3G and Kemari
They say that the conductor of “4K” buses in Karachi shouts “Kemari, Kemari” even when he is sleeping ! I am a conductor too and I am gonna continue calling for “3G, 3G”. Someone has to tell me if this is what I say when I am sleeping too.
Everythings is getting a facelift. Yahoo mail getting beta version, Zumbeel getting a new look, Facebook is not the same as it used to be then why not cell phones and telecom companies in Pakistan? Not appropriate, not appropraite ! One should google video or search on youtube advertisments of 3G services and you would see how they market 3G as change. Change reminds of a famous political call for Change.
In US they all are saying “Yes we can Change”, I am not gonna vote for elections cuz I am not American but I like the slogan of “Yes we can change” and I can bring it to Pakistan. I dont want to use Zumbeel as political platform but since I have readers I should ink my message here. My friends ! be political and be tolerant. Most of us dont vote which brings corrupt and tested politicians to power. Its fine that some of you vote for bad reputed political organizations but we all have to be tolerant to other people’s inclinations and respect it, what others are asking is for justice which I think we all deserve. I hope I was softly clear on my message and I hope my readers understood it, lemme come back to topic then.
I was doing some research of what exactly an end customer is getting in Pakistan. There are some companies which are offering ringtone downloads, streaming content, mobile banking etc to operators in Pakistan. I think to make 3G successful in Pakistan we need to get ready with better contents available right from the beginning. So all you content providers, keep reading. You can do realtime high quality streaming advertisments with 3G and you want to hear ideas? Ok … stream new audio release, new commercials, new movie releases. Pakistan has big cities but I wonder why dont we have better mapping contents available still? Its one of the top content that can sweep you fortune. Do we want to wait for Google to do it for Pakistan? No we dont need to. How about i query the server with my start and destination address and server streams me verbal direction. Bring in quality content, technology guarantees quality already…you will get users, they are all there.
I started comparing 3G and Kemari but I could have writtn 3G at Kemari. Yes ! we are ready to dock our 3G vessels at Kemari. Qualcomm is coming to Pakistan in December and we will start from Kemari. Watch out for us !
Lets make better Pakistan. Lets make Paki3Gstan.
16 Responses to “3G and Kemari”
By Shiraz Ahmed on Oct 16, 2008 | Reply
Excellent write up…you write very well Mr. Umair..
keep up the good work..
By Syed Haris Hassan on Oct 17, 2008 | Reply
Umer bhai, Going through your posts i love your passion for 3G. But it will be great if you can clear the following concerns that most people related to cellular industry generally have back in Pakistan.
Considering that most Pakistanis use their cell phones for voice, call for 3G looks great on paper but practically Pakistan is a long time away from such an expensive technology. A place where average citizens find it hard to meet their ends meet, a place where ARPU is the lowest in the world, ROI on 3G is still a question mark. With the economic meltdown worldwide 3G investment in Paksitan can be dicey. The political situation is not also great for such massive investment. I agree with Yes we can Change mantra but that change seems to be at a distant journey, just as the boats of kemari are from the place where the persi-dent resides
Haris
By Umair Syed on Oct 17, 2008 | Reply
Very genuine concerns Haris. 3G been rated expensive mostly because of billions of dollars spectrum auctions in europe. Our authorities will like to get handsome money for 3G spectrum too and likely will be more than 291 million GSM spectrum.
Here is the thing Haris. When I got back pain, I saw chiropractor, he put massage machine at my back to simulate my muscles around spine. 1 treatment and I feel good again. When things are going bad, ARPUs are low, someone has to simulate the market. 3G can simulate the market now giving more to customers than just voice. I am pretty sure 3G will instantly become service of choice for a certain class of users (richer class), but that will not drastically increase ARPU for the operator. For that operators have to be smart to bring the 3G services to common man, remember that even basic 3G cell phones are today in reach of common man. You tell me how can Operator X beat Operator Y today? lower down call rates or offer new ringtones? May be get exclusive rights to sell certain mobile (not sure if that is happening in Pakistan)
In Brazil based on my experience they designed 3G network based on 2G traffic and when they offered flat rate wireless broadband all the traffic went to slums which they did not expect. Bring in service with reachable rates and make money based on volume.
