The Pakistan Technology Forum: startups, technology, hacking, DIY and much more...

After 3 years of being a blog, TechLahore is making the leap to being a little bit more than that… we’re launching the Pakistan Technology Forum today which we hope will serve as the favourite haunt for local techies, hackers, startup studs and tech business belles. The forum launches today at the following URL:

www.techlahore.com/forum

Head on over, make yourself a free account and let’s start the dialogue! At launch, the following forums have been created, though more will probably added along the way.

The gentleman cutting the ribbon is Mustafa Peracha, the new CEO of Wi-Tribe (Image credit: Mobilink)

The last few years have seen a profusion of WiMAX services enter the Pakistani IT market. There are already three major vendors delivering these services, including Wateen, Mobilink and #3 player, Wi-Tribe. Wateen and Mobilink are obviously huge behemoths that can subsidize their WiMAX operations, if needed, by leveraging their booming cellular telephony businesses. They are therefore in a position to invest and wait for the market to catch up. I believe this past year has actually seen some serious WiMAX adoption, though specific numbers, as always, are a little tough to come by. In this context, I’ve found it interesting how the smaller player – Wi-Tribe – would fare, absent an existing cellular business or other revenue streams to bank on.

We just heard earlier today that Wi-Tribe has actually been going through some internal changes. Their CEO has been replaced and a new man, Mustafa Peracha, is now firmly in the saddle. Mustafa comes to Wi-Tribe from Mobilink, where he was VP of their Broadband division. So he would clearly understand the broadband market and would also be privy to Mobilink’s own assessment and strategy – important benefits for Wi-Tribe.

While the change of leadership announcement was fairly generic, alluding to plans for future growth and the obligatory reference to “exciting times”, one really does wonder how Wi-Tribe is going to formulate its strategy to compete with Mobilink and Wateen, while growing in a significant and meaningful way. Are we going to see some interesting broadband value added services being delivered by Wi-Tribe? Are they looking into a content or app marketplace? Are they investigating TV/Broadband synergies with the new generation of PC-like set-top boxes? There’s clearly a lot they can do to blow the competition away, because their exclusive focus on WiMAX can be a huge advantage when it comes to clarity of vision, ability to make decisions and execute quickly, maintaining an undiluted brand and positioning themselves as the WiMAX vendor that does nothing else… and hence does WiMAX better than anyone else.

We’ll keep closer watch on Wi-Tribe and let you know if we catch something exciting coming our way!

Here’s the story from Ye Ole Biz:

Mustafa appointed as wi-tribe Pakistan’s CEO

KARACHI (May 15 2010): Mustafa Peracha has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of wi-tribe Pakistan, the most reliable wireless broadband internet service in Pakistan. Effective May 1, 2010 Mustafa will be responsible for overseeing wi-tribe Pakistan’s overall business activities as well as driving future growth of the company.

Mustafa brings with him vast experience and has held various executive management positions, most recent of which was Vice-President of the Broadband and Carrier Division at Mobilink, an Orascom Telecom Company, where he oversaw all fixed business with complete P&L responsibility was also instrumental in commercially driving the growth of the GSM business.

For the rest of the article, please visit The Business Recorder

The KSE is on a bull run (Image credit: Reuters file photo)

The KSE has been a star performer for many years, and despite the dips in 2009 – mostly due to the global recession and associated troubles – the exchange is back with a bang! The chart has been trending solidly upward with the KSE index breaking the 10,500 pt psychological barrier and establishing a 19 month high in the last week. Bloomberg, via Business Week, reports that despite the uptick, Pakistani stock valuations are still very inexpensive and can easily power the KSE index an additional 23% before the end of the year.

Bloomberg says:

The [KSE index] gauge has climbed 13 percent this year, extending last year’s 60 percent advance as overseas investors bought more equities in South Asia’s second-largest economy. Gross domestic product may grow 3.4 percent in the financial year ending June 30, after a 2 percent gain in the previous year, according to the Finance Ministry.

This is great news for investors – foreign and domestic – and it is a firm sign that the Pakistani economy is recovering rapidly. Another sign of renewed vitality is the Wateen Telecom IPO which has been received rather well. Wateen hopes to raise over Rs. 2BN on this initial offering.

For more information on the Bloomberg story, please visit this link, and for further news about the Warid IPO, please click here.

