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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,

I have been busy with a lot of things which hopefully have finished, You should start seeing more posts and some features very soon

so stay tuned……

we a couple of months back did an account to visiting the IStore at Gulberg, i found another one at cavalry and visited it read the review after the link

The store is just right side of the Cavalry Bridge if you are coming from Gulberg site, its very easy to miss if you are not looking for it

Apologies for the quality of picture but this is all i could snap while in a hurry, its in the basement of a plaza.

When i went in i was greeted by a very friendly staff, the change in attitude of sales staff is always welcoming even at the gulberg store the staff was very good, not only were they friendly but they knew exactly what they were talking about.

This was no different either, I was looking for a pair of headphones, talked to the sales person he showed me variety, after choosing what i was looking for it was inevitable for mee to look around, i played with their macs and ipods while the sales person constantly without getting irritated told me the specs.

Space inside is little smaller than the Gulberg store but they have the whole range on display from imac to  mac mini. and ipods. They also had some accessories going for mac some them had me drooling

Fortunately the owner was also around so i chated with him, he assured me that they provide full apple warranty for products they sell have all the collection they were waiting at the time for new macs to arrive.

View Larger Map

Overall it was a pleasant experience with enough choices for apple fans to buy their stuff. Give them a visit if you do, let us know how you found it.

We are still waiting on official iphone launch in Pakistan (though hafeez center is full of second hand ones) but to get legal new one wont be a bad idea, lets see how long it takes

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.