Will PTCL slash Internet prices this 14th August?

Posted by BA on Aug 14, 2011 in Pakistan, Telecommunication | 0 comments

Here it is again, 14th August, Pakistan’s independence day. PTCL historically has been slashing Internet bandwidth prices on 14th August. I really wish they do it this time as well especially when they’re offering a 50 Mbps connection, it’ll be great to pay half the price. While their customer support and technical support has usually been a nightmare, their service just works. Just pray that you don’t get a problem in your connection and then your nightmare begins

Come on PTCL, let’s go 50% on bandwidth prices.

Get a 50 Mbps Broadband Connection on PTCL today

Posted by BA on Aug 12, 2011 in Communication, Pakistan, Telecommunication | 1 comment

No, PTCL doesn’t pay me for this but its out of sheer excitement, I just came across the least advertised but certainly available broadband connection by PTCL. We did hear about it earlier in April but now the connections are silently available. No ads, no hype and no big buzz. May be this launch is like that by design (not a home/consumer product yet?)

What do you need?

Ok, so here’s the deal. If you want a whopping 50 Mbps connection at home or at office, all you need is a pair of copper PTCL connections ( yes you need two lines), a modem/transceiver that does the magic and those PTCL guys helping you connect through the big bandwidth.

How does it work?

They call it VDSL2 Bonding technology. It’s a few steps ahead of the normal ADSL we’ve been using with additional bonding and aggregation of two copper line bandwidth to attain more than double the bandwidth. You can read more about the technology here.

How much does it cost?

There are three packages available with speeds 10 Mbps, 20Mbps and 50 Mbps and cost Rs. 9,999 , Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively per month. There’s an additional (one time) installation cost of Rs. 10,000 when you get a new connection. Yes, that’s costly for a home user but may be very much affordable for small/medium businesses and corporates.

What next?

I’m looking around for anyone who has signed up for the service and will get back to you guys with a review, so stay tuned. If you or anyone you know is using this service, please do let me know.

How to get it?

Call 1236 and figure it out

Is youtube banned in Pakistan?

Posted by BA on Feb 7, 2010 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

I watched a few clips on Youtube a while ago today, but now when I go to Youtube.com, I get a message saying “The Site Is Restricted”.

It appears PTCL has banned the site for its users. Are you experiencing that too?

Where did PTCL’s gaming lounge go?

Posted by BA on Jul 16, 2009 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

Exactly at a point, when I was about to write a terrible review for PTCL’s gaming lounge, I found the link dead. The gaming lounge was a part of PTCL’s entertainment portal and they had quite a few interesting games servers listed including counter strike, call of duty 4, battlefield 2 and medal of honor-allied assault.

I was excited over the weekend and tried to connect, but found out that none of the servers was actually working. I tried all the 4 games listed above, but no luck. Today I hit PTCL’s entertainment link and only thing I see is a lame site with no links working at all, named Buzz Studio.

What’s going on? I suggest PTCL should finish their sites and get their servers ready before publishing their websites. People actually do visit their sites :p

Mobile Payments made simple – Nokia and Etisalat team-up to make it happen in Middle East!

Posted by BA on Apr 27, 2009 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

Nokia and Etisalat have announced a collaboration that will allow Nokia to provide advance Internet services to Nokia users in the region. Etisalat will provide a convenient means of payment to Nokia users willing to subscribe to paid Nokia services. As a first step, Nokia users will be able to purchase games on Nokia’s N-Gage platform and pay for Ovi-Maps services. The purchases will be made over the air and Etisalat will charge the amount to the customer’s bill. This is a very convenient and safe option as opposed to the use of Credit cards and other similar payment options. UAE will be the first country from the region to offer this service in Q2 2009.

This is very interesting to mention here that if you can use this service to pay for mobile applications, games and services, you can use it for other payments as well. For example, you can use the same mechanism for sending gifts to friends, you can use it for buying items at grocery stores or paying other utility bills, and everything is eventually charged to your monthly Etisalat bill.

In Pakistan, Etisalat is holding shares in PTCL and a similar payment model has been in place in the country for payments of PTCL DSL service and IP TV subscription. Those who subscribe to DSL or IP TV, the subscriptions are billed to the customers in their monthly phone bill. I would love to make other payments in the same way if it adds the luxury of convenience to the payment process.