PTCL needs to pay attention to the reduced QoS of its Evo service (Image credit: PTCL)

EV-DO has been a huge success in Pakistan. Since its debut in Pakistan early last year, multiple providers have entered the market and adoption has certainly gone through the roof. I first wrote about PTCL’s EV-DO services in Pakistan back in April 2009 and in the year that has gone by since then, the number of EV-DO users on PTCL’s service has exploded. Consequently, we’ve been receiving many blog comments complaining about poor performance, connection issues and other troubles. All this while, I’ve been using PTCL’s service and have experienced fairly decent service, albeit with some sporadic issues. I decided to revisit the PTCL EV-DO performance question and conduct a comparison with the data rates we were seeing back in April 2009. We can all sense there’s been a slow-down, but by how much exactly?

We used the trusty Speedtest.net tools, just as we had a year ago, to conduct our bandwidth and latency tests. Here is what our test looks for a Lahore-New York city connection:

PTCL EV-DO performance 3/26/2010. Lahore to New York.

To refresh your memory, we saw download speeds of 1.57Mbps and upload rates of .23 Mbps in April 2009. So in comparison, the most noticeable reduction has been in the download department. Upload is close enough, with a .01 Mbps difference, to be a wash. Downloads, however, are 14% slower. This is unfortunate, because it indicates that PTCL has not upgraded international bandwidth at the same rate it has grown users. Obviously, if there’s more demand for the international circuits there will be some degradation in performance.

To some extent, however, slowdowns are to be expected when user bases grow rapidly. So, putting things in context, my personal conclusion is that despite the 14-15%  reduction in download speeds, PTCL’s EV-DO service continues to provide decent performance with good mobility. It’s still a good option for consumers that need mobile broadband. That said, I certainly hope PTCL will remedy the performance issues and restore download speeds to what they were at launch. But in the interim, I continue to be a relatively satisfied user. If things change, I will certainly let you know!

PTCL brings Telepresence to Pakistan (Image credit: PTCL)

Telepresence is one of those mind-blowing technologies that you don’t have to explain to anyone, or convince people to buy. The moment they see it, they get it. And they want it. Cisco has been one of the leading firms innovating in this area. With decreases in communication costs and improvement in infrastructure, Telepresence promises to truly revolutionize the world. Imagine Broadway plays at Lahore’s Alhamra Hall via Telepresence. Or MIT lectures beamed to FAST SAHICS… almost in the flesh. And Abida Perveen via Telepresence, singing at cultural events in Tokyo, Beijing and San Fransisco, all on the same day!

The possibilities for business are endless too. Once the technology proliferates, meetings across timezones and collaboration across continents will become seamless, “real” and almost as good as being there in the flesh. But enough from me… here’s a compelling demonstration of the technology:

Awesome, isn’t it? Well, here’s something even more awesome. Telepresence has come to Pakistan! PTCL is the first Pakistani telecommunications company to officially deliver these services. PTCL just signed a customer agreement for Telepresence services in with Getronics. There aren’t many details available yet on features, prices and geographical availability, but we’re sure that information will make itself into the public domain shortly.

Here’s the news as reported by The Business Recorder:

LAHORE (March 19 2010): The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) signed-up its first customer agreement for Tele Presence service with M/S Getronics. The PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (BZ-N) Tariq Salman and Country Manager Getronics Faisal Rao signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

Run Razzle Run is one of TkXel's gaming titles developed in partnership with Sunstorm Interactive

I’m pretty bullish on this move towards product development in the Pakistani software industry. We’ve recently covered a number of up and coming startups that are working on exciting technology, going direct to the end customer and trying to  move beyond the sometimes-boring “software thaykaydaari”…

Just recently, we had Hassan Baig from Islamabad based Facebook app developer, White Rabbit, tell us how he’s building teams and motivating key contributors. We also looked at Lahore based Pepper.pk’s work in mobile app development and their recent appearance in the Handango Top 10 Blackberry Apps list. And of course, we’ve talked about TkXel too, but today we’re going to get to know this company a lot better.

I had the opportunity to chat with their CEO, Umair Javed, about his thoughts on mobile app development, TkXel’s achievements and plans for the future. Interesting stuff. Here goes…

Tell us a little about TkXel. When was the  company founded and what were the founder’s backgrounds?

TkXel is a software development company that is working in Mobile and Web 2.0 domains. TkXel provides software development services to companies across the globe. It also develops its own products and sells these through various channels.

