Telecom:

Why High Call Rates to Muslim Countries? 10

Leading Telecom News Magazine
CONTENTS March, April 2008 At War with Youtube? 12
Mobilink Brings the Beauty 14
KHL gets Delivery Rights of Chinese Group 16
Telenor's Customer Wins a Crore 17
Abu Dhabi Group Invests in Georgia 18
Rural Punjab Remains Behind 20
PTCL Broadband Entertainment Portal 24
PTCL Reports Net loss of Rs 9.54 bn 25
A Humble Tribute to (Late) Bader ul Islam 26
ZRG Represents Pakistan 28
Mobile Social Networking 30

Cover Story: 48 Why Slowest Subscriber Growth?

Nanoparticles Could Improve Mobile Phone
45
46
Mr. Tom Slone, who is involved in the Is There Anyone Listening? 77
fraudulent activities and disgracing Can Apple Patent the Pinch? 79
not only Mr. Farukh Aslam (a share Will Cell Phones Save Books? 83
holder of TouchStone) but Pakistan's
image.
Cover Story:
TouchStone Issue 48
Threat for Investors… Disgrace for Pakistan

IT:
Online Hobbies 44
Computer Memory Vulnerable to Hacking 71
Goodbye to Early Web Icon 73
Using Technology in Teaching & Learning 81
EU Extends Net Safety Programme 85
Solution to IT Infrastructure Problems 87
Intel Announces Brand for Processor 88

Events:
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008 22
CeBit is Marvelous 36
Buzz at Barcelona 40

Informative:
Coming Mobile 52
Current Mobile 54
Mobile Review 60
Motorola Rolls Out First ROKR for the Car 69

Abu Dhabi Group Invests Buzz at Barcelona | 16

Briefs:
in Georgia | 18 National 92
International 96

At War With Youtoube PTCL Broadband

6 12 Entertainment Portal | 24 Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008 | 22
 Historic Move By PTCL
PTCL has made some interesting moves that the amazing community at Telecom
Grid Pakistan has been discussing.
PTCL announced very competitive tariff for broadband internet facilities for its
customers, with effect from March 1, 2008. The existing package of 256Kbps will
not be offered to new customers. Existing 256Kbps packages customers will be
upgraded to 512Kbps package, 512Kbps to 1Mbps and customers of 1Mbps will be
upgraded to 2Mbps. In our experience with PTCL Broadband, if you can choose to
look past the poor customer service and lack of support for small businesses (stat-
ic IPs etc.) the actual service quality is pretty good. Added to that a good price
point and this should be a very good choice for people whose phone lines can
support 2mbps connections etc.
Now they've announced the launch of a Broadband Entertainment Portal which
gives access to music, movies, sports and more free of cost to PTCL Broadband
subscribers.
PTCL Broadband Pakistan is now offering incredibly cost effective, constantly
available internet access as the internet access speed for existing subscribers has
been doubled while they are allowed unlimited downloads for the same amount
that they were previously paying. New subscribers will also be required to pay the
new tariff while the modem and DSL installation is completely free.
It seems like the company is picking up. PTCL is now the leader in consumer
broadband in Pakistan, leading the country into 21st century. PTCL is aware of the
fact that the customers need high speed and large download capacity to fully expe-
rience the Broadband Portal - the movies and music, sports coverage and religious
material. Thus, the Broadband Pakistan packages have been upgraded for the ben-
efit of all existing and new subscribers.
But there is still a dire need as for as customer care is concerned. PTCL must
take this issue seriously as it is important to keep loyal the customers with the
company.

Zubair Ahmed Kasuri Editor-in-Chief Zubair Ahmed Kasuri Publisher of "FLARE" Leading Telecom Magazine Printed it from Akkaz
M. H. Khalid Editor Printers Shama Plaza Lahore and Published from 105 B, Gulberg II, Lahore.

Lahore Office: Ph: 042-5750732

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Islamabad Office: Phone: + 92-51-2890054 - Fax: + 92-51-2891339
M. Farooq Malik Marketing Executive (Lhr.)
Rashid Hussain Mughal Marketing Executive (Khi.) Karachi Office: Phone: + 92-21-2275215 - Fax: + 92-21-2275216

E-mail: flare.mag@gmail.com
M. Naeem Mughal Designer
Registration No: PCPB/105 (Vol. 4 Issue: 6)
Aamir Attaa Incharge Research Wing
Price: 250/-
Azhar Javed Production Manager

8
Well Done, PTCL
It seems PTCL has a package of its own. I believe the
charges of shifting one's telephone were quite nominal.
However, I was mistaken. Recently I had to shift homes within
the same neighbourhood in fact and thought that transferring
the telephone connection would be a straightforward affair: fill
out a form, deposit it at the exchange and hope to get the
transfer done within a reasonable period of time. I was wrong.
The lineman flatly told me it would "take Rs 2,500" to do the
needful and that try as I may nothing else would work. He was
right after waiting for an inordinately wrong period of time I had
to dish out the money.
The phone was transferred by the next day. Truly a great
'pacakge' for the people Well done, PTCL.
A subscriber, Karachi
You Tube Ban
Blocking YouTube.com was a ridiculous decision on the part
of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. Denying the access
to popular website to the whole nation because it had a few
unwanted video clips is simply illogical. In other countries, such
unreasonable acts could not be even bought of. Being a huge
repository of video clips, YouTube.com must be accessible to
the people.
Raziq Hussain, Wah
Unreasonable Ban
It is always interesting to hear about the new kind of bans
the government imposes whenever confronted with difficult
problems.
In the recent past, the government banned different media
outlets and imposed Section 144 to avert lawyers' procession
and civil society congregations.
More recently the Punjab government banned the use of
cell phones in universities. It did discourage the students who
regularly bunk their classes to talk to their friends on cell
phones. Although it is a genuine problem that needs to be
addressed, the Punjab government's all-encompassing ban on
cell-phone use on university campuses is absolutely unjustifi-
able. Why should the ban be extended to every student when
the problem is caused by only a handful of students? Will it not
be reasonable if the problem is addressed in a way that does-
n't affect the common student on a university campus? The
government should explore other possible solutions to a prob-
lem before imposing all-encompassing bans.
Nosheen Haider, Lahore
Send us your letters at flare.mag@gmail.com or at our postal address. Flare reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and space.
China Mobile New Campaign
China mobile has launched its new campaign and it is
good to see new investment in the country. I want to say that
nothing is perfect in this world and every thing has a room for
improvement. I am of the opinion that at the time of election
the last thing people care about is a new cellular company
entrance, it was a great risk that company had taken but
received tremendous response, the reason being readership
and viewer ship increases during crucial days. To run the
campaign during these days might be risky but again cam-
paign has to be very incomparable in order to divert the atten-
tion from political situation and it was incomparable specially
Print. Believe me not only people from Advertising and
Marketing but from every field were talking about this Ad from
the day of election till now. Think why? Ad man or a Marketer
almost gives attention to the aesthetics of the Ad, not normal
person...I would say.
Faizan, Islamabad
Pakistan Package
While launching Pakistan Package, PTCL activated it on all
landline connections with out seeking subscribers' opinion.
As for as my personal experience is concerned, PTCL help
line was always found busy whenever I tried to deactivate the
unwanted package. In the beginning, PTCL advertisements
said that the package had been introduced for a limited time
and that it would be made non-functional after March 1. But
the date passed and the PTCL is still charging its helpless
customers Rs 199 per month for a facility they didn't request
for.
I request PTCL authorities to concentrate on providing
quality service to their customers instead of making money by
introducing dubious calling packages.
Mian Asfandyar, Nowshera
Noise Pollution
I am writing to draw the attention of the authorities con-
cerned to the noise pollution caused by the diesel-run booster
of a cellular company fixed in our locality. It makes a lot of
noise and routine life has become extremely miserable due to
its continuous shrillness. I don't want to move to another
place but the disturbance and noise pollution will, it seems,
compel me to make this decision.
Recently, personnel of the authorities concerned visited the
site and asked the company's officials not to run the booster
on a diesel-based generator. After this, they didn't use the
generator for a few days but then fired it up again. Such irre-
sponsible companies should be proceeded against in a court
of law for their irresponsible social behaviour.
Imran Anwar, Chaklala
9
 Telecom Azhar Javed
he customers cost Rs 2.50 per minute
T call to European countries including
France, Italy, Malta, Hungry, Finland,
Denmark, Cyprus, Belgium, Austria, Germany,
United Kingdom, Turkey, Romania, Portugal,
Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Rome
Canada and even in US. On the contrary, the
cell phone service provider companies do not
heed to exercises to reduce the tariffs in
Muslim countries.
No doubt, the government-backed compa-
nies, PTCL and Ufone have introduced many
good packages to their customers to facilitate in
the telecom sector but pay no attention to
reduce tariffs in Muslim countries. Same dilem-
ma happens with the cell phone service
provider companies who do not heed to reduce
the tariffs like Mobilink, Warid, Telenor, Paktel,
etc.
The majority people earn their livelihood in
the Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Abu
Dhabi, UAE, Muscat, Egypt, Iran, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Libya,
Indonesia, Malaysia and many others Muslim
countries whose are not far from Europe and
America.
Although, during the past eight years, the
total number of cellular phone subscribers in
the country had been 225,000 but now their
number has crossed the figure of 76.6 as com-
piled by the Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority (PTA).
This scribe suggest to the high-officials of
the esteemed companies to take revolutionary
steps to decrease the tariff in Muslim countries
especially in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Abu Dhabi,
etc. so that the middle and lower middle class
people contacted their love ones on cheap
rates. The call rates are more than Rs 13 per
minute.
The cellular mobile density is expected to hit
70-75 per cent after which there will be some
slowdown in the growth rate of the industry. In
2010, the cellular subscribers will go to 100 mil-
lion with the aggressive marketing of the cellu-
10
lar companies attracting more and more of the
youth, which is 50 per cent of the population.
According to PTA, the current size of the
country telecom market is 77 million sub-
scribers, 48 per cent tele-density with an annu-
al growth rate of 100 per cent over the fiscal
year 2006-2007. The contribution of telecom in
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is placed at 35
per cent of the total FDI and the sector is
reported to make up 2 per cent of the gross
domestic product (GDP).
The industry has come a long way since its
lackluster debut in the nineties. For Mobilink,
Ufone, Warid, Telenor and Paktel - the five
service providers in Pakistan - this has meant a
huge increase in research and development.
The stakes are high, with each service jostling
to entrench its position in an ever-expanding
market. Investment has been heavy in network
expansion, with million dollar deals being cut
with international companies. This is good news
for customers. A new world of competition in
pricing and technology has opened up, with a
number of value added services on offer,
designed to lure a particular niche market.
Whether in the form of a chat club service for
the young and trendy, or corporate club dis-
count options, the wonders of the latest mobile
phones can include options such as mobile
banking, fax and information services, internet
access, instant updates, conference calling and
mail.
Pakistan's large area and scattered popula-
tion has not deterred cellular companies from
their drive to reach maximum customers in the
rural areas.
In the past when having a fixed telephone
connection was taken as a privilege and a mark
of superiority. The subscribers were used to
wait for long to get a landline telephone con-
nection and sometimes to no avail even after
years spent on waiting. The days when an aris-
tocrat accompanied by a person with a large
mobile set in his hand and it was not much
back in the past. Then telecommunication
advancement started taking place in the coun-
try and geared up with the start of the new era.
The recent past has witnessed unprecedent-
ed growth in Pakistan telecom market as new
operators were allowed to enter and ring their
own tones to attract potential buyers. Tariffs of
cellular mobile phone have reduced whereas
NWD call charges of PTCL have come down.
Enormous employment openings were generat-
ed in the shape of direct hiring by telecom
operators. Huge foreign investment has poured
in this sector as license and fees and expendi-
tures on infrastructure development.
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
The Telecom Deregulation Policy was
announced in 2003 and since then Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has made
tremendous headway towards a free and fair
telecom market. The transparent implementa-
tion of the Policy has not only brought in a siz-
able foreign investment but also gave a fresh
impetus to the economy of the country.
The most interesting aspect in the present
telecom scenario is that the end user is being
There is a need to do
homework to reduce the
tariff to the Muslim coun-
tries. In this regard, the
government should
reduced the taxes on the
call rates to the Muslim
countries so the customers
would take more benefits
to the development of the
telecom sector in shape of
low call rates to the
Muslim countries.
benefited the most. The subscribers have now
expanded number of operators to choose from,
innovative telecom products at reduced rates
and good quality of service. Not only urban
consumers but rural population is also getting
benefits of this recent telecom boom in the
country which will continue to cast positive
impact in future not only on an individual's life
but also on national economy at large.
The need of the hour is that PTA should
direct to the PTCL and cell phone service
provider companies to do homework to reduce
the tariff to the Muslim countries. In this regard,
the government should reduced the taxes on
the call rates to the Muslim countries so the
customers would take more benefits to the
development of the telecom sector in shape of
low call rates to the Muslim countries.





 Telecom Courtesy Dawn w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

As per a newsletter sent to its customer by a broadband internet service provider

stated that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (www.pta.gov.pk) has directed
all ISPs of the country to block access to www.youtube.com web site for containing
blasphemous web content/movies
he Government of Pakistan ordered the ble to bypass almost any sort of filtering mecha- ended up in the PTCL's black hole instead,

T country's 70 ISPs to block Pakistanis from

accessing Google's popular video website,
YouTube. Turkey and Thailand have in the past
nism, almost always ensuring that censorship, in
whatever capacity, only serves to attract more
attention and acclaim to material intended to be
resulting in a global outage of YouTube.
Round about the same time on Sunday when
YouTube access went down globally, the con-
also banned access to the site Pakistan's hidden away from this attention in the first place. tentious video in question had already been
attempts to block access to YouTube have been The fact that the powers-to-be here have not brought down by YouTube administration
blamed for an almost global blackout of the realised this failure of censorship is neither new, because of what the Google country representa-
video website. Internet users in the country were nor surprising. Despite the obvious counterpro- tive in Pakistan, Badar Khusnood, described as
once again exposed to the incompetence of the ductive nature of censorship, it has been prac- a "terms of use violation". Even more ironically
censors at the helm of the PTA when the tele- ticed through human history across the world at however, only a few hours later, Google officials
com regulator directed the country's seventy various levels. But what is indeed surprising is officially disclosed the reasons for the global out-
Internet Service Providers (ISP) to ban access to the dearth of technology at the disposal of age as erroneous routing information introduced
the popular video sharing website, YouTube. Pakistan's internet regulators. by a Pakistani network.
According to the official notice issued by the It seems that whenever some form of con- Free speech advocates, like the technology
Deputy Director Enforcement of the PTA, the tentious subject matter is available on a certain blogger Richard Stiennon, found it hard not to
ban was supposed to be enforced on a specific
URL, which featured a 04:58-minute-long trailer
from Dutch politician Geert Wilders' controver-
sial anti-Islam movie. However, since the major-
ity of Pakistani ISPs did not have the infrastruc-
ture available to enable URL-specific filtering,
the entire domain of YouTube was rendered
inaccessible to a large section of internet users
through out the country.
The notice did not specify the explicit reasons
behind the ban, merely describing YouTube as
an 'offensive website,' but an unnamed govern-
ment official told Agence France-Presse that an
inter-ministerial committee has decided to block
YouTube because it contained 'blasphemous
content, videos and documents.' But conspiracy
theorists alleged the ban was an attempt to
shove aside something else. "My understanding
is that the ban is due to the clips involving elec-
tion riggings" commented an enraged user in a
message posted on the Society against internet
censorship in Pakistan mailing list.
Such arguments are strengthened consider-
ably as one realises that the 'blasphemous'
Wilder's video had been on YouTube as early as
28th January. It is curious then, that the internet URL on the web, the only means they have to fil- revel in the irony of the turn of events. "A reli-
monitor only decided to issue such a delayed ter it by banning the entire domain of that web- gious state, Pakistan, identifies a content
ban notification almost a full month after the site, a course of action which has resulted in the provider, YouTube, as the source of blasphe-
video was first uploaded, and that too, in the previous blanket ban on Blogger and this pres- mous, seditious content and orders, King
immediate aftermath of the elections. Also worth ent outage of YouTube. As Wahaj-us-Siraj, the Canute style, that the internet tides be stopped"
pondering is the fact that the controversial convener of the Association of Pakistan Internet he wrote on his blog Threat Choas. "The first
Wilders' snippet was largely unheard of by Service Providers notes, the government may repercussion was that YouTube disappeared
Pakistani surfers until the ban came about, have its valid reasons for censoring the contro- from the internet for almost an hour. I suspect
whereas the election rigging videos, in sharp versial video, but they have to find a better way the second repercussion was that Pakistan's
contrast, had been doing the rounds in Pakistani of enforcing it. "If we continue blocking popular internet access crawled to a halt as all of a sud-
cyber circles. websites, people will stop using the internet" he den they were handling IP requests for one of
Whatever the real reason behind the ban told the BBC. the busiest sites in the world."
was, it seems to have proved counterproductive Not content at banning YouTube in just Fortunately, this did not happen, but had
in either case. As the Karachi blogger Sidrat Pakistan however, one service provider, namely Stiennon's guess been correct, the establish-
Asim notes, "Banning it in such a way is just the PTCL, decided that the best way to filter the ment itself would have ended up initiating a mas-
going to attract more attention to the blasphe- website was to re-rout the IP address block that sive Denial of Service attack on its own country!
mous video which would have otherwise gone YouTube's servers are into a 'black hole'. This Malicious intent or not, this certainly proves the
unnoticed"; the same, it seems, would apply to routing information escaped from the PTCL to its levels of competence of both the service
the rigging videos. main ISP PCCW in Hong Kong, which propagat- providers as well as the telecom regulators in
The internet by its very nature is very hard to ed the route to the rest of the world. So any Pakistan.
12
censor, proxies and anonymisers make it possi- packets for YouTube from around the world Despite all that has happened, all internet
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Telecom

are quite upset. They're screaming at ISPs

Internet and Telecom gurus are somewhat against this practice
of blocking entire website rather than blocking only specific
content or page. On other hand, "Flare" learnt that Internet
service providers in Pakistan do not carry the facility of block-
ing any specific URL (Web address)
users whose ISPs rely on the Pakistan Internet
Exchange backbone, still cannot access
YouTube at the time of writing. Only a handful of
ISPs who rely on the TWA backbone can access
YouTube on the whole (with only the controver-
sial video being banned). Pakistani internet
users though have now grown accustomed to
such clumsy errors on the part of telecom regu-
lating instuitions. But one wonders if this latest
embarrassing international faux pas will finally
bring about a change in attitudes.
A leading net professional said the global
outage was "probably a mistake". Pakistan
ordered internet service providers to block the
site because of content deemed offensive to
Islam.
Websites technology experts say that to
block Pakistan's citizens from accessing
YouTube it is believed Pakistan Telecom
"hijacked" the web server address of the popular
video site.
Those details were then passed on to the
country's internet service providers so that any-
one in Pakistan attempting to go to YouTube was
instead re-directed to a different address.
But the details of the "hijack" were leaked out
into the wider internet from PCCW and as a
result YouTube was mistakenly blocked by inter-
net service providers around the world.
The block on the servers was lifted once
PCCW had been told of the issue by engineers
at YouTube. Users are quite upset. They're
screaming at ISPs which can't do anything
Wahaj-us-Siraj, convener of the Association
of Pakistan Internet Service Providers A leading
net professional told Flare: "This was probably a
simple mistake by an engineer at Pakistan
Telecom. There's nothing to suggest this was
malicious."
IP hijacking involves taking over a web site's
unique address by corrupting the internet's rout-
ing tables, which direct the flow of data around
the world.
Reports said Pakistan made the move
because YouTube content included Danish car-
toons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that
have outraged many.
But one report said a trailer for a forthcoming
film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, which
portrays Islam in a negative way, was behind the
ban.
"They (Pakistan Telecommunications
Authority) asked us to ban it immediately... and
the order says the ban will continue until further
notice," said Wahaj-us-Siraj, convener of the
Association of Pakistan Internet Service
Providers.
The government decision has caused uproar
in Pakistan, according to Wahaj-us-Siraj: "Users
which can't do anything.
"The government has valid reason for that,
but they have to find a better way of doing it. If
we continue blocking popular websites, people
will stop using the internet."
Other countries that have temporarily
blocked access to YouTube include Turkey and
Thailand.
YouTube is a video sharing website where
users can upload, view and share video clips.
YouTube was created in mid-February 2005. In
October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it
had reached a deal to acquire the company for
US$1.65 billion in Google stock. Few statistics
are publicly available regarding the number of
videos on YouTube.
As of February 20, 2008, a YouTube search
for returns about 73,500,000 videos, and about
2,750,000 user channels.
This leads to a dark recollection of the blan-
ket blocking of the blogspot.com domain
which rendered all blogs hosted on
Blogspot inaccessible for the majority of
Pakistani users who didn't knew how to
utilize proxy servers and about bypassing
such restrictions.
As per a newsletter sent to its cus-
tomer by a broadband internet service
provider stated that Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority
(www.pta.gov.pk) has directed all ISPs of
the country to block access to
www.youtube.com web site for containing
blasphemous web content/movies.
Internet and Telecom gurus are some-
what against this practice of blocking
entire website rather than blocking only
specific conetent or page. On other hand,
"Flare" learnt that Internet service providers in
Pakistan do not carry the facility of blocking any
specific URL (Web address).
There are also voices in the market that the
decision was taken due to some secret videos,
which were uploaded on youtube, revealing cer-
tain rigging incidents of February 18
elections.

'Flare' to be Media Partner at Mega

Telecom Event
he leading telecom news magazine of Pakistan 'Flare' has been telecom industry of over 300 million mobile phone users of South

T announced as a media partner in India & South Asia Com

event. Besides huge subscriptions, 12000 copies of the mag-
azine are delivered to the entire telecom sector of Pakistan, leaders
of industry, governments, international organizations, legal experts,
bankers and the like. For general pub-
lic, the magazine is available on all the
famous bookstalls in the country.
Being the first of its nature in Pakistan,
the magazine had to swim through a
sea of quandaries and the credit goes
to the restless efforts and commitment
of the Flare team, who made it the best telecom magazine of
Asia.
Over 25 speakers from South Asian telcos, 6 streamed confer-
ence agenda alongside a 30 stand exhibition will destine the future
prospects for the region.
Supported by GSM Associated and partnered
by world's major media houses including
Time Magazine, Telecom Asia, Newsline,
Business Wire and Flare Magazine, first time
ever representation from Pakistan, the exhi-
bition is going to discuss the rollout of 3G
networks in South Asia that shares 24 per-
cent subscribers of entire Asia Pacific.

Pakistan.
India & South Asia Com telecom event will be held in Mumbai,
India on 23-24 April 2008 to represent, discuss and evaluate the 13
 Telecom Flare Report w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Mobilink is creating aware-

ness within the masses
through envisioning a new
experience on television: a
unique 25 minutes travel pro-
gramme titled, Mobilink's
Journey through Pakistan.
Through depicting Pakistan in
its unabashed glory, the mes-
sage is loud and clear; in
times when people think that
Pakistan may not be the most
pleasant of places to explore,
it remains a country of great
natural beauty, rich cultural
heritage and humble people

Seeing is believing" and nowhere is this preserve cultural heritage within Pakistan. one is taken from the breathtakingly majestic

" more evident than when gazing upon the

splendor and beauty that is Pakistan.
Blessed with rich cultural heritage, nature's
Mobilink is creating great awareness within the
masses through envisioning a new experience
on television: a unique 25 minutes travel pro-
snow covered hills of Murree to the winding
inner alleys of Sukkur. Forgotten sights and
monuments of great historic value are once
bounty, and a unique geographical terrain that gramme titled, Mobilink's Journey through again introduced to us and the viewer is left in
beautifully juxtaposes the arid deserts of Thar Pakistan. Through depicting Pakistan in its awe of the splendour and diversity that is
with the snow capped peaks of K-2, it is unabashed glory, the message is loud and clear; Pakistan.
undoubtedly a country of many attractions and in times when people think that Pakistan may not Through this exclusive and interesting travel
experiences. be the most pleasant of places to explore, it show; Mobilink has taken its agenda as a corpo-
Indeed, one may even liken it to a symphony remains a country of great natural beauty, rich rate citizen to new heights by supporting the
of nature which has remained undiscovered till cultural heritage and humble people. local tourism industry and allowing the common
now, and all that is required is to venture out and
explore the natural beauty that this land has to
offer. Lakes, mountains, deserts and some of the
finest and rarest wildlife, all converge upon this
land and yet, ironically, it is ourselves, the peo-
ple of Pakistan that have forgotten the intoxicat-
ing beauty of our land. It is interesting to note
that many adventurers from both hemispheres
have been tempted by the promise of this land
and have traveled to this part of the world to wit-
ness its magnificence, warmth and hospitality.
A nation that is home to the "cradle of civiliza-
tion" has an obligation to preserve and promote
its unique heritage and natural beauty. One of
the most effective ways to achieve this is
through the promotion of tourism, which allows
for the creation of awareness, influx of foreign
exchange and the projection of a positive and
friendly image of the country. For a country like
Pakistan possessing all the right ingredients, all
that is required is a proactive leader to jump start
this process.
Through a strategic partnership with the Guided by explorer-director Wajahat Malik, man access to Pakistan's natural beauty and
Ministry of Tourism, the telecommunications viewers are privy to the different faces of architectural richness. It is now up to us to take
leader, Mobilink has taken on its agenda as a Pakistan as he travels in a Volkswagen van advantage of this opportunity and venture out of
corporate citizen of Pakistan and emerged at the which has been transformed into a mobile home. our homes to explore the diversity of experi-
14
forefront of this initiative to promote tourism and It is fascinating to watch this unique journey as ences, sights and sounds that is, Pakistan.



 Telecom Flare Report w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Chief Executive Officer

KHL Usman Sheikh

onnect Holden Limited (KHL) has been

K granted exclusive distributorship rights to

the entire line of construction machinery
of a premier Chinese construction giant Foton
Lovol.
Foton Lovol, the premium Chinese group
which is among the worlds largest manufacturer
of construction machinery, agricultural machin-
ery and vehicles is now available in Pakistan,
Powered by the country's leading service
provider to the construction industry i.e. Konnect
Holden Limited (KHL).
KHL has been granted exclusive distributor-
ship rights to the entire line of construction
machinery of this premier Chinese construction
giant. This includes their Wheel Loaders,
Excavators, Rollers, Backhoe Loaders, Rotary
Drilling Rigs, and Crawler Cranes This deal not
only benefits the
relations between
Pakistan and China, but is also an
opportunity for our construction industry to lower Pakistan.
their equipment costs substantially. The signing Usman Sheikh further said that it is really
of a deal is truly another feather in the glorious appreciating that the foreign investment is com-
history of Sino-Pak relations. ing in the country and it is boosting our econo-
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KHL my.





Usman Sheikh told 'Flare' that this agreement is
a benchmark for the foreign investment in

he political instability and security prob-

T lems of the country disrupt the negotia-

tions between Instaphone and South
Korea Telecom. There were negotiations going
on between both the companies in November
2007 that Pakistan's 1st and smallest cellular
company by subscriber numbers, Instaphone
may have been sold to SK Telecom of South
Korea with management control and majority
shares. Now South Korea Telecom takes back
its decision to buy Instaphone.
Instaphone, which started its service back in
1990, hold 350,000 customers in Pakistan, oper-
ates using TDMA technology had faced lot of cri-
sis.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)
cancelled the license of Instaphone on Jan 4, cit-
ing the country's first cellular company's failure of times in last few years, Instaphone that has country disrupted the talks and South Korea
to pay its outstanding dues. Instaphone, failed to 350,000 customers remaining on its network has Telecom refuses to buy Instaphone.
meet the payment schedule of $291 million for seen a gradual decrease in its popularity. PTA sources told 'Flare' that this is not a good
getting the operating license renewed for next A hope raised when there was a contract sign for the telecom sector of the country as the
15 years from 2005. signed between the two companies and it was foreign investment is not coming and people feel
Instaphone raised this issue of cancellation decided that South Korea Telecom will buy its 70 insecure to invest in Pakistan due to security
of their license n the court and then PTA took percent shares. There were negotiations for sale concerns.





back its decision. of its 70 percent share to South Korea Telecom
16
After having been bought and sold a couple when the worsening political situation in the
 Flare Report Telecom

elenor announces winner of Rs. 1 crore.

