No difference in monthly charges as they seem similar to what other mobile operators are offering, (Read our earlier compilation of BlackBerry rates and handsets http://review.com.pk/2009/08/blackberry-in-pakistan/).

For rates of handset please read on

Zong is offering two handsets the BlackBerry Bold 9000 and Curve 8900. Also another interesting thing is that Zong is launching an installment program for owning these handset, which is as follows. Also its only being offered for postpaid customers at the moment. The installment plan is pretty useless as is apparent from the calculations, an 8900 Curve will cost you a whooping !! 72 thousand in 2 years as against the regular price of 40,000, similarly a 9000 Bold will cost almost double of its regular 45k price.

for other details read our detailed review earlier

http://review.com.pk/2009/06/worldcall-evdo-detailed-review/

http://review.com.pk/2009/03/ptcl-evdo-broadband-on-the-go-rates-and-subscription-details/

the issues we had were

1. Extra ordinary device price (6000 vs 3000 for Worldcall)
2. Only one Package

Seems they have listened and responded well

Here is the add that appeared in the local news paper. according to it

besides the older 2000 Rs fixed package they have introduced two more options plus also allowing the 2000 as pre paid. and the sweetest change of all is the price drop of 2000 rs for the device

here are the new packages all prepaid packages are unlimited for their said duration (Unlimited data)

Device price or installation in other words is 3,999 Rupees,the previous post paid package of 2000 still holds too.

Prepaid also means that now you can pick and choose your internet usage so mage 100 for weekends is your need than this solves it perfectly.

Worldcall its your move now

Increasing its blackberry handset portfolio, ufone has introduced Blackberry Curve 8520 for a very reasonable amount of 25,000 Rs. unlike mobilink who recently introduced blackberry storm for an insanely high price ufone has kept the things in check. And hopefully it will do them good. So the range of blackberry handset available to us keep on increasing .  

As we recently covered blackberry services and devices in our post BlackBerry in Pakistan and noticed that BlackBerry STORM was missing from the available devices for most of the operators.

So we finally have BlackBerry Storm available from Mobilink (I am assuming others will follow steps soon) but the price for device is an extra ordinary 55,000 rupees, yup you read it correct its not a typo a BlackBerry Storm from Mobilink will cost you Fifty Five Thousand Rupees

it costs about 450 USD (which is about 36900 rupees at today’s conversion rate of 82 per 1 USD) networked unlocked in USA http://www.expansys-usa.com/d.aspx?i=175273. You can also get one from open market at about same rate of 36,000 Rupees. I understand that there is a price for being first owners but this device has been released like ages ago, charging a 40% premium on original price is not some thing called for. I wish we see other operators try to normalize this price.

I would  be reviewing the services offered by our operators and what hand sets are available with each of them along with the tariff.

Mobilink was one of the pioneers to introduce the blackberry services and handsets in our local market, based on the fact that mobilink had the most corporate client it also was the natural thing to do. With margin of profit declining due to the fierce competition in telecom sector, all the operators are looking are alternate services to make money. BlackBerry services is one of those.

BlackBerry services are typically broken down into two types of broad category there is a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Services) and a BIS(BlackBerry Internet Services) BES are usually for organizations which have an enterprise server installed in their setup, this service allows for official emails and contact lists to be synced over the air directly without any software. For BIS though we need a desktop software provided by blackberry that has to run on a PC inside the organizations LAN to access the official emails, it does provide access to POP and IMAP accounts

Mobilink

as I mentioned earlier Mobilink is one of the pioneers of introducing the BlackBerry services and handhelds in the local market.

BlackBerry Tariff

Mobilink offers both BES and BIS services to its customers, Besides Mobilink is perhaps the only operator that offers BIS services based on the downloaded data instead of the fixed monthly plan. its tariff is as follows you can find it here on Mobilink Site. Also these services are only offered for post paid mobilink customers or Indigo customers

Optimail is a very convenient and bargain deal for users who have frequent access to wireless lan access it would mean that users will only be charged for data that is actually downloaded over the air, the 1000 Rupees BIS Charges is exclusive of the taxes to don’t let that figure fool you for user it actually amounts to some where near 1200 (a little below) also it includes the GPRS charges so that is all you are paying for the black berry connectivity

BlackBerry Handsets

Mobilink is offering following handsets for its BlackBerry services, one thing to note here is that Mobilink is the only service provider which is giving these sets locked to its network.

• BlackBerry Curve 8310
• BlackBerry Curve 8320
• Blackberry 8820
• BlackBerry 8800
• BlackBerry pearl 8120
• BlackBerry pearl 8110
• BlackBerry Bold 9000
• BlackBerry curve 8900

Ufone

Ufone was hot on Mobilinks heals in launching the service.

BlackBerry services Tariff, UFone is offering the cheapest BIS services in all operators maybe its due to the fact that it has lack of handset variety in its offering, also I am not sure but maybe they also are the only operator which is offering these services for prepaid, maybe some of our readers can confirm

Also like Mobilink this package is inclusive of GPRS

Handsets

Ufone is offering following handsets in its list

• BlackBerry Bold 9000
• BlackBerry Curve 8300
• BlackBerry Pearl 8100
• BlackBerry 8800
• BlackBerry 8700 (Who uses this now days yuck !!!)

Warid

Warid with its large post paid user base is another operator which launched these BlackBerry services it is also only offering BIS at the same rate as Mobilink also as other its inclusive for GPRS

Handsets

Warid is offering following handsets in its list

• BlackBerry Bold 9000
• BlackBerry Curve 8900
• BlackBerry Pearl 8120
• BlackBerry 8310
• BlackBerry 8820

Telenor

telenor was surprisingly the last operator to offer BlackBerry services, due to its strong European roots it was expected to launch these services a lot earlier.Tariff is again same as mobilink and warid

Handsets

Telenor has the most limited set of handsets for use with only three up its sleeve.

