KARACHI, Nov 04, 2008 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- PKTLY Quote Chart News PowerRating -- The profit after tax of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has increased to Rs 3.178 billion (US$ 39.3 million) in the quarter ended September 30, 2008 as compared to Rs 3.012 billion earned in the corresponding period last year.
The board of directors of the company in its meeting held on Thursday declared that the earning per share increased to Re 0.62 in the period under review against Re 0.59 in the same period a year back.
For more on this article, please click on the following link: PAKISTAN TELCO PROFIT AFTER TAX RISES TO US$39.3 MLN: TradingMarkets.com
Showing posts with label Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
PAKISTAN TELCO PROFIT AFTER TAX RISES TO US$39.3 MLN: TradingMarkets.com
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Cellphone market touching saturation level: Dawn
KARACHI, Oct 30: The cellular subscriber base in the country witnessed a slow growth in the second quarter, which stood at 2.4 per cent by September 2008, as experts see mobile phone consumers’ market touching the saturation level.
Though the cellular subscriber base crossed 90 million mark by the end of September 2008, figurers compiled by the telecom regulators and cellular companies suggest that the sales of new connections are on the decline for the last few months compared with previous years, as rising inflation has also seriously affected the purchasing power of consumers.
“As we go through figures, total new connections added in August stood at 238,000 while in September they were recorded at 640,000,” said a telecom industry source, citing fresh data.
August and September are the two lowest registered sale months of new connections since monthly reporting began in 2005 by the companies and naturally it directly depends on people’s needs and their strength to acquire that. “We have witnessed both on the decline for the last few months,” said the source.
Blocking of unregistered SIMs (subscriber identity modules) by all cellular companies in line with the directives of the Pakistan Telecom Authorities (PTA) following recommendations of the law enforcement agencies, also resulted in recent decline to some extent, observed the source.
A phenomenal jump in the number of cellphone subscribers has been witnessed since 2004, when two foreign cellular service providers launched their operations in the country.
For more on this article, please click on the following link: Cellphone market touching saturation level: Dawn
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Cell phone connections zoom to 88 million in Pakistan: FreshNews
Islamabad, July 22 (IANS) From just 300,000 eight years ago, the number of mobile phone connections in Pakistan has grown to 88 million in 2008 covering over half of the population, thanks to cheap rates and lucrative offers by service providers.
According to a report of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), mobile phone density increased from just 0.22 percent in 2000 to 54.7 percent by June 30, 2008. The six mobile phone companies in the country have sold 88,019,812 connections till now this year as compared to 306,493 by four companies in 2000. Pakistan has a population of 165 million.
However, sales executives of mobile companies say the figure of 88 million may not be accurate as many consumers keep switching from one service provider to the other without getting their previous connection cancelled.
For more on this article, please click on the following link: Cell phone connections zoom to 88 million in Pakistan: FreshNews
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Pakistan's Censors Target Youtube: WSJ
How a System Error in Pakistan Shut YouTube
By JANE SPENCER
February 26, 2008
Service on Google Inc.'s YouTube Web site was disrupted around the world for several hours Sunday after a botched effort by the Pakistani government to block access to a video clip critical of Islam.
The story began unfolding Friday when the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, the nation's telecom regulator, ordered Pakistan's Internet-service providers to immediately block access to a specific YouTube video, which it said was so incendiary it could trigger riots. A senior official at the authority said it also contacted YouTube, requesting that the site remove the video. The authority argued the clip was a violation of YouTube's terms of service, which ban hate speech. YouTube has since removed the clip but says it doesn't comment on reasons for removing specific videos.
According to the senior official at the authority, the clip in question was about a soon-to-be released film made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose outspoken comments against Islam have made him a target of protests in the Muslim world and elsewhere.
• See the order issued by the Pakistan government requesting that the site be blocked. (Adobe Acrobat required)
Mr. Wilders's own Web site says his film portrays the Quran as a fascist book that incites people to murder. Mr. Wilders has previously compared the Quran to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf." On Fox News recently, he said, "Our culture is far better than a retarded Islamic culture." He didn't respond to requests for comment on the YouTube incident.
