IT & Telecom News Update: 4th Jan 2010

NA passes Institute of Space Technology Bill 2009
The National Assembly passed The Institute of Space Technology Bill to provide for establishment of Institute of Space Technology.
The 43-clause Bill was moved by Minister of State for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Mehreen Anwar Raja that was passed by the voice vote providing for the establishment of institute to provide education, and scholarship and make provision for research.
The President of Pakistan will be the chancellor of the Institute that would have the status of degree awarding institute.

Nokia says it has more than one million navigation clients
More than a million smartphone users have downloaded the free navigation software that Nokia started offering last month, the world’s leading mobile phone maker said on Wednesday.

“We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” Nokia executive vice president Anssi Vanjoki said in a statement, adding that the number of users was “growing faster than even we predicted.”

In January, Nokia put pressure on players in the satellite navigation industry like Tom Tom and Garmin by offering car and pedestrian navigation for free to its smartphone users across the world.

The new version of Nokia’s Ovi Maps navigation software was downloaded one million times within a week of the launch, the Finnish company said, adding it had been downloaded 1.4 million times in total.

With the free navigation application, Nokia hopes to strengthen its position in the smartphone market, where it has faced tough competition from the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry.

PTCL earns Rs 5.354b profit in 6 months
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) on Wednesday announced financial results for the half-year ended on December 31, 2009 with net profit of Rs 5.354 billion registering growth of 13 percent.

According to the Company statement, since PTCL alone earned net profit of Rs 5.354 billion as compared to Rs 5.314 billion recorded in the same period of the last year, the Group of companies earned a consolidated net profit of Rs 6.7 billion after taxation.

To provide value services to its corporate clients, the Company has launched Enterprise DSL, I-Sentry (IP video monitoring and surveillance solution), managed services and also soft launched Tele-presence for the first time in Pakistan. Also, Data Centers equipped with latest technologies are being established at Karachi and Lahore with the objective to provide data hosting as well as disaster-recovery services to our valued corporate customers. Another initiative is the on-going project to equip over 4,000 schools with IT labs under the auspices of Govt of Punjab.

President PTCL, Walid Irshaid, commenting on the results said “We strive hard to ensure the high standards of quality that our valued customers expect from us.

Atif becomes Warid’s official Brand Ambassador
Warid Telecom (Pvt) Ltd Pakistan’s most reliable and third largest telecom operator has announced Atif Aslam as their official brand ambassador. Signing ceremony took place at Warid head office here. Shahzad Rauf, Chief Strategy and Operations Officer Warid Telecom, Atif Aslam, Warid Brand Ambassador, Tariq Gulzar, Chief Financial Officer Warid Telecom and Suhail Jan, General Manager Commercial Warid Telecom & other officers were also present during the signing ceremony