Telecom:

10- Warid Inks a Financing Facility

11- China-Made Cell Phones Making Big Reception
12- Voice Your Mails on PTCL
14- Telenor Takes "Naya Qadam" to Empower the
Disabled
16- Warid to Explore Ivorian Telecom Market
20- Warid Tops in Brand Awards 2006-07
23- Are Camera Phones Useless?
24- Telenor Wins Award at SAARC Summit
26- Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft
27- Hajj 2007: Flight Information via SMS
28-
79-
Impact of Mobile Phones In Daily Life
WARID and CA Enter into a Three year
46
Strategic Partnership
Cover Story:
Cover Story:
46- ITC -- A Proxy For E-Media

IT:
18- Books Unhurt from Internet
38- Channel Blanket Technology for Dense WLANs
72- Gadget
73-
74-
Microsoft Beats Google in the Facebook Race
Where Work Becomes a Game
20
75- Internet Reaching Stars Expanding Beyond Limits Warid Tops in Brand Awards 2006-07
77- Creating Signatures for Your E-Mails in MS Outlook
78- Counseling the Consultants
81- Netting Professional Mates

Events:
19- Mobilink Truly Reshaping Lives
36- Branding Better Pakistan
82- A Great Fund Raising Idea by Wateen

Informative: 24
50- Coming Mobiles
53- Current Mobiles Telenor Wins Award at SAARC Summit
58- Mobile Reviews
65- Nokia N81 8GB 19
70- Hot Laptops 82 A Great Fund Raising
Idea by Wateen

Briefs:
66- World in Pictures
84- Short Stories
90- National
95- International

Technology:
30- A Muslim Astronaut's Dilemma
32- Islamic Innovation Finally on the Rising Crescent
42- TV's Journey to Future

Nokia N81 8GB

Airline: 65 11 China-Made Cell Phones
Making Big Reception
34- A380 Defining a History Point
6
 Media Restrictions……..
not a Solution
After the imposition of emergency, Pakistan's electronic media is sailing in
hot waters. Government has not only handled the journalists strictly and
banned Private TV channels but also taking every measure to keep these
channels away from the general public.
Due to these restrictions, Television Channels have turned to the Internet
to reach viewers looking for the news about the state of post emergency and
other developments going on in the country. These channels sent SMS to
Mobile phone users telling them to log onto their websites to watch their
transmissions.
It is a fact that media plays a very important role in the society. It high-
lights every aspect of a picture or incident and provides people with the up
to date information.
This episode badly affected the general public, which depends upon the
media to be aware of the developments going on in the country and rest of
the world. People remained unaware of the post emergency situation. Some
of them had to rely on the information provided by the state television, other
had to content with newspapers and those who had the facility of internet
relied on the information it provided.
It may be true that media has crossed its limits while broadcasting live
coverage of the sensitive issues and it has projected the dark side of the pic-
ture. Infact it has contradicted the interests of the government. But the result
should not be a clash between the government and the media, as it may add
another sad incident to the history of our country.
Both, government and media will have to demonstrate the tolerance. On
one hand media will have to play its neutral role with more responsibility and
should not cross the line of its limits. At the same time government will have
to realize to lift ban on media and that suppressing the people is not the
solution of the problem. However, mutual understanding and respecting the
rights of each others is the better way that will help improve the image of
both Pakistan and its media.
Being a responsible citizen of this country everyone should play positive
and constructive role to build better Pakistan rather than blaming each other
and reacting in a hostile way.

Zubair Ahmed Kasuri Editor-in-Chief Published by Good News PR Network

Aamir Attaa Editor Printed by Akkaz Printers, Lahore
M. Raza Malik Resident Editor Lahore Office: Telephone:+92-42-7221006 - 7222275
M. H. Khalid Special Editor Fax: +92-42-7321920
Yasir Ali Sub Editor Islamabad Office: Phone: + 92-51-2891339,
Usman Yaqoob Marketing Executive (Lhr.)
M. Farooq Malik Marketing Executive (Lhr.) Karachi Office: Phone: +92-21-2275215, Fax: +92-21-2275216

M. Naeem Mughal Designer

E-mail: flare.mag@gmail.com

Khawar Shahzad Finance Manager Price: 250/-

Azhar Javed Production Manager Registration No: PCPB/105 (Vol. 4 Issue: 2)
Kamran Incharge Research Wing

8

PTCL - feel the difference!
This is in reference to the new advertising campaign of PTCL - feel the
difference. My 2 PTCL lines are out of order since the last more than a
month. It is needless to mention the number of complaints and visits to
the concerned exchange undertaken. To remain in touch, I had to urgently
buy a wireless set.
I really feel the difference, it's going towards worse. Why not the com-
pany put all its resources first to keep the existing customer base satisfied
and then go for these catchy campaigns to capture more share in the
telecommunication market.
I am sure, people in the PTCL know the competition they are facing
now. It is no more a monopolistic situation.
DR HASAN THARANI,
Karachi
Wake-up call for CAA
After the withdrawal of SAFA ban on PIA flights, the CAA was expect-
ed to wake up to the ground realities. As a responsible regulatory body,
they should have analysed the cause of their failure to check PIA, an air-
line regulated by them. The failure was due to lack of professional skills
within the CAA to carry out their regulatory functions.
PIA faced the ban, because of failure by its engineering, safety and
quality departments to heed repeated warnings issued by the EU. PIA's
engineering head was totally unfamiliar in the intricacies of working in a
highly regulated industry.
The safety division was headed by a retired PIA pilot known for his
compromising posture, but he had the support of a key political party.
It is now widely believed that collusion between retired air force and
army aviation officers working in PIA and the CAA added to the airline's
woes.
It is only after the PIA engineering department was relieved of former
air force engineering officers' domination that PIA was able to get relief
from EU censure. In the process the national airline has had a loss of
credibility, which has adversely affected its revenues.
Both PIA and the CAA have still not been out of the woods, while we
see that complacency has set in.
It is time that upright professionals trained in commercial aviation be
assigned professional assignments instead of appointments made on rec-
ommendations and contrived advertisements.
ABRAR AHMED,
Faisalabad
Thank you, PTCL
Recently, PTCL showed remarkable generosity by providing its users with
the answering-machine service without any notification. But since many
of its subscribers are oblivious of this, a call is now charged even if the
called party is busy or not replying. Sometimes the answering machine
starts just after the first bell. A nice way to make extra money!
Zunaira Babar,
Rawalpindi
Violence on TV
Many TV compares and reporters have started to look like ghosts to me.
While covering events of bomb blasts, road accidents and violence
against innocent people, they use horrendous language and scare their
viewers to the extent that they get horrified and find peace only in switch-
ing the channel. Also, TV channels should avoid telecasting video clips
showing acts of violence, corpses and bleeding men and women as they
can cause psychological disorders among the general public.
Tooba Alam,
Karachi
Send us your letters at flare.mag@gmail.com or at our postal addresses. Flare reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and space.
Consumer Banking
THE State Bank governor has recently said on television that our
banks have stood out as the most profitable ones in Asia. She empha-
sised that this was also so in terms of return on investment by banks.
Foreign banks are picking up Pakistani banks like hot cakes. The
high profitability of banks in Pakistan, because the finance ministry and
the State Bank are both overseen by bankers, has created conditions
for this.
All these conditions are detrimental for the clients of these banks.
Would the governor also give data on the levels of bank returns to for-
eign investors? Are investment inflows with very short payback periods
of value to Pakistan?
Would the State Bank governor also provide the percentage of our
phenomenal bank results, in a community of astute Asian bankers,
which are not attributable to unchecked and stoutly promoted con-
sumer banking in Pakistan?
Would she also provide data on the spread between borrowing and
savings rates in Asia (including Pakistan)? Would the governor then
comment on where Pakistani banks stand vis-a-vis the markups to
savers with the rest of Asia to give a review of what ordinary folk who
put their savings in banks get?
Most banks give miniscule markups (say 0.1 per cent) up to
Rs 100,000, which is anti-small saver.
When will the government leash the dogs of consumer banking?
This is American import, where hire-purchase and extortionate credit
card interests have made ulcer drugs big sellers.
Consumer banking is a disease being avidly promoted in Pakistan.
It has also resulted in severe traffic congestion and rampant loadshed-
ding via unearned leased cars and airconditioners, etc. (Already 15 to
20 per cent of cars etc are being repossessed by banks and a market
for such goods is operational).
The whole matter is a great mess caused by this unimaginative and
daft policy to get apparent short-term gains via boosting consumption
on burrowed money.
The situation for savers and citizens can improve if the consumer
banking mandate is taken away from banks, reasonable mark-ups are
given to bank clients via a more reasonable State Bank-supervised
spread between lending and savings, and the anti-savings withholding
tax on savings is abolished forthwith.
MUZAFFAR A. GHAFFAR,
Lahore
Billboards Everywhere!
There is hardly any public space left in the city where one's line of
sight isn't interrupted by a billboard, shop sign, banner, flyer, hoarding
or poster. It used to be that the only such invasions of privacy were the
advertisements affixed to streetlights. But now, it seems that every-
where someone is selling something. Since 1998, the regulation of bill-
boards and outdoor advertising in Lahore has been under the control
and regulation of the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) of the
Government of the Punjab. In all other urban areas across Pakistan,
local governments collect the revenue generated from billboard regula-
tion. The fact that the PHA is a provincial level government authority is
an anomaly. Indeed, the globally accepted practice is to leave the busi-
ness of billboard regulation to local governments.
Moreover, our roads and traffic signals are so crowded with billboards,
neon boards and banners that the attention of the driver is distracted
from the road, increasing the risk of accidents. Our local government
needs to look into the matter.
ZEHRA FATIMA,
Lahore
Menace of Smoking
Using tobacco in any form is hazardous. Diabetics who take tobacco
are more at risk of its bad effects than others. They are prone to com-
plications such as cardiovascular, kidney and eye diseases. Diabetics
who take tobacco are 11 times more likely to suffer from heart prob-
lems. Smoking also impairs insulin resistance. It raises the cholesterol
level which eventually leads to a heart attack. Similarly, foot infections
become more severe leading to amputation. Smoking is a dangerous
habit. It is our collective responsibility to spread the anti-smoking mes-
sage everywhere.
Yasir Ali,
Rawalpindi
9
 Telecom Flare Karachi Report
arid telecom has
W signed a contract
of PKR 10.56 bil-
lion with a con-
sortium of four
leading banks to
acquire a financing facility in a simple
ceremony, held in Karachi. National
Bank of Pakistan and Habib Bank
Limited are the lead arranger and
advisor of the facility.
The facility has been extended by
National Bank of Pakistan, Habib
Bank Limited, Allied Bank Limited &
Askari Bank Limited.
Mr. Hamid Farooq, CEO of Warid
Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd.; Mr. Ali Raza,
Chairman & President of National
Bank of Pakistan and Mr. Zakir
Mahmood, President/CEO of Habib HBL President Zakir Mehmood, Warid Telecom CEO, Hamid Farooq, CFO, Abdul Aziz and NBP
Bank Limited were present at the
ceremony.
Hamid Farooq - Chief Executive Officer
Warid Telecom said "Pakistan's telecom mar-
ket is one of the fastest growing industries in
the country. Warid Telecom takes pride in its
innovative and customer-friendly services. In
fact, since its launch, Warid has been respon-
sible for changing the landscape of the
Pakistani telecom industry in numerous ways.
The transaction will help the Company in con-
solidating its balance sheet by acquiring
In an industry which has been reigned over by foreign vendors ever since its concep-
tion, a local organization has not only carved out a place for itself, but also announced
its presence by a series of phenomenal, record making achievements
n an industry which has been reigned
I over by foreign vendors ever since its
conception, a local organization has
not only carved out a niche for itself,
but also announced its presence by a
series of phenomenal, record making
achievements. Konnect Holden Limited (KHL),
an associate company of Akbar Associates
group which has been in existence for the
past 5 years only, and in this short period of
time it has managed to accomplish feats such
as the deployment of the entire long-haul and
Metro network of Wateen Telecom in an unbe-
lievably short period of time, i.e. 14 months
only.
What's more astonishing is the fact that
KHL is a 100% equity based firm, which
accomplished what it did; in collaboration with
FWO, its joint venture partner, solely on the
basis of its intrinsic technical and operational
strength. The company's exceptional compe-
tence is exemplified by the fact that it man-
aged to deploy the entire long-haul network
and metro rings in Lahore, Karachi and
10 Islamabad. The long-haul network of Wateen
President, Syed Ali Raza at the signing ceremony
financing at efficient terms. Our approach is
simple, to create a difference in the mobile
sector through a superior service and innova-
tion".
Abdul Aziz - Chief Financial Officer Warid
Telecom said, "Signing this term finance facili-
ty of Rs.10.56 Billion by a syndicate of leading mobile company in Pakistan with about 12
financial institutions of Pakistan is another
milestone in the success story of Warid
Telecom. This is the reflection of faith & confi-
dence these financial institutions have in our
company."
telecom was a project of colossal magnitude
and KHL managed to deploy 5500kms of
Long Haul Optic Fiber Cable Network in this
short period of time. KHL also installed the
metro rings for Wateen in Karachi, Lahore and
Islamabad in such a short time span. The net-
work now has not only been successfully
KHL has been short-listed in
UAE to undertake projects
which will constitute a huge
success for Pakistan and for
KHL as a local company cross-
ing borders towards interna-
tional markets
commissioned, but its Operations and
Maintenance is already underway and this
task too has been entrusted to KHL on the
merit of its impeccable performance.
It was told by a high
official that bonds dua-
tion is six years, while
the interest rate will be
applied as eleven perent
of the total amount of
bond.
Warid Telecom is
owned by the Abu Dhabi
Group, led by His
Highness Sheikh
Nahayan Mabarak Al
Nahayan. Abu Dhabi
group's other successful
investments in Pakistan
besides Warid Telecom
include Bank Alfalah,
United Bank Limited,
Taavun, and Wateen
Telecom. The group has
successfully launched
its services in Bangladesh in May 2007 and
also acquired licenses in Congo-Brazzaville
and Uganda and is preparing to launch its
operations for these two markets in the last
quarter of 2007.
Warid Telecom is the fastest growing GSM
million subscribers. This results in premium
connectivity and the optimal experience for
Warid loyal users.

By: Khadeeja Qasmi
In addition KHL has managed to construct,
on turnkey basis with its contractor Alcatel-
Lucent Pakistan and Joint Venture partner
FWO; two subsidiary routes for PTCL in areas
such as Peshawar, Landikotal and Islamabad-
Mallach-Muree in record time and achieved
the distinction on merit. These turnkey proj-
ects have made KHL on roads in PTCL for
OFAN and subsidiary routes besides DWDM
projects under acquisition.
KHL has also been short-listed in UAE to
undertake projects which will constitute a
huge success for Pakistan and for KHL as a
local company crossing borders towards inter-
national markets.
The fact that local enterprise & Business
House are not only announcing their presence
in the telecom, power and construction sec-
tors but also giving their foreign counterparts
a serious run for their money; is an extremely
heartening development and is an initiative
that ought to be embraced by our local opera-
tors so that our nation can advance further on
its agenda of self reliance and eventually rid
itself of dependence on foreign vendors.

 Aamir Shafaat Khan Telecom

Cell phones of various popular brands,

hina-made cell phones of vari-
with names spelled differently to avoid
copyright and piracy laws, have entered
the local markets in a big way over the
last few months. These cheaper copies of
reputed mobile phones of world-class
companies are attracting a number of
price-conscious buyers
responsible for its wear and tear in case it has risk as more than 6,000 cell phones are being

C ous popular brands, with names any fault.

spelled differently to avoid copy-
right and piracy laws, have

way over the last six months.

These cheaper copies of reputed mobile
The dealers of Chinese sets say that
mobile phone repair shops are set up in large
entered the local market in a big number in the mobile markets, but in the
absence of any guarantee and warranty one
cannot expect reasonable re-sale value of
phones of world-class companies are attracting these phones.
a number of price-conscious
buyers.
snatched away every month in Karachi in
which many have also lost their lives.
However, some consumers believe that
Chinese products are considered as dispos-
able items in Pakistan because of their low
quality and Chinese phones also fall in this
category.
According to statistics issued in
August this year by the Pakistan
The start-up tones also indi- Some of the Chinese phones also have dual Telecommunication Authority (PTA),
cate spelling change. However,
many brands are also available
and triple SIM facility. It may be noted here the more than 68 million people have
been using cellular phones in the
with accurate spelling of brand- manufacturers of Nokia and Sony Ericsson so country.
ed mobiles. These cheap Nokia Communication Director
phones are not available in the far have not introduced such models with triple for Middle East and Africa Ms
original boxes. They are Yolande Pineda in an interview
packed in a box mentioning SIM features said, "Mobile phones are one of
various brand names and many products affected by this
phone features in Chinese kind of activity and Nokia is tak-
language. ing the necessary measures to
A random market survey fight any of these activities.
reveals that a China-made According to the experts,
copy of Nokia N-73 is selling Chinese products had eaten up
between Rs6,500-7,000, two to four per cent market
while its original version car- share so far and consumers
ries a price tag of Rs22,500. were totally at risk in purchasing
Similarly, Nokia 6300 (copy) these items as they did not know
sells at Rs5,800, while its what kind of battery was being
original brand is available at used and that may explode.
Rs12,200. Nokia 7500 origi- In their opinion, Chinese
nal model carries price of phones in their initial days func-
Rs15,200 while its Chinese tion properly but later on start
copy is available at Rs7,500. developing faults as these hand-
Sony Ericcsson W660i (copy) sets cannot match the quality of
can be purchased at branded products.
Rs6,500 while its original Mobile phones are being
brand is selling at Rs18,000. cleared with one per cent import
These Chinese copies of A visitor uses a mobile phone as he walks past Chinese brands 3G mobile phones displayed at an
duty and no general sales tax is
original brands also carry a exhibition in Beijing. charged on them and some
big difference in various fea- 800,000-900,000 branded
tures as well as menu display mobile phones are being imported
as compared with original
Customers appear nervous in purchasing these every month.
brands. However, majority of
Chinese brands are available
cheap phones when dealers offer no guarantee According to figures of Federal
Bureau of Statistics (FBS), import
with PDA feature (stick) that
can be used by touching the
and warranty. Once a person has purchased the of mobile phones in July-June
2006-2007 went up by 13 per cent
screen to perform the desired
function. However, these
Chinese phone, then he is responsible for its to $832 million as compared to
$738 million in 2005-2006.
phones can also be operated wear and tear in case it develops any fault Mobile phones are losing value
with key-pad buttons. in terms of rupee with every pass-
Some of the Chinese ing day, as there is a concept that
phones also have dual and triple SIM facility. It Perhaps many consumers appear more a mobile phone's life is only 18 months.
may be noted here that the manufacturers of inclined to have Chinese cell phones because Besides, there has been a volley of new mod-
Nokia and Sony Ericsson so far have not intro- of their low prices and quality audio features els and designs loaded with new innovative
duced such models with triple SIM features. and voice clarity. If a cell phone completes six features, which lure customers to change the
Consumers appear nervous in purchasing to eight months without developing any fault, models frequently. There is a huge competition
these cheap phones when dealers offer no then they think that the deal is not bad. among the mobile phone making companies
guarantee and warranty. Once a customer has A number of consumers also think that buy- all over the world.

purchased the Chinese phone, then he is ing costly mobiles of known brands is a big 11
 Telecom Azahr Javed
In a sheer presence of value added services and
competition from cellular companies, PTCL has
offered yet another service to retain its position
in communication sector. Now you can freely
leave your home phone without missing any
important message from your friend and family
akistan Telecommunication
P Company Limited (PTCL) has
joined the race in the field of
telecommunication revolution after
the activation of around 350,000
Voice Mailboxes for its landline
subscribers nationwide to provide services to
consumers.
As a result of good strategy, PTCL has
earned total revenue of Rs 14.4 billion during
the first quarter of financial year 2007-08. Six
per cent increase was recorded in operating
expenses of the company and these were
recorded Rs.10.7 billion against Rs. 10.1 bil-
lion during the same period in previous year.
The service allows call transfer on busy
and on no-reply and the caller is connected to
the Mailbox of the called number to record a
message. The subscriber also has a choice to
transfer his call to any telephone number
instead of one’s Mail Box.
Use of the Mailbox is entirely in the control
of the subscriber for which he/she has the call
transfer feature available on his/her telephone
set. Option is available to discontinue using
the service by deactivating call transfer fea-
tures from his telephone.
Subscriber can discontinue it completely or
decide whether to use mailbox in case of no
reply or in case of busy.
No call is charged to the Mailbox sub-
scriber and the calling number is charged on
local or long distance tariff as the case may
be.
NEC Launches Fastest Vector
Supercomputer
NEC Corp. is selling what it says is the fastest vector supercom-
puter in the world. The SX-9 is based on a new processor developed
by the Tokyo company that boasts a performance of over 100G
12
The subscriber can use a short code 1277 use. You record your own personalized greet-
to access Mailbox and listen to the recorded
messages. This call by the subscriber is
charged as a local call depending on the tariff
applicable at that time of the day.
What is Voice
Mail?
Voice Mail is
a state-of-the-art
ing for your callers to hear. Then your callers
can leave a private message that you can
review and save or erase at a later time. Your
calls can also be forwarded to you live. Each
message is automatically stamped with the
Use of the Mailbox is entirely in
time/date that it arrived
and the number of the
caller. To retrieve mes-
sages, simply dial your
service. It
the control of the subscriber for Toll Free number and
answers your which he/she has the call trans- enter your pin number.
phone when you
are away from fer feature available on his/her Is Voice Mail Better than
the office,
home, or when
telephone set. The subscriber an Answering Machine?
Voice Mail is much
it's not conven- has the option to discontinue more reliable and has
ient to answer, more features than a
or even when
using the service by deactivating standard obsolete
your are talking call transfer features from his answering machine. With
on the phone. It Voice Mail there is no
is made possi- telephone equipment to buy, so you
ble through spe- won't have to worry about
cial computerized equipment that is located in replacing worn out tapes, or forgetting to turn
telephone central switching office. There is no it on. Voice Mail works even when the electric
additional equipment or software for consumer power goes out. Voice Mail answers your
to purchase and never need to pay for sched- phone even when it's busy and your answer-
ule maintenance. All you need is a touchtone ing machine can't do that! Voice Mail also
telephone. offers more privacy than an answering
machine because you must enter a security
How does Voice Mail work? code to access your Voice Mail System.

Voicemail turns an ordinary touchtone tele-
phone into an amazingly powerful auto atten-
dant message call center that is really easy to
Flops (floating point operations per second). Up to 16 of the chips
can be fitted into a single node and up to 512 nodes can be built
together to create what would likely be one of the most powerful
computers in the world -- a computer with a theoretical peak pro-
cessing power of 839T Flops (teraflops).
NEC hasn't benchmarked the machine yet but estimates it would
achieve a Linpack score of around 700T Flops, said Hiroshi
Takahara, senior director of NEC's HPC marketing division. That's
more than double the current fastest supercomputer in the world, the
IBM BlueGene/L machine at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory.
This new machine is more powerful than NEC's SX-8R, which it
succeeds. To get the same processing power in one SX-9 node
would require 13 SX-8R nodes so the new computer takes up 3.9
times less floor space and uses 3.6 times less electricity for the
same power.
Vector supercomputers are typically used in scientific applications
and where large amounts of data needs to be processed. NEC has
had some success selling previous systems to meteorological agen-
cies in several nations and to universities, automakers and aero-
space laboratories.
With the new supercomputer NEC will again be challenging large
U.S. computer makers like IBM Corp. and Cray Inc. Five years ago
the NEC-built Earth Simulator was ranked the world's fastest super-
computer but that machine was surpassed by an IBM computer and
has dropped to 20th position in the current Top 500 supercomputer
ranking.
The SX-9, should a large configuration model be built, will have a
good chance of restoring NEC's name back into the top positions of
the influential ranking.

 Telecom Flare Report
As part of the Naya Qadam project Telenor will loan out motorcycle shops to disabled
individuals. These shops on wheels are specially designed for handicap individuals
enabling them to sell Telenor’s most popular product the ‘Easy Load.’
elenor Pakistan in league with
T one of the country’s foremost
welfare organisations ‘Disabled
Welfare Association’ (DWA) and
as a part of its social responsibil-
ity, has initiated a project called
‘Naya Qadam’ to help empower people with
physical handicaps.
As part of the Naya Qadam project Telenor
will loan out motorcycle shops to disabled
individuals. These shops on wheels are spe-
cially designed for handicap individuals
enabling them to sell Telenor’s most popular
product the ‘Easy Load.’
To boost their income further these handi-
capped individuals would also be free to sell
small snack items from built in tuck boxes
affixed to these motorcycle shops.
The objective of the project is to direct
attention to the every day problems and chal-
elenor Pakistan
T announced the
names of its 50 lucky
customers, who have
won 150,000 rupees
each in the compa-
ny’s Hajj campaign. The campaign
aims to help the lucky customers
pay for expenses related to the
performance of Hajj. The Telenor
Hajj Campaign ran nationwide for
40 days from 20th April to 30th
May 2007 and covered all of
Telenor Pakistan's existing sub-
scriber base as well as new cus-
tomers who joined the service dur-
ing that period.
Winners’ from Toba Tek Singh,
Wah Cantt, Sialkot, Mardan,
Chakwal, Mansehra, Nowshera,
Attock, Saidu Shareef, Peshawar,
Bagh, Lahore, Gujranwala, Okara,
Faisalabad, Sargodha, Islamabad,
Rawalpindi, Abbottabad, Muzaffarabad,
Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana were picked
through a lucky draw, following which check
14 distribution ceremonies took place in all major
lenges faced by the disabled in their lives and
to provide them with a decent livelihood by
offering them an opportunity of being part of
Telenor’s booming business in Pakistan.
Telenor Pakistan is the third largest cellular
network provider of the country in terms of
subscribers after Mobilink and UFone holding
Telenor Pakistan is the third
largest cellular network provider
of the country in terms of sub-
scribers, with 12.57 million
users by the end of September
1st and second places respectively.
The figures issued by the PTA in its
cities.
Speaking on the occasion, Director
Marketing Telenor Pakistan Azim-ul-Haq said,
“We at Telenor Pakistan always aim to bring
value to our customers by introducing attrac-
tive packages, products and services by run-
September 2007 report, Mobilink led the mar-
ket with 28.57 million subscribers followed by
Ufone with 15.42 million subscribers, Telenor,
serving 12.57 million people across the coun-
try placed third and Warid stands at the fourth
position with 11.86 million subscribers.
Meanwhile, the aggressively marketed Paktel
has managed to grab 1.23 million subscribers.
Telenor Group is an international provider
of high quality telecommunications, data and
media services. Telenor ranks as one of the
biggest GSM service provider in the world
with over 130 million subscribers.
Telenor is emerging as one of the fastest
growing providers of mobile communications
services worldwide.
It holds strong position in the growing
Scandinavian market for broadband services.
The group is the largest provider of television
and broadcast services in the Nordic region.

ning promotional campaigns that
our customers can look forward.
Telenor Pakistan is proud to have
held this very unique promotional
campaign which will help many of
our customers to accomplish one
of their most important dreams
and religious obligations, the Hajj.”
The winners will be able to acti-
vate prepaid international roaming
free of charge by visiting any
Telenor Sales & Service Center or
by calling 345 before going to
Saudi Arabia so that they can
share their experience with their
loved ones back home.
The Telenor group is an inter-
national provider of high quality
telecommunications, data and
media communications services.
Telenor ranks as one of the
biggest GSM service providers in the world
with over 130 million subscribers. Telenor
Pakistan is 100% owned by Telenor ASA and
adds on to its operations in Asia together with
Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

 Telecom Flare Report

Warid, after its aggressive investments in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uganda

and Congo, is expected to penetrate the cellular market of Ivory Coast
forcefully. Cellcom is the fifth cellular company which has acquired the
GSM license in Ivory Coast but has not started its services yet
arid International has past five years. Overall, mobile subscriber

W
Coast.
acquired seventy six per-
cent shares in Cellcom of
Ivory Coast, with com-
plete management con-
trol. After Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Uganda and Congo, now Warid
International is spreading its reach to Ivory

His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak

Al Nahayan signed the agreement, after which
Waird has acquired the shares, with complete
management control.
Mr. Bashir A. Tahir, CEO Dhabi Group,
while expressing his jubilance said that it's a
happy moment for Warid International that
gained this level of achievement in a short
span of time. He was optimistic that through
its quality service, Warid will provide the peo-
ple of Ivory Coast with wireless data and voice
solutions at very low cost.
He further said that Dhabi group, which is
single largest foreign investor group in
Pakistan, understands that the journey it start-
ed from Pakistan is expanding its branches
world over. He said that Pakistan has got
world's top technical professionals and their
expertise will be utilized in Ivory Coast as
well. He informed that after this acquisition,
the company will launch services with Warid
Brand in Ivory Coast.
Cellcom is the fifth cellular company which
has acquired the GSM license in Ivory Coast
but has not started its services yet.
Four cellular companies, Atlantique
Cellulaire (A-Cell), MTN CÔTE D'IVOIRE
S.A., Orange CI and Comium Ivory Coast Inc
(KoZ) are already serving the country with a
population of around 17 millions. The newly-
launched Ivorian Coast mobile telecommuni-
cations company, KoZ, is expected to reach
around 480 000 subscribers by the end of
2007, which explains the potential of the mar-
ket.
All these companies do not oper-
ate at the lowest call rate and have
adopted a simplified flat rate, mean- Mobile penetration in the country
ing calls across networks and during
different times of the day cost the
same. This method has attracted a
has been rising at an average of
healthy subscriber base, but it did not
exercise pressure on the other opera-
43% annually for the past five
tors to lower their prices. This is the
aspect that favours Warid Telecom years. Ivory Coast's mobile sub-
the most, as it has the tendency to
introduce new and customer friendly scriber growth is expected to reach
packages wherever it reaches. The
experts are of the view that Warid 6.5 million by the end of 2007
Telecom will receive a reasonable
response from the market of Ivory
Coast.
According to Pyramid Research, by the
end of year 2006, MTN had a subscriber base
of around 1.6 million, with a forecasted 2.1
million subscribers by year-end 2007.
Similarly, Orange had a recorded subscriber
base of 1.8 million, with a predicted 2.4 million
by year-end 2007. A-Cell had 700 000 sub-
16
scribers, with a predicted 2007 year-end fig-
H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Chairman
Abu Dhabi Group, and Minister of Higher Education
and Scientific Research, UAE
Mr. Bashir A. Tahir, Chief Executive,
Abu Dhabi Group
ure of 1.4 million.
The competitive market has created huge
mobile growth within the country. Mobile
telecommunications penetration stands at
around 22% of a population of around 17 mil-
lion people. According to the experts, a combi-
nation of increased competition and improved
political and economic stability will account
strongly for the hefty mobile growth in the
country.
Mobile penetration in Ivory Coast has been
rising at an average of 43% annually for the
growth is expected to grow from four million to
around 6.5 million by the end of 2007.
About Ivory Coast:
The country was originally known in
English as Ivory Coast. In October 1985 the
government requested that the country be
known in every language as Côte d'Ivoire.
Economy of Ivory Coast
Maintaining close ties to France since
independence in 1960, diversification of agri-
culture for export, and encouragement of for-
eign investment, has made Côte d'Ivoire one
of the most prosperous of the tropical African
states. However, in recent years Côte d'Ivoire
has been subject to greater competition and
falling prices in the global marketplace for its
primary agricultural crops: coffee and cocoa.
That, compounded with high internal corrup-
tion, makes life difficult for the grower and
those exporting into foreign markets.
Although it is one of the smallest countries
of Africa , Ivory Coast is a country of extraor-
dinary cultural richness. The country has good
roads, great beaches and outstanding art-
work. French is the official language, although
Baoule and other languages are widely used.
Political scenario of the country
Since 1983, Côte d'Ivoire's official capital
has been Yamoussoukro; however, Abidjan
remains the administrative center. Most coun-
tries maintain their embassies in Abidjan,
although some (including the United Kingdom)
have closed their missions because of the
continuing violence and attacks on
Europeans. The Ivoirian population continues
to suffer because of an ongoing civil war.
International human rights organizations have
noted problems with the treatment of captive
non-combatants by both sides and the re-
emergence of child slavery among workers in
cocoa production.
Although most of the fighting ended by late
2004, the country remained split in two, with
the north controlled by the New Forces
(FN). A new presidential election was
expected to be held in October 2005.
However, this election could not be
held on time due to delay in prepara-
tion and was postponed first to
October 2006 and then to October
2007 after an agreement was reached
among the rival parties.
Telecoms Market Overview
A new peace agreement signed in
March 2007 gives hope for a normali-
sation of affairs in this divided country.
However, most segments of the
telecommunications market have con-
tinued to flourish during the crisis
which started in 1999. Recent events such as
the launch of a third and a fourth mobile net-
work and the sale of the second national
operator are indicators for the enormous
potential that is seen in this market. The coun-
try has a relatively well developed infrastruc-
ture and some of the lowest prices in Africa
for ADSL broadband services, with speeds of
up to 8Mb/s.