T Mr. Zahid Iqbal Rana was announced a

winner. On the occasion, Executive Vice
President Corporate and Regulatory Affairs
Telenor Pakistan Irfan Wahab Khan congratulat-
ed the grand prize winner of Rs. 1 crore, Zahid
Iqbal Rana, an accountant at an entertainment
channel, and thanked him for putting his trust in
Telenor Pakistan. "Due to Telenor Pakistan's
customer focus, we have managed to become
the fastest growing telecom operator in the
country. It is because of the trust of our cus-
tomers that we have crossed 15 million subscrip-
tions within less than 3 years of operation," he
said.
A jubilant Zahid Iqbal Rana when asked said,
"I am extremely happy on winning this prize. At
first I didn't believe the good news, thinking it
was a hoax. When I realised it is true I thanked
Almighty for His kindness and also my parents Zahid Iqbal Rana, a winner of Rs. 1 crore is receiving cheque of Rs. 10 million from Telenor.
and family, without whose prayers and good
wishes there wouldn't be a prize. The first thing I prizes." He further added that these schemes from December 12, 2007 to January 11, 2008
would want to do with this prize is to take my are designed to provide benefits to Telenor also allowed multiple entries for those who
mother for Ummrah." He thanked Telenor Pakistan's subscribers at large and show the recharged their balances more than once.
Pakistan for sharing their success in Pakistan company's commitment to its clientele. Telenor ASA is an international provider of
with their subscribers. The scheme was launched following strong high quality telecommunications, data and
Commenting on the Scheme, Regional demand from customers who showed keen media communication services. It ranks as
Director Central-I Telenor Pakistan, Malik Faisal interest in previous Crorepati schemes. world's 7th largest mobile operator with a total of
Qayyum, said, "As the 4th campaign in the Customers were entered in the daily draw on a 143 million subscribers in its mobile operations.
Crorepati series, this was the biggest and the cumulative recharge of Rs. 50, and in the week- Telenor Pakistan is 100% owned by Telenor ASA
most successful with Rs. 15 million in prizes and ly and grand prize draw on a cumulative and adds on to its operations in Asia together
over 60 million entries for the bumper and grand recharge of Rs. 100. The scheme that lasted with Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

17
 Telecom Flare Report
he leading investment group Abu Dhabi
T Group has enterd Gorgia with huge invest-
ment in banking sector. New Director of
Standard Bank appointed on March 6 by Abu
Dhabi Group, new owner of Georgian Bank,
developed by Salford Capital, investment com-
pany associated with Boris Berezovski and Badri
Patarkatsihvili.
Announcement on purchase of Standard
Bank by Abu Dhabi Group was announced on
March 6, 2008. Bank PR department said new
CEO of Standard Bank introduced to Georgian
media on March 7.
Minister of Higher education and Science of
United Arab Emirates His Highness Nayan Bin
Mubarak Al Nayan visited Tbilisi in February. His
Highness was invited by the President of
Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili .
His Higness is a founder and the chairman of
management board of Abu Dhabi Group, one of
the largest investment groups in the Middle East.
Mr. Bashir. A.Tahir, CEO of Dhabi group is also
Abu Dhabi Group has
already invested in two
sectors and has two proj-
ects in Georgia: One of
them is JSC KOR Bank,
Georgia which has received
the operations license from
National Bank of Georgia.
Another sphere of invest-
ment is in
Telecommunications mar-
ket under the company
name Warid Telecom
Georgia Ltd. More than 80
million dollars is expected
to be invested in this sector
till the end of 2008
a member of the visiting delegation from Abu
Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi Group has already invested in two
18
sectors and has up two projects in Georgia: One
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
"Another sphere of investment is
in Telecommunications market
under the company name Warid
Telecom Georgia Ltd. More than 80
million dollars is expected to be
invested in this sector till the end of
2008. License for Wi Max frequency
was purchased 3 months ago for
more than 10 million dollars.
According to the plans of Dhabi
Group Georgia, Warid Telecom,
Georgia wireless internet and
enhanced telephony services will
cover the whole territory of Georgia
by the end of current year.
"Another activity of the company
will be hotel construction business.
The representatives of the group
are currently searching for a suit-
able place in Tbilisi central citz for
the construction of a five star hotel.
The budget of the project is intend-
ed to be over two hundred million
H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al-Nahyan, Minister of Education,
United Arab Emirates.
dollars and will be spent during
three years.
The activities of the Dhabi Group
would not be limited to the sectors
mentioned above, therefore the
search for potentially viable projects
will continue.
Dhabi Group has been investing
for 40 years in The Middle East
Region and the countries of Asia and
Africa. The group currently owns
interests in several banks, insurance
companies and telecommunications
business.
"The value of the whole portfolio
of the group is above 10 billion dol-
lars. Except investing in Georgian
market, Abu Dhabi Group is seeking
the possibility for investing in
Ukrainian and Azerbaijan markets",
company said.
Abu Dhabi Group is expected to
join the local mobile communications
market of Georgia. Last week the
group announced about making an
investment in
Telecommunications market under
the
the company name Warid Telecom
Georgia Ltd. More than USD 80 mil-
lion is expected to be invested in this
sector by the end of 2008. A license
for Wi Max frequency was pur-
chased 3 months ago for more than
Mr. Bashir. A.Tahir, CEO of Abu Dhabi Group. USD 10 million. According to the
plans of Dhabi Group Georgia,
Warid Telecom, Georgia wireless
of them is JSC KOR Bank, Georgia which has
received the operations license from National
internet and enhanced telephony services will
cover the whole territory of Georgia by the end of
Bank of Georgia.
the current year, 2008. The company is not
"The first branch of JSC KOR bank should
excluding the possibility of expanding to the mo-
be operational in 6 months. 10 million dollars
bile communications market.





have been paid as a capital requirement for this
banking license", group representative said.
 Telecom Rizwan Khan
t least 66% villages in
A Pakistan do not have
access to the telecom
in this modern era of latest
telecommunication, and this
situation is a matter of great
concern for the government,
the Punjab Economic Report
2007 revealed. “Out of the
48,268 villages in Pakistan,
only 16,353 or 34 percent
have telecom access, though there has been
tremendous growth in the country’s tele-density,
following the liberalization of the telecom sector.
However, out of 13.67 percent total tele-density,
rural tele-density is as low as 1.26 percent,” the
report disclosed. According to the Punjab
Economic Report 2007, released by the Punjab
government a couple of weeks ago, the Punjab
has the highest tele-density in the country after
Sindh. However, tele-density trend in its rural
areas (e.g., in southern Punjab) is not very
encouraging. According to the report, 41.5 per-
cent of the rural population in Punjab has tele-
com access, but this figure may be disputed as
the definition of “rural” is not entirely clear nor is
definite the number of villages in Punjab. PTA is
making efforts to bridge the gap between rural
and urban Punjab and a strategy has been
formed to address this issue. Private investment
is required to ignite the development of informa-
tion and communication technology in rural
areas. “There is need to increase public-private
partnerships, create awareness among common
people, and encourage commercial banks to
introduce financial schemes for rural areas,” the
report said. Similarly, providing cross subsidies,
access deficit charges, and universal service
funds to operators working in rural areas are
other options for increasing rural tele-density in
Punjab. Rural tele-centres could also be
installed to improve tele-density, the report fur-
ther suggested.
In addition, the PTA is taking the necessary
steps to expand telecom facilities across under-
served and remote areas of Punjab. Under the
deregulation policy, a universal service obliga-
tion fund has been created to develop telecom
facilities in rural areas. This fund will be utilized
in consultation with the provincial governments.
Mobile operators have been allowed to establish
mobile PCOs in areas where fixed-line tele-
phone services are not available. Use of wire-
less technology (WLL) has facilitated the exten-
sion of telecom facilities to un-served areas. PTA
In order to provide wireless (WLL)
services in remote and rural areas
where laying landlines is difficult, the
PTA has issued 76 licenses to 17 com-
panies for provision of local loop serv-
ices in Pakistan. So far, only four have
20 started commercial operations
According to the Punjab
Economic Report 2007, the
Punjab has the highest tele-
density in the country after
Sindh. However, tele-densi-
ty trend in its rural areas is
not very encouraging
must explore the possibility of establishing com-
munity-based telecasters, allowing telecom facil-
ities to be shared instead of having dedicated
facilities. Such measures would help bridge the
digital divide, promote the
economy, and alleviate
poverty. According to this
report, the government of
Punjab aims to improve the
important sector of transport
and communication. The
Vision 2020 focuses on
improving inter-city and
urban transport, modernizing
road networks, and develop-
ing mass transit networks for
mega-cities.
The report further said
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
that about 3,026,982 fixed
line connections are operat-
ing across Punjab out of
which 2,303,006 were in
urban areas and 723,976
connections in rural areas in
FY 2005. Tele-density in
Punjab rose from 2.7 per-
cent in 2003 to 3.5 percent
in 2005. The report also said
that in order to provide wire-
less (WLL) services in remote and rural areas
where laying landlines is difficult, the PTA has
issued 76 licenses to 17 companies for provision
of local loop services in Pakistan. So far, only
four have started commercial operations.
Currently, 128,792 (WLL) connections are pro-
vided by PTCL and Telecard in Punjab. At pres-
ent, total WLL tele-density in Punjab stands at
0.15 percent and is expected to increase in com-
ing years. The PTCL provides WLL services to
78 cities and towns in Punjab. The report also
disclosed that currently there are 7,157,223 cel-
lular mobile phone subscribers in Punjab. The
number of cellular subscribers in Punjab grew by
86 percent in FY2005. Over 365 cities are cov-
ered by cellular operators in Pakistan, 200 of
which are in Punjab. New companies such as
Telenor and Warid are expanding their opera-
tions rapidly and it is expected that more cities
and towns will soon be covered by these compa-
nies. The Punjab’s payphone sector has grown
rapidly in the last three years, creating employ-
ment opportunities at the lowest level. Currently,
a total of 162,710 card payphones operate
across the province. In order to provide telecom
facilities to more remote areas, mobile operators
are also allowed to establish mobile PCOs
where fixed-line telephones are not available. So
far, a total of 25,332 wireless payphones have
been installed in Punjab.




 Event Flare Report w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008, the company's worldwide event dedicated to

enterprise customers, prospects, business partners, press and analysts; witnessed
more than 60 conference sessions, led by industry visionaries, expert analysts, part-
ners, customers and Alcatel-Lucent executives, where participants explored the
relationship of networks, people, processes and knowledge within a Dynamic
Enterprise
he Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008, Executive Officer,

T held on February 20-21, 2008, observed

high numbers of industry analysts and the
international trade press positively receiving the
Alcatel-Lucent spoke
to the high energy
crowd about how the
Keynote address on The Dynamic Enterprise, company has
Alcatel-Lucent's vision for the enterprise net- addressed the uncer-
work. This vision is of an agile, mobile, knowl- tainties that the com-
edgeable and responsive environment where pany faced last year
Enterprise 2.0 applications and Alcatel-Lucent's and how it delivered
secure, always-on communication technologies on its commitment to
strengthen business relationships, simplify com- the Enterprise market.
munications, and improve enterprise perform- She stated that
ance. In a Dynamic Enterprise, the powerful col- throughout 2007,
lective knowledge generated through these Alcatel-Lucent
technologies is integrated with company net- increased its invest-
works, people and processes in real time to pro- ment in Enterprise
vide competitive differentiation. sales and marketing
Enterprise Forum was filled with major prod- and that key acquisi-
uct and customer win announcements and over tion in data and con-
60 conferences supporting The Dynamic tact centers had
Enterprise where customers, partners, and tech- rounded out its product
nology leaders shared their knowledge and cre- portfolio. Also by lever-
ated networking opportunities. aging the entire
The Alcatel-Lucent City and Partner Villages Alcatel-Lucent portfo-
also provided an opportunity for participants to lio, the company is
discover the latest solutions and cutting edge able to provide a
technologies through more than 60 demonstra- unique value to its cus-
tion stations. tomers.
Forum started off with a keynote session on Ms. Russo
"The Dynamic Enterprise". Pat Russo, Chief explained, "We live in
real-time with the reali-
ty of a dynamic envi-
ronment that impacts
every aspect of the
way we work and live.
Constant change
demands dramatically
and quickly transform
our organization, and
our individual and col-
lective relationships to
them to create value
and sustainable
advantage."
Attendees had a
choice of more than 60
conferences across
the two days of Forum
on specific areas of
interest, more than half
of these featured guest
speakers such as industry analysts, consultants, tion, mobility, contact centers, User Profiles, and
customers and partners; they spoke on variety of services.
22
topics such as security, convergence, collabora- The Alcatel-Lucent City, which was located in
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Zubair Ahmed Kasuri, Editor-in-Chief Flare, with other participants at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008.
the heart of the Forum, connected attendees
with the very best technology the communica-
tions world has to offer. Users expressed their
appreciation at being able to get to grips with the
technology directly; they were able to push the
buttons, touch the screens and see how all of it
works together.
Alcatel-Lucent demonstrations were divided
up into areas that address the various needs of
specific market segments including: Small and
Medium Businesses, Mid-sized Enterprises,
Large Enterprises, Industries, Service Providers
and Services with a special area set aside for
Innovations.
Industries addressed included Healthcare,
Finance, Government, Hospitality,
Transportation, Education, Energy,
Manufacturing, Retail, and Defense and
Security.
Also in the exhibition area is the Alcatel-
Lucent Partner Villages filled with Business
Partners, Application Partners, and Alliance
Partners. The aisles were overflowing with visi-
tors to the various partner displays. They dis-
cussed the latest technologies, innovative appli-
cations and business services that add value to
Alcatel-Lucent solutions and to the business.
Major Announcements

Alcatel-Lucent BiCS voice platform was
Alcatel-Lucent helps Double Link
Between Asia and Europe
lcatel-Lucent announced that it will be
A upgrading the capacity of the South East
Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (Sea-
Me-We) 4 submarine cable system that con-
nects numerous countries from Singapore to
France. With completion scheduled in 2009, this
multi-million dollar second upgrade project will
double the existing trunk capacity of the system,
going beyond the original design capacity,
enabling Sea-Me-We 4 to support the increased
broadband traffic requirements along the route.
Owned and operated by 16 carriers, Sea-Me-
We 4 spans nearly 20,000 km linking 14 coun-
tries from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria,
Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia with 16
landing points. Alcatel-Lucent had
the turnkey responsibility of this
state-of-the-art network from design
to laying for segments 2, 3, and 4
linking Mumbai to Marseilles, as well
as the overall responsibility for the
synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH)
end-to-end realization. Alcatel-
Lucent, and its co-contractor Fujitsu,
had supplied the initial Sea-Me-We
4 network that started commercial operation in
the fourth quarter of 2005. The network's capac-
ity was subsequently tripled in the third quarter
of 2007.
Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel-
Lucent will upgrade the India-France submarine
link by deploying, installing and commissioning
Flare Report Event
selected by T-Systems for mid-market managed
services

Italian Trade Commission deploys Alcatel-
Lucent VoIP network worldwide

Swinton Insurance boosts competitive edge
with Alcatel-Lucent's IP telephony and contact
centre solutions

Enterprises and distribution channels world-
wide benefit from expanded Alcatel-Lucent -
NCR services agreement

ZON Multimédia selects Alcatel-Lucent and
Genesys to streamline and optimize its customer
service in Portugal

Traders Classifieds selects Alcatel-Lucent
for national call center solution in Australia

Alcatel-Lucent teams with HP to secure
Services Oriented Architectures (SOAs)

Genesys Placed in Leaders Quadrant of
Leading Analyst Firm's 2008 IVR and Enterprise
Voice Portals Report

HP Helps Alcatel-Lucent Create State-of-
the-art Data Center
The Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum, as always,
served as a wonderful source of information.
Alcatel-Lucent announced T-Systems, the
business customer unit of Deutsche Telekom,
has selected its Business integrated
Communications Solution (BiCS) server as one
of the platforms for its mid-market managed
voice services.
Alcatel-Lucent announced a product integra-
tion that brings together the HP SOA Systinet
governance software with Alcatel-Lucent's
OmniAccess 8550 Web Services Gateway.
The combined Alcatel-Lucent and HP solu-
tion offers highly secure governance and regula-
tory compliance capabilities that let enterprises
fully benefit from SOA while mitigating potential
security risks associated with traditional SOA
deployments. This solution is a must for organi-
zations that require adherence to strict informa-
tion privacy legislation, in industries such as
healthcare, government, finance, and education.
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008 was a
resounding success! This year's event drew over
7,400 visitors from more than 100 countries for a
two-day whirlwind of knowledge sharing, learn-
ing, networking, and opportunities!





additional dense wavelength divi-
sion multiplexing equipment
(DWDM), based on its 1620 Light
Manager. In addition, Alcatel-
Lucent will upgrade the 1626 Light
Manager-based terrestrial link con-
necting Alexandria and Suez, and
the existing SDH equipment, the
Alcatel-Lucent 1678 Metro Core
Connect, for this extensive network.
With more than 461,500 km of submarine
cables laid across continents, Alcatel-Lucent has
played a key role in the development and imple-
mentation of the most important submarine
cable networks in operation today.





23
 Telecom Flare Report w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

TCL launched its Broadband movies and music, sports coverage and reli- provides matter across many main categories:

P Entertainment Portal and new packages

for its DSL subscribers, affirming its cus-
tomers that the access to the portal will be
gious material. Thus, the Broadband Pakistan
packages have been upgraded for the benefit of
all existing and new subscribers," he said.
Religion, Music, Sports, News, and Movies. It
has the latest music videos, movie previews,
short films, sports news and clips and more, all
absolutely free-of-cost exclusively for PTCL "PTCL Broadband Pakistan is now offering available for Broadband Pakistan subscribers.
Broadband Pakistan customers. incredibly cost effective, constantly available Broadband Pakistan, high-speed internet,
"The history is in the making as this is the first internet access as the internet access speed for with a high rate of data transmission that offers
Broadband Portal of the country which offers to existing subscribers has been doubled while extremely fast unlimited online internet time to
the subscribers a variety of professional media they are now allowed unlimited downloads for customers, is a stellar example of innovative
content including but not limited to mainstream the same amount that they were previously pay- services and packages offered by PTCL while
music (Urdu and English), movies, naats and ing. New subscribers will also be required to pay the PTCL Broadband Entertainment Portal is
sports," said Dr Sadiq Al Jadir, SEVP the new tariff while the modem and DSL installa- powered by Converge Technologies and pro-
Commercial at a press conference held at a tion is completely free," he said. vides a unique experience to the user.
local hotel in Islamabad. Broadband Pakistan offers DSL services with The broadband video market is the next fron-
Briefing the media about the salient features unmatched reliability, affordability and connectiv- tier on the web and broadband video is the next
of new portal. Ali Qadir Gillani SEVP, Zomma ity. Earlier, customers had the option of subscrib- generation of television. All the largest telecom-
Mohyuddin EVP Broadband and other PTCL offi-
cers were also present.
Jadir said the PTCL initiative would make the
country embrace the broadband economies of
the world.
"PTCL has invested $50 million to improve its
services for our valued customers. We are com-
peting the market and for the purpose we are
expanding our capacity," he said.
Jadir admitted that up gradation of the PTCL
helpline service was a serious challenge to the
repute of the institution and the company was
making efforts to improve the service.
He assured the journalists that the number of
faulty lines is being minimised and the PTCL is
making every step essential to make the compa-
ny a quality service provider.
"PTCL is aware of the fact that the customers
need high speed and large download capacity to
fully experience the Broadband Portal - the Senior Executive Vice President PTCL, Dr Sadiq Al Jabar addresses a press conference regarding the launching ceremony
of "PTCL Buzz" at a local hotel. Executive Vice President (External) Ali Qadir Gillani is also seen in the picture.

PTCL is aware of the fact ing to either the volume based (256Kbps, munications companies have a presence in this
that the customers need high 512Kbps) or unlimited access (1Mbps) pack-
ages, but now for the price of the 256Kbps pack-
market and the PTCL Broadband Portal is set to
emerge as a principal player in this context.
speed and large download age subscribers would get the 512Kbps service The ease of acquiring the service and main-
with unlimited downloads. taining the service has made PTCL the leader in
capacity to fully experience Similarly, the other packages of 512Kbps and consumer broadband services in Pakistan, lead-
the Broadband Portal - the 1Mb have been upgraded to 1Mb and 2Mb ing the country into the 21st century. Broadband
respectively without any increase in price. customer service is available twenty-four hours
movies and music, sports Under the new Pakistan Package, the cus- a day, seven days a week at 1236 with highly
coverage and religious tomers would have to pay Rs. 1,199 per month
for 512 Kbps unlimited service as compared to
trained and professional representatives. The
PTCL Broadband Pakistan connection can be
material. Thus, the the previous cost of Rs. 1,999. The subscribers ordered by simply calling 1236 or visiting the
would have to pay only Rs. 1,999 for 1024 Kbps PTCL website at www.ptcl.com.pk.





Broadband Pakistan pack- unlimited service as compared to the previous
ages have been upgraded for amount of Rs. 4,999 per month while the cost for
2048 Kbps unlimited would be Rs. 4,999 per
the benefit of all existing and month.
The new PTCL Broadband Entertainment
24 new subscribers Portal is strictly about professional content and
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Flare Report Telecom

TCL announced results for the first half of cent on year. The major reason for the negative earnings in

P financial year 2008. The company posted

a net loss after tax of Rs 9.5 billion (Loss
per share Rs 1.87) against profit after tax of Rs
8.4 billion (EPS Rs 1.64) in first half of financial
year 2007 depicting a massive decline of 217%.
In the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 the
company posted a loss after tax of Rs 12.6 bil-
lion (Loss Per Share Rs 2.46) as against profit
after tax of Rs 3.2 billon (EPS RS 0.63) in the
same period last year.
Company's operating expenses jumped to
Rs 45.5 billion in the first half of FY08, as against
Rs22.6 billion in the first half of FY07 up 102 per-
In addition, the revenues of the company also
experienced a decline of 11 percent and stood at
Rs 29 billion in 1 HFY08 as against Rs 32.7 bil-
lion in 1 HFY07.
Analyst opined that substantial decrease in
earnings was mainly driven by the declining
fixed line revenues as consumers shifted from
fixed line to more convenient wireless technolo-
gy and lower international incoming traffic termi-
nation rates.
Non-operating income, which decreased by
Rs 439 billion year on year also contributed to
the negative earnings in 1HFY08.
the current period was the recognition of the
huge Voluntary Seperation Scheme (VSS) cost
as large number of employee opted out through
the said scheme. However, analysts said the
restructuring would result in better earning in
future.
Analyst believe that operating coast includge
the huge amount of VSS combined with other
legacy provisions which is estimated to be
around Rs 20 billion to Rs 22 billion and Rs 1 bil-
lion to Rs 2 billion respectively.

he federal ombudsman has served a age misleading, perverse and an unjust practice, ly.

T show-cause notice to the PTCL chief

executive and asked him to explain the
delay in implementing its recommendations on a
'misleading customer package'.
The ombudsman asked the PTCL chief to
give reasons why legal proceedings for defiance
of the recommendations should not be initiated
and the matter should not be referred to the
President of Pakistan.
A statement issued said Ombudsman Javed
Sadiq Malik found a lack of transparency in the
telephone company's package for customers
regarding the facility of making international calls
to 16 countries around the world at Rs2 per
minute. The Wafaqi Mohtasib termed the pack-
falling within the definition of 'maladministration'
according to the President's Order No. 1 of
1983.
Investigations into the case had been initiat-
ed on the complaint of a citizen and the probe
revealed that advertisements appearing in the
national press were designed and presented in a
manner that it did not transparently disclose the
full cost per minute for international calls.
Although the advertised rate of Rs2 per
minute had been qualified by a small-sized print
indicating that it was valid for calls made from
landlines and mobile phones in only four coun-
tries, it was placed sideways and in a way that
made it difficult for readers to spot it immediate-
In fact, apart from the four countries, the rate
was only applicable to the other 12 countries
only if the calls were made from a landline to a
landline telephone, the statement said. Because
of this customers could be misled into using the
PTCL service at a much higher rate than it is
immediately obvious from the announcements
placed in newspapers.
The ombudsman directed the PTCL to re-
advertise the package in public interest and
clearly indicate the countries to which calls
would be charged at Rs2 per minute when called
from landline and mobile phones, and those
where the rate was applicable only if calls were
made from landline to landline phones.

TCL offers a dedicated service to provide customers were not receiving their bills on time ment options through the ATM card and via inter-

P billing information to its valued sub-

scribers who can simply dial '1200' to
access instant billing information of the required
PTCL service.
This facility is part of an array of efforts by
PTCL to make bill information and payments
convenient and effortless for the customer.
PTCL customers now have the flexibility to
choose between dropping a cheque in a drop
box at a location near them and sending their
payments through mail at a nearby post office or
making bill payments from their homes.
With the '1200' service customers can now
find out what their current and outstanding bill
amounts are and then pay them through the bill
payment cards which are available in a range of
denominations. PTCL recently introduced the
Bill Payment Cards, which enabled its cus-
tomers to pay their phone bill from the conven-
ience of their homes. PTCL realized that certain
or at all due to incorrect addresses on their initial
application forms as a result of which they had to
visit the PTCL Customer Care Centres for dupli-
cate bills. The '1200' service will eliminate the
need for broadband and fixed line customers to
have duplicate bills issued.
With the introduction of this service, cus-
tomers no longer need to personally visit cus-
tomer service centers to find out what their bill
amounts are and the automated service is avail-
able twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week
to further facilitate the PTCL customers. PTCL
has also made arrangements with certain lead-
ing banks of the country to allow its customers to
pay their PTCL bills through various electronic
modes. At Muslim Commercial Bank Limited
PTCL bills can be paid through the ATMs,
through the MCB Call Centre at 111-000-622
and via internet banking.
The Askari Commercial Bank also offers pay-
net banking.
Meanwhile the number of banks that accept
cash payment of PTCL bills is also steadily
increasing. PTCL's valued customers can pay
their bills throughout the country at most of the
leading banks in their respective areas. The
Pakistan Post Office has also provided the PTCL
bill payment facility at more than 3,000 branches
across the country.
Low call rates, speedy connectivity, superior
voice quality and quality customer care are
some of the reasons why consumer confidence
in PTCL increases day by day. As Dr. Sadik Al-
Jadir, Senior Executive Vice President
(Commercial) stated, "The Company has
already introduced a variety of valued added
services for its customers while a number of oth-
ers are in the pipeline.

PTCL to Come to Customers for a Closer Contact

akistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) announced its plans The one-stop facility would also serve as a complaint centre the PTCL

P to set up customers' facilitation points in an effort to keep a closer

contact with its subscribers. The facilitation points, which would ini-
tially be launched for customers in Rawalpindi, would be a one-stop shop
where subscribers would be able to place orders for various PTCL servic-
es, including new telephone connection, wireless (Vfone) and DSL broad-
band.
staff would resolve problems like faulty phones, installation of telephones,
Wireless Local Loop, DSL, delivery of phone bills and excessive billing.
The customer facilitation programme, a one-day service, would com-
mence at 10am on February 23 and continue till 5pm. The points would be
set up at two locations - the National Bank of Pakistan, Bank Road Saddar,
25
and Satellite Town, Commercial Market.

 Obituary Veqar ul Islam
Bader - My Brother,
My Mentor, My Role Model,
My Inspiration
adies and Gentlemen it is with great pleas-
L ure that I invite my brother, my mentor, my
inspiration, my role model - Bader ul Islam
to speak on this occasion. This was the typical
line I used when we were doing the farewell
round for Bader in 1999. This was time when he
was transferred to head NCR West Africa region
after serving as Country Manager for Pakistan
for almost 9 years. I was so proud and delighted
that I am taking over the reigns of NCR from a
man who was not just Bhaijaan to me, but who
was my boss and the sole reason of how and
why I landed in the corporate IT world. It was an
incredible coincidence that in 2005 I again hand-
ed back the reigns of NCR Pakistan to Bader,
when I decided to jump ship and move to the
Telecom world.
Bader left us when he was only 58, however,
the richness with which he passed his life, the
commitment he had to whatever cause he opted
for, the way he handled pressure, the way he
climbed the ladder of success is simply a fairy
tale story. He passed a complete life. As tears
roll down my eyes, I will make an attempt to live
through some of those moments to motivate all
those who will read this humble tribute and to
convince them that anyone with passion, hard-
work, adherence to right values, humility, focus,
family bondings can go places in life. Bader was
no ordinary man. He was no ordinary corporate
leader either. The story of his life is one that can
inspire anyone to take on bigger, higher, greater
challenges in life despite all the hurdles, uncer-
tainties and unfairness of life.
Bader was a simple graduate. Even in the
70's someone with a Bachelor's degree would
not get a half decent job. I remember fairly well
that one time Bader was so disgruntled and frus-
trated with life that he decided to take on the job
of a labourer to do some digging work at
Shahrah e Faisal in Karachi. Interestingly the
day he was about to opt for this, he got a job of
a store keeper in a spinning mill which he opted
26
for. However, this surely was not something he
would have ever settled for. He wanted a job to
get things going in his life and then take one step
after the other to keep surprising people. He
only worked in the spinning mill for couple of
months and then with the help of a friend set up
(probably the second of its kind) a Computer
Training Institute in Karachi. This lasted for
sometime and then he got a job with a Wang dis-
tributor in Karachi. A shining career started.
Bader always had the potential and was waiting
for the right break which he now got with sheer
perseverance and persistence. During this time
he got married (in 1975) and found one of the
finest lady (my beloved Bhabi) to walk shoulder
to shoulder to him in this march to progress. He
left for Kuwait in 1977 to join Burrough (which
subsequently merged to form Unisys) as an
Account Manager and continued to ride the suc-
cess ladder. In 1982 my family met with a major
tragedy when my father died. We were all very
young and except for one of my sister (who is
younger to Bader) who was already married, all
other 6 brothers and sisters were studying.
Bader was a family man with strong family
values and bondings. He made one of the most
shocking decisions to abandon his rising and
shining career with Burroughs and took the flight
back home. For him to be closer to our mother
and all young brothers and sisters was lot more
important than the attraction of making money
and a career outside Pakistan. The family need-
ed money; however, for him his presence was lot
more important. Bear in mind that he was only
33 when this happened. Not an age where you
accept such a huge responsibility of becoming a
lynchpin for the family and assume the role of a
father and a mentor. His faith that he is doing it
for all the right reasons and God will reward him
with his blessing was close to being unbeliev-
able. Rewarded he was to the full. He got a job
with NCR and since then he never looked back.
What made him so special to the entire family
was the role he assumed to be the father, to be
pillar to be the mentor to guide the family to suc-
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
cess. The fact that today the family comprises of
doctor's, engineers, corporate leaders speaks
volumes of how he fulfilled his responsibility in
this role. While he helped the family succeed,
his own journey of progress continued unabated.
Years after years he continued his march and
finally in 1989-90 he became the Country head
of NCR, a position he held for 9 consecutive
years with great success and innovation.
I think it would be only fair for me to say that
Bader was the founder of modern day NCR in
Pakistan. He would always think out of box. He
would always want to be different. He knew that
differentiation in today's world is the key to suc-
cess and he would think and work tirelessly to
position the organization as an innovator and a
leader in the IT landscape. He gave so many
new concepts to the IT industry of Pakistan that
the entire industry subsequently followed his
footsteps. From the approach of establishing
first of its kind NCR Education Center for stu-
dents to learn IT, to establishing a Corporate
Development Centers for professionals, from ini-
tiating Self Service Banking concept in Pakistan
to initiating the concept of Open Systems and
Industry standards, from organizing first of its
kind IT week in the country to initiating IT
Excellence Awards, from giving the concept of
developing a local self service application to
coming up with indigenous solutions which were
also adopted within NCR region - he was inno-
vation personified. Besides innovation, Bader's
personal touch was almost unmatched.
He was a man who gave new life to
Computer Society of Pakistan. He truly was
amongst the pioneer of IT industry of Pakistan
and brought a new dimension to this industry.
I had a very very special relationship with
Bader. I grew up looking to him. All my brothers
and sisters believe that we have been orphaned
the second time in life. Such was his presence
and aura for all of us.
May God rest his soul in peace! (Amen).





 Telecom Flare Report w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

RG International, the market leader in

Z Contact Center Technology in the country

recently participated at the world's pre-
mier financial technology event MEFTEC that
was held under the auspices of the Central
Bank of Bahrain.
The event consisted of an exhibition and a
conference that was attended by at least 200
CIOs and over 500 delegates from around the
globe. Visitors including CIOs and CTOs from
various financial institutes were impressed to
learn about the successful Contact Center envi-
ronments in Pakistan and gave excellent feed-
back about the deployment of latest solutions
and the utilization of advanced technology by
ZRG in Pakistan.
ZRG has been providing end-to-end interna-
tional contact center technologies from Intel
Corporation, USA since 1994. Due to the relia-
bility, advanced features and cost-effective
approach, Intel Contact Center technology has
become the most preferred choice among the
leading brands. tions have installed Intel Contact Center solu- Pakistan's IT capabilities. Such efforts are
Majority of the contact centers in the country tions. bound to benefit the country in the long run and
including Bank Alfalah, United Bank, Askari ZRG continues to engage in such interna- will result in increased software export earn-
Master Card and 15 other financial organiza- tional events to project an impressive image of ings.

28
 Telecom Flare Report
t's no secret that online social networking
I communities have reached a near-legendary
level of success over the past few years, with
sites like MySpace, FaceBook, and Orkut
attracting memberships in the tens of millions.
Like it or not, the broadband-connected PC
has become one of chief communication plat-
forms of modern times, as countless friendships,
love affairs, and lucrative business connections
are created each and every day on the world
wide web.
The world wide web, however, no longer
exists solely on conventional computers, and is
becoming accessible from virtually anywhere,
even on the smallest of wireless devices. It
seems inevitable, therefore, that social network-
ing, with its emphasis on instant, long distance
communication, will become a primarily mobile
phenomenon in the years to come.
This important paradigm shift seems to have
started in earnest over the past year, 2006, in
which America's largest wireless carriers all
jumped on the social networking bandwagon,
rolling-out a variety of specialized mobile com-
munication services. The largest U.S. carrier,
Cingular Wireless, has embodied an especially
determined attitude to this important new mar-
ket.
ince the first photographic cell phones
S were launched in late 2000, the digital
camera has become an increasingly com-
mon accessory on mobile phones around the
world.
Camera phones allow users to snap pictures
on the spot then send them to friends, family,
and colleagues around the globe at the touch of
a button. This convenience has caught on big
time with consumers (not to mention carriers
who make money whenever photos are shared),
prompting handset makers to equip the majority
of new cellular devices with built-in digital cam-
eras.
The quality of cell phone cameras has also
grown exponentially over the past few years,
with a resolution of at least 2 megapixels now
coming standard with most converged smart-
phones and multimedia-enabled wireless
devices. Most of Nokia's N-Series multimedia
handsets, for example, come with either 2- or
3.2-megapixel cameras, with one higher end
model, the N95, boasting a 5-megapixel resolu-
tion.
In 2006, South Korean cell phone maker,
Samsung Electronics, made history by integrat-
ing high-quality cameras in some of its most
lightweight cell phones, proving that camera
phones need never been at all heavy or clunky.
30
Several months ago, the company's execu-
tive directory of segment marketing and spon-
sorships, David Garver, was quoted as saying
that Cingular will host as many social communi-
ties as possible in the future. "Will social network
applications be some of the biggest applications
Cingular sells? Yes," Garver insisted.
Since then, Cingular has worked hard to pro-
mote Rabble, a $3/month mobile communication
and information-sharing platform launched in
partnership with San Diego-based Intercasting
Corp. More recently, the carrier has also
launched a fully functional version of MySpace
for wireless devices.
Later in the year, they took this one step further
by releasing the SCH-B600, a compact camera
phone weighting just 173 grams and boasting a
record-setting 10-megapixel resolution.
The joint venture, Sony Ericsson has been
another leading contender in the mobile imaging
market, launching a number of high-quality cam-
era phones, some of which come equipped with
mobile blogging and online photo sharing capa-
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
This hot new service will soon be extended to
work on 90% of Cingular handset models, allow-
ing users to read and respond to their MySpace
email messages, write blog entries, and upload
photos onto their personal homepages, at a cost
of just $2.95 per month.
In terms of revenue potential, $2.95 per user
might not seem like much for the industry to get
excited about, but Cingular and other wireless
carriers have come up with a number of ways to
turn these services into cash.
First and foremost, the availability of
advanced wireless communication features will
increase the mobile data bandwidth used by
subscribers, creating additional revenue for car-
riers, and ultimately encouraging users to sign
up for unlimited data plans.
Mobile search and banner advertising are
also expected to be important revenue genera-
tors for businesses involved in the roll-out of
mobile social networking, as big name advertis-
ers begin to realize the value of promoting via
the third screen.
Overall, it seems that strong all-round rev-
enue will be a natural long-term consequence for
whatever companies are best able to ride the
growing wave of wireless social networking. Let
the race continue…





bilities.
In a matter of a few short years, our thirst for
new gadgets and technological integration has
turned the cellular camera from an obscure and
trivial accessory into a virtually ubiquitous fea-
ture on new mobile devices.





