Ammar-3Sixty!

It’s raging on, the broadband evolution in Pakistan, especially wireless. With Wateen launching the world’s first country-wide deployment of WiMAX last year, an upcoming WiMAX boom was strongly felt in Pakistan.

And here we are, with Mobilink in line with their wireless broadband offering based on WiMAX. Also, PTCL’s smart tv has been launched this August. I will also be giving you a sneak into the soft-launch of WorldCall’s EVDO.

Mobilink Infinity:

This is what they have named their WiMAX version of broadband. Mobilink has been working on its WiMAX deployment for quite some time now and they have started offering service to users based in Karachi. Mobilink Infinity offers a better package than its closest competitor, Wateen. Here is a copy of their tariff:

Mobilink Infinity: Tariff

Mobilink has learned from the mistakes Wateen made, it seems. It was Wateen’s haste that left a bad taste to its subscribers, including me.

Mobilink is offering a 1 Mbps connection at Rs. 1199 per month with no cap on the bandwidth usage. Wateen allows 10GB per month.

Plus, Mobilink has good customer service, which is also a factor if you compare it to Wateen. The Customer Service Reps. at Wateen just never know what they’re doing and what they’re talking about. This gives Mobilink another plus.

Mobilink Infinity also offers VoIP telephony (like Wateen) which has an added plus of free calls to even Mobilink GSM customers.

I personally feel that Mobilink’s Infinity will fare off better than Wateen in the days to come as Wateen users (most of them) are definitely not satisfied with their services.

PTCL Smart TV:

Smart move, PTCL. The company now offers Interactive Television, Broadband Internet and Telephony all on the same line. The package is similar to what is being offered in UAE by Etisalat, UAE’s premier telecom operator which took over control of PTCL some time back.

For those who can afford it at Rs. 1499 per month, the package is very well poised for selection as it gives a serious challenge to the local cable tv wala’s and the cable-net people.

PTCL is offering three packages: 512Kbps at Rs. 1499, 1Mbps at Rs. 2299 and 2Mbps at Rs. 5299 per month.

On the same line, they say! LoL! Give me a line please! I’ve been waiting for a land-line of mine for a year now and still no luck.

The catch: What people should wait and see is the catch they have used in UAE, that is, channels are available on package basis. With time, it is possible that we will have to pay an extra fee for some channels that are not made available on the standard package.

WorldCall EVDO:

Evolution Data Optimized. Another wireless broadband service. Worldcall has made a soft-launching of their new product, WorldCall EVDO. On a small plug and play USB modem, you can browse the internet freely anytime, anywhere in Karachi.

The company claims it can give its users a download speed of upto 3.1Mbps and an uplink of upto 1.8Mbps.

How internet users in Karachi will react to this little plug-and-play service is yet to be observed.

The wireless industry in Pakistan is booming, apparently. I hope these companies meet success and continue their efforts in the evolution of telecommunication technologies in Pakistan. The multi-billion dollar industry in Pakistan today is one of Pakistan’s strong economic backbones and the credit goes to the policies of President Pervez Musharraf, whether we like him or not.

We eagerly wait for the PTA to roll out 3G licenses and see what the telecom sector has in store for us over the next year or so.