ISLAMABAD: Telenor has been granted a contract worth Rs1.36 billion for providing high speed broadband services in Chaghi and Nushki districts of Balochistan.
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Explore IT and Telecom stories with Pakistan Revenue, your go-to source for the latest updates on Pakistan’s technology and telecom sector. Stay ahead with real-time industry insights and economic developments.
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Ufone awarded Next Generation MS spectrum
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Telecom Company, Ufone has been awarded Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) spectrum by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) as a result of recently held spectrum auction.
The company won the spectrum in a bid to enhance 4G customer experience across the country.
Federal Minister for IT & Telecom, Syed Aminul Haq along with Secretary IT & Telecom, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput, Chairman PTA, Major General Amir Azeem Bajwa (Retd.) HI (M), senior officials from the ministry and PTCL Group attended the event. DG Licensing PTA, Brig. Amer Shahzad (Retd.) and President and Group CEO, PTCL & Ufone, Hatem Bamatraf signed the contract.
The company plans to use the spectrum to introduce new innovative products and services and enhance its customer experience by providing high-quality internet as well as to expand its existing network to unserved and underserved regions of the country.
Sharing his thoughts on spectrum acquisition, President and Group CEO, PTCL & Ufone, Hatem Bamatraf said: “It is a historic day for Ufone, as we have acquired additional 4G Spectrum in order to fully optimize our mobile data services. This will enable us to further enhance our users’ experience, expand the existing network to serve the unserved areas. Improved data experience will enable a digital transformation in education, health care, agriculture, banking and ecommerce ecosystems to name a few.”
“We appreciate Government of Pakistan for executing the spectrum auction process in a seamless and transparent manner”, he further added.
The additional spectrum will enable Ufone to not only connect Pakistanis living in far flung areas without cellular services but will also enable people in urban centers and towns to enjoy new sets of innovative products and unmatched experience.
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Engro Enfrashare signs Rs4.5 billion Islamic financing
KARACHI: Engro Enfrashare, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Engro Corporation, has entered into an Islamic syndicate arrangement amounting to Rs4.5 billion, led by Meezan Bank and Faysal Bank, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.
The proceeds raised through this Islamic syndication would be utilized to finance the development of tower sites for various mobile network operators (MNOs) operating in Pakistan.
As per terms of the financing arrangement, the tenor of the financing will be seven years, including a grace period of two years. The syndicate includes Meezan Bank Limited, Faysal Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan, MCB Islamic Bank and Allied Islamic Bank.
Last month, Engro had announced to enhance its total equity investment in the Telecom Infrastructure Vertical to Rs21.5 billion. The Telecom Infrastructure vertical was setup in 2019 to accelerate the development of connectivity infrastructure in Pakistan, thereby providing an opportunity for the people to be part of the new digital era.
Engro Enfrashare is engaged in the acquisition and construction of shared telecom towers, provision of various telecommunication infrastructure and related services, including state-of-the-art network monitoring solutions.
Since its inception, the Company has now established strong relationships with all MNOs active in Pakistan and is working closely with them to develop build-to-suit (B2S) sites across the country to serve their coverage and capacity requirements.
According to Ghias Khan, President & CEO Engro Corporation: “Engro is committed to expanding its footprint in the Telecom Infrastructure vertical to power Pakistan’s progress in the digital era. With the support of banking partners like Meezan Bank, Engro Enfrashare will continue to work towards its purpose of making connectivity more accessible and affordable for everyone.”
Irfan Siddiqui, Founding President & CEO, Meezan Bank, added that digitization would be a major element driving business success in the era we are entering into.
Meezan Bank being not only the country’s leading Islamic Bank but also the Best Bank in Pakistan, not only understands the significance of telecom infrastructure but also encourages companies to build strong telecom infrastructure that would support their digitization initiatives and enable them to deliver a better customer experience.
A signing ceremony of the agreement was signed at the Head Office of Engro Corporation, in the presence of Ghias Khan (President & CEO, Engro Corporation), Mazhar Hasnani (Chief Financial Officer, Engro Corporation), Faisal Sattar (CEO, Engro Enfrashare), Irfan Siddiqui (President & CEO, Meezan Bank), Ariful Islam (Deputy CEO of Meezan Bank), Yousaf Hussain (President & CEO, Faysal Bank) and other senior representatives of both institutions.
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Ericsson strengthens network services portfolio
KARACHI: Ericsson has strengthened its network services portfolio with the Intelligent Deployment solution – an agile, digital, and modular suite of tools and services that enable communications service providers to roll out, expand, and upgrade networks based on their specific needs and those of their customers, a statement said on Wednesday.