 Internet Flare Report

Internet was considered as a big threat

o much for longstanding predic-
for books is being used other way. Web
has, in many ways, been an advantage
for booksellers as a tool for marketing,
experimentation and reaching out to the
next generation of readers from various
regions and races
a tool for marketing, experimentation and Analysts say that sales of second-hand

S tions that the Internet would crush

the book publishing industry with
digital readers and online sales of
used books. Keeping in mind the
benefits and ease of use that has
been resulted by E-Books, Internet's worst
impact on books looked logical. However, as
the time has passed, publishers are reconsid-
ering this idea. Many of the publishers are now
convinced that the explosion in online and sec-
ond-hand retailing has not caused the damage
they were expecting and that the Internet has
in many ways been a boon for booksellers as
Analysts say that sales of sec-
ond-hand books, which appear
on online auction sites shortly
after release, have posed a
threat to hardback business
as well as subsequent paperback
releases; however, the impact
has not been as great as
expected
reaching out to the next generation of readers.
On other side of the view, publishers, which
were rattled by the
threat of fast-grow-
ing online
auction
giants like Amazon
and Ebay, have discovered that unlike the
music industry people still want to own a physi-
cal book. There is a lot happening in the music
publishing industry that is not going on in the
book industry. Consumers don't want albums
they want tracks and in publishing, people
want books not chapters.
books, which appear on online auction sites
shortly after release, have posed a threat to
hardback business as well as subsequent
paperback releases, the impact has not
been as serious as expected.
The used book market doesn't seem to
have made the inroads into the new book
market publishers initially feared. Instead,
publishers are creating new opportunities
for them by discovering new platforms for
marketing purposes. Not only this, they
can attract youth for their products.
Publishers have come up with Web
portals with book reviews in audio and
video formats aimed at and managed by
teenagers mostly. These Web portals also
provide valuable strategic insight into how
teens create and share publishing information
via the Web. Another strategy has also been in
practice where web-based novel writing com-
petition are run with Amazon and Hewlett
Packard that attracted a manuscript every
minute over its first day in the quest for a pub-
lishing deal and $25,000 advance. Amazon
users will ultimately pick the winner next year.
Such experiments in digital publishing
would help publishers find new talent and learn
about new manuscript filtering processes and
online author communities.

phony Group PL
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18

Volunteerism has become an integral & vibrant part of Mobilink’s culture.
Putting back in society is not only an individual employee’s activity but an
organizational effort as well. Coordinating their resources - including
donations, community events, environment, and the spirit of volunteerism
- to create responses tailored to face local and individual challenges
or more than a year now, volunteerism
F has become an integral & vibrant part of
Mobilink’s culture. At Mobilink, putting
back in society is both an individual
employee activity as well as an organiza-
tional effort. Coordinating their resources
- including donations, community events, environ-
ment, and the spirit of volunteerism - to create
responses tailored to face local and individual
challenges.
The company believes in practically delivering
for the betterment of people. Pioneers that they
are in the Pakistan telecom industry, they have
set a new trend and now their volunteers are
practically involved in various public welfare projects.
Education, poverty alleviation, welfare of children,
women, and senior citizens top Mobilink’s agenda.
Very recently Mobilink took steps, such as, organ-
izing monthly medical camps in the down trodden
suburbs, academic mentoring to the needy and
bright students, arranging awareness seminars for
Mobilink employees sharing social messages like
polio vaccination and many others nationwide assis-
tance in sharing & promptly communicating for blood
donation, blood screening & blood donation camps.
Other routine activities encompass visits, workshops,
awareness seminars, and employee donations.
Today, the ultimate measure of their corporate &
social success is found in the way they have
reshaped the lives of people. As Mobilink moves for-
ward into 2007 and takes on the heavy responsibility
and role of being the largest private sector organiza-
tion in Pakistan, it is important to recognize that
along with the hardwork & dedication of all
Mobilinkers, it is the people of Pakistan whose trust
in the company has given them this privilege.
Mobilink and its people are able to give back to com-
munities and those less privileged in a systematic
and coordinated way to ensure that they collectively
make a difference in the lives of people.
Realizing the significance of corporate social
responsibility, Mobilink HR PMO's corporate commu-
nity welfare aims to identify various segments in
community and seeks to understand their values,
aspirations and interrelationships to assist in building
a stronger community and a long term sustainable
future of the deprived & destitute. They continue
adding value to the company profile through multi-
dimensional Corporate Community Welfare Work
(CCWW) launched nationwide, to make the organiza-
tion a socially responsible corporate entity.
The outcome and aims in mind, at Mobilink, is to
create social awareness among its employees
through contribution to voluntary donations collected
regularly through Imagine Humanity Fund Raising
Campaign, nationwide and redirected towards sus-
tainable projects for the deserving.
Initialized in Islamabad, now CCWW has also
gone nationwide (North, South & Central). Mainly
Flare Report Event
focusing at, literacy alleviation, disabilities, poverty
lessening, cultivating the community, health projects,
women & children (special or underprivileged) wel-
fare. Regular community visits are carried out to
ascertain that company is reaching out to the desti-
tute in giving them a better quality of life.
HR CCWW has been active since March 2006 up
till now. It has devoted 300 volunteers and the num-
bers are increasing. Monthly donation is contributed
through voluntary salary deductions, which averages
Rs 80,000 to 90,000 monthly. The company raises
funds from waste paper sale; it averages Rs10,000
to 15,000 per month.
Mobilink PCOs are given to the deserving and
other fund raising campaigns for genuine and rele-
vant causes.
Mobilink has made 82 nationwide visits since
March 2006 to August 2007 to MEPD (Mobilink
Environment Protection Drive), where they carried
out cleanliness drive at Karachi Beach and regular
tree plantation in collaboration with CDA is another
aspect of CCWW.
At Mobilink they empower volunteers. Employees,
organize volunteer meetings, providing volunteer
trainings/seminars, volunteer team leads/project
leads. Lunch with the President & “Volunteer of the
Month” Certification is awarded to the best volunteer.
Organizations/NGOs that Mobilink has been work-
ing with include, Aangan, Aabroo Educational
Organization (Lahore), Aabroo Trust, Aafiat old
home, Adiala Jail Inmates, Al-Imran Community wel-
fare dispensary(Lahore), Al-Maktoom Centre for
Visually Impaired Children, Bali Foundation (Lahore),
Bali Memorial(Lahore),BASERA (self-help
school),Disabled Welfare Association(Karachi), DWA
(Disable Welfare Association Hyderabad), Edhi
Foundation (North,South & Central and Village for
Special Children). Haji Boastan Girls Middle School,
free dispensary & Vocational school for girls
(Lahore), HIC (School For Hearing Impaired), HOAP
(CMP Career Mentoring Program). Hospital visits,
Hyderabad Association of Blind, Interhelp
Foundation, National Institute for Handicapped,
National Rehab Centre for Special Children, NGO
Milestone working for physically disabled persons.
NIHD (National Institute for the Handicapped), PFFB
(Pakistan federation fighting blindness), Pirbhat
Human Development NGO Hyderabad, RACDO
(Rehmat Ali Ch Development Organisation,
Faisalabad),Rozan ,Sardar Eye Hospital,Service &
Development,Services Hospital, Shamshad Memorial
Free Clinic for Women(Lahore), SOS (Lahore) ,
Special talent Exchange Program, SUKH (non-formal
school), Sultana Foundation, Sundus Foundation,
Tameer-e-Millat Foundation (TMF), Teach A Child
School(Lahore), The Help Care Society (Teach A
Child Lahore). The Trust School, Visit to Balakot,
Voice the society of Disables Rehabilitation, Zaid
19
Free Dispensary.

 Telecom Flare Report

The evaluation process was

conducted through a survey
in 48 cities, where a foreign-
qualified research team of
research and marketing con-
sultants and experts, headed
by a distinguished World
Bank researcher
arid Telecom has won online format

W 'Brand of the Year

Award' for 2006-2007
in the category of GSM
operators and service
providers in an award
ceremony held at Prime Minister Secretariat
Islamabad.
The 'Brands of the Year Award' has
been introduced to identify the most
Hamid Farooq CEO Warid Telecom, receiving 'Brand of the year Award' for 2006-07 in the category of GSM opera-
where Pakistanis
completed an
online question-
naire. Finally to
complete the
study the survey
was then carried
out via Short
Message Service
tors from Shaukat Aziz Prime Minister of Pakistan
demanded & credible brands of the country. (SMS).
The ideology was to bring the most valued Jubilant
brands in the limelight by acknowledging Hamid Farooq -
their contributions in their respective areas Chief Executive
of work and the objective of the program is Officer Warid
to further promote leading brands of the Telecom, while
country. The process entailed a three- expressing his
pronged approach of collecting data to views said,
ensure authenticity and an accurate reflec- "Today, Pakistan
tion of the Pakistani people's sentiments. has one of the
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz handed most competitive
over the award to Mr. Hamid Farooq- Chief GSM environ-
Executive Officer, Warid Telecom. 'Brands ments in the
of the Year Award' has been officially world with the
endorsed by Pakistan Standards & Quality most knowledge-
Control Authority (PSQCA) & Federation of able consumers
Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & ever. We are
Industry (FPCCI). The event was also being thankful that this
supported by Government of Pakistan, wisdom and the
Government of Sindh and Government of people's loyalty
Punjab. are supporting
The evaluation process was conducted Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz addressing to the participants of Brands Award of the Year 2006-07 in a ceremony held at
Warid Telecom.
through a survey that was carried out in 48 Prime Minister Secretariat Auditorium organized by Exhibitionist. This award
cities, where a foreign-qualified research would never
have been possible without the trust our sub-
"This award would never scribers have put in us".
Thomas Yeo - Chief Commercial Officer
have been possible without Warid Telecom said, "We are here to serve the
people of Pakistan. It is an honor for us that
the trust our subscribers the actual people have participated in this
selection of the most important award. It
have put in us", Hamid means a lot for us because at 'Warid- We
care', to get the award of 'Brand of the Year', it
Farooq, Chief Executive proves that we are running an operation that is
Officer, Warid Telecom the most highly demanded throughout the
country and also the most credible".
Kazim Mujtaba - Head of Marketing said,
team of research and marketing consult- "The entire idea behind identifying the brand of
ants and experts, headed by a distin- the year from the telecommunications arena is
guished World Bank research official, per- to bring the achievements of the best GSM
formed the task of collecting the relevant operator into the public's eye. We hope to con-
data for the review. This task was per- tinue with our contributions and will upkeep our
formed in conjunction with the Consumer efforts to maintain an even higher level of qual-
Foundation of Pakistan. In order to access ity for the consumers because at Warid-We
a different pool of users, a general con- A participant attending Brands Award of the Year 2006-07 in a
care".

20
sumer survey was then implemented in an ceremony held at Prime Minister Secretariat.
 In Picture

The Creative Technology logo is seen at their headquarters in Singapore. Shares of Creative
Technology, which makes digital music players, rose 2.5 percent to S$6.10 with 168,400 shares trad-
ed after the firm posted better than expected quarterly profits. Creative reported a first-quarter gain of
$1.3 million, rebounding from a loss of $21 million in the July-Sept quarter a year ago, helped by sale
of assets and higher margins.

Toshiba Vardia RD-A301 HD DVD Recorder

Announced
Japanese electronics manufacturer Toshiba has announced
their latest HD DVD Recorder product. This new product is Vardia
RD-A301 and this player is capable of recording high-definition
video to regular DVDs. It would be made available in the
Japanese market in December this year. Toshiba said that the
player is also capable of transcoding high-definition MPEG2
broadcasts on the fly to the more efficient MPEG4 compression
format.
The recorder comes loaded with a 300 GB hard disk drive to
store videos. They can also be saved on to a HD DVD disc.
Company expects to make available this recorder for around
US$875. For now, it would be offered in the Japanese market
only. Early buyers would be offered goodies like a copy of the
movie Transformers, five blank HD DVD-R and DVD-R discs, and
a "Transformers" action figure.
An Iraqi man uses his mobile phone to picture a two coloured eyes cat for sale at the al-Ghazl mar-
ket in Baghdad. Exotic animals coming from all over the world, including birds from South America
and Africa, are sold in al-Ghazl animal market, Baghdad.

Japan's NTT DoCoMo Profit Drops 15%

Japan's top mobile phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo, said its profit fell 15 percent in most
recent quarter because of growing promotional costs and discounts that were needed to
compete with rival carriers. Net income for the three months through September was 123.7
billion yen ($1.08 billion), down from 146.3 billion yen the previous year.
The growing cost of selling mobile phone handsets and expanding its network led to
lower profits, DoCoMo said. The company said revenue fell as it offered new discount serv-
ices in the face of fierce competition with rival carriers KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp.,
which have slashed rates and launched heavy sales promotions.
The top three carriers struggled to boost profitability. DoCoMo dominates the Japanese
market, but has lagged behind its rivals in adding new users in recent months.
The company said it plans to consolidate eight regional service operators across Japan
in about a year to boost profits.
DoCoMo left its profit outlook unchanged for the fiscal year through March, but lowered Japanese electronics giant Sony displays their latest products at the
CEATEC electronics trade show in Chiba. Sony said it had swung back to
its revenue estimate. It expects 476 billion yen ($4.16 billion) in group net profit and
an operating profit in the three months to September from loss caused
slashed the revenue forecast to 4.667 trillion yen ($40.83 billion) from 4.728 trillion yen. earlier by recalls of millions of computer batteries.
The company's earnings results are based on U.S. accounting standards.
22
 Muhammad Kamran Telecom

1 billion phones with cameras in them

will be in use worldwide by the end of
this year, but only 5% of the photos
taken on these phones manage to go
around through MMS, PC synchro-
nization or by any other platform
here seems to be a disconnect So why aren't camera-

T when it comes to people buying

cameraphones and using them.
Statistics available regarding the
number of cell phones in market
and their usage can shock any-
one easily. These statistics that don't make a
lot of sense, reveals that first, about 1 billion
phones with cameras in them will be in use
worldwide by the end of this year. Second,
95% of the photos taken on these phones will
stay on the phones.
It has been noticed that consumers use the
camera on a phone more than any other fea-
ture except for caller ID; more even than ring-
tones and text messaging.
Although people with cameraphones may
use their cam-lens to take photos, they don't
do anything with them. So the cameraphone
becomes kind of a digital photo album you can
take with you to show photos to your friends.
It's not that cameraphones don't take good
photos. Image quality is improving all the time.
Most cameraphones sold today are at least 1
megapixel image density, will soon be at least
2 megapixel, and there are cameraphonesup to
10 megapixels. However 2/3.2 Megapixel
phones are quite familiar these days. Other
imaging technology in phones is improving,
with zoom, anti-shake and other features.
Lenses have gotten better (Nokia uses Carl
Zeiss lenses, for instance). One can take out-
standing photos, both in image quality and cre-
ativity, taken with cameraphones.
phone owners doing
something with their pho-
tos? There are two things
they could be doing, but
aren't. One is sending the
photos over the network to friends and family,
using MMS or e-mail. The other is downloading
them to a computer, where they could be modi-
fied, enhanced, printed or sent via e-mail.
You may find difficulties
sometimes using MMS, not
because the lack of interop-
erability, but because peo-
ple you want to send an
MMS either don't have a
plan that supports it, or
don't know how to receive
an MMS
Based on personal experience, on many
cameraphones and networks today it is just too
difficult to do either of these. Many phones
don't have the ability to connect directly to a
PC. Bluetooth is a possibility on the wireless
side but you have to buy extra equipment.
More handsets are coming with memory cards,
but that means you have to buy a memory card
reader for your PC. Wired connections are
unlikely unless you have a smartphone.
But I want to send photos I take on my
phone over the network to my friends. I've only
had moderate success with this using a wide
variety of phones. I'd like to use MMS because
I can add text or voice, but I haven't had a lot
of luck with that. The process is often not intu-
itive, requiring so many key clicks or searching
that it is painful. There are exceptions Nokia's
interface on its newer smartphones is pretty
easy to use there are others equally as good,
but overall there needs to be improvements.
There are contradictory statements about
network interoperability for MMS. You may find
difficulties sometimes using MMS, not because
of the lack of interoperability, but because peo-
ple you want to send an MMS either don't have
a plan that supports it, or don't know how to
receive an MMS message.
Keeping all these statistics and this discus-
sion in mind, mobile manufacturers are sup-
posed to come up with easy sharing tools. The
margin for the enhancement of camera quality
is always there.

McAfee Buying ScanAlert for

$51M
McAfee Inc., is buying ScanAlert Inc. for $51 million, adding to its
Internet security offerings a service intended to help consumers feel
safer shopping online. Santa Clara-based McAfee will pay $51 million
in cash for Napa-based ScanAlert, which runs daily scans on its more
than 75,000 customer Web sites hunting and fixing vulnerabilities to
qualify for the company's Hacker Safe seal of approval.
The deal also includes an agreement by McAfee to pay up to $24
million more if certain financial targets are met. Those targets weren't
specified in a news release announcing the acquisition.
The deal is expected to close in McAfee's first quarter. McAfee said
it plans to integrate ScanAlert's technology into its SiteAdvisor service, McAfee expects to absorb non-cash charges of $100 million to
which alerts Web surfers about the safety of the sites they're visiting $150 million to properly account for the awards. The options headache
with a series of red, yellow and green lights. The service warns of sites led to a management shake-up in October that included the departure
that infect visitors computers' with malicious code, aggressively display of McAfee's Chief Executive George Samenuk and firing of its presi-
pop-up ads and use submitted e-mail addresses to send spam. dent, Kevin Weiss.
McAfee said last week that its third-quarter profit has doubled to Earlier, McAfee Inc.'s former top lawyer, Kent Roberts, was charged
$62.9 million as its cash horde grew to $1.5 billion, according to pre- in federal court with seven criminal counts of fraud alleging he manipu-
liminary results for the period ended in September. The results are pre- lated the values of his stock options to increase the potential windfall
liminary because the company is still cleaning up an accounting mess and then falsified records to cover up his misconduct. The alleged
involving mishandled stock option awards over 10 years and needs to offenses occurred in 2000 when McAfee was still known as Network
restate its finances. Associates.
23
 Telecom Flare Report

Over one hundred CEOs, representing

both the service providers and regulators
from the SAARC region, gathered for their
6th annual CEO conference in Katmandu,
Nepal, to decide on strategies on how to
provide telecom access to the millions liv-
ing in second and third tier towns, semi-
urban and rural areas
t the sixth annual conference - conducted of

A inaugurated by Shankar
Prasad Koirala, IT and telecom
secretary at the ministry of
information and communica-
tions, in the absence of the
Maoist minister who quit last month - head
honchos from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives
exchanged experiences in a bid to take tele-
8,309 con-
sumers from
the member
countries and
they were
asked simple
usage related
statements.
The awards
Executive Vice President, Telenor Pakistan Irfan Wahab Khan receiving an award from COO, VSNL
LANKA, Ravishankar Vaddi at SARRC Communication Industry Conference

com beyond cities.
The agenda included crucial areas like tele-
com penetration, quality
of service, adoption of
new technologies, and
above all, affordability.
The summit also pre-
sented the SAARC
Telecom Innovation
Awards for mobile opera-
tors from each of the
SAARC countries based
on an online poll con-
ducted among users in
the region.
An online survey was
were allotted to winners from each SAARC nominations for each brand. The criteria for
country. awards was wide choice of service, tariff plans,
Telenor Pakistan connectivity and coverage, consumer friendly
Telenor Pakistan won the won the awards for value added services, creative marketing and
"Most Innovative advertising ideas and consumers' willingness
awards for "Most Innovative Mobile Operator" to switch-in to the brand within the next three
Mobile Operator" and "Mobile and "Mobile
Operator with the
months.
Expressing his pleasure on receiving the
Operator with the Most Most Consumer awards, the Executive Vice President
Pull". Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Telenor
Consumer Pull" at the SAARC Telenor was Pakistan Irfan Wahab Khan thanked the
Communication Industry named the winner Telenor subscribers for the awards. He associ-
for both award cat- ated the award with the dedication and profes-
Conference 2007 held in egories for Pakistan sional excellence of Telenor employees
Kathmandu based on objective towards the ultimate goal - consumer
count of consumer delight! and satisfaction.

Islamic Jurisprudence Council:

Bans Quranic Ringtones, Permits Sex Verification
he Islamic Jurisprudence Council in non-Muslim countries and play an effective

T banned the use of the verses of

the Holy Quran as ringtones for
mobile phones because it
impinges on the sacred character
of the Holy Quran.The decision
was taken by the Scholars at the meeting of
the council held in Makkah.
"It is demeaning and degrading to the vers-
es of the Holy Quran to stop abruptly at the
middle of a recitation or neglecting the recita-
tion, as happens when they are used as ring-
tones in mobile phones. On the other hand,
recording the verses from the Holy Quran in
phone sets with the intention of recitation and
listening is a virtuous act," the scholars attend-
ing the council said in a statement.
During the six-day meeting of the council in
Makkah, which began Nov. 3 under the chair-
manship of Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, 70
Muslim dignitaries and scholars tackled a num-
ber of important issues. On behalf of
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King
Abdullah, Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal
opened the first session of the council.
24
The council decided that Muslims are per-
Islamic scholars from vari-
ous parts of the world, who
attended the conference,
called for the upholding of
Islamic unity and adherence
to the Holy Quran and
Sunnah, while tackling
issues affecting Muslim
countries
mitted to determine the sex of a fetus provided
it was a medical necessity, such as when
ascertaining diseases that are suspected to
affect boys and not girls, and vice versa. The
council said three doctors would be required to
confirm the medical necessity of the proce-
dure.
The council also approved damaging an
ovary that could lead to a disabled child, but
said that trying to control the sex of a child was
strictly prohibited. The council also encouraged
Muslims in the West to participate in elections
political role, especially if elections brought
about public good or prevented social evils.
It said this was the only way for Muslims
abroad to secure their rights. It also encour-
aged Muslims in the West to integrate into
Western societies but cautioned them against
adopting any Western habits that are contrary
to the principles of Islam.
Those who presented papers included
Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Subeyel,
imam of the Grand Mosque. In the concluding
session, the Islamic Jurisprudence Council
emphasized that dialogue with non-Muslims
supported by well-prepared media programs
are essential in confronting anti-Islamic cam-
paigns. The council called on Pakistanis and
Palestinians to stand united in solving their
problems.
Islamic scholars from various parts of the
world, who attended the conference, also
called for the upholding of Islamic unity and
adherence to the Holy Quran and Sunnah,
while tackling the issues that are affecting
Muslim countries such as Iraq, Somalia and
Afghanistan.

 Telecom Falre Report

lcatel-Lucent providing platform that help du

A announced that it
has signed a frame
agreement with du,
the UAE's new
telecom operator,
for its upcoming Internet protocol
television (IPTV) deployment
based on the award-winning
Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and
multimedia platform. In addition,
Alcatel-Lucent will act as the end-
to-end System integrator of a com-
plete IPTV solution comprised of
network infrastructure, Microsoft Alcatel-Lucent, du & Microsoft team at the contract signing ceremony. Alcatel-Lucent and
Mediaroom, services fulfillment
and OSS/BSS integration, subscriber data
management as well as content asset man-
agement integration and implementation.
The project will include broadcast TV and
video on demand (VoD), with ability to stream
content featuring high definition (HD)-quality
picture resolution. du's IPTV offering will offer
an enhanced user experience by enabling
user-friendly features like instant channel
change, multiple picture-in-picture and person- share this vision. In this instance, we wanted
al video recorder (PVR) functionality such as
one-touch recording and pausing live TV.
In this complex technical environment,
Alcatel-Lucent will manage interdependent
integration project streams from the network
infrastructure and Microsoft platforms, sub-
scriber database migration, and OSS/BSS
Microsoft Partner to Launch IPTV Solution for Du in UAE.
integration as well as the overall solution test-
ing and validation of du's solution. Alcatel-
Lucent supports du's time-to-market objectives
by implementing a secure and reliable infra-
structure capable of delivering high-end multi-
media services.
"In our drive to innovatively use technology
to offer more convenience and comfort to our
customers, du collaborates with partners who
someone capable of designing, developing
and deploying a complete IPTV solution, inte-
grating all the different parts of the technical
solution seamlessly," said Osman Sultan, CEO es in some of the free zones of Dubai. Call
du. "Alcatel-Lucent's unique end-to-end net-
work integration capabilities support the
Microsoft Mediaroom software platform while
create compelling services" he
said.
"Alcatel-Lucent is committed
to help du playing a market
leadership role by pioneering
IPTV service delivery in the
UAE and the Middle-East,"
added Olivier Picard, president
of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in
Europe and South.
Charbel Fakhoury, general
manager of Microsoft Gulf ,
commented "Working together,
du, Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft
are delivering a new era of con-
nected TV services to consumers in the region
"
Alcatel-Lucent is a world leader in both
IPTV and Mobile TV, having already enabled
TV, video and music services for more than
120 fixed and mobile service providers around
the world. Alcatel-Lucent has also deployed
more than 50 IPTV network integration proj-
ects around the world.
du, the new telecommunications company
in the UAE, launched mobile telecommunica-
tion services on 11 February 2007 across the
UAE in addition to internet and pay TV servic-
Select, the first of du's Fixed line services, was
launched in July 2007.

26

This year, The Ministry of Religious
Affairs, Zakat & Ushr, with the help of
VectroCom, has made arrangements to pro-
vide information about the Hajj flights to
the pilgrims on their mobiles through SMS
ver three million Muslim pil-
O grims from the world, including
one lakh and, sixty thousands
from Pakistan, will perform
Hajj in the holy land of
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this
year. The Hajj is the pilgrimage to the holy
city of Makkah during the month of Dhu'l-
Hijjah. The performance of the Hajj is the fifth
of the five pillars of Islam. For every Muslim
capable of meeting the expanses of perform-
ing Hajj, it is mandatory to make the journey
at least once; for all Muslims it is the journey
of a lifetime.
This year, Ministry of Religious Affairs,
Zakat & Ushr, with the help of VectroCom, has
made arrangements to provide information
about the Hajj flights to the pilgrims on their
mobiles through short messaging service
(SMS). If an applicant wishes to obtain flight
information through mobile, he simply needs
to write HF (space)(first six digit of Hajj
Application Number) (Example: HF 553953) in
the message box and send to 32532. He will
receive flight information within seconds/min-
ute.
VectraCom is the first and the largest
Wireless Applications Service Provider
(WASP) offering the latest and most powerful
wireless application services on WAP &
GPRS platforms to a broad range of
GSM/TDMA operators and enterprises.
VectraCom believe that technology has no
geographical limits. This belief has allowed
the company to expand its business opera-
tions out of Pakistan to Middle East, Asia
Pacific and African regions and beyond.
To make sure that its business partners
and clients get a 24/7 services with zero
downtime, it established office in Dubai Media
City. This location acts as a central distribution
hub of data and information for clients and
business partners around the world.
On the other hand, Saudi government has
arranged to receive private pilgrims through
travel agencies and tours operators. It is
mandatory on all Hajj Group Organizers that
while arriving at Saudi Arabia they should con-
tact Mobile No.0504528350 and collect their
BRAVO telephone set along with booklet and
directory in which the many facilities will be
provided for three months.
The facility of BRAVO connection is for all
Saudi Arabia free inter-com. The set contains
not only the mobile number facility but it is a
complete mobile phone.
It will have a free balance of 100 minutes
per month, which could be utilized on any net-
work in the Kingdom.
Azhar Javed
To call outside the State one can talk by
buying a Card from the market. The pilgrims
will be given a card of SR.25 free of cost
along with the set.
The mobile phone service provider compa-
nies have given incentives to pilgrims to
receive and make, roaming charges free, calls
during the Hajj period. No doubt, the cell
phone is marvelous facility to the pilgrims.
They easily call their love ones and talk to
them everyday at cheap rates. Just in the
recent past, people did not know about their
An applicant can obtain flight
information with in seconds
through mobile by simply writ-
ing HF (space) (first six digit of
Hajj Application Number)
(Example: HF 553953) in the
message box and sending it to
32532
relatives, friends while perform Hajj. Call from
Saudi Arabia was very costly and they used to
avoid making calls to their homes.
Mobile phones prove very useful and prac-
tical while performing Hajj. Temporary prepaid
cards are available in Saudi Arabia during the
season of Hajj, which provide pilgrims to take
advantage of a mobile phone.
Moreover, next-generation telecomm net-
work solutions provider, Huawei
Technologies Co Ltd. has revealed its inte-
grated service solution and mobile softswitch
equipment to sustain the telecom traffic for
Telecom
mobile operator Saudi Telecom Company
(STC), during the Hajj.
According to Huawei, it is the second year
it has worked to ensure sufficient capacity dur-
ing the Hajj, an annual religious pilgrimage to
the city of Makkah, which sees over 3 million
participants from around the world in a 10 km
area.
The area represents one of the world's
highest mobile traffic densities in the world
during the five-day period, with total traffic vol-
ume borne over the STC's network increasing
by 30 per cent in comparison to the previous
year. SMS and handoffs increased by 137 per
cent and 118 times respectively and peak traf-
fic volume was recorded at 19 times the usual
rate.
Saudi Telecom Company did not report
any overload, interruption or faults with its net-
work this year, repeating its performance of
2006, when it used Huawei's mobile softswitch
solution for the first time. The operator was
able to provide more network services for its
mobile users, at a higher quality and deployed
Huawei's network services to ensure smooth
operations during peak traffic conditions.
The telecommunications sector continues
to be among the most active sectors in Saudi
Arabia. Since its privatization in 1998, the
Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC)
has been carrying out major telecommunica-
tion projects kingdom-wide, gradually taking
over this role from the Ministry of Post,
Telephone and Telegraph (PTT).
In line with its liberalization process, the
Saudi Government will be inviting more for-
eign companies to invest in the information
and communications sector, especially in the
field of fixed and mobile telecommunications
services. Revenues from the kingdom's GSM
market will soar to $2.37 billion in 2007, due
to the partial privatization of Saudi telecom
and increased competition. A new study pro-
jected that the demand for landlines will drop
an average of 7.6 percent annually over the
next five years, largely due to the migration to
mobile service.
The Saudi economy is growing rapidly.
Saudi Arabia has been enjoying budget sur-
plus every year since 2002 and the country
carries large cash reserves. Saudi Arabia is
the largest free market economy in the region
and is expected to produce more than two-
fifths of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)
GDPs in 2007. The current population of
Saudi Arabia is 23 million.

27
 Telecom Flare Report

Mobile phones are now inexpensive,

easy to use, comfortable and
equipped with almost every latest
feature we desire. Along with the
obvious convenience and quick
access, big and small mobile phones
are both economical and essential
for travelers trying to stay connected

obile phone is a long-

M range, portable electronic

device used for communi-
cation. Mobile sets are now
inexpensive, easy to use,
comfortable and equipped
with almost every latest feature we desire.
Mobile phones are also known as lifesavers as
they can help people in emergencies. If you
get stuck in the middle of the road and find no
We have also been downloading
Java games and video clips to our mobile
phones. Several online mobile phone shops
have come up to cater to this increasing
ards.
The potential impact of the kind of electro-
magnetic fields generated by cellular phones
demand for the best mobile phone handsets on the human brain has received little attention
one for help, you can just use a mobile phone and the most reliable and cost-effective servic- until relatively recently, and it's probably still
and call for help. much too soon to pronounce on the possi-
Mobile phones are comfortable way of ble adverse effects of long-term exposure.
communication over a long distance. In the event of an emergency, disas- Accumulating evidence indicate that
Along with the obvious convenience and microwave radiation from mobile phones
quick access to help in emergencies. Big ter response crews can locate may cause serious diseases and distur-
and small mobile phones can be both
economical and essential for travelers
trapped or injured people using the bances in the physiology. This includes an
increased cancer risk and genetic dam-
trying to stay connected every time and signals from their mobile phones or age, disturbed brain function and other
everywhere. effects. Mobile phone radiation and health
In Japan, mobile phone companies the small detonator of flare in the concerns have been raised, especially fol-
provide immediate notification of earth-
quakes and other natural disasters to
battery of every cell phone lowing the enormous increase in the use
of wireless mobile telephony throughout
their customers free of charge. In the the world. So, prolonged use of mobile
event of an emergency, disaster response es in the use of the same. phone should be avoided. The head set should
crews can locate trapped or injured people Along with all these advantages there are be kept at reasonable distance from our head.
using the signals from their mobile phones or many disadvantages for mobile phone usage. In the nutshell mobile phones are playing a
the small detonator of flare in the battery of Mobile-phone use while driving is common. It very vital part in our daily life. The extent of its
every cell phone; an interactive menu accessi- is generally agreed that using a hand-held handling determines either it is useful or harm-
ble through the phone's Internet browser noti- mobile phone while driving is a distraction that ful. But on the whole the devices have more
fies the company if the user is safe or in dis- brings risk of road traffic accidents. So we advantages than disadvantages.

tress. need to use hands free sets to avoid such haz-

KDDI and Okinawa to Unleash new Handsets

KDDI and Okinawa Cellular have announced a fall/winter line-up of eight new au hand-
sets, following on the popular summer line-up. The concept behind the new models is sup-
port for each customer's individual lifestyle as a familiar part of daily life. Three of the new
models will feature KDDI's integrated 'KCP+' platform, enabling them to support the very lat-
est au services, notably LISMO 'Audio Equipment Compatibility,' 'au x Sony MUSIC PROJ-
ECT,' and 'au one Gadget,' which can display each customer's preferred information and
features on the standby screen.
KDDI has also developed, in collaboration with Samsung SDI, the world's first* 2.8-inch
QVGA, organic EL display for use in au handsets. This display will be used in three of the
new models, including the 'Wooo Keitai W53H,' which is named after Hitachi's HiVision TV
brand. The new display will enable users to enjoy One-Seg TV and other services in beauti-
ful, vivid color.
In addition, this diverse line-up will include the 'CARD SIZE SLIM' W55T, an ultra-slim
model just 9.9 mm thick, and the 'Simple Keitai,' which is easy to use, even for people new
to mobile phones. Including the 'INFOBAR 2,' which was released earlier, the au fall/winter
line-up comprises nine models. Seven of them are CDMA 1X WIM models, six support One-
Seg, and four have an organic EL display. The W55T will be available via the Internet as a
28 "premium version," in a limited release of 3,000 units.
 Internet Flare Report
Questions like these will continue as more and more
religious astronauts travel into space. If you're experi-
encing a dozen sunrises and sunsets in every 24-hour
period? When does Sabbath begin on the moon, where
the sun sets once a month? When is the first sighting
of the crescent moon if you're on Mars? Religious
councils of all faiths will have to keep them busy for
years to find the answers
heikh Muszaphar Shukor had two
S problems when he went to the
space. The first was that Makkah
kept moving. Well, not really. It's
Shukor who kept moving. As
Malaysia's first astronaut, he lifted
off on October 10 in a Russian Soyuz space-
craft for a nine-day visit to the International
Space Station.
He is a devoted Muslim and when he says
his daily prayers he wants to face Makkah,
specifically the Ka'aba, the holiest place in
Islam. That's where the trouble comes in. From
ISS, orbiting 220 miles above the surface of
the Earth, the Qibla (an Arabic word meaning
the direction a Muslim should pray toward
Makkah) changes from second to second.
During some parts of the space station's orbit,
the Qibla can move nearly 180 degrees during
the course of a single prayer. What is a devout
Muslim to do?
Malaysia's space agency, Angkasa, con-
vened a conference of 150 Islamic scientists
and scholars last year to wrestle with these
and other questions. The resulting docu-
ment, "A Guideline of Performing Ibadah
(worship) at the International Space Station
(ISS)", was approved by Malaysia's
National Fatwa Council earlier this year.
According to the report, determining the
Qibla should be "based on what is possible"
for the astronaut, and can be prioritized this
way: 1, the Ka'aba, 2, the projection of
Ka'aba, 3, the Earth and 4, wherever.
This led to Shukor's second problem.
There are two distinct schools of thought for
determining the Qibla: the commonly used
Great Circle method, and the less common
rhumb-line method. Looking at a flat map
using any standard projection shows that a
rhumb line (a line that cuts equal angles
across all lines of longitude) drawn from,
say, the Johnson Space Center in Houston
to Makkah runs east-southeast. The num-
bers also bear this out -- the space center
is to the north and west of the Ka'aba, so
any travel to the holy city should naturally be
to the southeast.
Lay a string across a globe, however, and
everything changes. A great circle, the shortest
distance between two points on a sphere
between Houston and Makkah initially arcs to
the northeast, then curves southward to the
Saudi peninsula. Islamic scientists knew as
30 early as the ninth century CE that the great cir-
cle route provided the shortest path to
Makkah from anywhere in the world, even
though it may in some places seem counter-
intuitive (Muslims in Alaska, for example,
pray facing almost due north). Great circle
formulae are at the root of nearly every
Malaysia's space agency,
Angkasa, convened a conference
ary to start in the Qibla direction but then con-
tinue the prayer without worrying about possi-
ble changes in position.
But how does that work in space?
of 150 Islamic scientists and Mathematically, Shukor needed to place both
ISS and Makkah on the same imaginary
scholars last year to wrestle with sphere, by either comparing the place on Earth
these and other questions. The directly beneath ISS with the real Ka'aba, or by
projecting the Ka'aba into space (the option
resulting document, "A Guideline recommended by the Fatwa Council).
Yet the option to pray while facing a point in
of Performing worship at the space brings up another problem. Muslims
International Space Station face the ground to pray, in part to avoid any
hint of pagan sun or moon worship. If the
(ISS)", was approved by Ka'aba projection happens to line up with the
Malaysia's National Fatwa sun or moon, purists might believe the prayer
invalid.
Council Dr. Khaleel Mohammed, assistant professor
of religion at San
Diego State
University, concured.
"In space,"
Mohammed points
out, "the ritual prayer
might be offset for
more of a prayer that
is allowed when on
jihad, for the lack of
gravity and directional
accuracy makes it
legitimate to do as
one sees fit. God
does not take a per-
son to task for that
which is beyond
his/her ability to work
with."
Questions like
these will continue as
Member of an International space crew Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor of Malaysia waves just
before boarding at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. more and more reli-
gious astronauts trav-
online Qibla compass. el into space. When is sunset in low Earth orbit
Dr. Kamal Abdali, a Muslim cartographer if you're experiencing a dozen sunrises and
and who has written extensively on determin- sunsets in every 24-hour period? When does
ing the Qibla, favors the great circle route, but Sabbath begin on the moon, where the sun
adds, "Prayer is not supposed to be a gymnas- sets once a month? When is the first sighting
tic exercise. One is supposed to concentrate of the crescent moon if you're on Mars?
on the prayer rather the exact orientation." He Religious councils of all faiths will have plenty
points out that in a train or plane, it's custom- to keep them busy for years.