 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Pictorial

Microsoft researcher Patrick Baudisch demonstrates how "LucidTouch" technology allows users of touch-screen
devices such as GPS units or mobile phones to perform touch-screen operations from behind the device so their
actions do not block their view of the display during a demonstration at TechFest, Microsoft Corp.'s annual display
of experiemental technology, in Redmond, Wash.
Workers put up a picture of mobile phones for the upcoming CeBIT fair
inside a hall in Hanover March 1, 2008. The world's biggest IT fair CeBIT
opens its doors to the public.

Julian Andino, left, and Chrisellda Arellano examine Dell computers at Best Buy, in Atwater Village section of Los
Angeles. Dell is expected to release quarterly earnings.

An Indian daily wage labourer speaks on his mobile phone as he waits for
customers at a local market in Mumbai. India's Congress-led government
announced a budgetary proposal which provided huge debt relief for farm-
ers as it reached out to its traditional rural support base in possibly its
last budget before the next polls. The proposal offered a debt relief pack-
age for farmers of 600 billion rupees (15.05 billion USD) in the budget for
the year starting April 1. India's finance minister P.Chidambaram said he
was confident the economy would grow nearly nine percent in the current
Seized electronic equipment is seen during a police press conference in Hanover, northern Germany. Police and
fiscal year to March 2008, down from 9.6 percent the previous year due
customs officials investigating suspected patent violations seized mobile phones, navigation devices and other
34 to aggressive monetary tightening to curb inflation.
gadgets in raids at a technology fair in Germany.
 Event Flare Report
In order to bring the spotlight more on the concept of Green IT, the CeBIT is working with the
Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a group founded in 2007 with the participation of Microsoft,
Google, Intel, IBM and others. Its objectives are to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases
caused by the use of computers by 54 million tons annually
eBIT 2008 got off to an excellent start,
C earning high satisfaction ratings from
visitors and exhibitors alike. The decid-
edly positive mood at the official opening cere-
mony, which was attended by a very distin-
guished line-up of guests, continued throughout
the first few days of the show. From the very
beginning CeBIT reaffirmed its claim to be the
No.1 meeting place for the crème de la crème
of the international ICT industry.
CeBIT's new show layout was warmly wel-
comed, by over 5,845 exhibitors from 77 coun-
tries, and visitor traffic has been non-stop.
New-look CeBIT has completely lived up to the
expectations of visitors and show casers equal-
ly. Exhibitors, this year, reported lively action at
their stands. They made significantly more new
contacts, with lots of serious inquiries from
prospective buyers.
CeBIT saw a positive response to the new
supporting program 'CeBIT Global
Conferences'. CeBIT has already decided to
carry on with this program next year and
extend it further. This feature of the show made
CeBIT an even more vital platform for the
knowledge-sharing and international know-how
transfer that visitors demand. Having this as an
integral part of the show really added value,
and made CeBIT an absolute must for the digi-
tal industry worldwide.
On the first three days of CeBIT, more than
700 city mayors and top municipal officials
were at the show to check out all the latest
trends in public administration at the 'Public
Sector Parc' display. Meanwhile 450 experts
from Germany's Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank
chains gave visitors a foretaste of the 'bank of
the future' in Hall 17. On Thursday senior deci-
sion-makers from the car industry were given a
special tour designed specifically for them, tak-
Visitors test the new Asus Eee PC on the CeBIT computer fair in the northern days of the show was 'Green IT'.
German town of Hanover.
ing them to stands where they could learn
36
about issues relating to their work and make
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
at several hundred exhibition
stands, at the 'Green IT Village'
and in many forums throughout
the show. Other major areas of
visitor interest included solu-
tions and applications for the
business world, software as a
service, IT security, RFID for
companies in the SME sector,
mobile Internet, mobile phone
TV, navigation devices with
multifunctional applications,
mini-notebooks at mini-prices,
wireless USB and above all the
A fair hostess presents a Samsung SGH-G 400 multimedia mobile phone with move towards more user-friend-
touchscreen at the CeBIT 2008 trade fair in Hanover.
ly applications in the hardware
new business contacts.' and software sector.
Germany and France marked the start of Amid the sharp displays and booths offering
CeBIT with the German-French ICT Summit,
From L to R: Premier of Lower Saxony Christian Wulff, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President of Bitkom (German Association for Information
Technology, Telecommunications and New Media) August-Wilhelm Scheer, and CEO of US computer giant Microsoft Steve
Ballmer pose for photographers prior to the official opening ceremony of the CeBIT 2008 trade fair at Hanover's Congress
Centre. France is this year's partner country of the CeBIT.
which takes the two countries into up the latest gadgets and gizmos at the CeBIT
a new era of high-tech coopera- trade and technology fair in Hanover, Germany,
tion. On the previous evening the agenda for the international industry gather-
CeBIT had been officially opened ing has given a nod to concerns about climate
by German Chancellor Dr. Angela debate worldwide. Many of the 5,845 exhibitors
Merkel and the French President from 77 countries are touting developments
Nicolas Sarkozy. The govern- such as servers that use less electricity, and
ments of both countries empha- data centers that don't emit any carbon dioxide.
sized their determination to devel- Highlights
op their cooperation further - not
AMD's new "Puma" mobile platform, des-
least in the whole area of ICT.
tined to compete with Intel's Centrino, was offi-
CeBIT gave a valuable impetus to
cially unveiled at CeBIT 2008. It's based around
the dialogue between Germany
a revamped processor design, codenamed
and France.
Griffin and making its debut in the new 65nm
A focal theme of the first few
Turion X2 Ultra processor.
AMD also announced initial 45nm
Green issues are in evidence
"Shanghai" and "Deneb" Quad-Core processors
everywhere at CeBIT. The need for greener
are running server and client operating sys-
technology is the subject of intense discussion
tems.
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
German Chancellor Angela Merkel uses a "SonyEricsson" mobile phone as she
tours the CeBIT 2008 trade fair.
Microsoft's Surface was demoed. Their 30in
touchscreen table allows people to move
objects on the screen with their fingers.
Sheraton's booking service was demoed; a
mock credit card was placed on the table. A
number of options spiralled out of it, allowing
book-in information, local guides or hotel serv-
ices. Tapping the hotel services button brings
up a jukebox with the screen filled with album
covers, with songs once again selected with a
tap of the finger. Customers who want to buy
the song can then place their Wi-Fi enabled
MP3 player - such as Micrsoft's Zune, of course
- on to the Surface
Vodafone is trialling a new method of picture
search. The demonstrated system, called
Otello, allows the user to take a picture of "any-
thing from an historical building to a CD cover",
which will then "return information relevant to
the picture to the phone." Vodafone is prepar-
ing a trial with a German newspaper that will
allow readers to find out further information
about certain articles - including audio and
video extras.
Supermarket shopper aide: Software maker
SAP was showing off a supermarket shopper
aide that works through a mobile phone.
he main focus for Ericsson's activities
T were Multimedia, Full Service Broadband
and Managed Services offering. Full
Service Broadband will make it possible to give
subscribers what they want - any broadband
service on any device, anywhere. Our business
builders showed tailored demonstrations prov-
ing that the 3GPP track of HSPA evolution and
LTE is the most cost-effective way to offer
broadband everywhere and to anyone.
Multimedia solutions make it easy to offer
TV anywhere, music downloads and sharing of
pictures and video. Consumers want to be in
the "driver's seat" when it comes to multimedia
Shoppers enter their grocery list
onto a mobile phone. On enter-
ing a supermarket the phone
downloads an inventory list and
an aisle map. Inside the super-
market, the application
becomes an on-the-fly checkout
system, scanning in the price of
People walk past the IBM exhibit during the first public day
at the CeBIT computer fair in the northern German town of
Hanover.
experiences. They want to be able to create
their own content, share it with others and
decide what to view and when to do it. Our
solutions will make this happen with full oper-
ator control over service roll-out and pay-
ments.
Managed Services will help you focus on
the core business and strengthen subscriber
relations. Stay in touch with subscriber needs
and launch new services in just a few months.
It doesn't really matter what the main chal-
lenges for your network operation are, be it
cost reduction, network quality or access to
new technologies. Ericsson is the industry
Flare Report Event
items lifted off the shelves and then charging
them to a nominated account.
Powerline Networking Prototype Capable of
400Mb/sec: Devolo is demonstrating a power-
line networking prototype capable of
400Mb/sec. It allows devices to be connected
to an ethernet network over the home's electri-
cal wiring. Despite the 400Mb/sec tag, Devolv
admits that the real world throughput is likely to
be around 180Mb/sec.
The TomTom GO 730 and GO 930 feature
IQ routes technology which decides on the best
journey route using the average speed other
users have achieved in the past, rather than
simply looking at posted speed limits and road
types and "guessing", as was previously the
case. TomTom says the information has been
collected anonymously from millions of TomTom
users and covers 6.2 billion miles of roads.
PePWave was showing their new PolePoint
Wi-Fi AP and Central Management System. It
consists of two core components, the PolePoint
AP, featuring High transmit power (up to
400mW), virtual AP (16 SSIDs), QoS, and
wide-temperature support coupled with their
PePWave Central Management System
(PCMS) - a web2.0 application hosted by
PePWave, that eliminates client software instal-
lation.
As at the time of going into press, CeBIT is
under its way, and there is lot to come in the
latter half; we may cover that in upcoming
issue.





leader in Managed Services and provides cost
efficient operations with predictable network
performance.




37
 Pictorial w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Indian models pose with mobile phones on a stand at The Mobile Asia 2008 exibition in New Delhi. The exhibi-
tion which is being held in the Indian capital, claims to be India's biggest consumer mobile event and hopes to
attract some 300,000 visitors over the course of the event.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds a mobile phone she has been pho-
tographed with during her tour on the CeBIT computer fair in the northern
German town of Hanover.

Indian models pose with mobile phones on a stand at The Mobile Asia 2008 exibition in New Delhi.

Stephen Chen of Taiwanese company E-Lead presents a foldable laptop with

an integrated navigation system at the CeBIT 2008 trade fair.
A model displays the new navigation device 'TOMTOM Go 930 T' during first public day at the CeBIT computer
38 fair in the northern German town of Hanover.
 Telecom Anand Parthasarathy w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

The portable phone is emerging as the central device in people's lives. Anand Parthasarathy was
at the cellular industry's biggest annual event, the Mobile World Congress, to catch its latest trends
At home, at work and at play, we will be in recognised brand names in the car navigation over a few cm and both have created mobile

" tune with our surroundings - and we will

adjust accordingly", says Olli-Pekka
Kallasvuo. "New services will touch time, place
business. But GPS-enabled phones, which have
been a costly niche item, may soon crash into
the mainstream. Why? Because semiconductor
phone solutions marrying NFC to cellular func-
tionality, creating a new and interesting device
category.
and location - and they will take our mobility into designers such as CSR, SiRF and NXP have Fuelled by compellingly priced chips like
a new realm of possibility. In the process, they succeeded in creating GPS system-on-a-chip these, handset makers have already begun
will redefine the Internet itself, free it from the solutions, squeezing all associated electronics offering GPS-enabled phones that have enabled
desktop, making it more personal, more context-
aware…. in the end, context is the key."
Kallasvuo is President and CEO of Nokia, the
Finnish player whose products straddle the
world of portable communications: four out of
every 10 phones sold worldwide is a Nokia (this
is more than the combined sales of the next
three top-selling brands). It is, therefore,
inevitable that Nokia's corporate vision of the
mobile world's direction, in some ways, sets the
agenda for the entire industry.
Agenda is one thing - implementation, anoth-
er. The GSM Association's Mobile World
Congress is the premier gathering of the cellular
phone business, attracting 1,300 players, over
55,000 visitors - and 230 company heads. And
this year's event held in Barcelona, Spain, in
mid-February, was proof enough that there were
many exciting and different roads (and not a few
unexplored byways) that the portable communi-
cations industry is taking to reach a common
destination.
Together, it seemed, governments and cor-
porates could deliver on the promise of connect-
ing the world's 5 billion people who remain
untouched by any kind of communication tech-
nology. Clockwise from top left: Using the Nokia 6210 Pedestrian Navigator to reach Barcelona's highest point; at fingertip: Video
After cameras and FM radios, it seemed, chip for mobile phone allows images to be blown up on a large screen. It had key contributions from nVidia engineers in
Hyderabad; SiRF Technology India's MD, Ashutosh Pande, shows, in Barcelona, a portable media player reference design
location sensors - mainly harnessing the Global fuelled by the SiRFprima location engine designed in India; Nokia's Vice-President, Alex Lambeck, holds up entry-level
Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation phones for India while a volunteer unveils versions of Spice's People's Phone.
network - would turn out to be the Next Big Thing
to go into the mobile phone in 2008. GPS navi- on a single slab of silicon while sharply reducing the service provider to add value by tying up with
gation is nothing new: Garmin, Nuvi and Tom are the power requirements. The result: adding GPS local map providers.
navigational functionality to a mobile phone adds In a canny exploitation of the mobile phone's
less than $3 to the cost. primary role as a personal device, Nokia used
At Barcelona, the Cambridge-UK-based CSR the Barcelona event to preview what it calls
demonstrated its e -(for enhanced)-GPS silicon, pedestrian navigation: putting GPS into an
a single chip that combines GPS with the com- upcoming handset, the 6210 Navigator, even
pany's traditional Bluetooth offering. Fuelled by while it optimised its Maps 2.0 offering for use by
technology from its Noida, India development a walker rather than a car driver.
base, SiRF unveiled its multifunction location The difference may seem small - it is, in fact,
platform, SiRFPrima combining 2D and 3D palpable and significant, as I found out when I
graphics, multimedia processing and compatibil- borrowed one of these new phones and used its
ity with both GPS and the upcoming European navigation features to locate and reach
Galileo system. Barcelona's highest point, the Miramar Hotel,
SiRF India's Managing Director, Ashutosh overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, from the
Pande, showed this writer a reference design for Congress venue in Placa Espanya. The 6210,
a portable media player with the SiRFPrima chip interestingly, adds a compass (in an electronic
that a few China-based original equipment man- avatar) to the GPS receiver. This is useful for a
ufacturers (OEMs) were currently turning into pedestrian, since the screen orients itself con-
products for release this year. The chip was also stantly as one zigzags over the road, guiding you
going into digital still and video cameras, Pande back to course, if you head in the wrong direc-
said, adding context and location to every photo tion. I did the return journey by TukTuk - the
or clip. name they give in Europe to the autorickshaw
The Philips-founded NXP showed the GNS that was brought over from the Netherlands
7560, claimed to be the smallest, lowest pow- especially for this event. The 6210 works equal-
ered GPS solution. NXP and Sony jointly devel- ly well in a vehicle - except that the software,
oped the Near Field Communication (NFC) tech- unless re-primed, will assume you are on foot
40
nology, for contact-less information exchange and will ignore 'no entry' and other vehicular
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
restrictions.
GPS phones are likely to remain relatively
higher priced items to start with, with price tags
of $300 and more; but what about the 'bottom of
the pyramid'? India is to the global mobile phone
market, what Nokia is to handsets, a giant. If the
world buys 30 million new phones in a month, 7
million of them are sold in India. An interesting
bit of statistics published during the Congress by
Informa Telecoms and Media, UK, showed that
India is now the world's largest mobile phone
market, going by net additions every year
(China, Pakistan, Indonesia are the next three).
Significantly, India is the world's only market that
is expected to notch up more mobile sales (esti-
mated at 89.83 million) in 2008 compared to
After cameras and FM radios, it seemed, location sensors would turn
out to be the Next Big Thing to go into the mobile phone
2007. That is because penetration is still only
around 17 per cent and there is lot more room
for growth.
That makes aggressively-priced entry-level
phones an important category for handset mak-
ers looking to sell in these high-growth coun-
tries. The single chip phone solution is old news
now and has been used by mobile manufactur-
ers to address the mass market in India with Rs
2,000 handsets.
At Barcelona, Nokia unveiled two new entry-
level phones targeting India - the 2600 camera-
FM radio phone priced at Rs 3,499 and the 1209
bringing colour for the first time to an entry-level
offering at Rs 1,800.
They were not alone in aiming for the broad
base of first-time users: One of the surprises at
the Congress was the huge glitzy presence of
Spice Telecom, an operator whose map in India
covers just two States: Karnataka and Punjab. In
Barcelona, Spice launched the People's Phone,
a radically simplified India-designed product that
dispenses with a screen for those who just want
Mobile broadband was high on the agenda at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
to talk and send text messages. An interesting
variant of this $20 device is one with a Braille
keyboard for the visually challenged. The market
for Spice, says its Chairman, Dr B.K. Modi, is
from Iraq to Indonesia.
Same market might also lap up the other
Spice offering: the Movie Phone with a 2.8 inch
screen; 3.5 hours of video content storable on a
tiny disk, and a TV-out connection to view the
contents on a larger screen, if required. And to
help entry-level users move up the value chain
even further into the 'connected' world, a consor-
tium consisting of Singapore phone maker
Jurong Technologies and distributor Brightstar;
German chip maker Infineon and Israeli mobile
software provider Tjat Systems has come
together to create the Sirius Smart Entry Phone
(SEP), bringing the benefits of Net connectivity
to the cost-conscious market. Tjat's Chief
Product Officer, Oleg Golobrodsky, explained
that the browser-based client-less messaging
solution will enable music and picture downloads
for the first time in an under-$25 phone. If all
these seemed to have India in their sights,
Indian innovation seemed to traverse the
reverse path to global markets: Shyam Telecom
is now a regular presence at such events, with a
steady market for its signal enhancement offer-
ings. Bharti Telesoft, strengthened by its recent
acquisition of mobile instant message specialist
Jataayu, had a string of offerings that helped
networks make the transition from 2G to 3G and
beyond in a painless manner. Indiagames and
its global arm IG Fun tied up shortly before
Barcelona with Canadian Magmic, to bring
games based on the hit Anglo-US serial, 'The
Office', to a world audience.
FlyTxt, a UK player with strong development
muscle based in India, used the Congress to
expand the reach of its slate of mobile marketing
and advertising solutions under the Neon brand.
And Airtel - whose founder-chairman Sunil Bharti
Mittal was honoured with the GSMA Chairman's
Award - saw its mobile billing and recharge solu-
tion, created by the Bangalore-based mChek,
recognised as the world's 'Best Billing and
Customer Care Solution'.
Elsewhere, the Congress was the launching
pad for many of tomorrow's exciting mobile
extensions: Dolby Labs launched Dolby Mobile,
'surround sound on the move' with high frequen-
cy enhancers and a mono to stereo converter for
handsets so that the mobile TV experience had
the sound quality of a theatre.
Also in the TV arena, Alcatel-Lucent with
handset maker Sagem and satellite operators
such as Eutelsat, demonstrated the first ever
transmission in the S band of satellite mobile TV
using the Digital Video Broadcast DVB-SH stan-
dard. Channels like CNBC, Nicleodeon and
Canal 300 could be seen, direct via satellite, on
Telecom
a hand-held phone. Visual computing specialist
nVidia showed what it called "the world's lowest
power, high-definition computer-on-a-chip." The
APX 2500, which allows 3-D and HD TV and
video on Windows Mobile phones, saw 'signifi-
cant development work' at the company's
Hyderabad campus, says the Product PR
Manager, Varun Dubey. I saw a clip from an
nVidia-fuelled mobile phone retain stunning
video quality even when projected on a 36-inch
LCD screen.
And in the undeclared race with WiMAX,
mobile players such as Ericsson demonstrated
the next step beyond 3G and HSPA (high speed
packet access): the LTE or Long Term Evolution.
This has download speeds of a typical 100
MBPS and a maximum of 300 MBPS, though
Ericsson has successfully achieved 160 MBPS.
Which emboldened a writer in the daily Mobile
Congress bulletin to ask: WiMAX: Catching on -
or False Dawn?
A billion mobile phones were sold in 2007. A
million are sold everyday worldwide. Twenty
years after 15 telecom operators came together
in Copenhagen to create a global standard for
portable cellular telephony, the goal of a mobile
planet is still some years away.
But in Barcelona this month, it seemed a
doable goal.
The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
saw a number of new buzzwords bandied about
- at least some of them likely to fuel tomorrow's
telecom trends. Here is a help list for those who
want to appear well cued in matters mobile:
Voice Dialling (also known as Voice to
Screen). Text messages will soon be spoken,
says Steve Chambers, President of Nuance.
You will soon be able to say 'Search Web' to
open a phone browser and then say your search
term. Voice Dialling will be welcomed by car
owners who can now dial a number by the
owner's name, speaking it out, and never touch
the keypad.
Geo tagging: Taking a photo with your cam-
era phone, then having the GPS receiver 'tag'
where on earth you took it.
V2IP Voice plus Video on Internet Protocol;
interactive two-way real-time multimedia on the
phone ('VOIP is so 'yesterday'. Now I have
V2IP'."
On-device Portal; A browser resident on your
mobile. Companies such as Surf Kitchen are
making this happen, caching a lot of content to
reduce online time.
'3-Screens': A new jargon for the large econ-
omy size on your wall; the medium size on your
desktop and the small size on your phone - all
sharing the same digital content.
Tridget: A device that is dependent on the
network for all its data as well as its controls. The
Apple iPod is the archetype tridget.





41
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Pictorial

Franco Vairani, a PhD student in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, looks over models of the City Car, a collapsible, electric, battery powered car he
designed for his thesis at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A man tests glasses made by a Danish company Mobintech that connect to the phone,
which when worn by a viewer give the impression of watching a 30-inch (76-centimetre)
television at a distance of two metres at the Mobile world congress in Barcelona.

A member of the media displays an example of a picture of Mas Selamat Kastari being sent out to
members of the public on their mobile phones by telecommunications comapanies to its subscribers
as part of a nationwide manhunt effort in Singapore.

An Afghan man works on a computer at an Internet Café in the city of Kandahar province,
Afghanistan. In an Internet age, al-Qaida prizes geek jihadis as much as would-be suicide bombers A GPS phone called the Nuvifone by US-based manufacturer Garmin on show at the Mobile
and gunmen. World Congress in Barcelona. The biggest handset manufacturers and GPS (global posi-
42 tioning system) specialists have begun building handsets with personal navigation soft-
ware, planning routes and guiding pedestrians with detailed digital maps.
 IT Flare Report
Finding a hobby is a great way to spend time, to be creative, and to exercise your brain.
Some hobbies are a great way to relax after a hectic day. The web is a useful resource
either to find a new hobby or expand your knowledge with a current one. Here are several
sites that might inspire you to find a hobby
Radio Operators
Long before the internet was created, the
amateur radio network was the way people from
all over the world could connect. Amateur radio
operators created vast social networks by talking
long distances to other radio enthusiasts, mak-
ing distant friends and exchanging calling cards.
It is this linkage of radio enthusiasts that is ready
to help communication flow in case of a disaster
or weather emergency. The National Association
for Amateur Radio has an informative website
with lots of news and information, plus info on
getting started or finding a chapter in your area:
www.arrl.org.
Collectors
Are you a collector? Perhaps it is toy trains or
salt shakers; maybe it is baseball cards or
matchbox cars, fishing lures or old postcards.
Collectors.org is a great website to get collecting
information. The primary purpose is to provide
free information for collecting clubs, collectors
and the antiques, art and collectibles industry:
collectors.org.
Quilters
This is a great site for a quilter. If you need
some ideas, or perhaps you are looking for a
new block pattern, this is a no-frills site with hun-
dreds of free block patterns and directions. I visit
here often to get inspiration and new ideas:
www.quilterscache.com.
ore than a third of mobile phone owners
M in China - the largest mobile market -
use their handsets to listen to music,
more than in Britain or the United States, a study
showed.
Music
Some 34.8 percent reported they listened to
mobile music every month compared with 20
percent in Spain, 18.9 percent in Britain and 5.7
percent in the United States, according to
M:Metrics, a research firm that monitors mobile
media usage. M:Metrics was founded in 2004. It
collects data from France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
the United Kingdom and the United States. The
study surveyed 5,163 Chinese mobile sub-
scribers aged 13-54 via telephone in seven
major cities of the country. Compared with users
in the United States and Europe, Chinese con-
sumers use their phones much less to check on
44
their email or to send photos and videos.
Knitters
Knitting is having a revival right now, there
are several magazines on the topic. If you have
forgotten how to knit and want to take up the
hobby again there are several websites that will
give you illustrated instructions and lots of free
projects that are easy to start like www.learn-
toknit.com/ or www.craftown.com.
Bird Watchers
All of us enjoy getting out in the country to
breath the fresh air; adding bird watching to this
activity might be a fun. To get started all you
need is a small pair of inexpensive binoculars for
just those times you see something interesting
fly by through the back yard or on a hike. When
you are driving it is fun to stop, look at the view
and try to find a few birds flying about. There are
lots of great sites, books and even software for
your PDA to carry with you, a good place to start
Photo Sharing
Over 30 percent in Italy, Spain and Britain
use their phones to send or receive photos and
videos, and only half as many do so in China.
Users in the United States lead the poll in
email usage with 11.6 percent compared with
nine percent in Spain and Britain, but only 2.5
percent in China. The firm also found that while
some 30 percent of those polled owned Nokia
handsets, giving the company a substantial lead
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
is www.audubon.org.
Gardeners
Most of us have a back yard or a deck we can
put a few flower pots on. Perhaps you would like
a few more indoor plants. It is relaxing to plant
something green and watch it grow. At the web-
site www.garden.org you can find the zone you
live in and all types of advice and resources to
find plants that do well in your zone plus get
ideas about adding more greenery to your life.
Whatever your interest or hobby is, you will
be able to find information about it and more on
the internet. The Web is a great source of infor-
mation, instruction and inspiration for both find-
ing a new hobby or enhancing an existing one.
And who knows; you might find a social network
or create your own blog, make new friends, start
a group, or share your knowledge with others
along the way.





in the Chinese market, owners of Sony Ericsson
handsets were a driving force in using mobile
media. M:Metrics said global handset brands
such as Motorola , Nokia and Samsung signifi-
cantly surpassed native brands such as China
Mobile in terms of being used to get mobile con-
tent.
China is expected to issue 3G licenses
before the Olympics this year, but some predict
licenses will not be handed out until 2009, as
kinks in its homegrown 3G standard, TD-
SCDMA, are smoothed out.
Young Users
Just like in the European and US markets,
18-34 year-olds are the biggest consumers of
mobile content in China, accounting for 64.6 per-
cent of those who accessed news and informa-
tion via their mobile browser,
M:Metrics said.





 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
he latest figures from the Pakistani tele-
T coms regulator show that the mobile mar-
ket in Pakistan grew to 78.74m customers
at the end of January. The figure for monthly net
additions of 1.86m was 17% down on the
January 2007 total, and also represented the
second lowest figure for two years, the lowest
being the 1.52m recorded last October.
Mobilink continues to dominate the market
with 30.89m customers at the end of January,
but it has lost market share in every month since
February 2006 and January's 0.6pp fall saw it hit
39.2%, its lowest percentage since 2002.
Pakistan Telecom Mobile (U-Fone) remained in
second place with 16.44m customers at the end
of January. However, in the last 6 months
Telenor Pakistan has narrowed the deficit con-
siderably, from 3.5m at the end of July to just
over 1m at the end of January.
In terms of market share, January saw
Telenor just 1.4pp behind at 19.5%, compared to
a 5.8pp gap at the same point in 2007. In fact,
Telenor was in fourth place behind Warid in
January 2007; a year later, Telenor had 15.35m
to Warid's 13.38m. Telenor took 40.6% of
Pakistan's total net additions in January with
754k, over double the next best figure of 374k,
recorded by China Mobile subsidiary Paktel.
In terms of proportionate growth, however,
Paktel was by far the fastest growing in January
with an 18.9% increase in customer numbers.
Paktel's performance in the past three months
Telecom
has been extraordinary: it has managed to more
than double its subscriber base since the end of
October, from 1.06m to 2.36m. November's fig-
ure of 721k new connections - a staggering
68.2% monthly growth rate - was particularly
impressive, and pushed national net additions
over 3m for the first time since the start of
monthly reporting in June 2005. The sixth oper-
ator in Pakistan is Pakcom, which had 0.32m
customers at the end of January, which has had
its licence revoked by the national regulator PTA
Pakistan as a result of its failure to keep up with
licence payments.
Despite November's bumper crop, growth
seems to be slowing in Pakistan. The fourth
quarter of 2007 saw a 9.8% growth rate, the low-
est since Q2 03 and the tenth successive
decline in quarterly growth. Moreover, annual
growth of 58.7% was less than half the 123.8%
recorded in 2006. With penetration at 45.0% at
the end of 2007, there is plenty of potential for
further growth, but it seems unlikely that 2008
will be able to match the 28.44m new connec-
tions recorded in 2007.