• BlackBerry 8220
• BlackBerry Bold 9000
• BlackBerry 8900 Curve

Conclusion

BlackBerry services have come a long way, now we have almost the latest sets available through operators, Though you would have noticed absence of BlackBerry Storm from these, the other gripe I have is the sets offered by these Operators are grossly over charged for example Curve 8900 can be bought from market unlocked for about 35k and from these operators it costs you about 40k similarly for other sets they are charging a 5k premium approximately. Zong is still no where in BlackBerry offering I am guessing once they come in the rates might come down,

With this smart move wateen has made it really difficult for wiTribe and Mobilink infinity (due to be launched soon) lets see if the follow the suit.

He has reviewed the Mobile Banking solution launched by MCB in detail. I am posting excerpts here. You can go through the complete article on his site here,

According to him the service is based on fundamo which is a pretty mature mobile banking solution and working in quite few countries, I am also aware of some of our mobile operators working with fundamo lets see if that effort sees the light of the day, because truw mobile banking or branchless banking as it is said will only come if it really needs no account in a branch to make transactions, keeping my fingers crossed while we wait for true branchless banking while thanking our stars for what ever is out there, still better than the old check system.

keep reading for complete review

MCB has recently launched their mobile banking and payment solution. It is an Internet based service that runs on your mobile phone’s browser. You can link your MCB account with your phone number and that’s all you need to use the service. The basic set of services provided by the solution are:

signing up is easy as Basit notes here

How to Sign-Up
If you are an existing MCB account holder, you can simply go to MCB ATM machine and insert your card as usual. You’ll see an option to link your mobile with your account in the menu now. Opt for that, give your mobile number and that’s it. MCB representative will get back to you with the confirmation and will provide you with the Mobile PIN. Mobile PIN is used to log-in to the mobile banking site while ATM pin is also required to make the transactions.

If you are not an existing MCB account holder, you have to grab one account. My recommendation, just go get one, its worth it!

Note: You cannot use this services if you are an MCB credit card holder.

A video walk through of the service, plus his some good and bad are shared here

A walk-through video

For a detailed walk-through, watch the video below. I’ve made a mobile top-up, mobile bill payment, fund-transfer and balance enquiry etc in this walk-through for you.

Summary:

What you need to get the service:

• An MCB account and a debit card
• A basic mobile phone that has a browser and has GPRS activated

The good

• Simple and easy on basic mobile browser
• Topup to all mobile networks
• Bill payment for all mobile numbers
• Utility bill payment to a number of power companies.
• All gas and telephone bills payable
• Secure over SSL and SMS alerts to inform the user of an un-authorized login/transaction.
• No need to go to a branch to sign-up like other services.
• No need to download a software
• I really like the quick-pay option so that you can save your frequently paid bills and add people who you regularly transfer funds to.

The bad

• Well, the service is very slow at times, very slow as compared to normal mobile sites. On a second thought it is acceptable assuming it is because of the secure transactions and encryption.
• Cant transfer funds to other banks. (App says coming soon).
• Cannot use MCB credit card as a payment instrument.
• A few transactions failed or may be timed out. They can be teething problems but still are very irritating at times.

Conclusion
MCB Mobile is a winner by all means. You cannot call it a killer app as this stuff is not new in the market anymore but it reaches the top with the fact that its easy, convenient, ubiquitous, reliable and last but not least, very secure. Simply go to mcb.com.pk, search for your nearest branch, go get an account and sign up for the service. Happy mobile banking!

Wi-tribe has made a very strong come back. In our review of witribe we along with a lot of readers had shown issues with their pricing model. Seems some body up there is listening to the customer feedback and acting upon it.

Wi-Tribe has launched with full adds in print media and billboards, now coming out of their soft launch. continue reading for their packages

They have no become equals to Wateen still a bit expensive , for example wateen’s 512 kb with 5 gb cap is 599 where is wi-tribe is charging 750. I don’t clearly understand the difference between a modem for PC users and a separate one for PC laptop users, my assumption is the PC/Laptop one has a built in wireless router.  Wateen has a standard rate of 2500 for activation and device fees, wi-tribes modem for PC users is cheap how ever the other option seems expensive, you can easily get a wireless router for less than 2000 in market that would mean you can take the pc modem and take it wireless for about 2900, but then again every one is not happy to see too many wires going around, and with current situation of load shedding it’s good to have lesser devices.

How will it fare when users increase lets wait and see. if you have experienced it do let us know

Ohh by the way the 7 day tria

Ohh this month is proving to be good for broadband users, after the recent launch of WiTribe it seems Worldcall’s EvDO service is not fat behind, today I say this flyer at a local shop and upon inquiry was told that it is coming by 25th and they were booking orders 6%

another Image and details after the break

Tarif being offered is as follows

Introductory price for service activation is 2999/- (Its my assumption that it means the cost of device too)

which is not a bad deal considering the device is being charged at 4500 in Karachi.

Other discounts for advance subscription is as follows

Comparing with PTCL EvDO Rates for 2000 you get an upwards of 1 Mbps connection with same unlimited downloads where as for 1800 worldcall gives you a 512 Kbps, and with the recent launch of USB Device from ptcl the competition would be stiff, the plus point PTCL also has is the continuous functioning of device even out of major cities, but Customer service of PTCL has been an issue for people having problems.

So lets see how it goes

Update

We have a detailed update on Worldcall Service you can read here

Worldcall EvDO Detailed Review