 Technology James Wilsdon
The history of Islamic science and innovation is a
period of great flourishing followed by a steep
and protracted decline. Today, research and
development spending across the 57 member
states of the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference averages just 0.38 per cent of gross
domestic product, compared with a global aver-
age of 2.36 per cent
n 2005, the Organisation of the Islamic
I Conference announced a 10-year
action programme, which identifies tar-
gets for educational reform and propos-
es that by 2015, member states should
aim to spend 1.2 per cent of GDP on
R&D. Particular impetus is coming from oil-rich
nations, which see innovation as the key to
their long-term prosperity.
The names of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Ibn
al-Nafis may be less familiar to many people
than those of Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein.
But these and other Islamic scholars of the
12th and 13th centuries belong in the pan-
theon of thinkers whose work has shaped the
direction of modern science.
Like that of China, the history of Islamic sci-
ence and innovation was the time of great
flourishing followed by a steep and protracted
decline. Today, research and development
spending across the 57 member states of the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference aver-
ages just 0.38 per cent of gross domestic
product, compared with a global average of
2.36 per cent.
This is not simply a sign of relative poverty:
Oil-producing states such as Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait are among the
lowest investors in research as a Across the Islamic world, the past 12
percentage of GDP. In 2005, the 17
countries of the Arab world togeth-
months have been punctuated by eye-catch-
er produced 13,444 scientific publi- ing announcements. The governments of
cations, fewer than the 15,455
achieved by Harvard University many Muslim countries launched various
alone. A 2002 survey of science in
the region could identify only three
programmes to promote research and edu-
subjects in which it excelled: cation sectors
desalination technologies, camel
reproduction and falconry research. This has
led some commentators to suggest that there
is something about Islam that is inimical to
innovation. However, the picture is starting to
change.
Across the Islamic world, the past 12
months have been punctuated by eye-catching
announcements. In May 2007, the United Arab
Emirates launched a $10bn foundation to cre-
ate research centres in Arab universities. In
Nigeria, the government has poured $5bn into
a petroleum technology development fund to
support research and education. In Qatar, a
2,500-acre education city has been construct-
32 ed outside Doha and is home to international
campuses of five of the world's top uni-
versities. Earlier, in August 2006, King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia laid the founda-
tion stone for a $2.6bn university devot-
ed to science and technology in Taif. In
December last year, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak launched a "decade of
science of technology".
At a multilateral level, there is also a
focus on science and innovation. In
2005, the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference announced a 10-year action
programme, which identifies targets for
educational reform and proposes that by
2015, member states should aim to
spend 1.2 per cent of GDP on R&D.
Particular impetus is coming from oil-rich
nations, which see innovation as the key
to their long-term prosperity.
How far and fast individual countries
move up the innovation league tables
remains to be seen. Few are likely to
compete with Europe, Japan or the US
in the foreseeable future, nor with the
emerging science powers of China and India. The path to a more innovative Islamic world
But just as small nations such as Finland, is not without obstacles. Some daunting chal-
lenges remain. An unusually large
share of the increased funding for
research is being directed towards
military technology - driven more by
geopolitics than the pursuit of new
knowledge. Advances in Iranian
nuclear technology are unlikely to
be viewed elsewhere with the same
equanimity as developments in
Malaysia's software industry.
There is still a substantial brain
drain out of the Islamic world, with
Ireland and Singapore have proved some of many talented scientists and engi-
the success stories of global innovation in the neers opting to pursue their careers in the US
past decade, so the Islamic world may yet sur- and Europe and little sign of the flows of
prise us. returnees that have had such a positive impact
In the west, thanks to the best efforts of in China and India. A final and more funda-
Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and mental question is whether societies that are
others, there is a renewed tendency to see sci- often still resistant to democracy and open
ence and religion as polar opposites. debate can genuinely become hotbeds of cre-
Elsewhere, there is often a greater acceptance ativity and invention. As Pervez Hoodbhoy, the
that faith has its place alongside evidence and leading Pakistani scientist, concluded in a
reason. More religious Islamic governments recent article: "The struggle to usher in science
are proving some of the most supportive of sci- will have to go side by side with a much wider
entific research. Iran, to give one example, campaign to elbow out rigid orthodoxy and
was the first Middle East country to develop a bring in modern thought, arts, philosophy,
human embryonic stem cell line. democracy and pluralism."

 Airline Flare Report

When the A380 lifted off from

Singapore's Changi Airport at
8:15 a.m. local time, it officially
took the title from Boeing's 747
as the biggest commercial jet-
liner, a crown the world's first
jumbo had proudly worn as
the queen of the skies since
entering service with Pan
American World Airways in
1970
new era dawned in aviation on

A October 25th, 2007 when the

Airbus A380, some 18 months
late but creating the kind of
buzz not heard in passenger
jet travel in nearly 40 years,
made its maiden commercial flight from
Singapore to Sydney, Australia.
Painted in the gold and blue livery of
Singapore Airlines, the plane that Airbus has
A view showing Cockpit of the Airbus A380

assessment not long into the flight."

There are 12 of the pumpkin-colored
With the exception of limited access to the
first-class suites, passengers could roam the
leather bedroom suites on the A380, featuring two decks of the A380, which has 471 seats --
called the flagship of the 21st century carried actual fold-down beds, as well as a chaise 60 business-class seats on the upper deck
35 crew members, including four pilots, and longue and a 23-inch LCD entertainment and 399 economy seats behind business and
455 passengers, some of whom paid a bundle screen. across the lower deck starting just aft of the
in an online auction for seats on the historic Some of the suites can be joined with a suites. Some of those 471 seats were empty,
flight -- more than $100,000 in one case. double bed. Sliding doors and roller blinds in both business and coach. Bulkheads on the
Passengers applauded and cheered on give almost total privacy. upper and lower decks of the A380 break up
both decks as the plane's wheels the economy and business class
lifted off the runway in Singapore,
the four Rolls-Royce engines mak-
This is the only A380 that will be delivered in cabins into smaller sections.
Several people who bought the
ing so little noise in the cabin that 2007; Singapore Airlines will get its second prized A380 seats tried to resell
one of the passengers near Chew them on eBay for a profit. One of
later called the takeoff "so quiet it and third A380 in January and February next them was from Seattle. This man
was eerie." year. They will be used on the popular lost his seat eight minutes after he
With the introduction of the tried to resell it on eBay.
A380, Airbus finally has the plane Singapore-London route, making it possible For most of the flight, passen-
that it has long wanted to challenge
the monopoly enjoyed by Boeing for
to travel on an A380 between Sydney and gers and media roamed the double-
decker giant, 239 feet long, that has
nearly 40 years with the 747, but London, the so-called Kangaroo route cost Airbus nearly $20 billion to
the development of the A380 has develop and which was supposed to
been a long and difficult journey highlighted in The eBay auction for seats on both legs of have been delivered to Singapore Airlines in
the last couple of years by soaring costs and the roundtrip to Sydney raised $1.3 million. March 2006.
lengthy delays. Chew said every dollar would go to charity -- The aisles of the jet were often so crowded
Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon a third to Doctors Without Borders, a third to with passengers and media that flight atten-
Seng called the A380 the new "queen of the children's hospitals in Sydney and a third to dants pushing and pulling their food and bev-
skies," and many of the passengers on the charities in Singapore. erage carts could not get through.
34
plane would probably have agreed with that Exxon Mobile Corp. Donated the Fuel. Every passenger on the plane received a

certificate saying the passenger had been part
of the first A380 commercial flight. The two
men personally handed framed certificates to
those in the suites and in business class.
The chefs were on the flight to supervise
the preparation and service of meals in all
cabins. They also walked the two decks dur-
ing the flight, talking and
laughing with passengers
and signing autographs,
often on the menus they
created for the special flight.
Many passengers had
cameras and camcorders
and took pictures of just
about everything on the
plane, including the food.
Singapore Airlines flight
SQ380 carried a mix of pas-
sengers representing 35 dif-
ferent nationalities, with the
largest group being
Australians (28 percent),
then Singaporeans (14 per-
cent), Britons (11 percent)
and Americans (8 percent).
Four passengers from
Norway came the farthest to
fly on the jet.
Passengers included a
U.S. college student who celebrated his 22nd
birthday on the plane and a Swedish engineer
who was on the first flight of the supersonic
Concorde in 1976.
The start of the commercial life of the A380
was far different than that of Boeing's 747.
Problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines
that had plagued the 747 during its flight test-
ing had not yet been solved when 324 pas-
sengers boarded Pan Am's new plane, named
"Clipper Young America," and the jet taxied
out to the runway and prepared to take off for
London on a cold January night in 1970. One
of the engines flamed out during takeoff and
the plane came to a quick stop.
Mechanics were unable to fix the engine,
and a substitute Pan Am jumbo was pressed
into service. It took off for London about
seven hours late. There were no in-flight
movies because there had not been time to
prepare the reserve 747 for them.
Passengers on the A380 had a smorgas-
bord of audio and video entertainment. The
plane has the latest in-flight entertainment
system from Panasonic Avionics, featuring
100 movies, more than 150 TV programs and
700 audio CDs. And it is all on demand.
Airline
For those passengers who wanted to work
during the flight, they didn't even need a lap-
top. In any class, they could plug a thumb
drive into a USB port on the seat and work
away on a system based on Sun
Microsystems's StarOffice.
The arrival of the A380 at the Sydney air-
port was a huge event. In
early August, a large clock
was placed at the airport to
count down the days until
the inaugural flight landed.
About 45 minutes before
landing, Capt. Ting informed
passengers that the plane
would be making a low-level
pass over Sydney's famous
harbor. But a low cloud
cover made that impossible
and the plane landed at 5:23
p.m., two minutes early.
Before they left the
plane, passengers were told
that the baggage of first-
and business-class passen-
gers would be on a separate
carousel from that of pas-
sengers in economy.
Getting through customs
was fairly quick -- there were
22 customs stations to speed the process.
Baggage for first- and business-class pas-
sengers came down the carousel about 10
minutes before the bags from economy start-
ed showing up. Shortly after 6 p.m., some 30
minutes after the A380 arrived at the gate,
economy-class passengers were taking their
bags off the carousel, shaking hands with new
friends from the plane ride and walking away.

35
 Event Flare Report

For business leaders, a liberalized economy, clear

rules of governance, an environment where corrup-
tion is unable to flourish and a deregulated business
environment are key to attracting new business,
growing the economy and improving Pakistan's
brand
rime Minister Shaukat Aziz gave
Pearl Continental Hotels have been awarded The Brand of the Year Award 2006-
2007. On behalf of Pearl Continental Hotels, Mr. Murtaza Hashwani, CEO,
Hashoo Group is receiving award from Mr. Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of
Pakistan. Mr. Nouraiz Shakoor and Mr. Humayun Akhtar are also present.
Limited, Callmate Telips Telecom

P away brand awards to 100 entre-

preneurs, in brand of the year
award ceremony, who excelled in
their respective fields to help
Pakistan expedite the process of
economic growth.
'Brands of the year' awards are introduced
to identify the most in-demand and credible
Limited, Dollar East Exchange
Company (Pvt) Ltd, Hamdard
Laboratories (Waqf) Pakistan, MCR
(Pvt) Limited, Vectracom (Pvt)
Limited, Winson Pvt Limited, Avari
Hotels Limited, Pakistan Cables
Limited, English Biscuit
Manufacturers(Pvt) Limited, Mehran
brands of the country. The ideology behind the Spice and Food Industries, Bank
event was to bring the most valued brands Alfalah Limited -Credit Card, Al- Nouman-ul-Haq, Country Manager Marketing, Sony Ericsson receiving Brand of
into the limelight by acknowledging their con- Nazeer Group of Industries, the year award from Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan
tributions in their
respective areas of
work.
Addressing the cere-
mony, Mr. Aziz said that
branding of products
was important for any
business to get a rea-
sonable share in
domestic market,
besides improving
Pakistan's image in the
international market.
He said the entrepre- Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz distributes shields among the winner of Brands Award Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz distributes shields among the winner of Brands Award
of the Year 2006-07 in a ceremony. of the Year 2006-07 in a ceremony.
neurs should follow as
model to those who
excelled in different
fields and made their
products' brand a sym-
bol of identity of their
trade. He said the gov-
ernment would provide
all possible facilities to
growing businessmen
who keep branding of
their products.
The award winners
included Guard Filter of
Guard Group Lahore, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz distributes shields among the winner of Brands Award Marketing Head of Pepsi Cola International (PCI) Pakistan, Mariam Khan receiving
Nestle Pakistan Limited, of the Year 2006-07 in a ceremony. the Brands of the Year National Award from Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Procter & Gamble, Total Parco Pakistan Ltd, Mustafa Enterprise, TCS (Pvt)
Warid Telecom, Pakistan Services Limited, Limited, Cadbury Pakistan Limited, General
Pepsi Cola International, Colgate Palmolive Fan Company (Pvt) Limited, Sony Ericsson
Pakistan Limited, EFU General Insurance Pakistan, Habib Oil Mills, Gillett Pakistan
Limited, Siemens Pakistan Engineering Co Limited, Colgate Palmolive Pakistan Limited,
Shan Food Industries, K&N's Foods (Pvt)
"With the country having 160 million Limited, Shield Corporation Limited, Agro
hard-working people - out of which Processors and Atmospheric Gases(Pvt)
Limited, Zulfiqar Industries Limited, Bata
100 million are below 25 years of age Pakistan Limited, Airblue, Trakker Pvt Limited, Traders (Pvt) Limited, Haseen Habib Corp
Irfan Noman Bernas Pvt Limited, DHL
- its geo-strategic location at the Pakistan (Pvt) Limited, Lucky Cement Limited, Johan (Pvt) Limited, Canon Foam Industries
crossroads of various important United Mobile, Pioneer Cement Limited,
Gerry's Travel, Karwan Al Madina, Atlas
regions, huge economic and invest- Travels, Berger Paints Pakistan Limited, Hanif Cargo Services(Pvt) Limited, United Textile
Rajput Caterers, Tessori-The Art of Jewellery,
ment potential and low cost of doing Chaudhary Engineering Company, Metalex
business, the government is trying to Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Mehran Bottlers (Pvt)
Ltd, National Foods, Cyber Internet Service
create Pakistan as a brand in the (Pvt) Limited, Master Enterprises (Pvt)
Limited, Shield Corporation Limited, Premier
36 world," said Shaukat Aziz, Industries, Tripple EM (Pvt) Limited, Noon
Pakistan Limited, Sayyed Engineering (Pvt)
Ltd, Golden Harvest Foods (Pvt) Limited, Tariq
Glass Industries Limited, Young's (Pvt)
Limited, Pakistan Cables Limited, KH Fama
and Textile Processing (Pvt) Limited, Ashrafi
Food Industries, Trakker Direct Insurance
Limited, Premier Industries, Pakistan
Accumulators, Sumbul Ahmad Ltd, Canon
(Pvt) Limited, Nayyer Industries (Pvt) Limited,
(Pvt) Limited, Pelikan Industries, Shafi Sons
Engineering (Pvt) Limited, TAQ Enterprises
Mills, United Marine Agencies (Pvt) Limited,
Roshan Enterprises, Raaziq International
(Pvt) Limited, Homeopathic Stores and
Hospital, Qasim Freight Int'l (Pvt) Master
Glass Fiber, Saco Traders (Pvt)Limited and
IKO Bearing.

 IT Flare Report
With voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology on the rise in corporate enterprises as a cost-
reduction strategy, the next natural step is to consider deploying voice-over-wireless
LANs (VoWLAN) to further reduce costs while increasing mobility and convenience
for users. Unfortunately, as many network engineers and administrators have experi-
enced, increased user base and data traffic over converged wireless voice/data/video
networks have resulted in a host of service quality issues; here we will look into pos-
sibilities for voice over a wireless network
hankfully, a WLAN
T Edge Architecture
called 'channel
blanket' technolo-
gy makes it possi-
ble for organiza-
tions to realize the cost and pro-
ductivity benefits of VoWLAN
while overcoming performance
challenges. A different kind of
topology the channel blanket
infrastructure is fundamentally
different from that of conven-
tional wireless networks.
Cell-based wireless systems
require comprehensive RF
(radio frequency) cell planning
to avoid co-channel interfer-
ence. With the Layer-2 Edge
Architecture of the channel
blanket, every radio channel can be used
everywhere, at every access point (AP), there-
by creating blankets of continuous wireless
coverage with no roaming latency or co-chan-
nel interference problems. Most wireless net-
work problems stem from their physical cell-
based architecture in which each user con-
nects to an AP, with each AP serving a cell. In
voice applications, this can result in the repeat-
ed occurrence of 'performance thieves' that
can have a negative impact on overall system
quality and reliability. The problems include:
Co-channel interference: This signal
transmission problem occurs when two APs
are operating on the same channel and
attempt to transmit at the same time. Similar to
crosstalk in the wired world, this slows down
the network because each AP
must wait before trying again
to transmit.
Excessive latency and jit-
ter: Data transmissions, such
as file transfers and e-mail, are
less sensitive to latency, so a
slight delay is normally accept-
able. However, voice transmis-
sion is expected to occur in
real time, and latency of even
tens of milliseconds is unac-
ceptable. The same applies to
sensitivity to jitter - random
variations in latency that mani-
fest as audible clicks, unex-
plained pauses or interrupted
speech. The overhead of
roaming, security mechanisms,
retransmissions and data/voice
convergence all contribute to
38
latency and jitter in cell-based
Channel blanket architecture is
designed specifically to over-
come VoWLAN performance
thieves and provide a high-per-
formance, scalable mobile infra-
structure equally capable of
transmitting voice and data
packets
WLANs.
Edge-user and mixed-mode problems:
An edge user in a cell-based topology is some-
one too far away from the AP to connect at the
maximum data rate. When the
connection is eventually made (at
a slower speed), other users are
forced to connect at a slower
speed as well due to the amount
of time required for the edge user
to transmit its data packets.
Mixed-mode users-those access-
ing the system through various
kinds of wireless devices (IEEE
802.11a/b/g) - can create similar
delays, since these devices con-
nect at different speeds.
Roaming latency between
Aps: As users move from cell to
cell, traditional cell planning can-
not provide continuous coverage
at the maximum data rate
because of the limited number of
channels available. Limited over-
lap between cells frequently results in 'black
holes' at or near the point of handoff, resulting
in dropped calls and areas of poor or no cover-
age.
Low capacity, reduced call capability:
Adequate capacity in enterprise networks is
paramount in determining the number of con-
current calls or transmissions that can be sup-
ported. In conventional cell-based architec-
tures, maintaining adequate capacity can still
be a problem during peak calling times.
Power consumption requirements:
Mobile telephones must be light and portable,
which limits the size, power and lifetime of the
battery that can be used. To extend battery life
and get maximum data rates during active
calls, mobile phone users should be as close
as possible to the controlling AP.
This requirement, coupled with
rapid power consumption,
defeats the goal of 'unlimited
mobility'.
Network security: Security in
wireless networking systems
continues to be a major concern.
Wired Equivalence Privacy
(WEP)-the original security proto-
col for 802.11 wireless networks-
is now considered flawed by the
industry. IEEE 802.11i introduced
newer security standards for
WLANs. The interim Wi-Fi
Protect Access (WPA) includes
temporary key encryption, mes-
sage integrity checks and strong
authentication, thereby resolving
some of WEP's security prob-
lems. However, WPA introduces
additional latency at each AP

handoff because of these additional
security measures, effectively disrupting
voice service.
How blanket design eliminates these
problems
Channel blanket architecture was
designed specifically to overcome
VoWLAN performance thieves and pro-
vide a high-performance, scalable
mobile infrastructure equally capable of
transmitting voice and data packets.
One of the best overall indicators of
wireless network performance is the
total bandwidth (connection rate) of
which a network is capable. Greater
signal strength everywhere translates
into guaranteed connections, enabling
the potential for more users, faster data
streams or both.
Channel blanket technology is able
to deliver consistently greater signal strength
across the network with no co-channel inter-
ference or latency problems. A look at some of
the structural differences between convention-
al cell-based WLAN architectures and channel
blanket architecture helps explain these
improvements.
In conventional WLANs, each AP consti-
tutes a cell, and each AP is assigned a chan-
nel. To minimize interference between cells,
the APs are distributed throughout the site
service area according to a detailed-and
expensive- RF site survey plan created before
installation. The rigid cell-based architecture
forces voice and data users to compete for the
same wireless resources, so even after the
cell-based network is up and running, signal
transmission problems may persist. As the
organization grows, additional RF planning
expense may be required.
Channel blanket technology eliminates RF
planning and expense by eliminating individual
cells-the very foundation of conventional
WLANs. In this topology, each AP shares the
same MAC address and operates on the
same channel, with the wireless switch in con-
trol of all packet routing decisions. This allows
the APs' coverage to be aggregated, creating
'blankets' of coverage. The 'thin' AP used in
channel blanket WLANs is simply a
radio/antenna gateway-a conduit between the
user and the switch. With the switch complete-
ly in control, making decisions on a packet-by-
packet basis, there is no contention between
APs. As a result, neither co-channel interfer-
ence nor client bunching exist to strain capaci-
ty.
High throughput is achieved even when
cell traffic is high, and full compliance with
IEEE 802.11a/b/g protocol and security stan-
dards is maintained. As the network grows,
any number of APs can be added, as densely
as needed, to provide the required data rate.
The clear choice for VoWLAN
VoWLAN deployments must meet special
requirements if they are to deliver the quality
of service, convenience and mobility expected
from a telephone system network. Complete
coverage and seamless mobility, without serv-
ice interruptions, must be assured. Capacity
(bandwidth) must be sufficient to handle voice,
data and multimedia transmissions, even
under peak loads... and security must be bul-
letproof. Channel blanket Edge Architecture
offers simplicity of implementation and opera-
tion by eliminating contention between APs,
but relies on three key components:
1) Wireless LAN switches: Layer-2
devices that control all aspects of cell traffic
and user access can be Power-over-Ethernet
(PoE) -enabled to eliminate the need for a
midspan/endspan device. High-quality, multi-
port wireless switches are the key to system
performance and reliability for all users,
regardless of the number of users or volume
of data packets being transmitted. Multiple
switches can be daisy-chained together in a
Master/Slave configuration for scalability.
2) Thin APs are the key to plug-and-play
IT
functionality. With all software and pro-
cessing intelligence built into the switches,
the thin APs require neither configuration
nor programming with IP or MAC address-
es. These simple yet sophisticated AP
devices can also be powered by standard
PoE (802.3af PoE) provided by the wire-
less LAN switch. Additional APs can be
added at any time to expand the wireless
LAN to virtually any size.
3) Control and security software pro-
vides the brains of the wireless switches,
controlling all client associations and pro-
viding a bulletproof suite of standards-
based security choices. In selecting a
wireless solution, look for software that
supports WPA2, the latest security proto-
col based on IEEE 802.11i for authentica-
tion and encryption. WPA2 is designed to
secure all APs and eliminate the risk of an
AP security breach. Multiple-radio APs
provide the ability to configure a dedicated
security blanket for rogue access point detec-
tion.
Another feature to look for in a wireless
solution is 'spectrum re-use'. This capability-
built into the wireless switch-can boost band-
width even further by allowing multiple, simul-
taneous use of the same channel. It allows the
intelligent switch to look at the time differential
between all users and all APs-in real time-to
determine whether there is an opportunity to
re-use a channel. If so, the channel blanket is
dynamically subdivided to provide multiple
simultaneous links, thereby increasing network
capacity without causing co-channel interfer-
ence.
The benefits of successful deployment
In effect, channel blanket VoWLAN archi-
tecture provides a 'system-in-a-box' that is
capable of providing ubiquitous, reliable and
secure mobile telephony and wireless data
transmissions for an unlimited number of
users, wireless devices and applications- all
for an extremely reasonable total cost of own-
ership. Channel blanket technology has been
thoroughly tested and, when deployed proper-
ly, is in full compliance with IEEE 802.11a/b/g
protocol and standards. Currently, this wire-
less solution is offered by only a handful of
vendors, but acceptance is bound to grow as
the technology's unique operating principle
and performance benefits become better
known across the industry.

Blazing Solar Racing Cars

The world's most environment friendly car race has set off on an epic 1,864-mile course -
fuelled only by the sun. A contingent of 38 solar-powered vehicles will spend around four
days traveling the length of Australia from Darwin in the north to the southern port city of
Adelaide at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour.
The racers, from 17 countries around the world, were warned they were likely to
encounter gusting desert winds, blazing temperatures, irate truck drivers and even kanga-
roos as they battle to win the biennial event.
Thousands of onlookers crowded the streets to cheer on the cars at the start of the bien-
nial World Solar Challenge.
Drivers and crew are required to camp out where they end up each night - for obvious
reasons; the challenge takes place only during daylight hours.
The only rule over the mostly straight course through Australia's "red centre", in tempera-
tures that can exceed 50 degrees centigrade, is that the custom-built vehicles run on nothing
but the sun.
All competitors are looking to beat the impressive three-times winner Nuon Solar team
from Holland who hold the race record of 29 hours and 11 minutes.
Event director Chris Selwood says the teams, including an English and Welsh entrant,
have some hard days ahead of them.
He said that the unique nature of the event is that wherever a team gets to at 5pm, that's
where they make camp, so a number of these teams will be camped in the bush over the
coming days.
"They'll go through pain and anguish and a lot of suffering I'm sure." 39
 In Picture

A guest, left, and a worker, right, talks at the new building of Nokia's flagship store after its
opening ceremony in Shanghai, China. World's largest mobile phone maker reported a near-
doubling of its third-quarter earnings and a larger share of the global handset market last week
as it benefited from strong sales in areas like India and China.

A Chinese woman uses a mobile phone in Shanghai. China Mobile, the

country's largest mobile network operator, hopes to roll out third generation
(3G) mobile services before the end of the year but repeated delays has
sparked speculation that its home-grown standard is not yet up to snuff.

South Korea's electronics giant Samsung Electronics displays a prototype model of ultra slim
40-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) television in thickness of 10mm at a flat panel display trade
show in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. The 10mm LCD display has 1080p full high-defini-
tion quality and has LED backlighting for low power consumption.

Japanese tire giant Bridgestone employee displays an A3 sized electronic paper

display "Quick Response Liquid Powder Display" (QR-LPD), which has 4,096-
color and is flexible like a film in thickness of 0.29mm at a flat panel display
trade show in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. A4 sized materials were
already provided for electronic makers as a low power consumption display.
Pedestrians pass by logos of LG Electronics Inc. on a street in Seoul. LG Electronics Inc., a
major producer of mobile phones and consumer electronics said, that third-quarter net profit
surged nearly 15-fold amid record handset sales and better performance by its flat panel
joint venture LG.Philips LCD Co.

Founder and Chief Executive of Jaman, Ghaurav Dhillon. US website Jaman

is betting on the world's appetite for independent films made by budding
artists without any help from major movie studios. Entertainment industry
giants are investing in ways to deliver blockbuster films via the Internet.
YouTube is a treasure trove of amateur video snippets. Jaman is an online
art house for independent film makers and the people who love them.
"There is definitely a revolution taking place on the Internet in regard to rich
media," Jaman founder Ghaurav Dhillon told during a recent interview in the
firm's headquarters in San Mateo, California.

40
 Broadcasting Shahid Zahid
he pace of change in TV broad-
T casting is picking up dramatically.
Two years a go, most TV sets
were Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
based; today, CRTs have been
relegated to an insignificant cor-
ner by flat-panel TV sets. There is a High
Definition Television (HDTV) uprising every-
where and the whole broadcast world is
buzzing with thrusts into Internet Protocol
Television (IPTV), mobile video and a renewed
resurgence of Video-on-Demand (VoD). The
free-fall in hard-disk storage costs has sprout-
ed an entire industry of Digital Video Recorder
(DVR) based devices.
Many of these innovations seem to pull in
contradictory directions, as seen in High
Definition (HD) with more pixels and mobile
video on phones with their tiny screens. It is
hard to make sense of this increasingly busy
space that is called broadcasting. However,
through newspapers and technical journals
people are beginning to see a pattern emerg-
ing. This article will begin the journey with the
emergence of the DVR in our living rooms.
The DVR is the most often marketed as a
DVD recorder with hard disk. A hard disk-
equipped Set Top Box (STB) is also a DVR.
What ever it is called, the DVR has the capa-
bility of recording and playing back video con-
tent - very much like a Video Home System
(VHS) recorder/player. However, a DVR with a
250GB hard disk has a key advantage over
the VHS. You could programme it to record not
one but four of your favorite
one-hour weekly TV serials,
and then go on holiday for
almost a year and return to
find all the episodes perfectly
recorded. That is a lot of con-
tent!
DVRs in the form of DVD
recorders equipped with hard
disks may be used to record
programmes off a terrestrial
or cable-TV service.
However, this limits you to
scheduled TV services and
requires the user to pro-
gramme the DVR to make
the recording in the first
42
place. This step can be elimi-
The pace of change in TV broadcasting is
picking up dramatically. CRTs have been
relegated to an insignificant corner by
flat-panel TV sets. There is a HDTV
uprising. Moreover, the whole world is
buzzing with thrusts into Internet
Protocol Television (IPTV), mobile video
and a renewed resurgence of Video-on-
Demand (VoD). The free-fall in hard-
disk storage costs has sprouted an entire
industry of Digital Video Recorder
(DVR) based devices. This is what has
happened, but lets peek into the future
of broadcasting technologies and possi-
ble combinations in the coming years
UN rejoiced “World TV Day” on
21st, November
nated with VoD. VoD allows you to choose entire video library on-demand anytime you
what to watch when you want it. Cable opera-
tors have been experimenting with VoD for a
long time. It seems like a good idea - and it is -
to be able to access the cable broadcaster's
want to.
However, scalability issues hinder real-
world implementations. VoD servers are just
not designed to serve hundreds of thousands
or millions of viewers simulta-
neously. The cable that feeds
content into viewers' homes
will also suffer congestion if
too many people try to use
the VoD service.
The problem is that Cable
TV is a shared medium and,
in a VoD scenario, each pro-
gramme requested by a sub-
scriber takes up dedicated
bandwidth on that cable. It
does not matter if 10 people
all request the same pro-
gramme at the same time, the
cable headend still needs to
stream 10 programme feeds
down the cable. For these
reasons, past VoD attempts
The PBS Digital Video Recorder was designed with a user friendly interface have been self limiting and
(GUI) enabling business owners to start using the system within have faced significant techno-
minutes of installation
logical challenges when trying
to scale to mass audiences.
Video Podcasting, or something However, broadcasters are still hopeful
quite similar is what analysts about VoD. Telecom companies have spear-
headed recent VoD attempts; and, at least on
believe will form the new broad- paper, they have a way of overcoming the
bandwidth bottleneck. These Telcos are mak-
casting paradigm ing use of dedicated bandwidth connections
provided with the data broad-
band service they offer. This
technology - delivering TV pro-
grammes over a data broad-
band connection - is known as
IPTV. It is called IPTV because
the most popular way of con-
verting or formatting a TV pro-
gramme for delivery over a
data broadband connection is
by using the Internet Protocol
(IP).
The other scalability issue
with VoD is with its server itself
at the headend. This issue is
not a technical limitation rather,
more related with the cost. A
VoD server facility can theoreti-

cally be scaled to any size by just adding
more servers but, in reality, the cost and com-
plexity of managing too many servers grow
exponentially. Thus, the bottom line for VoD is
that while IPTV technology may enable mass-
deployment of VoD, there are still significant
cost and logistics issues to be considered.
Is there any better alternative to VoD?
Analysts believe an answer may soon be com-
ing to your STB. The technology is so new
that analysts have not yet
come across a standardized
term to describe it. For now,
they will call it "Video
Podcasting". Regular
Podcasting is a service that
allows you to download audio
content on "Radio" channels
that people in developed world
have subscribed to and have
that content transferred from
their PC onto an MP4 player
like Apple's iPod. Video
Podcasting is similar in that it
allows you to subscribe to
"TV" channels and have the
content downloaded to a digi-
tal video player or (STB).
These radio and TV channels
are regular radio or TV broad-
casters but they also offer
their content over the Internet.
Analysts believe Video
Podcasting will be a key com-
ponent in our future TV-view-
ing experience. Video
Podcasting will allow anyone
from big businesses or estab-
lished broadcasters to entre-
preneurial start-ups or home-
video producers-to offer their
content to the masses just like
YouTube.
Why do analysts and
researchers think Video
Podcasting will be significant?
Video Podcasting is easy on
the content-delivery network in
that it does not require dedi-
cated bandwidth. Content can
be trickle-fed to your STB
when the network is congest-
ed and the floodgates can be opened within
the network is idle. Contrast this with stream-
ing VoD, which needs dedicated bandwidth.
With insufficient bandwidth, VoD users will end
up with choppy video, plagued with starts and
stops.
If a popular item of content is particularly
sought after, there are distribution mecha-
nisms that can take advantage of this. No sin-
gle server today will be able to accommodate
tens of millions of simultaneous downloads.
However, a distributed collection of servers
will be up to this task. This is especially true if
each of your downloaders will also act as your
content server to help you further distribute
your content.
This peer-to-peer technology exists today;
an example being the OpenSource bit torrent
computer program. This is a big advantage
over traditional VoD delivery, which requires
the service provider to add and manage costly
VoD servers as the service grows in populari-
ty. Content owners can continue to make
money through Video Podcasting. Their rev-
enue stream remains protected even with
peer-to-peer delivery mechanisms. A major
worry of content owners is that their content
will be pirated and they will not receive their
due compensation. This was certainly the
case with the early peer-to-peer networks like
the original Napster. But with the advent of
Digital Rights Management (DRM), this issue
has largely been addressed. It does not mat-
ter how the user gets the encrypted content.
DRM encrypts the content so that it will not be
playable unless the user acquires (that is,
pays for) a key to unlock the content.
Tomorrow, you might just be able to pick up at
no cost an encrypted DVD of the latest movie
hit. Place this encrypted DVD into your DRM-
HDTV
enabled STB, pay for the license key and
enjoy!
However, if your STB is already connected
to a broadband service, you may not even
have to pick up the DVD; you may find that
the content has already been pushed or pre-
loaded into your STB! Purchase the key and
proceed to play back the content. You can
avoid Video Podcast "junk mail" because RSS service but it is a very good illusion at that.
technology allows your STB to filter and down- End-users choose what they want to watch
load only the content you are interested in.
For example, you may have subscribed to a
"1970s TV channel" but are only interested in
watching "Uncle Urfi" and not the "Shehzori"
or any other 1970s TV series. In this situation, Consider Figure 1, which illustrates what could
use the STB's remote control to select only
"Uncle Urfi" from the "1970s TV channel" fold-
er and leave the other programmes unselect-
ed. From then on, only "Uncle Urfi" episodes
will be forwarded to your STB's DVR hard
disk.
Video Podcast make business sense by
allowing programme providers and equipment
manufacturers to milk hard-to-get-at niche
markets.
HDTV is a fast-growing niche that may one in tomorrow?.

day become mainstream. Programme
providers can just as easily encode a HD ver-
sion, in addition to the Standard Definition
(SD) version of their content, and offer it for
Broadcasting
download off the Internet. HD-capable STB's
may then be programmed to search for and
download the HD version of the content where
available. Upgraders motivated by the avail-
ability of HD programming will buy HD-capa-
ble STBs and large HD-compatible flat-panel
TVs spurring further adoption. Video Podcast
need not be limited to wired networks. Telcos
have paid a lot of money acquiring 3G band-
width but are still searching for a "killer appli-
cation" to recoup their invest-
ment. Programme providers
may also encode a small ver-
sion of their content and offer
it for download to mobile
device such as smart-phones
or wireless enabled Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs).
Video Podcasting is a
win-win business proposition
all-round. Content owners
will enjoy a low-cost means
of distributing their content.
Think of Video Podcasting
like the free Skype Internet
Telephony service, except
instead of carrying voice it
carries video content. Telcos
get to focus on what they do
best - selling the bandwidth
required of these services to
end-users - and not having to
worry about running a broad-
cast service. Equipment
manufacturers get to sell
more Video Podcast-enabled
STBs, HD flat-panel displays,
smartphones or wireless-
enabled PDAs. Value-added
service providers can sell
services that take care of
pre-selecting the content you
wish to watch and handling
the payment for paid content
downloads. Advertisers can
work with Video Podcast por-
tals to provide users with free
advertising-supplemented
content.
Video Podcast downloads
occur in the background. As
long as the device (be it an
STB or a smart-phone) is switched on and
connected to the network, it can proceed to
download Video Podcasts. The user can be
notified when a download is complete or the
device's content menu can be programmed to
show only completed downloads. Best of all,
there is no waiting for the content to start play-
ing. Video Podcast gives the illusion of a VoD
and get to watch it when they want to.
To summaries, Video Podcasting or some-
thing quite similar, is what analysts believe will
form the new broadcasting paradigm.
be the next-generation TV ecosystem. There
is a share of the revenue pie for existing play-
ers and yet the very openness of the system
threatens change and spurs growth.
Researchers and analysts have also tabled
the key innovations, which they believe are
central to ushering in the new TV. In drawing
up the table, they have used a "What's in it for
me?" approach. The question for you to
answer is: which space would you want to be
The writer is a TV Broadcast & Satellite
Communication Engineer with a National
Broadcaster of Pakistan, ATV
43
 In Picture Flare Reprt

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida speaking before the press in
Tokyo. Toshiba jump of almost 18 percent in first-half net profits and raised its full-year fore-
casts as it enjoys brisk sales of computers, memory chips and other goods.

