Internship Report

Line Manager: Ali Hayat

Intern info:
Name: Abdullah Masood
Date of joining:

16-07-2012 Date of leaving: 31-08-2012 _______________________________ Report submission date: 28-08-2012

Technical Department OMCS (NOC NSS)

Ufone Ufone MSC I-9/2 Islamabad

Page | 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Internship was my first step in practical life, through which I learnt a lot and it has aided me in being well equipped with valuable experience that would help me once I enter the professional life after the completion of my studies. Page | 2 During the month of July and August 2012, I worked in Ufone GSM as an internee. My association with this company was being a part of the Technical Department. It was a great experience for me and it helped me in realizing where my potential lies. What I learnt at Ufone over the weeks was how to get along with the people that I have to work with everyday, building relationships with people, building confidence and improving my communication skills. This internship has also prepared me for my future career at Ufone, so this internship has helped me a great deal. The experience has taught me responsibility, teamwork and how to handle people in tough social situations. Even though the nature of work was quite basic as an internee, nevertheless I got to see what practical life is. This internship overall has been a great experience. This report gives a profile of Ufone , departments associated with it and my work reflection..

INTRODUCTION

COMPANY PROFILE

Pakistan Telecom Mobile Ltd, operating under the brand name of Ufone a wholly-owned Page | 3 subsidiary of PTCL commenced its operations on 29th January 2001 as a GSM 900 service provider. Since the outset it has expanded its coverage and customer base at a rapid pace and established itself as one of the leading cellular service providers in Pakistan. Ufone is now considered to be one of the most active, aggressive and innovative players in the mobile sector of Pakistan. The growth of cellular sector in Pakistan can also be attributable to good governance and conducive policies of the government of Pakistan In connection with that in April 2006 Emirates Telecommunication Corporation, which is commonly known as Etisalat, has assumed management control of Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Ltd part of the $2.6bn deal to buy a 26% stake. The successful privatization of PTCL, and consequently Ufone, is hailed as ushering in a new era for telecommunications in Pakistan. As mobile users in the country have reached 88 million at a very rapid pace, Ufone has a subscriber base of nearly 17.5 million and a market share of nearly 21%. Ufone has seen a subscriber growth of over 10 million since July 2007 onto its network. Subsequently the growth in subscriber base caused a healthy trend in its revenues and margins. Ufone has always played a pivotal role in the development of cellular market in Pakistan. For most part it has been a step ahead in introducing innovative products to the market. Ufone was pioneer in launching the GPRS services and Multi-media Messaging Service (MMS) in Pakistan, including the lead in introducing GPRS international roaming and prepaid international roaming for these services in the Pakistani market. Currently Ufone has expanded its product portfolio to include Black Berry handsets and providing one of the largest EDGE networks in the country today. Ufone understands the need to communicate effectively and efficiently at all levels of society, which is why various products are catering for the needs of the Pakistan corporate market. It offers services such as 3 mobile office, Virtual Private Network (VPN), and a lot more to revolutionized communication. Ufone provides International Roaming facility with more than 215 international operators across 124 countries. Ufone has GPRS roaming agreements with more than 100 international operators and also provides prepaid roaming facility to more than 15 destinations across the country.

