Telecom

Nepal Telecom, a service provider of prepaid and postpaid PSTN, ISDN, CDMA, and cellular mobile phones in Nepal. plans to expand its mobile phone services to the top of Mount Everest, benefitting climbers on the world's highest mountain, a company official said on Thursday.

Hundreds of climbers, who go to the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) Mount Everest every year, depend on expensive satellite phones to speak with their families as the remote Himalayan region does not have communication facilities.

"We are going to set up mobile towers in Thakdin, Manjo, Pheriche and Gorak Shep, which will bring the summit of Mount Everest within the network coverage," Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, director of the satellite service wing of Nepal Telecom, said.

What is WiMax?

WiMAX meaning Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is a telecommunications technology that provides for the wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes.

In 2002 WiMAX was identified by Intel as an alternative or complement to the wireless broadband. Eventually Motorola and Intel became its biggest champions.

It’s a relatively new standards-based wireless technology which is intended for large coverage areas on the order of several kilometers (instead of a few hundred meters, as is the case with Wi-Fi).

PAKISTAN TELECOM SECTOR

The government has planned to present a consolidated telecom policy in early 2009, the two policies of telecom sector namely, mobile and fixed line would expire this year and the third telecom policy relating to Broadband would expire in 2009. The government has also planned to increase software exports up to $5 billion by the end of 2010. The current level of software export was about $50 million per annum.

The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) released the 'WEF Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008'. The report ranks Pakistan 89th out of 127 countries in terms of nation's preparedness to effectively promote business, improve investment climate and develop infrastructure.

Due to levy of sales tax on computers and related accessories in the 2006-07 budget, the total import of PCs and servers in the country was 630,000 units, which dropped to 149,000 units at the end of 2007, thus registering a decline of 40 percent.

PAKISTAN TELECOMMUNICATION AUTHORITY

Chairman PTA said that the process of awarding the licenses would be completed by the end of this year. He also said that Mobile banking and mobile commerce would be next step in telecom. The first International Mobile Commerce Conference in Karachi organized by PTA and Total

Communications. PTA has directed the Callmate Telecom Company Limited to clear half of Rs 132 million dues within six months otherwise its license will be terminated. The total payable dues are Rs 132,996,701 against the company.

Telenor Pakistan is the fastest growing mobile operator in Pakistan and represents the largest Foreign Direct Investment in the country from Europe, in any industry, ever. The company is the first Greenfield mobile operation outside of Norway by Telenor ASA, the parent group, with an investment of USD 2 billion to date. Increased competition from international operators like Telenor, within an investor-friendly and stable regulatory environment provided by GOP, has been a major driver of growth and productivity in Pakistan’s economy, and has brought down end-user prices to among the lowest in the world.

Telenor ASA is an international provider of high quality telecommunications, data and media communication services. It ranks as one of the biggest GSM service providers in the world with over 153 million subscribers. It is also the largest provider of TV services in the Nordic region. It ranks as No. 25 overall and No.5 in Europe in Business Week's global ranking of the top 100 performers in the technology industry. The Group is recognized as the best Mobile Telecom company in the world by the Sustainability Yearbook 2008 and as the No.1 mobile operator on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) 2007.

Since its launch of services in March 2005, Telenor Pakistan has exceeded all expectations: It has created the second largest mobile network and the largest and most advanced data network in the local market, turned into the second highest revenue-generating mobile player with the highest Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in the market, and become the second largest mobile player in the market with 18 million active subscriptions in little more than 3 years of operations. During the first half of 2008, Telenor Pakistan added 3.24 million subscriptions against the industry average of 1.63 million, taking 33% of the market share of net additions over the period – the highest in the mobile sector in Pakistan.