Toyota Motor's concept car "i-REAL"

Toyota Motor's concept car "i-REAL" during a pre-event for the upcoming Tokyo
Motor Show in Tokyo. The one-seat electric vehicle runs at a maximum speed of
30 kph in high-speed mode and moves slowly among pedestrians at similar eye-
sight in low-speed mode.

Indian actress Tara Sharma (L) and Head of Operations of North Vodafone Essar Sanjoy
Mukherjee (R) pose with the logo of Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon during a press conference
in New Delhi.

Models display Japanese electronics giant Matsushita electric Industrial's lat-

est mobile handset "P905i", equipped with a 3-inch wide VGA LCD display
and a 5.1-mega pixel CMOS camera, which can display digital broadcasting
on the various angled display in Tokyo. Matsushita will put it on the market at
the end of this month.

"Junior", Volkswagen Passat Station wagon diesel, heavily modi-

fied and robotized by a team of Stanford University, begins the
second stage of the DARPA urban challenge in Victorville,
California. Prototype robot cars of the future faced off under the
gaze of Pentagon officials keen to see if machines rather than
troops might one day be able to drive in urban war zones. This
weekend's competition organised by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's research arm,
will see 11 teams descend on a former US Air Force base in A pedestrian walks past Alibaba.com advertising in Hong Kong. Chinese business to business
Victorville, situated in the desert northeast of Los Angeles. website Alibaba.com says it aims to raise 11.6 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.5 billion USD) in what
it called the largest Internet IPO since Google.
44
 Cover Story Zubair Ahmed Kasuri

The recent demonstration of information

flow over ITC (Internet and Telecom) was an
evidence of the power, influence and the
reach these mediums possess. While plan-
ning the cut down of TV channels and
restraining the people from news updates,
think tanks may not had anticipated the role,
that cellular phones and Internet could play
in absence of electronic media. Instead of
information blockage, this action has result-
ed into another sad episode in our history
46

he dynamism of telecommunica-
T tion market is widely attributed to
rapid technological development
taking place over the time and it
is the result of an increasingly
liberal and conducive environ-
ment. Over the past decade, a large number
of world economies have also embarked on
reform paths and witnessed significant expan-
sion of their telecommunication networks and
striking improvements in quality of services
and products. Telecommunication liberaliza-
tion is relatively new concept in
Pakistan; however it was, for the first
time, effectually utilized in the recent
weeks after November 3, 2007.
After the imposition of emergency in
Pakistan, media was under curb; hence
telecom sector emerged as a new medi-
um for sharing information in the coun-
try. Mobile phone, Internet and satellite
dishes became the main sources of
news and updates for people in
Pakistan and for those concerned with
Pakistan, worldwide.
While planning the cut down of TV
channels and restraining the people
from news updates, think tanks may not
had anticipated the role that cellular
phones could play in absence of elec-
tronic media.
The role, which mobile phones
played, could be judged by the rumor
about President
Musharraf on very
first day of emer-
gency that reached
with-in and outside of
Pakistan within min-
utes; uncertain situa-
tion was not felt only
in the political cor-
ners, but the stocks
observed worst
impacts. Situation
came so crucial that
President Musharraf
had to himself deny
the rumors.
Following day,
authorities had to pull
down mobile phone
services in capital,
Islamabad, as the
sacked Chief Justice
addressed a meeting
of lawyers on tele-
phone. It happened
in the case of
Benazir Bhutto again,
who addressed the public using similar means
of communication. This practice continued as
the Government kept blocking cellular servic-
es in the different nock and corners of the
country at different times.
We have seen notable climbs in the cellu-
lar traffic earlier at many occasions including
the Eid holidays, Valentine's day, New Year
Eve, festivals and other instances. However,
in the current scenario, the hunger of news
updates resulted the record rise in voice and
data traffic in Pakistan.
People started keeping each other
informed about the latest happenings through
SMS or calls. Due to low rates, mobile calls
and messages were found too inexpensive
when it is compared to the amount of informa-
tion people gained.
Pakistan's text-addicted youth, since the
declaration of emergency, has been widely
sending protest sentiments to each other.
They were found generating a peaceful
protest via text messages. Workers of differ-
ent political parties are also active through
SMS.
According to a conservative estimate,
almost every 3rd Pakistani mobile-phone user
availed the text message service, sources in
the cellular companies revealed. Despite of
information blackout on TV Channels, the
nation remained well informed about the
headlines at least; obviously, in detail
reviews/analyses were not possible; yet the
major news were not hidden to anyone.
Government's ban on TV channels
resulted in enormous increase of
SMS traffic, as lawyers, journal-
ists, members of civil society,
common citizens, even govern-
ment employees used SMS to
inform each other of the latest
updates as well as to share infor-
mation regarding future planning
and events
Cellular companies, who are worried about
their businesses in current political situation,
reported a record rise in the cellular traffic.
According to estimated statistics about 60 mil-
lion messages are being sent each day.
Officials from different cellular companies
told 'Flare' that the voice traffic was also noted
as high as never before, however the ratio in
the SMS traffic was enormous enough to not
be beaten in the future.
Cellular companies also reported high-rise
in graph for MMS (Multi Media Messaging),
which can carry voice and video over the cell
phone. MMS is another cost effective method
to share files and digital information over the
cell phones. These MMS were normally flew
from overseas Pakistanis, who had access to
media, to their friends and families with-in
Pakistan, and vice versa.
Telecom analysts predict even a higher
amount of voice and data traffic in coming
days, as the public will start reacting against
Cover Story
the current ruling. However, the capacity that
the cellular companies support for voice and
data is still a question mark; keeping an eye
on current situation, one has to come up with
a new solution for a swift and parallel flow of
information for masses.
The Internet has been a new medium of
information in Modern world and it has
emerged as new form of electronic media. If
there were no blank screens on Pakistani
channels, it was never possible to view
Pakistani TV channels on Internet.
After Geo TV and ARY started
streaming live transmissions on their
sites, those are, www.geo.tv, and
www.aryoneworld.net many online
blogs, web portals, news sites and other
personal web pages linked Pakistani
channels' live stream to their home
pages.
More than seventy thousands broad-
band users and over five million dial-up
users, only in Pakistan, are fulfilling their
information requirements through this
source as well. On the other hand, news
archive available on www.geo.tv is
attracting millions of overseas
Pakistanis and users from Pakistan as
well.
On the social networking site
Facebook, over 5000 people have
joined a group titled "We Oppose
Emergency in Pakistan." The group's
homepage hosts links to online peti-
tions, up-to-date news reports, video clips that
broadcast messages by detained lawyers and
opposition leaders such as Benazir Bhutto,
Imran Khan and others.
Interestingly, teenagers who normally do
not get involved with or have a voice in
Pakistan's public sphere are generating much
of the discussion on various blogs and social
community sites. Barely a day after emer-
gency rule was declared, a Wikipedia page
titled "2007 Pakistani state of emergency"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Pakistani_st
ate_of_emergency) was posted. The
Wikipedia page is being updated with tran-
scripts of Musharraf's address to the nation,
news about protests from around the country,
a compilation of official reactions from opposi-
tion politicians and prominent lawyers, and
links to recent news stories.
The blogsphere is also jumping with news
about the state of emergency. Global Voices
Online set up a special "Pakistan Emergency"
page on their website, aggregating a variety of
news and commentary regarding the crisis.
More importantly, bloggers based in Pakistan
are frequently updating their sites with news
from protest sites, updates about how best to
access information and the status of cell
phone connectivity.
A blogger Dr Awab Alvi's site
(http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/) has become
the go-to blog for many Pakistanis, especially
after it provided a minute-by-minute update.
An anonymous group of students, who claim
to be opposed to "injustice and oppression",
have also created a blog called "The
Emergency Times", which provides daily citi-
zen-generated reports and regular updates on
the emergency situation.
Live streaming generated high amount of
bandwidth utilization. On other hands search
engines reported record high searches for
"Geo TV" "Jang Newspaper" and other media
sources in Pakistn.
Below graphs shows the stats obtained
from Google Trends, which shows the tenden-
cy of Internet users about their searches on
Google.
47
 Cover Story

news channels. satellite voice and data network rollout is con-

Subsequently, sale cerned.
of dish antennas Pakistan's IT sector that has already been
and digital satellite a victim of aftereffects of current political sce-
receivers increased nario will further go deep into the hills. Mr.
to manifold. Yousaf Hussain, Managing Director, Pakistan
Government could Software Export Board (PSEB), told 'Flare'
not bear with this that Pakistan's IT exports were already lacking
situation as well. At to meet its set targets for current years.
last satellite dish Internet Service Provider Association of
sellers were threat- Pakistan (ISPAK) representative told 'Flare'
ened from govern- that broadband sector would be another hit of

The Internet has been a new medium of infor-

mation in Modern world and it has emerged as
new form of electronic media. If there were no
blank screens on Pakistani channels, it was
never possible to view Pakistani TV channels
on Internet
ment officials. But it
Graphs obtained from Google Trends, show the trends of Internet users regarding their
is also true that
searches on Google.com
these sellers are
getting ample
money from the
public for the sale of
this equipment.
However, the lat-
est information says
that authorities
banned the import
of satellite television
equipment, placing
a further ban on
coverage of the
country's raging
political crisis.
An order issued
said satellite
dishes,
The usage of SMS as news sharing platform can be decoders, digital
used by anti-state elements to destabilize Pakistan, satellite news-
gathering
which may harm our national interests and integrity. (DSNG), modu-
Therefore, each of us must use this service sensibly lator, high-power
amplifier (HPA),
to avoid any undesired results for our motherland; we integrated digital
must ignore any message that may cause any conflict receiver (IRD),
low noise amplifi-
for Pakistan. Furthermore, Regulatory Authorities and er (LNA), broad-
law enforcement agencies must make cellular compa- band global axis
network (BGAN),
nies bound to monitor any anti-state activity carried low noise block
out through SMS (LNB) and cam-
era could only be
In this modern age satellite is another imported with the permission of PEMRA.
mean of information through which we can Earlier, these machineries and equipments
receive transmissions from electronic media could be imported freely in the country.
anywhere in the world. In Pakistan, after elec- Telecom and IT sector is another hit that is
tronic media blackout, people rushed to get expected to face serious problems as far as
48
satellite equipments to remain intact with
this ban. He said that their members would be
meeting shortly to decide the strategy for
coming days. He said that association would
not silently accept this decision, as over 75
percent of call centers have quitted from their
businesses just because of government poli-
cies. He said they would not let Internet busi-
nesses to be ruined like this.
On the other side, market analysts observe
the current situation as worst ever in our his-
tory. Market sources revealed that there was
abundance of satellite equipment for meeting
our voice and data requirements.
Market survey reveals that investors for
this domain will pull their money out of the
market, results another episode of bad impact
on our economy.
Several companies from another domain,
network infrastructure rollout, have recorded
their protest over the current situation. One of
official from a network company told 'Flare'
that this would not only impact the direct for-
eign investment in Pakistan, but also discour-
age skilled professionals to return back and
build Pakistan in a better way.
It must be noted that the usage of SMS as
news sharing platform can be used by anti-
state elements to destabilize Pakistan, which
may harm our national interests and integrity.
Therefore, each of us must use this service
sensibly to avoid any undesired results for our
motherland; we must ignore any message that
may cause any conflict for Pakistan.
Furthermore, Regulatory authorities and law
enforcement agencies must make cellular
companies bound to monitor any anti-state
activity carried out through SMS.

 Informative

Nokia 6500 Classic Nokia N81 8GB

Size Size
Dimensions 109.8 x 45 x 9.5 mm, 47 cc, Weight 94g Dimensions 102 x 50 x 17.9 mm, 86 cc, Weight 140g
Display Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches, Navi wheel interface
Ringtones Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Type Polyphonic (64 channels), Monophonic, True Tones, MP3s,
Memory Memory
1 GB internal user memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall, 8 GB internal
Data flash memory
GPRS Class 32, 53.6 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 32, 296 / 177.6 kbits Data
3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, microUSB GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Yes
Features 3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with UPnP, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with
Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF), flash, Seamless case of A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB
anodized aluminum, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+ player, T9, Calendar Features
Calculator, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo OS Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI, Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels,
Battery video(VGA 15fps), flash; secondary CIF videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0
Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 5h 30 min MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, Rotating gallery with Navi wheel, Stereo FM Radio,
T9, Push to talk, Voice dial/memo, PIM including calendar, to-do list
Crafted with an anodized aluminum case, the Nokia 6500 Classic 3.5 mm audio output jack, Built-in handsfree
measures just a 9.5 mm thin. Each 6500 Classic is individually polished, Battery
ensuring no two phones are exactly alike. Diamond polishing used on the Stand-by Up to 410h, Talk time Up to 4h
beveled display aperture and cold stamped logo demonstrate the highest
levels of craftsmanship. A full 1 GB of internal memory means that the 6500 The Nokia N81 8GB features up to eight gigabytes of built-in memory,
Classic has capacity for more pictures, videos, contacts, songs, messages used for a true mobile entertainment experience. The N81 8GB is configured
and other content than the vast majority of other mid-tier mobile phones. to find, buy, manage and play music and games purchased from the Nokia
Music Store and N-Gage games service.
Design: 8.0 Design: 7.8
Features: 7.6 Features: 7.7
Performance: 7.6 Performance: 7.7

Nokia 3500 Classic

Size
Dimensions 107 x 45 x 13.1 mm, 59 cc, Weight 81g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
Memory
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 8.5 MB user memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class
10, 236.8 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, USB Yes, miniUSB
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging, Camera 2 MP, 600x1200
pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/MP4/AAC/AAC+ player, Stereo FM radio
T9, Calendar, Calculator, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo
Battery
Stand-by Up to 280h, Talk time Up to 3h

The sleek Nokia 3500 Classic will be available in eye-catching keymat

split line coloring. The metal frame around the phone accentuates design
and offers protection as well. The 3500 Classic comes with an FM radio,
2.0-megapixel camera, instant messaging and space for 2,000 phone con-
tacts. It offers up to 3 hours of talk time and up to 12 days of standby time.

Design: 7.2
Features: 6.9
Performance: 7.3
Models show off NTT DoCoMo's new 905i series mobile phones, (L-R) SH905iTV, F905i,
N905i, N905i, N905i"mu", SH905i, SO905iCS, SO905i, D905i, P905i and P905iTV, during
their press preview in Tokyo.

Nokia 6500 Slide Samsung G800

Size Size
Dimensions 96.5 x 46.5 x 16.4 mm, Weight 125g Dimensions 101 x 51.1 x 18.8 mm, Weight 134g
Display Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches
Ringtones Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
Memory Memory
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 20 MB user free internal memory Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 160 MB internal memory,
Data Data
GPRS Class 11, 53.6 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, microUSB 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, Bluetooth Yes v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0
Features Features
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Camera 5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus,
video(VGA 15fps), flash; secondary QCIF videocall camera, Stainless steel video, xenon flash, 3x optical zoom, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-
case, FM radio with RDS, Java MIDP 2.0, Push to talk, MP3/AAC/AAC+ AAC+/WMA player, Stereo FM radio, Face Detection, T9, Bluetooth printing
player, T9, Calendar, Calculator, TV out, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo Document viewer (Word, Excel, Power Point, PDF), Built-in handsfree
Battery Voice memo, TV out
Stand-by Up to 310h, Talk time Up to 6h
G800 features a 5 megapixel camera, 2.4 inch QVGA display, Bluetooth,
Featuring an 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and the Xenon flash, expandable memory via microSDHC, and Triband GSM with
ability to easily share pictures, videos and even video calls on a television, HSDPA -- who could forget such a device? A complete mobile solution, but no
the Nokia 6500 Slide brings imaging and sharing to the mid-range market. information is there about the availability or the pricing of this phone
Additionally, the 6500 Slide delivers a tactile experience with its brushed
stainless steel finish and smooth slide mechanism. Design: 8.1
Features: 8.0
Design: 8.0 Performance: 8.0
Features: 7.8
Performance: 7.8

50
 Informative

Samsung D880 Duos Samsung F330

Size Size
Dimensions 104 x 51 x 18.9 mm, Dimensions 103 x 48 x 12.8 mm
Display Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.3 inches Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels
Ringtones Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3 Type Polyphonic, MP3
Memory Memory
Card slot microSD (TransFlash) Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 20 MB embedded memory
Data Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Yes, Bluetooth GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, 3G HSDPA, 3.6
Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0 Mbps, Bluetooth
Features Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, video, flash, Dual SIM Features
Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC+/MPEG4 player, FM radio, Business card read- Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, autofocus, video; secondary video-
er application, Document viewer, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree call camera Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/eACC/WMA player, FM radio
TV out with RDS, T9, Picture editing, Organizer, Built-in handsfree

D880 DuoS, the slider phone that can simultaneously work with two
SIM cards. Aside from two SIM slots, the D880 DuoS also boasts 2.3?
QVGA screen, 3MP camera with autofocus, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth
(A2DP), high-capacity battery (1200 mAh), microSD expansion slot, as well
as such preinstalled software as music player and business card reader.
The Samsung F330 slider seems like a strong phone with only
20MB of integrated memory supported by the microSD card slot.
2MP camera, 2.1 inch 240 x 320 pixel, 262K color screen, tri band
GSM, EDGE and HSDPA network options and connectivity via blue-
tooth and USB are also available.

Design: 8.2
Features: 8.3
Performance: 8.1

Samsung Armani
Size
Dimensions 87.5 x 54.5 x 10.5 mm, Weight 85g
Display
Type TFT touchscreen, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels,
2.6 inches
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
Memory
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 60 MB embedded memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Yes
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games 2 + downloadable, Colors Silver, Camera
3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, video(CIF), Java MIDP 2.0
MP3/ACC/ACC+ player, Document viewer (.pdf, .doc, .ppt,
.xls), Organizer, Voice memo,
Battery
Stand-by Up to 220h, Talk time Up to 6h
A tri-band 900/1800/1900 GSM phone with 3
megapixel camera, 2.6-inch 262K color QVGA touchscreen
LCD, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, microSD expan-
sion, full Internet browser, and support for H.263,
AAC/MP3/WMA audio and MPEG-4 video.
A visitor (L) chats with an exhibitor as she checks out a Blackberry cell phone at an exhi-
Design: 8.4
bition in Beijing. Asia's booming economic powerhouses of China and India are leading a Features: 8.2
fresh surge in mobile phone use. Performance: 8.1

Motorola W377 Motorola U9

Size Size
Dimensions 99 x 45 x 18.6 mm, 73 cc, Weight 95g Dimensions 90 x 48.6 x 16.4 mm, 57 cc, Weight 87.5g
Display Display
Type TFT, 65K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 28 x 35 mm Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches
Second external mono display Second external OLED, 65K colors display (128 x 160 pixels)
Ringtones Touch sensitive music keys
Type Polyphonic, MP3 Ringtones
Memory Type Polyphonic, MP3
10 MB shared memory Memory
Data Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 25 MB internal memory
GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, USB Yes, Data
miniUSB GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE
Features Class 12, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0
Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, FM radio, iTap (T9), Organizer Features
Calculator, Built-in handsfree Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0, Windows
Battery Media Player 11, iTap, Calendar, Voice command, Voice memo
Stand-by Up to 250h, Talk time Up to 7h 30 min Battery
Stand-by Up to 350h, Talk time Up to 7h
Motorola brings affordable style and feature-rich connectivity
to the world with its new Motorola cell phone, part of Motorola's The U9 promises to make music a multi-sensory experience
extensive W Series mobile phone portfolio. The value-priced and lets consumers rock out and look good, with an elegant form
Motorola W377 helps satisfy consumer's diverse needs when it factor, Stereo Bluetooth, CrystalTalk technology, external touch
comes to on-the-go professional and personal tools, with must sensitive music controls and floating, animated screensavers that
have entertainment and organization new features all packed into appear on the external display.
a stylishly slim, colorful design.
Design: 7.7
Design: 7.7 Features: 7.5
Features: 7.5 Performance: 7.5
Performance: 7.5

51
 Informative

Motorola W160 Sony Ericsson K660

Size Size
Dimensions 114 x 43 x 14 mm, Weight 85g Dimensions 104 x 47 x 15 mm, Weight 95g
Display Display
Type Monochrome graphics, Size 128 x 128 pixels Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches
Ringtones Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (32 channels) Type Polyphonic, MP3
Memory Memory
Phonebook 100 numbers, Call records 10 dialed, 10 received, 10 Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 256 MB card included, 32 MB shared memory
missed calls, 20 KB user memory, 60 SMS messages Data
Data GPRS Yes, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Yes, 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
USB Yes, v1.1 Infrared port No, USB Yes, v2.0
Features Features
FM radio, iTap, Currency converter, Calendar, Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video; secondary CIF videocall camera, Java
Battery MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, FM radio with RDS, TrackID music recogni-
Stand-by Up to 465h, Talk time Up to 9h 50 min tion, T9, Picture blogging, Picture editor, Organiser, Voice memo,
Battery
Motorola W160 mobile phone delivers all the tools to help users Stand-by Up to 330h, Talk time Up to 9h
stay connected packaged in an easy-to-use, thin B&W candybar form
factor. The affordable Motorola W160 delivers an attractive and high- The Sony Ericsson K660 is optimized for the Web with landscape browsing,
quality mobile phone, with the added benefit of crystal clear communica- dedicated shortcut keys, desktop tickers, a PC-like mouse experience when in
tions, long battery life and high quality music with a built-in FM radio. Web mode, picture & video blogging and Google™ Maps for Mobile, all benefiting
from HSPDA broadband speed. The K660 also includes a 240x320 pixel 262K
Design: 7.5 QVGA display, 2 Megapixel camera, Memory Stick Micro™ removable storage and
Features: 7.3 impressive music and video players.
Performance: 7.3
Design: 8.0
Features: 7.6
Performance: 7.7

Sony Ericsson W380

Size
Dimensions 92 x 49 x 16 mm, Weight 100g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels, 1.9 inches
Second external OLED mono display (128 x 36 pixels), Easy-touch music con-
trols, Wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3, AAC
Memory
Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 512MB card included, 14 MB shared memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 10,
236.8 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Camera 1.3 MP, 1280x1024 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0, Walkman player,
TrackID music recognition, T9, FM radio with RDS, Image viewer
Picture editor, Organiser, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo
Battery
Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 7h
The W380 Walkman® phone comes complete with Media Manager PC soft-
ware that lets you easily transfer your music, photos and videos between your
computer and phone. Simply point, click and drag your music files from your com-
puter to your phone - the software automatically converts your music to the right
format. Store hours of your favourite music (up to 271 songs*) on the W380's 512
MB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) or tune in to your favorite FM radio station.
Models display Japanese electronics giant Matsushita electric Industrial's latest mobile
Design: 8.0
Features: 7.9
handset "P905i", equipped with a 3-inch wide VGA LCD display and a 5.1-mega pixel
Performance: 7.9 CMOS camera, display digital broadcasting on the various angled display in Tokyo.

Sony Ericsson W890 LG KG290

Size
Size
Dimensions 104 x 46.5 x 9.9 mm, Weight 78g
Dimensions 92 x 46 x 17.7 mm, Weight 90g
Display
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2 inches, Wallpapers, screen-
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.77 inches
savers
Downloadable wallpapers
Ringtones
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3, AAC
Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3
Memory
Memory
Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 2 GB card included, 26 MB shared
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 5 MB shared memory
memory
Data
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, USB
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class
Yes
10, 236.8 kbps, 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port
Features
No, USB Yes, v2.0
Camera 1.3 MP, 1280x960 pixels, video, Java MIDP 2.0,
Features
MP3/WMA/???++ player, FM radio, Calculator, Organiser
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, video; secondary videocall camera
World time, Voice memo, Built-in handsfree,
Java MIDP 2.0, Walkman player, TrackID music recognition, T9, FM radio
Battery
with RDS, Image viewer, Picture editor, Organiser, Built-in handsfree
Stand-by Up to 200h, Talk time Up to 2h
Voice memo
The LG KG290 comes with a 262,000 colour screen, ideal for
Battery
playing Java games, has the ability to send images and sounds.
Stand-by Up to 360h, Talk time Up to 9h 30 min
With downloadable ringtones, you are given a wide variety of
favorite songs to set as your ring tone. This mobile phone has a
The W890 Walkman phone is designed for entertainment - music,
built-in 1.3 mega pixel camera with picture and video recording, a
video, 3D games and high-speed web access - and includes the Walkman
built-in MP3 player enabling you to listen to your favourite tracks
features TrackID™ and SensMe™, a new way to browse music files using
and a built-in fm radio all with 5MB internal memory.
tempo and style.
Design: 7.6
Design: 8.0
Features: 7.7
Features: 8.1
Performance: 7.7
Performance: 8.1

52
 Informative

Nokia 1200 Samsung X160

Rs. 2,350 Rs. 3,800
Size Size
Dimensions 102 x 44.1 x 17.5 mm, 67cc, Weight 77g Dimensions 86.6 x 44 x 19.9 mm, Weight 77g
Display Display
Type Monochrome graphics, Type UFB, 65K colors
Size Ringtones
96 x 68 pixels, 29 x 23 mm, Themes and wallpapers Type Polyphonic (16 channels)
Ringtones Memory
Type Polyphonic (32 channels) 1.2 MB shared memory
Memory Data
4 MB user memory GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
Features Features
Messaging, Browser, Games, Colors, Camera Java MIDP 2.0, Calendar, To do list, Voice memo
T9, Calendar, Calculator, Currency converter Calculator, Built-in handsfree
Built-in handsfree Battery
Battery Stand-by Up to 210h, Talk time Up to 3h
Stand-by Up to 390h, Talk time Up to 7h
See a little of yourself in the calm simplicity and
The monochrome 96x68 pixel display is familiar efficient design of the SGH-X160. At 76g and under
from Nokia handsets. It's a lightweight handset at 20mm, handle it without the burden of weight or bulk,
just 77 grams, but with a very impressive battery life its sleek proportions typifying Samsung's trademark
giving up to 7 hours talktime and 16 days standby design-top of the class for clamshell design expertise.
time on a full charge.
Design: 7.6
Design: 7.3 Features: 7.5
Features: 7.2 Performance: 7.5
Performance: 7.2

Motorola W208 Sony Ericsson J110

Rs. 3,050 Rs. 2,550

Size Size
Dimensions 108 x 44 x 14.9 mm, 65 cc, Weight 78g Dimensions 99 x 44 x 17 mm, Weight 79g
Display Display
Type TFT, 65K colors Type STN, 65K colors
Ringtones Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels) Type Polyphonic (16 channels)
Memory Memory
Phonebook 200 numbers Phonebook 200 entries, T9, Calculator, Reminder
Features Built-in handsfree
FM radio, iTap (T9), Organizer, Calculator, Built-in Battery
handsfree Stand-by Up to 400h, Talk time Up to 9h
Battery
Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 7h 50 min Easy to call, easy to write and send text mes-
sages. With the slim J110a, you communicate in
Motorola's W208 is available in Fire Red/Black style. Your J110i gives you quick access to friends
Slate and Silver Sail/Black Slate. The handset is less and family. The phonebook stores up to 200 num-
than 15mm thick and features a stereo FM radio, bers. Check out the phone menu. You see one single
alarm clock/stop watch, currency converter/calcula- icon on the screen. Larger text and larger icons cater
tor, 200 entry internal phone book, office quality for perfect readability.
speakerphone, zoom font, 3 pre-loaded games, and
32 channel polyphonic ring tones. Design: 7.7
Features: 7.7
Design: 7.6 Performance: 7.6
Features: 7.5
Performance: 7.5

53

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 Informative

Nokia 2760 Sony Ericsson K220

Rs. 6,100 Rs. 4,850
Size Size
Dimensions 87 x 44.8 x 20.7 mm, Weight 81g Dimensions 103 x 46 x 16.7 mm, Weight 82g
Display Display
Type TFT, 65K colors, Second external mono Type CSTN, 65K colors, Size 128 x 128 pixels,
display (96 x 68 pixels), Screensavers, themes 1.6 inches, Wallpapers
and wallpapers Ringtones
Ringtones Type Polyphonic (32 channels), Customization
Type Polyphonic (24 channels), MP3 Download, order now, Vibration Yes
Memory Memory
10 MB user memory Phonebook 300 entries, Call records 20 received,
Data dialed and missed calls, Card slot No, 2 MB inter-
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps nal memory
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 Data
USB Yes GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps, HSCSD
Features No, EDGE No, 3G No, WLAN No, Bluetooth No
Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video(128 x 96) Infrared port Yes, USB No
FM radio, 3GPP/MPEG-4 video player, Java Features
MIDP 2.1, T9, Calendar, Calculator, Currency Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Browser WAP 1.2.1
converter, Built-in handsfree Games Yes, Colors Frost White, Ocean Blue
Battery Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video(QCIF)
Stand-by Up to 310h, Talk time Up to 6h FM radio with RDS, Slide show, Full screen view-
er, T9, Stopwatch, Timer, Built-in handsfree
Taking on a new look has never been easier Battery
with the fresh and elegant design of the Nokia Standard battery, Li-Po 900 mAh (BST-37)
2760. Stay ahead of the rest with the sophisticat- Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 8h
ed design and stylish color options. Capture
vibrant images and videos with the VGA camera With the slim and elegant K220i in your
(4x zoom) and video recorder pocket, you always have a camera at hand. Make
those commuting hours feel shorter. Turn on the
Design: 7.6 K220i's FM radio and relax - listen to news, follow
Features: 7.5 a game or just enjoy some music. Easy does it.
Performance: 7.5 That's why the K220i comes with large keys,
shortcuts and a single icon menu.

Design: 7.5
Features: 7.6
Performance: 7.5

Samsung E200 LG KG195

Rs. 7,400 Rs. 5,600
Size Size
Dimensions 108 x 45 x 9.9 mm, Weight 90g Dimensions 103.5 x 46.3 x 12.4 mm, Weight 9.9g
Display Display
Type TFT, 65K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels, 1.8 Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8
inches inches
Ringtones Memory
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 64 MB shared
Memory memory
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 30 MB internal Data
memory GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
Data Bluetooth Yes, v1.2 with A2DP, USB Yes, v1.1
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps Features
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, Bluetooth Camera VGA, 640x480 pixels, video, FM radio
Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0 Scheduled FM recorder, MPEG4/MP3 player
Features Java, T9, Organiser, Voice memo
Camera 1.3 MP, 1280 x 1024 pixels, video, Java Battery
MIDP 2.0, Stereo FM radio, MP3/AAC/AAC+ Stand-by Up to 300h, Talk time Up to 2 h 30 min
player, T9, Organiser, To Do list, Built-in hands-
free, Voice memo LG KG195, a low end candybar for the mass-
Battery es. It comes in all black and has a
Stand-by Up to 250h, Talk time Up to 3h 30 min basic/simple/boring design and is inexpensive
phone. It features a 128x160 260K color screen,
The stereo FM radio is perfect for variety, VGA CMOS camera, microSD support, FM radio,
and when you've bounced back into party mode, mini USB and only 12 mm thick
just turn on the Samsung SHG-E200's integrated
MP3 player and listen to your favourite tunes. Design: 7.8
You can also listen to your music on a plane as Features: 7.6
all the SGH-E200's applications work in offline Performance: 7.6
mode, even high above the clouds - except for
the phone, of course.

Design: 7.6
Features: 7.4
Performance: 7.4

54

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 Informative

Motorola SLVR L9 Sony Ericsson K550

Rs. 11,600
Size
Dimensions 113 x 49 x 11.5 mm, 59 cc, Weight
96g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels, 1.9 inches
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3
Memory
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 20 MB internal user
memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with
A2DP, USB Yes, v1.1 miniUSB
Features
Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(CIF)
Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS,
MP3/AAC/AAC+/MPEG4 player, T9, Calendar
Built-in handsfree, Voice command, Voice memo
Battery
Stand-by Up to 350h, Talk time Up to 4h
The Motorola SLVR L9 provides users with an inte-
grated music player, FM radio, and Motorola's new
CrystalTalk technology to hold conversations in noisy
environments. The integrated music player with stereo
Bluetooth wireless technology allows users to freely enjoy
music wirelessly on the go. Even when traveling, users
can listen to their music uninterrupted in airplane mode.
The Motorola SLVR L9 also offers an FM radio, support-
ing Radio Data System (RDS) for radio station information
- including such details as the song genre, song title, or
radio station name - all on the handset's main screen.
Rs. 10,500
Size
Dimensions 102 x 46 x 14 mm, Weight 85g
Display
Type TFD, 256K colors, Size 176 x 220 pixels, 1.9 inches,
Wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3
Memory
Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 64 MB internal memo-
ry
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD Yes, EDGE Yes, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP,
Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Camera 2 MP, 1632x1224 pixels, autofocus, video(QCIF),
flash, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS,
MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player
TrackID music recognition, T9, Adobe Photoshop Album,
Picture blogging, Organiser, Built-in handsfree, Voice
memo/dial
Battery
Stand-by Up to 350h, Talk time Up to 7h
The Sony Ericsson K550 has the full range of mobile
entertainment and business features including impressive
music and video players, Memory Stick Micro™ remov-
able storage (up to 1G available), full HTML browser and
RSS feed support. The K550 has a 220x176 pixel, 262K
color display and supports Sony Ericsson's Java™
Platform 7 (JP-7) with a range of JSRs, including
Advanced Multimedia Supplements (JSR 234) for
enhanced camera and image handling.

Design: 7.8 Design: 8.0

Features: 7.6 Features: 8.1
Performance: 7.7 Performance: 8.1

LG KG300 Nokia 5300

Rs. 6,800 Rs. 11,100

Size Size
Dimensions 100 x 46 x 17 mm, Weight 89g Dimensions 92.4 x 48.2 x 20.7 mm, 85 cc, Weight 106g
Display Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 31 x 42
Ringtones mm
Type Polyphonic (64 channels) Ringtones
Memory Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 60 MB shared memory Memory
Data Card slot microSD (TransFlash), hotswap
GPRS Class 8 (4+1 slots), 32 - 40 kbps 5 MB internal memory
Bluetooth Yes, v1.2 USB Yes Data
Features GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
Java MIDP 2.0, MP3 player, FM radio, T9 Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared port
Organiser, Voice memo Yes, USB Yes, miniUSB
Battery Features
Stand-by Up to 250h, Talk time Up to 3h Camera 1.3 MP, 1280 x 1024 pixels, video(QCIF)
Java MIDP 2.0, Stereo FM radio,
The KG 300 from LG is packed with a 2 mega pixel MP3/SpMidi/AAC/AAC+ player, T9, Reminders
camera, 262K Colour Screen and Blue tooth. The phone Stopwatch, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo/commands
flaunts innovative and unique features such as Video Battery
Caller ID, Call Conversation Recording, Intelligent Call, Stand-by Up to 223h, Talk time Up to 3h 10 min
Inflight mode and FM Recording. A bonanza for music
lovers it has an MP3 player with graphic equalizers as Nokia 5300 XpressMusic can hold over 100
well as an FM player with recording. So, now one can albums worth of music (approximately 1500 tracks) on a
record his/her favorite FM programmes and listen to it 2 GB microSD card. Thanks to dedicated music keys,
later. consumers can control the playback of their music while
simultaneously enjoying other functions such as texting,
Design: 8.2 browsing or taking pictures. For an even better groove,
Features: 8.3 consumers can plug in their favorite headphones or
Performance: 8.2 external speakers with a 3.5 mm headset jack. The
5300 XpressMusic also comes with the latest messag-
ing functions complemented by a 1.3-megapixel cam-
era.