COMPANY ANALYSIS
OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS

Ufones operational performance has been very encouraging. Despite the stiff competition Page | 4 in Pakistan telecom market which has led to reduction of prices to bare minimum level, due to its aggressive policies and exercising strict control over expenses the Company managed to improve its revenue and after-tax profit by 87% and 54% respectively, as compared to last year. Future Plans keeping in view the growth potential of the cellular industry there is no option but to be aggressive in order to remain a potent force in the cellular industry. In order to extend cellular network Ufone has finalized a huge network expansion contract amounting to about USD 550 million, which will enhance the subscribers capacity by 10 million. This is the largest ever expansion project of Ufone. A strong focus of Ufone is on maintaining high quality of service, which is always a benchmark of Ufone, increasing usage and exploring new revenue streams on value added services, market visibility through various market initiatives to fulfill subscribers satisfaction and demand and above all to increase the value of investment for the shareholders. Moreover, efficient working of the workforce in the organization makes it possible to lead the market and maintain competitive edge over the competitors. The organizational operations can be clarified by studying the nature of Ufones organizational structure and hierarchy. 1. Organizational Structure The organizational Structure at Ufone is Lean or Horizontal structure. One of the organizational functions of Ufone in relation to its hierarchy is, the company is having Decentralized structure. The flow of communication becomes easy and simple in such structure. It is divided into different departments and every department has its head and all are interconnected. The concept of Departmentalization is effectively in practice at Ufone. There are different departments which are working within their functional units to contribute towards the success of organization and to achieve the over all goal of the Organization. Ufone has 83 departments that are working efficiently and all are interacting with each other to make it a much better company by satisfying its customers demand. The structure of Ufone comprises of Board of directors who are being reported by CEO, Chief Executive Officer. CEO is a great supervision to the 8 Major operations of the company. These operations are divided into departments that are: 2. Finance Department The head of finance department is designated as CFO Chief Financial Officer or Vice president of financial head. There are further 4 subheads in Finance Department:

 CNC The department is responsible for Credit exposure for Ufone postpaid connection. The department maintains the record of all postpaid subscribers in order to ensure the subscribers validity. Budgeting and Planning The department is working over the budgets, the planning of budget and its reports to the Page | 5 authorities. This head provides the annual budget to be spent. The function of this head is also to forecast any opportunities or threats towards the organization. The reporting of the budget is being done on the monthly basis to the head of financial officer to keep the record of the budgets. Relationship with banks are also being maintained in order to get help in the need time. Accounts The accounting head is responsible for the book keeping of the records. The internal audits are done to ensure the stream lined working of the processes as well as external audit by the Accountancy firms. Revenue Assurance There are Revenue Assurance policies & procedures being made by the personnel. This assurance head also Liaise with other departments, obtain, analyze and reconcile reports to ensure prevention of revenue leakage. The sub-head also ensure error free billing operations, deployment of key revenue assurance applications/solutions, fraud management. 3. Marketing Department The head of marketing department is designated as CMO- Chief Marketing Officer or Vice President of Marketing Head. The department has further 3 subheads working in specialized manner according to the skills and abilities of the employees. Brands There are basically two products of the Ufone which serves as the brands of the company. This sub-head is responsible for the execution of the Brand Activities. Ufone is performing the promotional activities in Brands sub-head, including advertising over Electronic media and print media. The promotional strategies are made by the sub-head to get the implementation. Marketing Strategy and Analysis The sub-head is working in order to formularize the marketing strategy according to the market requirement and consumer preferences. The analysis about the market trend is done and the strategies are made in relevance. Moreover, competitors are biggest source of reacting towards the marketing activities. Ufone is having a proactive marketing concept in context of competition. VAS Value Added Services VAS sub-head is responsible for proficient functioning of conveniences provided to the customers, these VAS are Virtual Private Network, Call Management, Missed Call Notification, Phonebook Saver and a host of Infotainment and Entertainment services.

4. Information Technology Department While being a part of information technology and telecommunications, Ufone is having a major department of Information technology. The head of information technology is termed as CIO- Chief Information officers. IT department is working with the division of Page | 6 further 2 sub-heads. Billing The billing department is responsible for aggregating CDRs and preparation of the postpaid billing for customer from system. IT Development Any kind of IT development required by the company in billing or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) module is done by IT development team. 5. Customer Operations Department One of the departments to preserve the existing consumers, Ufone is having a department of Customer operations; the head of this department is designated as VP COPs Vice president Customer Operations. The department is having 2 further sub heads. Customer Care Ufone provides customer care through Customer Care Center located in all key cities, across the country. Ufones customer care representatives are more helpful. They will not only resolve Consumers issues but also guide them into customizing Ufone, according to their needs. Customers care is offered to through o Call Centre Call centre representatives are providing services, 24 hours a day. The customers can contact the Ufone Call Center to get answers to all their queries. Some of them include: Bill enquiry (credit limit, expiry date etc.) Reporting of lost phone Number blocking in case of lost or stolen SIMs Connection status (active / inactive) Tariff Products information Ufone Sales & Service Center information Nearest dealer information Ufone coverage areas Emergency number information International roaming information Value added services information Missed call alerts Call forwarding Conference call FNF Activation / Changes Post Pay Reward Redemption

