IT & Telecom News Update: 2nd Feb 2010

PTCL offering 30 percent discount package for students
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is offering a special 30 percent discount package for the students on 1 Mbps connection of high speed broadband services.

The PTCL is providing better services to the growing student segment under the broadband services, in recent years, with the confidence that the package will continue to facilitate students in their educational requirements.

EVP Multimedia and broadband, Syed Zomma Mohiuddin said that the aim is to provide uninterrupted service to all the existing and new student customers through this package.

All other packages greater than 1 Mbps i.e., 2 Mbps and 4 Mbps on high speed broadband services, will not have the student package discount applicable, which is effective from March 1, 2010 onwards

Two Numbers in One SIM by Zong
ZONG, the first international brand of China Mobile has introduced ‘Chine-Ease’ one SIM two numbers, an additional service for ZONG postpaid subscribers.

Chine-Ease is a service through which subscribers using international roaming services will be given roaming facilities in China at the cheapest rates.

‘Chine-Ease’ subscribers will get a ‘China Mobile’ number, mapped with their ZONG number; enabling them to have two numbers on one SIM.

The China Mobile number will serve as the calling number, when the subscriber is in China while leaving The ZONG number as a calling number for Pakistan or in any other country.

Awais Malik, Director Segment, Products & International Business, ZONG, said that the new service would particularly benefit people who travel frequently to China and do not want the inconvenience of purchasing local SIMs for making calls.

PTCL brings Personal Collaborator for business people
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) from its audio conferencing platform has introduced new state of art service ‘Personal Collaborator’.

The aim of this conference service is to connect national and global workforce of corporate clients and small businesses, where clients immediately can support virtual meetings of up to 10 users.

EVP Customer Care Jamil Khawaja has stated that PTCL audio conferencing solutions has been designed to keep the usage easy with economical billing packages while allowing the customer’s organization to collaborate with their concerned parties located both in Pakistan and internationally, thus enhancing their work productivity.

This service is being offered both in English and Urdu with reservation-less instant meeting, where customer’s employees keep the same dial-in number and pin code so meetings can be started at a moment’s notice.

PTCL is determined to develop systems and services that are customer-centric and customer-friendly. As part of that endeavor PTCL is exploring new horizons of technology to provide its customers best value of their money.

FireFox mobile web Browser released by Mozilla
Mozilla has finally released its Mobile FireFox browser which is mainly for the cellphones. They have named it FireFox 1.0 and it is codenamed Fennec.

It is basically for the Nokia’s Maemo platform and it is offering many new features that make it different from the other mobile web browsers like OperaMobile and Opera Mini.

The main problem that the Mozilla facing is that the Maemo platform is not known to people so its usage will be a limited one. Nokia’s open-source, Linux-based Maemo operating system supports mobile Firefox on just two devices–the N900 and the N810, an Internet tablet.

So we have to wait that when the platform will be available for the other handhelds. Let see that what comprehensive solution does Mozilla chalks out.

Rising Demand for Online Tourism:
A high rise interest is seen in the online tourism around the world. Recently through a report, it has been derived that especially Chinese online tourism market is gaining a lot of promotion mainly due to an increase in middle class incomes, use of credit cards and internet.

Observers state that millions have traveled to various tourist spots during the Chinese New Year holidays making this the most eventful traveling period of the year.

According to the Chinese internet research and counseling firm i-Research, most vacationers made their programs through online booking over the internet.

The online flight, hotel and package tour booking revenues have increased by 27 percent than last year reaching up to $ 695.8 million (CHY 4.75 Billion) and are expected to double by 2013.

The avenue of online tourism holds a lot of potential in Pakistan which is entirely dependent on improvement from uncertainty present in the country