Even though fewer than 5% of Pakistan's households are connected to the Internet, the government feared the film could spark riots similar to the deadly violence that broke out in Muslim countries after a Danish newspaper published cartoons about the prophet Muhammad in 2006, according to a senior official at the authority. Violent protests have erupted repeatedly in Pakistan in recent months following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. There were also new protests about the cartoons in recent weeks after Danish authorities arrested several people who were allegedly plotting the assassination of the cartoonist behind the drawing.
But in a bizarre twist, the government's efforts to block the clip in Pakistan wound up affecting YouTube users around the world. YouTube spokesman Ricardo Reyes confirmed in an email that YouTube traffic was disrupted world-wide for several hours Sunday. "We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan," said Mr. Reyes. "We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again."
The problem began when Pakistan Telecommunication Corp. Ltd. began implementing government orders to block the Dutch video on YouTube, according to people familiar with PTCL's network operations. The telecommunications company, Pakistan's largest, controls almost all of the nation's network infrastructure. The instructions sent out across its network were meant to apply only to traffic within Pakistan, a process commonly known as "black holing." But because of errors in the handling of PTCL's routers, the message started being replicated on the Internet world-wide, and other Internet-service providers started having trouble accessing the YouTube site.
The message was communicated around the world via PCCW Ltd., a Hong Kong telecommunications company that inadvertently transmitted the message internationally over its network. PTCL is connected to the global Internet through PCCW's networks, among others. Technical experts say this type of problem is extremely rare -- and is essentially beyond YouTube's control.
"The traffic that was supposed to be going to our address was being rerouted to Pakistan, and subsequently dropping," says Mr. Reyes of YouTube.
PCCW didn't respond to requests for comment.
Shahzad Ahmed, a civil-rights activist who monitors Internet issues for the group Rights for All in Pakistan, suggested that the government of Pervez Musharraf had another motive to block YouTube besides the Geert Wilders film. He said YouTube has been flooded with anti-Musharraf videos in recent weeks, including videos accusing the government of rigging the nation's election, crowds protesting against Musharraf and audio clips of a popular cellphone ring tone in Pakistan featuring the chant "Go Go Musharraf."
"People are putting a lot of material against Musharraf and the government on YouTube, and the government has been trying to find a reason to block this Web site," said Mr. Ahmed. "If this was really about the film and Islam, they would have blocked Wikipedia and tons of other sites containing hate material against Islam." Wikipedia's site, which isn't blocked in Pakistan, reprints the Danish cartoons that triggered the riots.
An official at the telecommunications authority, which regulates Internet censorship, said the accusations were without merit and the government was only trying to block materials related to Mr. Wilders's film because of their potential to trigger unrest. The official added that PTCL doesn't have the technical ability to block individual URLs, just entire Web sites, which led to the total YouTube blockout in Pakistan.
Pakistan intensified its Internet-censorship efforts two years ago, following the cartoon flare-up, and the Supreme Court instituted a ban on all content deemed "blasphemous." But Pakistan's telecom authority has also regularly filtered content determined to be antistate or antimilitary, according to the OpenNet Initiative, a global organization that promotes freedom of information on the Internet.
YouTube reserves the right to remove content from the site that it deems inappropriate, according to the terms of service posted on its site. YouTube's community guidelines state: "We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view....But we don't permit hate speech."
Many of Pakistan's Internet users received notices about the ban on YouTube from their Internet-service providers. "Dear Valued Customer," reads one from Micronet Broadband Ltd. "The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has directed all ISPs of the country to block access to www.youtube.com for containing blasphemous Web content/movies." The letter asked Internet users to write YouTube.com to urge it to remove the objectionable videos.
The story began unfolding Friday when the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, the nation's telecom regulator, ordered Pakistan's Internet-service providers to immediately block access to a specific YouTube video, which it said was so incendiary it could trigger riots. A senior official at the authority said it also contacted YouTube, requesting that the site remove the video. The authority argued the clip was a violation of YouTube's terms of service, which ban hate speech. YouTube has since removed the clip but says it doesn't comment on reasons for removing specific videos.
According to the senior official at the authority, the clip in question was about a soon-to-be released film made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose outspoken comments against Islam have made him a target of protests in the Muslim world and elsewhere.