o Business Centre The business centre of Ufone are offering various services to their customers, they are basically company owned centre, the business centre offers the SIM issuance and other customer related issues, retention of customers and handling requests for Mobile number portability. Page | 7 Govt. Relations PTA Pakistan Telecom Authority is the regulatory authority in Pakistan concerning the network operators as well as telecommunication practices. Ufone is also abiding the rules that are being made by PTA. The relationship with PTA is also being maintained as PTA is Govt. regulation. 6. Engineering Department The engineering department is Backbone of the company. The head of the department is termed as CTO - Chief Technical Officers or Vice president. The Engineering department is divided into 4 sub-heads BSS Business Support System The subhead is responsible for Radio Planning and network optimization. NSS Network Switching Subsystem The Network Switching Subsystem, at Ufone refers to as the GSM core network, usually refers to the circuit-switched core network, which is being used by ufone GSM services such as voice calls, SMS, and Circuit Switched Data calls. There is also an overlay architecture on the GSM core network to provide packet-switched data services and is known as the GPRS core network. This allows mobile phones to have access to services such as WAP, MMS, and Internet access. All mobile phones manufactured today have both circuit and packet based services, so Ufone as a network Operator that is having a GPRS network in addition to the standard GSM core network. IN Intelligence Network The Intelligent networks main purpose is to take care of charging of prepaid customers and has the balance updates of each of the customer. 7. Sales Department The sales department at Ufone is headed by Vice president Sales. The department is being divided into 3 main sub-heads. Corporate Sales the division of the sales department is handling the sales for executives or corporate clients. These clients are having postpaid products with billing system. Franchises & Retail Outlets this division is handling franchises and retail outlets with a network of more than 365 franchises and 25 company-owned customer service centers along with a distribution network of 150,000 outlets nationwide.

 Sales operations Sales operations at the company have been set up to provide the customers, quality services all under one roof so consumers can walk in to any Ufone Sales & Service Center for services like: Mobile Number Portability Page | 8 Connection purchase Bill payment SIM Activation Number blocking in case of lost or stolen SIMs Transfer of subscription Changing access levels Number change Address change SIM replacement Product / package change Activation of VAS Connection closure Handset & other mobile accessories PIN / PUK code number inquiry GPRS IR activation Missed Call Notification Call Forwarding Conference Call FNF Activation / Changes Post Pay Reward Redemption Human Resource department is being headed by the HR executive designated as Chief of Human resource department. The department is working for the personnel in the organization. There are 3 main sub-heads in the department Recruitment and Compensation Benefits Ufone has this policy of not mentioning the name of the company in a job advertisement. Usually hiring takes place through 11 outsourcing with a help of a third party. Final selection takes place after the candidate has been interviewed by the Manager of the department who requires the new employee and then the HR Manager. A very effective way to retain an employee is to give him compensation and benefits. At Ufone following benefits are given: Medical Facility to employee and his/her parents and Paid Vacations, Gratuity, Provident fund etc. Training Training & Development involves improving the knowledge, skills and abilities of the individuals. A continuous training is conducted inside Ufone to improve the performance of the employee.

There are two types of trainings conducted at Ufone: In-house Training and External Training. HR Operations HR operations at Ufone include the working over all Human resource Functions that are o Orientation Page | 9 o Human Resource Planning o HR hiring / recruitment o Selection Process o Compensation and benefits o Training and Development o Human Resource Information system 8. Strategic Planning Department o This department directly reports to Chief Executive officer. o Ufone views strategy as an overall approach and plan. This department monitors the executions of strategic plans and goals across the business. So, Strategic Planning at company is the overall Planning that facilitates the good management of a process. Ufone strategic planning is providing the big picture of companys operations and long term goals. o Forecasting the opportunities o Building Synergies o Long-term Planning o Implementation of Strategic Plans