45
 Telecom Flare Report
esearchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic
R Institute have demonstrated that liquids
embedded with nanoparticles show
enhanced performance and stability when
exposed to electric fields. The finding could lead
to new types of miniature camera lenses, cell
phone displays, and other microscale fluidic
devices.
"This study may open up a new vista for
using nanofluids in microscale and nanoscale
actuator device applications," said Theodorian
Borca-Tasciuc, a professor of mechanical engi-
neering at Rensselaer, who led the research
project.
The manipulation of small volumes of liquid is
critical for fluidic digital display devices, optical
devices, and microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS) such as lab-on-chip analysis systems.
Most research into such systems has been con-
ducted with regular liquids, but not nanofluids,
which are liquids embedded with different
nanoparticles. Nanofluids have been shown to
exhibit some attractive properties, including
enhanced heat transfer and capillary properties,
as compared with regular, or pure, liquids.
Borca-Tasciuc's team placed droplets of
water-based solutions containing bismuth tel-
luride nanoparticles onto a Teflon-coated silicon
wafer. When an electric field was applied to the
droplet, the researchers observed a strong
change in the angle at which the droplet contact-
nce a feature of computers only, the hard
O disk drive (HDD) is turning up these days
as the memory of devices as diverse as
mobile phones and digital video players.
The reason is not hard to find: price.
Enormous hard drives holding 500 gigabytes
(GB) of data can be bought at consumer elec-
tronics marts for little more than 100 dollars net,
meaning a gigabyte of storage only costs 20 to
50 cents.
Juergen Rakow, proprietor of Fukato, a
German importer and packager of computer
products including TFT flat-screen displays, said
at a briefing: "Ten years ago, I thought computer
hard drives would be almost dead within a
decade.
"But it hasn't turned out that way at all. You're
now seeing them in sat-nav devices in cars and
installed in TV sets to record TV shows."
Rakow, who argues that consumers have an
insatiable urge to collect and save things, has
begun marketing external disk drives, the book-
sized modules that can be plugged into a desk-
top or laptop computer to extend its storage
46
capacity.
ed the wafer. This change was much higher than
that observed in liquids without the nanoparticles
when tested under the same conditions.
"You use the same electrical field, but you get
more change in shape with the nanofluid. We
know the nanoparticles are critical in this
process because without them the effect is much
The contact angle of a droplet of nanofluid solution changes
when exposed to an electric field.
less strong," Borca-Tasciuc said.
The ability to easily change the contact angle
of droplets of nanofluids has potential applica-
tions for efficiently moving liquids in microsys-
tems, creating new methods of focusing lenses
in miniature cameras, or cooling computer chips.
Borca-Tasciuc also envisions the research
enabling new fully integrated micro- and
nanoscale heat transfer systems that will not
require a pump. "Our proof of concept really
opens up many new exciting possibilities," he
said.
Borca-Tasciuc said his investigations into
nanofluids are driven by sheer curiosity, and fos-
tered by a strong interdisciplinary collaboration
Surveys show that in October 2006, just 2
per cent of external disk drives had a capacity of
500 gigabytes or more. In October 2007, that fig-
ure had risen to 33 percent.
Sales of hard disk drives continue to gain,
and their capacity continues to far outstrip flash
drives, the semiconductor-based electronic stor-
age devices that have often been billed as the
way of the future.
Many shoppers may not know exactly what
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
with Rensselaer Materials Science and
Engineering
Ramanath.
Professor Ganapathiraman
"At first, we were curious to see what would
happen if we introduced charged nanostructures
- such as the ones we synthesize for exploring
new cooling strategies in nanodevices - to the
process of liquid wetting. But what started as a
single, one-off experiment has now mush-
roomed into an exciting new research topic and
expanded the scope of our collaboration,"
Ramanath said.
The research article, titled "Electrowetting on
dielectric-actuation of microdroplets of aqueous
bismuth telluride nanoparticle suspensions,"
was published in a recent issue of the journal
Nanotechnology.
Along with Borca-Tasciuc and Ramanath, co-
authors of the paper include Rensselaer post-
doctoral research associate Arup Purkayastha,
and graduate student Raj K. Dash.
The research was funded in part by the
National Science Foundation and the New York
State Foundation for Science, Technology and
Innovation through the Interconnect Focus
Center.





they plan to do with so much storage capacity,
but buy on the principle that you can never have
too much memory.
Consumers who have tried home video
recording often get hooked and want to upgrade.
Once families have squabbled over how to
use 12 or 15 hours of disk space to record
TV programmes, they see nothing odd
about buying 100 or 200 hours of memory.
Small-format drives are also a common
feature on many new products such as digi-
tal audio players on display at the CeBIT
trade show from March 4 to 9 in Hanover,
Germany. The first hard drives showed up in
mobile phones made by Samsung and
Nokia in 2005.
These very tiny drives, sealed against
dust, are barely bigger than a postage
stamp.
A microdrive is less than 43 millimetres
long, and the so-called 0.85-inch drive is just
32 millimetres long. Like their larger cousins,
they can save video, audio, photographs or plain
office files.





 Cover Story Zubair Ahmed Kasuri
iracles of network world are evaluating
M new features of internet with each pass-
ing day. World's e-commerce industry
values almost 700 billion US dollars annually out
of which call centre industry shares over 50 bil-
lion US dollars with 30% growth rate each year.
Growing economies are putting their finest
efforts to emerge as major locations for IT
enabled businesses such as call centers, cus-
tomer support centers. A country like Pakistan,
has its best chance to outplay others, particular-
ly with the present resources that are most suit-
able for outsourcing industry such as lower input
costs, reasonably good telecom and internet
infrastructure, trained English-speaking work-
force and a favorable time zone differential vis-a-
vis the US.
Despite of all these supporting features we
may find plenty of examples where the BPO
organizations in Pakistan are either closed or
soon they will be closed due to various reasons.
TouchStone Communication (Private) Limited
is one out of almost 70 operating call centers in
Pakistan. Incorporated in year 2003 and more
than 600 permanent employees TouchStone was
successfully serving European and US clients
since its inception, until Mr. Tom Slone, an
American citizen and also happens to be the
Chairman and CEO of TouchStone
Communication announced the closure of the
company to its employees and clients abroad.
This situation will defiantly do the negative with
call centre industry and make it face heavy dam-
ages in terms of economy and image as well.
TouchStone Communication Pakistan is a
subsidiary of TouchStone Communication II, LLC
America. Mr. FarukhAslam, who is also the direc-
48
tor of TouchStone Pakistan, holds twenty percent
shares in TouchStone America. Along with Mr.
Farukh Aslam there are nine stakeholders includ-
ing Tom Slone that share TouchStone America's
ownership.
Dispute between Farukh Aslam and Tom
Slone began last year when Slone tried to
remove Mr. Farukh Aslam from his director's
Mr. Tom Slone, who is involved in the fraudu-
lent activities and disgracing not only Mr.
Farukh Aslam (a share holder of TouchStone)
but Pakistan's image.
position. Slone also wanted to acquire Aslam's
shares in order to retain the position of majority
stake holder.
After an intensive journalistic investigation,
Flare found few secret documents that revealed
Tom's high level government contacts, and the
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
TouchStone Communication
(Private) Limited is one out of
almost 70 operating call cen-
ters in Pakistan. Incorporated
in year 2003 and more than
600 permanent employees
TouchStone was successfully
serving European and US
clients since its inception, until
Mr. Tom Slone, an American
citizen and also happens to be
the Chairman and CEO of
TouchStone Communication
announced the closure of the
company to its employees and
clients abroad. This situation
will defiantly do the negative
with call centre industry and
make it face heavy damages in
terms of economy and image
as well
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
way he utilized
them in order to remove Farukh
Aslam from the company, and took over the con-
trol of call centre. In fact Tom Slone threatened
Pakistan's Government that he will shout against
the law and order situation of the country in the
west if his demands were not fulfilled.
In a letter written to President Pervez
Musharraf, dated December 30, 2007, Mr. Tom
Slone dictated "We will call our more than 20
U.S. and U.K. clients informing them that law and
order conditions in Pakistan make it impossible
to continue Operations". Mr. Slone wrote these
words about the country from where he earned
millions of dollars. In the same letter he said "We
will meet our approximately 600 employees and
notify them that their jobs will be permanently
lost"
Not only this, Mr. Slone tried his every possi-
ble source to remove Mr. Farukh Aslam from his
position of Director of the company. In a letter
dated November 23, 2007 written to Chairman
Senate and the President, with a reference of a
friend of Mohammad Mian Soomro, Mr. Slone
demanded "Physically remove of Farukh Aslam
and his guards
from the premises of
TouchStone Communication" (the person who is
director of the company and holds twenty per-
cent shares as well.) In another paragraph Mr.
Slone demanded "Freeze the bank account of
DBL, Farukh's personal computer business", it
merits mentioning here that DBL is not owned by
Mr. Farukh Aslam, and rather he paid this money
to close the liabilities of 3 million PKR.
It seems Tom succeeded in blackmailing the
high level staff in Islamabad police and the
Government. Afterwards he thanked them all in a
letter dated January 02, 2008, he states
"Islamabad police force worked tirelessly and
with particular skill", this shows the changing
words of a person who just wanted to remove Mr.
Farukh Aslam from the company to retain his
shares. Slone thanked many government offi-
cials by their names including, Shahid Nadeem
Balouch (DIG), Syed Kaleem Imam (SSP),
Zubair Sheikh (DSP), Munawar Khan who is in
elite commando's force.
All these letters demonstrate the govern-
ment's high level involvement in the case without
hearing the Farukh Aslam's stance.
Demonstrating favoritism, Tom soon kicked
off 32 employees who shouted the loyalty for
Cover Story
Farukh Aslam. The workforce was being
threatened by Tom Slone at last saw a black
day when they were disallowed to enter com-
pany office. Mr. Slone feared that these
employees were loyal with the company and
its legitimate owner, Mr. Farukh Aslam.
While speaking with an IT analyst he said
that this decision by Tom Slone is a direct hit
on the labor's rights and the economy of the
country, particularly when employees were
dismissed without clearing their dues.
Khizar Iqbal, one of the victims told 'Flare'
that he was stopped at company's main gate
by the armed persons, who didn't allow him to
enter his office. On inquiring, the armed peo-
ple told him to leave the premises and do not
claim or shout for anything, including the
salary. He said that he had a very good repute
in the company, and he was not liable to any
misdeed carried out during job. He further
said that Mr. Tom Slone is accused of 1.6mil-
lion Rs. which were allocated for the welfare
of the employees.
There are other 32 such miserable families
who are facing this merciless stance by Tom
Slone. Other employees, said that this brutal
attitude will not be tolerated and they will use
their reserved right to contact labor court. They
told that the Tom Slone took over the company's
management for his personal greed. They said
that he was leading the company without any
rules or regulation. Dismissed employees
revealed that Tom Slone took away about 1.6
million rupees that were in provident fund
account.
Such dismissals are threatening the sense of
security in TouchStone Communication.
After kicking off 32 employees and dodging
the legitimate owners of the company, Tom
Slone seemed not contented with his efforts, as
he propagated against Pakistan in US news-
papers.
Tom Slone, who reaped the extensive bene-
fits of Pakistan's supporting features for out-
sourcing businesses for over 5 years, changed
his views about our beloved country and the peo-
ple and businesses.
Barry Schlacter a Jewish friend of Tom Slone,
who has visited Pakistan as well reports for a US
Paper named as "Star Telegram" used anti-
Dispute between Farukh Aslam
and Tom Slone began last year
when Slone tried to remove Mr.
Farukh Aslam from his direc-
tor's position. Slone also want-
ed to acquire Aslam's shares in
order to retain the position of
majority stake holder.
Employees of the call centre
have expressed their deep
concern and displeasure on
the situation
49
 Cover Story
The pieces of writings are the extract of
Mr. Farukh Aslam’s letter to President of Pakistan
to seek justice as he is a stake holder of
TouchStone.
Pakistan words like "Pakistan's complicated and
often corrupt, local business environment" and
another place he writes "Slone described as 20
stinky goatherders". Most of these were compa-
ny employees such as our janitors, teaboys,
guards and drivers.
Tom Slone, Jewish by religion, is showing his
deep hatred for the Pakistan community, which
is clearly reflected in up-given lines published in
recent week. Tom is using his ill-resources in US
media to spread detest against Pakistan. Tom
Slone who had been earning millions of dollars
from Pakistan is now accusing them of corrupt
nature, just to spread hatred.
Mr. Farukh Aslam, the director of the compa-
ny and major stake holder told "Flare" that he
had written a letter to President of Pakistan, Ms.
Anne W. Patterson, US Ambassador in
Islamabad, IG Police, and other SECP officials,
informing them the situation Tom has created.
Farukh Aslam was of the view that none of the
offices mentioned above did any justice rather,
they helped Tom in looting by selling many of the
company assets. He voiced against the con-
50
cerned authorities who are
not helping him to rescue
his personal investment
and the future of hundred
of employees.
Farukh said that Tom
Slone, who has high level
contacts in Pakistan gov-
ernment, is utilizing his
contacts to make fake
documents in order to
restrain the legitimate
stakeholders from act-
ing or taking any deci-
sion in the company.
Mr. Farukh further
said that Mr. Tom
Slone is not only
playing with the
future of TouchStone
employees but also the economy
of Pakistan. Along with, his deeds will certainly
do a negative role with the image of outsourcing
industry in Pakistan. More than 20 clients in
Few secret documents
revealed how Tom utilized the
high level government con-
tacts in order to remove
Farukh Aslam from the compa-
ny, and took over the control of
call centre. In fact Tom Slone
threatened Pakistan's
Government that he will shout
against the law and order situ-
ation of the country in the west
if his demands were not ful-
filled
United States and UK are being informed by Tom
that TouchStone Pakistan can not operate due to
security reasons in the country.
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Tom soon kicked off 32
employees who shouted
the loyalty for Farukh
Aslam. The workforce was
being threatened by Tom
Slone at last saw a black
day when they were disal-
lowed to enter company
office. He feared that
these employees were
loyal with its legitimate
owner, Mr. Farukh Aslam
Mr. Aslam said that Tom, who is himself an
employee of TouchStone, is not lawful to carry
out such a closure of the company. This may be
the only scenario available in history when an
employee removed director from his position
instead of following his directions. He is defiant-
ly bypassing the rules by using his high level
contacts in the government.
Documents reveals that Tom is nor the direc-
tor neither stakes holder in the company.
Mr. Tom Slone is not only playing with the
future of TouchStone employees but also the
economy of Pakistan. Along with, his deeds will
certainly do a negative role with the image of
outsourcing industry in Pakistan.
Tom, who is himself an employee of
TouchStone, is not lawful to carry out such a clo-
sure of a company. This may be the only sce-
nario available in history when an employee
removed director from his position instead of fol-
lowing his directions. He is defiantly bypassing
the rules by using his high level contacts in the
government.
Employees of the call centre have expressed
their deep concern and displeasure on the situa-
tion. They were of a view that Government
should stop this closure in order to keep the for-
eign investment coming into the country. They
further said that their future is on high risk, and
Tom will be only responsible.
It is clear that a Mr. Tom Slone is trying hard
to dismiss his Pakistani partner and take full con-
trol of the company. Now, it is duty of our govern-
ment to take necessary action and solve this dis-
pute which is not only a threat to foreign invest-
ment but also disgrace for the country.





 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Informative

Nokia N96 Nokia 6124 Classic

Size Size
Dimensions 103 x 55 x 18 mm, 92 cc, Weight 125g Dimensions 105 x 46 x 15 mm, 66cc,
Display Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches, Downloadable wall-
Ringtones papers, screensavers
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), Monophonic, True Tones, MP3, Ringtones
Customization, Download, Vibration Yes Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, AAC, Customization Download
Memory Vibration Yes
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall, Call records Memory
Detailed, max 30 days, Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 16 GB internal Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall, Call records
memory, 128MB RAM, 256MB storage memory Detailed, max 30 days, Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 35 MB of user mem-
Data ory, 64 MB SDRAM, 128 MB ROM , ARM 11, 369 MHz CPU,
GPRS Class 32, 107 / 64.2 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 32, 296 kbps; Data
DTM Class 11, 177 kbps, 3G, HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, GPRS Class 11, HSCSD Yes, 43.2 kbps, EDGE Class 32, 296 / 177.6 kbits
UPnP technology Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, 3G HSDPA, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No
v2.0 microUSB USB Yes, miniUSB
Features Features
OS Symbian OS 9.3, S60 rel. 3.2, Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant OS Symbian OS v9.2, S60 rel. 3.1, Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant
Messaging, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS reader, Games Messaging Browser, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, Games Yes + Downloadable
Downloadable, Colors Black, Camera 5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss Colors BlackWhite, Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video, flash; secondary
optics, autofocus, video(VGA 30fps), flash; secondary VGA videocall camera videocall camera, Video calling, Java MIDP 2.0, FM stereo radio, Push to talk
Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS function, DVB-H TV broadcast receiver, Dual MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, Office applications (Excel, PDF, Powerpoint, Word,
slide design, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA player, 3.5 mm Zip), Voice memo, T9, Calculator, Built-in handsfree
audio output jack, TV out, Stereo FM Radio with RDS, Organizer, Office doc- Battery
ument viewer, T9, Push to talk , Voice dial/memo, Built-in handsfree Standard battery, Li-Ion
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 950 mAh (BL-5F), Stand-by Up to 220h, Talk time Design: 7.3
Up to 3 h 40 min Features: 6.8
Design: 8.0 Performance: 7.4

Nokia N78
Size
Dimensions 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm, 76.5 cc, Weight 101.8g
Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches, Downloadable
themes
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, Customization Download, Vibration
Yes, Stereo speakers,
Memory
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall, Call records
Detailed, max 30 days, Card slot, microSD (TransFlash), hotswap, 70 MB
internal memory, 96 MB SDRAM memory, ARM 11 369 MHz processor
Data
GPRS Class 11, 118.4 kbits, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 32, 296 / 177.6
kbits, 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB
Features
OS Symbian OS, S60 rel. 3.2, Messaging, SMS, MMS, Email, Instant
Messaging, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds, Games
Yes + Java downloadable, Colors Black, Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pix-
els, autofocus, Carl Zeiss optics, video(VGA 15fps), flash; secondary CIF
videocall camera, Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS support, Java MIDP 2.0
MP3/M4A/AAC/eAAC+/WMA player, Stereo FM radio, FM transmitter
3.5 mm audio output jack, Push to Talk, Voice command/dial, PIM includ-
ing calendar, to-do list and printing, Document viewer, T9, Photo/video edi-
tor, Integrated handsfree Japan's electronics giant Sony employee demonstrates the smart card reader Felica Port and a mobile
Battery
phone handset containing IC chip, enable it to pay for video on demand service at the IC card exhibi-
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-6F), Stand-by Up to 320h, Talk
time tion in Tokyo. Sony introduced various application to use on the company's smart card Felica.

Nokia E51 Camera-free Samsung F400

Size Size
Dimensions 114.8 x 46 x 12 mm, 61cc, Weight 100g Dimensions 103 x 48 x 16.9 mm
Display Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches, Five-way scroll key Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches, Dual slide design
Downloadable themes Ringtones
Ringtones Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Download, Vibration Yes
Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Download, Vibration Yes, Memory Memory
Phonebook, Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall, Call records Phonebook 1000 entries, Photo call, Call records, 30 dialed, 30 received, 30
Detailed, max 30 days, Card slot microSD (TransFlash), hotswap, 130 MB user missed calls, Card slot, microSD (TransFlash), 24 MB embedded memory
data memory, 96 MB SDRAM memory, ARM 11 369 MHz processor Data
Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No, EDGE Class 10,
GPRS Class 32, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 32, 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, WLAN 236.8 kbps, 3G, HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Wi-Fi 802.11g, VoIP over WLAN, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
Yes, USB Yes, v2.0 miniUSB Features
Features Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email Browser, WAP 2.0/xHTML, Games
OS Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI, Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Yes + downloadable, Camera 3 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0
Messaging, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, Games Downloadable, Colors MP3/AAC/eACC/WMA player, Music recognition, FM radio with RDS, T9
Black, Silver, Camera No, Push to talk, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/video player Picture editing, Organizer, Built-in handsfree
FM radio, Document viewer, T9, Voice command/memo, PIM including calendar, Battery
to-do list, Integrated handsfree, Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email, Exchange mail Standard battery, Li-Ion
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1070 mAh ( BP-6MT), Stand-by Up to 310h, Talk time Design: 9.0
Up to 4 h 20 min Features: 8.8
Performance: 8.7
Design: 7.3
Features: 7.4
Performance: 7.4

52
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Informative

Samsung U900 Soul Samsung G810

Size Size
Dimensions 105 x 49.5 x 12.9 mm, Dimensions 103 x 52.9 x 17.9 mm,
Display Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches, Navigation panel Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.6 inches
Ringtones Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Download, Vibration Yes Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Download, Vibration Yes
Memory Memory
Phonebook Yes, Photocall, Call records 30 dialed, 30 received, 30 missed calls Phonebook Yes, Photocall, Call records, 30 dialed, 30 received, 30 missed calls
Card slot, microSD (TransFlash) Card slot, microSD (TransFlash), 130 MB shared memory, 330 MHz ARM1136
Data processor (TI OMAP 2430 chipset)
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No, EDGE No, 3G HSDPA, Data
7.2 Mbps, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No, EDGE Class 10, 236.8
v2.0 kbps, 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth Yes v2.0 with
Features A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email Browser, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds Features
Games Yes + downloadable, Colors Silver, Camera 5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofo- OS Symbian OS v9.2, Series 60 rel. 3.0, Messaging SMS, MMS, Email Browser
cus, image stabiliser, video(QVGA), flash, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/eACC+/WMA WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS reader, Games Yes + downloadable, Colors Titan
player Grey, Camera 5 MP, 2560?1920 pixels, autofocus, video(VGA), xenon flash, 3x
FM radio with RDS, T9, Picture editing, Organizer, Built-in handsfree optical zoom, Built-in GPS receiver, Navigon GPS navigation software
Battery Camera images geo-tagging, Camera face detection, Java MIDP 2.0,
Standard battery, Li-Ion MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+/WMA player, Stereo FM radio, 3.5mm audio output jack
T9, Bluetooth printing, Document viewer, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo, TV out
Design: 8.4 Battery
Features: 8.2 Standard battery, Li-Ion
Performance: 8.3
Design: 8.7
Features: 8.7
Performance: 8.7

Samsung i200
Size
Dimensions 116.7 x 50.8 x 11.8 mm,
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors (65K effective), Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.3 inches
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Download, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook In internal memory, Photocall, Call records 20 dialed, 20received,
20 missed calls, Card slot microSD (TransFlash)
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No, EDGE Yes, 3G
HSDPA, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB
Yes, v2.0
Features
OS Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0, Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email,
Instant Messaging, Browser, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (PocketIE), Games Yes
Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0,
MP3/WMA/AAC/MPEG4 player, Mobile printing, T9, Organizer, Voice com-
mand, Voice memo
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion

Design: 8.3
Features: 8.0
Performance: 8.2
Indian attendants on a stand at The Mobile Asia 2008 exhibition in New Delhi. The exhibi-
tion which is being held in the Indian capital, claims to be India's biggest consumer mobile
event and hopes to attract some 300,000 visitors over the course of the event,

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Sony Ericsson G900

Size
Size
Dimensions 106 x 49 x 13 mm, Weight 99g
Dimensions 110 x 53 x 16.7mm, Weight 145g
Display
Display
Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches
Type TFT touchscreen, 65K colors, Size 800 x 480 pixels, 3 inches
Wallpapers, screensavers
Full QWERTY keyboard, Optical joystick navigation
Ringtones
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Download, Vibration Yes
Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Composer, download, Vibration Yes
Memory
Memory
Phonebook 1000 x 20 fields, Photo call, Call records, 30 received,
Phonebook 1000x20 fields, Photo call, Call records, 30 received, Card slot
Card slot, Memory Stick Micro (M2), 160 MB internal memory
microSD (TransFlash), 400 MB internal memory, 128MB RAM, 256MB storage
Data
memory, Qualcomm MSM7200 528MHz processor
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No, EDGE
Data
No, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No, EDGE Yes, 3G
with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0,
HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Features
Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
OS Symbian OS, UIQ, Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email,
Features
Instant Messaging, Browser WAP 2.0/HTML (Opera), RSS reader
OS Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, Messaging SMS, MMS, Email,
Games Yes , Colors Dark Red, Dark Brown, Camera, 5 MP,2592?1944
Instant Messaging, Browser WAP 2.0/HTML (IE), RSS feeds, Games Yes +
pixels, autofocus, image stabiliser, video, flash; secondary videocall
downloadable, Colors Solid Black, Steel Silver, Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536
camera,Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player,
pixels, autofocus, video(VGA@30fps), flash; secondary videocall camera
Handwriting recognition, StickyNotes, TrackID music recognition,
Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS function, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS
Business card scanner, Picture editor/blogging, Document reader/edi-
MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, Motion sensor (with UI auto-rotate), TrackID music
tor, Organiser, Stopwatch, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo/dial
recognition, Picture editor/blogging, Organiser, T9, Built-in handsfree, Voice
Battery
memo/dial
Standard battery, Li-Ion 950 mAh (BST-33), Stand-by Up to 380h
Battery
Talk time Up to 12h
Standard battery, Li-Po, 1500 mAh
Design: 8.5
Design: 8.6
Features: 8.4
Features: 8.7
Performance: 8.5
Performance: 8.6

53
 Informative w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Nokia 2310
Rs. 3,450
Size
Dimensions 105.4 x 43.9 x 19.1mm, Weight 85g
Display
Type CSTN, 65K colors, Size 96 x 68 pixels, 4 lines
Themes, wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, Customization Download, order
now, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 200 entries, Call records, 10 dialed, 10
received, 10 missed calls, Card slot No, 4 MB
shared memory
Features
Messaging SMS, Browser, Games 3 - Nature Park,
Snake Xenia, Bounce, Colors Red, Blue, White
Languages Most major European and Asian, Camera
No, FM radio, T9, Calculator, Stopwatch, Built-in,
handsfree, Picture messaging
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 970 mAh (BL-5C)
Stand-by Up to 400h, Talk time Up to 6h
The Nokia 2310 is a sharp looking mobile
phone in a beautifully compact casing. The phone
comes in a choice of three colours which allows the
user to choose the overall look of their new mobile
phone. The colours include crisp white, vibrant
orange & bright turquoise. The handset is light &
compact which measures 105.4 x 43.9 x 19.05 mm &
weighs 85 grams.
Design: 6.8
Features: 6.4
Performance: 6.6
Nokia 2626
Rs. 3,850
Size
Dimensions 104 x 43 x 18 mm, 71cc, Weight 91g
Display
Type CSTN, 65K colors, Size128 x 128 pixels, 27 x
27 mm, 4-way navy key, Screensavers, themes and
wallpapers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, Customization
Download, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 300 entries, Call records 20 dialed, 20
received, 20 missed calls, Card slot No 2 MB user
memory
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Browser WAP
2.0/xHTML, Games Phantom Spider, Glamour Pinball
+ downloadable, order now, Colors Fiery Red, Spatial
Blue, Energetic Copper, WhiteNavy, Languages Major
European and Asia-Pacific languages, Camera No
FM radio, Java MIDP 2.0, T9, Calendar, Calculator
with currency converter, Clothing and shoe size con-
verter, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 970 mAh (BL-5C)
Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 3h
Nokia 2626 is a colourful phone, keeping up with
the users in the emerging markets. It is available in
quite ambitious colours of Fiery Red and Spatial Blue,
and to go with the trend, it has a FM Radio for music
on the go. The phone is constructed out of three dif-
ferent plastic materials, with the inset made of tinted
glass, having mirror coating on the front.
Design: 5.0
Features: 7.6
Performance: 5.0

Samsung C130
Rs. 2,800
Size
Dimensions 102.4 x 45.4 x 14.8mm, Weight 75g
Display
Type CSTN, 65K colors, Size 128 x 128 pixels, 1.5inch
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (16 channels), Customization, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 500 entries, Call records 30 dialed, 30 received,
30 missed calls, Card slot No, 1.8 MB shared memory
Data
T-101 Melody GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps
Features
Rs. 2,399 Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Browser WAP 1.2.1, Games
Yes, order now, Colors Orange, Pink, Silver, Blue, Camera
Call Restriction. No, Java MIDP 2.0, T9, Organiser, To Do list, Built-in hands-
FM Radio with Speakers Phone. free, Voice memo
Built in MP3 & MP4 Player Battery
Time synchronisation. Standard battery, Li-Ion 750 mAh
300 Message Memory. Stand-by Up to 445h, Talk time Up to 5 h20 min
250 Phone book entry.
Volume Menu. This super slim mobile phone boasts a refined and
65k Colour Display. sophisticated design, setting it apart from its competitors.
Multiple Languages. The cool black phone is accented by white silver edging,
180 Min talk time. which subdivides the monitor and the menu keypad from the
numeric keypad, creating a trompe l'oeuil effect that makes
the SGH-C130 look more like a slide-up phone than a bar-
type.

Design: 7.8
Features: 6.8
Performance: 7.0

54

Above prices are subject to change as per market

w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Informative

Nokia 6080 Samsung Z150

Rs. 5,450
Size
Dimensions 105.4 x 44.3 x 18.6mm, Weight 91g
Display
Type TFT, 65K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels
Downloadable wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (24 channels), MP3, Monophonic, True
Tones, Customization Download, order now, Vibration
Yes
Memory
Phonebook Yes, Photo call, Call records 20 dialed, 20
received, 20 missed calls, Card slot No, 4.3 MB of user
memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD
Yes, 43.2 kbps, EDGE Class 6, 177.6 kbps, USB Yes,
Pop-Port
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging,
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, Games Yes + Downloadable,
order now, Colors Black, Gold, Camera VGA, 640x480 pix-
els, video (subQCif), Java MIDP 2.0, FM stereo radio
Push to talk, Video player, Voice memo, Voice command
T9, Calendar, Calculator, Built-in handsfree
Battery
Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 3h30 min
The Nokia 6080 is a updated version of the Nokia
6070. It's an entry-level camera phone with a smart, sim-
ple design. The features of this phone includes a basic
camera and video recorder, a stereo FM radio and user's
memory of 4.3 Mbytes.
Rs. 6,800
Size
Dimensions 118 x 47 x 9.8mm, Weight 77g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels, 1.9 inch
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, Customization
Download, order now, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 1000 entries, Call records, 20 dialed, 20
received, 20 missed calls, 50 MB shared memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, 3G Yes, 384
kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v1.1, USB Yes, v1.1
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games Yes + downloadable, order now, Colors Black
Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video(QCIF); secondary VGA
video call camera, Java MIDP 2.0, Video telephony &
streaming, MP3/AAC/AAC+ player, T9, Organiser, Currency
converter, To do list, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree
Battery
Stand-by Up to 270h, Talk time Up to 2 h50 min
The ultra slim 9.8mm thick Samsung Z150 is a wel-
come entry into the mid-priced 3G phone market. The phone
has an easy to use interface and a solid set of features - all
for a very competitive price.
Design: 8.0
Features: 7.6
Performance: 8.0

Design: 5.5
Features: 5.2
Performance: 5.3

LG KG200
Motorola W220 Rs. 5,200
Rs. 4,500
Size
Size
Dimensions 100 x 46 x 15mm, Weight 89g
Dimensions 95 x 46 x 16.7 mm, 74cc, Weight 93g
Display
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels
Type CSTN, 65K colors, Size 128 x 128 pixels, 28 x 28
Downloadable wallpapers
mm, Screensavers and wallpapers, Downloadable wallpa-
Ringtones
pers
Type Polyphonic (64 channels)
Ringtones
Memory
Type Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3-like, Customization
Phonebook 500 entries, Call records 10 dialed, 10
Composer, Download, order now, Vibration Yes
received, 10 missed calls, Card slot microSD
Memory
(TransFlash), 60 MB shared memory
Phonebook 600 entries, Call records 10 dialed, 10
Data
received, 10 missed calls, 500 KB user memory
GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps, USB Yes
250 short messages
Features
Data
Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps
Games Yes, order now, Colors Black, Camera 1.3 MP,
Features
1280 x 1024 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3 player
Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
FM radio, T9, Organiser, Voice memo
Games Yes - Football, Rebels, Crazy, Camera No
Battery
FM radio, MIDI/SP-MIDI/AMR/iMelody player, T9
Stand-by Up to 250h, Talk time Up to 3h
Calendar, Calculator, Currency converter,
Battery
LG KG 200 offers high resolution camera, MP 3
Standard battery, Li-Ion 880 mAh
players, FM Radio and expandable memory.
Stand-by Up to 290h, Talk time Up to 8h
Design: 7.8
The Motorola W220 is a neat & stylish clamshell
Features: 7.8
mobile phone which offers the user all the day to day fea-
Performance: 7.9
ture they require. The phone comes in a black & silver
coloured casing which measures 95 x 46 x 16.7 mm. The
clamshell designed handset is coated mainly in plastic
which feels good to hold & weighs 93 grams which is a
good weight for the user to carry around & manage.