Political situation in Pakistan is a concern for all of us. We living in foreign world answer about Pakistan every day when people ask us about whats happening in my country. That is why I wrote that we atleast in Telecom industry have to come to a common vision of building Pakistan and not give in to corrupt and tested politicians. We need visionary people who have brought glory to Pakistan and have proven themselves in social and educational sectors. Change is very close Haris, if we are committed.
I think I have a topic to write another blog now
By AHSAN TANVIR on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
dear Umair Syed you are really a conducter becase conducter only knows that to shout for only one thing as u r doing. actually 3G has failed in europe and 4 G has evolved and thats the reason why we all are keen in known OFDM and segmented OFDM, 4 G has arrieved and wimax is introduced by wateen and mobilink and iptv is bieng introduced by ptcl so there is no place for 3G !!
By MisbahUddin Abdullah on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
This certainly is a big news; or rather breaking news! I wonder why it didnt hit the newspapers??
I wonder if Qualcomm is going to acquire Instaphone, which Altimo & SKTEL have found unprofitable; or else go for a brand new setup.
& more importantly, its amazing no investor is ready to go for MVNO,which PTA has allowed ( attracted) for quite some time now; but ready for 3G acquisition? A little strange state of affairs…
By Baqar on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
Well, the things Umair is talking about are very rite. These are the same feelings which every Pakistani has when he is ABROAD (writer is also a foreign graduate), but the internal scenario is totally different. The political situation and economic debacle are all created by us (people of Pakistan).
As far as 3G is concerned, the market is quite immature, because there isnt any basic necessities in the rural of our country which covers more then HALF and v r trying to equip them with latest technology. I think for better and prosper PAKISTAN, v shud try to change the system, and it will change when we change the MENTALITY of our people.
By Muhammad Yaser naqi on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
Revolution:
A revolution and reformation is required in Pakistan in each and every department from top to bottom.
Well for professionals , I just want to say that love your job, don’t hesitate to do any type of work . Try to know the basics and they try to know the system in depth .
In my professional life , I served in Pakistan for 3 years and for the last one year in an American telecom company . I meet with different people with different nationalities , I have seen one thing , the engineers from America, Russia ,china love to do the job. They will work like technicians , they know each and every thing about their systems . They love their job and they don’t hesitate to ask question if they don’t know.
I have seen that we Pakistanis always try to show that we have knowledge but we don’t have ,we hesitate to handle the system ,we get tired after 4,5 hour work, we try to go home and relax . We don’t love our job , that’s why we are behind .May be my point is not accurate but 60% of my judgment is right and on my practical experience.
Yes I love change . But a positive change . Change the thinking of professionals love your work but never say yes to a wrong thing. Always raise your voice for your rights .
Definitely we must encourage and we must try to take competent people to this industry .
But we are even helpless , there are lot of higher level people in this industry , with a knowledge of nothing.
How these people will bring 3G and 4G in Pakistan . The data rates in Pakistan are very low .
Well we all must pray and work for the revolution in Pakistan.
By Arslan Rana on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
nice article.I think it will be good idea to introduce 3g as a capacity solution and as well as a marketing tool.Market has to be created for it first, which i think already exists in the elite cirlces, who are ready to spend money on expensive services….but first excellent marketing with good service would be required.
By Umair Syed on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
@Misbah,
Qualcomm isnt going to acquire anything in Pakistan. You created different possibilities on your own
@Ahsan,
Cheers.
I doubt when you say that 3G has failed in Europe. Europe is leading in HSPA deployments. I wrote in my last blog about Wimax vs UMTS, nevertheless if you followed Australian Wimax experience then may be you had other opinion. The big problem with Wimax still is mobility and what Wateen has introduced is not mobile broadband. The conductor is very confident of what he is shouting
By MisbahUddin Abdullah on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for your timely reply Umair. This makes me believe Qualcomm is coming Pakistan in December to market Qualcomm products?
Th question still lies, if Qualcomm is planning to market their products in December, to whom will they market?