Design: 8.0
Features: 7.8
Performance: 7.8

55

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 Informative
MOTOROKR E6
Rs. 21,200
Size
Dimensions 111 x 51.5 x 14.5, Weight 121g
Display
2.4-inch 240 x 320, 262K colors TFT external dis-
play with the latest touch screen technology
Ringtones
Type: Polyphonic MP3
Battery
Talk Time: 300-420min, Standby Time: 190-235 hrs
Memory
Removable memory card slot, up to 2GB full SD
card support
Data
MicroUSB 2.0 high speed, GSM Triband, GPRS
Class 10
Features
2.0 mega pixel camera, Integrated MP3 player,
MPEG-4 / Realplayer®, HTML browser, PDA fea-
turing Business Card Reader, POP3 e-mail¹, docu-
ment viewer to view Microsoft Word, Excel, etc
The MOTOROKR E6 provides powerful busi-
ness tools that allow users to easily manage calen-
dar appointments send and receive email and view
documents on the go. features a 2.0 megapixel
camera with 8x zoom, dedicated music keys and
removable SD card memory slot. Additional multi-
media features also include high-quality video
recording, MPEG-4 / Realplayer® video playback
and task manager.
Design: 8.2
Features: 8.1
Performance: 8.1
Nokia N73 (Music Edition)
Rs. 21,350
Size
Dimensions 110 x 49 x 19 mm, Weight 116g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 36 x 48 mm
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, 3D sound stereo speak-
ers
Memory
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall,
Call records, Detailed, max 30 days
Card slot miniSD, hot swap, 42 MB shared memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD Yes, EDGE Class 11, 236.8 kbps, 3G
Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0, Infrared port
Yes, USB Yes, v2.0, Pop-Port
Features
OS Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd edition, Camera
3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus,
video(CIF), flash; secondary VGA video call camera, Java
MIDP 2.0, Push to talk, Video calling and download,
MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, T9
Stereo FM radio, Voice command/dial
PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing
Document viewer, Photo/video editor, Integrated handsfree
Battery
Stand-by Up to 350h, Talk time Up to 6h
The Nokia N73 offers a multimedia computer in a com-
pact and savvy exterior with photography features and inte-
grated stereo speakers with 3D sound. In addition to a large
2.4-inch display, the N73 includes a 3.2-megapixel camera
with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and support for Internet
communities like Flickr. Music fans can tap into the N73's
integrated digital music player with playlists and equalizer or
tune into the FM radio. Available in 3G or quad-band
EDGE/GSM networks, the N73 has all the diversity of a pow-
erful multimedia computer enabled with the S60 3rd Edition
Software on Symbian OS.
Design: 8.0
Features: 8.1
Performance: 8.1
56
Above prices are subject to change as per market
Sony Ericsson W880
Rs. 19,400
Size
Dimensions 103 x 46.5 x 9.5 mm, Weight 71g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Wallpapers, screensavers
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Composer,
download
Memory
Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 1 GB card
included, 16 MB internal memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD Yes, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0
with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QCIF); sec-
ondary VGA videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0,
Walkman player 2.0, TrackID music recognition, T9,
Image viewer, Picture editor
Picture blogging, Organiser, Built-in handsfree
Voice memo/dial
Battery
Stand-by Up to 425h, Talk time Up to 6h 30 min
At just 9.4 mm thin, the W880i is the slimmest
Sony Ericsson phone yet and combines the full
Walkman phone experience with a device that fits
easily into a pocket. The 1 GB Memory Stick Micro
(M2) provided in-box gives users room to store up to
900 full length tracks, whilst the host of music appli-
cations (such as Walkman Player 2.0 and
Disc2Phone) make it easy to get music onto their
phone and search through play lists once. Plus a 2.0-
megapixel camera, is packed into a UMTS phone
that's as slim as a standard CD case.
Design: 8.1
Features: 8.0
Performance: 8.0
LG KE970 Shine
Rs. 16,700
Size
Dimensions 99.8 x 50.6 x 13.8 mm, Weight 119g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inch-
es, Mirror effect screen, full metal body
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3
Memory
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), 50 MB internal memory,
300 text messages
Data
GPRS Yes, EDGE Yes, Bluetooth Yes, v1.2 with A2DP,
USB Yes
Features
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
Encased in a full-metal body, the slider phone
offers users amazing looks and a high technical specifi-
cation including expandable memory (microSD card)
and an auto-focus camera by Schneider Kreuznach.
When closed, Shine exudes sophistication with a per-
fectly reflective 2.2-inch screen. Slide open the super-
thin brushed metal body and the 'magic mirror' full color
screen comes to life, while Shine's keys are bathed in a
cool blue light. Access to Shine's menu system is by an
easy-to-use multi-function scroll key.
Design: 8.4
Features: 7.8
Performance: 7.8
 Informative

Sony Ericsson K800 Samsung U700

Rs. 18,200
Size
Dimensions 105 x 47 x 22 mm, Weight 115g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.0
inch, 30 x 40 mm
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (72 channels), MP3
Memory
Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 64 MB internal
memory
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD Yes, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0
with A2DP, Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus,
video(QCIF), xenon flash; secondary video call VGA
camera, Java MIDP 2.0, RDS FM radio,
MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, T9, Image viewer
Picture editor, Picture blogging, Organiser
Built-in handsfree, Voice memo/dial
Battery
Stand-by Up to 350h, Talk time Up to 7h
The Sony Ericsson K800 Cyber-Shot digital
camera phone is a small and sophisticated feature-
packed 3G phone. Integrating a 3.2-megapixel cam-
era with autofocus, image and video stabilizer and
built-in Xenon flash, the K800 is ready for any
moment, anytime. BestPic technology lets users cap-
ture several images in quick succession with one
press of the camera key. Pick the best. Delete the
rest. A camera stabilizer function compensates any
small movements of the hand when taking a picture
and shooting video. When users have taken a photo,
they can share it straight away using Bluetooth, mul-
timedia messaging or blog it.
Rs. 20,000
Size
Dimensions 102.5 x 50 x 12.1 mm, Weight 86g
Display
Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inch-
es
Ringtones
Type Polyphonic (72 channels), MP3
Memory
Phonebook 1000 entries, Photocall, Call records, 30
dialed, 30 received, 30 missed calls, Card slot, microSD
(TransFlash), 20/40 MB embedded memory (depending
on region)
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE
Class 11, 236.8 kbps, 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, Bluetooth
Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, USB Yes, v2.0
Features
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, video,
flash; secondary VGA videocall camera, Java MIDP 2.0
MP3/AAC/eACC/WMA player, MPEG4/H.263/Real
video player, T9, Picture editing, Organizer, Built-in
handsfree
Battery
Stand-by Up to 270h, Talk time Up to 5h
The U700 combines an ultra slim slide-up with
3.6Mbps HSDPA technology for blisteringly perform-
ance and high data speeds. Equipped with a 3.2
Megapixel camera for enhanced photography and video
capture, and a second VGA camera for 3G-enabled
video telephony. The multi-format music player is com-
patible with various media sources; WM DRM supports
playback of your purchased and downloaded music
files. Sort and rate your song choices, and enjoy inte-
grated album art for easier recognition of your favorite
tunes

Design: 8.0 Design: 8.4

Features: 8.1 Features: 8.0
Performance: 8.2 Performance: 8.1

Nokia N93i Sony Ericsson K810i

Rs. 37,000 Rs. 20,000
Size Size
Dimensions 108 x 58 x 25 mm, 115 cc, Weight 163g Dimensions 106 x 48 x 17 mm, Weight 103g
Display Display
Type TFT, 16M colors, Second 65K colors OLED display Type TFT, 256K colors, Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2
(128 x 36 pixels), Twist and rotating screen, Downloadable inches
themes Ringtones
Ringtones Type Polyphonic, MP3, Customization Composer,
Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 download Vibration Yes
Memory Memory
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Card slot Memory Stick Micro (M2), 128 MB card
Photocall, Call records, Detailed, max 30 days included
Card slot miniSD, hot swap, 50 MB shared memory 64 MB internal memory
Data Data
GPRS Class 32, 107.2/64.2 kbps, HSCSD Yes (via PC dial- GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps,
up), EDGE Class 32, 296 kbps; DTM Class 11, 236.8 kbps HSCSD Yes
3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth Yes, 3G Yes, 384 kbps, WLAN No, Bluetooth Yes, v2.0
v2.0 with A2DP (latest firmware only), Infrared port Yes with A2DP Infrared port Yes, USB Yes, v2.0
USB Yes, v2.0, Pop-Port Features
Features Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus,
OS Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd edition, Camera 3.15 MP, video(QCIF), xenon flash; secondary videocall cam-
2048x1536 pixels, 3x optical zoom, Carl Zeiss optics, auto- era
focus, video(VGA 30 fps), flash; secondary CIF video call Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS,
camera, Video calling and download, UPnP technology MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player , TrackID music recogni-
Java MIDP 2.0, Push to talk, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player tion, T9, Image viewer
T9, Stereo FM radio, TV out support, Voice Picture editor, Picture blogging, Organiser, Built-in
command/memo, PIM including calendar, to-do list and handsfree, Voice memo/dial
printing, Photo/video editor, Integrated handsfree Battery
Battery Stand-by Up to 400h, Talk time Up to 10h
Stand-by Up to 280h, Talk time Up to 3h 30 min
K 810 holds 3.2 megapixel camera with autofo-
Slimmer and more compact in design, the Nokia N93i cus, a Xenon flash and multishoot capabilities. A 2.0"
follows on from the success of the Nokia N93. It also has a QVGA display, expandable memory, a comprehen-
new metallic finish keymat and a mirror effect cover. The sive software suite including an email client, web
2.4-inch main display of up to 16 million colors has a 160 browser, RSS newsreader and blogging support and
degree viewing angle, the easy-to-use joystick provides a whole host of really cool features
smooth video control and there are dedicated camera keys
to capture images, switch shooting mode and operate the Design: 8.0
flash quickly and easily. Integrated into the Nokia N93i is a Features: 8.2
new personal video and photo blogging service called Vox Performance: 8.2
with privacy features that let users share stories and
thoughts instantly with their friends, family, neighborhood or
the entire world.

Design: 8.4
Features: 8.0
Performance: 8.1

57

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 Informative

Motorola U9
Motorola has officially announced U9, however many online blogs had already published news and specification
of this handset few months earlier. What we have with the Motorola U9 is a lightweight clamshell phone with a 2
megapixel camera, microSD expandable memory and a touch sensitive external display.
On the outside of the shiny, curvy shell of the U9 is a 2 megapixel camera and a 1.4" 128x160 pixel touch-sensi-
tive OLED display. Inside is a 2.0" 240x320 pixel TFT display, plus a much improved keypad with raised ridges to
make it easier to use. Overall, the Motorola U9 measures 90 x 49 x 16mm and weighs only 88 grams, which is con-
siderably lighter than the other Motorola models, this is at least partly to do with the smaller display panels on the
U9.
The "touch sensitivity" on the external display is limited to multimedia functions. Even so, it's a very nice feature
to have, and from Motorola's publicity shots it does appear that the screen is seamlessly integrated into the U9's
smooth exterior. Multimedia support on the U9 appears to be very good, with a music player that supports WMA,
MP3 and AAC plus DRM. It can also play back MPEG4, 3GPP and h.263 video. Internal memory is 25MB, but this
can be expanded by up to 4GB using a microSD card. The U9 also has stereo Bluetooth.
A Motorola statement said that they've given the U9's software a makeover with a new user interface. Another
enhancement is that the U9 can be synchronized with Windows Media Player, which will make it easier to manage
music tracks. The maximum talktime on the Motorola U9 is an impressive 7 hours, with up to 14 days standby time.
There's also a "flight mode" available, which limits the U9 to its multimedia player, which should help with battery
life.
Assuming that this isn't too expensive and if you're in the market for a
non-3G compact music clamshell phone, then the U9 certainly seems to
deliver everything you might need. Motorola U9 will be available during Q4
2007 in Europe, Latin America and Asian markets.

Motorola RAZR2 V8
Luxury Edition
The Motorola RAZR2 V8 is a pretty decent multimedia phone that
has only just hit the market. Obviously, Motorola think that this isn't
enough and have come up with the Motorola RAZR2 V8 Luxury
Edition for those who want something more showy.
Yes - that yellow metal on the RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition is real
gold - well, 18 carat and 24 carat gold plate to be precise.
The back of this RAZR2 is embossed with a snakeskin effect, and
the front has an unusual striped looked. The navigational control has
been given "linear etching", the phone itself has complementary
themes and Motorola include a gold-plated Bluetooth headset in the
package.
Underneath is a very capable music phone with 2GB of internal
memory (the standard V8 has 420MB), a large internal and external
display, with touch-sensitive media controls on the exterior screen, a
2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth. It's the same size as the ordinary
version of the V8.
Let's face the fact that Motorola RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition is not
for everybody. It's not so much a question of price - Motorola haven't
said how much it will cost - but really a question of taste. It's in the
same sort of league as the Gold Nokia 8800 Sirocco or the old RAZR
V3i Gold, so if those phones appealed to you, then this one will too.

58
 Informative

Nokia N810 Internet Tablet

Nokia's third generation Internet tablet, the Nokia N810 adds a slide-out
QWERTY keyboard, GPS and a new operating system to the excellent
800-pixel wide touchscreen display and WiFi connectivity. As with the
N800 and 770, it's important to remember that the N810 isn't a phone - it
connects to the Internet using either WiFi or a Bluetooth enabled mobile
phone. It's a big device - coming in at 226 grams, measures 72 x 128 x
14mm and the tablet is dominated by the very large 4.1" 800 x 480
pixel display. If you haven't seen this type of high-resolution screen
before, then you'll be blown away.
One key advantage in having the big screen in a separate
device to your phone is that you can have a normal size
device as a mobile, and you only need to take the N810
out with you when you need it. It's a Linux device, run-
ning a brand new OS2008 version of the Maemo operat-
ing system. This adds a Mozilla-based web browser,
enhanced Adobe Flash support, Windows Media Player com-
patibility, the Nokia Maps application, VoIP SIP call support and a
new user interface. There are plenty of free applications available for down-
load for the Maemo platform, so the N810 should have a wide range of software
add-ons available.
The video calling camera is now more traditionally mounted on the front, the seldom used navigation pad has been moved to the
QWERTY keyboard and the other controls are mounted on the edge of the device so that they can be reached easily. Internal memory
is 128MB of DDR RAM plus 256MB Flash. Up to 2GB of Flash storage is available for data, and the Nokia N810 supports SD cards up
to 2GB and SDHC cards up to 8GB. The processor is a TI OMAP 2420 running at 400 MHz. The battery should be good for about 4
hours web browsing over the LAN, 10 hours of music playback or 14 days standby time.
Nokia is touting the N810 as a "Web 2.0" device, capable of accessing YouTube, Skype, Facebook and other popular destinations.
Older versions of Nokia's Internet Tablets did struggle with these, so this is certainly an improvement. At the moment Nokia have given
US pricing and availability only, the N810 will cost around Rs. 30,000.

Sony Ericsson K630i

All mobile phone designs are a compromise between competing features
- the Sony Ericsson K630i goes for lightweight, high speed and presumably
a reduced cost by cutting back on the display and camera. Although the
HSDPA (3.5G) phone weighs just 97 grams, the display is only a 176x220
pixel panel and there's a basic 2 megapixel camera with no flash or autofo-
cus.
Despite the design compromises, the Sony Ericsson K630i does come
with plenty of features, including a multimedia player, FM radio, email client,
web browser and RSS feed reader.
As it is usually the case with Sony Ericsson, the back of the phone looks
as smart as the front and the overall design is very pleasing. There are two
color variants at present - Quick Black and Havana Gold. The latter seems to
be quite an attractive color combination for this handset.
It's not exactly a high-end phone, so it's slightly surprising to see HSDPA
included in the K630i. Much faster than a standard 3G connection, the high-
speed data in this phone means that music downloads and streaming multi-
media will download more quickly (if you're in a coverage area). It also
makes it tempting as a business handset, as the K630i would make an ideal
modem for a laptop.
Sony Ericsson says that the K630i should be available during Q4 2007.

59
 Informative

BlackBerry Pearl 8120

The original BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is a massively popular messaging device, both for business
customers and demanding consumers. This latest version, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 looks similar
on the outside, but it has some significant improvements over the older 8100 when it comes to fea-
tures and performance.
The most obvious addition to the Pearl platform is the addition of WiFi, but the camera has also
been improved - it's now a 2 megapixel device with flash, capable of capturing videos at a resolu-
tion of 240 x 180 or 176 x 144 pixels. The user interface has also been improved cosmetically and
in terms of organization, with numerous enhancements to system features.
As you would expect from a new BlackBerry device, the Pearl 8120 has very good email sup-
port for both standard Internet protocols and "push email" solutions. There's a multimedia player,
web browser and a whole set of personal information management tools.
The display on the 8120 is the 240 x 260 pixel display that has been around for a while now,
and is widely regarded as being one of the best screens on any mobile handset. Underneath this is
a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE data, but no 3G. WiFi 802.11b/g is supported.
It's a relatively light device at just 91 grams; overall measurements are 107 x 60 x 14mm and
the 8120's maximum talktime is 4 hours with up to 15 days standby time.
You are either going to love or hate the Pearl's SureType keyboard. For those that want a prop-
er QWERTY layout, there's the BlackBerry Curve 8320 instead.
The camera is still pretty unimpressive and we suspect that many corporate customers would
be happier if it was left out completely. And since the original Pearl was launched, 3G and 3.5G
data has become much more popular - GPRS and EDGE data is just not as good for web brows-
ing, although it will be just fine for the 8120's Push Email client.
It is believed that both the handset will hit markets by December 2007. As an aside, it's also
worth noting that there is a CDMA variant of the Pearl with GPS available in the US, called the
Pearl 8130. It could well be that we willl see GPS in a future GSM Pearl in the very near future.

BlackBerry Curve 8320

TThe BlackBerry Curve maybe has not been as big a success as the Pearl, but it's aimed at
roughly the same market - the new Curve 8320 also brings WiFi to an existing device, in this
case the Curve 8300.
The Curve 8320 is fashioned in a liquid silver finish with chrome highlights and subtly curving
corners. Measuring 4.2 x 2.4 inches, the Curve is just as slim as the Pearl. It features a bright
2.5-inch color TFT screen that provides 65,000 colors and a 320 x 240-pixel resolution, and it
includes a light-sensing feature that automatically adjusts backlighting for indoor, outdoor and
dark environments. Like the BlackBerry 8800, the
Curve includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad, and
it also features an integrated spell checker with a customizable dictionary to help maintain accu-
racy while on the go. It has 64 MB of internal ROM memory, and is expandable using MicroSD
memory cards. The battery provides up to 4 hours (240 minutes) of talk time and up to 17 days
(408 hours) of standby time.
You can snap vivid photos (though no video) using the 2-megapixel camera on the back of
the Curve, which also features a 5x digital zoom, built-in flash, self-portrait mirror and full screen
viewfinder. It can capture images in up to three picture quality and size resolutions that can be
shared instantly by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger, or even uploaded to your Flickr
account with the Yahoo! Go service. Photos can also be immediately set as a unique caller ID or
Home Screen image. You can edit photos and create albums within the Curve using the
PhotoSuite application. Pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, and flaws can be
fixed by removing redeye or changing the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.
Listen to your favorite music and watch downloaded videos using the included stereo head-
set. The Curve is compatible with a wide variety of file formats, including MP3, WMA and
AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ audio and WMV, MPEG4 and H.263 video. Dedicated volume controls are
conveniently located on the side of the handset.
With the Voice-Activated Dialing (VAD) feature, you can initiate a call just by telling the Curve
who to call from your contact list--either via the integrated speakerphone or using an optional

60
 Informative

Samsung 18K Golden Edition

E848
Samsung has launched its special edition 18K Golden Edition E848,
offering an 18K golden reflective surface and the Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games logo imprinted on the back.
The Golden Olympic Edition E848 is 10.6 mm in depth, and comes
with a large 2.2-inch LCD color display as well as a heat sensitive touch
key design. Equipped with an Internet browsing interface, the E848 con-
nects users to the wider world. Its powerful multimedia features also
make high-quality audio and video pleasures available in smaller file
sizes. Moreover, users are allowed to view a large array of video formats
including H.263, MPEG4 and WMV.

Dimensions: 101.5 x 52.5 x 10.6 mm; Weight: 99 g

Display: 2.2-inch 262K-color TFT display (240 x 320 px)
Camera: 2.0-megapixel camera (4x digital zoom)
Memory: 70 MB + support microSD
Internet Browser: NetFront Browser 3.4
Talk time: Up to 5 hours; Stand-by time: Up to 250 hours
Document Viewer, Speakerphone
Audio Format: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA
Video Format: H.263, MPEG4
Wireless Connectivity:EDGE / GPRS
Bluetooth: Version 2.0, A2DP USB 2.0

Trend T 786 Dual Sim GSM

Trend mobiles were the first in introducing the dual SIM mecha-
nism that allowed a person to hold two different SIMs in one mobile
phone at one time in the face of a growing telecom industry and
increasing Trend of multi company market. Entirely a local group,
Trend mobiles is a sub-group of 4B Group, 4B Telecom and 4B
Fertilizer as its main components. 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
T 786, Trend Perfect dual Sim.
The features of T 786 are startling. Its basic edge is that a user
can retain different network operators’ Sims in one cellphone and can
receive calls in both at the same time. It is a complete multimedia
cellphone with 1.3mega 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 installment unlike
other cell phones. A riddle free and consumer friendly cellphone. It is
also totally software friendly for the users. No pains but all the gains.
Trend mobiles offers an unmatched Deluxe Package along with the
set which includes a free-of-cost 256 MB memory card, USB port, 2
extra batteries and an In-Car charger and a Trendy pouch to carry
your cell phone in style.
The mobile phone holds another edge to other cell phones in the
market. It is the only cell phone in the market that has a warranty of
thirteen months. It has the style, it has the look and it has all that you
require in a cell phone to begin with.

61
 Informative

Sony Ericsson K660i

Ericsson probably has high hopes of this latest K-series camera phone, the Sony
Ericsson K660i.
Yes, we've seen K-series devices from Sony Ericsson lots of times before, and the
K660i doesn't even qualify as a Cyber-shot phone, but it does have a few interesting
tricks up its sleeve.
The most significant feature in the K660i is the inclusion of HSDPA high-speed data.
This makes web browsing and multimedia downloads much quicker than standard 3G,
and it also means that the K660i can be used as a broadband modem for a laptop. The
other important feature is an improved web browser, designed to be much more like a PC
browser, complete with a pointer and scroll bars, along with a screen that can be used for
web browsing in either portrait (tall) or landscape (wide) modes.
These two features aside, the Sony Ericsson K660i is otherwise pretty standard fare.
It's a 3G phone with a 2" 240x320 pixel display, 2 megapixel digital camera, video calling,
stereo Bluetooth, a multimedia player, FM radio, email client, web browser and R.S.S.
feed reader. There's a mapping application too.
The K660i's memory is expandable using Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards with 256Mb
included in the box. Underneath is a quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz phone
with UMTS 2100 MHz, plus GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA data. The K660i measures 104 x
47 x 14.7 mm and weighs 95 grams, which is pretty light for a 3G phone.
This phone won't change your life, but it certainly has some nice features. Sony
Ericsson say that the K660i should be available during Q1 2008 in Lime on Pink and
Wine on Black color combinations.

Sony Ericsson W890i

What, another Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson? We've lost count of how
many Walkman mobiles we've seen, but here's yet another one. The Sony
Ericsson W890i can be considered to be a replacement for the ultra-lightweight
W880i
Weighing in at just 78 grams, the W890i is actually an HSDPA 3.5G phone
with a 2" 240x320 pixel display, 3.2 megapixel camera, Memory Stick Micro
expandable memory with a 2GB card in the box, stereo Bluetooth, an FM radio
and of course the well-regarded Walkman media player.
Impressively, Sony Ericsson have managed to fit all of this into a handset
that's just 9.9mm thick, and it's certainly one of the lightest 3G phones on the
market.
One can expect that power-hungry 3.5G phone that's this compact would
have really rubbish battery life. Well, Sony Ericsson are quoting 4.5 hours talk-
time and 13 days standby time on 3G and a frankly remarkable 9.5 hours talk-
time and 15 days standby on GSM. They also say that the W890i can play back
music for 20 hours, or make 3 hours of video calls. That's very impressive stuff.
There are some compromises though - the 2" display may be a little on the
small size for some, and the 3.2 megapixel camera lacks a flash and there's no
mention of autofocus. We're not too impressed with the somewhat cramped key-
pad layout, but all-in-all there are many more good points to the SE W890i than
bad points.

62
 Informative

Samsung DuoS (SGH-D880): Dual SIM

At first glance the Samsung DuoS looks nowhere near as interesting as the recent
Serenata or Armani phones, but you'd be wrong, because the Samsung DuoS (SGH-
D880) is the first mobile phone from Samsung to support two different SIM cards simulta-
neously.
The SIM cards can be on different networks, and even for different countries. Bear in
mind that this is only a tri-band GSM phone, so data rates are limited to GPRS and
EDGE and there are no 3G capabilities.
Samsung have designed the interface to be as simple to use as possible and users
can name each SIM whichever way they like, so they don't have to stick with "SIM 1" or
"SIM 2". This switching isn't just for voice calls, but it allows separate ringtones, text mes-
sages, email configuration and other settings. So the DuoS really is like having two
phones in one. The DuoS even has two signal strength indicators.
Apart from the two SIM card slots, the Samsung SGH-D880 / DuoS is a pretty decent
phone. There's a 2.3" 240x320 pixel display, 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, FM
radio, stereo Bluetooth, microSD expandable memory, a multimedia player and USB 2.0
connection. Because the dual network connections draw more power than a single one,
the battery in the SGH-D880 is a large 1200 mAh rather than a more typical 800 mAh
cell. It's a pretty normal size for a phone at 104 x 51 x 19mm, although we don't know
how much the D880 weighs.
It's a relatively expensive device. We think that the Samsung DuoS is a very clever
idea, and are frankly a bit surprised that it has taken a manufacturer this long to come up
with something like this. It's quite possible that the SGH-D880 will be a very popular
phone when it hits the market, and perhaps we will see more dual-SIM phones emerging
during 2008.

Samsung i560 (SGH-i560)

Details about this latest phone from Samsung are not
disclosed yet. However few online information suggests
that this is a 3G slider phone running the Symbian S60 3rd
Edition operating system.
The SGH-i560 has 150MB of internal memory, expand-
able through microSD cards. On the back is a 3 megapixel
digital camera, plus a secondary video calling camera. The
screen is a 240x320 pixel panel in 262,000 colours.
Unconfirmed reports say that the Samsing i560 also
supports HSDPA and GPS, but right at the moment we are
still trying to find out the full specification of this device and
hope to have more in the next day or two.
On thing is for certain - Samsung haven't strayed too
far from their standard slider design for this. Although it's a
neat looking phone, it will certainly not make anyone go
"wow".

63
 Informative

LG KG130 / LG Jaguar
LG KG130 has been added one more proof to the tendency
of low-end mobile phones selling in a larger number of units
than the more evolved ones.
In the case of less evolved handset, the low selling price
surely proves to have great importance and boosts sales. Still,
the phone looks very much entry level, even less evolved than it
really is. LG KG130 has a traditional design similar to older
phone models, making it feel like wearing out of fashion clothes.
Its sizes are not the smallest, although at 103.4 x 44 x 18.4 mm
and 76 grams, the phone looks pretty light and comfortable to
use.
With 65k colors and a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels, which
will surely leave not a feeling to the user. The VGA camera will
prove to be just fine for those who don't actually use this func-
tion or only want to pride with having a camera phone, no mat-
ter how cheap that might be.
Surprising enough, the device allows its user to view xHTML
web pages. Other than that, it manages to bring only the basic
functions that any mobile phone out there can provide.
LG Jaguar comes only in the black color.

Sony Ericsson W380i

Sony Ericsson W380 is "Walkman" branded GSM clamshell phone
with a 1.3 megapixel camera and a 176x220 pixel display. The rela-
tively low model number (i.e. 380) indicates that this is a pretty low-
end phone.
And yet, the Sony Ericsson W380 has a few surprising features
that actually make it a pretty cool phone. Firstly, it's a Walkman
phone, so you know that it's going to have good multimedia capabili-
ties. But there's more. Perhaps the cleverest thing in the W380 is a
motion sensor which allows you to wave your hand over the phone in
order to snooze an alarm or to silence an incoming call. This is per-
haps a silly thing, but you have to admit that it's a pretty cool feature.
The exterior media controls are quite funky too, and the W380 has a
fashionably discrete external display as well. Talktime is a useful 7
hours.
The rest of the features on the W380 are pretty straightforward -
stereo Bluetooth, an FM radio and Memory Stick Micro expandable
memory (with 512MB in the box) are the main features. There's an
email client, web browser, RSS feed reader and all the usual stuff
you'd expect to find in a Sony Ericsson.
There's no word on pricing, but Sony Ericsson say
that the W380 should be available in Q1 2008 in
"Electric Purple" and "Magnetic Grey". There are
three variants, a tri-band 850/1800/1900 W380a ver-
sion for North America, the tri-band 900/1800/1900
W380c version for China and another tri-band
900/1800/1900 W380i version for everywhere else in the world.

64
 Flare Report Telecom

esigned to complement Nokia's
Up to 2 megapixel (1600x1200 pixels) cam-

D new Ovi online portal that rolls

a music store and the N-Gage
gaming platform together, the
Nokia N81 8GB include a
bunch of multimedia functions
in a sexy slider design.
Nokia N81 includes dedicated music but-
tons on the bottom and gaming keys on either
side of the ear speaker. The N81 8GB is
era, MPEG-4 VGA video capture of up to 15fps

Zoom: digital up to 20x

Integrated flash (modes: on, off, automatic,
redeye reduction)
Music Features

Nokia Nseries digital music player
supports MP3 (VBR), AAC, eAAC+, AAC+,
WMA/M4A, WAV

OMA DRM 1.x, 2.0, Windows Media DRM
designed to be used in a landscape orientation (OTI/OTA with Nokia Music Store*)
when used for gaming. The music and gaming
8GB Internal flash memory (for up to 6000
keys also selectively light up when needed, songs**)

ensuring that they don't get in the way when
they are not required. A 3.5mm headphone
jack and Bluetooth v2.0 with the A2DP stereo
headset profile mean you can use your favorite
headphones to keep everything discrete, while
a 3D multimedia menu provides a fun way to
access your content. The devices are pre-con-
figured for the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage,
meaning you are ready to play straight out of
the box.
The polished face of Nokia N81 model
hides a lot of non-music and game related
smarts as well. The handsets run Nokia's S60
3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 smartphone operat-
ing system with a full complement of PIM serv-
ices. The N81 8GB is also compatible with
high-speed 3G UMTS networks, and also pro-
vide 802.11b/g WLAN connectivity when you
are in range of an access point.
It has not surprisingly, 8GB of
internal storage but no expansion
card slot.
Nokia expects N81 8GB to ship
during Q4 this year. The N81 is
expected to go on sale for
Rs. 40,000
Dimensions

Volume: 86 cc

Weight: 140 g

Length: 102 mm, Width: 50
mm, Thickness (max): 17.9 mm
Memory Functions

Up to 8GB internal flash memo-
ry for music, games, video, images
and applications
Battery

Talk time: up to 240 minutes
WCDMA

Stand-by time: up to 17 days

Video playback time: up to 4.5
hours (QVGA)

Music playback time: up to 11.5
hours

Video recording time: up to 3.5
hours with QVGA

Operating system: S60 software
on Symbian OS

User interface: S60 3rd edition,
Feature Pack 1

Speaker independent name
dialing (SIND)
Connectivity

WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g with
UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
support

Bluetooth Specification 2.0 (pro-
files supported: DUN, OPP, FTP,
HFP, GOEP, GAP, SPP, HSP, BIP,
A2DP)

Micro USB 2.0 Full Speed
(mass storage class)

Nokia AV Connector 3.5mm
65
Imaging and Video
 Motors Flare Reprt
Models pose next to Italian auto maker Alfa Romeo's "Alfa 8c Competizione", equipped with 5.0-liter V8
engine on the stylish coupe body during a press preview.
Dancers perform next to a "Mini Cooper S Clubman" during a press preview.
Journalists and photographers surround the compact concept vehicle for families, called the "Space-
Up" from Volkswagen, during a press preview
66 German auto giant BMW AG, introduces BMW Concept 1 Series tii" at a world premiere
during the press preview
Takeo Fukui, president of Japan's auto giant Honda motor gets off from the
concept vehicle "PUYO" at a press preview
Tokyo Motor Show - Catch News,
Touch Future
The 40th Tokyo Motor Show featured over 70 world pre-
miers and over 100 Japan premiers while emphasizing fun,
cuteness and eco-friendliness. Automakers from Japan, the
United States, Britain, Germany and eight other countries
and regions displayed some 520 passenger and commercial
automobiles, motorcycles at the exhibition with a theme
"Catch the News, Touch the Future."
The Tokyo Motor Show, along with those held in Detroit,
Frankfurt, Paris and Geneva, is one of the industry's five pre-
mier international events by the International Organization of
Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. The first Tokyo Motor Show
was staged in 1954. Some 1.51 million visitors went to the
previous show in 2005.
Around 240 companies, four governments and one
organization participated in the show. For the first time since
1997 that the show has featured passenger cars, commer-
cial vehicles and motorcycles together.

A woman sits on Suzuki Motor Corp's concept electric vehicle Pixy (R), next to
a Suzuki Sharing Coach, during the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba
 In Picture

Rector Dr. S.M. Junaid Zaidi is awarding degree to a successful student during the 13th A group photograph of successful students during the 13th Convocation of
Convocation of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology held at Convention Centre, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology held at Convention Centre.
Islamabad.

Reliance to Deploy IPTV

Reliance Infocomm and Microsoft have signed a contract worth
Rs19.7bn ($500mn) to launch Internet protocol-based television servic-
es in India. The partnership would enable Reliance Infocomm to deliv-
er an interactive, personal and hi-tech television experience to con-
sumers using the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV software platform.
Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani and Microsoft chief
executive officer Steve Ballmer made the joint announcement.
Reliance would initially launch the IPTV services in New Delhi and
Mumbai by 2008, followed by the other metros, Ambani said. "Reliance
will enjoy exclusive deployment rights for the Microsoft platform in
India," Ambani added.
Ambani said Reliance was planning to launch direct-to-home serv-
ices in India in the next few months and Microsoft would power the
service through a sophisticated fiber optic network.
"Reliance is about to change the way consumers experience televi-
sion," Ballmer said. "By connecting the TV to an intelligent two-way
network and adding powerful software, personalised experiences will
become possible here in India," he said. "TV is the only third digital
device that has been left out of the networking revolution. Microsoft
and Reliance are now making TV a 'first class citizen' in the connected
entertainment landscape."
Asked about the success of IPTV, Ballmer said very soon India and
the US would be the largest IPTV market in the world.
Ambani said that as Indian consumers become more sophisticated,
they are demanding more compelling and personalized entertainment
to suit their individual needs and preferences. "Until now, TV has been
a broadcast, 'one-size-fits-all' experience. But backed by the powerful
Microsoft Mediaroom software, IPTV promises to offer subscribers
more choice, control and convenience, leading to an all-round unique
and more satisfying user experience at the end of the day." CEO of Microsoft Corporation Steve Ballmer (R) and chairman of India's Reliance Communication
The strategic tie-up will allow Reliance to provide new, connected Anil Ambani (L) hold out agreement documents following a press confrence in Mumbai
and personalized TV experiences in India with a host of advanced fea- will soon allow them to watch their favourite shows either on TV or per-
tures like video-on-demand, digital video recording, instant channel sonal computer.
changing and personal media sharing, Ambani said. He added that Reliance Communications has established a pan-India, next-gener-
IPTV subscribers will be able to watch popular standard definition con- ation integrated (wireless and wire line) and convergent (voice, data
tent as well as high definition at the click of a button from the comfort and video) digital network that is capable of supporting top-class serv-
of their homes, and enjoy a connected entertainment experience that ices across the entire information communication value chain.