TkXel was founded in 2008 in a small lab of LUMS. I was an adjunct faculty member at the CS department and started working with an initial engineering team comprised of a few highly enthusiastic and skilled graduating students. These remarkable engineers took up some challenging work and helped the company get on its feet.

From this humble beginning, the team started to expand and soon it was clear that LUMS’ small lab would not be able to accommodate the entire team. So in September 2008, the team shifted to its office outside LUMS. TkXel is now a fast growing company and has more than 30 full time engineers, graphic designers and QA resources on its team. While most of TkXel’s engineering team comes from the leading universities like LUMS and FAST-NU, TkXel also picks up raw talent from other places and polish them to be at par with others.

Is the company privately funded or Venture backed? Are you profitable?

The initial funding for the company was privately sourced. TkXel achieved positive cash flow in its first quarter and is currently a profitable entity.

Why did you choose mobile application development? There seem to be a large number of companies in Pakistan these days that are focused on mobile apps. We recently covered another Lahore based startup, Pepper.pk. Are you following a trend or do you bring something unique to this space?

We chose mobile application development for two reasons; technology convergence to mobile platforms, and opportunities available for entrepreneurs.

About two years back the introduction of the iPhone turned the smartphone market on its head and at that moment we thought it was an ideal time to get into the mobile app development market. It gave us direct reach to end users across the globe. At the same time, it helped us offer our services in a spectrum which was not yet saturated like traditional web development.

Over the last year and half we earned decently from our products and services, and now that we have a better understanding of development and marketing in this area we are working on various concepts that have the potential of going big.

From the perspective of a Pakistani company, we offer services and products that are not offered by many Pakistani companies. These services include end to end game development, which is still a very rare skill in the local landscape.

Our readers would be interested to learn more about your distribution strategy. How do you take your apps to market and what approaches have worked for you? Which ones haven’t?

We are primarily distributing our apps through the appstores and marketplaces of handset manufacturers. These appstores have given us direct access to international customers. To enhance our sales we rely on social media channels. Right now we are in the process of establishing a dedicated social media team that can help us in creating visibility about our products and services.

Mobile apps on the consumer side are all about volume. Tell us a little about your pricing strategy to optimize volume – how do you think consumer focued mobile apps should be priced? And also, how do you drive volume? Do you run SEO/SEM activities, or employ other approaches?

There are two distinct categories when it comes to pricing. We feel that games and entertainment apps are about volume as the target market segment is very large. So, low pricing along with decent quality brings a lot of customers to your apps. The key in this category is how successful are you in terms of creating a marketing buzz about your app. Your marketing gives you an initial surge and if the app is of decent quality it will then lift itself up.

The second category includes applications developed for niche areas. Here the market size is small but they are willing to pay high if your app has a utility for them, so price could be high.

We have worked with the above mentioned two strategies and are getting reasonable rewards. We have not yet applied SEO or SEM techniques to our products but we think that right now Social Medial Marketing brought much more benefits than SEO or SEM. The reason is simple; customers are searching your apps on the appstores and not on Google or other search engines. The social media strategies work because customers come to dedicated forums or places where they can find peer reviews and recommendations for apps and games.

What do you believe are the hottest categories within mobile app development? There seems to be a lot of focus on location based apps and augmented reality. Your thoughts on these and other compelling areas?

To answer your first question, the hottest categories within mobile app development are definitely entertainment and games. That is where the largest customer base is.

Though occasionally one hears about applications from other categories, making it big, they are quite few and far between. Talking about location based apps and services, they have been around for some time now but none of them have really made a breakthrough. We believe as  time passes and more location data becomes available, these apps will get more popular. Augmented reality is a relatively new but exciting area. However, there are many technical issues that need to be solved before we will see some really compelling stuff coming out.

Do you principally promote your products in international markets or are you also focused on Pakistan?

We primarily promote our products in the international market. Even our suite of Islamic apps is more popular in the West rather than the Middle East or Asian markets! We believe that this is due to the online buying culture and greater handset penetration in the West.

However, we are now working on some specialized products for local and non US/European markets. We will share more with you when we come close to launch.

What prospects do you see for local software companies wanting to push mobile device software or value added services in Pakistan? Is the market large enough?