WORK REFLECTION
In the first week, I was given to read GSM documentation of Nortel and Motorola, from which I got myself familiarize with History of GSM, Generations, BSS, NSS, OSS,MSC, VLR, HLR, AUC, EIR, interfaces and protocols between these entities, then in the subsequent weeks with the help of documents I got to know about: Techniques used in different Generations like CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, W- CDMA, HSDPA, LTE. Modulation Types like Frequency, Amplitude and Phase modulation, PSK, GMSK, 16QAM Types of Logical channels and their sub types. Architecture of GSM as Access, Core and Transmissions prospective. Point to Point interfaces working and their role of connecting. OSI Layers, SS7 layers and Sigtran. Call flows and SMS flows. I also visited some other technical departments of OMC hall along with my peers ,to get some information about their work and got to know the work link between all these department. Here is the brief overview o SIM, which I understood during my internship period: A SIM card contains its unique serial number (ICCID), international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), security authentication and ciphering information, temporary information related to the local network, a list of the services the user has access to and two passwords: a personal identification number (PIN) for ordinary use and a personal unblocking code (PUK) for PIN unlocking. The MSISDN together with IMSI are two important numbers used for identifying a mobile subscriber. The latter identifies the SIM, i.e. the card inserted in to the mobile phone, while the former is used for routing calls to the subscriber. MSISDN is a number uniquely identifying a subscription in a GSM or a UMTS mobile network. Simply put, it is the telephone number to the SIM card in a mobile/cellular phone. This abbreviation has several interpretations, the most common one being "Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network Number An International Mobile Subscriber Identity or IMSI is a unique identification associated with all GSM, UMTS and LTE network mobile phone users. It is stored as a 64 bit field in the SIM inside the phone and is sent by the phone to the network. It is also used for acquiring other details of the mobile in the Home Location Register (HLR) or as locally copied in the Visitor Location Register.

Page | 10

Long Term Evolution (4G Technology): I was given a task to prepare a project report and on 4G (LTE technology). I completed this task and submitted the project report to my senior as per completion date. In telecommunications, 4G is the fourth generation of cell phone mobile communications Page | 11 standards. It is a successor of the third generation (3G) standards. A 4G system provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access, for example to laptops with USB wireless modems, to smartphones, and to other mobile devices. Conceivable applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing and 3D television. Nokia Siemens Networks and UMTS forum (UMTS Forum, 2009) argues that data traffic in existing WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA networks is growing dramatically year by year. This causes a need for mobile operators to update their existing networks to match growing data needs. Building up a network infrastructure is very expensive and complicated work. Operators demand continuation and backward compatibility from the new innovations which are brought to the networks. This is one of the main factors that current mobile networks are extremely complex and varies between different operators. Journey to LTE will include steps where amount of network elements is reduced to simplify the network architecture. These are first steps towards flat architecture. Even with these improvements the LTE network will be complex because symbiotic relationships exist between the various elements within the system. (Nokia Siemens Networks) Operators are looking for wider bandwidth, efficiency and lower costs from their networks. From the picture 1 it is easy to see that there is a high pressure to move from circuit switched networks to packet switched networks to lower the cost per bit. LTE is an important evolutionary step that builds on GSM/EDGE and WCDMA/HSPA to make higher data rates for mobile broadband services economically viable. Also LTE allows the possibility to use wide range of bandwidths. (Nokia Siemens Networks) As opposed to earlier generations, a 4G system does not support traditional circuitswitched telephony service, but all-Internet Protocol (IP) based communication such as IP telephony. As seen below, the spread spectrum radio technology used in 3G systems is abandoned in all 4G candidate systems and replaced by OFDMA multi-carrier transmission and other frequency-domain equalization (FDE) schemes, making it possible to transfer very high bit rates despite extensive multi-path radio propagation (echoes). The peak bit rate is further improved by smart antenna arrays for multiple- input multiple-output (MIMO) communications. Recently, new access schemes like Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), Interleaved FDMA and Multi-carrier CDMA (MC- CDMA) are gaining more importance for the next generation systems. These are based on efficient FFT algorithms and frequency domain equalization, resulting in a lower number of

