Transworld Associates picks Tyco Telecommunications to supply Middle East submarine fiber-optic network
Here is a press release from http://www.tycotelecom.com/

July 29, 2005 Morristown, NJ -- Tyco Telecommunications , a supplier of undersea fiber-optic networks and marine services, today announced the beginning of construction for the TWA-1 undersea fiber optic cable network, as part of a multi-million dollar turnkey contract with Transworld Associates (TWA), a joint venture between Orascom Telecom of Egypt and Saif Group of Pakistan.

With direct cable landings in Karachi, Pakistan and Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates (under a landing party agreement with the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation, known as Etisalat), the undersea network is being developed by TWA under license from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority.



Under the terms of the contract, Tyco will provide network design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning, and testing services. The DWDM undersea fiber-optic cable system is projected to extend more than 1,200 km in length, and to be capable of carrying up to 1.28 Tbit/sec of transmission capacity when fully upgraded. With planned initial service in the second half of 2005, the network is designed to satisfy increasing demand for voice, data, and Internet bandwidth and the accelerating use of broadband services in Pakistan and the Gulf region.

"TWA embarked on this project with a vision of bringing high-speed communications technology to Pakistan," comments Kamran Malik, COO of Transworld Associates. "By leveraging the experience, expertise, and leading-edge technology of Tyco Telecommunications, we have obtained a turnkey undersea system solution that enables us to achieve our project objectives.."

"Our ability to rapidly deliver a turnkey solution enables TWA to provide their customers with the benefits of a high capacity network infrastructure, and directly facilitates international connectivity," concludes Michael Rieger, vice president of sales and marketing at Tyco Telecommunications. "The Gulf region presents significant opportunities for the development of critical network infrastructure, and Tyco Telecommunications is committed to developing innovative solutions to support the unique needs of regional project developers like TWA."
- posted @ Saturday, July 30, 2005

 
WLL operators to implement single cell mobility
KARACHI: Pakistan Telecom-munication Authority (PTA) directed all Wireless Local Loop (WLL) operators to implement single cell limited mobility as per solution defined in a determination issued by the authority to resolve the issue of limited mobility.

The authority has given 45 days time to WLL operators to ensure the implementation of limited mobility and they would also submit a compliance report to the authority in this regard.

The comprehensive determination came out after extensive deliberations with cellular mobile and WLL operators, telecom experts, solution providers of international repute and academia.

The solution to the issue of limited mobility, the determination provides, exhibits the real spirit of the Telecommunication Deregulation policy 2003, which says the LL licensees who opt for wireless solutions, may provide limited mobility within a cell, but not beyond local call charging radius. No inter-cell handovers and roaming to other networks will be allowed.

The authority has also mentioned in the determination that PTA teams at zonal officers level will be deputed after 45 days to ensure the implementation of limited mobility solution and surprise tests will be conducted whereas legal action under the Pakistan Telecom (Re-organization) Act 1996 will be initiated against the violators.
- posted @ Wednesday, July 20, 2005

 
PTCL not to pay damages
“It was not our fault,” Junaid I Khan, president of PTCL, told Daily Times...

Right.Big surprise there....

It may not have been PTCLs fault, but it was certainly PTCLs responsibility to provide connectivity.
- posted @ Wednesday, July 20, 2005

 
Using Warid
I have been using Warid for the past few weeks. I bought the connection from a franchisee. Franchise staff were good and effecient.

The connection worked as soon as I gave them my NIC card and the quality is consistently good. Coverage is excellent. Mobilink has just installed a tower on the roof of the next building but reception quality is still not good. Warid is much better.

Customer support is also excellent. Whereas Mobilink is impossible to contact on the phone and my visits to Mobilink offices have always been unpleasant, Warid telecom is very easy to contact. The call center people are obviously under a lot of pressure but I have always been connected to a real person almost immediately. That person has been very helpful and effecient.
I needed to make international calls and Warid wants a total of at least Rs5000/- as deposit. Now this is a bit old fashioned since international rates are so low, but that is life. As setting this up takes upto 2 days I called Warid to ask that they expedite this. I got a call back within a few hours saying that they has set up my account to be able to make international calls. No way would PTCL or Mobilink call me as a courtesy.
The only problem I have had was setting up a GPRS connection on my new phone. The phone was not a common one and so the Warid system was not able to set it up automatically. The Franchisee spent almost an hour with me but no result. On my second call to the Warid call center the person on the line didn't know how to set up my GPRS but promised to email me.
The email arrived the next morning and my internet connection was on.
Competent. Effecient. Human.

GPRS was slow, incredibly slow, but at least it worked when all else had failed. I was able to answer a few very important emails using the phone. I can tell you that it was tedious but since SMW3 was down and I had no access to any other ISP I was very happy.

So far I am very happy with Warid. Hope that they can keep it up.
- posted @ Saturday, July 09, 2005

 
SWM3 UP again
SMW3 is apparently up and running again. Let the battle for this months bandwidth charges begin. I for one will not be paying for the 10 days of lost connectivity. Call centers are going for a full months of 'mufta' and that is cool!
- posted @ Saturday, July 09, 2005

 
Transworld Associates (Pvt) Ltd.
This is a joint-venture between Orascom Telecom Holdings (Eygpt) and Saif Group (Pakistan). The project is to build an undersea fibre optic cable from Karachi to Fujaira. A total of 1285 km. Financing of US$7million.

No news as to when the project will be up and running or even when the physical work will be started.
- posted @ Saturday, July 02, 2005

 
What, no internet? Gossip time
Ok, so it is now Day 5 after the SMW3 was cut and as we don't have any work to do, its gossip time.

[1] There were joint USA - Pakistan Navy excersises going on at around the same time as the cable was cut. Coincidence? Of course we dont know exactly where the excersises were but we can speculate as to how close it was to the site of the cable cut....

[2] Most major bandwidth customers have some connectivity restored as PTCL has bought in emergency satellite connections. Most, but not the National IT Park in Karachi. This is housed on 5 floors of Caesers Tower and after many years of emptiness has just started to fill up with Call Centers and Software Houses. The IT Park has its own ISP (called OK Net, run by a certain Mr. Khurshed Shah) that has a fibre optic connection to PTCLs Marston Road exchange. This connection has been paid for by PTCL and PSEB. OK Net customers have purchased a total of 8MB bandwidth. OK Net has only 4MB of its own, but that is, ahem, OK as the software houses work during the day and the Call Centers during the night.
Ok, so why no connectivity when all other IT Parks have had theirs restored? Is it because Karachi is discriminated against? Is it because this is a private company? No. The reason is that Mr. Khursheed has only purchased 128K (thats K as in Kilo not M as in Mega) officially. The rest of the 4MB is, ahem, not officially purchased.
So when the emergency bandwidth is provided it is given out to people who officially bought their bandwidth. Those using the 'kunda' system will have to start using dialup.


[3] Some info just in from Islamabad - Mian Jawed who used to head up PTCL, then the PTA and recently PEMRA has been approached by Etisalat to become Chairman of PTCL again. There are a few decent people at the top in Islamabad. Mian Sahib is one of them.
- posted @ Saturday, July 02, 2005