We believe that prospects for VAS, local content and Mobile apps are bright in the medium to long run. As smartphone penetration increases, the possibilities become endless. However concerns remain about the customer’s buying power and willingness to buy through Telco channels. One of the key problems that still need to be solved is an easy payment method. Right now there is no universal payment procedure locally that users can use to pay for the service they buy. The result is a mandatory tie up with telecom carriers if one needs to offer VAS. We believe once these kinks are worked out, data plans become cheaper and data rates get faster, mobile apps and the local content market will take off.

Any parting thoughts before we conclude the interview?

We strongly believe that the IT industry in this region can grow at a lightening pace if the gap between the academia and the industry is bridged. This can be done by promoting entrepreneurial incubators in our universities or institutions. All around the world, it’s a common phenomenon that university driven research gives birth to high-tech startups and that contributes to their economy. Despite the recession in the West, startups have not only braved the trying times but are thriving. So it’s a unique time to position our own youth to capture the next big wave and encourage them to create something new through their own initiatives.

The Sirius Handheld Computer (Prototype shown) was designed and built from scratch... in Lahore, Pakistan

I often get emails from readers that I try to respond to as quickly as possible. A couple of weeks ago, my Inbox binged with an interesting question from an un-named Pakistani hardware engineer (aka Batman). Batman is originally from Lahore but is presently working in Austin, Texas. I thanked Batman for his email and told him that since I had received several similar queries, I would respond via a blog post rather than via email. But that was two weeks ago. With so much else happening, I wasn’t able to get to it as quickly as I’d thought… so, apologies for the delay, Batman!

Without further ado, here’s  Batman’s question, followed by my answer:

Assalamo Alaikum:

My name is [[Batman]] and I am originally from Lahore. Currently, I am working as a Hardware Verification Engineer at a chip-design company in Austin, Texas. I came across your blog in my search for tech job opportunities in Pakistan. I was wondering if you could give me an idea of what sort of opportunities exist in Pakistan. Is it mostly software jobs? Are you aware of companies that have sites in both Pakistan and America ?

Thanks for your time,
[[Batman]]

Well, Batman, there are actually a significant number of companies engaged in hardware design in Pakistan. There are also excellent teams at universities, working on some pretty cutting edge stuff. I’ll try to summarize some of these for you below.

1. Mentor Graphics is a multi-billion dollar US based company with locations in both Pakistan and the US. They have an R&D center in the Cavalry Grounds commercial area in Lahore. The work they do includes various system level board design activities, FPGA and ASIC design and verification tools.

2. Palm Chip is a US based company with multiple locations in the US and R&D facilities in both Islamabad and Lahore. They do embedded systems work, DVD SoC design, WiMAX chip design and more.

3. FiveRivers is a local Pakistani outfit working on handheld computers and related operating system development. They have designed a handheld computer called Sirius.

4. Enmac is a Hong Kong based company. They have almost their entire R&D done in Pakistan. They have a contract manufacturing business, embedded software development and systems design (board level) capabilities. They have produced various mobile telephones, digital Qurans and other products.

5. MicroElectronics International is a Lahore based designer and manufacturer or digital wireless equipment, electronics warfare devices and anti jamming technology.

6. Pak Elektron Ltd. is a Saigol Group company manufacturing electrical appliances, switchgear and providing electrical engineering consulting services.

7. DWP Group has a consumer electronics division that is manufacturing LCDs and more at a factory they have setup in Lahore as a joint venture with Samsung. They also contract with the military and develop custom solutions such as video walls and similar systems. They have pick and place and full manufacturing capabilities in their impressive Lahore factory and maintain an R&D/design group.

These are just a few of the companies with opportunities for electrical engineers and hardware design professionals. I haven’t expanded the scope to Islamabad and Karachi, but there are many opportunities in those cities too. Pakistan’s emerging UAV industry encompasses close to a half dozen private and government organizations. Take a look at our piece on UAVs built in Pakistan to find out more. Each of these companies employs several electrical engineers. It might be a good idea to start asking around with the companies above and you’ll soon get pointers to many other opportunities in the market. If you are open to opportunities in Academia/Research, then the University of Engineering and Technology has a very large Huawei funded research lab, LUMS has a great computer engineering research team focused on FPGAs, hardware based compression technology and more. In the Government sector, you’ve got Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP), NUST (National University of Science and Technology) and its associated mechatronics/robotics groups, NDC (National Defence Complex), PAC Kamra and many more.