I wonder if PTA is willing to go for 3G without earning from MVNO. & with WaridTel’s unwillingness to go for MVNO, 3G seems a distant thought…………
By AHSAN TANVIR on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
DEAR Umair Syed U are right that mobility is not bieng introduces but keep in mind its not a big issue first understand about ofdm and ofdm then talk, by using qpsk insted of 256 psk we can have mobility but as Syed Haris Hassan said the main issue is in capability of buyer and how can everyone purchase 4 G compatible phones and no doubt 4 G is the future as 3 G was unable to keep up the promises it made just like senior politian of pakistan at present, in europe 3 G gave not more than 1 mbps and during pakistan series at englad matches were broadcast on 3 G mobiles and i m witness to that, we were unable to see anything because of poor quality.
dear Umair Syed study wimax and how it has edge over 3G in fading and delay spread.
By Umair Syed on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
Dear Ahsan,
I am so sorry that I cannot match your knowledge of OFDM but i wonder how modulation scheme can bring mobility in Wimax.
Streaming rates that you are referring to are different than FTP data rates. Then as you might know that every user has subscriber class for different services which effects QoS.
In my first blog i wrote that I myself used HS in Munich. Commercial UEs/datacards supporting 7.2Mbps are available in market. May be you want to read Rizwan Hasan’s blog in which he wrote about his same experience as mine.
I will try to read more about Wimax as per your suggestion but I believe you know about coding, interleaving and power control in CDMA which combats fading besides CDMA itself is spread spectrum technology.
Dear Misbah,
You are too assumptive
Now you have a new thought about December 
I am in no position to comment about MVNO, Warid and PTA. You would be in better position than me to conclude anything on these issues.
By Haroon Qureshi on Oct 22, 2008 | Reply
Interesting debate indeed. I totally agree with Mr. Umair Syed.
Mr. Ahsan, I being myself an advance researcher of OFDM can confirm that OFDM and adaptive OFDM cannot perform under conditions where user is traveling at speed more than 35 miles/hour.
By AHSAN TANVIR on Oct 23, 2008 | Reply
WiMAX another name for OFDM Which u also know, WiMAX applications such as laptop connectivity and other portable devices, while highlighting the value difference between it and existing 3G technologies and WiFi serving the basic/urban mobility market.
OFDM 802.16e highlights the operator’s need for a smooth path to mobility; one that provides a future-proof solution, protects their investment and provides a sound business case. For the operator who is deploying fixed wireless access solutions today, and who wants to offer nomadic or mobile services in the future, OFDM256 is the only choice.
As far as i am concerned i have personally implemented 256 differential transciever whoes video demo is available at http://ahsancomsats.googlepages.com/ so i have studied it.
if 3G was of any use then operators like Mobilink might be giving some respect to that.
Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) is a technology being developed by IEEE 802.20 and is a aimed at wireless mobile broadband for operations from 120 to 350 km/h.
so nothing will happen if we will stick to technologies rejected by the world and with moving world we must also develope our knowledge.
on 10/17/08 Redline Communications Group featured a live demonstration of its RedMAX 4C Mobile WiMAX , The RedMAX 4C, which is based on the WiMAX industry’s 802.16e-2005 standards for mobile WiMAX, supports a wide range of fixed, portable and mobile wireless services including support for Voice and Video over IP, broadband Internet access used to support highly valued education, medical, transportation and municipal applications, VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and other advanced communications services.
Accoding to my knowledge In September 2005 NTT DoCoMo succeeded receive data with 100 megabits per second. This experiment was done in movement; the prototype phones were used to view 32 high definition video streams while traveling with a car the speed of 20 km per hour.
please keep up with changing technologies!!
By Umair Syed on Oct 23, 2008 | Reply
Dear Ahsan,
May be you are not aware of complete picture. I am also very suspicious of your claims when you say that QPSK is cause of mobility and Wimax to be only technology for laptop applications and other portable devices.
As you would know that PTA sold 3.5GHz spectrum used by Wimax but the common and widely used UMTS spectrum of 2.1GHz is not auctioned in Pakistan.
Coming to your news paste of Redline Communications, all new and future technologies can do it and it would be miserable if anyone fails on it.
Good work for yours 256 differential transceiver.
By ahsan tanvir on Nov 7, 2008 | Reply
dear Umair Syed as your knowledge of OFDM is limited so u were unable to understand what i ment to say, i ment that at higer speeds lower order modulation are sucessful so we have lower bit errors and hence less data loss, i never ment that QPSK is a majic which causes mobility
and
obviously i am not a repoter so i can not generate news and i have to deliver u news from some source which i did.