multiplications per second. They also make it possible to control the bandwidth and form the spectrum in a flexible way. However, they require advanced dynamic channel allocation and traffic adaptive scheduling. By the time that 4G was deployed, the process of IPv4 address exhaustion was expected to be in its final stages. Therefore, in the context of 4G, IPv6 support is essential to support a large number of wireless-enabled devices. By increasing the number of IP addresses, IPv6 removes the need for network address translation (NAT), a method of sharing a limited number of addresses among a larger group of devices, although NAT will still be required to communicate with devices that are on existing IPv4 networks. The performance of radio communications depends on an antenna system, termed smart or intelligent antenna. Recently, multiple antenna technologies are emerging to achieve the goal of 4G systems such as high rate, high reliability, and long range communications. In the early 1990s, to cater for the growing data rate needs of data communication, many transmission schemes were proposed. One technology, spatial multiplexing, gained importance for its bandwidth conservation and power efficiency. Spatial multiplexing involves deploying multiple antennas at the transmitter and at the receiver. Independent streams can then be transmitted simultaneously from all the antennas. This technology, called MIMO (as a branch of intelligent antenna), multiplies the base data rate by (the smaller of) the number of transmit antennas or the number of receive antennas.

Page | 12

Moreover the Strength and weakness of LTE (4G technology) are STRENGTH: Strong position of telecommunication vendors Page | 13 Faster data transmissions Higher bit-rate Larger bandwidth Personalized multimedia communication tools 4G offers are very good for advanced mobile services such as video and movie streaming. Unlike WIFI, 4G has far expanded coverage and hence, offers more or less constant connectivity. Business users are more likely to use 4G, as it offers them more security than WIFI. This enhances safety and privacy of data.

WEAKNESS: No large user community Divergence between vendors and operators Highest cost to use and on infrastructure Though 4G coverage is expanding rapidly, it still is not available in many locations of world. Though 4G offers great quality connectivity, it is still in the formative stages and could result in bugs or glitches. You will have to purchase a wireless modem or take it on rent.

Impact of LTE (4G technology) is: More affordable communication services One device can communicate with all vs. many devices communicating with some devices TV, internet, phone, radio, home environment sensors all reachable through one device the cell phone Increase in social networking, invasion of privacy, security concerns Has low latency to support real-time applications (average 30 ms end-toend round trip delay). Is the global mobile communication standard chosen by a majority of the worlds leading carriers, which means opportunities for seamless roaming.

RECOMMENDATION
Following are the recommendations: In the orientation session, we should be provided with RFID card, rather than a Page | 14 holder and ribbon for it. There should be a proper arrangement of computer systems for internees, which should be provided in no less than week after joining, where here in MSC got their systems in last week, which is of no need now. In this program, inter wants to learn some practical work, where here mostly internees were asked for documentation reading. There should be a visit of complete MSC, to make internees aware with hardware as well. Certificate and stipend should be provided with in a week, after the completion of internship period.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Working at Ufone was a great experience, helped me to understand the basic professional environment, Public relations and enhanced my communication skills. As far as my project is concerned, I got to know very much about LTE (4G technology), as i have made project report on it. This internship boosted my morale and gave me a new perspective of work as compared to student life perspective in which money is preferred over learning and created more desire in me to learn new things working in a team.

REFERENCES
The information has been gathered through the various sources including Ufone Department of Strategic Planning www.ufone.com www.telecompk.net www.pta.gov.pk . www.propakistani.com www.financialdaily.com . Nokia Siemens Networks. (n.d.). LTE performance for initial deployments. Retrieved 3 19, 2009, from Long
Term Evolution (LTE): http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/NR/rdonlyres/4 B75329B-3750-4BBB-8320.7113613AAB64/0/LTE_measurement_A4_1302.pdf Schopp, D.-I. M. (n.d.). Retrieved 2 22, 2009, from http://www.comnets.uni- bremen.de/typo3site/uploads/media/ITG-FA52-Schopp- Bremen-Nov-2006.pdf