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.

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.

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

Mobilink recently re-launched its post paid packages again.

Mobilink was the major share holder for post paid market and is still the operator of choice for many corporate due to its separate corporate customer handling.

How ever during these times of recession companies do try to cut down costs and a quick comparison would yield that mobilink post paid packages or Indigo as they call it are not the cheapest ones around, and the historical edge that mobilink had always held that most of the mobile subscribers are mobilink users and so the call from mobilink is cheapest does not hold true any more, so will these new packages do the trick, continue reading to find my take on this

So here are the packages as advertised

there are 5 packages in all as follows

i One Hundred

This is the lowest package the good thing about this is the very low sms rate only 20 paisa which is a good deal, call rates in this are not as low which is fair keeping in mind that this has the lowest line rent.

i Four Hundred

This package has a four hundred line rent, the difference from the first package is addition of free minutes (for mobilink calls only). But surprisingly the sms costs for this jumps to 75 paisa.

i Nine Hundred

This moves the line rent a bit up again adding 100 mb of gprs plus the 900 mobilink to mobilink calls. the call rate to mobilink numbers drop to 0.75 rupees per minute

i Fifteen Hundred

This is just below the most expensive package the major difference is dropping call rate to mobilink calls to 50 paisa, another change is that at this level the call charges to other operators is reduced by 25 paisa to stop at 1.25 Rupees a minute, also added is 250 mb of data plus the sms rate goes down as well to 50 paisa

i Unlimited

This is the most expensive package and there are two versions within it too. The premium one adds conference call and other vas free in the package. If we look at this package it is not as expensive as it looks. for any other package if you add black berry and gprs it is 1000 Rs a month, plus the fact that this is the only package which is offering generous 1000 free minutes to other operators which it self would be about 1000 rs this might come down a lot, for some one doing lots of calls and heavy blackberry and gprs usage it should be a good deal.

Conclusion

Though mobilink has changed some packages but over all still it is on the expensive side, comparing the unlimited from mobilink to the one of warid, warid’s Unlimited is 4000 rs monthly, which when you add blackberry and gprs comes to 5000 (but not all users want unlimited blackbery and gprs usage ) its giving unlimited calls on network unlimited sms plus the 1000 free minutes to other operators. The 100 rs package is an interesting one and might win them some customers as it has a very attractive sms rate plus the low monthly package only zong has a low monthly package of 100 rupees for warid its lowest is 250 rs package.

Will this change in tarrif work we will have to wait and see.

Warid recently flashed all channels with its 60 Paisa package, flooring the current contender for lowest rate Zong’s 65 Paisa Package by a big margin of 5 paisa

Lets see if this is the real case or just adjusting/hiding facts to make a package attractive as has become the habit of all telecomes, you really have to read the fine print to get the details.

Again source for all this is from their web site just mentioning the basic facts in a larger and readable format.

Here are the catches for this 60 Paisa Package to all networks

1. The package is for limited duration of the day and IS NOT a whole day package, these rates are applicable only from 9am to 5 pm during the day, you call after 5pm rates for calls after this time is as follows from their site.

Warid to Warid calls after 5p.m. till 9a.m. will be charged at Rs 1.5+tax per minute, whereas all other mobile networks and PTCL would be charged at Rs.1.7+tax per minute. Local (all networks) SMS would be charged at Rs.1+tax and international SMS is charged at Rs.5+tax per SMS

2. The billing pulse IS NOT 30 seconds as advertised so you make a call for 25 seconds you will be charged for a full minute, yup that’s right, it will cost you 1.20 Paisa (And that too during the day time of 9am to 5 pm).

So is it really a cheap package or just playing around with the facts to make a big splash, and as always remember when ever you do your calculations all these figures mentioned are before tax.

Will compare the lowest packages soon, keep tuned in.