Design: 7.4
Features: 6.2
Performance: 6.5

55

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 Informative w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Nokia E62 LG KG195

Rs. 12,700 Rs. 5,600
Size Size
Dimensions 117 x 69.7 x 14 mm, 108cc, Weight 144g Dimensions 100 x 45 x 12.4 mm, Weight 69.9g
Display Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 320 x 240 pixels, 58 x 45 Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches
mm Downloadable wallpapers
QWERTY keyboard, Five-way scroll key, Ringtones
Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels)
Type Polyphonic, Monophonic, MP3, True Tones Memory
Customization Download, Vibration Yes Phonebook 500 entries, Call records 10 dialed, 10 received,
Memory 10 missed calls, Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 64 MB
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, shared memory
Photocall, Call records Detailed, max 30 days Data
Card slot miniSD, hotswap, buy memory, 80 MB shared GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, Bluetooth
memory, 32 MB SDRAM, ARM 9 235 MHz processor Yes, v1.2 with A2DP, USB Yes, v1.1
Data Features
GPRS Class 11, HSCSD No, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML,
kbps Games
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, Yes, order now, Colors Black, White, Camera VGA, 640x480
miniUSB pixels, video, FM radio, Scheduled FM recorder,
Features MPEG4/MP3 player
OS Symbian OS 9.1, Series 60 UI, Messaging SMS, Java MIDP 2.0, T9, Organiser, Voice memo
MMS, Email, Instant Messaging, Browser WAP Battery
2.0/xHTML, HTML Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 3h
Games Java downloadable, order now, Colors Silver,
Camera No, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player Full Time Masti, Non Stop Fun with LG KG 195. The
Office applications, T9, Voice command/memo phone features all multimedia and music options, with quite
PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing, Integrated a room for songs and pictures in memory. Standby battery
handsfree time is reported up to 300 hours and talk time of over 3
Battery hours.
Standard battery, Li-Po 1500 mAh (BP-5L)
Stand-by Up to 330h, Talk time Up to 6h Design: 7.7
Features: 7.8
Nokia E62 is poised to become a top handheld. Performance: 7.8
The E62's keyboard is big, with square, rubbery,
responsive keys. You'll find a power button near the
top of the handset and volume and voice-record but-
tons on the device's side. Unfortunately, there's no
camera or visible memory card slot.

Design: 7.5
Features: 7.7
Performance: 7.7

Sony Ericsson W200

Rs. 5,650
Size
MOTO SLVR L9 Dimensions 101 x 44 x 18 mm, Weight 85g
Rs. 10,400 Display
Type UBC, 65K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches
Wallpapers, screensavers
Size: Ringtones
Dimensions 49 x 113.5 x 11.5 mm, Weight 96g Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, AAC
Display: Memory
176 x 220 mm, 1.9" 262K colors TFT Phonebook Yes, Photo call, Call records 30 received, dialed and
Ringtones: missed calls, Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 27 MB internal
Type: Polyphonic MP3 memory
Memory: Data
20 MB User, Up to 2GB of removable storage GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD Yes,
Data: Infrared port Yes, USB Yes
EDGE Class 10, GPRS Class 10, GSM Features
Features: Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging, Browser
2 megapixel with x8 digital zoom, Clock, Alarm, Calculator, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML(NetFront), RSS feeds, Games
Video capture and playback with sound Yes + downloadable, order now, Colors Rythm Black, Pulse White,
Battery: Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0
Talk Time: up to 400 mins FM radio with RDS, Walkman Media Player 1.0, T9, Image viewer
Standby Time: up to 350 hours Picture editor, Organiser, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree
Battery
L9 has integrated music player with stereo Bluetooth Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 7h
wireless technology' allows to freely enjoy music wirelessly
on the go. It is powered by GPRS and EDGE class 10 With stamina for up to 18 hours of music listening, the
technology providing quick downloads and easy informa- W200a can store up to 37 full length tracks (or about four albums).
tion exchanges enabling users to share pictures, videos For sharing music with friends, a 128 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2)
and music with family and friends seamlessly. L9 also pro- card lets users do this in an instant. With memory cards up to 1
vides a rich visual entertainment experience via a 2.0 GB available, each card will hold up to 255 full-length tracks.
mega-pixel camera with 8x digital zoom, video capture with
4x zoom and full screen landscape playback. Design: 7.7
Features: 7.4
Performance: 7.5

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w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Sony Ericsson K770
Rs. 14,700
Size
Dimensions 105 x 47 x 14.5 mm, Weight 95g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 1.9 inches
Wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (72 channels), MP3, Customization
Composer, download, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 1000 entries, up to 2500 numbers, Photo call
Call records 30 received, dialed and missed calls, Card slot
Memory Stick Micro (M2), 256 MB card included, 16 MB
internal memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD
Yes, EDGE No, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN No, Bluetooth
Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging, Browser
WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML(NetFront), RSS feeds, Games
Yes + downloadable, order now, Colors Truffle Brown, Ultra
Violet, Sandy Beige, Henna Bronze, Soft Black, Camera
3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, video, LED flash,
secondary VGA videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0
RDS FM radio, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, TrackID music
recognition, BestPic, T9, Image viewer, Picture editor
Picture blogging, Organiser, Built-in handsfree, Voice
memo/dial, Stopwatch
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Po 930 mAh (BST-38)
Stand-by Up to 400h, Talk time Up to 10h
Sony Ericsson K770: The Sony Ericsson K770 is fun
and this is due not only to the good keypad, but also to the
phone's quick reactions. The K770, as well as the older
Sony Ericsson models, allows you to easily update the soft-
ware online, through the Sony Ericsson Update Service.
Design: 8.2
Features: 8.0
Performance: 8.2
LG KE970 Shine
Rs.14,800
Size
Dimensions 99.8x50.6x13.8 mm, Weight 119g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inch-
es, Mirror effect screen, full metal body, Downloadable
wallpapers
Rintones
Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, Customization
Download, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 1000 entries, Photocall, Call records
50 dialed, 50 received, 50 missed calls, Card slot
microSD (TransFlash), buy memory, 50 MB internal
memory, 300 text messages
Data
GPRS Yes, HSCSD No, EDGE Yes, 3G No, WLAN No
Bluetooth Yes, v1.2 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB
Yes
Features
Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, Browser WAP
2.0/xHTML, Games Yes + download, Colors Silver,
Titanium Black, Gold, Pink, Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200
pixels, autofocus, video(QCIF), flash, Java MIDP 2.0
MP3/AAC++/3GP/MPEG4 player, T9, Organiser
Voice memo, Document viewer (.ppt, .doc, .pdf, .xls, .txt)
Battery
Stand-by Up to 280h, Talk time Up to 3h
Because of its metal frame, the LG KE970 Shine is
nicely weighted, but a lot heavier and a tad longer and
wider than the Chocolate. However, surprisingly it is
1.5mm thinner than its colleague and makes for a trim
and compact proposition. The spring-assisted slider
action is very slick, while the etched keypad is respon-
sive.
Design: 6.2
Features: 5.8
Performance: 6.0
Above prices are subject to change as per market
Informative
RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition
Rs. 39,500
Size
Dimensions 53 x 103 x 12.05mm
Display
Large 2.0" QVGA (320 x 240) 262K color external display with
contextual touch interaction 2.2" QVGA (320 x 240) internal
display, 262K color
Ringtones
Type: Polyphonic MP3
Memory
2GB of on-board memory with a storage capacity of up to
1000 songs
Data
MicroUSB 2.0 high speed, GSM Quad, EDGE Class 12,
GPRS Class 12
Features
2.0 MP camera with 8X digital zoom, Windows Media Player
11, Pre-loaded games, HTML Opera Mobile Browser 8.5,
MotoSync™ - Over the air synchronisation of Email,
Phonebook and Calendar
Battery:
Talk Time: approximately 250 - 450 mins
Standby Time: approximately 200 - 300 hrs
RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition is a stunning blend of cutting-
edge technology and bold, sophisticated details that is the
pinnacle of ultra-premium cool. This special edition of the
RAZR2 has gone "lux" with 18k and 24k gold plated accents
standing out against a luminous, black slate, vacuum metal
finish. With a soft-touch back, embossed with a snakeskin
effect, the device even feels luxurious in the hand.
Samsung D880 Duos
Rs. 21,700
Size
Dimensions 104 x 51 x 18.9 mm, Weight 113g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.3 inches
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, Customization Download,
order now, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 1000 entries, Photocall, Call records 30 received,
dialed and missed calls, Card slot, microSD (TransFlash), buy
memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No, EDGE
Class 10, 236.8 kbps, 3G No, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with
A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games Yes, order now, Colors Black, Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536
pixels, autofocus, video, flash, Dual SIM, Java MIDP 2.0,
MP3/AAC+/MPEG4 player, FM radio, Business card reader applica-
tion, Document viewer, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree, TV out
Samsung D880 DuoS slider can work with two SIM cards
from different operators or support two phone numbers from the
same operator. Both cards in Samsung SGH-D880 can work simul-
taneously to make and receive calls, send/receive SMS messages.
The user also can easily select which card to use for mobile brows-
ing, e-mail and other multimedia services.
Design: 7.4
Features: 7.7
Performance: 7.5
57
 Informative
Samsung G800
Rs. 26,300
Size
Dimensions 101 x 51.1 x 18.8 mm, Weight 134g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, Customization
Download, order now, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook 1000 entries, Call records 30 dialed, 30 received,
30 missed calls, Card slot microSD (TransFlash), buy memory
160 MB internal memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, 3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps, WLAN No
Bluetooth Yes v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML,
HTML, RSS reader, Games Yes + downloadable, order now
Colors Titan Grey, Camera 5 MP, 2560?1920 pixels, autofo-
cus, video, xenon flash, 3x optical zoom, Java MIDP 2.0
MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+/WMA player, Stereo FM radio
Face Detection, T9, Bluetooth printing, Document viewer
(Word, Excel, Power Point, PDF), Built-in handsfree, Voice
memo, TV out
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion, Stand-by Up to 220h, Talk time Up to
3 h 20 min
The world's first phone to offer a 5 megapixel camera
with optical zoom, the G800 sets the benchmark for camera
phones. It's also a beautifully designed slide phone that's fully
equipped with an MP3 player, FM radio, accelerated 3G
(HSDPA), 160 Mbytes of internal memory plus a memory card
slot, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
Design: 8.4
Features: 8.2
Performance: 8.2
MOTORAZR2 V9:
Rs. 24,500
Size
Dimensions: 103 x 53 x 13.3 mm, Weight: 125 g
Display
TFT, 256K colors, 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches, Second
external 256K colors, 2 inches display (240 x 320 pix-
els) with contextual touch interaction
Ringtones
Type: Polyphonic MP3
Memory
3.5G edition with 4GB expandable memory
Data
MicroUSB v2.0 high speed, 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps,
EDGE Class 12, GPRS Class 10, Integrated Stereo
Bluetooth wireless technology with A2DP and AVRCP
profiles.
Features
2.0 mega pixel camera, Windows Media Player 11,
Pre-loaded games, WAP 2.0/xHTML, MotoSync™ -
Over the air synchronisation of Email, Phonebook and
Calendar, Java MIDP 2.0.
Battery
Talk Time: approximately 210 min
Standby Time: approximately 260 hour
A remarkably sleek and well-designed flip phone,
this latest version of the RAZR2 bears that certain
"wow" factor and comes in a glossy mahogany sheen
that shines both inside and out. It offers a satisfying
mix of classic features alongside new and innovative
functions like V9 is enabled for Motorola's "MotoSync,"
which can synchronize mobile email, phonebook and
calendar to the personal computer and "See What I
See," which lets users to stream live video images to
other wireless customers during a call.
58
Above prices are subject to change as per market
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Nokia 7900 Prism
Rs. 26,500
Size
Dimensions 112 x 45 x 11.3 mm, 55 cc, Weight 101g
Display
Type OLED, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, Customization
Download, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook Yes, Call records 20 dialed, 20 received, 20
missed calls, Card slot No, 1GB internal memory
Data
GPRS Class 32, 107 kbps HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 32, 296
kbps, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0
Infrared port No, USB Yes, microUSB
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games Yes + downloadable, order now, Colors Black,
Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF), flash
Java MIDP 2.0, UPnP technology, MP3/AAC/eAAC+/WMA
player, T9, Calendar, Calculator, Built-in handsfree, Voice
memo, Living wallpaper, Configurable keypad backlighting
color
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 850 mAh (BL-6P)
Stand-by Up to 240h, Talk time Up to 3h
Nokia 7900 Prism will impress you with its aluminum
housing, one that is even slimmer and cleaner as a design.
Undoubtedly, the model has been targeted at younger users,
who are looking for something stylish yet extravagant rather
than the conservative trend in models such as 8600 Luna and
the 8800 series.
Design: 6.7
Features: 6.3
Performance: 6.4
Sony Ericsson W960
Rs. 36,500
Size
Dimensions 109 x 55 x 16 mm, Weight 119g
Display
Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels,
2.6 inches, Handwriting recognition, Wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, AAC, Customization
Composer, download, order now, Vibration Yes
Memory
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records, Practically unlimited, Card slot No, 8 GB shared
memory for storage, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB flash memory (96
MB reserved for OS + 160 MB user memory)
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD No
EDGE No, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b, Bluetooth
Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
OS Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0, Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS,
Email, Instant Messaging, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML,
HTML(Opera 8.0), RSS reader, Games Yes + downloadable,
order now, Colors Vinyl Black, Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536
pixels, autofocus, video(QVGA 15fps), flash; secondary VGA
videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS
Walkman Touch player, TrackID music recognition, T9
Image viewer, Picture/document editor, Organiser, Voice
memo, Built-in handsfree
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Po 900 mAh (BST-33)
Stand-by Up to 370h, Talk time Up to 9h
A potent combination of slim UMTS phone and high per-
formance media player, the Sony Ericsson W960 Walkman
phone packs enough punch for up to 8,000 songs and
includes a Walkman player for finger-touch navigation around
playlists on the large screen. The 2.6" display serves as an
excellent viewfinder for a 3.2 megapixel camera and as a
widescreen for watching video in TV quality.
Design: 8.4
Features: 8.4
Performance: 8.4
 Informative w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Samsung SGH-i640
A follow-up device to the recent i620, the Samsung i640 is an
HSDPA capable 3.5G slider phone with an unusual 320 x 240
pixel display.
A quick tour around the specifications on the SGH-i640 show
that this is a capable
enough device, but it is very much just a rehash of last year's
model and the competition has moved on. The 2.4" wide aspect
QVGA display is pretty good. Surprisingly the i640 lacks WiFi, and
unlike much of the competition, the i640 also suffers from a pretty
basic camera, lacks GPS and it doesn't come with a touchscreen.
On the other hand, there is a practical QWERTY keyboard and
the Samsung i640 runs Windows Mobile 6. So, it seems obvious
that Samsung are pitching the SGH-i640 against BlackBerry
handhelds and other messaging devices, rather than aiming this
at the consumer market.
Internal memory is stated to be 141MB and this is expandable
with microSD cards. As with many Samsung devices, the i640 is
tri-band GSM only with 2100 MHz WCDMA for 3G and 3.5G sup-
port. Physically, the i640 measures 95 x 61 x 16mm and weighs
126 grams.
The SGHi-i640's battery life has been quoted as a maximum
of 6 hours with up to 15 days standby, although it's not clear if
that is on 3G or GSM. The 1200 mAH battery should be sufficient-
ly beefy to keep the i640 running for quite a while.

Nokia 6650
The 6650 is a rare clamshell phone from Nokia with HSDPA (3G broadband) and GPS
(satellite navigation) support. It's also notable for being another occasion where Nokia have
recycled the name of an older handset.
One immediately obvious thing to even a casual observer is that the Nokia 6650 very
closely resembles the Motorola RAZR range. The flat keypad, slim profile and even the "kick"
under the number keys are all characteristic of Motorola handsets, but it's not the first time
that Nokia have made a RAZR-like phone - the disastrous Nokia N76 was another example.
The Nokia 6650 is a pretty interesting device in its own right. The inclusion of A-GPS
(Assisted GPS) is unusual in a clamshell phone, and on top of that the 6650 has HSDPA high-
speed data giving download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps.
Inside is a 2.2" 240 x 320 pixel display, with a smaller display on the outside with dedicated
media keys. The Nokia 6650 has a microSD slot, FM radio and Bluetooth.
The camera is a fairly basic 2 megapixel unit, but it does come with a flash. Nokia has not
specified the size, weight and battery life at the time of going to press.
Announced way back in September 2002 and shipping in 2003, the Nokia 6650 was
Nokia's first attempt at a 3G handset. Despite its large size and 141 gram weight, the original
6650 only managed a 128 x 160 pixel display, didn't come with expandable memory or an
MP3 player, but it did have Bluetooth.
The original Nokia 6650 is a very rare handset where most major carriers started rolling out
their 3G network in 2004-5, by which time the 6650 was already obsolete. The first popular
Nokia 3G phones were the Nokia 6630 and the unusual Nokia 7600. In other words, it is pret-
ty unlikely that you will buy the original 6650 by mistake.. indeed, it is probably something of a
collector's item today.

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Motorola W181
The Motorola W181 is basically the W161 with a colour screen and more con-
ventional looking keypad. Again, this is almost exactly the same as last year's
Motorola W180 apart from some cosmetic details.
W181 demonstrated an impressive talk time despite it having a colour display.
The W181 also has more internal memory for storing text messages and the like.
The W181 is slated for release during the first quarter of 2008.
The Motorola W181's intuitive user interface, large color display and sleek key-
pad deliver an enjoyable navigation and viewing experience. Built-in FM radio and
one key access to SMS, including storage for tons of texts and contacts, rounds
out the feature set, while a long battery life allows plenty of standby time and talk
time between charges.
Cut out the noise and focus on the call. Motorola's CrystalTalk technology
enables a natural phone conversation, even in noisy environments. By separating
voice from background and wind noise, CrystalTalk helps enhance the user's voice
and channels pure, clear audio directly into the user's ear.
Tune into your favorite stations on the built-in FM radio, and personalize calls
with 20 preloaded 32-channel polyphonic ringtones and 15 standard alert ring-
tones. For even more customization, access more than 40 additional downloadable
iMelody ringtones.

Sony Ericsson G900

Sony Ericsson G900 can easily give you an impression that its an ordinary Sony
Ericsson phone, but in fact the Sony Ericsson G900 is a touchscreen Symbian smart-
phones, designed to bring touchscreen technology into the mainstream.
The Sony Ericsson G900 is a 3G device with WiFi, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus
and a photo light, a 2.4" 320 x 240 pixel touchscreen display, 160MB of internal memory
with Memory Stick Micro support, and because it is a Symbian smartphone, then users can
add their own applications.
What exactly can you do with the touchscreen on the G900? Well, Sony Ericsson say
that you can select menu items, scribble notes, and surf the web. G900 also have handwrit-
ing recognition. In other words, it is a fully featured smartphone, like the Sony Ericsson P1i..
just in a more everyday package.
G900 has comes with FM radio, multimedia player, stereo Bluetooth, the Opera web
browser, document editors and an email client. Don't expect to see the same applications
that you find in other Sony Ericsson phones - the software is completely different under-
neath, and not all "traditional" Sony Ericsson applications have been ported across.
On GSM, the talktime of both handsets is a truly remarkable 12 hours, dropping to a rea-
sonable 4 hours on 3G. Standby time is around 15 days, and the Sony Ericsson G900 can
manage up to 2.5 hours of video calls.
What is remarkable about this handset is just how. Sony Ericsson have fitted perfectly
ordinary and very practical mobile phone with a touchscreen while rivals Nokia are still
dithering about. Perhaps touch will be the killer application during 2008.. and if it is, then
Sony Ericsson has a head start.

61
 Informative w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Nokia N96
Advanced multimedia computer optimized for entertainment
Mobile World Congress 2008, Barcelona, Spain Finland - Nokia unveiled the
Nokia N96, a multimedia computer truly optimized for video and TV. With a
large 2.8" screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and support for high-quality
videos in a wide range of formats, the dual-slide Nokia N96 represents an excit-
ing new chapter in mobile media. The Nokia N96 multimedia computer is
expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated sales
price of approximately 550 euros, before subsidies or taxes.
"In 2007, the Nokia N95 became an icon of convergence of Internet and
mobility. With over 7 million units sold to date, the N95 has changed the way
people use their mobile device. The Nokia N96 we introduced today builds on
the success of N95, further enhancing the experience," says Jonas Geust, who
oversees Nokia's Explore category. "Through the power of the Internet, video
and TV are becoming even more prevalent in people's lives. With its large,
bright screen, and a range of high-speed connectivity options and the enhanced
Nokia Video Center, the new Nokia N96 is a personal window to entertainment."
Accessing internet videos is quick and simple. The Nokia N96 supports com-
mon video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video,
making favorite videos easy to view. Transferring and accessing videos is even
faster with the high-speed USB 2.0 connection and WLAN and HSDPA support.
In select markets, the integrated DVB-H receiver offers live broadcast TV with
an automatically updating program guide. The massive memory can store up to
40 hours of video content. The storage capacity of the Nokia N96 can even be
further expanded with an optional microSD card, such as the new Nokia 8GB
microSDHC Card MU-43 which increases the available memory of the Nokia
N96 to a total of 24 GB. For added convenience, the Nokia N96 features a
'kickstand' on the back cover that allows for hands-free viewing.
The Nokia Video Center offers one place to discover and access a variety of
mobile content ranging from movie trailers and comedy to news from world-
leading content brands such as YouTube, Reuters, and Sony Pictures. The cat-
alogue of internet video feeds is continually expanded with more regional and
country specific content.
For a superb music experience, the Nokia N96 features media keys, a 3.5
mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers. The Nokia Maps
application offers richer maps with urban details and satellite views and has
upgrade options such as City Guides, turn-by-turn pedestrian mode and voice-
guided car navigation.
The Nokia N96 boasts a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash
and video light. It allows DVD-like quality video capture at 30 frames per sec-
ond. Further, with the integrated A-GPS, consumers can now 'geotag' their pic-
tures with location data and share them with their online communities.
The Nokia N96 naturally supports the Ovi family of Nokia internet services,
including maps, music, media sharing and more.

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w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Informative

Samsung F400 (SGH-F400)

Is the Samsung F400 just another glossy looking Samsung slider phone? Not exactly,
because the Samsung SGH-F400 incorporates technology from Bang & Olufsen and has a
dual-slide arrangement that reveals a loudspeaker for optimum music playback.
There' is a lot more to the F400 than its musical capabilities, but as they set the handset
apart then it will be worth looking at them first. One immediately obvious feature is the large
stereo speaker that slides up from the top of the handset, in a similar manner to the
Samsung Serenata and the Samsung i450. This means that the SGH-F400 should be loud
enough to actually hear your music tracks or the FM radio properly.
The sound system uses Bang & Olufsen's ICEpower amplification system, it also comes
with music recognition, a comprehensive audio library function, Samsung's Digital Natural
Sound Engine and other music related goodies. The SGH-F400 takes a standard 3.5mm
headphone plug, and it also comes with an FM radio with RDS.
There's more to the Samsung F400 than just music. This is an HSDPA capable 3.5G
device with a maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps. The F400 also supports GPRS and
EDGE data, plus 2100 MHz UMTS and tri-band GSM.
On the back of the Samsung F300 is a 3 megapixel CMOS camera. The 2.2 inch 240 x
320 pixel TFT display is semi-concealed behind the F400's glossy surface. Overall, this is an
attractive looking handset, but it isn't terribly distinctive. The B&O labelling on the SGH-F400
is very discrete.
The Samsung SGH-F400 measures 103 x 48 x 17mm, and it supports USB 2.0 and
Bluetooth 2.0. There's a microSD slot to the left of the keypad, although Samsung have not
stated the maximum capacity that the F400 can take.

Trend T-786i Dual Sim GSM

Trend mobiles were the first in introducing the dual SIM mechanism
that allowed a person to hold two different SIMs in one mobile phone.
Trend is their brand which markets imported cell phones in the local
market. It has now come up with the simplest and yet the most loaded
of the mobile phones. It is called the, Trend Perfect Dual Sim, T-786i is
available in Bar shape with keypad and touch screen facility.
The features of T-786i are startling. Its basic edge is that a user can
retain different network operators’ SIMs in one cell phone and can
receive calls in both. It is a complete multimedia cell phone with 2
mega pixel camera, which has an audio and video
recorders and players as well. The USB data cable
allows the user a unique facility of ‘Plug N Play’.
Attach the cable with your computer and view what
you have recorded. There is no need of any software
or driver installation unlike other cell phones. Trend T-786i having
Bluetooth connectivity, GPRS and MMS. Trend
mobiles offers an unmatched Deluxe Package
along with the set which includes a free-of-cost
Bluetooth Device, 256 MB memory card, hands
free, USB port, Desktop charger, 2 extra batter-
ies and In-Car charger and a Trendy pouch to carry your cell phone in
style.
The Trend T-786i is a fashion conscious handset, which has a good
and attractive size of LCD and gives solid and quality feel when in use.
Mobile phone holds another edge to other cell phones in the market. It
has the style, it has the attractive look and it has all that you require in
cell phone to begin with.

63
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Informative

Sony Ericsson W980i

On the outside of the W980i's glossy case are some black-on-black multimedia
keys with just a hint of orange. Open the handset up, there's yet more black.
Except someone appears to have stuck some buttons out of a lift in where the key-
pad should be. All the keys are round, which is completely at odds with the other-
wise quite wedgy design.
There's a nifty transparent part of the case that shows the "W" logo on the
inside. It's not really a fashion phone though - the Sony Ericsson W980i is a
Walkman branded music phone with a lot to offer.
Inside the W980i is a huge 8GB of internal memory, although this is not
expandable. It's a HSDPA 3.5G device which means that it is capable of high-
speed music downloads. The W980i supports stereo Bluetooth, and it may come
with a pair of stereo wired headphones in the box. Because it is a Walkman phone,
it comes with an enhanced music player plus a set of tools to help you transfer
tracks from CD via a PC.
In addition to the W980i's music player, there's an FM radio with RDS. There is
also an FM transmitter - so you can interface the W980i with a car stereo or hi-fi
system without using wires.
On the outside is a 3.2 megapixel camera, although the digital photography
capabilities are not as good as a Cyber-shot phone. Inside is a 2.2" 240 x 320
pixel display, with a smaller 176 x 176 pixel panel on the outside along with the
external media control keys.
The Sony Ericsson W980i also has a web browser, email client, shake control
and a number of other features.

Samsung F480 (SGH-F480)

The Samsung F480 is closely related to the Samsung F490, and is a 3.5G capable
touchscreen phone with a 5 megapixel camera. Competing more with the LG Viewty
than the Apple iPhone, the SGH-F480 looks like a promising device.
Touchscreen phones has all the rage at the moment, and Samsung have created
quite a few in the past year.. and they seem to be getting pretty good at it now.
This is a 3.5G capable device supporting HSDPA high speed data downloads of up
to 7.2 Mbps. It also supports standard 3G (UMTS), GPRS and EDGE data, however
the Samsung F480 does not support WiFi. The display is a large 2.8" 240 x 320 pixel
panel, and on the back is a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash. The F480's
camera also features video and image stabilisation, has a slow motion function and
built-in video editor.
There is, of course, a multimedia player capable of playing back a variety of video
and audio files. The Samsung F480 also comes with a FM radio with RDS. There's a
microSD slot for memory expansion, and the SGH-F480 has Bluetooth 2.0 and USB
2.0 connectivity. In addition, there is built-in blogging support, an email client and web
browser.
It's a relatively compact device at 96 x 55 x 12mm and just 91 grams in weight,
which is impressive when you consider the number of features that the F480 includes.
Samsung haven't given any guidance on battery life though, and we suspect that the
F480 will make a tradeoff here. There appears to be an optional cover for the F480,
and this will increase size and weight somewhat.

65
 Informative w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Sony Ericsson Z770i

A combination of fashion accessory and business phone, the Sony Ericsson Z770i isn't quite one
thing or another. This is an HSDPA capable phone, meaning that the Z770i is a 3.5G device capable
of high-speed internet access. Although web access on a mobile phone is not usually much fun, the
Z770i comes with the NetFront web browser which attempts to bring a more PC-like environment to
the mobile phone platform.
The Z770i has a 2.2" 240 x 320 pixel display, Bluetooth 2.0, a USB connection, microSD expand-
able memory, an FM radio, MP3 player, a two megapixel camera and an impressively long battery life
that might well appeal to corporate customers. The Z770i also supports push email from Microsoft
Exchange servers.
There are three colour combinations, Vogue Red, Graphite Black, Exquisite Golden. The silvery
coloured handset in the pictures is actually Vogue Red, so it is hard to judge just what the other
devices look like.
We mentioned battery life, and for a 3G phone it is pretty good. Talktime is a maximum of 4 hours,
and if you are only using the Z770i on GSM then this increases to 8.5 hours. Standby time is around
14 days.
It's a very stylish looking device, and at 91 grams and 93 x 48 x 16mm in size the Z770i is pretty
compact for a 3.5G phone. While it is certainly the case that the Z770i looks as good on the inside as
it does on the outside, it is likely that some people would prefer a more traditional arrangement.
Sony Ericsson say that the Z770i should be available during Q2 2008, but did not give any guid-
ance on pricing.

Sony Ericsson T303

Sony Ericsson T303 is a very compact device, it has a long battery life and it looks
good. But the specification reads like a handset from a few years ago.
The Sony Ericsson T303 has a basic 128 x 160 pixel TFT display, a 1.3 megapixel
camera, Bluetooth and an FM radio. Overall size is 83 x 47 x 15mm and the T303
weighs 93 grams.
Bizarrely, the Sony Ericsson T303 comes with a multimedia player, but just 8MB of
non-expandable memory. More usefully, the FM radio comes with TrackID to help identi-
fy the song that is playing.
Talktime is an impressive 9 hours, with up to 16 days standby time, significantly bet-
ter than other phones in the same range. There will be three variants, the T303a is a
850 / 1800 / 1900 MHz GSM variant for North America, the T303c is a 900 / 1800 / 1900
MHz version for China and the T303 is a 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz version for the rest of
the world (in previous Sony Ericsson naming conventions, this would have been the
T303i).
It's an attractive looking phone, but a very basic one - so price will be a key issue.
Sony Ericsson have not said how much the T303 is going to cost, but we would say that
anything more than 4,000 would be expensive for this device. The T303 should be avail-
able from mid 2008.

66
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Informative

With the introduction of the RAZR, Motorola created the first culturally iconic phone, revolutionizing the way the world views the mobile
device. In the years since the RAZR's launch, Motorola has released a string of V3 variations, including the (and its garish golden ), the
and the HSDPA . While each sported a slightly enhanced specs list, the sameness of the form factor and lack of interface updates made us
wonder if Motorola was resting on its design laurels.
Finally RAZR, the most distinctive single mobile phone design in the industry’s short history moved into its next generation with RAZR2
in 2007. Far from being another update, the sequel is a whole different kind of RAZR, with rounder edges, shiny surfaces and somehow a
thinner silhouette. RAZR2 evolves the critically important brand into a next-generation device with a host of cutting-edge features such as
CrystalTalk technology which automatically adjusts audio to ensure clear calls even in a noisy environment. It is sleeker, stronger and an
even smarter consumer experience.