From the days of Lahore-based Micro’s fully locally manufactured (Motherboard included!) Mango PC, the hardware industry in Pakistan has come a long way!

If you know of additional opportunities Batman and friends can benefit from, please do share!

LED Notifier from Pepper.pk lets you customize the notification LED on your Blackberry. You can pick different colors for text messages, voicemails or phone calls received from different contacts.

In a short span of time, I’m doing two posts about the same company. That’s a rarity, but I think it’s well deserved. Products being developed in Pakistan that do well on the international scene make me super excited. So when I heard from the guys at Pepper today and they told me that their LED Notifier application for Blackberry devices has hit the Handango Business Apps Top 10 list, I thought that deserved a follow-up post!

Just to put things in context, this is no mean feat. Handango is one of the largest and oldest independent mobile application marketplaces on the planet. In fact, before Apple’s AppStore came to the forefront, Handango was pretty much the leader. Today, they are known for their support of a broad set of platforms including RIM Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android and more. They have over 140,000 apps listed and a network of 23,000 developers. Let me repeat that… 140,000 apps! So, for Pepper’s LED Notifier to be on the Top 10 Blackberry business apps list is no mean achievement.

LED Notifier is a nifty little app for Blackberry owners. It basically lets you customize the notification LED on your device so you can set different colors for different contacts. If your wife SMS’s you, the LED might blink blue, whereas if you receive a call from your boss, it might flash red. There are a variety of customization options that make the product a really useful app that Blackberry owners would want to use all the time.

The LED Notifier website gives a lot more details about the product

Since I’ve discussed Pepper.pk in the past, you can read the previous post to learn more about the company. You can also visit the LED Notifier product page here and get a copy for yourself, if you like!

2010 is here, and so are TechLahore's predictions for the new year

I recently evaluated the predictions from last year. In a nutshell, I was about 80% correct. 2009 has certainly been filled with unique challenges, both at a global and national level. We’re all hopeful the future holds better things, and on that subject, I’ll share with you what I think will go down in 2010. Once again, while I’ve been lucky enough to be fairly accurate over the course of 2008 and 2009, it doesn’t mean the trend will continue in 2010. I won’t try and make safe predictions just so that they come true, but rather focus on things that I beleive all of us are thinking about… even though predicting their course might be fraught with risk.

So here goes:

Political predictions

I don’t see Asif Zardari making it through 2010. I think he will be deposed as President.

Though many political pundits talk about it, I don’t believe there will be mid-term elections this year. Whatever changes occur will be with individual and will not displace the entire post-2008 election scenario.

Gen. Kiyani is scheduled to retire close to the end of the year, but I believe he will receive a rare 1 year extension of service. However it happens, I don’t believe we will see him retiring this year.

The surge in Afghanistan will not work. If not by the end of 2010 then in 2011 the US will have to sit and talk to elements of the Taliban. The commitment of these forces will prove politically costly for President Obama.

Security and the situation in northwest Pakistan

As I had mentioned last year, the Army certainly had an operation up their sleeve. What happened in Swat and South Waziristan was the result of meticulous planning that had occured for months prior to the execution of either campaign. I believe these campaigns will begin to bear fruit in 2010 in the form of a reduction in security incidents in Pakistan. While there will be a definite tapering off in 2010, the nihilists will continue to make their presence felt now and then. Unfortunately this is a process which will take a little bit of time to completely unfold. But 2010 will inshaAllah be more secure than 2009 and quite measurably so.

The military will continue significant presence in Swat, Waziristan and will expand into other tribal agencies, expanding the writ of the government in an area that was always free of federal or provincial law enforcement since 1947. The action being conducted in these areas is certainly against the foreign nihilists who have taken refuge there and those who would seek to support them, but it also marks an expansion of writ into areas where it never existed previously (by design and by a 1947 era agreement which has clearly outlived its relevance).

Pakistan will continue to implement its strategic weapons programs and reap the fruits of investment in tactical weapons development. In addition to the first JF-17 squadron being weaponized and fully operationalized, we will see the arrival of F-16 Block 52 (Yes, there will be no last minute ‘hitches’), additional Saab Eireye AWACS aircraft, significant progress on the FC-20 fighter program, new air-to-air weapons such as the AMRAAM, and air to ground munitions and the Sniper targeting pod. In addition, the missile program will continue at full speed and more details will emerge regarding the 7,000km range Taimur ICBM. Pakistan will, however, not make any official announcements concerning this system. The much delayed Pakistan Navy next generation submarine deal will be finalized – there is a German vs. French situation going on at the moment but this will succesfully be navigated and a firm deal will take shape in 2010.