With technology advancing rapidly, networks are becoming more complex and diverse. This places an increasing demand for a network deployment best suited to the needs of service providers, with a quick return on investments and future proof.
With this in mind, Ericsson has redesigned network rollout for the 5G age with Intelligent Deployment. As the building block for optimum network life cycle management, it connects network design, installation, integration, acceptance, maintenance, and services evolution.
The solution comprises enablers such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and a data-driven cloud-based architecture that support different functionalities service providers can use such as Intelligent Site Engineering, Intelligent Integration, and Remote Access.
Intelligent Deployment will deliver the right network at the right time and use network data for continuous development and improvement. Data-driven and digitalized processes allow service providers to make network management decisions quicker and more effectively to meet market and user expectations. The integration of AI will ensure the evolution of the network with the changing times.
Nello Califano, Head of Strategy and Portfolio Management, Ericsson Business Area Networks, says: “With our Intelligent Deployment solution, we are vastly improving the way we deploy networks, making it more agile, flexible, and responsive to customer needs. This means we can deliver parts of our portfolio to service providers based on their specific requirements. We use extensive data insights to offer new services as well as pre-empt problems when introducing intelligent monitoring of the network even after the end of deployment. By investing more in our network services, we create better solutions for our customers.”
The solution includes outcome-based (buying professional services), subscription-based (buying access to standalone capabilities or to the entire offering), or a mix of both as and when needed for the entire intelligent deployment process or specifically for network deployment services.
This enables service providers to secure higher accuracy, transparency, and cost-efficiency from site survey to acceptance, more flexibility change management, and faster time to market.
Intelligent Deployment is built on trust and data integrity, affording service providers an end-to-end information process, guiding the workflow at every stage of their services. At the same time, it will ensure the security and safety of data, providing user-friendly solutions and adopting any legal restrictions of the country where they operate.
In the UK, Vodafone is using Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment solutions to speed up network upgrades. Drones and Lidar-based 3D technology are collecting high-definition imagery and data across 70 sites to deliver more digitalized and efficient network deployment.
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Mobilink Bank, Universal Motors sign financing deal
KARACHI: Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Universal Motors (Private) Limited for financing motor vehicles.
The collaboration will facilitate MMBL Borrowers by allowing them to finance commercial vehicles from Universal Motors through subsidized offerings, according to a statement issued on Monday.
President & CEO MMBL, Ghazanfar Azzam, and Adil Noman, CEO Universal Motors signed the MoU in Islamabad with senior officials from both organizations in presence.
The collaboration will usher in fast-track and priority financing for MMBL borrowers to attain commercial vehicles from Universal Motors for starting or expanding their business operations, under convenient terms.
Following the MoU, MMBL customers will get fast product delivery Turnaround Times (TAT), in addition to the provision of 1S/2S/3S dealership or retailer services by Universal Motors, near MMBL branches across the country to extend after-sale services for borrowers.
Creating further ease for borrowers, the vehicles will be delivered at MMBL branch cities with Universal Motors sharing the registration costs, and offering vehicle delivery from Karachi to the destination city at subsidized transportation rates.
Sharing his thoughts at the signing ceremony, President and CEO MMBL, Ghazanfar Azzam said,” MMBL’s expansive product portfolio has witnessed a significant growth trajectory over the past few years with the introduction of more and more customer-centric products that are aimed at facilitating maximum convenience for empowering our borrowers in true sense.
“This collaboration with Universal Motors will further solidify our aim of promoting hassle-free attainment of commercial vehicles, for business use, which will substantially be backed by quality after-sales services.”
Adil Noman, CEO Universal Motors said, “Our collaboration with MMBL will help us target low-income groups that need financing for our sturdy and dependable JMC commercial vehicles. Universal Motors is introducing special financial incentives and logistical support to fully facilitate MMBL borrowers.
“We are hopeful that our collaboration with MMBL will drive our shared ambition of supplementing the economic development of Pakistan.”
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ITMinds, InfraZamin sign pact for back-office services
KARACHI: InfraZamin Pakistan Limited (InfraZamin) and ITMinds Limited (ITMinds), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDCPL), have signed an agreement enabling ITMinds to provide Back Office Accounting Services to InfraZamin.
