Gmail Priority Box Predicts and Sorts Your Important Emails

If you get hundreds of emails, or even thousands of them, Gmail Priority Inbox is going to be a heaven’s choice for you.

Google has today enabled this feature called “Gmail Priority Inbox” that sorts important messages for you based on various factors, including but not limited to:

• keywords,
• the people you e-mail the most
• your e-mail habits to select the most pressing e-mails in your inbox
• and so on!

Those e-mails are brought to the top of your inbox and are marked as important so you deal with them first.

LG Launches Andriod-Powered Optimus Smartphone

LG Electronics recently announced the launch of an Android-powered smartphone, LG Optimus (LG GT540), a handset offering an optimal environment for first-time smartphone users with easy and convenient mobile access.

LG Optimus allows users to enjoy diverse Android applications and automatic account synchronization with all Google mobile services. LG Optimus also features enhanced social networking functions in a high-powered multimedia environment.

Broadband Subscribers Hit 0.9 Million Mark

At the end of fiscal year 2009-2010 broadband Internet users in Pakistan have reached 900,648 and are expected to cross 1 million mark by the end of August 2010.

In its detailed stats made exclusively available to ProPakistani, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said that Internet Service Providers added a total of 39,948 subscribers in June 2010 compared to 43,893 subscribers in May 2010.

Broadband growth rate has leaned down in previous three months but if history repeats itself, growth rate is expected to shoot up in coming months due to slashed rates.

Broadband penetration in the country reached at 0.52% at the end of April 2010 from 0.26% a year ago, showing 100 percent more penetration in one fiscal year.

Free Call After 2 Minutes: Djuice

Following the footprints of Ufone, now Djuice is offering free call for FnF and on-net numbers after first two minutes. Offer can be subscribed at Rs. 4 plus tax for three days.

How to Subscribe:

Simply dial *345*120# to activate djuice boltay jao offer

Subscription Charges:

Rs. 4 + tax – Validity is three days, subscriber will have to re-subscribe after three to avail the offer

TSF Deploys Free Phones in Flood Hit Areas

The telecoms emergency aid charity,Telecoms sans Frontieres (TSF) says that it has now set up eight centres in Pakistan to assist aid agencies with communications services and help stranded locals phone relatives to assure them of their situation.

Zong’s Free Phone Allows Flood Victims to Call for Help

Zong has given free handsets, SIMs & EDGE Dongles to International Organization for Migration (IOM) to provide free phone service to flood victims to get vital information, seek help and access relief services offered by the government and other aid agencies.

IOM is using these handsets and SIMs to establish free calling booths at the relief camps in flood affected areas of the country. On its part ZONG will not be charging these calls, in flood affected areas so that people can get in touch with their families in other parts of the country.

Each phone has a pre-paid SIM card with 800 free minutes a day for at least two months. Collectively, the hundred phones can make slightly over a million calls.

Regional Telcos Slash Call Rates, Set up Funds to Help Pakistani Floods

Etisalat (UAE), DU (UAE) and Mobily (Saudi Arabia) have slashed call rates so that their customers can make phone calls to check the safety of their loved ones. The heavily discounted rate is available for calling Pakistan during August 2010.

Etisalat is offering 99 fils/min rate, giving Wasel prepaid customers the chance to call their friends and families with over 60% discount on calls made to Pakistan.

Telecom Sector Suffered Rs. 1.8 Billion Loss in Floods

The telecom sector of the country has suffered Rs. 1.87 billion losses to its infrastructure and equipment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan because of the massive floods while the damage in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan could be much more than that, said official source in a statement.

As per initial estimates of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, most of the losses had been suffered by companies using fiber optic cables, followed by cellular companies whose cell sites had been damaged.

According to an IT ministry report, Multinet had suffered a loss of Rs. 600 million and its cables system in Koh Suleman to D.I. Khan had been damaged.

The PTCL suffered a loss of Rs. 164 million after its installations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were damaged.

ITU Appeals Global Assistance for Pakistani Floods

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré has issued a global appeal for contributions to assist the flood-affected victims in Pakistan. ITU’s emergency telecommunications team is also working with the Government of Pakistan towards rehabilitating the telecommunication infrastructure, which has been rendered inoperative in many parts of the country.

