-ofservice 

on Pakistan’s mobile 

networks. 

Broadband telecom services 

supported through 3G 

technologies have the ability 

to open up enormous network 

capacity in Pakistan and enable 

significantly faster connection 

speeds for accessing content 

on the go. Broadband 

penetration also provides 

individuals with greater 

access to emerging Internet 

technologies such as video 

conferencing, video streaming 

and large file-sharing solutions. 

“The huge potential of 

Pakistan’s 3G market is already 

driving telecom operators 

to transform their business 

strategies and networks,” 

notes Geng Simeng, CEO 

of Huawei Pakistan. “The 

potential benefits of mobile 

broadband are far more than 

just bandwidth, but make 

it possible for individuals to 

more easily create, access, 

and share information anytime 

from any location. This is a 

vision that is shared by all of us 

within the Pakistan market— 

one which we hope to realize 

through collaborations like 

this.” 

With a long-term commitment 

to supporting broadband 

technologies in Pakistan, 

Huawei launched 5 Android smart-phones at Karachi 

Sun Jing 

Huawei previously joined 

forces with the Pakistan 

Telecommunication Authority 

(PTA) in September 2011 to 

successfully host a Broadband 

Road Show across the 

country—providing visitors 

with a unique hands-on 

experience of the latest 

innovations within the field of 

mobile communications. 

As of the end of 2011, Huawei’s 

end-to-end capabilities in 

the mobile broadband field 

have been used by over 530 

operators in more than 150 

countries. Huawei’s integrated 

device, pipe and cloud 

solutions have been creating 

greater values for mobile 

operators around the globe 

serving more than one third of 

the world’s population. 

60 July 2012 


Wateen Telecom, SKMCH & RC sign MoU 

Wateen deploys Wi-Fi hotspots at 20 locations across the hospital premises 

As part of its Corporate 

Social Responsibility 

philosophy, Wateen Telecom 

has signed a MoU with Shaukat 

Khanum Memorial Cancer 

Hospital and Research Centre 

(SKMCH&RC) whereby Wateen 

would deploy Wi-Fi hotspots at 

different locations across the 

hospital premises. 

This is another step towards 

Wateen providing the general 

population access to the 

internet at numerous public 

places such as restaurants, 

cafes and hospitals across 

Pakistan; through its Wi-Fi 

hotspots. This will enable 

people whether patients, their 

relatives or the hospital staff 

to surf the internet while they 

are in the designated areas to 

use their time more efficiently 

as opposed to watch TV or 

skimming through magazines. 

Speaking at the signing 

Wateen to offer 20 percent discount on WiMAX to ISIC card holders 

Wateen Telecom 

has announced its 

latest partnership with the 

International Student Identity 

Card (ISIC) Association, to work 

together to support students 

in Pakistan. A Memorandum 

of Understanding was signed 

between the two entities 

under the terms of which 

Wateen will offer 20% discount 

every month on all WiMAX 

line rent to any person with 

a valid ISIC card for a year. 

ceremony, Mr. Naeem 

Zamindar, CEO Wateen 

Telecom said, “Wateen 

Telecom strongly believes 

in internet access for all. It’s 

an honor for us that Shaukat 

The ISIC is a global standards 

body that issues identity cards 

to students from recognised 

educational institutes. 

The International Student 

Identity Card (ISIC) is the only 

globally recognized student 

identity card, which is exclusively 

endorsed by UNESCO 

(United Nations Educational, 

Scientific and Cultural Organization). 

The ISIC is selected 

and used by over 4.5 million 

students globally so that they 

Khanum Memorial cancer 

Hospital and Research Centre 

(SKMCH&RC) has chosen our 

services amongst others. We 

think it is very important to 

make the larger population 

can avail student facilities in 

other cities and countries, such 

as libraries. Students of recognised 

universities and colleges 

from all around the world are 

eligible for the ISIC card and 

can become the part of global 

student community by registering 

with the ISIC. The card is issued 

throughout 120 countries, 

giving students access to over 

40,000 benefits worldwide at 

more than 100,000 locations. 

Commenting on the MoU 

part of the digital wave – 

broadband internet possesses 

the capability of influencing 

our lives in numerous positive 

ways. This endeavor of Wateen 

is all about enabling every 

Pakistani to have access to 

information.” Wateen would 

provide internet access at 

the OPD waiting area, main 

reception, visitors Café, 4 in 

patients floors, library and 

class rooms, ICU and radiology 

reception, walk in clinic and 

CC office area, nursing and 

doctor’s flats, services building 

and the nursing Institute. 

While signing the MoU Dr. 

Faisal Sultan, Chief Executive 

Officer, Shaukat Khanum 

Memorial Cancer hospital and 

Research Centre (SKMCH&RC), 

stated, “There is an increasing 

trend world over to have 

internet access available in 

hospitals. 

Teletimes Online Survey Report 

Are you satisfied with the quality of your mobile phone services? 

T 

his month’s online survey inquired the respondents to have say on their 

level of satisfaction over quality of mobile phone services. The results 

show balance responses where 48.33 % said that they are satisfied with the 

quality of their mobile services whereas 45% showed dissatisfaction. 

No 

45.00% 

signing, Wateen’s CEO Naeem 

Zamindar said, “Wateen’s 

partnership with the ISIC is part 

of our continuing commitment 

to the building the future of 

educational and information 

network necessary for a knowledge 

based economy, the kind 

of economy that will drive Pakistan 

in terms of development 

and economic growth. It is our 

sincere hope that this partnership 

will help the students and 

youngsters of Pakistan. 

