Category Archive

I saw this news at a local paper that ISPs have lashed out strongly against PCL. The ISPs lodged complaint against PTCL for anti-competitive practices by offering lower rates to consumers than the rates it offers to ISP. I also saw this statement by the PM that 75% of house-holds in the country are to be covered with high speed Internet by 2015.

I am not sure what to make of these contradictory statements from the Telecommunication day on May 17.

The last time I checked PTA and PTCL were still in court about the bandwidth tariffs. If one was to look at the low bandwidth penetration rate and all the issues such as the ISP complaint described below, we are still in a poor shape. So HOW in the world are we going to go from say 2% to 75% in 7 years?

As you can note from the statements by Prime Minister, it does not specify an action plan or a policy change - just empty political statements. Does it give us any confidence about bandwidth proliferation in Pakistan?

Shaukat Aziz has said that we are moving forward with great speed to bridge the digital divide in the country by improving the access of information and communication technology to low-income groups and a target of 1.6 million broadband connections has been set for the next three years and infrastructure would be developed to cover 75% of house-holds in the country with high speed Internet by 2015.

“We are moving forward with great speed to bridge the digital divide in the country by improving the access of information and communication technology to low-income groups”, he expressed these views while delivering a speech on the world telecommunications and information society day being observed on May 17.

And then there’s the view from Pakistan’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as reported in The News.

As the world marks Telecom Day on Thursday, small telecom operators in Pakistan see their business threatened, blaming the giant Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) for anti-competitive practices, which has launched DSL service at much lower rates without the regulator’s approval.

The country’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have warned that if the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) fails to stop the PTCL from offering such service, it would put the future of most of the operators at risk.

It was also reported that the ISPs Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) has formally complained to PTA asking to intervene and to play its role. According to ISPAK there should be a hearing on this. The ISPs offerDSL services of 256 kbps for home users at Rs1,00o-s1,200 per month out of which around 25 per cent is paid to PTCL for local loop sharing charges.

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I admit upfront that this is only loosely related to telecommunication or Pakistan - but I decided its worth sharing with readers as many of us may not have thought about technology (r)evolution in this way. Even if you are a know-it-all tech guru, its an interesting clip. By the way the creator of this video was highlighted as 2007 Rave Award winner by Wired magazine, which wrote:

How do you sum up the power and potential of Web 2.0 in a 271-second video? By moving really, really fast. When Michael Wesch, who teaches cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, made “Web 2.0… The Machine Is Us/ing Us,” he’d been working for months on an academic paper that would explain new Web tools. As he struggled to define concepts like hypertext, tagging, mashups, and wikis, he had an epiphany: He was working in the wrong medium. He needed to use the tools of Web 2.0 to explain Web 2.0. Anthropology — humans studying the experience of being human — is a recursive discipline, and Wesch’s is a recursive video, cutting quickly between screenshots that show him bookmarking Web sites with del.icio.us, creating a blog with Blogger, and posting pictures on Flickr.

Enoy the clip.

Technology Review magazine has an interesting article ( part 1 and part 2 ) about Helio, a Silicon Valley startup which has come up with an innovative phone called the “Ocean“. This phone has a full keyboard, a big screen and host of cool “social connectivity” features. But the most interesting design feature is its dual slider, one vertical and other horizontal. 

Helio is a joint venture between EarthLink and the Korean wireless giant SK Telecom. It is available in US for around $300. I can’t understand why did they go with Sprint?

The key take away here is that design and usability are extremely important. There are trade-offs. In case of Helio all the features made this phone bulky and the shape could not be as ‘pill’ like as the designers wanted. This is a bold new experiment which has cost over $400M and its success is still unclear. But one thing is clear: the need to converge multiple personal  gadgets.

A couple of excerpts from TR to show you the thinking process which went into this design.

The first glint of an answer came, unsurprisingly, from Korea, where mobile communications are a cultural obsession. In Korea, people play mobile karaoke. Teens flock to sports arenas to watch other teens play in video-game contests. And today, a fair number of Korean electronics wunderkinds work at Helio. Dayton calls one of them “Joe Kool–with a K.” Joe Kool is, in fact, Jungyong Lee. Lee, a senior product-planning manager, used to work at SK Telecom. While at SK, he conceived of something novel: a mobile communications device with two slide-out control panels. When the gadget was being used as a phone, a number keypad popped out of the bottom. When it was being used as a music player, you rotated it 90 degrees and slid out a small control panel with the familiar buttons–Play/Pause, Forward, Back, Stop.