Chasing the Sun

A prototype of the Solar Impulse around-the-world
solar plane should make its first piloted flight in
autumn 2008.
The aircraft, which will have a wingspan of 61
meters, the equivalent of an Airbus A340 airliner is
being built in Switzerland to test the technology
involved in its construction. Ballooning pioneer
Bertrand Piccard has been tapped to fly the machine.
One of the big challenges for solar flight is how to
store enough energy from its array of solar panels to
keep the ultra lightweight aircraft flying in darkness.
The project's goals include a transatlantic crossing in
2011 before what would be a historic, fuel-less cir-
cumnavigation of the globe.
The completed craft is expected to have 250
square meters of solar panels stretched across its
wings. 67
 In Picture
City Naib Nazima, Nasreen Jalil is presenting memorial shield to the Deputy High
Commissioner of India, Mahpreet Vohra during his visit at Karachi District Government Office
Indian actress from the acclaimed Hindi film 'Chak De' Vidya Malavade (L) is watched by fel-
low thespians Chitrashi Rawat (C) and Shilpa Shukla (R) as she poses in a Yoga Asana dur-
ing a press conference in New Delhi, held to publicise World Heart Day which takes place
Philips India in association with The Heart Care Foundation announced the "Simplicity Walk"
an initiative that aims to promote walking for a healthy heart. As per a report by the National
Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, it is estimated that there may be around 64.1
million cases of Cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 2015.
Nissan Intima Concept - Auto Shows
The main goal of Nissan's Intima concept, which debuts Tokyo auto show, is
relaxation, just chillin' out, in an elegant environment in a sedan where the only per-
son forced to put forth any effort is the driver. The Intima is not for the noble gentry
who employ chauffeurs to help them chill but for regular people who appreciate
some comfort and down time while on the road.
It starts when the front passenger opens his or her door. Even in a Rolls-Royce,
a person has to lower himself or herself into a forward-facing seat. But in the
Intima, when both the traditional front and suicide rear doors are open, the passen-
ger who called shotgun first is greeted by a seat that swivels out to welcome him or
her aboard. "Your quick wit has rewarded you," it seems to say. "Please, take your
68
seat."

Nikon India Pvt. Ltd. Managing Director Hidehiko Tanaka, right, poses along with
Indian photographer Raghu Rai, center, and a model during an event to
announce the Indian subsidiary of Nikon Corp., in New Delhi, India.
Tokyo Robots Exhibit Celebrates Robot History
A new exhibition in Tokyo is celebrating Japan's extensive collection
of robots, by bringing together some of the best known prototypes. The
star attraction is Honda's ASIMO robot. Honda's latest ASIMO robot can
speak, dance, walk and run in a human-like manner.
The little android measures 1.3 meters and weighs 54 kilograms. It
can make some impressive moves on the floor. ASIMO demonstrates its
waitering skills, delivering cups of coffee in a professional manner illus-
trating how it was conceived as a household appliance rather than for
industrial or scientific purposes.
Masato Hirose, Senior Chief Engineer of Honda, says people are
open to the idea of interacting with robots in everyday life. Masato Hirose,
Chief Engineer of Honda said "Nowadays people are more used to the
idea of robots and find them endearing. That is why I believe that a life
with robots will help create a brighter society."
Honda plans to start using Asimo's new receptionist functions at its
offices early next year. Asimo is currently available only for rental, but it's
important for Honda's image and has appeared at events and on TV ads.
The current version can be leased for 20 million yen, or about 170 thou-
sand US dollars, a year.

Games officials check the computer of a Qatari player prior to the E-sports competi-
tion at the 2nd Asian Indoor Games in Macau. Featuring such unusual events as
video games, chess and dance sport, the tournament, now in its second edition,
aims to fill the gap left by the Olympics or the Asian Games.

Indian designer Rohit Bal (3R) poses with British Airways air hostesses, during the unveil-
ing of new cabin crew uniforms, in New Delhi.
An Indian model poses with a Nikon Coolpix camera dur-
ing a launch function in New Delhi. Nikon has announced
the establishment of a 100 per cent subsidiary in India -
Nikon India which will manage the Indian as well as
Middle Eastern market for the Japan based optical com-
pany from the Delhi satellite city of Gurgaon.
The solar powered vechile, the solar taxi of Swiss adventur-
er Louis Palmer is parked at the Swiss Embassy in New
Delhi. Palmer, who set off in the solar taxi from the city of
Lucerne on a journey around the world, aims to show that
solutions to combat global warming are available.
In Picture
Photo released by NASA showing Discovery Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski
repairing damages in the International Space Station's P6 4B solar array (L).
Japanese electronics giant Sony’s employee Eiko Sato displays a new digital multimedia player "Walkman NW-
A919", equipped with a 16GB flash memory that can store digital music, pictures and movie contents, and also has
a built in digital broadcasting tuner to show TV programs on a 2.4-inch LCD display, in Tokyo.
Intel Brings Digital
Transformation to
Morocco
In a country known for mes-
merizing mystique and a multi-
cultural history that dates back
to at least 8,000 B.C., Intel
Corporation is using computers
and Internet technology to help
bring Moroccos 33 million peo-
ple into a modern digital age
ripe with opportunity.
"Morocco is at a crossroads
in its economic development,"
said Intel Chairman Craig
Barrett, who unveiled several
projects aimed at extending dig-
ital inclusion to all Moroccans
during his first visit to the North African nation. "Technology can help accelerate the countrys econom-
ic prospects, and Intel is collaborating with Moroccos government and its people to help enable this
transition."
Barretts two days in Morocco conclude the Africa portion of a worldwide "Expanding Whats
Possible" tour focused on digital accessibility and education. Intels announcements include a joint
project with the Department of Telecommunications and Information Technology (D.E.P.T.I.) to devel-
op public Internet access centers, and with the Ministry of Education to train thousands of teachers
and donate computers to Moroccan schools.
Earlier this week, in his role as chairman of the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) and Development, Barrett took part in the Connect Africa Summit
in Rwanda to explore ways to bring the benefits of technology to the people of African continent.
Helping to Drive Access to Education Barrett also visited a classroom at one of two rural
Moroccan schools benefiting from new computers and broadband Internet access.
"It was an extraordinary thing like we were connected to the exterior world," said Asmae Wahabi,
a French teacher at Saad Ibn Abi Al Ouakass school in Ain Aouda, where Intel installed 250 Intel-
powered Classmate PCs and Internet connectivity and trained teachers on the effective use of tech-
nology to teach children. "The students and especially the students that are from underprivileged fam-
ilies, had this occasion to access knowledge, so now nothing is holding them from pursuing progress
69
to succeed. It is going to give them a chance for a better future."
 Informative

Dell XPS M2010 Rs. 241,000

Processor: Intel Core Duo T7400 2.16 GHz
Ram: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 120 GB
DVD ± RW
Screen: 20" WXGA TB

Pros: Sleek, attention-getting design; high-quality, adjustable 20-inch LCD;

speakers offer crisp, rich audio; detachable Bluetooth keyboard and Media
Center remote will work well from the couch or during a presentation;
top-of-the-line components deliver high overall performance and competent
gaming capability.
Cons: Absurdly expensive; TV tuner and some other A/V connections aren't built
in; too heavy to be truly portable.
Conclusion: A striking feat of engineering that's sure to garner attention in a styl-
ish home or on a multimedia-intensive sales call, the Dell XPS M2010 is simply
too expensive and impractical to be anything more than a curio for the rest of us.

Dell Latitude D630 Rs. 104,000

Processor: Intel Core Duo T7500 2.2 GHz
Ram: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 120 GB
DVD ± RW
Screen: 14" WXGA
Pros: Strong performance; long-lived nine-cell battery; sturdy construction;
bright display; comfortable keyboard; corporate-level security, including smart
card reader; WWAN available as an option; lengthy three-year warranty.
Cons: Somewhat heavy for a thin-and-light notebook; native screen resolu-
tion makes icons and text look small; fingerprint reader decreases mouse
button size.
Conclusion: Corporate users can't go wrong with the Dell Latitude D630,
which integrates Intel's latest mobile platform with a business-friendly feature
set and lengthy extended battery.

HP Pavilion dv6500 Rs. 65,000

Processor: AMD Duo 1.8 GHz
Ram: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 120 GB
DVD ± RW
Screen: 15.4" WXGA
Pros: Includes HD DVD drive and HDMI port; touch-sensitive media controls;
802.11n Wi-Fi; good component mix for the price.
Cons: Some options (including HD DVD drive) are not available yet; disap-
pointing battery life.
Conclusion: HP's attractive Pavilion dv6500t is a well-designed 15-inch multi-
media laptop that stands out from the mainstream crowd with touch-sensitive
media controls and an HDMI output, but the standard battery could be better.

Lenovo ThinkPad T61 Rs. 119,000

Processor: Intel Duo 2.0 GHz
Ram: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 120 GB
DVD ± RW
Screen: 14" WXGA
Pros: Internal roll cage protects LCD; 802.11n Wi-Fi for faster wireless through-
put; very small A/C adaptor adds little to overall travel weight; Intel's Active
Management Technology provides remote support.
Cons: New Centrino technology doesn't offer outsize performance gains.
Conclusion: Lenovo's 14-inch ThinkPad T61 shaves a few millimeters off the
company's more mainstream R-series laptops, but still boasts the same, solid
ThinkPad DNA along with IT-friendly features by way of Intel's new Centrino
70 Pro platform.

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 Informative

HP Compaq nx7400 Rs. 70,000

Processor: Intel Duo 1.83 GHz
Ram: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 100 GB
DVD ± RW
Screen: 15.4" WXGA
Pros: Light, well-designed case; broad wide-aspect display; Core Duo proces-
sors available as an option.
Cons: Lacks some high-end features, such as dual pointing devices, biomet-
ric security, discrete graphics, and a WWAN card.
Conclusion: For businesses that put budgets before bells and whistles, the
reasonably priced HP Compaq nx7400 offers a functional design, decent per-
formance and battery life, and enough features for basic corporate users.

Acer Aspire 4710 Rs. 52,000

Processor: Intel Duo 1.86 GHz
Ram: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 120 GB
DVD ± RW
Screen: 15.4" WXGA
Pros: Very low price; dual-core processor; full feature set, including an
ExpressCard slot and S/PDIF audio-out jack; comfortable keyboard; easy-to-
use system management software.
Cons: Slow performance on outdated components; display wobbles easily;
glossy screen finish results in distracting reflections; lacks external media con-
trols.
Conclusion: We recommend the Acer Aspire 4710 for home users who want
a low-cost laptop for basic computing tasks.

Sony VAIO FZ180E/B

Processor: Intel Duo 2..2 GHz Rs. 183,000
Ram: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 160 GB
DVD ± RW
Screen: 15.4" WXGA
Pros: Typically excellent Sony design; handy media control buttons; Blu-ray
drive and HDMI output.
Cons: Loaded up with adware and bloatware; no Bluetooth; not configurable.
Conclusion: We can't imagine the market for a 15-inch home theater laptop
with Blu-ray is very large, but the Sony VAIO FZ180 certainly fits the bill--even
if it's preloaded with unwanted come-ons for other Sony products.

Japan's computer giant NEC employee Ayumi Tamotsu dis-

plays the new notebook computer "LaVie G Hello Kitty model"
designed with gold plated Hello Kitty, decorated with
Swarovski crystals at the company's showroom in Tokyo. The
notebook PC is equipped with an AMD's Turion dual core CPU,
120GB HDD and a 15.4-inch LCD display with special
designed wallpaper and screen saver.

71

Above prices are subject to change as per market

 Informative

oogle has at last use the phone technology to build

G officially announced
a new software plat-
form and a broad
alliance of mobile
handset makers and
communications companies in a bid
to accelerate the slow development
of the mobile Internet.
Engineers have been working on
devices that can challenge the likes of
Nokia, Apple and others.
The list of wireless carriers that have
agreed to provide service for the
Google-powered phone include Sprint
Nextel and Deutsche Telekom's T-
Mobile in the United States. China
Mobile, Telefonica in Spain and Telecom
Italia are among the carriers that have
the software for three years, dating signed on to provide service outside the
back to a Silicon Valley startup United States.
called Android Inc. that Google They are among a Google-led group
acquired in 2005. The mobile soft- of 34 companies that have formed the
ware still bears the Android name in Open Handset Alliance. Other key play-
acknowledgment of its heritage. ers include major chip makers like Intel,
Android is designed to make it Qualcomm, Texas Instruments,
easier for developers to create A Google worker dials her cell phone at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif, confirming Broadcom and Nvidia.
mobile applications that run on its long-rumored foray into the mobile market. What Google gets in return is more
many different handsets. At the moment, mobile technology is fragment- real estate for selling ads. Ninety-nine percent of Google's revenues
ed, relying on a several different operating systems and development come from ads, either the ones it puts next to free Internet-based servic-
environments. That has reduced the potential market for developers cre- es like search and email, or through syndication on third-party Web
ating games, entertainment or other services for any one handset. pages. The bigger the Internet gets, Google executives figure, the more
The alliance members come from the telecom and wireless software pages there are for ads and the more people will need search (with
industries. Many of them are second-tier players that Google hopes will more ads) to find anything.

obile devices such as cell phones and digital cam- Advanced Super View LCD delivers superior image quality approaching

M eras are rapidly becoming thinner as manufacturers

strive to improve portability and offer consumers
more stylish designs. As a result, thinner embedded
components such as LCDs are also increasing in
demand. The increase in demand for One-Seg (ter-
restrial digital broadcast) compatible handsets is leading to demands for
greater visibility and higher image quality in displays intended for mobile
devices.
The development of new 2.2-inch Mobile Advanced Super View LCD
that of an LCD TV thanks to a high contrast ratio of 2000:1, wide view-
ing angle of 176 degrees, and fast response speed of 8 ms, which are
among the highest levels in the industry.

Specifications

Screen size: 2.2-inches

Pixel count 240 x 320 px (QVGA)

Module thickness 0.68 mm

Contrast: 2000:1
is based on proprietary Sharp fabrication techniques for thin LCDs, in
Viewing angle: Vertical, horizontal, and diagonal: 176 degrees
particular, glass substrate and backlight technologies. This new Mobile
Response speed: 8 ms (black white display).

otorola has introduced the ROKR T505 Bluetooth In-

M Car Speakerphone and Digital FM Transmitter, its

first road-ready, music-oriented accessory and the
latest in-car solution. The ROKR T505 will let users
connect a compatible Bluetooth enabled phone to
the car sound system and enjoy handsfree calling
and their own personal music collection in stereo sound.
The T505 is portable and requires no wires or installation. Drivers
clip the device to a car visor and pair the T505 using Motorola's
EasyPair technology to a compatible Bluetooth device. When the T505
is connected to a stereo Bluetooth phone or an MP3 player, calls and and audibly announces the Caller-ID, so drivers can keep their eyes on
music are streamed wirelessly with clarity. Drivers with standard the road. Cutting-edge echo and noise reduction technology and a built-
Bluetooth phones can use the T505 to make and take their calls over in microphone and 2-watt speaker also ensure that drivers have out-
the car stereo. And when the ride's over, the T505 can be easily standing sound and zero static throughout their ride.
unhooked and taken to another car for the next trip. The Motorola ROKR T505 is expected to become available in Q1
The T505 also features StationFinder, a new technology that 2008.

announces where the best FM connection can be found on the user's
72
car radio. When calls come in, the T505 automatically mutes the music
 Flare Report IT

Microsoft Corp. emerged with a rare triumph

over archrival Google Inc., winning the right to
invest in Facebook Inc
t may seem like Microsoft got the short ad company DoubleClick. And

I end of the deal when it paid $240 mil-

lion on for just 1.6% stake in the social-
networking site Facebook. While
Facebook is probably the most talked
about destination on the Web today, the
company will be lucky to clear $30 million in
profit on an estimated $140 million in revenues
this year. So what exactly was Microsoft buy-
ing, other than a lot of hope and, quite possi-
bly, a lot of hype?
With $23 billion in cash reserves, software
giant, Microsoft, can afford to play its luck with
a little cash - even if it never earns a penny of
it. Facebook could use
the money - to hire
more employees and
Facebook's shiny new $15 billion
build out the site, valuation up from $10 billion just a
whose traffic is current-
ly growing at over month ago may seem out of this
100% per year. But
what Microsoft chief
world, US$ 240 million for just 1.6
Steve Ballmer and percent stakes can be termed as
company desperately
need good reputation "Monopoly money"
in the growing Internet
economy. And that is exactly what their invest-
ment just bought them.
Microsoft has not had a lot of success with
their online plays. Their search engine,
Windows Live, is a distant third to Google and
Yahoo in both advertisment revenue and
users. Software giant lost out to Google on key
strategic deals to buy both YouTube and online
while sales of the new operating
system, Windows Vista, have been
brisk, reviews have been decidedly
mixed.
All that glum news has translat-
ed into low morale for a company
that was once an undisputed titan
of the consumer software busi-
ness.
Microsoft's partnership with
Facebook, which also buys it the
rights to broker all international
ads, puts the company back in a
Dustin Moskovitz,
co-founder of the
Facebook social
networking website,
built into Facebook.
game that it And while Facebook's shiny new $15 billion
was strug- valuation up from $10 billion just a month ago
gling to may seem out of this world, it pays to keep in
keep up mind that it's still just "Monopoly money". With
with. By partnering with Facebook, it has also hardly any profits to date, the company's actu-
kept key competitors at bay. The investment al valuation is all just speculation at the
Microsoft made was in keeping Google out. moment. That should become much clearer,
Not only will Microsoft garner more revenues once Facebook goes public sometime in the
by serving up ads for Facebook (the exact rev- next year or so. One thing is for sure, howev-
enue split has not been disclosed, but is prob- er: the dotcom bubble just got bigger than
ably about 20% going to Microsoft) but it also ever. Get ready for another wild ride.

has a great shot at getting its search engine

Chinese men use their mobile phone on the streets of Shanghai. China Mobile, the
country's largest mobile network operator, hopes to roll out third generation (3G) mobile
services before the end of the year but repeated delays has sparked speculation that its
home-grown standard is not yet up to snuff.
Visitors check out new Microsoft window mobile 3G cell phones at an exhibition in
Beijing. Asia's booming economic powerhouses of China and India are leading a fresh
surge in mobile phone use with nearly 200 million new subscribers between them in the
first quarter of 2007, with China added 87 million new subscribers in the period and
India about 110 million. 73
 Internet Ismail Qureshi

Video games are big business.

Some firms have taken elements
from games to overcome the diffi-
culties of working life in the 21st
Century. Convinced that games
and familiarity their employees have guilds also get to do the best projects.
can help them thrive, some com- with virtual environments. This famil- Companies are adopting game mechanics
panies have turned work groups iarity has driven many organisations for several reasons. Partly because workers
to consider virtual worlds as places are so familiar with this structure and people
into guilds, rewarded staff with where employees can meet, mix and become motivated when they know how they
get on with the job. compare to their contemporaries. The main
experience points when they Games had long been used in reason was the transparency it gave to the
complete tasks, giving out titles training to expose personal prefer- way workplaces were organised and for
ences and revealing who got
and badges when a guild finished prejudices. things done. It also
a project Many organi- Games had long been used to exposes those that do
sations also expose personal preferences and do not play well.
whole generation is growing used courses Experts are of the

A up for whom video games are that revolve around and prejudices. Many organisa- view that it had the
games to help make potential to turn work-
a key part of how they relax,
teams work together
tions used courses that revolve places into meritocra-
whether it be fragging friends
in a first person shooter or better or expose around games to help make cies where the most
backing up the main tank in a power structures accomplished are
Warcraft raid. It is not just youngsters but among workers. teams work together better or easy to spot because
there are plenty of older folks who shake off Some firms have expose power structures among they have racked up
the dust of the working day in many different taken elements from all rewards, achieve-
virtual worlds. games to overcome workers ments and levels
Statistics from the US Entertainment the difficulties of required for a particu-
Software Association (ESA) back this up. It working life in the 21st Century. Convinced lar post. While it may not sweep away sys-
claims that the average player is 33 and has that games can help them thrive, some com- tems of privilege or end nepotism, it had the
more than a decade of gaming under their panies have turned work groups into guilds, potential to make workplaces fairer and take
belt. rewarded staff with experience points when some of the grind out of the day job.
According to the academics and they complete tasks, giving out titles and Analysts say anything that helped staff
researchers, the companies have realised that badges when a guild finished a project. develop a better working relationship and pro-
all the time employees spend gaming in virtual Some are also considering using a virtual mote teamwork was likely to be a good thing.

worlds is changing them. Many organisations currency as a reward system allowing workers
are considering ways of harnessing the skills to cash in their savings for benefits or extras
for their office space. The top performing

JTG and INTRACOM TELECOM sign agreement to provide

IPTV service in Jordan
JTG is to provide Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) in Jordan under the Orange brand. Orange IPTV will be offered through INTRACOM
TELECOM's award-winning IPTV platform over JTG's ADSL network. In addition to high-quality Broadcast TV and Video on Demand, a host
of new interactive services such as personal recording, chatting and e-mail notifications will introduce an unparalleled, personalized TV expe-
rience. The offering will feature premium Arabic and international content.
"We are proud of contributing towards the fulfillment of HM King Abdullah's II
vision, to make Jordan a technological hub in the region. With Orange IPTV, we
are bringing Jordan a service that is very popular in Europe and the World
enhancing the modern lifestyle and recreational needs of Jordanian customers,"
said Mr. Mickael Ghossein, CEO of JTG.
Mr. Alexandros Manos, Managing Director of INTRACOM TELECOM stated: "We are very excited about this project which apart from
solidifying our cooperation with JTG, serves as a benchmark for the whole Middle East, paving the way for telecom operators to deliver new,
value-creating services to their customers" . "We are honored to be part of this visionary project, which will enable the Jordanian public to
experience truly integrated IPTV services", said Mr. Tareq Abu Sharar, CEO of INTRACOM Jordan.
IPTV subscribers can also benefit from the leading Arabic WorldCall Service offered by Orange ICI. This innovative solution will expedite
the concept of Internet over TV where someone can view IPTV and connect to the Internet using his TV set by utilizing an inexpensive gadg-
et connected to the TV with a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Orange is the key brand of France Telecom Group, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with over 153 million cus-
tomers in 220 countries worldwide.
74
 Salman Khan Internet

The Internet is preparing to spread into outer space to

reach parts, where no network has gone before. The
proposed "interplanetary" Internet would facilitate
people "to access information and to control experi-
ments taking place far away" from Earth. Expanding
into the solar system would bring new rules and regu-
lations too
fter expanding across Earth,
bearing fruit and is on track to be space quali-
One of the outstanding changes was the
Internet's huge growth in Asia, which now
boasts 436 million users, well above the fig-
ures of 321 million in Europe and 233 million in
North America, the birthplace of the web.
The number of users in Asia suggests that
the content of the Internet will eventually con-
tain far more information in languages other

A the Internet is now set to

spread into outer space to
reach parts, where no network
has gone before. The pro-
posed "interplanetary" Internet
would facilitate people "to access information
and to control experiments taking place far
away" from Earth. Expanding into the solar
fied and standardised in the 2010 time frame.
The number of Internet users has grown

Experts are working on a set of stan-

system would bring new rules and regulations
too.
Experts are working on a set of standards
designed to guide space-era Internet commu-
nications. Finally, the Internet can take to the
area where no network has gone before. A
team of engineers at the California-based Jet
Propulsion Laboratory would complete a key
part of the project, establishing standards for
space communications like those for Internet,
in three years. According to experts, new stan-
dards were needed because of the huge dis-
tances and time delays involved in communi-
cation across space. The effort now seems
dards designed to guide space-era
Internet communications. According
to experts, new standards were
needed because of the huge dis-
tances and time delays involved in
communication across space
20-fold in the past and according to the
experts, the entire world will have access to
the services that are available on the Internet
in the next few years.
than English than it does today. Technological
changes are taking place to keep pace with
the expansion, with one of the key
challenges being a shortage of
Internet addresses.
According to the analysts, the
Internet currently allows only 4.3 bil-
lion unique addresses - plenty back
in the 1970s but not enough.
Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN),
which manages domain names and
addresses, is preparing to launch a
new format accommodating 340 tril-
lion addresses.
Experts are anticipating billions
of Internet-enabled devices to
emerge, with items to cover nearly
all home appliances such as televisions,
radios, kitchen equipment, fax machines and
printers, refrigerators and bathroom scales.

Singtel Rings Up Higher Second Quarter Profit

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has revealed
that its net profit in the second quarter to September rose
3.3 percent, driven by its regional mobile business. Net prof-
it for the period totalled 988 million Singapore dollars, com-
pared with 956 million dollars in the same period a year
ago, it said.
The earnings result surpassed market expectations of
899-960 million dollars in net profit for Southeast Asia's
largest telecom firm. Second-quarter revenue grew 11 per-
cent to 3.7 billion dollars from 3.33 billion dollars a year ago,
SingTel said.
In the half-year to September, revenue increased 10.7
percent to 7.26 billion dollars where net profit surged 6.6
percent to 1.91 billion dollars, it said. "The group posted its
second consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth Satellite dishes at Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) Bukit Timah Satellite Earth Station
and continued to deliver healthy earnings growth," said chief are seen in Singapore.
executive Chua Sock Koong.
She said the firm now had a foothold in six Asian markets since buying a 30 percent stake in Pakistan's Warid Telecom earlier this year.
"They are among the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. The success of our international expansion has created a diversified earn-
ings base," Chua said.
Pre-tax earnings from SingTel's regional mobile arms surged 21 percent to 600 million dollars during the September quarter, boosted
mainly by Bharti Telecom of India which recorded a 45 percent rise in operating revenues on strong mobile user gains.
At home, SingTel's operating revenues rose 9.6 percent to 1.2 billion dollars in the September quarter where net profit was 3.7 percent
higher at 830 million dollars.
75

To create stationary in your email editor,
From the MS Outlook's main window, go to
Click the tab 'Mail Format'
TOOLS-->Options
In the "compose in this message format:"
list box, Select "Rich text" or "Html"message
format.
For formatting and choosing Fonts and
Stationary. Go to Stationary Picker and then
click 'New'.
For creating Signatures. Choose the list
box 'select signature for your account'. Your
default email account in Outlook will be pre
populated in the box.
For multiple accounts & select account for
which you want to create a personalized sig-
nature.
Mail Format Tab
Now press the Signatures… button to cre-
Almas Fatima IT
ate Signature. Create New Signature
Now type the Signature text you want to
appear in your signature
Press 'Font' & 'Paragraph' buttons for Font
and Paragraph formatting whereas 'Clear' for
clearing the whole Signature text.
Create Signature
Pressing the 'Edit 'button in the dialog box,
will open the existing signature text in the Paragraph Formatting
Editor. The 'remove' button will erase the
existing signature. For an Advanced Edit, press the Advanced
Edit button.
By pressing the 'Advanced Edit' button,
Signature Text will appear in Microsoft Word
at your system, providing various other
advanced formatting functions.

Edit Signature
Press the 'New' button to create a new sig- Selecting Advanced Edit
nature.
A dialog box named 'create new
Signature' will appear.
Enter a name for your new signature in
the text field.
From the "choose how to create signature
list box, select the option "Start with a blank
Signature".
Press the next button to proceed.
A looter carries away across a flooded
street electrical appliances taken from
a departmental store in Villahermosa,
state of Tabasco, Mexico.
77
 Internet
ecoming an independent con-
B sultant is a popular career
choice for IT professionals,
especially if they are tired of cor-
porate politics or corporate
downsizing. IT professionals
often view consulting as a relatively easy tran-
sition. However, you must follow a roadmap so
that your transition to consulting goes just as
smoothly.
1. Don't disclose your rates until you understand
the scope of the engagement
For example, in a scenario, you get a call
from a client seeking help with an offshore out-
sourcing project. The client gives you a one-
minute overview of his/her company's needs
and you to provide billing rates.
It has been noticed that client is always in
hurry; moreover they want to know the
billing detail in their first conversation.
However, one must not exclaim billing
details prior to knowing the exact scope of
project. There are very bright chances that
after meeting with client in person to discuss
the project, you may learn that client's start-
ing point for negotiation is only the half of
your going rate.
If you had shared your rates during that
initial phone conversation, you would have
lost the opportunity immediately. Negotiating
consulting rates is a lot like negotiating your
salary with a new employer. By slowing
down the negotiation process and standing
your ground on your fee, you can secure the
engagement and get the rate you want.
2. Don't overbid
Don't start with a bid for a prospective
client's work that's too high because you
could lose the opportunity, not to mention your
credibility in the market. Start with a rate that
you think is fair and competitive and stick with
it. Clients respect that approach more than
when a consultant starts high and comes down
to meet their needs.
If you're not familiar with market rates, you
can ask other consultants what to expect from
a particular type of service. Be aware that
rates vary by city.
3. Understand your clients' expectations
Ask a lot of open-ended questions early on
when you are just getting to know the prospec-
tive client and before you have even agreed to
do business. Always ask the following ques-
tions:
1. What is your end goal? How will you
know when you've achieved that goal?
The client's answer to these questions will help
you understand what needs to be done and
how you are going to be measured and evalu-
ated.
2. What work has been done so far?
What are the roadblocks? What is preventing
78
you from achieving your goals?
The career transition from corpo-
rate job to independent IT con-
sultant is not always smooth.
One may face tough times, how-
ever, this article will give you
some lessons for carrying out
such transition
If you are brought in to solve a particular prob-
lem, it is good to know upfront what has been
done and what the challenges are. This will
help you assess whether you have the skill set
required to overcome those obstacles.
3. What are the deliverables?
Knowing the deliverables will help you
focus your efforts and define the scope of your
engagement.
On your first day, set up a meeting with
your hiring manager to discuss your under-
standing of the project: how you plan to
accomplish your goals, how often you should
report back to the client on your progress and
whether you should e-mail or arrange a face-
to-face meeting to do so. Also review with the
hiring manager what you plan to do on your
first few days to ensure that you're working on
exactly what you should be working on.
The meeting with the hiring manager is a
good time to find out if there are any other
stakeholders-other people who are interested
in the outcome of the project-whose opinions
you should be concerned about. If so, meet
with them, too.
4. Don't take on a project you can't handle
If you doubt you possess the right skill set
to do the job, don't take the engagement no
matter how desperate you may be for work.
Tell the client that the project is not right for
you. It's better to be honest with yourself and
say no to a client than to take on a project
that's more than you can handle.
5. Don't expect a red carpet on your first day
When you become a consultant, you have
to say goodbye to executive trappings and
hello to humility. You can't have any expecta-
tions as to how you will be treated within the
organization: Some companies will give you a
private workspace; others will give you a
shared workspace. If you have to share an
office or get stuck in a cubicle, don't get hung
up on it. Stay focused on what you need to
accomplish-not on whether your workspace
connotes status. I needed. If you expect your
client to roll out a red carpet, you're going to
be let down.
6. Don't pull rank
Consultants have to convince others to get
work done since they lack the organizational
power and authority that full-time, onsite man-
agers can use to effect change and motivate
people. Pulling rank or acting like a know-it-all
won't help your cause. Most effective way for
to get employees to follow under you lead-
whether as a consultant or IT executive-is to
involve them in decision making. Early on in
the engagement, you can arrange a meeting
with an open agenda during which you may
discuss the reasons why you were brought in
and what you are planning to do. Make it
sound like that the purpose of the meeting is to
get their input to complete the project
7. Avoid practical ideas
As a consultant, your clients consider you
under their managerial authorities, pulling
rabbits out of a hat just when they think
they've exhausted all their options. They
expect nothing less than great magic from
you-that is, game-changing recommenda-
tions that will allow them to improve cus-
tomer service, increase revenue or cut costs.
Don't feel you have to come up with realistic
suggestions. They're paying you to think out-
side the box, so let your creativity run wild.
Your role is to suggest the best option, and
that's not always the most realistic one.
8. Brand yourself
Talk is cheap in the consulting world. You
have to start building a brand. You are the
knowledge worker who has to sell your serv-
ices and demonstrate how you can add value.
You have to be perceived as an expert with a
specific skill set that is not available in your
client's organization. Branding will help you
create a unique identity that distinguishes you
from the legions of other independent consult-
ants.
You can build your brand by

Writing articles in your area of expertise

Taking up speaking engagements, which
will help you build your network and exposure

Writing a book to give you instant credibility

Creating and regularly maintaining a blog

Developing professional networks on the
topics in which you specialize

Doing the best at every engagement (repu-
tation is very important)
Don't focus these efforts too much on mak-
ing money. The purpose of these activities is to
get you exposure. The money will then follow.
Good Luck!. 
 Flare Report Telecom

Warid International, a customer of CA, has already acquired

CA's Service Desk, Desktop Management, Asset
Management, Spectrum, eHealth, Security Command Center
as well as Network and System Management solutions
arid Telecom International ture as well as their global business." best combination of usability and technology."

W LLC and CA, Inc.

announced a new three-
year strategic partner-
ship. With this partner-
ship, Warid has selected
CA as preferred provider of IT management
solutions for all its IT operations and CA has
agreed to supply Warid with technology
assessments, educational and service bene-
fits, and joint marketing collaboration.
While talking to the newsmen at the con-
tract signing ceremony, Kevin Naddaf,
Country Manager for CA in the Middle East
and Pakistan, said, "To date, Warid has
demonstrated tremendous innovation and
thought-leadership, deploying leading-edge
technology to rapidly become an advanced,
service-oriented Telecom organization. Our
strategic partnership will accelerate that devel-
opment, utilizing leading edge, Enterprise IT
Management solutions, for both Warid
International's customers and its internal envi-
ronment. CA is committed to provide Warid a
long term help to develop their IT infrastruc-
Warid International is a customer of CA,
having already acquired CA's Service Desk,
Desktop Management, Asset Management,
Spectrum, eHealth, Security Command Center
as well as Network and System Management
solutions. Those solutions are currently
implemented or undergoing implementation
stage throughout its
operations in
Pakistan,
Throughout this partnership, CA
Bangladesh, Congo will help Warid optimize its oper-
and Uganda.
Mohammad Ali, ations and become a fully
General Manager IT mature service oriented organi-
for Warid
International, said, zation
"We were looking for
a vendor that could streamline our internal
operations from beginning to end. CA's vision
for enterprise management gave us the
roadmap we were looking for. We reviewed
many global IT companies but identified CA's
vision of Enterprise IT Management and com-
prehensive solution portfolio as delivering the
As preferred supplier, CA's Enterprise IT
Management solutions will be the standard for
Warid's operations.
Throughout the partnership, CA will deliver
enhanced technology assessments, act as an
advisor on best practices, conduct regular
education sessions and provide assistance
with fault and per-
formance manage-
ment requirements, to
help Warid optimize
its operations and
become a fully mature
service oriented
organization.
Warid Telecom, a
subsidiary of Abu
Dhabi Group, holds forth place in the
Pakistan's cellular market, with 11.86 and
growing rapidly with every passing day. The
company has made huge investments over
the past few years to provide its customers
with state of the art technology and a bunch of
quality services.

Students participating in the 11th preadmission test for First
Year Engineering Classes in Mehran University of
Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro at Public School.
Senior research engineer Mike Vande Weghe watches as his robotic bartender arm picks up a
cup during a demonstration at the Intel Corp. research facility at Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh. The semiconductor giant has operated research facilities at universities in
Pennsylvania, California and Washington for the past six years in hope of finding ways to fur- 79
ther integrate computers into daily life.
 Khawar Shahzad IT

In recent years we have seen an

exponential growth in social net-
working products around us.
Professional networking, which is
not lot different than of social net-
working, benefits one's career
immensely. Most of the jobs
around the world are filled
through references. Someone who
knows more people within his
career sphere catches a better
chance of getting a good offer and
a good job as compared to a person
who does not built that level of
credibility and network, even if
that person is a better professional

n recent years we have seen an expo- on opportunities that came around. Often less- doing and think you can stand all kinds of criti-

I nential growth in social networking

products around us. The world is com-
municating through Orkut, Facebook,
Myspace, Second life and a myriad of
other options available for an Internet
user to stay online all the day and forget about
the real world. Measuring just how effective
these applications are is highly a matter of per-
spective.
skilled people, who are better at making rela-
tionships and leveraging them for their benefit
when needed, take up these opportunities.

