Telecoms and IT in Pakistan

Thursday, March 22, 2007

The One Laptop Per Child program reported today that after 303 builds, it finally has a satisfactory version of its Red Hat Linux-based Sugar operating system that is considered stable, according to OLPC president for software and content Walter Bender.

"After a final few bugs that had hidden in corners were driven into the light, we issued Stable Build 303 along with Q2B76 firmware this week," Bender said in his weekly email report.

Highlights of this stable build, according to Bender, include:
A working mesh network
An updated Web browser that scales on the high-resolution screen, making for an improved web experience
Gnash, the FOSS Flash player (still somewhat unstable), is pre-installed; Adobe's Flash 9 is also known to work but is not packaged or installed as part of the build
A touch-pad driver fix for jumping cursor: The touch pad should be more usable, and the tablet is enabled on B2 systems
Boot time has improved due to a scheduler fix
The Cambridge, Mass.-based project says it shipped about 2,500 test laptops to eight nations last month. Earlier this month, OLPC shipped 100 machines to children in a Nigerian test school, Bender said.

The experiment was a prelude to mass production of the kid-friendly, lime-green and white laptops scheduled to begin in July, when 5 million are scheduled to be built, according to Taiwanese laptop maker Quanta.

State educators in Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Rwanda, Pakistan, Thailand, and possibly Ethiopia and the West Bank received the first of the machines in February's pilot prior to a wider rollout to Indonesia and a handful of other countries, according to the project.

Background on the project

OLPC aims to distribute -- free of charge -- millions of low-cost, self-powered, low-cost Linux laptops to needy children around the world, with governments making the purchases. The original cost target for the OLPC laptops was $100, but that number has drifted upward slightly, over the past year or so, to about $150.

The idea behind the OLPC laptop is to provide children with the opportunity to learn about learning itself -- to explore, experiment and express themselves, an OLPC spokesperson said. The laptops will be distributed in schools.

Key features of the OLPC laptop include a 7.5-inch 1200 x%

Labels: OPLC, Pakistan, Wireless

- posted @ Thursday, March 22, 2007

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Internet censorship

DAWN speaks out against Internet Censorship. It helps that they are currently receiving minimal amounts of Government advertising money. Usually DAWN is docile and compliant with ruling party wishes.

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Internet censorship
WHILE the global uproar over the government’s recent attempts at gagging the mainstream media in Pakistan may lead it to a hands-off-the-media policy for now, it brings little relief to those nationalist media organs and groups whose websites continue to be blocked. Dozens of internet blogs and sites run by Baloch, Sindhi and even smaller ethnic groups continue to face the ban, with internet service providers forced by the government to apply filters to block their viewing in the country. While the initiated internet users know how to circumvent the ban via a third domain, it is the blocking of direct access to a particular blog or a socio-economic and political forum which presents the government and the country in equally bad light as do attempts to gag the popular media. The internet is a common cyberspace shared by users globally; there are innumerable sites run by rights activists which provide lists of the websites banned by a given government. Gen Musharraf’s has the dubious distinction of being listed among the world’s most xenophobic regimes censured for curtailing people’s access to information.

That this has been happening for months with media organs representing Pakistan’s smaller ethnic communities which do not find a voice in the mainstream media is all the more reprehensible. It is good that now when the national media and civil society are rallying behind the cause of the freedom of the press, the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement has also decided to take part in the multi-party conference called by the PML-N in London later this week. This will provide the nationalist leaders a wider platform from which to voice their grievances and become part of the mainstream opposition to press the government for greater civil liberties and for enforcing the rule of law.

Labels: censorship, gorement

- posted @ Monday, March 19, 2007

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Worldcall bidding for Saudi Licence

Worldcall has serious problems running ISPs and Voice over cable in Karachi, is it really going to be able to run a Telco in Saudi Arabia?

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10 consortia in race for Saudi landline licence
(PTI)

12 March 2007

DUBAI — Ten consortia led by international firms, including India's MTNL, are competing for Saudi Arabia's second landline phone licence, which

will break the monopoly of Saudi Telecom Company in the middle east's largest telecom market.

"The Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has received applications from 10 consortia in response to the request forms issued on October 24, 2006," a CITC statement said.

Saudi Telecom has about four million fixed line customers in the country with a population of nearly 27 million.

"During the coming weeks, STC will study and evaluate the applications, based on the criteria specified in the request for applications (RFA)," Sultan Al Malik, a spokesman of the commission, told Arab News.

The 10 consortia include Al Shola (MTNL India), Khaled Ahmed Al Juffali Co (WorldCall Telecom of Pakistan), Makkah Telecom (China Telecom), and Bayanat (Korea Telecom).
Others in the fray are Optical Communications Company (Verizon), Saudi Telecom Holding (Qtel-Atco), Al Mutakamilah (Hong Kong's PCCW), Electronet (Autelia of Italy), Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Atheeb Telecom (Batelco of Bahrain). Indian companies are also vying for Saudi Arabia's third mobile license, which is expected to generate SR20 billion for the Kingdom.

Labels: Infrastructure

- posted @ Tuesday, March 13, 2007