Everyone has been talking and raving/criticizing/talking about Worldcall’s new EVDO wireless broadband service. Techlahore recently talked about the rival PTCL service that just launched in competition. We had been using the service in my old company for the last 3 months and after using it regularly, I think its time to share the experience of using this product nearly daily in a full review.

First of all, any good wireless broadband service is a Godsend for techies, consultants, generally people on the road. If you travel intercity, then even more so. Worldcall EVDO is very usable though it has some ticks that could make it better. In light of loadshedding and power issues I think a laptop with this dongle attached makes you invulnerable to KESC. That in itself, is something to pay for. Should you pay for this each month instead of your electric bill?  Read on more for the full review. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 100% [?]

Youtube loads up -very slowly- on Worldcall most of the time. I dont know why, but (large) video streams over http  generally on Worldcall cable are very bad. DSL providers do not seem to have this issue. So if 80% of what you do is web video, then you should probably be on DSL

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Maxcom has reduced rates (or increased bandwidth, however you look at it) for all is users. Now everyone’s speed gets doubled, this means that, atleast for me, I now pay Rs 1800/month (At home) for a 512kbps connection and i get 55kb/sec down at all times. Yay! 

New rates here. 

In fairly short time, Maxcom seems to have climbed to the top of the list of many dsl users as the ISP of choice. With Cybernet’s marketing and support in ruins, Maxcom has taken decent marketshare from cyber and others. But competition in the Broadband space is abound now,and with reduces fees to the ISP, this seems to be a way to to keep up with the competition’s attempt to undercut pricing. In my view, for internet access, service reliability and support are more important than price. Which is why I scoff at PTCL and Link dot nets’ cheaper rates (with hidden costs mind you) and stick to Maxcom. One (high) price, but reliable connectivity. Helps me sleep well at night…

Popularity: 11% [?]

I’m sure everyones seen the ho-humm print ads by now introducing Mobilink’s DSL-broadbad venture , Link dot net. Basically, this is link dot net’s structure :

link dot net = (Dancom+WOL) / (Some ex-cybernet management guys)

Feels like spaghetti soup you say? I agree! There isnt much integration and its very visible that this is really a “mash up” made to look like a single entity. After Mobilink’s failed cybernet accquisition bid (many say that was a bad move by Cybernet to not take the offer), Mobilink went out and bought out floundering ISPs like Dancom and WOL, DVcom, injected capital and experienced management and relaunched the services as link dot net.

And :: Bad marketing abound. There are TWO websites. The one i went to is -terrible-. AND its heavy. I need to ask their marketing gurus that if I were looking for a DSL connection for my house, would’nt I probably be on DIALUP?!?! The darn thing doesn’t open on a slow connection. One is link Pakistan and the other is link dot net. I am totally confused but I’ve tried to save you the pain I went through, the rates are here .

Rates are low and 30% cheaper, basically the strategy seems to be to underprice the incumbents. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16% [?]

A few months ago, we lost network connectivity with the rest of the world for a few days, (but we did have backups running). It was frustrating and since then the government and private firms have built up redundant cables/connections so that this does not happen again. However the usual critics went ahead and screamed out that such a thing could only happen in Pakistan.

Well guess what, this time it happened in India. And Egypt, and the whole of the Middle East. Update: Pakistan is affected as well but not as badly. 60% of India’s internet users (cosumers, private firms,etc) were impacted and Verizon said in a statement that they have had customer support issues since their Indian offices went down. (Hmmmm familiar?) As per the New York Times : “Some of our customers were impacted” by the damaged cables on Wednesday morning until the company rerouted traffic, said Linda Laughlin, a spokeswoman for Verizon. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

I think its time to go and get this. Or a WiMax card for my laptop atleast…A few days ago, Wateen launched the largest WiMax network in the world in Pakistan.

The event was covered in everything from Engadget (one of the most popular blogs on the net) to local blogs here (State of telecom) and here(techlahore).

I will keep this post updated as reviews of the service pour in or I get to try it myself…

And below is a live video feed of geeks rejoicing news of  the new fast broadband service when they should be working:

Popularity: 10% [?]

Telenors service is going from bad to worse. Literally. I have been trying to call their service center to activate my GPRS connection for 3 days to no avail - I call from my Telenor sim and get disconnected each time. Instead of paying pop stars millions to feature in their TV ads, Telenor should be doing something to fix their -basic -customer experience and network problems. Ali Zafar, find another commercial contract before people hate you for making them buy lousy cell phone service…!
Apparently, I’m not alone. TechLahore has had terrible problems with his/her subscription to Telenor’s Mobile TV service. My two cents on MobileTV : Its too expensive and I havent seen it the darn thing work on -ANYONE’s- mobile yet.

To be fair, I have 3 sims : Warid, Telenor and Mobilink,and all of them have their quirks and problems, there is no single perfect phone service, but , darn it, Telenors making me jump through too many hoops for basic GPRS service

Popularity: 8% [?]

Being a government-owned monopoly (PTCL) owned by a government-owned monopoly (Etisalat) usually means that you’re free to squash any creativity and competition while searching for even more profit. And even after making Rs 15.6 billion in Profit (yes profit),PTCL is still pushing its own dialup internet services, at the cost of ISPs. Sounds familiar? Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

The NEWS (Jang Group of Papers) website was hacked bright and early Eid day morning(13/10/2007), and looked like this : (** this image contains graphic language, open at your own risk **)

Now, here comes the biting reality…hacks and cyber attacks occur in Pakistan all the time and are here to stay. The defunct e-crime bill will not protect you and your company from a fate suffered by the News, Daily Times and countless others.This is the second documented attack on a news website after the Daily times web attack I covered a few weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]