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,

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!

Mobilink and UFone both have started offering Tracking services. Detailed review of both should follow in few days for now we can compare what major features these advertise.

The following table gives an over view of what both of these operators are offering in case of tracking services.

Analysis

At the moment Ufone has an edge on trial period plus the ability to offer service for devices which has GRPS (Which covers most of all devices available in market) Mobilink has a short coming of tying this to GPS based devices only which limits the usability.

Regarding pricing Ufone has click based model while mobilink might be offering (they does not have it clearly mentioned though) subscription based packages.

Ufone is a bit pricey but we can’t compare yet because of mobilink’s non clear pricing at the moment. for ufone searching a site then clicking on it and zooming in would cost you 3 rs (1 per action) and if you wish to get a route you will pay another 2 Rs, for someone who wants to use this occasionally this might make sense, for some one lost a lot more frequently (like me ) this will cost a fortune.

Plus the fact that Google Latitude is available free for for any GPRS based device and it has not maps for Pakistan it remains to be seen how many will use these services, but the fact remains that google at the moment does not offer directions which might be a winning point for these solutions.

Keep tuned in for a review of the services.