• See the order issued by the Pakistan government requesting that the site be blocked. (Adobe Acrobat required)
Mr. Wilders's own Web site says his film portrays the Quran as a fascist book that incites people to murder. Mr. Wilders has previously compared the Quran to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf." On Fox News recently, he said, "Our culture is far better than a retarded Islamic culture." He didn't respond to requests for comment on the YouTube incident.
Even though fewer than 5% of Pakistan's households are connected to the Internet, the government feared the film could spark riots similar to the deadly violence that broke out in Muslim countries after a Danish newspaper published cartoons about the prophet Muhammad in 2006, according to a senior official at the authority. Violent protests have erupted repeatedly in Pakistan in recent months following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. There were also new protests about the cartoons in recent weeks after Danish authorities arrested several people who were allegedly plotting the assassination of the cartoonist behind the drawing.
But in a bizarre twist, the government's efforts to block the clip in Pakistan wound up affecting YouTube users around the world. YouTube spokesman Ricardo Reyes confirmed in an email that YouTube traffic was disrupted world-wide for several hours Sunday. "We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan," said Mr. Reyes. "We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again."
The problem began when Pakistan Telecommunication Corp. Ltd. began implementing government orders to block the Dutch video on YouTube, according to people familiar with PTCL's network operations. The telecommunications company, Pakistan's largest, controls almost all of the nation's network infrastructure. The instructions sent out across its network were meant to apply only to traffic within Pakistan, a process commonly known as "black holing." But because of errors in the handling of PTCL's routers, the message started being replicated on the Internet world-wide, and other Internet-service providers started having trouble accessing the YouTube site.
The message was communicated around the world via PCCW Ltd., a Hong Kong telecommunications company that inadvertently transmitted the message internationally over its network. PTCL is connected to the global Internet through PCCW's networks, among others. Technical experts say this type of problem is extremely rare -- and is essentially beyond YouTube's control.
"The traffic that was supposed to be going to our address was being rerouted to Pakistan, and subsequently dropping," says Mr. Reyes of YouTube.
PCCW didn't respond to requests for comment.
Shahzad Ahmed, a civil-rights activist who monitors Internet issues for the group Rights for All in Pakistan, suggested that the government of Pervez Musharraf had another motive to block YouTube besides the Geert Wilders film. He said YouTube has been flooded with anti-Musharraf videos in recent weeks, including videos accusing the government of rigging the nation's election, crowds protesting against Musharraf and audio clips of a popular cellphone ring tone in Pakistan featuring the chant "Go Go Musharraf."
"People are putting a lot of material against Musharraf and the government on YouTube, and the government has been trying to find a reason to block this Web site," said Mr. Ahmed. "If this was really about the film and Islam, they would have blocked Wikipedia and tons of other sites containing hate material against Islam." Wikipedia's site, which isn't blocked in Pakistan, reprints the Danish cartoons that triggered the riots.
An official at the telecommunications authority, which regulates Internet censorship, said the accusations were without merit and the government was only trying to block materials related to Mr. Wilders's film because of their potential to trigger unrest. The official added that PTCL doesn't have the technical ability to block individual URLs, just entire Web sites, which led to the total YouTube blockout in Pakistan.
Pakistan intensified its Internet-censorship efforts two years ago, following the cartoon flare-up, and the Supreme Court instituted a ban on all content deemed "blasphemous." But Pakistan's telecom authority has also regularly filtered content determined to be antistate or antimilitary, according to the OpenNet Initiative, a global organization that promotes freedom of information on the Internet.
YouTube reserves the right to remove content from the site that it deems inappropriate, according to the terms of service posted on its site. YouTube's community guidelines state: "We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view....But we don't permit hate speech."
Many of Pakistan's Internet users received notices about the ban on YouTube from their Internet-service providers. "Dear Valued Customer," reads one from Micronet Broadband Ltd. "The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has directed all ISPs of the country to block access to www.youtube.com for containing blasphemous Web content/movies." The letter asked Internet users to write YouTube.com to urge it to remove the objectionable videos.
--Yaroslav Trofimov contributed to this article
Original Link: Pakistan's Censors Target YouTube
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