TechLahore

Pakistan blazed the WiMax trail and was the first major adopter of the technology, much before anyone in the neighbourhood, or even in the west. So far, WiMax is competing decently with various other mobile broadband options, such as EVO/EVDO. WiMax vendors in Pakistan have definitely had their challenges, but then that comes with the [...]

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 [...]

Ah, it’s that time of year again! And how quickly it comes. It seems like yesterday that I wrote the predictions reproduced below, but look, three hundred and sixty five days have passed already. We must continue the tradition we started in 2007 and built upon in 2008… so here we go! I was right [...]

The communication infrastructure in Pakistan, both wired and wireless, is quite incredible. There’s one pet pieve I’d had for a while though, and that’s the lack of inexpensive, true mobile broadband in Lahore. WiMAX is available, but I haven’t come across a USB dongle from Wateen so far. Their rates are also a bit on [...]

It’s not just SAP that’s rockin’ the house as far as the local market goes. Oracle is making waves too. Two significant deals were closed by Oracle recently, Wi-tribe, the third largest WiMAX service provider in Pakistan, and International Industries, a conglomerate. Previously, Oracle’s Peoplesoft solution has been adopted by several educational institutions in the [...]

Last year, I listed out a set of predictions and just recently I evaluated how they turned out. But on to more important business: what’s 2009 going to be like for Pakistan, for the IT industry and for the world at large? There are lots of very important trends unfolding before our eyes and they can [...]

Our earlier piece on Pakistan having the world’s largest WiMAX network attracted quite a bit of attention. In addition to other places, it was cited by democracyarsenal.org, which is part of the US-based National Security Network… but that wasn’t particularly helpful as an introduction, was it? Sort of reminds me of the old where-is-your-house?-By-the-mosque-But-where-is-the-mosque?-By-my-house joke! [...]

Doesn’t that headline just put a smile on your face? You’re not the only one. It’s great to see that the significant human effort augmented by billions of dollars invested in Pakistan’s IT infrastructure and skill-development are bearing tangible fruit. There are several areas where Pakistan is leading the pack already, and others where it [...]

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. True WiMAX competition in Pakistan, between Wateen’s existing service and Mobilink’s upcoming Infinity WiMAX offering. It’s only competition that will improve coverage, reduce rates and improve service. Currently, Wateen has the run of the house and to be honest, our December 2007 prediction is going to [...]

To follow-up on a story we reported on a few months ago, Huawei Technology from China has been chosen by Mobilink parent, Orascom, to deploy their WiMAX network in Pakistan. After Wateen/Warid’s WiMAX implementation, this will be the second largest. It’s interesting to note that Wateen chose a US-company, Motorola, for their implementation, while Mobilink [...]