RAZR2 FAMILY:
Confident and strong, this next-generation RAZR™ takes thin to the next level by packing it with a new, richer multimedia experience. The
RAZR2 family's three new handsets introduced in the markets of Pakistan are V8, V8 Luxury Edition and V9. Though all three models--the V8,
Luxury V8 and V9--sport identical super-slim silhouettes, there are two main differences as far as specs are concerned. Both V8s are quadband GSM handsets
while the V9 is 3G HSDPA. The V8 have 512 MB and V8 Luxury have 2GB of non-expandable memory instead of the V9's 45MB-plus-microSD-slot combo.
Some versions of RAZR2 run Linux/Java, giving Motorola entry to the next generation of mobile architecture.
In the RAZR2 group they have gone in for call attention to the manufacturer's grade; aluminum has been kept in the dark in merit of stainless
metal, with void steel front finish. Dissimilar from the unique RAZR family, here a procurer will face nothing else but a seamless housing
with no slits or nicks on the obverse cover at all.
In provisos of sizes, there is some attractive reflect that a procurer should better emphasize: various, evaluating closed RAZR and RAZR2
say that the second has a greater dimension. This slanted sensitivity is due to lesser size and such apparatus like mammoth outer display; this
is what is possessed by the RAZR2 handsets.

RAZR2 V8:
First one to make an eye-catching appearance in the market was RAZR2 V8 with its large and colorful external screen and awesome
features. Everyone’s attention was diverted to this sleek, shiny and thin clamshell phone because of its incredible advertisement
which basically highlighted the sharpness and new features of the phone.
It combines the entire music, browsing, imaging and email experience with super fast connections, a large interactive external
screen, and an intuitive user interface with a customizable main menu all in one package.
RAZR2 V8 LUXURY EDITION:
The RAZR 2 V8 has just left the starting gates and Motorola started pushing a special edition version of the new hotness that is the
RAZR2 Luxury. The signature RAZR2 form factor has been re-imagined and reconfigured in the most luxurious materials - bathed in
gold and clothed in snake-like skin.
Apart from being stunning, bold and sophisticated in design, it also includes a full suite of features and accessories for conscious
consumers seeking a glamorous design. It is the ultimate gift for the techno-gadget lover who has to have everything. It is also a
high style, luxury phone for those who demand fashion and care about style and exclusivity. So, if you really consider style and
rareness while purchasing a phone, then this is your phone.

RAZR2 V9:
The latest incarnation of RAZR handsets to make an appearance in the market is RAZR2 V9.
Motorola offers its newest mixture of high fashion and high functionality in the V9. A remarkably
sleek and well-designed flip phone, this latest version of the RAZR2 bears that
certain "wow" factor and comes in a glossy mahogany sheen that shines both
inside and out.
Motorola's RAZR2 V9 offers a satisfying mix of classic features alongside new
and innovative functions like V9 is enabled for Motorola's "MotoSync," which
can synchronize mobile email, phonebook and calendar to the personal computer
and "See What I See," which lets users to stream live video images to other wireless
customers during a call.
SIMILAR FEATURES:
The RAZR2 handsets sport a two-pronged display with huge oblique. The two
displays have a resolution 240x320 pixels and display up to 262 K colors. At
that the exterior screen has a size of 2 inches from curve to curve and the oblique
of the interior has a size of 2.2 inches. You can access via the external screen is
the ability to read text messages, which is very useful if you don't want to open
the clamshell. RAZR2 provides an unmatched music experience, USB 2.0 high
speed for fast music file transfers, Windows Media Player® 11 synchronization
for simple music management and a music touch screen on the external display
for effortless control.
After the procession of clonish V3 variants over the last few years, the new RAZR is a pleasing
sequel, and should invigorate interest in what is now a hallmark franchise for Motorola. The
original RAZR's success was largely due to the fact that it looked completely different to all
the other phones cluttering the market; whippet-thin clamshells are now readily available,
but the RAZR2 should still capture the hearts of those who fell for the V3 as well
as enticing newcomers. Motorola's three-phone RAZR2 line-up is giving forward-
thinking mobile phone consumers another reason to look into the high-
67
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Telecom

With the new MOTOROKR™ T505, Drivers simply Clip, Tune and Go to Enjoy Wireless, Hands-Free
Connectivity and Music
otorola, Inc. revolutionised hands-free Turkey and Pakistan, Motorola. "We're excited to

M driving with the launch of the

MOTOROKR T505 Bluetooth® In-Car
Speakerphone and Digital FM Transmitter, its
first road-ready, music-oriented ROKR accesso-
ry and the latest addition to its portfolio of in-car
solutions. The MOTOROKR T505 enables con-
sumers to connect a compatible Bluetooth
enabled phone¹ to the car sound system and
enjoy hands-free calling and their own personal
music collection in outstanding stereo sound.
The T505 is extremely portable and requires
no wires or installation. Drivers simply clip the
device to a car's visor and pair the T505 using
Motorola's EasyPair™ technology to a compati-
ble Bluetooth device. When the T505 is connect-
ed to a stereo Bluetooth phone, such as a
MOTORAZR² or MOTOROKR Z6, or an MP3
player, calls and music are streamed wirelessly
with the perfectly-tuned clarity and wide-ranging
volume of a car stereo. Drivers with standard
Bluetooth phones can use the T505 to make and
take their calls over the car stereo. And when the
ride's over, the T505 can be easily unhooked
and taken to another car for the next trip.
"Today's drivers demand convenience and
connectivity without missing a beat of what's
important to them - their calls and their music,"
said Patrick Mulligan, Area Director, Mobile
Devices, Motorola Middle East, North Africa,
introduce a portable, music-optimised ROKR to
the car to enhance the mobile experience while
consumers are on the road."
The T505 also features StationFinder™, a
breakthrough technology that announces where
the best FM connection can be found on the
user's car radio. When calls come in, the T505
automatically mutes the music and audibly
announces the Caller-ID², so drivers can keep
their eyes on the road. Cutting-edge echo and
noise reduction technology and a built-in micro-
phone and 2-watt speaker also ensure that driv-
ers have outstanding sound throughout their
ride.
Motorola, a global leader in the Bluetooth
accessories market, offers a selection of
portable and fixed automotive-focused Bluetooth
solutions for drivers including speakerphones,
headsets and other accessories.

Motorola Universal Bluetooth® Headset H375

Motorola H375 combines essential functionality and ease of use with style and comfort. Simple
buttons for power, calls and volume streamline the experience.
Features work together to create the most streamlined wireless experience. Easy Pair™ technol-
ogy helps simplify connecting to compatible Bluetooth enabled devices. Dedicated on/off and call but-
tons get you talking with just one press. Battery check feature clearly shows when it's time to recharge.
Motorola's expertise in Bluetooth® enabled headsets plus intensive research in ergonomics com-
bine to create TrueComfort™. The best speaker, ear bud and ear hook designs we have created to
date. Enjoy exceptional fit, and the audio quality that comes with closer placement to the ear.
H375 is no exception, delivering smart style at an affordable price! Free your hands and enjoy the
convenience. Using H375, you will feel as good as the time you switched to a cordless phone at home.
Forget the wires.
QuickSpecs

Quickly take calls at the push of a button

See your remaining talk time with a simple battery check

TrueComfort™ helps provide a comfortable and secure fit

Talk Time: approximately 6 hours

Standby Time: approximately 200 hours - 8 days

Weight 14g

Class 2 Bluetooth wireless technology offers a wireless connection up to 10 meters (33 feet)
away*

Connector: Mini USB (EMU)

Universal Compatibility Tested to work with over 200 compatible Bluetooth enabled phones from
more than 15 brands such as Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, and LG.

Sony Ericsson MBS100 - Portable Bluetooth™ Speaker

Your music is unique to you, so listen to it wirelessly through a unique speaker.
High quality audio no matter where you want to listen to your music.
Love the design? You'll love how easy it is to take with you, too. The built-in
rechargeable battery means it's ready to roll when you are. Listen to the latest down-
load to your phone wirelessly, or the music collection on your computer, through the
MBS-100 using the 3.5 mm input port
Features

Bluetooth™ technology - 2.0

Install in seconds

Sizes 100.0 x 100.0 x 100.0 mm 3.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches

Range up to 10 metres
69

Available colours -Black
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Research

ant to break into a computers encrypt- week by researchers from Princeton,

W ed hard drive? Just blast the machineís

memory chip with a burst of cold air.
That's the conclusion of new research out of
Princeton University demonstrating a novel, low-
tech way hackers can access even the most
well-protected computers, provided they have
physical access to the machines.
The Princeton report shows how encryption,
long considered a vital shield against hacker
attacks, can be defeated by manipulating the
way memory chips work. The researchers say
the ease of their attack raises fears about the
security of laptop computers increasingly used
to store sensitive information, from personal
banking data, to company trade secrets, to
national security documents.
Freezing a dynamic random access memory,
or DRAM chip, the most common type of mem-
ory chip in personal computers, causes it to
retain data for minutes or even hours after the
machine loses power, the report found. That
data includes the keys to unlock encryption.
Without freezing, the chip loses its contents with-
in seconds.
Hackers can steal information stored in mem-
ory by rebooting the compromised machine with
a simple program designed to copy the memory
contents - before the computer has a chance to
purge sensitive data, according to the report.
Laptops left in hibernation or sleep mode, or
simply not turned off at all, are the most vulner-
able to the new type of attack.
"These risks imply that disk encryption on
laptops may do less good than widely believed,"
according to the report, which was published this
the Electronic Frontier Foundation
digital rights group, and Wind River
Systems software company.
"Ultimately, it might become neces-
sary to treat DRAM as un-trusted,
and to avoid storing sensitive confi-
dential data there, but this will not be
feasible until architectures are
changed to give software a safe
place to keep its keys."
Researchers have known since
the 1970s that cooled DRAM chips
can retain their contents long after
power to them is extinguished, but
the researchers said they believe
their study is the first security paper
to focus on the phenomenon. The attacks even work when the DRAM chip is
National security agencies may also have been removed and transferred to a machine set up by
aware that the types of breaches outlined in the the hacker. Special programs were then used to
study are possible, the researchers said, but correct errors in the recovered memory contents
added they weren't able to find evidence of that and reconstruct the keys used for encryption.
in any publications. The researchers said their results suggest
The attacks were carried out by spraying an that 'this faith in the strength of disk encryption
upside-down canister of multipurpose duster may be misplaced,' arguing that a moderately
spray directly onto the memory chips, freezing skilled attacker can bypass many widely used
them to minus 50 degrees Celsius, about minus encryption products - including BitLocker with
60 Fahrenheit. some versions of Windows Vista; Apple's
One challenge faced by the researchers was FileVault; open-source TrueCrypt; and dm-crypt
the threat that booting the system will automati- - if a laptop is stolen while it is powered on or
cally overwrite some parts of the memory. To suspended.
make sure the contents were retained, they used "The use of encryption is not, by itself, neces-
small, special-purpose programs known as sarily an adequate defense, and data in stolen
memory-imaging tools, which can be loaded laptops may be compromised even when
over a network connection or a USB device, to encryption is used," the researchers said.





save images captured from the memory chip.

omputer power will match the intelligence of human beings within

C the next 20 years because of the accelerating speed at which tech-

nology is advancing, according to a leading scientific "futurologist".
There will be 32 times more technical progress during the next half
century than there was in the entire 20th century, and one of the outcomes
is that artificial intelligence could be on a par with human intellect by the
2020s, says American computer guru Ray Kurzweil.
Machines will rapidly overtake humans in their intellectual abilities and
will soon be able to solve some of the most intractable problems of the
21st century, said Kurzweil, one of 18 maverick thinkers chosen to identi-
fy the greatest technological challenges facing humanity.
Kurzweil is considered one of the most radical figures in the field of
technological prediction. He is a pioneer in various fields of computing,
such as optical character recognition - the technology behind CDs - and
automatic speech recognition by machine.
His address to the American Association for the Advancement of
Science portrayed a future where machine intelligence will far surpass that Computing has come a long way since the first time a computer beat a reigning world champion at
of the human brain. chess, in Garry Kasparov's 1996 contest agianst IBM super computer Deep Blue.
Although the brain cannot match computers in terms of the straight But Kurzweil is one of several computer scientists who believe that
storage and retrieval of information, it has an unrivalled capacity of asso- computers are well on the way to creating a "post-human" world where a
ciating different strands of information, to look ahead and plan, as well as second, intelligent entity exists alongside people.





performing the imaginative creativity that is at the heart of human exis-
71
tence.
 Pictorial w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Etihad Airways has hosted a joint “Product Orientation” workshop with Abacus Distribution for their trade partners in
Islamabad, to brief them about the exciting new changes ongoing with the airline and update them about latest the
Etihad facts and figures. Picture shows the officials from Etihad Airways Islamabad team and Abacus Distributions
along with the Travel Agents from region.

HYDERABAD: A student busy with her cell phone while attending the
Convocation 2007 of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology.

HYDERABAD: Vice Chancellor Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Rajput giving away the certificates among the successful stu-
dents during the Convocation 2007 of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, a Lancia car is hung
on the wall at the 78th Geneva International Auto Show in Geneva on the
media day. More than 260 car manufacturers from 30 nations and regions
take part in the 11-day motor show opened on March 6.
Regional Manager for South Asia Cambridge International Examination, William Bickerdike giving away the best stu-
72 dents certificate during award distribution ceremony as Pakistani students achieve the best examination results in the
world and Cambridge rewards high-achieving students at Brilliance in Pakistan Awards.
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Flare Report
IT

A web browser that gave many people their first experience of the web is set to disappear

etscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, is making the internet "a relevant mass market

N no longer supported after 1 March 2008,

the company has said. In the mid-1990s,
as the commercial web began to take off, the
browser was used by more than 90% of people
online.
Its market share has since slipped to just
0.6% as other browsers such as Microsoft's
Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox have eroded
its user base.
The company recommends that users
upgrade their browser to either Firefox or Flock,
which are both built on the same underlying
technologies as Navigator.
"I think we represent the hope that was of
Netscape," Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla
Foundation which coordinates development of
Firefox, told media.
"We have picked up many of the things that
Netscape launched but we've taken them further
in terms of openness and public participation."
Ms Baker was one of the first employees at
Netscape in 1994. Netscape was created by
Marc Andreessen who as a student had co-
authored Mosaic, the first popular web browser.
His company Netscape Communications
Corporation released the first version in 1994.
According to Shawn Hardin, President and CEO
of Flock, Netscape played an important role in
phenomenon".
"Netscape had a critical role in taking all of
these zeros and ones - this very academic and
technical environment - and giving it a graphical
user interface where an average person could
come online and consume information,".
"During its halcyon days it really felt like the
internet and Netscape were really the same
thing," he said.
Other companies capitalised on Netscape's
success, notably Microsoft, which began to bun- Baker.
dle IE with its Windows operating systems. Flock describes itself as "the social web
Although this led to legal wrangles over browser" and allows people to see feeds from
anti-competitive behaviour, IE now dominates community websites, such as Flickr and
the browser landscape with an 80% market Facebook, and post to blogs without having to
share. navigate to the page.
"There are lots of ways that people are
As a result, Netscape became unviable engaging in having a conversation and Flock is
"While internal groups within AOL have very focused on making that as effortless and
invested a great deal of time and energy in convenient as possible," said Mr Hardin.
attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these However, not all Netscape users are happy
efforts have not been successful in gaining about having to change browser. "I'm sad. Flock
market share from Microsoft's Internet still needs improvement and I am not happy with
Explorer," said Tom Drapeau on the Netscape Firefox's interface. I'm [an] orphan!" read one
blog last year, when the demise of the browser post on the Netscape blog.
was first announced.
Netscape users have been shown a mes-
sage alerting them to the end of support for the
browser.
It then suggests users upgrade to either
Flock or Firefox. Firefox is the main competitor
to IE, particularly in Europe where it has a 28%
market share, according to some statistics.
The open source browser's development is
coordinated by the Mozilla foundation, set up by
Netscape staff made redundant in 2003.
It has had more than 500 million downloads Others who posted comments on the blog
worldwide and in countries such as Finland it is predicted the browser will make a return.
the most popular browser. "Netscape is a wonderful browser, and it will
"Competition is what brings quality," said Ms be so in the future," read one.

Google Seals Acquisition of DoubleClick

oogle said it had completed its acquisition of Internet ad firm The deal had fueled concerns that it could pose privacy risks by giv-

G DoubleClick, a move that gives a boost to the Internet search

leader in the rapidly growing online advertising sector. "We are
thrilled that our acquisition of DoubleClick has closed," said Google chair-
man and chief executive Eric Schmidt in a statement hours after
European antitrust regulators cleared the deal.
"Google now has the leading display ad platform,
which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances
in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically
improve the effectiveness, measurability and perform-
ance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and
agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising
for users."
The European Commission said an investigation
opened in November 2007 concluded that the transaction "would be
unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers." That followed approval
by US regulators last year.
Google ended a bidding war with Microsoft in April 2007 by agreeing
to pay 3.1 billion dollars (2.0 billion euros) to add DoubleClick to its
Internet money-making arsenal.
ing the Internet giant unprecedented access to personal data.
But regulators on both sides of the Atlantic said they did not take into
account the impact on privacy because they are legally required to focus
on competition.
DoubleClick is one of the largest players in online advertising and
uses various techniques to help companies
target their ads to specific Internet users.
In a practice common in the industry,
DoubleClick installs software bits referred to
as "cookies" on Internet users' computers to
track pages they view.
Google meanwhile stores its users'
search terms in a way that can identify them
through their Internet Protocol address.
Privacy advocates fear that Google and DoubleClick would be able to
merge their expansive databases in a way that allows the company to fur-
ther track people's Internet activities.





73

20+ C-Level Speakers Include:
Anuraj Gambhir, President,
SPICE TELECOM
Rajesh Sawhney, President
Entertainment, RELIANCE
Irfan W. Khan, Executive Vice
President, TELENOR PAKISTAN
Rajesh Kumar, Chief of Strategic
Planning & New Technologies, BSNL
Neil Chakravarti, Senior Vice
President, ZEE TELEFILMS
Shahid Chughtai, Head of
Corporate Quality Assurance,
WARID TELECOM
Rajat Kakar, General Management,
UNIVERSAL MUSIC INDIA
Adrian Scrase, VP International
Partnerships, ETSI
Arif Malik, Sr. Manager / Head
Of Revenue Assurance & Business
Intelligence, WARID TELECOM
Paul Shoker, CEO,
SPICE MOBILE VAS
"Excellent, educative and a great experience"
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> Dealing With Future Spectrum Challenges
Anil Tandan, CTO,
IDEA CELLULAR > How Do Indian And South Asian Telecom Players Breed
Pankaj Sethi, President Steady Innovation?
Value Added Services, TATA
TELESERVICES > Evaluating The Evolution Of Mobile Technologies Such
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 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Fair hostess Kerstin Koch-Weger presents a Toshiba M 700 laptop with a
rotatable display at the CeBIT 2008 trade fair in Hanover on March 3, 2008.
An employee of the Peruvian Ministry of Education presents the first batch of
computers bought to the foundation "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC), in Lima.
The foundation' s aim is to provide all the poor children of the world of com-
puter science access. These computers will be handed to children in the rural
areas of Peru in the beginning of 2008.
Pictorial
A man looks at Samsung flat screen LCD televisions on display at the Singapore IT Show.
A woman presents an Anatomic Symbolic Mapper Engine (ASME) from IBM Healthcare, at the IBM exhibit at the
CeBIT fair in Hanover. According to IBM, the technology allows doctors to click with the computer mouse on a
particular part of the avatar "body" to trigger a search of medical records to retrieve relevant information.
An artist's impression dated from November 2007 and provided by the European Space Agency ESA shows the
European Automated Transfer Vehicle ATV "Jules Verne" advancing to the International Space Station ISS, in
background, in an orbit over planet Earth. A European Ariane-5 rocket lifted off from French Guyanaon a mission
75
to bring oxygen, food, water and equipment to the international space station.
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Cell phones, which are usually used in the civilized world as tools of
communication, have been transformed into micro-cinema houses in
Pakistan which run adult stuff at very low costs
ew months back I got a chance to inter-
F view Shahid Afridi. A day before the inter-
view I went to the Regal Electronic Market
of Karachi to purchase an audio recording
device. While looking for the recorder, we
passed through the city's largest cell phone mar-
ket. It was almost 9 p.m. but still very noisy and
crowded there. Many people were infusing their
cell-phones with ring-tones, some were trying to
fill the bellies of their handsets with cheap songs
and some were selling used sets to buy newer
ones. At one shop, as I was peeking at different
things and colorful gadgets, I saw some porno-
graphic material in a cell phone. I was shocked
to see something like that in a public place. As I
noticed things more closely I saw that every
other shop was busy in transferring such materi-
al into the sets. Cell phones, which are usually
used in the civilized world as tools of communi-
cation, have been transformed into micro-cine-
ma houses in Pakistan which run adult stuff at
very low costs. I noticed that most of the cus-
tomers in those shops were very young people,
mostly in their teens.
Then I recalled how one of my friends once
showed his cell phone to us which was filled with
same material. He told me that his mobile has a
memory card of 20 GB and that made it possible
for him to carry several 45 to 50 minutes' length
films in it. I asked him from where he got all that
stuff and he laughed at the stupidity of my ques-
tion. He told me sheepishly that Saddar is the
best market for such stuff at very nominal rates.
But it was the set that ranged around 15000 to
20000 PK Rupees and that is not affordable at
all for our youngsters to carry such expensive
appliances. But those who cannot get access to
such things are doing number of other things
with their cell-phones.
I have been teaching from number of years in
one capacity or other so I have interacted with
students from primary classes to Masters Level.
And believe me no one is safe from this mafia
which is ruining the minds of our youngsters.
Two youngsters taking snaps through their cell phones of their friends while sitting in the replica of a
traditional boat during the last week of Waahdi Mela organized by Punjab Institute of Language, Art
and Culture held at Al-Hamra Cultural Complex.
Flare Report Telecom
Pakistani pedestrians use cellular telephones as they walk past a showcase displaying different phone models at a shop in
Islamabad. The telecom sector has contributed strongly to the country's national economic growth, currently constituting some 2
per cent of GDP, which is expected to rise to 3 per cent in the next three to four years.
These days everyone carries 3 to 4 sim cards youngsters. You can notice it yourself how many
firstly because they are absolutely cheap and children own their own mobile set. Are we get-
secondly because it is easy to give everyone its ting the whole point? Are we thinking what this
due share by having 3 to 4 different numbers. trend can do to our young generation?
We feel elated when we
see a new package offered
by any telecommunication
company. We feel irritated
when we see that telecom-
munication sector does not
provide enough employ-
ment chances because it is
not labor intensive industry
but do we ask question
what this trend of money
making is doing to the ten-
der and impressionable
minds?
I also need to ask one
very relevant question
here. What is the role of
teachers and parents in all
A lady capturing the moments through her cell phone during National Songs Competition this? We see bigger cam-
on the occasion of 60th years of celebrations of PBC.
paigns for the eradication
Then due to cheaper packages of mobile com- of polio, hepatitis and other physical illnesses
panies which costs nothing more than few hun- but what is our role to prevent this soul-killing
dred rupees they epidemic? Providing each and every facility to
talk to each other our children is our goal irrespective of what it can
whole nights. I def- do to their future on the hindsight. I usually
initely don't under- involve parents when it comes to the use of inter-
stand how they net and cell-phones but parents generally reply
manage to pay that no, no my kid is very naive; he does not feel
attention to the like doing such vulgar things. Then I feel tempt-
school and college ed to ask that whether their kid is not human who
classes in the is not immune from the attacks of evil which
morning. Carrying never let any opportunity go by easily to annihi-
5 to 6 inches' long late us, humans. I just want to know is there any-
mobile sets switch- one listening because out there is a jungle and
ing it to the vibra- especially responsible and good parenting
tion mode hiding becomes a weapon to survive.





from the eyes of
elders at the hous-
es is a piece of
77
cake for our
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
s pinching proprietary? We may find out in the
I coming months as many companies, inspired
by the success of Apple's iPhone, release
their own multitouch-enabled laptops, smart-
phones and tablets. In doing so, these compa-
nies -- including RIM, Nokia and Synaptics --
may run afoul of multitouch patent applications
recently filed by Apple.
"If Apple's patents are granted, the company
could absolutely stop others from using similar
technology," says Raj Abhyanker, a patent
lawyer who used to write patent applications for
Apple. "They'd also be in an especially good
position to stop others from including certain fea-
tures. Apple could stop [their use] not only on
mobile devices but also desktops."
Patent experts stressed that the patent office
can take four or more years to grant patents, and
Apple is far from certain to win these patents.
Indeed, other companies, including BenQ-
Siemens and Nokia, have also filed patent appli-
cations on a series of gestures and touch appli-
cations for multitouch devices. However, with
more than 200 patent claims for the iPhone
alone, including several multitouch-related
patent applications, Apple is clearly seeking to
control as much of the multitouch world as it can.
Multitouch technology itself is far from being
an Apple invention. Jeff Han wowed the crowd at
TED in 2006 with a demo of his multitouch
research, and Bill Gates demo'd Microsoft's
Surface Table in early 2007, months before the
iPhone was released. Even Apple CEO Steve
Jobs reportedly used Microsoft's work with tablet
PCs as the jumping-off point for iPhone develop-
ment.
However, the iPhone is arguably the first
mainstream gadget to successfully implement a
set of concrete touch gestures and link them to
specific functions. Pinching zooms in and out.
Double tapping initiates a "smart zoom" that
hones in on a particular area of the screen.
What's more, iPhone and iPod Touch users are
now familiar with these gestures and their
effects, and will expect to see other multitouch
devices work the same way.
"It seems that Apple could win patent claims
where they are directed toward a touchscreen
user device," says Chad Peterman, an expert on
patent and antitrust litigation and an attorney at
Patterson Belknap Webb and Tyler. While a ges-
ture like "the pinch" in and of itself is not
patentable, if you connect that motion to a spe-
cific function on a popular device, it is possible to
argue that other devices using the same tech-
nique are infringing, Peterman says.
If Apple's patent applications are successful,
other manufacturers may have no choice but to
implement multitouch gestures of their own. The
upshot: You might pinch to zoom on your phone,
swirl your finger around to zoom on your note-
book, and triple-tap to zoom on the web-brows-
ing remote control in your home theater.
That's an outcome many in the industry
would like to avoid. Synaptics, a company that
by most estimates supplies 65 to 70 percent of
the notebook industry with its touchpad technol-
ogy, is working on its own set of universal touch
gestures that it hopes will become a standard.
These gestures include scrolling by making a cir-
cular motion, moving pictures or documents with
a flip of the finger, and zooming in or out by mak-
ing, yes, a pinching gesture.
"My guess would be that 80 to 90 percent of
consumer notebooks will have these new multi-
gestures by the end of the year," says Mark
Vena, vice president of Synaptics' PC business
unit.
Years before the iPhone and iPod Touch
were introduced, Apple began quietly filing
detailed patents pertaining to the technology and
user interface of its capacitive multitouch inter-
face on the iPhone. The company is thought to
have secured much of its multitouch and gestur-
ing technology by acquiring a company called
FingerWorks. Its founders, Wayne Westerman
and John Elias, have continued working for
Apple and filing multitouch patents. As far back
as 2004, Apple had begun filing applications for
multipoint touchscreens and gestures connected
to those touchscreens, including the pinch as
well as other important usability features. All
together, there are around 200 patents filed for
the iPhone alone.
This week, Apple filed yet another multitouch
patent, this time for an advanced multitouch ges-
turing-control panel to be used in conjunction
with Mac OS X.
For companies like Synaptics, which is trying
to bring the rest of the industry up to speed with
Flare Report Telecom
Patent experts stressed
that the patent office can
take four or more years to
grant patents, and Apple is
far from certain to win
these patents. Indeed,
other companies, including
BenQ-Siemens and Nokia,
have also filed patent
applications on a series of
gestures and touch appli-
cations for multitouch
devices
its own brand of multitouch technologies, Apple's
pending patents could spell trouble.
At a basic level, winning a patent requires the
development of "a new and useful process,
machine or a composition of matter," according
to the patent code. But there are other factors
that weigh heavily in awarding a patent.
Popularity often becomes a component in
awarding some patents. There have also been
cases where patents were awarded to compa-
nies who came up with novel uses or implemen-
tations for older technologies.
Multitouch may not be new, but "using the
pinching motion where the zoom is relative to
the space between the users fingers … meets
the base requirement for patentability," accord-
ing to Peterman.
William James, an attorney with Van Pelt, Yi
& James, which counts Apple among its clients,
agrees. "The technological pieces don't have to
be new to be able to patent an interface like
that," he says. "It helps, but a new application of
existing technology will sometimes suffice."
While it would be hard to patent a simple
flicking motion, the pinch in particular raises a
red flag for some patent experts, who say that
Apple could claim infringement if it is eventually
awarded the patent.
Indeed, all indications are that the company
is very serious about this technology. On the
same day the iPhone launched, Apple even
applied for a trademark in a Far East intellectual
property office for the term "multi-touch." Yet it
appears that the company is not trying to patent
the entire multitouch concept, but rather trying to
protect certain uses of it -- specifically the meth-
ods to interpret gestures, and in some cases, the
gestures themselves. Whether Apple succeeds
in that attempt is still uncertain.





79
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
umans have been teaching and learning
H by technology since Socrates first com-
plained about it in the 4th century BCE
Phaedrus. Now that we are into the second
decade of the Web and the Internet's second
generation, we have seen a wide range of prac-
tices emerge for teaching and learning with tech-
nology. As technologies have proliferated and
developed, teachers have developed and
shared techniques and projects through net-
works and institutions. In this cyberspatial milieu,
students have been guinea pigs and innovators,
taking classes, experiencing projects, helping
teachers and staff support instructors teach,
graduating as alumni, and sometimes returning
as staff.
Learning and teaching practices have drawn
on larger cultural transformations and affor-
dances enabled by cyberculture. For example,
the enormous explosion in popularly generated
Web content from personal home pages to
Amazon book reviews has demonstrated the
viability of Sir Tim Berners-Lee's invention for
creative expression, leading to millions of pages
created by students and instructors.
The decades-long successes of discussion
groups (Usenet through Google Groups) and e-
mail have shown the utility of asynchronous con-
versation, which was rapidly incorporated into
class discussions. The ease of creating presen-
tations in PowerPoint, combined with their vast
popularity in the business and governmental
worlds, has led to vast numbers of multimedia
slideshows in the hands of teachers and stu-
dents. The sheer size and accessibility of cyber-
culture has trans-
formed teaching
and doing
research at every
educational level.
Several factors
combine to make
exploring this
techno-pedagog-
ical record diffi-
cult. One is the
tradition of class-
room privacy,
which can cloak
projects and dis-
cussion.
Another is the
difficulty of sharing information across campus
populations. Public anxieties about technology,
fueled by media stories and, occasionally, politi-
cians, play a role in sapping discourse. More
recently, the tendency to publish course content
to venues closed to the public further clouds the
field. Nevertheless, enough work has surfaced
and been discussed that a set of teaching princi-
ples or themes can be identified, thanks largely
to the collaborative ethos of the educational
technology profession. We can also distinguish
practices, projects, and services by types of
computer-mediated communication.
Learning materials published to the Web, or
Learning and teaching practices have drawn on larger
cultural transformations and affordances enabled by
cyberculture. We have seen a wide range of practices
emerge for teaching and learning with technology
some network, have supplemented other class
materials. Lectures in transcription or sound
files, video clips of chemical processes, molecu-
lar animations, fly-bys through historical struc-
tures all have in common several features. By
being accessible outside of class time, they can
be experienced on a student's schedule. That
experience can partake of many digital features
that differ from some of the analogue world, such
as repeatability (replaying a video), scrubbing
(rerunning a difficult passage in a new lan-
guage), segmentation (focusing on one page
from a site), and transferability (a phrase copied
from CD-ROM text into e-mail to instructor).
Instructors can partake of the digital medium's
fluidity, reiterating and tweaking objects over
time.
The social nature of this media experience
has been under-
appreciated until
recently. We
inherit many
assumptions
that individuals
experience
items in isola-
tion, derived
from other media
(film, TV,
games), linguis-
tic habits ("You
are talking on
the phone!"
rather than "You
are talking with
your friend"), and schools of technological criti-
cism arguing that machines separate, rather
than connect, people. Networked computing has
proven, in fact, to be quite the opposite-a social
enabler. The Internet has linked people from the
beginning, to the extent that the relatively recent
term "social software" purports to restore some
of the Internet's original intention. Even more
recently, the rise of massively multiplayer online
gaming has returned the social nature of net-
worked computing to popular discussion.
In education, this social nature has been one
of the major virtues of digital technologies.
Discussion boards (Usenet, PHPBB) and fora
M. H. Khalid IT
(WebBoard, Caucus), e-mail, instant messen-
ger, groupware, and course management sys-
tems (CMSes, Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle,
Sakai) have supported threaded and unthreaded
conversations among students both geographi-
cally copresent and dispersed. Web 2.0 tech-
nologies have enabled different discussion
forms, such as distributed conversations (blogs),
conversations embedded within documents
(wikis), and threads attached to "social objects"
(Flickr).
These conversations have sometimes been
distinguished by their temporal nature, asyn-
chronous (discussion boards, blogs) versus syn-
chronous (chat, Second Life, IM). Discussions in
both forms have connected members of a class
to each other, students to instructors, and stu-
dents with learners elsewhere.
Both of these themes constitute a continuum
of sociability and objects, with most digital learn-
ing occurring with some combination of both. For
example, a discussion thread may begin with a
reference to an online reading, or constitute
responses to a Flickr image. The continuum may
map onto nondigital materials and venues, as
when a digital object sparks a classroom face-to-
face discussion, or watching a play provokes
blog posts followed by comments. Moreover,
projects may scale up from individual cases
along this continuum, into hybrid learning class-
es, virtual departments (NITLE's Sunoikisis, for
example), and discussion between classes in
time and space.