Now there was the problem of the “soft keys”–keys that do different things at different times, such as navigate options or open up an e-mail list. Most users expect these soft keys to be in the same basic place, relative to the screen, no matter what they’re using the device for. “The mind builds up relational patterns,” says Duarte. “You remember the thing at the lower right of the thing I am looking at. You associate this with function–to bring up your contact list, for example.” But since the Ocean has different orientations, the user will anticipate soft keys in different places, depending on how the device is being used. So Helio gave the Ocean four soft keys, two on either side of the screen. The dual-slider problem begat the d‑pad problem, which in turn led to radially symmetric soft keys.

Helio’s goal for the Ocean was to allow a user to grab the device in its idle mode and type a few letters of an address-book entry, a message to a friend, or a Web-search keyword. The high concept: all your e-mail accounts, instant-­messaging accounts, text messages, and picture messages would be accessible through one integrated interface.

Go Ocean!

Back in 2000 “Any 2 Any” was a catch phrase coined by e-business consulting firms to market technologies and solutions for innovative device to device communications. It was supposed to be a big driver for the “new economy” - if you remember that phrase. Just one problem: the Internet bubble bust and the any 2 any stuff didn’t happen. As usual it was too early and the hype did not live to the expectation. However I was reminded of the recent technology improvements by an article in Economist (When everything connects - The coming wireless revolution) which provides a good overview of machine to machine communication.

The article talks about the new wireless technologies - wireless sensor networks, RFID (tags). Lets see if the Fridge is ready to talk with the cattle?

Here are a few key points from the article:

In coming years wireless will vanish entirely from view, as communications chips are embedded in a host of everyday objects. Such chips, and the networks that link them together, could yet prove to be the most potent wireless of them all. Example: Tags will certify the origins and distribution of food and the authenticity of medicines. But we are stil far from the

The wireless-communications revolution is about making digital information about anything available anywhere at almost no cost. No longer tied down by wires and cables, more information about more things will get to the place where it is most valuable.

For the moment, the mobile phone is stealing the show. It is evolving from a simple phone into a wallet, keychain, health monitor and navigation device. But as mobile-phone technology matures, even more innovation is taking place in areas of wireless that link things only metres or millimetres apart.

Etched into silicon, the radio is starting to benefit from the dramatic decreases in size and cost and the huge increase in
performance that have recently propelled computing. Satellite-navigation chips today cost as little as a dollar apiece.

The decrease in cost of chips will drive the adoption of these technologies. Developed economies will use it for commercial purposes. Develping countries will have to focus on critical issues first.

Security and privacy will be of primary concern.

Standards, spectrum availability and government regulations will be important for all this to happen.

This post has barely scratched the surface of these topics. A few additional resources are presented. Here’s a link to a related Economist audio interview file in mp3. Also see this DRITTE link about a technical book on Wireless Networking in the Developing World. And here’s a blog about RFID.

Tomi Ahonen wrote an interesting post at Communities-Dominate blog, arguing that mobile is the 7th  mass media and at that, a much superior media to Internet. Of course it is the kind of bold statement which brings out a variety of reaction: some will agree to it and others will say Ahonen is stretching it too much. I will present some key points post - you should read the full story and comments here and share your thoughts.

Here are the reasons put forth by Ahonen to prove his point:

 The observations have been made from the point-of-view of a US/European society but apply to a large extent to the emerging economies as well. In case of developing countries mobile is not competing with Internet - it IS the only way of communication for many who may not have even seen the Internet. However some of the factors described above can also work against the idea of putting too much functionality in the mobile such as when your phone gets lost or stolen. However I completely agree that the massive scale and reach of mobile phones is way ahead of any other media.Last point which I want to express is that not all of the media described here have to necessarily compete … the digital convergence can bring them together in a way which we do not experience yet. No matter how much I love my phone, it is not the only gadget I want to interact with!

