Signals

Pakistan’s top national songs would surely list Nusrat Fateh Ali’s ‘Pakistan Pakistan’ but how about the Pakistani telecom industry now start singing ‘Paki3Gstan Paki3Gstan’, i think this is one of the best things that we can offer to homeland now.I am advocating for 3G not because of my associated with Qualcomm but its because Pakistan has to keep up the lead in technology deployment atleast in her region. We had earliest deployment of Fiber optics network in the region, first nation wide Wimax network in the whole world then why shouldn’t we go for a 3G network ahead of our neighbors. I was having lunch in PTA mess when I heard directors saying that WLL CDMA in India was a flop and they were not going to implement that model in Pakistan. I fail to understand how can you expect best of any system design after trimming its gains. How does this sound if I say that lets test Airbus 380 flight with fokker wings?

I have been very upbeat about any news UMTS news for Pakistan, it all started coming in news since 2004 but we all still have to see some concrete step taken. I sent an email to colleagues in Qualcomm that inshAllah Pakistan will embrace 3G in late 2007 and I got a reply that 3G is already in Pakistan. Well I agree with him that Pakistan has 3G CDMA commercial networks but i wonder if Pakistanis have actually seen what 3G is. Back in late 2006, i was thrilled using HSDPA 2Mbps on roads of Munich and when I switched to my GPRS connection at night at hotel I simply could not bear it, i stopped checking my emails and waited for early morning office ride next day. High downlink speeds of 7.2 Mbos at full mobility is what is offered in markets today. Hongkong has taxis which offer HSDPA and that is taxi service differentiator there.

So what Pakistanis will actually taste with 3G. I have been planning networks for operators in South America and everyone plans network based on video call assumptions since it is a service differentiator. In Pakistan, all the operators are horn locked bringing down the call rates but i wonder how low can they go. Alas they will look to have services offered which bring a change to their brand name. What is better than watching your loved ones on phone ! My maa can only talk to me whenever she wants but after 3G she can actually see me on phone. My Italian colleague told me that his family back in Italy actually saw his daughter born in Germany via a video call. Now you can think any possibility and start marketing it. I am a very confused shopper and I always like to have suggestions on what I buy and the best always comes from my maa but she cant spend hours with me going shop to shop. How about I video call my maa and show her the 3 shortlisted shirts and make a final decision. Operators can market video call feature for shopping frenzy girls and let them enjoy taking suggestion from friends when they buy anything, I am pretty sure they want to own stuff liked by their friends.

For business professionals, high speed mobility is the key ! Think of life with x386 laptop installed with today’s memory hungry platforms and applications. This is a disaster for tech savy individuals. As we see newer applications coming for cell phones we need high speed networks. At work here we try to forecast what industry would need in an year or so and start working on it before the masses start demanding from us. Some things are inevitable and 3G is one of them for Pakistani telecom. I was reading blog of Rizwan Hasan in which he also wrote that HSPA modem has exceeded all expectations and operators are trying to manage high HS traffic. From my experience in South America, 3G networks are carrying high data traffic and minimal voice users.

From network perspective everyone knows that frequency bands in Pakistan are now clogged. We need new bands or more spectral efficient technology in our existing bands to facilitate increasing demand. Who can come to rescue, offcourse 3G ! Get high speed data and voice users in spectrally efficient UMTS band. I dont want to get into debate of Wimax VS UMTS but the most sensible way to move ahead right now is to compliment GSM networks with defined family evolution into UMTS and leverage from lessons learned by commercial networks around the world.

Lets build Paki3Gstan ! Lets build a better Pakistan.