81
IDEAS Workshop
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
omputerworld, a recent essay in The
C New Yorker called "Twilight of the
Books: What will life be like if people
stop reading?" tracks a long decline in the pop-
ularity of reading books in the U.S. since at
least 1937.
Worse, according to the essay: "Americans
are losing not just the will to read but even the
ability. According to the Department of
Education, between 1992 and 2003 the aver-
age adult's skill in reading prose slipped one
point on a 500-point scale, and the proportion
who were proficient -- capable of such tasks as
"comparing viewpoints in two editorials" --
declined from 15% to 13."
To me, even more alarming than the loss of
reading skill -- and probably related to it -- is
that many young people have lost interest in
books.
Why American kids hate books?
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs recently criti-
cized Amazon's Kindle e-book reader by saying
that "It doesn't matter how good or bad the
product is; the fact is that people don't read
anymore." He went on to say that "Forty per-
cent of the people in the U.S. read one book or
less last year." (It turns out that the correct
number is 27%, not 40%, but Jobs does have a
point.)
I think, I understand why Jobs has come to
believe that the book-buying public isn't worth
serving. Apple does a great job making all
kinds of media available through iTunes -- not
just music, movies and TV shows, but podcasts
and audiobooks sold through Audible.com.
(We'll see how long the Audible.com relation-
ship lasts now that Amazon has purchased the
company.) And guess what? The music sells
like crazy, and TV show and movie sales are
growing fast. Meanwhile, podcasts aren't nearly
orph, a joint nanotechnology concept,
M developed by Nokia Research Center
(NRC) and the UK's University of
Cambridge - has been put on show at The
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Morph is a concept that demonstrates how
future mobile devices might be stretchable and
flexible, allowing the user to transform their
mobile device into radically different shapes. It
demonstrates the ultimate functionality that
nanotechnology might be capable of delivering:
flexible materials, transparent electronics and
self-cleaning surfaces. Dr. Bob Iannucci, Chief
Technology Officer, Nokia, commented: "Nokia
Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent
the form and function of mobile devices; the
Morph concept shows what might be possible".
Mark Welland, Head of the Department of
Engineering's Nanoscience Group at the
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs recently criticized Amazon's
Kindle e-book reader by saying that "It doesn't matter
how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people
don't read anymore."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs
as popular even though most are free, and
hardly anyone buys audiobooks for their iPods.
If people won't even listen to written works, why
would they actually read them?
Much of the world is following America down
the literary toilet. But one interesting exception
is, of all places, Japan. In an essay in The
American Thinker, writer Lawrence Murray
warns of a "new Dark Age" brought about by a
combination of information overload, the "passi-
University of Cambridge and University Director
of Nokia-Cambridge collaboration added:
"Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has
provided us with a focus that is both artistically
inspirational but, more importantly, sets the
technology agenda for our joint nanoscience
research that will stimulate our future work
Flare Report Telecom
vation of leisure" and the "triumph of triviality."
In other words, technology in general has
caused our culture to evolve into one in which
long-form books can't compete for our attention
against the onslaught of Internet celebrity gos-
sip, YouTube videos and iPod music.
Much of the world is following America down
the literary toilet. But one interesting exception
is, of all places, Japan.
Why Japanese kids love books
Half of Japan's top 10 best-selling books
last year -- half! -- started out as cell phone-
based books, according to the New York Times.
The books-on-phones genre started when a
home-page-making web site company realized
that people in Japan were writing serialized
novels on their blogs, and figured out how to
autocreate cell phone-based novels from the
blog entries.
The popularity of these blog novels on cell
phones sparked huge interest among readers
in writing such novels. Last month, the site
passed the 1 million novel mark.
Some of these amateur writers become so
famous on the cell phone medium that the big
publishing houses seek them out and offer
lucrative deals for print versions. The No. 5
best-selling print book in Japan last year,
according to the Times, was written first on a
cell phone by a girl during her senior year in
high school.





together."
The partnership between Nokia and the
University of Cambridge was announced in
March, 2007 - an agreement to work together
on an extensive and long term programme of
joint research projects. NRC has established a
research facility at the University's West
Cambridge site and collaborates with several
departments - initially the Nanoscience Center
and Electrical Division of the Engineering
Department - on projects that, to begin with, are
centered on nanotechnology.
Elements of Morph might be available to
integrate into handheld devices within 7 years,
though initially only at the high-end. However,
nanotechnology may one day lead to low cost
manufacturing solutions, and offers the possibil-
ity of integrating complex functionality at a low
83
price.





 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Flare Report IT

he European Commission is spending 55m euros (£42m) on mak-

T ing the net a safer place for children. The money will be spent over
four years on educational efforts and ways to protect children from
inappropriate content and cyber bullying.
T
his is an interesting new approach for providing Internet access to
remote areas which lack infrastructure. The idea is to send bal-
loons which soar 20 miles into the stratosphere, each carrying a
shoebox-size payload of electronics that acts like a mini cellphone
It will also research the ways that children use the net on computers
"tower" covering thousands of square miles below. WSJ reports that
and other devices such as mobile phones. The broad-based project will
Google is partnering with Space Data, the company behind the balloon
build on the Safer Internet Programme the EU began in 2000.
idea, and may even buy it.
"As more and more European children and adolescents use online
Hinterland is the part of a country where only few people live and
technologies at home or at school, they, their parents and their teachers
where the infrastructure is underdeveloped. In the context of third world
need to be informed about the opportunities and risks they face," said
countries entire provinces are hinterlands.
Jose Barroso, EC president in a statement.
Maintaining a telecom system based on gas-filled bladders floating in
The original Safer Internet Programme produced materials for schools
the sky requires some creativity. The inexpensive balloons are good for
and youth groups and coordinated the
only 24 hours or so before ultimately bursting in the thin air of the upper
annual Safer Internet Day. The extend-
atmosphere. The electronic gear they carry, encased in a small
ed project, which will run from 2009-
Styrofoam box, then drifts gently back to earth on tiny parachutes.
2013, will continue this work but add
Google believes balloons like these could radically change the eco-
some more concrete objectives.
nomics of offering cellphone and Internet services in out-of-the-way
These will include the creation of
areas, according to people familiar with its thinking. The company is
national contact points to report illegal
among the registered bidders for a big chunk of radio spectrum at a gov-
content and attempts at grooming; giv-
ernment auction currently under way in Washington.
ing support to groups to which parents
While the balloons are cheap and disposable at $50 a pop, the trans-
and children can turn for advice about
ceivers they carry are worth about $1,500. Once a transceiver is released
safe net use, and the establishment of
from its balloon to parachute back to earth, there's no way to predict
a forum where best practice can be shared and debated.
where it will land. So Space Data has hired 20 hobbyists with GPS
In a separate development, net experts at Harvard University will
devices to track them down.
spend 12 months studying how children can avoid unwanted attention
Recovery missions can get intense. Workers have had to pluck trans-
when using the web.
ceivers out of trees in Louisiana, rappel down rocky cliffs in Arizona,
Run by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard the
trudge through swamps and kayak across ponds. Space Data pays them
Internet Safety Technical Task Force will aim to research and recommend
$100 per transceiver recovered.
practices that sites can adopt to make themselves safer places for chil-
"These things can fall anywhere," says Chip Kyner of San Antonio,
dren.
who once hiked seven miles before finding the transmitter he was look-
The impetus for the task force came out of an agreement social net-
ing for. The final mile was in pitch darkness.
work site MySpace reached with every US state attorney general, except
"It wasn't worth the $100," he says, "but it's a neat story.





Texas.

AMD beats Intel in Quad-Core

ecent tests by Neal Nelson, an inde- Neal Nelson's Power Efficiency Benchmark rect," Nelson continued, "I am so certain that I

R pendent computer performance expert,

show that while some Quad-Core Intel
Xeon based servers delivered up to 14 percent
higher throughput, similarly configured Quad-
Core AMD Opteron based servers consumed
up to 41 percent less power. The test servers
used 1 GB memory modules at 4, 8 and 16
gigabyte main memory sizes.
"By themselves the Intel processor chips
may use less power, but all current Intel Xeon
servers require the use of Fully Buffered mem-
ory modules. These FB-memory modules
appear to consume more power than the DDR-
II memory modules used by the AMD based
servers. The result is that in many cases an
Opteron based server actually uses less total
power than a Xeon based server," observed
Neal Nelson, designer of the test.
These new test results were collected with
which is a client server test where up to 500
world wide web users from 32 separate comput-
ers submit individual transactions to a server
running the Apache2 web server software, the
MySQL relational database and Novell's SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server operating system.
The benchmark has a complex multi-user
load with a large memory footprint, a high vol-
ume of context switches, significant network
traffic and substantial amounts of physical disk
I/O.
"I am certain that these test results are cor-
have begun to offer my customers a money
back guarantee if their real world experiences
do not agree with my benchmark data."
The Nelson test results should not be con-
fused with power usage test results from the
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
(SPEC). The SPEC Power test has a single
client machine feeding batches of 1,000 trans-
actions to a small number of Java based appli-
cation programs.
The SPEC Power test has a small memory
footprint, a low volume of context switches, sim-
ple network traffic and it performs no physical
disk I/O. The SPEC test was created by a com-
mittee of computer vendor employees and
SPEC offers no guarantee that their numbers
will correlate to a customer's real world experi-
ences.





85

Solution to
IT Infrastructure Problems
Advances in clustered
computing power, faster
networks, and shared stor-
age are placing the bene-
fits of grid computing
within reach of even the
most cost-conscious busi-
nesses today. When
deployed on Linux and
powered by Oracle, IT
organisations can now
build dynamic industry-
standard grid systems
well suited to meet the rap-
idly shifting needs of
twenty first century busi-
ness
Y
ou're a financial services company. At the
end of the quarter, when you're process-
ing your clients' reports, you'd like to
focus most of your processing power there. Four
weeks later, when you're analysing returns from
a big marketing campaign, you'd like to shift that
power to your data warehouse. So how would
you reallocate your processing resources? Most
likely, you wouldn't. Each database server
would be outfitted for its respective peak load,
with one running hot while the other runs cold.
Easy to say but hard to do - until now. Advances
in clustered computing power, faster networks,
and shared storage are placing the benefits of
grid computing within reach of even the most
cost-conscious businesses today. When
deployed on Linux and powered by Oracle,
information technology (IT) organisations can
now build dynamic industry-standard grid sys-
tems well suited to meet the rapidly shifting
needs of 21st century business.
What is Grid?
Grid computing is a new IT architecture that pro-
duces more resilient and lower cost enterprise
information systems. With grid computing,
groups of independent, modular hardware and
software components can be connected and
Kashif Ahmed IT
rejoined on demand to meet the changing needs of monolithic systems and fragmented
of businesses.
It has increased momentum as the enterprise IT
resources, grid computing achieves a balance
between the benefits of holistic resource man-
architecture of choice. Forrester Research agement and flexible independent resource con-
reports that 37 percent of enterprises are pilot- trol. IT resources managed in a grid include:
ing, rolling out, or have implemented some form Infrastructure - the hardware and software that
of grid computing. IDC identifies grid computing create a data storage and programme execution
environment;
as the fifth generation of computing, after Client-
Server and Multi-tier. Leading businesses, such Applications - the programme logic and flow that
as Dell and the Chicago Stock Exchange have define specific business processes;
begun deploying enterprise grids. Information - the meanings inherent in all differ-
What is Oracle Grid?
At the highest level, the central idea of grid com-
ent types of data used to conduct business.
What are the challenges faced by Grid comput-
puting is computing as a utility. By that, we mean
that you shouldn't care where your data resides,
ing providers in Pakistan / Sage west?
There are some challenges but not insurmount-
or what computer processes your request. You
should be able to request information or compu-
able ones. For one thing, the concept is revolu-
tionary and as we saw in past paradigm shifts,
tation and have it delivered - as much as you
want, and whenever you want. This is analo-
this one will require an adoption curve. There is
an increased demand suggesting that the initial
gous to the way electric utilities work, in that you
don't know where the generator is, or how the
electric grid is wired, you just ask for electricity,
and you get it. The goal is to make computing a
utility, a commodity, and ubiquitous.
From the "server side", or behind the scenes,
the grid is about resource allocation, information
sharing, and high availability. Resource alloca-
tion ensures that all those that need or request
resources are getting what they need, that
resources are not standing idle while requests
are going unserviced. Information sharing
makes sure that the information users and appli-
cations need is available where and when it is
needed. High availability features guarantee all
the data and computation is always there, just
like a utility company always provides electric
power.
Oracle resonates with the grid. The ideas of grid
computing are aligned with capabilities and tech-
nologies Oracle has been developing for years.
The company provides substantial grid comput-
ing technology, available today that can help
you capitalise on the grid.
Benefits of grid computing
The best thing about the grid is that it is unstop-
acceptance level has been crossed. Second is
pable. IT systems designed and implemented in
that there are a plethora of messages from dif-
the grid style deliver a higher quality of service,
ferent vendors that are reaching the same audi-
at a lower cost, with greater flexibility. Higher
ences. So it takes time for them to sift through
quality of service results from having no single
point of failure, a powerful security infrastruc- the messages and decide on what is best for
ture, and centralised, policy-driven manage- them. The customers are increasingly receptive
ment. Lower costs derive from increasing the uti- to the message of software-based grids as they
lisation of resources and dramatically reducing see the logic of simplification, standardisation
management and maintenance costs. Rather and consolidation that Oracle promotes as
than dedicating a stack of software and hard- being the most appealing. Third is that of skills in
ware to a specific task, all resources are pooled the market to implement grid solutions. As with
and allocated on demand, which eliminates other new ideas, the industry takes some time to
underutilised capacity and redundant capabili- develop the optimum level of skills required. Ora-
ties. cle is working with its partners to increase their
Grid computing defined skill levels on grid computing to accelerate the
It treats collections of similar IT resources holis- adoption rates in the industry. n
tically as a single pool, while exploiting the dis-
tinct nature of individual resources within the
pool. To address simultaneously the problems
87
 IT Flare Report
Intel's Smallest Processor Built Using World's Smallest Transistors, Designed for
New Internet Devices, Low-Cost PCs
he Intel® Atom™ processor will be the
T name for a new family of low-power
processors designed specifically for
Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and a new class
of simple and affordable Internet-centric comput-
ers arriving later this year. Together, these new
market segments represent a significant new
opportunity to grow the overall market for Intel
silicon using the Intel Atom processor as the
foundation. The company also announced the
Intel® Centrino® Atom™ processor technology
for MID platforms, consisting of multiple chips
that enable the best Internet experience in a
pocketable device.
The Intel Atom processor is based on an
entirely new microarchitecture designed specifi-
cally for small devices and low power, while
maintaining the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo instruction
set compatibility consumers are accustomed to
when using a standard PC and the Internet. The
design also includes support for multiple threads
for better performance and increased system
responsiveness. All of this on a chip that meas-
ures less than 25 mm², making it Intel's smallest
and lowest power processor yet.* Up to 11 Intel
88
Atom processor die -- the tiny slivers of silicon
packed with 47 million transistors each -- would
fit in an area the size of an American penny.
These new chips, previously codenamed
Silverthorne and Diamondville, will be manufac-
tured on Intel's industry-leading 45nm process
with hi-k metal gate technology. The chips have
a thermal design power (TDP) specification in
0.6-2.5 watt range and scale to 1.8GHz speeds
depending on customer need. By comparison,
today's mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo proces-
sors have a TDP in the 35-watt range.
"This is our smallest processor built with the
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
world's smallest transistors," said Intel Executive
Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing
Officer Sean Maloney. "This small wonder is a
fundamental new shift in design, small yet pow-
erful enough to enable a big Internet experience
on these new devices. We believe it will unleash
new innovation across the industry."
With personal computing increasingly going
mobile and the computer industry rapidly devel-
oping new classes of products to connect the
next billion people to the Internet, the Intel Atom
processor offers customers the unique ability to
innovate around the new low-power design. In
addition to the MID opportunity, Intel believes the
demand for a new category of low-cost, Internet-
centric mobile computing devices dubbed "net-
books" and basic Internet-centric desktop PCs
dubbed "nettops," will grow substantially over
the next several years. The Intel Atom processor
is perfectly suited to meet these new market
segments.
Intel said the Intel Atom processor also has
potential for future revenue opportunities in con-
sumer electronic devices, embedded applica-
tions and thin clients.





w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k Pictorial

Models present the world premier of the Peugeot 308 Touring wagon, at the Melbourne Motor Show.
The car, which joins the newly released 308 range, can be ordered in a seven-seat configuration and
has a panoramic glass roof.

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) shows bioscience pro-
fessor Kim Tae-Kook. The KAIST held a meeting of its research truth committee to
investigate Kim's allegedly fraudulent work which is said to have paved the way for
developing methods to detect and kill cancer cells selectively without damaging
normal cells, and materials that can prevent cell ageing and extend human life.

The new Volkswagen Passat CC is shown during the press day at the 78th Geneva International Motor
Show in Geneva, Switzerland.

University of Cincinnati students throw desktop computers from the top of a park-
Visitors take pictures of an angel shark using their mobile phone as it passes above them during the ing garage on the campus the university. The release of 29 computers from the
public opening of The Manila Ocean Park, the country's first oceanarium, in Manila, Philippines. fourth floor of the University Avenue Garage was part of a leap year celebration.
89
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
The logo of Google, seen on the front door of the new Google Engineering center in Zurich, Switzerland.
Japan's safety goods maker Tanizawa employee displays a prototype model of a mobile utility helmet "U-met",
equipped with a QVGA mobile camera, a GPS device, a LED light and a headset at the Security Show in Tokyo.
A Citroen Cactus concept car is displayed during the first media day of the 78th Geneva Car Show at the Palexpo
in Geneva.
Pictorial
South Korean Yi So-yeon poses in Seoul in this undated photo. The Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology said at a news conference that Yi will
replace Ko San as the country's choice to fly on a Russian Soyuz capsule to
the International Space Station in early April.
South Korean models show Japan's camera giant Olympus' new SLR (single
lens reflex) digital camera "E-420" during an unveiling event in Seoul. The E-
420 model equipped with a 10 mega-pixel sensor and a 2.7-inch LCD weighs
375 grams. The company touts E-420 as the world's smallest digital SLR cam-
era. 91
 National w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Chairman PTA Confirms Participation at TeleCON'2008 in April

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has growth of the telecommunication sector to the future econom-
confirmed the participation of Major-Gen (R) Shahzada ic and social development of Pakistan.
Alam Malik, Chairman PTA at TeleCON'2008 - the 2-day Mr. Menin Rodrigues President & CEO of the SHAM-
Global Telecommunication Congress being held on April ROCK Group while expressing his appreciation of the partic-
29-30, 2008 at the Karachi Sheraton Hotel. ipation of PTA at "TeleCON 2008 said, "We are delighted to
Pakistan's first 2-Day Global Telecommunication have received the recognition and support of PTA and look
Congress with a special emphasis on Challenges & forward to the participation of all key players in the industry at
Opportunities in the new era of digitalized and wireless the Congress. Pakistan is at the crossroads of an economic
environment has already attracted the attention of prolific challenge and I am sure the telecom sector will be the critical
international and Pakistani speakers from the telecom factor in assessing the confidence of investors in the immi-
industry, including delegates both from the business, tech- nent future."
nical, academia and information-technology sectors. He hoped that the 2008 Global Telecommunication
The 2-Day congress organized by SHAMROCK Major-Gen (R) Shahzada Alam Congress would bring together top names from both govern-
Malik, Chairman PTA.
Conferences International is expected to draw large-scale ment and industry to share their local and international per-
participation from leading telecom companies, profession- spectives, particularly the technologies of the future and
als and technical educational institutions and vendor-organizations explore the extensive range of growth and investment opportunities in
directly or indirectly involved in the telecommunication sector. The focus this growing and innovative market.

of the conference will be to highlight the significance and technological

Si3 & Faysal Bank Sign HCM Deal

ystem Innovation Private Ltd (Si3) and Security Officer, Faysal Bank. "The bank looks operational excellence. "I am confident that our

S Faysal Bank Limited have signed an

agreement according to which Si3 would
deploy global best practices Human Capital
Management (HCM) Application at Faysal Bank
Limited.
Faysal Bank Limited has embarked upon a
project to implement Oracle Human Capital
Management in the bank. Si3 will be performing
the role of application implementer and shall pro-
vide the implementation resources, thus the
overall project management will be done by Si3.
Commenting on the agreement, President &
CEO of Si3 Amer Hashmi said that Si3 is delight-
ed to be selected as the lead integrator for ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning) application
deployment services.
"Faysal Bank is very excited about the
automation and centralization of its Oracle
based HR services that are about to be imple-
mented by Si3 in Pakistan." said Mansoor
Ahmed, Head of PMO & Chief Information
forward to a seamless integration of the HRMS
modules with its financials through professional
expertise and customization provided by Si3".
Samina Rizwan, Regional Director, Oracle
SAGE West said that "The increasingly compet-
itive banking landscape alongwith shortage of
skilled resources in the country is arguably the
most profound challenge that the financial indus-
try faces today". Oracle's objective is to partner
with its cus-
tomers to
understand
their business
needs and
address key
challenges. In
this spirit,
Oracle HRMS will help Faysal Bank achieve a
360-degree view of employees, manage their
growth, service them effectively and through
their contribution, further improve service and
partner, Si3, will fulfill its obligation to Faysal
Bank by bringing the project in on time while
maintaining high quality" she added.
Commenting on Si3's role, Amer Mubbusher,
Country Head Si3 Pakistan, said "The people at
Si3 are seasoned IT professionals, held in high
regard by the customer community as well as
the Alliance community and known for their proj-
ect management of complex engagements. I am
confident that we can bring their delivery capa-
bilities to the fore to delight Faysal Bank with a
best of breed HCM system and make Si3's ERP
implementation business one of the most
respected in Pakistan."
Seemin Shafi, Head of Human Resources at
Faysal Bank was of the view that "The Oracle
HRMS will enable the bank to adopt global best
practices in HR and provide the MIS required to
address policy issues to make Faysal Bank an
employer of first choice for banking profession-
als."

A new Product by Ufone

Ufone recently launched a revolutionary new product calling it 'Ur
Number' through this service, customers will be able to translate their
names, nicks, email ids or any word that they associate with themselves,
into a mobile phone number.
This service stands as a landmark creating a new wave which is set to
replace the demand for golden and other unique numbers that are popular
amongst existing customers. For example instead of asking for a number
such as 033-1234567, customers can now walk in and look up numbers
such as 0333 iani005.
This will be translated into 0333-2663007 respectively, where every let-
ter corresponds to a number on your phones keypad.
Set to cause a very high interest amongst a very diverse target base this
will be a very new and unique way of telling your number to some one so
that they remember it. The rest is left to imagination of a customer.
Ufone is an Etslate Group Company and is Pakistan's leading cellular
operator with a customer base of more than 16m.
Ufone service scattered in all the major cities, towns, villages and teh-
sail headquarters. The company employs more than 300 franchises and 25
company-owned customer service centers along with a distribution net The Federal IT Minister Dr. Abdullah Riar visited New Horizons Pakistan, leading IT train-
work of 150,000 outlets across Pakistan.
ing facility recently. Seen in the picture is the honourable minister with representatives
92
of Microsoft, Cisco, PMI & staff of New Horizons Pakistan
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Telenor Ranked 'World's Best by Sustainability Yearbook 2008'
Telenor was ranked World's Best Mobile Telecom
Company by sustainability yearbook 2008, one of the
world's most recognized and insightful publications on cor-
porate sustainability.
The sustainability Yearbook assesses and documents
the Sustainability performance of more than 1000 compa-
nies from 57 specific sectors based on a wide range of eco-
nomic, environmental and social criteria.
The company already ranks number one on the presti-
gious Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) in mobile
telecommunication ahead of 13 leading mobile operators
Sangoma Expands Distribution Channel
Sangoma Technologies Corporation, the premi-
um provider of PC-based telephony hardware and
software products for proprietary and open source
based networking and telephony solutions,
announced that they have partnered with Convergence, a provider of
open source networking solutions for core telephony and switching appli-
cations, to expand distribution of Sangoma's premium telephony and data
cards throughout Pakistan and the Middle East. Convergence offers cus-
tomers custom development of open source telephony and networking
solutions, as well as professional consultation, product placement, train-
ing, proposal development and response to emerging demands in com-
munication technologies.
"Convergence is proud to have been selected to help strengthen
Sangoma's market position in Pakistan and the Middle East," said Wasim
Baig, Principal Consultant for Convergence. "Since 2002, customers
have been wowed by the quality, engineering level support, innovation,
reliability and performance that both companies have repeatedly demon-
strated in building and supporting open source telephony systems across
the region."
People Take Interest in PTCL Facilitation Point
The daylong customers' facilitation point was a very successful show,
a spokesman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company said in a
press release.
He said customers showed keen interest in the PTCL services and
products. The programme was launched for customers of Islamabad
areas but people from far-flung areas of the twin cities also visited the
Lady officials brief about the newly launched "PTCL BUZZ" a broadband entertainment por-
tal during the launching ceremony held at a local hotel.
National
worldwide.
The indexes rank companies worldwide based on their
performance according to economic, environmental and
social criteria.
Telenor was also awarded two new titles for the Mobile
Telecom sector. The Sector Leader award identifying the
company best prepared to seize the opportunities and man-
age the risk, deriving from sector-specific economic, envi-
ronmental and social developments, and sector Mover
award for proportionally improving sustainability perform-
ance the most since last year.

As an 'Empowered by Sangoma' channel part-
ner, Convergence is authorized to sell Sangoma
hardware, and will be kept up to date directly by
Sangoma regarding new developments that can
benefit their customers. Convergence will provide a valuable sales chan-
nel and first line of support for local call centers, long distance and local
loop telephony customers and enterprises, voice over packet providers,
and internet telephony service providers throughout the region. Sangoma
customers purchasing through the Convergence sales channel will still
receive Sangoma's industry-leading warranty, money back guarantee,
and Sangoma's renowned free technical support.
"Convergence has been active in helping us drive the development of
our Signaling Media Gateway, and we look forward to bringing this revo-
lutionary product line to emerging telecom customers in the Pakistan and
Middle Eastern region," said Nenad Corbic, Chief Software Engineer for
Sangoma. "Strong telephony and data network experience makes
Convergence a particularly well-suited organization to help us develop
and mature local markets within this region."

point. He said they were interested in getting new telephone connection,
wireless local loop, digital subscribers' line, broadband student package,
etc.
The spokesman said the other aim of the one-stop shop was to
receive complaints from customers and resolve their problems regarding
telecom services.

