Techorati

Import of apparatus, equipment and accessories for telecom and broadband sector witnessed an increasing trend thanks to increased development and advancement of infrastructure and network as shown by the import expenses that surged by 44 percent in July-October 2011 period.
The Federal Board of Statistics (FBS) data said that the imports of infrastructure items grew to Rs 15.9 billion in the first four months of the current financial year 2011-12 showing 44 percent growth over corresponding duration last year.
Analysts said that imports of apparatus and equipment in broadband sector lately contributed major volume of companies' expenditures as they look to expand in highly untapped market.
ISPs invest heavily due to increasing numbers of broadband customers, for which they keep scaling up their capacity to support demand. WiMAX sector, in particular, remains in demand for thousands of CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), Dongle or USB devices every month.
Besides, there are different categories of machines imported for the network system of broadband operators in their areas of coverage.
Analysts said the amount of imported equipment and accessories gets costlier with time as the rupees depreciated against dollar by 3 percent since the start of current fiscal year.
Imports of apparatus in telecom sector is being carried out at slow pace as infrastructure of majority of the telecom operators has been set up completely in all coverage areas. As a result of progressive network rollout by the operators, the cellular telephony facilities are now available to over 95 % population of the country, as claimed by PTA.
However, telecom operators keep importing equipment for advancement and repair of their infrastructure.

 
Pakistan's mobile banking has gained immense prominence in the world as it is considered as a model to follow for different developing countries seeking to establish advanced financial system.
For instance, a delegation of National Bank of Tajikistan is on its week-long official visit at State Bank of Pakistan to understand regulatory framework for branchless and microfinance banking sector.
The purpose of the visit is to understand regulatory framework for microfinance sector and mobile financial services, which include different issues such as supervision of agents; technological requirements; legislative provisions for payment system and oversight of electronic banking; experience of pilot financial institutions and development of a road map for introducing mobile financial services in Tajikistan.
Tajik's delegation comprising 6 members mostly heads/directors of supervisory, payment system and microfinance departments held discussions with senior officials from different departments of the State Bank of Pakistan, Tameer Microfinance Bank, United Bank Limited, and MCB Commercial Bank.
It held meetings with technology experts and observed demonstration of different technological instruments for routing transactions. The delegation also visited different agent locations to see how agents are providing different financial services to unbanked clients.
The study visit was facilitated by Development Finance Group of the State Bank of Pakistan and sponsored by M/s Deutsche Gesellschaft fürInternationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – German International Cooperation under its "Regional Program in Support of Microfinance in Central Asia" to draw up a road map for starting mobile financial services in Tajikistan.
Pakistan has been declared as laboratory of innovation for branchless banking with a variety of business models are emerging that involves a wide range of players, including mobile network operators (MNOs), technology companies, and even a courier business.
The World Economic Forum' global report on Mobile Financial Services gave extensive coverage on Pakistan, praising the country for its fast developing branchless banking.
The CGAP report said that Pakistan has been showed as one of the fastest developing market for branchless banking in the world.
Presently, the two major branchless banking models have emerged in Pakistan "Easypaisa" by Tameer Microfinance Bank and "Omni' by United Bank Limited and marked a success story with a span of just two years, the combined daily transaction volume of the two services already averages over 175 thousand, with an average size of Rs 3,700.
In addition to them, there are different banks and mobile operators have introduced their branchless banking services such as First Microfinance Banks collaboration with Pakistan Post, and Dubai Islamic Bank pilot project. MCB Bank and Askari Bank are both expected to roll out their pilot tests shortly.

 
wi-tribe today announced that it has extended the volume limit on all packages to enable all existing wi-tribe customers to enjoy endless volumes in December.
Customers don't need to do anything, their accounts will be credited with endless volume automatically.
They can check their updated volume limit in their account information on my-tribe.
According to fair usage policy, new volume limits will be as following:

• 512 Kbps package will get 30 GB limit
• 1 Mbps package holders will get 30 GB limit
• 2 Mbps package holders will get 40 GB limit
• Volume limits for Endless packages will double up

This offer is valid for December 2011 only.
For any further information you can call wi-tribe helpline.

In its latest Customs General Order 22/2006, the CBR had announced the removal of two telecom equipment from the list of other products that could be imported without paying a penny as duty, industry sources said.

“It appeared that the government privileged the Chinese products on grounds that some of the Chinese companies are manufacturing telecom components locally and duty-free import would not hurt the local industry’s business scope.”

“Before the fresh order, only China’s ZTE remained the main beneficiary of the duty concession, which has been operating as vendor for the PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company) for the past two years and fulfilling its almost all telecom equipment supply orders.”

“The PTCL has hired a Chinese firm to computerise its billing and customer care operations at a cost of Rs 1.8 billion almost a year ago,” said the source. “Under that contract, ZTE will be responsible to automate the whole system within 18 months and complete the task in accordance with international telecom standards.”