Some excerpts:

So yes the mobile, as the 7th Mass Media is the youngest, least understood, most dangerous new mass media - one which will soon supercede the internet. Not because consuming a web page is better on a phone (that would be stupid to even try) but rather has five benefits the internet cannot hope to match. And in addition to those five, the mobile can also replicate all that the internet can do, while not necessarily replicating all of those media experiences quite as well.

This is the newest mass media, and will soon be the most powerful mass media on the planet. It has enormous implications to the current giant, TV. And to its revenue engine - advertising. It has a huge implication to the internet, which will soon be overtaken in importance by mobile. Yes, you heard it here first. Mobile to the internet is like TV is to radio. Be sure you capture the real opportunity of our lifetimes.

Till recently voice and data used to be transported on separate networks. With advances in network technologies this separation is no longer there. Next Generation Networking (NGN) is a term which refers to the technology where a single network is capable of transporting all information and services (voice, data, video) by encapsulating these into packets. NGNs are commonly built around the Internet Protocol, and therefore the term “all-IP” is also sometimes used to describe the transformation towards NGN (adapted from Wikipedia NGN page). The IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS, is a related concept to NGN. Technologies such as WiFi and WiMAX  belong to the NGN area.

The NGN illustration below is from Cisco Systems (get full paper in pdf or html).

ITU Definition of NGN - A NGN is a packet-based network able to provide telecommunication services and able to make use of multiple broadband, QoS-enabled transport technologies and in which service-related functions are independent from underlying transport-related technologies. It enables unfettered access for users to networks and to competing service providers and/or services of their choice. It supports generalized mobility which will allow consistent and ubiquitous provision of services to users. 

The interesting thing is that countries like Pakistan were able to adopt (or should I say import?) NGN without too much difficulty as they did not have a hefty investment in old technology infrastructure. The US companies, for example took considerable time to make the change. Only in 2001 the move beyond 2G was made which allowed the US companies to go from circuit switching to packet switching.

As ITU points out, the concept behind NGN is a shift away from an era of separate networks (such as narrowband fixed, broadband fixed, cellular mobile, cable TV), bearing different services (voice, video, text, data) to multiple devices, e.g. fixed handset, mobile handset, PC. NGN moves towards a unitary IP-based network in which the common features of the user environment (for example user preferences, contacts, databases, files and so on) are accessible as the user moves around, say between home, car and office, or between desk and meeting room. From a regulation point of view Next generation networks (NGNs) are likely to require next-generation regulation as the problems of scarcity are replaced by dilemmas of abundance and complexity.

Per ITU the NGN functional architecture should incorporate the following principles.

Alcatel, Nortel, Huawei, Siemens and Cisco are a few of the major companies who dominate NGN. Many of them are suppliers for service providers in Pakistan. As a case study, lets take a look at Wateen’s network which is poised for triple play in Pakistan.  Wateen’s website provides the following information about their NGN and other networks.

Wateen’s Next Generation Network (NGN) Core

• IMS enabled converged IP/MPLS core multi-access network based on layered architecture designed to provide quad-play services (voice, data, multimedia and limited mobility) and much more
• Robust class 4 and class 5 soft switches with a host of applications and value-added services to provide depth and breadth to our product offering

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What is digital identity and why do we need to protect it, in Pakistan of all the places? With globalization and outsourcing on the rise privacy and Identity theft is fast becoming a global problem. Here are a few reasons for concern regarding privacy and data protection in Pakistan: rise in banking and consumer credit industry,  surging number of telecom subscribers, outsourced data processing and grwoth of E-commerce transactions. I’ll provide some background, discuss the existing rules and provide recommendations for business organizations.

The question is: do we have adequate identity and privacy protection in Pakistan? Are banks and telecom companies doing enough to keep your personal information safe?  As one example, I was sent phone bills of someone else via e-mail and even after reporting the issue there was no followup. Probably similar incidents have happened with others in Pakistan as well, though statistics are not readily available.

My prediction is that gradually Asian societies (Pakistan, China, India etc) will become more sensitive to data protection and privacy issues. Now is a good time to demand good security practices to safeguard our data.

As a related item I’ll mention theITU Internet Report entitled “digital.life” (in pdf), which was prepared for ITU TELECOM World 2006 . The report examines how innovation in digital technology is radically changing individual and societal lifestyles.

