The Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival 2010 is advancing with a new vision.

SICAF, celebrating its 14th festival, has tried to realize the imagination of animations and to be a driving force for the development of cultural contents. We should devote our energy to the realization of bigger imagination getting the cultural age of the 21st century. So we will try to make this SICAF 2010 as a progressive and evolved festival with new imagination. The exhibition, mixed with expertise and popularity, whose spectators can participate in, will be more reinforced than before.
International Digital Cartoon Competition:

SICAF proposes the present and the future of digital cartoon that dreaming various development and propagation. International Digital Cartoon Competitions’ cartoons makes a view point of “open type” beauty and possibility of industrial extension. Digital cartoon exhibition relief inventive  digital cartoon and propose digital cartoons of future by “new experimental cartoon”.

It’s an opportunity for PSEB member IT companies to take part in the said festival to earn business in animation.
Deadline for  International Digital Cartoon Competition:

The deadline has been extended till 26th April 2010, for participation in the competition.

Formulation of Collaborative Regulatory Framework, Third Party Mobile Banking Regulations, Consumer Confidence & Protection and Adoption of Latest Trends are those initiatives which can bring about unprecedented growth in mobile commerce (m-commerce)” said Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Dr. Mohammed Yaseen. He was addressing a two day workshop cum seminar with a theme “Broadband Networks: Technologies, Trends, Opportunities and Needs” arranged by Military College of Signals (MCS) here today. Representatives of MCS, IT & telecom industry and educational institutions were also present on the occasion.

Chairman PTA, in his address, discussed in detail the opportunity model in m-commerce. He shed light on different areas of m-commerce and highlighted scope of opportunities vis-à-vis local market trends. He discussed different market segments, types, present trends, drivers & constraints of mobile money and also shared information on the global and local forecast of mobile banking.

Dr. Yaseen said that we require a mutual collaboration, for the development of local applications and contents, by industry and academic institutions to promote usage of broadband in all spheres of life. He said, operators are looking for future revenue streams which are very much dependent on availability of value added data services. Key issue in further development of data segment is non-availability of local content and applications which can contribute towards ICT-based economical contribution. That’s why, today, the PTA’s main focus is on the development of local content and applications, he added. He also emphasized on the need of a strong industry-academia linkage for the proliferation of broadband sector and its different areas.

Chairman PTA appreciated the efforts of MCS on arranging this workshop. He also invited other industry stakeholders to play their role in providing such platforms to discuss trends, opportunities and needs in the broadband sector.

On 18^th April 2010, a successful raid was carried out by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in Green West Karachi with the help of Federal Investigation Agency Cyber Crime Wing. The raid resulted in confiscation of one functional Gateway Exchange with over hundred SIMs and other accessories. Two individuals have also been arrested from the location, who are being interrogated by FIA.

In last one year, PTA has conducted twenty seven (27) successful raids in different cities of Pakistan. During these raids forty five (45) culprits including some foreigners have been arrested along with confiscation of more than forty (40) Gateways, hundreds of SIMs/Connections and other accessories. The apprehended culprits are being interrogated by FIA and legal proceedings are underway to recover the millions of rupees loss to the national exchequer.

Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen keen interest has helped enormously in achieving these results. PTA under his leadership has established highly advance technical monitoring system to identify such illegal activities throughout Pakistan. After identification of the illegal activity; Enforcement Division not only unearths the exact location of these networks but also launches crack down with the help of FIA to safeguard national interests.

PTCL conducted its annual Way Forward Workshop for the senior management held on April 18th to 19th 2010 at Serena hotel Islamabad. The Way Forward exercise is one of the initiatives taken by the Etisalat management to develop teamwork and foster creativity at PTCL.

The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) have entered into a landmark agreement at Islamabad for the provisioning of 10 Gigabit Premium Internet Bandwidth Connectivity. This is the largest Internet Backbone Connectivity ever acquired by any organization in Pakistan.

PTCL is the main provider of premium internet bandwidth to the HEC who in turn provides the internet services to the universities alongwith other IP facilities including video conferencing, digital libraries and access to International Education & Research Networks.

The contract is an integral component of Pakistan Education & Research Network-2 (PERN-2) Project which was initiated by HEC to provide high speed connectivity to the universities and institutes of higher learning across the country, forming the national research and education network of Pakistan. PERN2 also provides internet access to the students and research scholars of the universities in Pakistan through state of the art access technologies.