The floods ravaging Pakistan are the worst ever in living memory. Over 15 million people have been displaced and vast tracts of fertile agricultural land have been inundated, with many facing the prospect of a continuing battle with water-borne diseases and malnutrition. The livelihoods of several millions have been affected with severe long-term repercussions on the economic and social life of the country.

Wateen Allows Open Access to Its Customers’ Private Info

Wateen Telecom, through its Self Care, is offering its customers to know their latest account status along with a facility to recharge their accounts, but the alarming thing is that system neither asks for any password nor system generated user name; instead all customer’s private information is revealed by just submitting random names.

RHC Decides to Secure PTCL Offices from Protesters

Deciding a petition filed by PTCL to uphold the decision of Chairman NIRC to secure the assets and properties of PTCL from protesting employees, High Court Pindi Bench has accepted PTCL’s request and has directed the law enforcing agencies to positively implement the orders of NIRC for keeping the protesters 500 yards away from PTCL installations/Offices.

The Honorable Court has also directed to ensure the smooth working of PTCL and adopt all coercive measures for the maintenance of Public Order and to curb any illegal activities.

Mobilink Jazz Announces Rs. 1 Crore Winner

Bilal Munir Sheikh, Vice President Marketing, Mobilink presents cheque of Rs 1 Crore to Bumper Prize Winner of Jazz Super SMS Khazana initiative

Mobilink has announced the winner of Rs. 1 Crore bumper prize of the Jazz Super SMS Khanzana campaign, a trivia-based contest that provided Mobilink customers the opportunity to win high-valued cash-prizes on daily, weekly and instant-win basis.

This campaign concluded with the announcement of the final Bumper Prize winner of Rs. 10,000,000.

Bilal Munir Sheikh, Vice-President Marketing, Mobilink presented the cheque of Rs. 1 Crore to Muhammad Saleem, the fortunate winner from Pattoki at the Jazz Super SMS Khazana prize distribution ceremony held at Mobilink House, Islamabad.

KASB Bank Automates its Reporting Chart of Accounts system

KASB Bank has automated its State Bank reporting structure by agreeing to implement a state of the art application designed by Ora-Tech Systems (Pvt) Ltd, one of Pakistan’s leading IT companies.

The application, which is expected to be up and running in about three months is best known as OTS RCOA (Ora-Tech Systems – Reporting Chart of Accounts System).

The software is designed to connect with the Banks Core Systems and Database to extract the required information for State Bank reporting without interfering with KASB Bank’s day to day activity. These reports can be provided to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) with minimal user intervention with the provision to retrieve historical reports on demand.

Orascom Campaigns to Raise Funds for Pakistani Floods

Orascom Telecom, the parent company of Mobilink, is leading a fundraising campaign in its native Egypt for Pakistani flood victims, trying to capitalize on the spirit of charity and giving during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In a one-page advertisement in the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, the Cairo-based company appeals to Egyptians to join the international community in supporting the flood victims, particularly during Ramadan.

ISPs and PTCL Customers Bear the Brunt of Strikes

PTCL customers who were already suffering from worst possible sale and after support facilities at PTCL are left in middle of nowhere during ongoing employees’ PTCL employees’ strike  against the management for not increasing their salaries in accordance with the government decision.

Country wide lock-down of PTCL exchanges has resulted into a complete shut-down of after sale and support services for voice, IPTV, broadband, Wireless Internet and Dial-up.

Not a single voice or data related complain has been addressed during the strike.

Effected customers include the DSL base of other ISPs due to no activity at PTCL exchanges. Hence,

• No new DSL connection is possible
• Repair work of DSL lines is impossible
• Changing of ISP for a customer during strikes is impossible

PTCL Union says Peaceful Protest is their Right

PTCL Union leaders Malik Maqbool, Hammad Qureshi and Rana Hasan said that the Workers Unions leaders and PTCL management are bound to hold talks on workers’ demands as per the Lahore High Court order.  Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has no right to impede the salaries of 26,000 workers, and they have full right of peaceful protest for their demands.  Such Action of PTCL would be strongly condemned by the court.