What are the benefits?

Let's discuss a little about Professional
Networking and that too from the perspective
of building and using it to enhance our careers,
without focusing on the tools available for it.
So let's get started.
What is Professional Networking?
In simple words it is making acquaintances
within your professional circle or domain. It is
different from social networking, as it may
require a different kind of input from our end
and the relationship might not be as informal
as a social network.
Why do I need to build a Professional Network?
Now I know the first concern for most read-
ers, specifically young students and new pro-
fessionals will be, why should I even care? "I
got good grades and have a decent job, why
should I spend my time building relationships
with people who I am not directly related to or
friend with?"
Well, the simplest reason is that the net-
work will benefit your career immensely. Most
of the jobs around the world are filled through
references. Someone who knows more people
within his career domain will have a better
chance of getting a good offer and a good job
as compared to a person who has not built that
level of credibility and network, even if that
person is a better professional. During the
short course of my career I have seen a num-
ber of great professionals without good job
offers and who are consistently stuck at lower
salaries and ranks. An undeniable factor for
their stagnant careers is the fact that they did
not take their time to build a professional net-
work around them consequently missing out
The benefits of building a strong network of
friends inside your professional circle are
many: You get better opportunities. Your credi-
bility inside the circle of your profession
increases manifold. You stay on top of what's
happening in your domain. Particularly for
technology people where things change rapid-
ly, this really eases out the pressure of staying
A number of great professionals can
be found without handsom job offers
and seen consistently stuck at lower
salaries and ranks just because they
did not take their time to build a pro-
fessional network around them con-
sequently missing out on opportuni-
ties that came their way
on top all the time. If you have a good network
you might not even need to move a finger to
be aware of recent happenings, all your links
in your network will do that for you. People
who dream of being self-employed can also
use this to their advantage. Networking is
required to survive in this cruel world. You
need people who will guide, help, assist, refer
and even thrash (if you are going in the wrong
direction) you.
How to go about Building the Network?
There are more than one ways of doing
this.
1. Blogging: This has recently grown into a
powerful tool in building your credential as a
good professional. If you know what you are
cism go out and shout, people will listen to
you, perhaps abuse you or even guide you but
will eventually befriend you.
2. Be selfless: If you help someone today
without any reward, that person will actually
become your agent and will popularize you like
no PR campaign can. For example, if you take
time to guide students without asking any
favors in return or lend a listening ear to some-
one in trouble, or help in whatever ways you
are good at, those people will really appreciate
and remember you. You will have your own
personal evangelists!
3. Be Professional: If you write a
blog do it with passion, if you com-
ment on someone else's blog do it
professionally, never make personal
attacks. Always carry yourself grace-
fully since these things not only
enhance your image but also help
other people notice your profession-
alism.
4. Keep your Integrity intact:
Never ever stab someone in his
back to get personal gains. If you
offend one person unethically, a lot
more people may never speak well
about you, which may with time cre-
ate hurdles in your professional
growth.
5. Be compassionate: This is applicable to
professional networking as much as it is to
social networking. If you like something praise
generously, if you want to give advice do so
without offending the other person or making
him feel or look bad.
6. Keep Active Contact with the existing
network: I see students coming out of college
and losing contact with their own classmates
within months of graduating and shrinking their
networks by the day. This is suicidal, never let
someone out of your circle and always keep
active contact with them.
Proper networking can become a powerful
tool and asset which when done properly can
take you places, so start building your network
81
today.

 Event Flare Report

benefit show, offered by Wateen, to help needy peo-

A ple with the help of "Services Aimed at Health and

Awakening in Remote Areas". SAHARA FOR LIFE
Trust is a registered tax exempted charity organiza-
tion striving for the betterment and promotion of
health and education in remote areas. The show was
held on 31 October in a local hotel of Lahore.
The show organized by Wateen and many designers took part in
it to represent their designs of new seasonal dresses. The leading
designer in the show was Anniee Mansoor who managed the show
as well. The prime goal was to get funds to help needy. The show

82
 Event
had the participation of ladies fashion exhibition with a verity of colours.
The show was first time organized by Wateen for SAHARA and it was
totally for charity, which will work to enhance the quality of life of patients in
remote areas.
The founder of SAHARA is the famous singer and social worker of
Pakistan Mr. Abrar-ul-Haq. The Trust was registered on 15th June 2000.
Within a short span of time the Trust has established itself as a devoted,
transparent and professional organization. The Trust is now recognized as
a leading registered charitable organization in Pakistan, UK and USA.

83
 Internet

World Gets Smallest Radio: Nanopod

It's the world's smallest radio, run with a single carbon nanotube radio-controlled
one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair and radio buffs are devices small
already dubbing it the nanopod. enough to exist in
Single battery and earphones are all you need to tune in with the a human's blood-
radio, built by physicists at the University of California in Berkeley. stream," the paper
The nanoradio, currently only a receiver, is 100 billion times small- said.
er than the first commercial radios, and the physicists began building Nanotubes are
it to mark the 100th anniversary last year of the first voice and music rolled-up sheets of
radio transmission. interlocked carbon
"We were just in ecstasy when this worked," said team leader atoms that form a
Professor Alex Zettl. "It was fantastic." tube so strong that
The radio, which could also work as a transmitter, has any number some scientists
of applications -- from cell phones to microscopic devices that sense have suggested using a nanotube wire to tether satellites in a fixed
the environment and relay information via radio signals, Zettl said. position above the earth.

"The nanotube radio may lead to radical new applications, such as

VoIP Usage Growing Despite Quality Complaints

Voice over IP is proving popular with Internet users, though the months.
sound quality of calls remains the predominant complaint. According Skype remains the leading VoIP
to a report over the past year 1.8 million internet users have used application, with a 48 per cent share
VoIP. Of those who haven't, 16 per cent say they're likely to try it with- but rivals are beginning to present a
in the next year. threat. MSN Messenger made a solid
VoIP users appear happy with the service. Most expect to increase showing as the software of choice for
or maintain usage over the next year and only 1 per cent said they 20 per cent of respondents and
would reduce usage. They're largely satisfied with ease-of-use in Vonage accounted for 6 per cent of
placing calls and in value for money. The area in need of the greatest users.
improvement is sound quality - 29 per cent say they're dissatisfied The research consisted of inter-
with what they hear today. views with 3,000 adults around the
However, not everyone's keen to place phone calls over the world who use the Internet.

Internet. More than half - 55 per cent - of respondents who hadn't
tried VoIP said they're not at all likely to give it a go within the next 12

Hi-def Flash Arrives

Adobe has upgraded its Flash player to handle high-definition One report indi-
video. San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe systems said its Flash Player 9 cates the Flash
software includes support for H.264, the advanced video compression upgrade will
codec in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD hi-def DVD players. A beta version of handle 1080p,
the update is available online. The final release is expected in the fall. a higher resolu-
Concurrently, On2 Technologies of Tarrytown, N.Y., said its Flix tion than most
encoding technology would support content for the new Flash format, of the native
in addition to its own VP6, which is used in previous versions of HD displays
Flash. and many of
The Flash HD upgrade extends hi-def streaming capability to the the camcorders in use today.
masses, even though the nature of high-definition content and distri- HD Flash capability is nonetheless another signal to dedicated
bution is still tenuously comprehended. There are degrees of HD multimedia distributors--broadcast, cable, satellite and telcoTV
quality, with MPEG-2, unretransmitted over-the-air content at the top, providers--that streaming can no longer be dismissed as low-res,
and MPEG-4 over a 200 kbps copper or coax conduit on the low side. jerky video in a tiny box.

G-Wiz! Electric Car Goes up in Smoke

The electric car's potential for saving the planet by reducing our
dependence on oil and lowering carbon emissions has been dealt a
blow with the news that a best-selling model may suddenly burst into
flames.
A total of 629 G-Wiz cars have been recalled and repaired
because their battery chargers may be prone to overheating. The
alarm was raised when a parked car spontaneously combusted.
No one was hurt and, although just one car was involved in the
incident in August, the Reva Electric Car Company decided to recall
every G-Wiz fitted with the same charger.
Publicity about the recalls could stunt the growing popularity of the
Indian-made three-door hatchback, which can be charged from a nor-
mal power socket and costs just 1p a mile to run.
The 8ft-long G-Wiz, which costs Rs. 800,000 is far smaller than
conventional cars and emits only two-thirds of the carbon dioxide pro-
duced by a similar, petrol-driven vehicle. As a result, the car has
proved a hit with high demand, where most of the cars have been
sold. Several celebrities are G-Wiz owners, including Jonathan Ross,
Jerry Hall and Kristin Scott Thomas, who said: "I love my G-Wiz. It is
such fun to drive, easy to park, nippy. Children laugh when I pass by."
However, the car's reputation was dented in May when safety tests
organised by BBC's Top Gear programme suggested that the G-Wiz
84 offered poor protection in a crash and occupants could potentially
receive fatal injuries at speeds of 40mph.
GoinGreen acknowledged that the G-Wiz was likely to perform
worse than heavier cars in crash tests but pointed out that its light-
ness prevented pedestrians from being hurt as badly in any collision.
In any case, it added, the G-Wiz had a top speed of 45mph and was
designed for urban traffic where the likelihood of a high-speed impact
was lower. The recall was announced in September and ended
November. The cars were collected and taken to GoinGreen's work-
shop in Southall, west London, where battery chargers containing
faulty heat sensors were replaced with heat-sensitive cut-out switches
and fire-retardant covers. The company's managing director, Keith
Johnston, said: "The recall was undertaken as a precautionary meas-
ure following a single failure, where no one was injured. GoinGreen
supports the action, which demonstrates the highest level of commit-
ment to safety in electric vehicles."
The company pointed out that 275 other makes of car had been
recalled by manufacturers this year, affecting hundreds of thousands
of vehicles.

 Internet

MySpace & Bebo Join Google's love-in

Two of the world's largest social declined to comment, saying only that it
networks have signed up to will evaluate OpenSocial once there is a
Google's broad alliance, putting fur- chance to look at it.
ther pressure on Facebook. "The most important principle about
Google has ramped up the pressure openness is that everyone is invited to
on Facebook, announcing that join," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief exec-
MySpace and Bebo had joined the utive, said.
broad alliance of social networking sites Other networks that have signed up
it has assembled that will offer a cross- to OpenSocial include Friendster, Hi5,
site platform for software developers. and LinkedIn, and a number of compa-
The decision by MySpace, which nies which traditionally provide software
has 110 million users, and Bebo - the for businesses, such as Salesforce.com
most popular networking site in the UK and Oracle, have also joined.
- to sign up to Google's initiative, called "The internet has fundamentally
OpenSocial, is likely to put pressure on changed the expectations that con-
Facebook to drop its own, similar, plat- sumers have for business applications,"
form and join up too. Adam Gross, vice president of develop-
OpenSocial will provide software er marketing for Salesforce.com, said,
developers with a common set of standards, meaning that their pro- adding that companies would increasingly deploy social applications
grams - or applications - will be compatible with a range of social net- for their customers.
working sites. Dan Nye, chief executive of LinkedIn, a network aimed at profes-
Facebook opened its platform to developers in a similar way in sionals, said: "Some social experiences are about photo sharing,
May, and since then more than 5,000 applications or 'apps' - including some are affinity-based, some professionally oriented. OpenSocial
the popular music tool iLike - have been written for the site and down- allows each experience to be distinct and provides them a shared
loaded by millions of users. infrastructure for development."
OpenSocial is going to be become the de facto standard for devel- Google will be hoping that the initiative generates renewed interest
opers right out of the gate," Chris DeWolfe, chief executive of in its own social network, Orkut, which, while popular in Brazil, has
MySpace, said during a press conference at Google's headquarters. struggled to gain a foothold in the US.
"It will have access to 200 million users, making it way bigger than It may also benefit by selling more advertising on networks that
any other platform out there." join OpenSocial, as well as inside applications written by third party
Google said that Facebook had been asked to participate in the developers.

platform, but the latter, which now has 50 million users, has so far

Demand for IT Jobs in US
Survey finds strong need-and increasing salaries-for Windows,
network, database and firewall specialists.
It's no secret that there's a tech talent crunch, and experts predict
it's only going to get worse. According to a survey carried out by an
American research firm, demand for IT professionals is the highest it's
been in at least five years.
Based on responses from more than 1,400 CIOs at U.S. compa-
nies with more than 100 employees, the technical skills in highest
demand are:

Windows administration

Network administration

Database management

Firewall administration

Wireless network management
A combination of factors is causing the talent crunch, the recruit-
ment firm reported. For one thing, large numbers of baby boomers are
either retiring or preparing to retire, placing pressure on companies to
boost recruitment plans to replace key staff retiring over the next 5 to
10 years.
Another reason is that fewer college students are choosing to
major in computer science, engineering, and mathematics. For exam-
ple, the number of income freshmen who planned to major in comput-
er science fell by 70 percent between 2000 and 2005.
Finally, industry-wide growth is pushing demand for greater num-
bers of skilled IT workers in the labor force. Nearly 1 million IT jobs
will be created by 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates.
According to another report released recently, 2008 Salary Guide,
the biggest salary gains among IT professionals next year will be for
lead application developers who manage development teams and
projects. Their base compensation is expected to rise next year 7.6
percent, from $80,250 to $108,000 annually. That's a significant pre-
mium over the average increase projected for all IT professionals of
5.3 percent in 2008.
Other IT positions that will experience fatter than average increas-
es are applications architects, 7.5 percent; messaging administrators,
7.1 percent; and data modelers, 7 percent.
The industries forecasting especially strong demand for IT profes-
sionals next year include financial services, health care, and commer-
cial construction.

The home page of Nokia's social networking site called Mosh is seen on a mobile phone
in Stockholm. Mosh, a social networking site that is accessible from mobile phones, is the
latest piece in the puzzle for Nokia as it tries to build an Internet stronghold to balance a
maturing cellphone business. So far there have been no advertisements, just word-of-
mouth promotion by guys like Virtanen, and already more than 6 million people have
logged on to download pictures, video, music and computer programs written by other
users.
Japan's computer giant NEC employee Ayumi Tamotsu displays Hello Kitty designed
computer mouse and USB flash memory at the company's showroom in Tokyo. NEC also
unveiled the new notebook computer "LaVie G Hello Kitty model" designed with gold plat-
ed Hello Kitty, decorated with Swarovski crystals.
85
 Internet Flare Reprt

Ballmer: Search Like `Precocious' Tot

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer compared the company's search technology to a pre-
cocious toddler one who would eventually grow up to rival nemesis google Inc. During an
animated discussion at the Web 2.0 Summit moderated by organizer John Battelle, Ballmer
took a paternal tone, saying Microsoft's own Web search technology needed improvements.
"You're just 3 years old, and we've got you in there playing basketball with a 12 year old,"
Ballmer gushed and gesticulated, nearly popping out of his seat. "You're growing up quick
and getting better every day, and you've got all the potential in world, and it may take you 'til
you're 7, 8, 9 or 10, but you're gonna dunk and you're gonna dunk on the other guy some
day, Johnny."
Earlier this year at Stanford University where Google's founders met during graduate stud-
ies Ballmer characterized the search leader as a "one-trick pony" and described Mountain
View based Google's growth plans as "insane."
"They started in one area, they get really good in that area and then fill out around core,"
he said between sips of his iced Starbucks drink. "Microsoft is unique in that we've already
got two areas. We started out as a desktop computing company and now we've got a huge
enterprise business. We're trying to do devices and entertainment, and advertising and the
Web. We're trying to be a three- or four-trick pony."

'Picture-Passwords' A Blessing for Forgetful People

The picture password system allows users to 'draw' their password on a handheld device. It is being
hunt if using pictures will also be easier for people with language difficulties
Scientists have developed a new software for the latest mobile playing card or the night sky.
phones and handheld computers, which uses pictures instead of let- The computer remembers the number of "pen" strokes used, where
ters and numbers for security codes. Now, people who struggle to the image was started and the order in which they were made. The
remember passwords and personal identification numbers will draw system allows users to create passwords, which are much more com-
pictures on a screen. plex than the traditional numeric or alphabetical versions.
The idea could be expanded into other areas, as the images will be The experts have developed emerging Draw a Secret (DAS) tech-
harder than text passwords nology and applied it to a background image. The improved
to copy by fraudsters, and The improved software BDAS, software is known as BDAS, Background Draw a Secret,
easier to remember. Background Draw a Secret, which makes which makes it easier for the user to remember where to
The picture password start drawing on the screen.
system allows users to 'draw' it easier for the user to remember where Most of the people forget a pin number or a password
their password on a hand- to start drawing on the screen but now the number of such incidents will decrease with the
held device. Researchers at introduction of the new technology as the human mind has a
Newcastle University are also researching if using pictures will also be much greater capacity for remembering images, and it's certainly true
easier for people with language difficulties. The "graphical passwords" that a picture is worth a thousand words in this instance.

are drawn over a background, such as a photo of a flower, a map, a

Tiny Chips Flash Memory Advance

Electronics giant Samsung has unleashed what it claims is the The new chips are
world's most powerful chip for use in memory cards. The 64-gigabit designed to be used in a
(GB) chips could be used to make 128-gigabyte memory cards, com- specific type of memory
monly used in MP3 players, capable of holding the equivalent of 80 known as NAND flash.
DVD's. The chips are built by using circuits with a minimum feature NAND is one of two types
size of just 30 billionths of a metre (nanometre). of flash memory and
Rival firm Toshiba has said it is also working with similar technolo- offers higher storage and
gy. Both firms will release products in 2009. Flash memory is a so- faster speeds than the
called non-volatile computer memory, primarily used in memory cards, cheaper NOR flash.
USB drives and MP3 players. NOR is commonly
Non-volatile memory retains information even when there is no used in low-end applications where smaller memory capacity and slow-
power to the device. Samsung said there was currently "exploding er speeds are acceptable, such as in cheaper mobile phone handsets.
demand" for flash memory as a storage medium in a range of applica- Samsung has said that a single chip could be used in an MP3 player
tions. capable of holding 18,000 songs.

Intel to Start New Chip Plant in Arizona

In the latest display of its manufacturing might, Intel Corp. is open- lem as chip parts
ing a new $3 billion factory in Arizona, widening its lead over rival shrink to the atomic
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in the industry's switch to a new chip- scale.
making technique. Intel is at least six
The new facility in Chandler, Ariz., will be Intel's first plant dedicated months ahead of
to churning out microprocessors, the brains of personal computers and AMD in the transition
servers, whose parts measure an average of just 45 nanometers, or 45 to the new chip-mak-
billionths of a meter. ing method.
The transistors on such chips are so small that more than 30 million Intel and AMD
can fit onto the head of a pin.How small they are is critical to the fight currently make their
between Intel and AMD because smaller features open more room for most advanced chips on 65-nanometer technology and both compa-
transistors on a single slice of silicon, boosting performance while low- nies are spending heavily to outfit their factories with the cutting-edge
ering manufacturing costs. equipment and technologies needed to make 45-nanometer chips.
The new processors are also prepared with materials that reduce Intel's new 1-million-square-foot factory, with more than 1,000 work-
86 the amount of electric current escaping from transistors, a major prob- ers, is so big that more than 17 football fields could fit inside it.

 Internet

Why a PC can't be your TV!

People spend hours in front of countless PC a remote control and infrared receiver to control
monitors nowadays. Usually those monitors go the software. There are primarily two types
dark when work ends. That could soon change in available, those that plug into the computer via
some households. Monitors have other uses the USB port and those that fit inside the PC
apart from word processing and spreadsheets. itself via the PCI slot.
They can also show movies and soap operas. But Sound admirers will also find PC monitors
a few problems still remain when converting your lacking, as the loudspeakers are not always
monitor into a desktop TV. suitable. Different screen proportions also make
Many consumers already appreciate one of the jump from computer monitor to television
the flat screen monitor's advantages. Whether as difficult. Some devices do not use their full
a television or a computer, it saves space. It is screen size, which is not ideal for television.
perfect for a student's room. These formats, 4:3 for computers and 16:9 for
But anyone who thinks they can meet all television create their own problems.
their needs with one device is deceiving him- Monitors have other uses apart from word The computer's 4:3 format is dying
self. Producers still face a lot of work in processing and spreadsheets. They can also out in televisions. But flat screen dis-
merging the TV and computer. Colour is the
first problem as the PC world uses different
show movies and soap operas. Many con- plays with a 16:9 format create odd reso-
lutions for PCs. experts recommend a
colours than television. sumers appreciate one of the flat screen 16:10 format. Otherwise, pictures can be
According to experts, colours are often monitor's advantages. Whether as a televi- blurred. But investing in upgrades like
pale on analogous television. When transmit- new pixel technology can have its down-
ted digitally, colours can be too intense and sion or a computer, it saves space. It is per- sides.
become unpleasant to watch. fect for a student's room Text no longer comes across very
Customers should also consider the sharp. Experts recommend a full-HD with
downsides of highly reflective screens. These screens are very popular 1920X1080 pixels while buying PC monitors with TV reception.
at present, as they look great and show rich colours. It is often a disad- Multifunctional devices should also come with connections for Scart,
vantage because any lamplight is reflected on the screen, distracting DVD and video recorders and HDMI connections should also be
from the picture. Whereas some of these screens deliver good PC included.
images, they can stumble when it comes to TV transmissions. They Buyers must decide whether PC or television resolution is more
can display scripts in excellent detail. But motion becomes difficult as important. TV viewers who value vibrant colours and sharp pictures
PC monitors are not designed for fast moving pictures. Most monitors should stick with standard TV sets.
also have tight viewing angles. Anyone not sitting rightly in front of the For all the other people, those without much space in their home
TV, on the far edge of the sofa, will be unlucky. and willing to overlook some of the problems with a monitor with a
There is another drawback, as most PC monitors do not come with built-in television receiver, have no second way but compromise to the
remote controls. However, these days most TV tuner cards come with other solution.

Sony 'shuffles' out multi-colour Cyber-shot T2 line-up

Sony's upcoming Cyber-shot DSC-T2 could become the iPod The T2 contains 4GB of
Shuffle of the digicam world when it goes on sale in Europe in storage, so there's plenty of
November. The metal-clad machine will be available in a range of space for pics, 1250 of them
Shuffle-like colours. at full 8Mp resolution, though
Not that the camera's specification is cut down. Each T2 incorpo- there's also a Memory Stick
rates an eight-megapixel image sensor placed behind a Carl Zeiss 3x Pro Duo slot for more.
optical zoom lens and feeding the camera's 2.7in display. It ticks all the The camera supports HD
right boxes for features, with anti-blur technology, face detection and TV output, though the cable
high sensetivity shooting at up to ISO 3200. you need an extra option.
However, Sony focused on the T2's blogger-friendly Sharemark The T2 goes on sale in a
technology, which it claimed makes preparing snaps and videos for the choice of metallic black,
likes of MySpace and Flikr easier by automatically resizing them and white, blue, green and pink.
adding tags ready for the time the camera's connected to a PC for Its price has yet to be set.

uploading.

Apple Could Face Environmental Lawsuit

The iPhone's makers, Apple, could face The notice sent to Apple and the
a lawsuit over accusations that their prod- California state attorney general gives
uct is 'toxic' with chemicals linked to birth the non-profit environmental law group
defects legal standing to sue Apple in 60 days.
Environmentalist lawyers are threaten- The lawsuit could compel Apple to
ing to sue Apple in 60 days if the iconic US put warnings on iPhone packaging but
Company doesn't make iPhones greener doesn't require the renowned maker of
or warn buyers of toxins in the devices. iPods and Macintosh computers to recall
Greenpeace, the Center for devices or alter the composition of mod-
Environmental Health in Oakland, els yet to be sold.
California, sent Apple notice after environ- Apple declined to discuss the matter
mental activist group Greenpeace released on the grounds it doesn't comment on
a scientific analysis of how Earth-friendly pending litigation.
iPhones are. Environmentalists contend that the
The level of phthalate esters, a chemi- greening of Apple is long overdue, with
cal linked to birth defects, in plastic coating the company lagging behind rivals when
of iPhone earphone wires is greater than it comes to eliminating toxins and sup-
that allowed in toys or childcare items sold porting recycling or safe disposal of
in Europe, according to Greenpeace. products.
"If a pregnant woman is winding and Greenpeace also criticized Apple for
unwinding that cord a number of times each day, like we all would, she having batteries glued and soldered into iPhones, making it harder to
is getting exposed to this chemical," the centre's chief executive replace, recycle or properly dispose of the chemically hazardous power
Michael Green said. packs.
87
 Internet

Motorola Eyes Razr2 to do Good in the Future

With a sleek design and an even sleeker advertising campaign, company has said its cell
Motorola Inc. is banking on its new Razr2 cell phone to pump up ane- phone unit will remain unprof-
mic sales and provide a rosier future after a year long slump punctuat- itable until at least 2008.
ed by back-to-back losses. This is the same company
After a first half that may have put CEO Ed Zander's future employ- whose original Razr was the
ment into question, the end of Motorola's rough patch may be in sight. cell phone of choice just two
The analysts say that the cell phone maker needs a steady string years ago, nearly doubling the
of follow-ups to stay alive in an industry now dominated by products company's market share in 18
crammed with cutting edge features and software. months. But the company's
Rival Samsung Electronics Co. overtook Motorola this summer to decision to dramatically slash
secure the No. 2 spot among cell phone manufacturers worldwide. prices in order to maintain
Finland's Nokia Corp. remains the far-and-away leader. Some analysts market share sent the compa-
say Motorola's market share has continued to erode and dropped ny's profits into a free fall in
back to 11 percent in the third quarter, from 22 percent last year. the absence of another slam-
Motorola hasn't had much luck on Wall Street either, where its dunk phone in its portfolio.

stock has plunged 20 percent since last fall.
Any third-quarter profit would be driven by Motorola's hand-held
business devices and high-tech home entertainment gadgets: The

Cell Phone Market Volumes Up

All handset vendors combined shipped 285 million cell phones in the July-September quarter, with
strong demand in Asia and Africa lifting sales 12 percent from a year ago.
The main gainer from the robust demand on emerging markets was the world's largest handset maker,
Nokia, which sold more phones than its three closest rivals combined.
The Finnish company has a strong lead in emerging markets including China and India.

Systems Limited's Day Out for Orphanage Children

In the true sprite of sharing Systems Limited, Pakistan's first and
largest state-of-the-art software house, arranged a fun packed day-long
activity in Lahore for 76 children from an Orphanage.
Coordinated by the management committee of the Orphanage, the
children (male & female) between the ages of 5 and 10 years were taken
to Jinnah Gardens by Systems Limited team. Soon after their arrival at
the park, the children were served with refreshments. The children
enjoyed various healthy activities like reading story books, playing luddo
etc, organized by the employees and volunteers of the company.
After that the children were taken to the nearby zoo, followed by a trip
to Joy-land at the Fortress Stadium and finally to a sumptuous Dinner.
Each volunteer team member of Systems Limited managed his/her group
of 10 children.
At the conclusion of a fun-filled day and a hearty meal, the children
were excited to receive gifts distributed by the team from Systems
Limited. All gifts were made possible through cash donations made by
the staff of the company. In the end, the children were transported back
to the Orphanage.

The Age of "Ringxiety"

Ever hear or feel your phone ringing, you're sure of it, and
when you rush to answer it... you discover it hadn't rung at
all? More and more cell phone users are reporting hearing
their "distinctive" ring tone or feeling their phone vibrating
against their leg, only to find that it was all just a fantasy.
It's a phenomenon loosely termed "ringxiety" or "fauxcel-
larm," with some suggesting that cell phones have become
part of the very fabric of people's lives, so much so that if
they think have missed a call it has a profound psychological
impact. The result is that many feel like their phone could be
ringing, even if it isn't. The phenomenon is very similar to
new mothers who're sure they hear their baby crying; only do
discover that the kid is fast asleep.
Phantom vibrations may be purely psychological, but
phantom ringing has a more scientific basis. This "psycho-acoustic phenomenon" is a complex issue related to how the brain processes sound
in the 1 KHz to 6 KHz range, where most phone ringing is based. "Your brain is conditioned to respond to a phone ring just as it is to a baby
crying," says one sound expert.
As well, if you have a cell phone, you're probably just a little bit crazy. Frequent phone users, are simply "more anxious," says one psychia-
trist. "They are on tenterhooks, waiting for the phone to ring."
Something to think about next time you turns your favorite song into a ringtone...

88
 Internet

How to Increase Phones' Battery Life?

Mobile marketing has been grown in an unimaginable way. Lots of you have customized more level
manufacturers are interested in marketing their products with stunning of brightness in your handset, it
features. People are very keen to enjoy the newly introduced features will consume more battery power.
at any cost. Mobile users do not know that the need of battery charge It is recommended that to set opti-
increases, according to the number of features availed with your hand- mum level of brightness for your
set. When the features become familiar among the users, they may mobile screen.
get interested to use them often. When they use the features often, o Avoid setting wallpapers and
there is no doubt in the reduction of battery life of the instrument. screen savers in your handsets. It
The following are the some of the recommendations to prolong has to consume power to display
your battery life of your mobile: each time when you release the
o Better switch off the Bluetooth feature if you do not need it. key lock in your mobile.
Bluetooth feature is nothing but the advantage of getting Internet con- o Reduce the ring tone vol-
nection without using wires. It has to utilize the radio signals through ume. Optimum ring volume does
GPRS to transfer files. This transmission of data needs a lot of battery not need more power.
charge and therefore you are supposed to deactivate the Bluetooth o Turn after adapter of Wi-Fi
option when you do not use this feature for transmitting data through and 3G. Activate these options
Internet. only when you want to use them.

o The brightness of screen is also a battery draining feature. When

Best of the Mobile Net

When it comes to the Web, not all phones and phone-friendly Just as you can
browsers are created equally, there must be a question in may minds replace Internet
that which is the best? Explorer on your PC
You can see a lot of the Internet on a mobile phone these days. with the open-source
More developers are offering stripped-down, mobile versions of their Firefox, you can
Web sites, and more handsets can display the full sites themselves. replace IE Mobile with
Of course, the experience remains far from perfect. Sometimes you the free Mozilla Minimo
get a site's mobile version; other times you don't. Your hardware and 0.2, which runs on
your cellular connection can limit your speed. And then there's your Windows Mobile 5 and
cell phone's preinstalled browser: While designed, in theory, to work above. Minimo is a
with your cell-phone hardware, it can force you to scroll around end- large download
lessly, it can mangle Web pages, and it can't yet fully display Flash (4.5MB), and it runs
content. slowly. It's also prone
You may not have to put up with the browser that came preinstalled to crashing. But for a
on your phone. Third-party options are available for every platform beta browser, it's cer-
except the iPhone. Remember, however, that not every browser will tainly worth a peek as
run on every device, even if it says it supports the device's OS. Also, an alternative to IE (it even has a tabbed browsing system).
many browser builders target service providers and developers Access NetFront 3.4, currently a free beta, is another IE Mobile
instead of consumers, so support can be spotty. Some offer limited- alternative. It supports Ajax and other modern Web standards and ren-
time trials. ders most pages closer to their desktop versions than any other
Opera Mini 4 beta 2 runs on virtually every smart-phone platform, Windows Mobile-compatible browser. It has a useful visual thumbnail
with free versions available for BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, and layout for bookmarks. Symbian version cost 10 Euros.
Windows Mobiledevices. The similar Opera Mobile runs only on ReenSoft PIEPlus 2.2 isn't a stand-alone browser, but rather, a $15
Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile handsets. Opera Mini is a very add-on to make IE Mobile less useless. It can't fix IE's poor rendering,
small, very fast browser with no frills and no rendering problems. The but it does add tabbed browsing, screen dragging and zooming, and
current beta version is a bit buggy, but it's the way--the only way--to many other features. However, like some of the other alternative
go if you want a single interface across multiple devices. browsers we tried, PIEPlus is prone to crashes.

Warning Over Net Address Limits

Internet Service Providers urgently need to roll out the next genera- net.
tion of net addresses for online devices. Every device that goes online The appreciation of
is allocated a unique IP address but the pool of numbers is finite and the importance of getting
due to run out around 2010. IPv6 into operation is
A new system, called IPv6, has been awaiting roll out for 10 years. very much more visible
Unless IPv6 is switched on in the coming years, some devices might than before. One compli-
not be able to go online. cating factor is that IPv6
The rate of consumption of available remaining IPv4 numbers and IPv4 are not compati-
appears to be on track to run out in 2010/11. ble so ISPs will have to
The current system, called IPv4 provides four billion addresses but run the two systems in
the explosion in the number of devices that go online has led to the parallel - adding to costs.
potential shortage. Although IPv6 was standardized 10 years ago it In Asia, governments
has not been rolled out at speed. While modern computers, servers, in China, Korea and
routers and other online devices are able to use IPv6, internet service Japan have begun to
providers have yet to implement the system. lead roll out of IPv6 and
"The reason they haven't - which is quite understandable - is that the European Union is
customers haven't asked for it yet," said a internet server provider. reviewing methods to
IPv6 will create 340 trillion separate addresses, enough to satisfy encourage adoption.

Vint Cerf works on his computer in his McLean, Va. home.
demand for decades to come. To be clear - if we finally exhaust the After fending off an international rebellion and planting the
IPv4 pool it doesn't mean the Internet stops working. But people want- seeds for streamlining operations.
ing an IPv4 address won't get one. If there is an Internet that does not
support IPv6, not getting an IPv4 address means not getting on the 89
 National

CMPak to Launch Call Centre HBFC Acquires Advanced

CMPak Ltd, formerly Paktel and China Mobile's first venture outside China,
is coming up with its state-of-the-art call centre/helpline in Islamabad, which is
Contact Center Solution
going to start functioning by the end of this year. A statement said that the
centre will help in generating employment opportunities for more than 450 from ZRG
agents and will be the first of its kind in the country where internationally House Building Finance Corporation Limited, the oldest hous-
trained staff will be assisting the valued customers. It said that the centre, to ing finance institute of Pakistan, has acquired an advanced con-
be accessible free of cost, has been built to cater to the growing market tact center solution from ZRG,
needs and anticipated growth in coming years, especially in north and central nation's market leader in contact
regions. technology.
"CMPak is setting new standards of customer care in the country. The HBFC Ltd has launched its
basic motive of launching this call centre is to get first hand knowledge about Customer Care Contact Center
the problems of the customers and to pro- on a toll free number (0800-42325) to provide prompt and updat-
vide them solutions within shortest possible ed information to valuable customers of the Corporation and the
time," said Guo Yonghong, CEO, CMPak general public as well. The newly established Contact Center
Ltd. aims to serve the company's large customer base more efficient-
The centre will provide backup to call ly, which covers lower and middle income sections of population.
centres in Karachi and Lahore as well as The contact center will be a major contributor in supporting the
will work as a disaster recovery arrange- recent Ghar Aasan and Shandar Ghar Schemes of HBFC Ltd.
ment. ZRG team studied HBFC's requirements and presented a
CMPak Ltd has already entered into an cost effective solution that is built on the most preferred open
agreement with Allied Bank Limited for standards technology. HBFC Ltd selected ZRG solution because
Cash Management. the offer and features were unmatched by any other market play-
According to the agreement, ABL will er. ZRG seamlessly integrated HBFC's customer database with
offer Cash Management Services to its Contact Center and CRM solution.
CMPak throughout its network of 743 According to Mr. Zaigham Mahmood Rizvi, Chairman and
branches across Pakistan. Under the MD, HBFC Ltd, "The Company aims having its brand/service
agreement, CMPak's sales offices, dealers, franchisees and other channel network in more than 90 cities of the country. The contact center
partners will access Pakistan's largest real-time online banking network, thor- service will facilitate citizens to discuss and find their housing
oughly streamlining the receivables management processes of the company.
problems and solutions with HBFC Ltd. ZRG has done an excel-
lent job by delivering us a highly flexible and advanced platform
that will help us achieve greater customer satisfaction."
Motorola Gets Rocking with ROKR Mr. Ayub Butt, CEO, ZRG International said, "Customer satis-
faction can be increased by providing prompt services, personal-

S9 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones ized attention, and quality interaction to the customer. ZRG and
HBFC Ltd will be working jointly to increase customer satisfac-
Motorola, Inc., a global leader in wire- tion by improving business communication and customer contact
less communications, has launched the management functions."