On the occasion, Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director of HEC said “The PERN-2 project upon completion will bring HEC at par with any international organization and will give access to the internet cloud, world wide education & research networks, digital libraries within/outside Pakistan, distance learning/video conferencing, unified communication boosting the sharing of knowledge with international students, scholars and knowledge resources”.Walid Irhaid, President and CEO, PTCL, added that “PTCL has offered this premium IP transit facility keeping in view of its corporate social responsibilities to the education sector of the country. PTCL is the only service provider in Pakistan having the capability to provide the required volume of internet bandwidth because of its partnerships in multiple international submarine cables’, its robust countrywide transmission network and state of the art IP infrastructure.”

On this occasion HEC & PTCL expressed desire for expanded future co-operation in the best interest of the country and its positive impact on the education & social sectors of Pakistan.

To facilitate its customers Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) has launched duplicate bill service on web. Where customers can either go to PTCL portal www.ptcl.com.pk or click the URL http://dbill.ptcl.net.pk to view their bill. They can either download it in PDF format or can print directly to their printer.

Launch of this service save customer’s time, where now it’s not necessary for customer to visit PTCL OSS or other office to receive a duplicate bill in case they do not receive their phone bill. They can easily view or print the phone bill at their own convenience from home/office/net café, wherever and whenever they like.

SEVP Commercial Naveed Saeed remarked the launch of this service another feather in already thriving portfolio of PTCL services which are designed especially keeping in mind customer facilitation. He said PTCL is determined to develop systems which are customer-centric and user friendly.

Not only this, PTCL has also developed an effective online interface through which customers can order majority of products along with the facilitation of submitting their suggestions and feedback regarding services of PTCL.

EVP Customer Care Jamil Khawaja said that customer care has been at the core of all activities of PTCL and it is our endeavor to provide customer services through various touch points for their ease.

The steps to get duplicate bill have been kept very simple. Customer can visit the website www.ptcl.com.pk or URL http://dbill.ptcl.net.pk. After that they have to follow link bill view/print or browse it. After entering the landline number and customer id which is mentioned in landline bill, duplicate bill in PDF format would appear in popup window. Customer with a print out can walk into any PTCL one stop shops, revenue offices, customer care centre or PTCL designated bank to pay the bill.

The module is running smoothly in browsers like Internet explorer, Google crome, Mozilla Fire fox and Safari

Nokia N8 is first symbian^3 OS cell phone with 12 mega pixel camera N8 has Carl Zeiss optics, auto focus, Xenon flash, Geo-tagging, face and smile detection.

It is Nokia’s another Touch Screen phone having 4.0 inches screen with 16M colors, Multi touch input method with 80 x 800 pixels. Nokia N8 has introduced Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, and took Iphone’s Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate to a higher ground.

Unlike Samsung star series N8 has scratch-resistant surface.

Being compared with other handsets in market Nokia N8 also has unlimited phonebook storage capacity with photo calls function but the bad thing is that it can keep call records of 30 days only.

Another good thing about N8 is its 32 GB built in memory with a microSD memory card slot which can also hold up to 32 GB of additional memory.

Nokia N8 will also consist of Email, Instant Messaging (IM) and Push Mail along with SMS and MMS. Regarding entertainment it can support MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC – MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV.

To give Nokia N8 a delite touch Nokia has included GPS receiver, Pocket office, PDF viewer, Nokia Maps, Voice command/dial, Video/photo editor, Flash Lite 3, Java, MIDP 2.1, and digital compass in the cell phone.

Moving on with cellular technology N8 consists of Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, USB v2.0 micro USB, GPRS Class 32, EDGE Class 32, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) Pakistan’s national  converged services telecom operator, and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Pakistan’s largest banking institute have joined hands to deploy the largest Financial network in Pakistan . This is via NBPs “Online Connectivity Services for Network Expansion” project.

PTCL will provide an end to end solution with enterprise-wide network connectivity architecture, all necessary hardware, software & management of the network, on the basis of managed services. The established of this State-of-the-art Wide Area Network will ensure enhanced reach, operational efficiency, customer retention & systematic growth and development for NBP. The WAN will be used for various banking applications, emails, internet and ATM’s across NBP’s 1300 branch network and other offices over Pakistan and AJK.