Acer Appoints Adnan Siddiqui as Brand Ambassador for Acer Pakistan

Zahid Mahmood, Country Sales Manager for Acer Pakistan presenting an Acer notebook to Adnan at the signing ceremony.

Actor Adnan Siddiqui is considered as a country’s top talented person after his Hollywood movie with Angelina Jolie.  Adnan Siddique is recently appointed as Acer’s Brand Ambassador in Pakistan.

Elaborating on the relationship of Adnan Siddiqui with Acer, Zahid Mahmood, Country Sales Manager, Acer Pakistan said that, “Adnan is a key figure in Pakistan’s glamour arena and enjoys a very strong fan following, especially the youth.”Al-Riaz Green Systems, Acer’s new sales partner, is very happy over this new bond with Adnan Siddiqui.

Senate Body Directs PTA to Take Strict Action Against Grey Traffic

The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology on Thursday directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to take strict action against gray trafficking and officials involved in it.In the meeting Senate Body’s Chairman Senator Muhammad Idrees Khan Safi was of the view that the call centers across the country were using offensive and immoral discussion with customers.

Senator Faisal Raza Abidi informed the meeting that one call center misbehaved with him. On contacting a senior official of PTA, no legal action was taken, he lamented. “If a senator, being member of the Senate Standing Committee on IT complaint is not being entertained properly, then what will be the behaviour with a common person,” he maintained. Abidi regretted that after passing of one-and-a-half-month still no action was taken against the call center on his complaint.

Pakistan Text Messaging Growth Reaches 106 Billion

As we can observe that everyone around us is busy doing text messages. Due to the bulk of free SMS packages and their low rates offered by the Cellular companies, it is now in the access of every layman to send and receive text messages. According to the latest PTA report of December 2009, a total of 106 billion text messages were sent across the 5 cellular networks in Pakistan in 2009. If there are 95 million subscribers on average, it comes to 93 messages per person per month.

PTCL Union to Face Stern Action If They Take Law into Their Hands: LHC

Honorable Justice Mamun-ur-Rashid Sheikh of Lahore High Court (LHC) while disposing of the application filed by PTCL management against their employees Lala Hanif, Rana Hassan and Malik Maqbool has directed PTCL employees not to take law into their hands otherwise the stern action will  be initiated against them.

The PTCL management through their counsel Naeem Bokhari had moved an application in LHC taking plea that CBA and other unions had launched a violent protest to press their demands

Protesting Employees Won’t Get Salaries And Eid Bonus: PTCL Management

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) management has decided not to pay the current month salaries and bonuses to the employees not performing their duties.

The management has reacted strongly against on-going strikes by company employees, demanding raise in salaries and allowances announced by the government in recent budget.

PTCL management said the allowance and bonus packages will be given to those employees who will perform their jobs as if they do in normal routine.

Orient Gets Distribution of Transcend Products in Pakistan

Transcend Information, a global leader in the manufacture of memory products, has made a big step in its channel expansion by joining forces with its new strategic partner, Orient group of Companies, a manufacturer and distributor of home appliances and other consumer products in Pakistan.

Under this alliance, Transcend’s entire portfolio of products will be sold and distributed by Orient group’s network across Pakistan.

MJ Cho, VP of Transcend Information Inc., stated, “Our alliance and partnership with Orient group will enable us to further consolidate our position in the Pakistani market.”

Nokia Launches Ramadan Mobile Applications

Nokia has come with new mobile applications with the content tailored for the holy month of Ramadan. The new Nokia mobile applications are available in the Ovi store. The updated mobile applications tailored for the Holy Month can now be downloaded on the well-matched Nokia devices for free directly from Nokia’s Ovi Store.

“The overwhelming response and feedback that we received from last year’s offering allowed us to improve and expand this year’s application offering. Nokia users have now a single and easy access to many of the cherished experiences that Muslims like to be close to, and keep them connected to the Holy Month. The applications this year also support a wider range of devices including both touch and non-touch Nokia devices, and are available in more languages” said Haseeb Ihtisham, Head of Marketing, Nokia Pakistan and Afghanistan.