ROKR S9 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones
in Pakistan, combining stylish design with
cutting-edge Bluetooth wireless technolo-
gy, giving its Pakistani consumers easy
Pakistan to Explore Irish IT
access to their favorite music on-the-go.
The ROKR S9 Bluetooth Stereo
Sector
Headphone lets consumers stream music Pakistan Software Export Board
from their Bluetooth-enabled stereo music (PSEB) organised networking Events in
phone or MP3 player, delivers non-stop music from each single change and Dublin, Ireland from 7-10 November, 2007
features multi-function call, volume and track controls. The music mutes or in collaboration with the Embassy of
pauses when calls come in and resumes once they have ended. Pakistan in Dublin, Ireland Pakistan
"The ROKR S9 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone is a compact, lightweight Business Council (IPBC), Dublin Chamber
solution made with sport and music enthusiasts in mind. It allows consumers of Commerce, Irish IT Industry and various
to take their calls and listen to their favourite music with them anywhere, any- other local partners.
time," said Sarim Alvi, Director Sales and Marketing, Mobile Devices, Ireland has emerged as the third leading global destination
Motorola Pakistan. for ICT outsourcing activities after India and Canada and is
The ROKR S9 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone weighs barely an ounce and focusing on South Asia due to the huge IT outsourcing potential
is designed with a comfortable behind-the-head style. It is also water and of regional states including Pakistan.
sweat resistant for longer endurance. "The visit would play a significant role in opening new vistas
The ROKR S9 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone is now available in of collaboration between the companies of both the countries,"
Pakistan.
an official of Pakistan Software Export Board remarked.
The PSEB delegation was comprised of ten member compa-
nies which are renowned in their respective areas of expertise.
These companies included ALP Business Services Management,
Electronic Solutions Pakistan, Msoft, Voxel Communications,
Acrologix, Kraysis, Softech, EfroTech, Sofizar and iNVATERRA.
Pakistan has emerged as one of the fastest growing
economies in the world with over 7% GDP during 2006-07 and
1000% growth in foreign direct investments. With an IT industry
worth more than US$ 2.8 billion, including annual exports worth
US$ 1.4 billion. Pakistan is eyeing to take this sector to the size
of over US$ 11 billion by 2011.
There are 1082 active IT companies in the country out of
which 110 are ISO certified. One of the main factors behind this
rapid growth is that the Government of Pakistan allows foreign
investors 100% ownership of equity and 100% repatriation of
profits, as well as tax exemption for IT companies until 2016. The
Government also allows tax exemptions on export income from
computer software and related services.
Telecom journalists from Pakistan attended the media training workshop organized by Mobilink PSEB is a Government agency mandated to promote
in Istanbul Turkey . Pakistan's IT Industry including software, services, hardware and
90 call centers locally and globally.

 National

PTA Orders Sealing of 11 PSEB 's ERP Software to Improve

Mobile Franchises
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), in its attempt to
thwart the sale of new mobile phone SIMs without proper docu-
mentation, directed five GSM mobile phone operators to immedi-
ately seal and terminate registration of their 11 more franchisees
located in different cities across the country.
These franchisees were selling mobile connections without
following the standard procedure laid down by PTA, the
spokesman for the telecom regulatory body, PTA said. As per
details, PTA has issued written directions to mobile phone com-
panies for the closing of three franchisees of Mobilink, two fran-
chisees of Ufone, two franchisees of Warid, two franchisees of
Telenor and two franchisees of CMPak (Paktel).
It may be recalled that PTA took similar action against 6 fran-
chisees of mobile operators in September 2007 on violation of
PTA procedures for sale of new mobile connections.
This is in line with PTA's commitment to streamline the sale of
new mobile connections across the country and to take strict
action against the SIM sellers not adhering to the standard pro-
cedures.
PTA has taken serious view of non-verification of SIMs and
has warned for further action against franchisees violating PTA
procedures for issuance of new SIMs. A clear policy has already
been devised and issued to mobile operators for verification of
subscriber's antecedents and cleaning of old data.
It may be mentioned that surveys of customer service cen-
tres, franchisees and retailers of all mobile companies have been
conducted by PTA Zonal offices located at Peshawar,
Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta to determine the
progress on issuance of new phone connection after fulfilling all
requirements in line with the instructions of the Authority.

SMEs Productivity
Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has successfully developed
open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, styled as
AutoPlus, for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in readymade gar-
ments, hosiery, automotive parts and accessories, textile processing and
surgical instruments' verticals, official of Pakistan Software Export Board
said in a statement.
Under PSEB's project and in collaboration with Pakistan Association for
Automotive Parts and Accessories' Manufacturers (PAAPAM) and 15 of its
more far sighted member units, four unique ERP softwares have been
developed by member companies of PSEB. These ERP softwares have
been designed to improve the productivity of SME units. The PSEB initiative
also aims to allow the local software companies to gain expertise in the
development of ERP solutions for the local manufacturing industry and to
promote the use of open source technology.
The newly developed ERP software has been successfully implemented
at a model unit, 'Kortech Industries' in Lahore. Using this technology,
Kortech Industries has now automated all its processes from customer
order to the delivery of goods. The implementation of ERP software has
resulted in an 87 % reduction in time and a 70 % reduction in human
resources needed at the model unit.
Official stated that the product is now being implemented at 14 additional
PAAPAM units. After implementation in 15 member units of PAAPAM, the
product will be available, free of cost, for over 250 other member units of
PAAPAM. The additional units will only have to pay the cost for implementa-
tion of the software. SME BSF (Business Support Fund) has approved to
provide 50 % funding for the implementation cost.

Warid Starts Providing

International Roaming
Services to its Prepaid
Consumers
Warid Telecom, while providing one of the largest international
roaming networks to its postpaid consumers, has recently added
ZEM (Prepaid) International Roaming service to its International
Roaming product portfolio. With this new service Warid prepaid cus-
tomers will have the facility to roam internationally. The first destina-
tion on the ZEM IR coverage map is Afghanistan. Mr. Zafar Iqbal, GM HR & ADMIN, Warid Telecom presenting trophy to the Captain of winning
Hamid Farooq, Chief Executive Officer Warid Telecom stated, team in prize distribution ceremony for inter-department cricket tournament
"Our vision is to provide the best services to Warid Telecom sub- arranged for employees.
scribers and international prepaid roaming is a testament to this
statement. Since the majority of mobile tele-density in our country
consists of prepaid users, Warid ZEM International Roaming will
help facilitate Pakistanis while traveling to global destinations. In
fact, Warid is continuously adding new locations and international
operators to its IR network to further this process. Prepaid
International Roaming will be yet another milestone in our short his-
tory as a premier and pioneering provider of telecom services."
Thomas Yeo, Chief Commercial Officer Warid Telecom said,
"Prepaid International Roaming is a service unique to the Pakistani
market. Since the service has been implemented abroad for a few
selected providers, we have been able to study the positive effects
and wish to deliver this option to our loyal ZEM users."
Warid Telecom recently entered into a strategic alliance with
Singapore Telecom. Subsequent to this transaction, telecom giant
SingTel has acquired 30% percent equity stake in Warid Telecom.
This partnership has been made as part of a strategy to support
Warid Telecom's continued growth and to enhance its market posi-
tion.
Warid Telecom is the fastest growing and GSM mobile company
in Pakistan with about 12 million subscribers and coverage in over Mr. Zafar Iqbal, GM HR & ADMIN, Warid Telecom with Organizing Committee for the inter-
departmental cricket tournament
176 cities and towns all over Pakistan.

CSP, Microsoft Join Hands for Professionals’ Training Computer Society of Pakistan (CSP) and Microsoft have
launched Trade Specific Technology Training for IT professionals in Karachi. It was an initiative taken by both organizations to provide a frame-
work of collaboration between top class academia, industry representatives and Microsoft to jointly launch and manage trade specific courses for
the Industry. The main purpose of these courses is to motivate IT industry to adopt latest software project management tools through interaction
with experts from the industry, supplemented with case studies and examples from the relevant Industry.
91
 National
Voluntary Separation
Scheme for PTCL Approved
The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP), which met in
Islamabad, with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the chair,
approved PTCL Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS), besides
endorsing subscription of Habib Bank IPO.
Secretary IT & Telecom Division briefed the CCoP on salient
features of the VSS and said that the scheme envisages to make
the company more competitive and efficient and would benefit
the low-paid employees.
The Prime Minister emphasised that the voluntary character of
VSS of PTCL should be ensured in its implementation and the
low paid employees should get maximum benefit and the scheme
must ensure non-discriminatory treatment to the employees who
opt to avail this package.
The CCoP reviewed the update on privatisation and noted
with satisfaction that the principles of transparency, competitive-
ness and open system adopted by the Privatisation Commission
had paid dividends and restored confidence of local and foreign
investors in Pakistan 's economic policies.
The Prime Minister directed the Privatisation Commission to
adopt more innovative and proactive approach to cut down
impediments and step up the privatisation process of the projects
under process.
However the shareholders of the company have strongly
opposed the Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) fearing the col-
lapse of the company after the technical and trained staff is
relieved through the newly introduced system.
The concern was conveyed to the government in the annual
general meeting of the PTCL Board of Directors held at the tele-
phone company headquarters. Secretary information technology
Hafeezur Rehman, who is also chairman of the telecommunica-
tion company, chaired the meeting. PTCL high officials, members
of the BoD and shareholders attended the yearly meeting.
It is pertinent to mention here that about 62.5 percent shares
of the PTCL are owned by the government, 26 percent by
Etisalat and 11.5 percent by the shareholders.

Senator Shida Latif giving certificate to a student of Govt. Muslim Town College
for girls Rawalpindi, on the occasion of oath taking ceremony of student council.
Asad Reza- Deputy General Manager Warid Telecom (2nd from left) with senior
officials at the opening of new Sales and Customer Services Center in
Hyderabad. The 25th fully-equipped Center of Warid Telecom will serve the popu-
lation of this important city as well as the locations like Mirpurkhas, Tandu
Allahyar, Sehwan, Dadu, Moro, Hala, Badin, Thatta, Sanghar, Tando Adam,
Shahdadpur, etc.
92
PC/Server Market remains slow in
H1
Springboard Research, a leading
innovator in the IT Market Research
industry, announced that the
Pakistan PC/Server market wit-
nessed a growth of 5.7% with 319,838 units shipped during 1H 2007 (Jan-
June) as compared to the same period of the preceding year. The lower than
expected growth rate was mainly due to the government's non-friendly IT poli-
cies and continuation of the 15% GST, as well as from increased terrorist
attacks and unstable political conditions. In addition to the GST, the govern-
ment has shown little support for the IT sector, with no new policies or alloca-
tions for IT announced. The government is however continuing with its IT
industry development plan, although its actions and policies do not seem to
be in sync with desired growth for the sector.
"Pakistan's IT market is in between a "growth" and "decline" stage, where
the country's political stability will play a major role in overall market perform-
ance," commented Rehan Ghazi, Springboard Research Analyst. "Also,
before the imposition of the 15% GST in June 2006, Pakistan's PC/Server
market was a "diamond in the rough", but since then, a downward trend in the
IT market has been noticed. The government's recent decision not to with-
draw or reduce the GST has weakened the growing IT market in the country,
as well as decreased the confidence of MNC's" Ghazi added.
The negative spiraling effect created by unfriendly government policies, is
expected to continue in the upcoming few quarters. Springboard Research
also expects the second half of 2007 and beginning of 2008 to be politically
turbulent. Considering the current market scenario and political climate,
Springboard forecasts a marginal growth for 2007.

Pakistani people look at the transmission of international channels at the electronics market as
the private TV channels were closed after the declaration of emergency.
Turkish Businessmen to Invest in
IT Sector
A Turkish business delegation
showed its desire to invest in Pakistan in
various sectors particularly in the
Information Technology. The delegation
headed by Verisis General Manager Dr.
Aydin Kolat visited Islamabad Chamber
of Commerce & Industry (ICCI). The del-
egation met ICCI President Nasir Khan
and Vice President Mohammad Hussain and other local Industrialist.
They offered their technical assistance with latest equipment for the growth
of production. They said that they want to computerize every department in
Pakistan. The delegation was of the view that Pakistan could enhance its
steel production with the mutual cooperation. They want to invest here and
searching partners for this purpose.
Dr. Aydin Kolat, the head of the delegation, said, "Exchange of high-level
delegations is very crucial to boost trade relations between the two countries
both Pakistan and Turkey have suffered a lot on bilateral trade issue only
because of lack of coordination."
He hoped that once both sides focus on this subject, the situation would
take very positive. He appreciated ICCI president who visited Turkey this year
with trade delegation. A number of great opportunities exist for Turkey and
Pakistan to make joint efforts to realize their trade and economic potential for
mutual benefit in an enlarge Euro-Asia market.

 National

Nokia Siemens to Provide NGN

Services to Mobilink
okia Siemens Networks, a leading telecom operator in

N Pakistan, announced that Mobilink, a premier communica-

tions service provider in Pakistan and subsidiary of
Orascom Telecom, had deployed Nokia Siemens
Networks' 3GPP compliant mobile soft switch.
"Mobilink is happy to extend its cooperation with Nokia Siemens
Networks by selecting its MSC Server System for our network growth
and modernisation," said Tamer El Mahdy, Chief Technology Officer.
"With Nokia Siemens Networks' mobile softswitch, Mobilink would
be able to add higher capacity to the network, better utilised network
resources, reduce costs and offer state-of-the-art services to our cus-
tomers.", he said.
Nokia Siemens Networks currently has 170 customers using mobile
softswitching in over 50 live networks and is one of the world's leading
enablers of telecom technology. "We are pleased to have met
Mobilink's demand for
a powerful and cost- With Nokia Siemens Networks'
effective solution to mobile softswitch, Mobilink would
deploy in its network,"
said Dirk be able to add higher capacity to
Lewandowski, Head the network, better utilised network
of Customer Business
Team for Orascom
resources, reduce costs and offer
Telecom, at Nokia state-of-the-art services to our Mr. Viqar-ul-Islam, Country Head, Nokia-Siemens-Network, while addressing a ceremony
Siemens Networks. customers
"We look forward a desire to have 5 billion people connected by 2015, Nokia Siemens
to a continued partnership with Mobilink, providing world class technol- Networks will have an unparalleled capability to deliver 'end-to-end'
ogy while bringing significant cost savings and a clear evolution in next convergent solutions based on a broad portfolio of fixed and mobile
generation networks." he added. infrastructure products, services and devices.

Nokia Siemens Networks believes that the future of the communica-
tions industry lies in understanding and uniting communities. Driven by

Teradata Pakistan signs up

CMC as PR Agency
Teradata Corporation, after its recent spin-off from NCR
Corporation, signed up CMC to be the company's official Public
Relations agency in Pakistan.
Khuram Rahat, Managing Director of Teradata, while speaking on
the occasion, said, "Teradata has a long history with CMC and we have
worked together to build Teradata's corporate image from the concep-
tion of the company in Pakistan. We hope that the bond is further
strengthened in the years to come and look forward to work closely
with CMC on emphasising Teradata's commitment to bring cutting edge
technology and innovation into the IT sector in the country."
Syed Jawaid Iqbal, CEO of CMC, said, "We are proud to be associ-
ated with a company as dynamic as Teradata. Our professional rela-
tionship with the company spans over a decade and it is a privilege to
be the official PR agency for such an organization especially in light of Khuram Rahat, Managing Director of Teradata and Syed Jawaid Iqbal, CEO of CMC
their recent achievement in establishing themselves as an independent singing the MoU while Saad Warraich, Associate Account Manager CMC, Talha Bin
Hisaam, Account Director CMC, Sameerah Siddiqui, Marketing Manager Teradata and
organization." Tabish Sabah, Account Director, Teradata were also present on the occasion.
CMC joined hands with NCR Corporation in 1980 and has been
handling Teradata's PR for the last decade. CMC as the pioneer in PR industries including Toyota, Dubai Islamic Bank, Telenor, Emirates
industry of Pakistan is working with multinational giants from different Airline, ICI, Nestle, P&G and PepsiCo.

Omantel to buy 65% of Worldcall Telecom

Worldcall Telecom Limited, a stock market listed company, has
announced that the major sponsors of the company had accepted
Oman Telecommunication Company's (Omantel) bid for 65 per cent
shares in the company.
The total consideration for the sale-purchase deal has not been stip-
ulated, but analysts thought that Omantel was likely to pay a sum of
Rs12.2 billion, equivalent to $203 million for its acquisition of the
Pakistani private telecom company.
The agreement stipulates that Omantel would buy out 60 per cent
shares in Worldcall from its current sponsors at a price of Rs25 per
share.
The change of hands of the controlling stake would be subject to
the condition that Omantel
makes similar offer to acquire
additional 5 per cent shares
from the public at the same price per stock. The buyer would have to
ensure control of more than 51 per cent of the issued share capital of
the company after the exercise of all existing conversion rights.
The aggregate paid-up shares in Worldcall Telecom currently stand
at 752 million of the face value of Rs10 each. By virtue of its acquisition
of 65 per cent holding in the company, which would be around 489 mill-
lion shares, Omantel is understood to have agreed to pay a sum of
Rs12.2 billion, equivalent to $203 million at Rs25 a share, for its acqui-
sition of the company.
93

Sony Ericsson to sell of UIQ to
Motorola
Sony Ericsson has announced to sell half of its smartphone software unit
UIQ to U.S. rival Motorola. The Swedish-Japanese handset maker acquired
UIQ from British mobile software maker Symbian last year for an undisclosed
sum, and would not comment on the price of the latest deal.
Miles Flint, Sony Ericsson's president, told reporters in London that
Motorola will acquire a 50% interest in UI Holdings BV, the parent company of
UIQ Technology AB, which is currently wholly owned by Sony Ericsson and
under the agreement, Motorola and Sony Ericsson will work together and
jointly invest in the development of the UIQ open user interface platform.
UIQ Technology licenses the UIQ open user interface and development
platform to mobile phone vendors around the world.
Sony Ericsson and Motorola each have been UIQ licensees for many
years and have launched several successful Symbian/UIQ based products
including, the Sony Ericsson P1i smartphone, the new Sony Ericsson W960i
Walkman phone and the Motorola RIZR Z8. UIQ, offered the industry's first
touch-screen interface back in 2002 and now supports both QWERTY and
classic numerical keyboard configurations as well as finger touch data input.

A man walks by an Acer advertisement in Taiwan. Taiwan's top computer vendor Acer Inc, posted
an 18 percent rise in January-September net profit. Acer announced a January-September net
profit of T$10.56 billion ($324 million).
'Fitness Phone' Monitors Health,
Habits
Worried that you are not getting enough exercise or that you have eaten
too much garlic? A Japanese firm has come up with a phone that can help
you to solve both of your problems.
Japan's largest cell phone carrier NTT DoCoMo has unveiled a "Fitness
Phone", designed to help the user stay healthy and avoid bad breath. The
handheld phone, equipped with various devices that can measure your pulse
or the amount of steps you have taken in a day, dispenses heath advice after
you have punched in statistics such as gender, age and weight. You can also
exhale into the phone and it will tell you whether its time to reach for the
breath mints.
"Our primary target groups would be fat-fighting middle-aged businessmen
and young women on diets," said Kentaro Endo, a spokesman for NTT
DoCoMo.
A recent government survey found that average Japanese men in their 40s
were fatter than they were 12 years ago, mainly due to lack of exercise, while
women in the same age group were slimmer because they were more health
conscious.

Thinner Cell Phone Screens About to Hit the Market
The race is on to come up with the world's thinnest cell phone
screen. Japan's Sharp Corp. and Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp. (AUO)
said that they had developed prototype displays that are less than a mil-
limeter thick.
The Sharp LCD (liquid crystal display) measures 2.2-inches across
the diagonal and is just 0.68 millimeters thick making it the thinnest cell
phone screen in the world, the company said. Coming in just behind in
the AUO screen, which is a 1.9-inch model that is just 0.69 millimeters
thick.
"The screens used in most of today's phones are on-average
between 1.5 millimeters and 2.5 millimeters thick. So, the new Sharp
screen is significantly thinner," said Miyuki Nakayama, a spokeswoman
for Sharp in Tokyo.
Sharp is coy about just how it managed to reduce the thickness but
said innovations lay in two major areas: improvements in production
International
Ericsson Dives on Profit
Warning as Clouds Loom
over Sector
Ericsson saw its share
price slashed by a third
after the world's leading
mobile networks maker
said its third quarter earn-
ings would be lower than
expected, confirming a
slowdown in the networks
sector amid rising compe-
tition from Asia.
Ericsson saw more than 100 billion kronor (15 billion dollars, 11
billion euros) go up in smoke when its share value slumped by 29
percent to 18.76 kronor on the Stockholm stock exchange. The
slump also hit other telecom equipment makers such as Nokia
Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent. Ericsson's profit warning was due to a
slowdown in investments in mobile network expansions.
"The unexpected development in the quarter is mainly due to a
shortfall in sales in mobile network upgrades and expansions
which resulted in an unfavourable business mix that also negative-
ly affected group margins," chief executive Carl Henric Svanberg
said. "All other businesses performed as expected," he said in a
statement.
The world's leading telecom equipment makers are facing
increasingly stiff competition, notably from Asian companies such
as China's Huawei, which is putting pressure on margins. "The
industry is facing price pressure for infrastructure orders. At the
same time, the expansion or upgrade market is quite weak.
Overall, the network market is highly competitive," said Jari Honko,
analyst at eQ Bank. Ericsson said it now expected sales of 43.5
billion kronor (6.76 billion dollars, 4.76 billion euros), operating
income of 5.6 billion kronor (871 million dollars, 613 million euros)
and negative cash flow of 1.6 billion kronor (249 million dollars,
175 million euros) in the quarter.

Visitors enjoy playing Sony Computer Entertainment's latest driving video game
"Gran Turismo 5", with a Nissan Skyline GTR sports car in the display, which was
unveiled at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, suburban Tokyo.
technology that enable the use of thinner glass sheet and a reduction in
the thickness of the backlight that sits behind the screen.
Thinner cell phone screens are good news for consumers because
they allow phone makers to either produce slimmer phones or to pack
more technology into the same size space. Some recent models of cell
phone have been getting larger in-part because of the addition of new
features like digital TV tuners and smartcards.
However there is no word from Sharp on when the screen might
start appearing in cell phones. The company is currently in talks with
cell phone makers and has not decided when it will start production,
said Nakayama.

95
 International

King Lays Foundation Stone for KAUST

The Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques, King Abdullah bin
Abdulaziz laid the foundation stone
for the project of King Abdullah
University for Sciences and
Technology (KAUST) at Thuwal, 80
kms north of Jeddah.
On arrival at the venue, the King
was welcomed by Crown Prince
Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the Deputy
Premier, Defense and Aviation
Minister and Inspector General,
Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, the
Governor of Makkah region, other
princes and senior officials.
Speaking on the occasion, King
Abdullah said "In line with the eter-
nal principles of Islam which advo-
cate science and knowledge and
development of the earth, after
depending on Allah Almighty, we
would like to announce the estab-
lishment of King Abdullah University
for Sciences and Technology
(KAUST)."
"We hope that it will become a
center for knowledge and a bridge
for enhancing contacts among the
civilizations and nations. We also
hope it will perform its noble human-
itarian mission in a clear atmos-
phere with the help of Allah Almighty
and the enlightened people from all
places without differentiation or dis-
tinction," The King said.
"In line with the traditions of the
educational institutions in the ages of
the glorious Arab and Islamic civiliza-
tion, we have established an endow-
ment to spend its revenues on the
university. We are only looking for
pleasing Allah Almighty as well as
benefiting the citizens in this dear
country, the cradle of Islam, as well
as benefiting the entire humanity. I
pray to Allah Almighty to make this
university a house of wisdom and
forum for scientists and a center
which diffuses knowledge for the
coming generations." The King
added.
KAUST is being developed as an
international, graduate-level
research university dedicated to
inspiring a new age of scientific
achievement in the Kingdom.
KAUST is the realization of the
decades-long vision of King
Abdullah, who wants to improve
Saudi Arabia's education standard to
reach world-class levels.
KAUST's core campus covers
more than 36 million square meters
in Thuwal on the Red Sea coast.
The university is set to transform
Thuwal into a global city. Thuwal, a
fishing village, was famous in the
past for being the abode of the Harb
tribe in the Hijaz.

Saudi King Abdullah (L) and Saudi Petroleum Minister Ali al-Naimi (R) attend the
ground breaking ceremony of the King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, 80kms north of Jeddah.

Alcatel-Lucent built NGN for WANA

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris network to cover all of Morocco,
and NYSE: ALU) announced that responsible for not only deploying
the next generation network it the entire NGN Core network, but
constructed for WANA, a also acting as the prime integrator of
Moroccan service provider, now the entire network. This included
has more than one million sub- definition of the business-to-busi-
scribers, which makes it one of ness and business-to-consumer
the largest class 5 NGN networks services and the construction and
in the world. The service grew at preparation of sites in all regions of
a steady pace, adding 700,000 Morocco.
subscribers in a mere five months "The integration role was critical
and exceeds all expectations. for a network such as WANA's due
According to Karim Zaz, CEO to the complete heterogeneity of the
of WANA, "It was challenging to network and with numerous suppli-
start as a third operator with two ers whom we had to integrate. We
strong operators, which had a successfully managed the tremen-
60% mobile penetration rate, but dous take up they experienced, with
only a 4% fixed penetration rate. more than 400,000 new subscribers
Alcatel-Lucent was able to build a Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent SA Chief Executive Patricia Russo, in less than 2 months and a traffic
very complex greenfield network, right, listens to the chairman of the company Serge Tchuruk during the shareholder assem- three times higher than initially
bly in Paris.
managing numerous suppliers expected," said Olivier Picard, pres-
and partners in only ten months. Alcatel-Lucent's solutions and support ident of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in Europe and South.
allowed us to acquire more than one million subscribers in a short peri- The network features an Alcatel-Lucent NGN core, consisting of
od of time." Media Gateway Controllers, a SIP Core soft switch and the associated
Alcatel-Lucent has been WANA's main partner in constructing the application server, Session Border Controllers and Media Gateways.

Motorola's Q3 Profit Plunged

Motorola Inc. a wireless technology company, has said that its handsets. It said its new RAZR 2
profit plunged in the third quarter, as sales fell substantially in its phone shipped 900,000 units in the
mobile phone business. Motorola posted profit of $60 million quarter.
(euro42.16 million), or 3 cents per share, compared with a year-earli- For the fourth quarter, the com-
er profit of $968 million, or 39 cents per share. On a continuing oper- pany forecast earnings from continu-
ations basis, the company said it earned 2 cents per share, including ing operations of 12 cents to 14
4 cents per share in charges for layoffs and asset write-downs. cents per share, excluding one-time
Sales fell to $8.81 billion (euro6.19 billion) from $10.6 billion a items. Analysts polled by Thomson
year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial on average Financial on average expect earn-
expected profit of 4 cents per share, excluding items, on sales of ings per share of 10 cents for the
$8.81 billion. Motorola said sales in its mobile devices segment fell fourth quarter.

96 36 percent. The company has struggled recently to produce popular

Global Microcontroller Prices Slow Take-up of Digitalisation in
Edging Lower India
Global prices for microcontroller chips are likely to dip by "a
couple of percent" in 2008 due to fierce competition and pricing
pressure, a senior executive at Japan's NEC Electronics Corp said
in a statement.
The chipmaker also sees the microcontroller (MCU) market
growing 7 to 8 percent in 2008, with growth tapering slightly in
2009, Shige Ishikawa, microcomputer division general manager,
said in an interview.
NEC Electronics, which recently opened a development centre
in Chengdu, Sichuan province in western China, also hopes to
expand its share of China's MCU market to over 10 percent by
2009, compared to 5-6 percent now. "We are targeting more than a
two-digit number. Hopefully we will achieve that in 2009," Ishikawa
said, who was attending
the China High Tech
Fair, held in the coun-
try's southern boomtown
of Shenzhen.
The global consumer
MCU market was worth around 30.5 billion yuan ($4.06 billion) in
2006, according to Beijing-based market research firm CCID
Consulting, with China accounting for about half of that market.
China's consumer MCU market will be worth 17.92 billion yuan
and 21.37 billion yuan in 2007 and 2008, CCID said. Analysts
expect chip sales in China to rise due to rapidly growing demand
for semiconductors used in air conditioners and car electronics.
NEC Electronics said in August it hoped its Chengdu office
would help double its sales in mainland China to 100 billion yen by
2010, from 50 billion yen last year. NEC Electronics posted a net
loss of 1.33 billion yen ($11.31 million) for April-June, and is fore-
casting a 15 billion yen net loss for the year to next March.

Managing Director for Sony India Masaru Tamagawa (C) along with models poses
during the launch of the New Sony Bravia LCD television in New Delhi. The Bravia
range is available in India at a cost of INR 27,990 (USD 709.4) to INR 399,900 (USD
10,135.5).
House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn.,
holds up a NASA report as he asks a question of NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
during the committee's hearing investigating a NASA aviation and safety report, on
Capitol Hill in Washington.
International
The India Digital Networks Summit, now in its third year, recently held in
New Delhi, was supported by both the Ministry of Information &
Broadcasting and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, for the discus-
sion of regulation, TV channel proliferation and fragmentation, CAS, DTH,
broadband, investment, and expansion strategies.
At the summit, industry leaders debated the future of digital cable in
India's next phase of media development. Even as digital cable is seeing
slow growth, IPTV is still facing tough challenges and private telecom opera-
tors have been slow to implement operations.
It was pointed out that, for IPTV to take off, local loop unbundling has to
happen. The technology works on copper and it is the responsibility of the
state-owned BSNL and MTNL to open up the local loop for the private play-
ers.
Speaking at the occasion 'Delivering Digital's cutting edge,' Hathway
Cable & Datacom CEO K Jayaraman said that the unbundling of channels by
the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for non-CAS areas would
not be a big catalyst to drive voluntary digitalisation.
He added that digitalisation needs investment and there is capital scarcity.
Vendors have to support cable networks with long-term payment cycles, like
has happened in the telecom sector. The regulator was requested to offer
clarity and the technology was stressed to be tested on wireless.

Ipod Discovery Earns Nobel Prize
for Scientists
Two scientists, whose work made the
iPod possible, have been recognised for
their achievements by being awarded the
Nobel Prize for Physics.
France's Albert Fert and German Peter
Gruenberg won the 2007 award for a discov-
ery that has shrunk the size of hard disks
found in computers, iPods and other digital
devices.
The duo discovered a new physical effect
that has let the computer industry develop
sensitive reading tools for information stored
on computer hard drives from the tiniest lap-
tops to feature-rich portable music and video
players. "The MP3 and iPod industry would
not have existed without this discovery," said
Borje Johansson, a member of the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences. "You would
not have an iPod without this effect."
The academy said that the discovery can
also be considered "one of the first real
applications of the promising field of nan-
otechnology," the science dedicated to build-
ing materials from the molecular level.
The award is also the first time since 1999 that no American has won the
physics prize. Phil Schewe, a physicist and spokesman for the American
Institute of Physics, said this year's prize honoured "a terrific combination of
great physics and huge practical application.
In 1988, the two scientists independently discovered the physical effect
known as giant magnetoresistance, or GMR. In this effect, very weak
changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance.
Speaking to reporters in Germany, Gruenberg was delighted but said he
wasn't surprised. "Because I have received a lot of awards, I was often
asked: 'When will the big award come?"' he said.

China's Lenovo Group Ltd. Chairman Yang Yuanqing announces the company's quarterly results
at a press conference, in Hong Kong. Lenovo Group, the world's No. 3 personal computer
maker’s profits in the last quarter jumped 177 percent as it gained market share following a 97
restructuring.
 International

Orascom Telecom and Alcatel-Lucent

Celebrate 10 years of Cooperation
Orascom Telecom and Alcatel-Lucent celebrated 10 years of cooperation in a festive event, took place at
Manial Palace in Cairo. The two companies have cooperated together in various countries in Africa, the
Middle East, Europe and South Asia. Starting with the launch of the first GSM network in Cairo-Egypt in
1998, Alcatel-Lucent and Orascom Telecom have worked together to advance telecommunications in the
Middle East and worldwide to serve "61 plus" million subscribers.
Leveraging on Alcatel-Lucent leadership and worldwide expertise in telecommunications, Alcatel-Lucent
and Orascom will continue to work together for the development of latest technologies that will offer their
customers a seamless and integrated broadband user-centric experience across all devices and platforms.
Both the companies are enjoying a more than a supplier/vendor relationship - a true long-term strategic
partnership. They started their partnership in 1998 with the inception of Mobinil in Egypt and are now work-
ing together in Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Italy and Greece
Alcatel-Lucent has been Orascom Telecom's strategic partner since the very beginning of their activities,
and has greatly contributed to their development in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Today, Alcatel-Lucent is Orascom Telecom's largest supplier in its major markets, providing legacy core
network and value-added services in Algeria, Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan, and is its main radio access Naguib Sawiris, Chairman & CEO,
provider in Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, with a significant and growing market share in Pakistan. Alcatel- Orascom Telecom Holding and
Vincenzo Nesci, Chairman of Alcatel Egypt
Lucent also supplies Orascom Telecom with transmission equipment in Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Egypt and and Group Vice-President for the Middle East,
Pakistan.
Alcatel

Mobile Users don't Hate Spam

says Survey
About one-third of mobile users don't
seem to mind receiving spam on their
phone and nearly two-thirds of mobile
users are fed up with mobile phone spam,
found a survey, which was commissioned
by marketing company Pontis.
According to Pontis, mobile operators
are "failing to capture the imagination of
the baby boomer generation," although
the survey shows that 72 percent of younger people, from teenagers to 34-
year-olds, are irritated by mobile spam. Within this same age group, 47
percent of mobile users were willing to change operators. The survey was
conducted over the telephone and 752 mobile phone users aged 16+ were
Boys play computer games in an internet cafe in Baghdad.
interviewed in the UK across a range of ages.
This is roughly in-line with people's attitudes towards earthbound email
spam, which have changed in recent years. A survey, commissioned by
TACD and produced by European Research into Consumer Affairs in 2003,
found that a full 95 percent of users said that either they hated spam or
that it annoyed them.
However, a survey published in May 2007 by Pew Internet found that,
while users are receiving more spam, it bothers them less. It found that
users also report less exposure to pornographic spam, which is the most
offensive type of unsolicited email. Spam has not become a significant
deterrent to the use of email, as some observers speculated it might when
unsolicited email first began flooding users' inboxes several years ago.

Cisco to spend $16B in China

Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers announced to
invest $16 billion in China for manufacturing, investment and educational
programs. That includes a $17.5 million investment in Alibaba.com
Group as part of its initial public offering in Hong Kong, along with a
Photo shows a woman examining a mask-part used in wafer conception- at a show room
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with that company to develop of the 12-inch United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) factory in Tainan, southern Taiwan.
technology for small and medium-sized businesses in China and else- United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) said its net profit rose 88 percent in the third
where. quarter to 9.23 billion Taiwan dollars (283 million USD) from the previous three month
Chambers said that Cisco will double its manufacturing in China, a period.
move worth approximately $14 billion, based on the $7 billion Cisco pur-
chased from China over the past five years. The company has great
influence over where its suppliers manufacture, and many would be
directed to do so in China.
The company will inject $350 million into start-up investments and
provide up to $400 million in customer financing via Cisco Systems
Capital China, Cisco said.
It will also open another 300 of its Networking Academies to train
100,000 students on networking technology, as part of an MOU with the
Ministry of Education, under which it will also donate $6 million in net-
working equipment.
Missing from Chambers' speech was any expansion of Cisco's
aggressive acquisition strategy to China. "We don't acquire competitors,"
he said, seeming to rule out a move for China-based rival Huawei
Technologies. "We acquire to move into new areas." That strategy Cisco Systems Chief Executive Officer John Chambers (R) and
98 China's Alibaba.com chairman Jack Ma offer a toast during an event
included the $3.2 billion purchase of WebEx in March.
in Beijing