President PTCL Mr. Walid Irshaid during the ceremony said’ National Bank of Pakistan is  a valuable addition to PTCL’s  portfolio of its customers. This project is another milestone in PTCL’s perpetual pursuit for providing its customers with the best solutions based on the latest available technology in the market with unmatched services . It is also an opportunity for PTCL to deliver innovative, secure & reliable solutions for Pakistan’s largest banking institute.”

Commenting on the occasion NBP President, Mr. Ali Raza said that “this is an unparalleled achievement for Pakistan’s banking establishment . The introduction of this level of technology will not only provide immense facilitation to our customers but also make NBP a technology leader not only in Pakistan but in the whole region.”

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) has upgraded and advanced its contact centers to facilitate its customers. Now PTCL customers can utilize its services through these contact centers with out leaving their homes or offices.

PTCL has four contact centers one each in Karachi and Rawalpindi and two in Lahore. These contact centers operates round the clock 24/7, 365 days a year. A well trained staff of 1200 personnel ensures quality service and support to our customers at all times.

These contact centers has been upgraded from a previously man-power reliant contact centers and now has taken the shape of advanced and developed process-oriented contact centers. They are equipped with state-of-the-art technology and parameters in place together with efficient and effective provision on the first call resolution.

SEVP Commercial Naveed Saeed remarked that these steps were an effort to ensure that all the customers both in-bound and out-bound, needs were dealt with speedily and effectively. He added that customer facilitation has always been the core objective of PTCL policies and programs.

Besides this, PTCL has also developed an effective online interface through which customers can order majority of products along with the facility of submitting their suggestions and feedback regarding services of PTCL. The web portal will enable customers to manage their accounts and billing as per convenience of their time and location. PTCL is also providing an online complaint form for their customers to register their complaints using web based services.

To improve customer care in the regions, PTCL has also established service support centers through out the country. They serve as a platform for communication with customers, analysis and follow-ups on faults and service provisioning regarding all PTCL services. They have also been engaged in coordination with local exchanges for expediting customer services issues.

EVP Customer Care Jamil Khawaja said ensuring effective customer care is the top priority of PTCL and all steps would be taken to simplify the procedures for our customers to eradicate any hurdles coming in way.

Warid  achieves another milestone by signing MoU with PIA (Pakistan International Airlines). By the virtue of this MoU PIA will use voice and data communication services of Warid Telecom. The signing ceremony of this agreement took place at PIA head office Karachi. The MoU was signed between Mr. Muneer Farooqui, Chief Executive Officer, Warid Telecom and Capt. Aijaz Haroon, Managing Director PIA. Mr. Shahid M. Murtaza, GM Corporate Accounts & Enterprise Solutions, Warid Telecom, Mr. Asad Afridi GM Communications, PIA along with other senior officials were present on the occasion.

Commenting on Warid, PIA partnership, Mr. Muneer Farooqui, Chief Executive Officer Warid Telecom said “PIA is the Pakistan’s national flag carrier and we are really pleased for having this opportunity to serve the communication needs of such a prestigious and large scale organization. I am sure we will bring PIA an exceptionally delightful experience. Our priorities include ‘Quality First’ at forefront and we always strive to present the smartest, advanced and customized solutions for our Corporate Sector. Our partnership with Pakistan International Airlines is a great value addition to our Corporate Portfolio. Warid is determined to continuously bring best of the breed communication solutions to optimally serve the communication needs across all segments. I wish Warid and PIA relationship to grow and flourish in years to come, Insha Allah.”

Warid’s GM Corporate Accounts & Enterprise Solutions, Mr. Shahid M. Murtaza said “We are proud to be associated with Pakistan International Airlines. Our relationship will prove successful and beneficial for both the organizations. We are delighted to have PIA’s confidence in us and we are sure the partnership will go a long way.”

Managing Director Pakistan International Airlines Capt. Aijaz Haroon said “PIA is glad to have Warid Telecom (Pvt) Ltd. as its partner in business by way of providing communication services to the national carrier.

With the signing of this agreement Warid Telecom will now provide PIA with voice and data communication services. As Warid Telecom Pakistan has gained success in a short period of time, it is hoped the agreement between the two companies will continue, while we look forward to a long lasting business relationship.” he added.

Gaining the trust of large businesses by offering them quality services and customized solutions, Warid Telecom continues to set excellence benchmarks in Telecom Industry of Pakistan.