The agreement was signed by Ms. Maheen Rahman CEO-InfraZamin, and Iqleem-uz-Zaman Khan CEO-ITMinds in the presence of Badiuddin Akber Director-ITMinds and CEO-CDCPL, Waqas Ashraf CFO- ITMinds, Khusro Iqbal Mumtaz Chief Risk Officer-InfraZamin and other management team members from both sides.
InfraZamin is licensed to act as an investment finance company and is an initiative by the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), including PIDG group companies InfraCo Asia Investments (InfraCo Asia) and GuarantCo Limited (GuarantCo), in partnership with non-profit Karandaaz Pakistan (Karandaaz) to establish a for-profit, credit enhancement facility for raising infrastructure-related debt in Pakistan.
Commenting on the occasion, Ms. Maheen Rahman CEO InfraZamin, said that we look forward to working with IT Minds under this arrangement which will enable the InfraZamin team to focus on our core business function of credit guarantees.
Also commenting on the occasion, Badiuddin Akber, Director ITMinds & CEO-CDCPL, said that considering this is an era of specialization, we have commissioned ITMinds with an aim to enable asset management companies, investment finance companies, and other organizations to outsource their back-office functions to a competent and reliable BPO partner, thus relieving them to focus on their core businesses for their commercial success while achieving efficiency, scalability & transparency of processes.
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Tax rates on usage of phone, internet for 2021-2022
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced the updated rates of withholding tax on the usage of telephone and internet services for the fiscal year 2021-2022.
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Pakistan produces 12.27mn mobile phones in 7 months
ISLAMABAD: The number of locally manufactured mobile phones in Pakistan has surpassed 12 million during seven months (January – July) of 2021.
The local manufacturing of mobile phones has crossed the number of imported mobile phones in the same months of 2021.
A statement issued by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday regarding local production of mobile phones.
It said the production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants was 12.27 million and the number of imported mobile phones was recorded at 8.29 million.
“This trend reflects a positive uptake on PTA’s Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorization regulatory regime whereby local manufacturing within the first year of regime introduction has resulted in production of 12.27 million phones in a short span of seven months including 4.87 million 4G smart phones.”
The PTA said that successful implementation of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DRIBS) along with conducive government policies, including mobile manufacturing policy, has created a favorable environment for mobile manufacturing in Pakistan.
“It has also contributed positively to the mobile ecosystem of Pakistan by eliminating counterfeit device market providing a level playing field for commercial entities and has created trust amongst consumers due to the formulation of standardized legal channels for all sort of device import.”
The PTA said that the government had introduced a comprehensive mobile manufacturing policy to encourage and attract manufacturers to establish their units in Pakistan.
The telecom authority in light of the policy issued Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Regulations on January 28, 2021. “Till now, 26 companies have been issued MDM authorization enabling them to manufacture mobile devices in Pakistan.”
The companies include renowned brands e.g. Samsung, Nokia, Oppo, TECNO, Infinix, Vgotel, Q-mobile etc.
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Engro enhances telecom investment to Rs21.5 billion
KARACHI: Engro Corporation has announced to enhance its total equity investment in the telecom infrastructure vertical to Rs21.5 billion.
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IPS, Inovatian-Asia sign MoU for capacity building
ISLAMABAD: the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad and Inovatian-Asia (Private) Limited have signed an agreement to carry out joint capacity building programs.
Inovatian-Asia (Private) Limited, a sister concern of international technology firm Inovatian Inc. with offices in Canada, UK, USA and Egypt, which was founded by renowned scientist and innovator Dr Hatim Zaghoul.
Zaghloul is known for his inventions, along with his friend Dr Michel Fattouche, of WiFi, WiMax and LTE’s WOFDM and the complex randomization of CDMA2000 and MCDSSS protocols widely used in telecom sector across the world.
The company also specialized in 6G telephony solutions, cyber security, and data solutions.
Naufil Shahrukh, general manager operations of IPS, and Farzana Yaqoob, CEO, Inovatian-Asia signed the MoU during the ceremony.
Khalid Rahman, chairman, IPS, Kashif Siddiqui, director, Inovatian-Asia, Professor Dr Adeel Akram, department of telecommunications, University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Taxila, Shafaq Sarfraz, manager outreach and IPS-LEAD (Learning, Excellence, and Development Program), and other officials of both the organizations were also present.
The MoU aims to foster cooperation between the two organizations to carry out joint capacity-building programs, disseminate research and analysis, foster dialogue among scholars, experts, scientists, and policymakers, and develop indigenous, state-of-the-art ICT (Information and Communication Technology) resources and solutions in Pakistan and the Muslim world.