Chapter four, identity.digital, explores the changing nature of the digital individual and the need for greater emphasis on the creation and management of digital identity. Individuals today spend more and more time using digital means to communicate and transact, be that sending and receiving e-mail, talking on a mobile phone, participating in a social networking site, buying music, booking vacations over the internet, or playing an online game. The complexity of the interaction between technology, personal consumption and the construction of identity in the virtual space is a growing area of research. Users of digital technologies have a wide scope for constructing their virtual identity.

What are the laws for data and privacy protection in Pakistan? I found a final draft of the Electronic Data Protection Act 2005 at Pakistan Software Export Board [PSEB] website. It is a relatively short and simple document which provides very basic rules over data collection, processing and handling. The Act tries to solve two problems: a) provide guidelines for outsourced data processing and b) data collection regulation in Pakistan. To give you a flavour of this Act here are 2 definitions from it:

“Sensitive Data” means data revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or other beliefs, political opinions, membership in political parties, trade unions, organizations and associations with a religious, philosophical, political or trade-union, or provide information as to the health or sexual life of an individual and financial, or proprietary confidential corporate data.

Electronic data security. Electronic data that is subject to data processing shall be kept under custody, controlled or processed in such a way as to minimize the risks of its destruction or loss, even accidental, unauthorized access, unlawful processing or processing for purposes other than those for which the electronic data were collected, by means of appropriate precautionary security measures.

I would like to hear more from those who are involved in data processing in Pakistan and get some stats about security breaches and their resolution. A few years ago there was some uproar in the US about a data processing company in Pakistan but that issue was settled. Perhaps that incident also contributed to the implementation of Electronic Data Protection Act 2005.

What is the situation in the developed (or G7) world? European Union has stricter standards than US, where laws vary from state to state. The privacy legislation in California is worth mentioning here. State of California is considered by many to be the most strict regarding privacy and identity issues. California has setup a privacy office for this purpose and you can find the legislature details here .

Based on California’s laws Forrester Research recommends the following practices for Business organizations - these recommendations can be applied to any organization:

Pick a framework. The establishment of reasonable security is best built on a foundation that is recognized and accepted. ISO17799 is currently the leading and most accepted framework to build an information security program around. The framework provides a standard architecture to document controls and make sure that everything is covered.

Identify and classify information. The focus of reasonable security is around personal California resident data. Security is first established by classifying this data — define it, assign information owners, establish controls —and identifying where in the organization this information resides. Personal data may be classified into subcategories such as employee data and customer/client data.

Determine business partners that touch your data. Identify which business partner relationships touch and store personal data; this is a critical element that is directly addressed in the legislation. Your organization’s liability does not stop with organizational boundaries — you are required to see adequate security is established in third-party relationships.

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I have written about VOIP and voice over internet services here and here. These voip services are changing the way expatriate Pakistanis communicate with Pakistan. These voip services are one of the factors which will cause Pakistani phone numbers to change from 7-digits to 8-digits (see my post about this). At the same time the rates of international calls have dropped dramatically in Pakistan because of increased competition in long distance arena.

However there is nothing like dialing a local number and reaching your friend or family anywhere in the world. This is becoming quite common with many VOIP companies providing this service. You are given a Pakistan phone number and that number is pointed to your phone number abroad. So far so good. But one has to be careful before signing up for such services. Often the companies providing these services are new and share little information about their background. Sometimes they packup and close shop leaving users without service and the pain of a non-working number. For these reasons it is better to choose established and reputable companies which can provide better service. I am often asked about these services so I keep an eye on what’s out there. Usually for $30-40 you can find a service with unlimited incoming calls and perhaps a few hundred minutes of outgoing calls.

As part of my research, I have been testing the call forwarding service from Vonics. I was provided with a Lahore phone number and that number rings on my home phone in US. The service is about $30 per month - more info here . The voice quality is superb and customer service is prompt. The interesting thing about Vonics is that they provide phone numbers in 37 countries and (depending on the plan you choose) they also compete with top-notch players such as Vonage and Packet8 by allowing unlimited calls within US/Canada. Vonics told me that more plans will be introduced very soon.

I believe that this will become a popular and common service and many other players will jump in. The price will likely fall from $30s to $20s.

Have you tried any such service? Please share your experience with others.