Girls takes information about the jobs during a Job Fair at Jinah Convention Center
93
 National
An Outstanding Professional
Taimur Ali Khan is one of the most inspiring figures of the
advertising world today. He pursued his higher education in
Business Studies from the land of the down under's Sydney
International College of Business, Australia. During his
degree Taimur got intrigued by the concept of "Marketing".
Therefore, he came back to Pakistan and engaged in his
ambitions by ending up doing an MBA in Marketing from
National College of Business Administration & Economics.
Orient McCann-Erickson was the first company to recog-
nise his true potential and spirit for advertising; landing him
his first job as a Senior Client Executive in the year 2000. By
the grace of Allah and shear hard work he was short listed by
JWT Lahore as a Client Service Manager. But his energy and zest for
achieving more spread across the town like rapid fire. He grew as a pro-
fessional by leaps and bounds. Convincing an organization like Interflow
Communications (Pvt.) Ltd., to take him on board as an aspiring Group
Client Service Manager. Taimur realised that it was just the beginning of a
Mr. Sarshar Ali, Brand Manager Canon is giving Face of the Month award to a contestant.
Computer Course for Adiala Jail Inmates Ends
District and Sessions Judge Rawalpindi Khadim Hussain has appreci-
ated the efforts of Khubaib Foundation for the welfare of inmates of Adiala
Jail, Rawalpindi, says a press release issued here.
He stated this while addressing certificate distribution ceremony after
the conclusion of computer course organised by Khubaib Foundation at
Adiala Jail recently. Superintendent Jail Tariq Mahmood Babar Khan and
Media Advisor Khubaib Foundation Naeem Khaliq Dad were also present
on the occasion.
'$50bn Global Trade Prospects for Pakistan'
A $50 billion industry with 30% per annum growth rate linked with $700
billion E-commerce trade world wide is available for Pakistan, said
Abdullah Butt, President, Association of Call Centre Operators (ACCO)
Pakistan.
Currently there are 70 call centres operating in the country and still
there is so much business available internationally, that even if 100 call
centres each of 100 seats are working in Pakistan, still there will be more
business coming in, he said.
Butt said, despite supporting this industry the government has never
taken serious steps to promote this industry, which can bring huge invest-
IT has Great Potential for Pakistan, says Wasim
Senator Wasim Sajjad, Chancellor Foundation for Advancement of
Science and Technology (FAST) University and leader of the House in the
Senate has said that information and communication technology is a
source of strength as some South Asian countries earn billions of dollars
from Information Technology but Pakistan is earning only $10-15 million
from it annually.
Addressing the 11th Convocation of National University of Computer
and Emerging Sciences, (NUCES-FAST) as the chief guest he said that
such education in the field of technology will result in poverty alleviation in
the long run, as more jobs will be created.
Degrees were awarded to 381 graduate and postgraduate candidates
94
of Computer Science, Computer Engineering & Telecom engineering in
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
great endeavour in every progressive activity he under took.
Be it various trips to international or national projects, forums or
workshops, he impressed many by his nag for details and
sharp thinking towards category discovery, strategy, research,
consumer know-how, branding and competitive communica-
tion. Gracing him with the opportunity to become a Group
Account Director for Evernew Concepts (Pvt.) Ltd. where he
still pursues greater challenges, by taking his company places
and leaping towards foreign shores like India for international
projects.
To summarize Taimur Ali Khan's impressive career in a nut-
shell he has worked for a complete melange of impressive clientele,
namely Nestle', Tetra Pak, Haleeb Foods, Mitchell's, Thuraya, Stiefel, Care
International, Dabur India, WorldCall, and many more - Making him a liv-
ing example of one of the most promising professionals across Pakistan,
for times to come…

A model is posing for a shot in Karachi.
The course is part of the Khubaib Foundation's efforts to encourage
prisoners to change their lives and make them respectable citizens of the
society. For this purpose, the foundation has initiated a number of pro-
grammes for prisoners.
Praising the work of Khubaib Foundation, Khadim Hussain said, "Such
efforts will not only support the prisoners but it will also have a positive
impact over the society as a whole," he said.

ment in the country and could help to an instinct control unemployment,
which is rapidly increasing every year.
For any international call centre operations, the nerve is telecom link
and in Pakistan the weakest support one has is the telecom link and the
cost of the utility is so high that the more you use the more you pay. The
process of import is very cumbersome and expensive, he added.
Visa constraints on international employees and investors; security
issues; a very heavy bureaucratic approach towards the industry; lack of
mass awareness of this industry by government and private media; no
training subsidisation.

the convocation. Medals were awarded to graduates for their excellent
academic performance. A total number of 25 medals were awarded that
included eight gold medals, eight silver medals, and nine bronze medals.
The students who received medals in recognition of their academic
performance are: Muhammad Umair Aftab, Chaudhary Hasan Afzal, Bilal
Yousaf, Owais Ali, Syed Aftab Hayat, Ms Sonya Tahir, Zeeshan Hussain,
Farhan Hafeez Mughal, Ms Eizza Bilal, Faisal Iqbal, Attique Dawood, Syed
Owais Ahmad, Ms Merai Syed, Taha Hussain Lughmani, Ammar Hassan,
Muhammad Usman Shahid, Amina Nawaz Cheema, Ms Farheen Shahid,
Ms Saira Viqar, Ms Hina Anwar Khan, Muhammad Sanaullah, Fahad
Maqbool, Ms Sana Bilal, Ms Faiza Parwez, and Ayyaz Hussain.

w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Mobilink Gets Recognition at Mobile World Congress
Mobilink, the country's market leader in cellular commu-
nications with more than 300 million customers and part of
Orascom Telecom, relieved premium recognition at the
Mobile World Congress (MWC) which concluded in
Barcelona last month.
The company contribution in Pakistan's economic and
social growth and for bringing Pakistanis together was high-
lighted by the international media at this event.
The mobile phone industry in Pakistan has grown exponentially and
PTA Expects Further Growth in Telecom Investment
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is expecting that total
investments would grow to Rs 393 billion whereas total revenue will reach
Rs 387 billion by 2010 in telecom sector.
According to PTA's vision 2010, prepared to further develop the sec-
tor, the mobile penetration is expected to grow up to 57 percent and in this
regard activation charges and withholding tax levied on telecom services
are required to be further reduced to increase the potential market. There
is a potential of 3 to 5 million broadband customers.
It says since WiMAX and VoIP can create another revolution in
Pakistan, a legal framework of SIP/VOIP is also required. Accordingly
Canon in Dawn All About Lifestyles Exhibition
Canon made a significant impact in the recently ended Dawn All About
lifestyles exhibition held at the Expo Centre in Karachi. All Canon prod-
ucts including the Digital Compact Cameras, the DSLRs, the
Camcorders, printers and scanners & projectors were on display. New
models of the Digital Compact Cameras were on display. In the Power
Shot genre the G9, S5 IS, SX100 IS, A 720 IS & A 650 IS were the ones
most discussed apart from the huge line-up of the Power Shot series. In
the IXUS series new models such as the IXUS 960 IS & the 850 IS were
the mostly commented upon with their extra ordinary features. In the
DSLR segment the EOS 40D was widely looked upon apart from the up-
coming entry level EOS 450D. Also on display was the huge line-up of
Canon printers including the LaserJet(s), multifunction(s) and the ever
popular photo-printers.
The activities at the Canon stall included live photo sessions of fami-
lies, kids and portraitures with the added feature of live printing via the
Selphy photo-compact printers; the tag line behind the Selphy printers is
to "Make Someone happy". So people were coming in flocks and having
themselves shot with the Canon digital cameras and getting the end
result in the form of a hard copy of their memories of the expo centre.
Secondly, Canon was on the look-out for a "Face of the month" model
Mobilink Offers In-flights Mobile Phone Service
Mobilink has unveiled yet another landmark
achievement by being the only operator in Pakistan
to offer in-flight mobile phone service onboard inter-
national flights. Partnering with OnAir, Mobilink
offers GSM network onboard aircraft, allowing pas-
sengers to not only use their mobile phones for mak-
ing and receiving calls and text messages, but also
enabling them to send and receive data over GPRS.
Air France has become the first airline in the
world to offer this service on international flights.
Using the Mobile OnAir system, Mobilink sub-
scribers traveling onboard one of the Airbus A318 aircraft operating on
European routes can avail SMS and MMS services, exchange emails and
browse the web using any phone with Internet access. Customers will be
able to make and receive phone calls in the second phase of the trial peri-
od, as the service is being regulated to maintain passengers' comfort and
well-being.
National
with "more than 65 million people using mobile phones
each day in Pakistan, the country is much wired together".
Special recognitions was earned by Mobilink for its CSR
efforts in the country when in the international media report-
ed, It was just one of a number of example at the congress,
the largest of its kind., on how the mobile technology sec-
tor is contributing know-how and resources to improve
lives, particularly in rural regions of developing countries,
both philanthropically and for business reasons.

fixed number portability and symmetric termination rate framework should
also be developed to increase the fixed (wire/wireless) density.
Under the vision, the Authority made projections for different telecom
indicators including potential telecom market, subscriber growth and
investment.
With consolidation of the market, new international players in the
WiMAX Broadband Market will replace small ISPs and local WiMAX oper-
ation, PTA therefore plans to further facilitate mergers & acquisitions and
make more spectrums available for wireless operations.

Mr. Khursheed Abbas, GM - MBM, The authorized distributor of Canon along with
Mr. Kazuto Ogawa, The President of Canon Singapore during the annual Gala event in
Singapore in Jan 2008, MBM received the Achievement recognition in sales and brand
development in Pakistan last year.
which was held at the Canon stall. Finally on the third day "Face of the
month award was given to an individual.

Mobile OnAir enables passengers to use their
GSM mobile phones and smart phones, such as
Blackberry, during flights - after takeoff and before
landing. The service supports voice communications
and text messaging, as well as General Packet
Radio Services (GPRS). Mobile On Air works like a
roaming service on ground. It is billed by the passen-
ger's home mobile operator. To use the service, pas-
sengers with an international roaming subscription
simply switch on their mobile phones on a Mobile
OnAir-equipped aircraft. When a mobile phone is
logged on to On Air's network, the display will show "OnAir" and the pas-
senger can start to use their phone as normal. Mobilink promises to main-
tain its technology leadership and customer satisfaction by offering more
state-of-the-art services in the near future.

95
 International
Indian Govt. Gives 22 More Telecom Licences
The Indian government issued 22 more telecom licences to new play-
ers, including Tata Teleservices and Shyam Telelink, but may stop giving
more in Rajasthan, Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh,
Shyam Telelink has been given licences for two circles in Mumbai and
Madhya Pradesh and may get for other circles as well, senior officials in
the Department of Telecom told media.
With the issuance of 22 new licences, the total number of new
licences has gone to 88 in India. Besides Shyam, Tata Teleservices also
bagged licences for the remaining circles of Jammu and Kashmir, North-
East and Assam while the Loop Telecom got for nine circles.
Warid Telecom Reduces Call Charges in Uganda
The telecom price battle is on, with callers emerging
winners as operators struggle for subscriber supremacy in
Uganda. Callers can now pay as little as Shs249 to call
from Warid telecom's network to any other network.
This follows a 33 per cent reduction in the telecom
operator's charges for its subscribers calling other net-
works to Shs299 from Shs449 (peak time) and to Shs249
from Shs349 (off peak).
The new rates have previously been a reserve for only subscribers on
the Warid network. Ms Miriam Wanjohji - the Warid Marketing Manager
Corporate Brand, said the new rates are meant to give the company's
customers extra leeway to communicate.
"We have lowered our rates to other networks to give our customers
more freedom to talk," she said in a press release. A mini-survey by Daily
Monitor revealed that many people were reluctant to join the network
Jaxtr Gives VoIP Users Something to Talk About
After a wildly successful beta launch in terms of
user numbers, VoIP (define) provider Jaxtr launched its
official 1.0 release. During its 11-month beta period,
Jaxtr said it attracted over 10 million users to its serv-
ice.
A key element of the official launch is café jaxtr, a
website where users of the phone service can find
each other online and new people to talk to.
"When we launched Jaxtr last March, we said we're
a social communications company. We saw this as an
emergent market," Jaxtr CEO Konstantin Guericke told media at his com-
pany's headquarters. Guericke has solid experience in social networks,
as he is also a co-founder of LinkedIn.
But, he also is quick to say café jaxtr is meant to complement, not
replace social networks. He calls café jaxtr a "talk network" versus social
networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace which are relatively silent
if not as interactive.
Users can list photos of themselves and interests at café jaxtr and
things they like to talk about. They can then use the Jaxtr service to call
someone or some thing they're interested in. However, user's contact info
is not listed by default, they have to proactively enter information to make
themselves available should they choose to be.
In a demonstration of the service, café jaxtr pages had several ads for
dating services and Guericke said that will likely be a big area of interest.
But, he also expects the site to be popular for certain professional seg-
ments, such as real estate agents and recruiters who want to be able to
Mobile Phones Remain Silent in Parts of Helmand
The mobile phone companies in Afghanistan are seemed to have
bowed down before Taliban threat and the phone connections of Afghan
Wirless Communication Company (AWCC) and Roshan remained silent
in several areas of Halmand late night on Feb 28.
Signals of AWCC and Roshan remained off in our areas while were
also off in Musa Qala and Sangin districts, a resident of village, 20 km
96
from Laghkargah, capital of Halmand province, told Afghan Islamic Press
w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
B K Modi-led Spice Telecom also got licence for Delhi, officials said.
In all, 120 new licenses would be issued and the process may be com-
pleted this month, they added.
On the next step to allocate spectrum (radio frequency), the officials
remained non-committal saying a final decision is yet to be taken. In any
case, they have to apply for the air waves first, they said.
Meanwhile, some of the new players have already initiated discus-
sions with the equipment manufacturers to start setting up network in
their respective circles so that services could be started as soon as the
spectrum was allocated.

because of the high charges on calls to other networks.
The lower tariffs are seen as baits to attract more cus-
tomers from other networks that earlier lowered their rates
to Shs320 (MTN and UTL) following the entry of Warid into
the market.
"This is a 33 per cent drop compared to our launch
price which was Shs449 (peak)," Ms Wanjohji said. She
added that Warid's Friends and Family profile also attracts
a 50 per cent discount. Warid customers also have an opportunity to call
their five preferred friends at Shs149 (peak time) and Shs124 (off peak).
A Warid SIM card costs Shs3,000 and comes preloaded with 50 free
Short Messaging Services (SMS) to any network and Shs1,000 free air-
time. For messages, Warid says only delivered SMS are charged.

reach out and make a more personal connection with
potential customers.
Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang
thinks the service will have niche appeal and that most
consumers will be wary of talking to complete
strangers. "A phone call is on a level that's so person-
al and time consuming, I can see this working more
with people who already have an existing relationship,"
Owyang told.
"But it could work for specific situations or a need
someone has to, for example, talk to someone knowledgeable in a spe-
cific area," he added. He also notes there are many other places to chat
on the Web even if it's not audio.
To date, Jaxtr has seen most of its growth outside the United States
where demand for low-cost and free alternatives to traditional long dis-
tance charges is highest. Guericke said about 15 percent of Jaxtr's users
are in the U.S., the second highest region to India at 17 percent. The
United Kingdom and China are the third and fourth highest areas of Jaxtr
use, respectively.
"Since we let you make international calls for free, we want to high-
light café jaxtr's global dimension," said Guericke. Thinking back to an
exchange program he was involved in high school, the German-born
Guericke mused services like this might aid the cause of world peace.
"Maybe if we have more one-to-one exchanges we'd be less likely to
bomb the country we're talking to," he said.

(AIP).
Taliban had asked the mobile phone companies three days back to
switch off signals at night as American were observing phone calls to
ascertain the destination of the caller.
Though there was no reaction by mobile phone companies, it appears
that they comply with the demand of Taliban. However, communication
ministry in Kabul strongly rejected claim of Taliban.

 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
U.S. Telecom Growth Slower than Others
The U.S. telecommunications industry will grow at a slower rate than
the global industry in the coming years as the wireless and wired markets
mature, the Telecommunications Industry Association
said.
According to a study commissioned by the TIA, the
U.S. telecom industry will grow at an average annual
rate of 7.2 percent in the period 2008-2011, reaching
$1.3 trillion in 2011, compared with an average rate of
10 percent, reaching $3.6 trillion, for the rest of the
world.
Growth in the U.S. industry will accelerate to 9.3
percent in 2008 from 8.3 percent in 2007, partly due to
spending on network upgrades and a government spectrum auction.
Growth is expected to moderate in the following years, the report said.
"License fees associated with the 700MHz auction will boost revenue
in 2008, and the absence of that revenue will lead to a sharp drop in
2009," it said. The biggest U.S. telephone companies are Verizon
Communications and AT&T.
Telecom Providers Enter Fiber Optic Pay-TV Market
American telecom carriers have started a major rev-
olution in the multi-play entertainment and communica-
tion industry over the past couple of years, by rolling out
subscription-based fiber-optic television services in
dozens of U.S. cities.
Big telephone incumbents like AT&T and Verizon
are spending billions of dollars to deploy massive fiber-
optic internet and video networks across the nation, in
the hope of better competing with cable companies in the broadband and
television markets. Industry analysts expect these fiber-optic television
offerings to experience massive growth in the long-term, as carriers
launch advanced interactive video services, and deliver television via cell
phones and the internet, increasingly blurring the lines between telecom-
munications and entertainment.
Google Submarine Cable to Spike Internet Growth
A new fiber-optic connection under the sea could increase Internet
capacity between the U.S. and Japan.
Web search company Google has agreed to build an undersea cable
with five telecom operators that will link the United States to Japan and
provide the capacity to sustain a surge in Internet traffic between the con-
Samsung Unveils Its First VOIP Thin Client Monitor
Samsung Electronics , a world-leading manufactur-
er of professional LCD and PDP display products, has
unveiled the new Sync Master 220TN monitor, the com-
pany's first V2oIP-enabled network monitor.
"Featuring a built-in camera, microphone and
speaker, the Sync Master 220TN monitor facilitates
true-to-life web conferencing, which can reduce long-
distance phone costs and the need for frequent busi-
ness travel. With a 22" wide screen and a 2.0M pixel
camera, the 220TN monitor is enabled to support mul-
tiple work applications, therefore enhancing productivi-
ty in a range of professional settings." explained Shahid Khan, Head of
Marketing, Samsung Electronics.
The 220TN monitor is a thin client solution, or a centrally-managed
network computer that lacks a hard-disk drive. Leveraging a thin client
system, the monitor not only facilitates streamlined communication - it
also facilitates increased security, since no application data resides in the
actual model. On account of its thin client capabilities, the 220TN is an
ideal choice for applications that require secure deployment, such as air-
International
The study expects the strongest 2008-2011 growth in the Asia-Pacific
region, with a 13 percent annual advance, followed by 11.1 percent for
the Middle East and Africa, and 10.5 percent for Latin
America.
European telecom growth will be just ahead of the
United States at 7.5 percent annually, while Canada is
expected to be the slowest region with 5.4 percent
annually.
According to the study, about 35 percent of U.S.
wireless service revenue will come from data services
such as mobile Web surfing in 2011, up from 16 per-
cent in 2007.
With Web traffic for services such as Internet video soaring, the study
found that in wired networks "current capacity will soon be unable to sup-
port bandwidth demand."
This is in contrast with the commonly held view in 2003 that "there
would be excess network capacity for the foreseeable future."

In terms of network availability and service penetra-
tion, Verizon's FiOS TV has emerged as America's
most successful IPTV service to date. FiOS has chal-
lenged video incumbents like Comcast and
Cablevision in markets across the country, to serve
over 300,000 households in ten states. AT&T's U-verse
offering, meanwhile, was deployed somewhat later
than FiOS, but has been rapidly expanding its user
base since early 2007.
Fiber-optic television services have also been deployed in Canada,
where one of the major telecom incumbents, Telus Corp., is aggressively
challenging cable rival, Shaw Communications in the western province of
Alberta.

tinents.
Google and the five telecom companies said in a joint statement that
the 10,000-kilometer (6,200 mile) undersea fiber-optic cable, connecting
the United States to Japan, will cost $300 million.

port kiosks, hotel lobbies and hospitals.
"In an increasingly globalized workforce, many pro-
fessionals require a simplified, cost-effective, yet reli-
able, medium for communicating with co-workers and
clients across the globe" added Shahid. "With the Sync
Master 220TN monitor, Samsung has delivered a
streamlined, intuitive solution for enterprise customers
that demand a seamless and secure communication
experience, whether communicating across cubicles
or across continents."
With a high resolution of 1680 x 1050, coupled with
a wide 16:10 aspect ratio, the Sync Master 220TN monitor offers superi-
or image quality and enhanced productivity for a range of professional
applications. Featuring a 5 ms GTG response time, a 700:1 contrast ratio
and 300cd/m2 brightness, the model is equipped to produce crisp, true-
to-life images, while the wide 170/160 viewing angle further enhances the
overall viewing experience.

97
 International w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

Yahoo Unveils onePlace Bookmarking Tool

The company uses the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover to launch a care about, that you're passionate about, that you follow," Boerries said.
new dynamic bookmarking tool for mobile phones. Against the backdrop Users will be able to gather their favorite web places either by
of a $41 billion (£20.7 billion) takeover bid by Microsoft, Yahoo used this choosing them on their PC and then synchronising with their mobile
week's CeBIT technology fair in Hanover to unveil a mobile phone tool phone, or directly on the device itself.
that lets users keep up with their favorite topics using dynamic book- As with oneSearch, actual information will be shown rather than web
marks. links, often awkward to navigate on a mobile phone. Users would be
OnePlace, to be launched in the second quar- able to get the service either through operators
ter, allows users to mark links, news feeds or who have Yahoo deals or download it from Yahoo,
search results that lead them to, for example, the Boerries said.
latest information on flight arrivals, sports results or Boerries said onePlace was the last major piece
friends' Facebook postings. of Yahoo's consumer offering for mobile, which it
Bookmarking tools are not new - Yahoo's has been working on for three years, leaving it free
del.icio.us is one - but Yahoo says it has reinvented to focus on making money from it.
bookmarking for phones, given their small screens "The consumer experience is not done but it's
and different user requirements, with placeholders at a stage where it can now evolve," he said. "My
linked to updated info instead of a fixed page. foreseeable focus for the future is to build the right
"You have something that's always changing. advertising model."
A Google worker dials her cell phone.
You could always just bookmark a site as a place- Yahoo already has advertising deals with carriers
holder but now it's alive," Marco Boerries, who is leading Yahoo's including T-Mobile, Vodafone and AT&T, but the question the industry
mobile drive, said in an interview at the CeBIT IT fair in Hanover, faces now is how to develop the form to better fit the mobile phone's
Germany. small screen and target consumers better.
Yahoo is racing to leapfrog Google's clear lead in computer search "We did the simple stuff really early and that's how we're making
and advertising by custom-building services for mobiles and forming money right now, but that's not the way forward," Boerries said. "We're
alliances with operators that already give it access to 600 million mobile nowhere near where we could be."
phone users. Although Boerries declined to say how long it could take to come up
Yahoo aims to reach 750 million users this year by adding to a part- with a new model but argued Yahoo could help pull it together. "What's
ner list that includes Telefonica, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom's T- inhibiting advertisers right now is (that) it's too complicated with all the
Mobile. different platforms," he said, referring to the variety of mobile phone
OnePlace also leans on two other Yahoo mobile services - operating systems that exists.
oneSearch and oneConnect - by tailoring the content behind the book- Boerries said ads should enhance and not obstruct normal phone
marks to match the location of users and the preferences and activities use, such as returning useful, sponsored information in web search
of friends and contacts who use the service. results. "The challenge is to create a system that the user is super,
"We're not reinventing forms of mobile content or getting into the super happy to access," he said.

content business but there are places where you have stuff that you

Excessive use of Computers Affects Eyes

Too much of viewing the world through a computer may not be good
for own eyes, warn experts after reviewing eye-related complaints that
they get nowadays.
Excessive exposure to the computer monitor affects eyes in many
ways. More and more people are complaining of redness, itching and
feeling of dryness in their eyes due to sitting in front of the computer for
long hours.
Experts say that these problems largely emerge due to insufficient
blinking of the eyes while working at the computer. The eye blinks about
10-15 times every minute. When sitting in front of computer, this rate of
blinking decreases by about 30 to 40 percent. Blinking of the eye is
important to maintain the fluid balance in the eye.
At each time when eye blinks, a layer of fluid is spread evenly on the
surface. Reduction in the supply of this fluid causes the itching and dry-
ness in the eyes. Other symptoms that are commonly experienced
include an inability to focus, frequent headaches and irritability.
Experts also suggest some ways to alleviate the effects. One must
ensure that the lighting in the room is sufficient and the glare of the mon-
itor is reduced. Anti-glare screens may also be used for this purpose.
A person working on the computer must take a break every half an
hour and should preferably wash his eyes with cold water during that
time. The eyes should be closed for a minute as soon as any strain is
experienced. Artificial teardrops could be used in case there is a problem
of eye lubrication.
With an increase in the dependency on computers in our every day
lives, routine eye check up becomes more important than ever before.

Indian attendants arrange a cellular telephone display on a stand at The Mobile Asia This combo picture released by Osaka University researcher Kazuhiro Taniguchi, shows
2008 exibition in New Delh. The exhibition which is being held in the Indian capital, prototype devices infrared to operate digital music player or other electronic devices
98 claims to be India's biggest consumer mobile event and hopes to attract some 300,000 at his laboratory in Osaka, western Japan.
visitors over the course of the event.
 w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k
Eastern Europe's Broadband Subscribers to Surpass 40
Million by 2012
According to the information released by HOT TELECOM in its latest
report "Eastern Europe statistics and forecast 2002-2011", there were an
estimated 29.5 million broadband subscribers at the end of June 2007 in
Eastern Europe. This translated into a 23.4% growth over the first six
months of the year. By the end of the forecasted period, broadband should
account for 80.9% of all Internet connections in the region, compared with
48.2% currently, as the number of broadband subscribers is forecasted to
have grown by an average of 28.8% to 40.1 million.
Broadband is rapidly gaining momentum, driven by increasing compe-
tition and extensive deployment of DSL and/or cable services. DSL is grow-
ing in popularity, most notably in Slovakia and Russia, whilst in Ukraine,
cable has overtaken DSL for the first time. DSL currently accounts for
63.2% of the broadband connections in the region and this ratio is forecast-
ed to reach 67.8% in 2011.
Poland and Russia have enjoyed the highest levels of absolute broad-
band subscriber growth over the last 5 years, together accounting for
Carriers Warned Over Promise of Fibre,
HDTV
Carriers have been warned not to bet the farm on high definition TV
services as a way of reversing the revenue decline in the fixed line market.
Instead, analysts have advised European operators to keep their focus
on investment in core and service delivery architectures, creating a clear
roadmap for their own managed services portfolio.
Stephen Sale, analyst at research house Analysys, thinks that too many
operators are putting all their eggs in the HD TV basket, and argues that
the revenue uplift from higher speed access will not be enough to reverse
the gradual decline in wireline revenue for the typical European incumbent.
"The scale of the TV market simply isn't great enough to compensate
for the accelerating declines in legacy services," Sale said. "Telcos do not
have a big enough differentiator in TV; even the most optimistic ARPU
(Average Revenue Per User) projections for triple play will not boost a typ-
ical incumbent's top line by more than about 3 per cent, and an NGA strat-
egy without rapid core transformation does not begin to address the long
term problem of rationalising a legacy of multiple network overlays."
Analysys believes that investment in the core network and IT-transfor-
mation projects can deliver real cash cost savings, enabling fast moving
EMC to invest in Telecom
The US-based information management
company EMC is looking to boost its pres-
ence in the Middle East telecom market to
cash in on the booming pace of growth in the
region, executives said.
The company, which in the past few
years has turned its focus on growth outside
the US market, said the Middle East is one
of the fastest-growing international markets
and it plans to step up investment.
"We see high growth in the region, [the
market] has good momentum and we're
going to continue to invest wherever we get
good returns," Vice-Chairman, Bill Teuber,
said..
Speaking on the sidelines of the fifth EMC Middle East Telecoms
Summit, Teuber added that the company looks at market shares and over-
all growth rates when planning expansions.
"Some of these countries have relatively low revenues but high growth
rates so we're looking to make sure we're a part of the infrastructure of
International
46.7% of the region's subscribers at the end of June 2007. Russia leads
with an estimated 3.8 million subscribers, followed by Poland with 2.9 mil-
lion and Romania with 2.3 million.
Estonia is currently leading in terms of broadband access, with 298,000
subscribers and a penetration of 22.9%. Ukraine on the other hand, which
is one of the region's top fixed and mobile markets, continues to be rela-
tively undeveloped in terms of Internet and broadband penetration, largely
due to poor infrastructure and low availability of residential broadband. At
the end of June 2007, Ukraine 's broadband penetration stood at 0.6%.
This report, which includes 31 detailed exhibits and tables on Eastern
Europe 's telecom market, confirms that the smaller, less developed, low
penetration countries will show great broadband growth potential in years
to come. "Countries such as Albania, Belarus, Serbia, Bosnia and Ukraine
will be the most dynamic in this sector, with forecasted average growth
rates of 454.8%, 110.8%, 74.9%, 64.9% and 54.6% respectively over the
next 5 years" HOT TELECOM's president Isabelle Paradis said.

Next-Generation Network operators to
exercise more control over the core
transmission market.
"Investment in fibre may look radical,
but it's fundamentally quite conservative
because it's essentially a defence of Carriers warned over promise of fibre,
fixed broadband, rather than a growth HDTV services
strategy, and because it still locates a telco's main assets in physical net-
works rather than service delivery capability," said Rupert Wood, principal
analyst at Analysys. "But it won't be enough to create an enabling platform
that offers faster time to market - the revenue streams are too undefined."
Wood claims that the opportunities to deliver novel business services
on the back of the new service functionality are greater than in the con-
sumer multimedia space. "Within a five-to-ten year timeframe, an operator
focusing its investment in core and service-delivery architecture could
expect both higher revenue and higher margins than one investing mainly
in access," the analyst said.

many of these countries as they mature," he
said.
Though Teuber declined to comment on
how much EMC is looking to invest in the
Middle East this year, he said the firm has a
"very strong cash flow", with about $8 billion
(Dh29.3bn) in cash and investments.
"Emerging markets are going to be
absolutely critical to the growth rate and the
success of EMC. We need to be in these
areas and countries," he said.
EMC, which has its regional headquar-
ters in Dubai and offices in Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain and Egypt, is set to open offices in
Qatar and Pakistan, while aiming to increase
investments in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
"We're going to balance investments around the GCC and the Middle
East," said Mohammed Amin, regional manager of EMC.

99
 International w w w. f l a r e . c o m . p k

rance Telecom-owned Orange Business Services has finalised a joint apan successfully launched an experimental satellite aimed at pro-

F venture partnership with Indian storage devices manufacturer Moser

Baer Ltd to foray into the long distance telephony segment. The com-
pany is awaiting clearance from the Department of Telecom for obtaining
the licence.
Orange Business Services has been offering enterprise communication
solutions to large multinationals in India. However, it has now applied for a
licence after the Government made it mandatory for companies to obtain a
national long distance licence for offering IP-based services such as virtual
private network.
The company is not expected to foray into the retail
long distance telephony segment. France Telecom is one
of the largest telecom service providers in Europe. It had
earlier exited from the Indian market after it sold out its
stake in BPL Mobile.
However, recently, it had acquired GTL's IT unit in a
bid to enhance its offering in the country. Senior DoT offi-
cials said that the company's application was being processed. When con-
tacted Orange Business Services said, "India is a key market for Orange
Business Services and we will take all essential steps that will help us serve
better our multinational customers in this country. We are looking at
expanding our licence portfolio in India and will make an announcement at
an appropriate time."
Indian enterprise communications segment has become highly compet-
itive with the entry of global telecom companies including AT&T, BT and
Cable & Wireless. While AT&T and BT have already launched their servic-
es, others including Verizon are in the process of obtaining Government
clearances. Orange Business has already got the permission from the
Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
There are also Internet service providers including Tulip IT and Sify fight-
ing for the same pie. Indian telecom players Bharti Airtel, Reliance
Communication and Tata Telservices are also in the fray as large multina-
tional companies expand their business network into the country.





J viding high-speed Internet access across Asia, even when terres-
trial infrastructure goes down, the space agency said.
The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the Kizuna satellite
was launched at 0855 GMT on last Saturday with no glitches from the
Space Centre on Tanegashima off the southern tip of Kyushu Island,
southern Japan.
The communications satellite, expected to be in use for five years,
separated from the rocket approximately 35 minutes after the launch.
The 342 million dollar-Kizuna will allow super-high speed data commu-
nications of up to 1.2 Gbps, which would make it the fastest in the world.
That rate would translate to 150 times that of the average high-speed
ADSL connection rate of 8 Mbps, or 12 times the speed of a fibre-optic
communication delivery to a personís premises (FTTP).
The Kizuna, which also means ìbondî in Japanese, is expected to
begin transmitting and receiving data with terrestrial infrastructure in July
after completing preparations and confirming the satelliteís safety.
Japan is looking to use the satellite to allow communication when a
ground-based network is severed by a disaster in any Asian country, in
which case it would be used to transmit data to crisis management
offices.
The agency is hoping it can also be used as an educational or med-
ical tool to reach people in remote or mountainous areas. Internet is now
an integral part of our lives; but its infrastructure levels vary. The satellite
will enable students in Asian countries to communicate smoothly and
with no time lag among one another, as if they were in the same class-
room, it said. The expected life of the satellite is five years, an agency
spokeswoman said.

ndia's telecom story is shining. The country services to the rural heartland.

I has become the fastest growing telecom mar-

ket in the world, adding a staggering 83 mil-
lion mobile subscribers over the last 12 months.
At this pace, India is all set to overtake US to
become the world's second largest mobile mar-
ket by May this year or just another three
months.
Around February last year, India overtook
Russia to become the third largest mobile mar-
ket.
India's total mobile subscriber base now
stands at 237 million in comparison with China's
534 million, US's 257 million and Russia's 172
million. At current growth rates, India will cross
the 264 million mark by May, overtaking the US.
According to the latest data available from
Informer Telecoms and Media, 83 million is the
highest number of subscribers added to any
mobile network in the world between February
2007 and January 2008.
China, which used to be the fastest growing
100
till 2006, added just 76 million subscribers in the
same period, showing signs of a mild but definite
slowdown.
India has not only taken the lead over China
in terms of mobile growth for quite some time,
the country has also been able to sustain the
lead. This shows the stupendous growth and
potential of the mobile industry.
The good news is that even with 263 million,
India's mobile teledensity will still be a mere
24%, allowing tremendous room for growth.
Since only 350 million of India's population lives
in urban India, the next phase of growth is
expected to come from the spread of wireless
The US added a total of 20 million sub-
scribers, pale even in comparison with Pakistan,
which added 26 million subscribers, taking its
total subscriber base to 79 million.
India added an average of 6.9 million sub-
scribers per month in the period under review,
China 6.3 million, US 1.6 million, Pakistan 2.1
million and Bangladesh 1.1 million.
The telecom sector's achievements come
despite policy turmoil around availability and
pricing of spectrum, a resource needed for con-
nectivity.
India is expected to have 450 million mobile
subscribers by the turn of the decade, which
means every third Indian will have his/her own
mobile phone by 2010.
The country has been blazing the telecom
trail since 2004, set to add more phones every
month than it did in the first 45 years since
Independence.