Technology Predictions

There will be a near-breakout level of success with a Pakistani based mobile software company. At least one company will claim 250K users for its mobile products by the end of 2010. It is very likely that two will.

Netsol will see its fortunes improve in 2010 from a share price perspective. Hovering now at around $1, they can expect to be at least 25% better off by the end of the year.

2010 is going to be a really bad year for Palm in terms of adoption of the Pre. I had predicted in 2008 that the Hail Mary piece of technology demo’d at CES fail for Palm. It has almost happened, but not quite completely yet. Palm will be relegated to a fourth tier player at best and 2010 will mark a signifciant reduction in its brand equity and influence.

The Apple Tablet will be released and it will be a major hit. Even though I don’t like Apple, I will buy it  It will be iPhone OS based and will not have the full functionality of a Mac. eReader apps for it will be absolutely killer and very succesful.

Windows Mobile 7 will come out in 2010 but will not be ‘all that’. It will take several updates and major enhancements to improve it. It will not reverse the market share trend away from Microsoft based phones that has taken hold over the last few years. Android will be the biggest gainer on the Smartphone side and will continue to whittle away at the Windows lead. Microsoft will undergo some pain in this area in 2010.

ARM based devices and cheaper laptops will start to chip away at Netbook growth. There will at most 20% growth in the Atom based Netbook segment. A market which went from 0 units in 2007 to clost to 40M units in 2009.

Nokia is not being succesful in its move from basic and feature phones to truly smart phones. Their UI development and OS skills are not in the top 3 at all. I think this will be Nokia’s downfall… as smartphones become less expensive in markets outside the US, fewer people will choose Nokia as it will no longer provide the best experience primarily due to software reasons. From the low end, Samsung and LG feature phones will continue to become better thus providing competition to the traditional Nokia feature phone niche. All in all, 2010 will see other mobile companies grow at the expense of Nokia.

I was wrong on this one last year, and this is almost too easy for 2010, but then again – you never know! The Software Park Tower in Lahore will be completed and will become fully operational in 2010. It is going to be too expensive sq ft cost wise for most companies so move-ins will be slower than expected.

Financial and Economic Predictions

The S&P will show a better than 7% gain in 2010. The Dow and NASDAQ will also come close to 10% gains.

The recession in the US will be over officially – it technically is already – but you’ll hear common people saying it. There will be a net reduction in the unemployment rate in 2010.

The KSE, having recovered more rapidly than expected in 2009, will show more modest gains of in the 10-15% neighbourhood in 2010.

The Pakistani Rs. will continue to trade between 82 and 86 to the USD through the year.

Netsol's responsible for security at a leading Pakistani mobile telecom company. Lock those PCs down!

We don’t quite know yet who the telco is, but if it was THE largest (mobilink), they would have probably said so. That leaves Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong. Your guess is as good as mine. But more important than identifying the customer here is the fact that NetSol appears to be diversifying into the security services business. This is an area that’s completely new for NetSol and we haven’t heard of any previous customer wins or product launches as far as security goes. So why are they diversifying into an area that’s seemingly irrelevant to any part of their past business focus? Is it part of a growth strategy or a move away from the core leasing business that hasn’t been doing all that well?

We’ve recently pointed out that while NetSol’s NASDAQ traded stock, NTWK, has made a modest recovery from the low of 25c up to close to a $1 now, it is still way off the $3.50 peak and the $2.50-$3.00 range it was trading in for two plus years. We just hope that the move into security isn’t an expression of lack of faith on the part of the NetSol management in the leasing and financial services markets the company has built its core business around.

More from the source after the fold.

NetSol Technologies, Inc., a provider of global business services and enterprise application solutions, has reportedly signed a major information security contract with one of the leading mobile telecommunications companies in Pakistan. This contract, according to a press release, further strengthens NetSol’s position in the information security services sector in Pakistan.
…

NetSol officials said the company was chosen after a rigorous selection amongst competitive vendors. As part of the contract, NetSol’s Information Security team has agreed to ensure the provisioning of hardware and software, lead the design and implementation, as well as train appropriate staff.