Yes 

48.33% 

July 2012 


61

Global Telecom events 2012-13 

July 

Telecoms Loyalty & Churn 2012 

02 - 05 Jul - Novotel Cannes 

Vas Africa 2012 

03 - 04 July - Sandton Sun, South Africa 

NTCA Region 7, 8 & 10 Meeting 

08 - 10 July - San Antonio, TX 

China Telematics & Wireless Tech Forum 2012 

12 - 13 July - Shanghai, China 

OPASTCO's 49th Annual Summer Convention & Tradeshow 

14 - 18 July - Minneapolis, MN 

NTCA Regions 1, 2 & 3 Meeting 

15 - 17 July - Hilton Head, SC 

Connected Health Asia 2012 

16 - 19 July - Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore 

August 

Office Expo - Delhi 

04 - 06 Aug - New Delhi, India 

Montana Telecomm Association Annual Meeting 

06 - 08 Aug - Whitefish, MT 

NTCA Regions 4 & 5 Meeting 

12 - 14 Aug - Milwaukee, WI 

KITE 2012 

26 - 28 Aug - Karachi, Pakistan 

September 

Automation Mumbai 

07 - 10 Sep - Mumbai, India 

ComPulse 2012 

11 - 13 Sep - Grand Rapids, MI 

TC3 2012: Telecom Council Carrier Connections 

12 - 14 Sep - Sunnyvale, North America 

Turkmentel 2012 

17 - 18 Sep - Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 

Professional Mobile Radio 2012 

17 - 19 Sep - Barcelona, Spain 

Telecom Asia - Telco Cloud Strategies Summit 2012 

12 13 Sep - Singapore 

LTE Asia 

18 - 19 Sep - Suntec, Singapore 

MVNOs Industry Summit Africa 2012 

18 - 19 Sep - Cape Town, South Africa 

TM Forum’s Africa Summit 2012 

18 -19 Sep - Africa 

Nigeria Com 

18 - 19 Sep - Nigeria, Africa 

Telecom & Mobility 

18 - 19 Sep - Oslo, Norway 

SIMposium Asia 

18 - 19 Sep - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 

PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2012 

18 - 22 Sep - Bejing, China 

Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) Global Summit 

19 - 20 Sep - Berlin, Germany 

Cloud Middle East 

24 - 25 Sep - Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai, UAE 

Business Analysis Conference Europe 2012 

24 - 26 Sep - Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, London 

Managed Services World Congress 2012 

25 - 26 Sep - Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai 

SIBTELECOM & IT 

25 - 28 Sep - Novosibirsk, Russia 

October 

Telecom World Middle East 2012 

02 - 03 Oct - Dubai, UAE 

3rd Annual Self Organising Networks 

03 - 4 Oct - London, United Kingdom 

TCA Region 9 Meeting 

07 - 09 Oct - Big Sky, MT 

COMPTEL Plus Fall 

07 - 10 Oct - Dallas, TX 

62 July 2012 


October 

NECA Expo 2012 

07 - 11 Oct - Bellevue, WA 

Small Cells World Congress 

09 - 10 Oct - Berlin, Germany 

Midwest Telecom Expo 

09 - 11 Oct - Fort Wayne, IN 

Gitex Technology Week 2012 


ITU Telecom World 2012 


MVNOs Industry Summit Asia 2012 

16 - 17 Oct - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

Cloud Computing World Forum India 2012 

16 - 17 Oct - Mumbai, India 

Broadband World Forum 

16 - 18 Oct - Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

5th Annual FTTx MEGNA Summit 


Digital TV Middle East 2012 

30 - 31 OCt - Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai 

November 

5th Annual Rich Communication 

06 - 7 Nov - Munich, Germany 

BakuTel 2012 

06 - 09 Nov - Baku, Azerbaijan 

Iraq Telecom 2012 

12 - 14 Nov - Istambul, Turkey 

Mobile Roaming World Summit 2012 

13 - 15 Nov - London, UK 

Africa Com 

14 - 15 Nov - Cape Town, South Africa 

4G Latin America Conference & Expo 2012 

14 - 15 Nov - Bogota, Colombia 

Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) Global Summit 

15 Nov - Berlin, Germany 

3G World Congress 

15 - 19 Nov - Hong Kong, China 

Arab Advisors Group - 2nd Smart Handheld Summit 2012 

26 - 27 Nov - Dubai Marina Hotel, UAE 

December 

Telecoms Cost Allocation and Profitability 

03 - 06 Dec - London, UK 

WCIT 2012 

03 - 14 Dec - Dubai, UAE 

Cloud Middle East 


Middle East Com 

04 - 05 Dec - Marriot Magquis Hotel, Dubai 

Digital TV Summit 2012 

04 - 05 Dec - London, UK 

MVNO Industry Summit Middle East 


Jan, Feb, Apr, May 2013 

OPASTCO’s 50th Annual Winter Convention 

01 - 09 Jan - Kauai, HI 

Alaska Telephone Association Winter Conference 

27 - 30 Jan - Ka’anapali, HI 

NTCA Annual Meeting & EXPO 

03 - 06 Feb - Lake Buena Vista, FL 

Western Telecommunication Alliance Spring Meeting 

07 - 10 Apr - Las Vegas, NV 

4th Telco Cloud Summit 

15 - 17 Apr - London, UK 

NTCA Legislative and Policy Conference 

21 - 24 Apr - Washington DC, USA 

Alaska Telephone Association Annual Meeting 

20 - 22 May - Homer, AK 

July 2012 


63

Teletoons 

64 July 2012

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