mobilink islamabad g-10

[Wasim Baig]

is it just me or has maybelink been down in g-10, islamabad since last night

none of our phones have been working ...

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wasim h. baig | principal consultant | convergence pk | +92 30 0850 8070 | peace be upon you ...

[aamir attaa]

Fire in MSC, http://propakistani.pk/2011/03/06/mobilink-goes-offline-in-north/

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[Saad]

There was a fire in their office in I8,  hence forth their services are experiencing problems all over Pakistan.

Regards,

-- Saad

[Ammar Faheem]

Fire in Islamabad MSC, outage in Lahore as well.. telecomistan.com/2011/03/mobilink-premises-on-fire-again-network-down-in-north/

On Mar 7, 2011 9:03 AM, "Wasim Baig" <wa...@convergence.pk> wrote:

[Hassan Shabbir]

Well I have been having problems connecting to their data services in Karachi, Gulistan e Juhar area. As soon as I go out of Gulistan e Juhar block 13 my data network comes alive and when I reach back in it dies. Wonder if this is related or not.

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Thanks,

Hassan Shabbir

[asif choudhry]

So, MOBILINK now truly comes as May Be Link. I was surprised that heart of the core Network has been under fire and there has no preventive measures on critical place.

Culprits should be fired.

don't thin so that the image of Mobilink shall back, all of my Friends and families using Mobilink since 7 years and now we are seriously thinking to port with some other operator.

BR

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Asif Choudhry

[Muhammad Waqar]

It was huge disaster for Mobilink. Mobilink was down in whole
Pakistan. Their SMSC completely burnt, also there was GMSC who is
responsible for data trafficking to outside.

Nature of severity can be guessed that emergency meeting of Board of
Governors was called...to plan further strategy.

Most of Post-paid traffic rerouted while Pre-paid still pending.

regards,
M.Waqar

[Faried Nawaz]

asif choudhry <choudh...@gmail.com> writes:

> don't thin so that the image of Mobilink shall back, all of my Friends and
> families using Mobilink since 7 years and now we are seriously thinking to
> port with some other operator.

I would be surprised if anyone even remembers it three months from now.

Warid: down for about five hours in October 2009. Remember that?
Ufone: down for about six hours in November 2009. Remember that?

Faried.
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[Atif Siddiqui]

its down everywhere in Islamabad :)

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[Majid Farid]

yet another example of poor/lack of BCP and DR planning in Pakistan...

On Mar 7, 1:19 pm, Faried Nawaz <not...@b.org.pk> wrote:

[Rehan Jafry]

Come on guys.  It is Pakistan and we are under Pakistani mind sets.  We only read BCP / DR  during CISA / CISSP / PMP courses but we did not know the ABC of this because nobody taught us here in pakistani organizations. Though we have compliance departments  and  ISO audits   and other numerous meetings/trainings.

Anyhow...It is up now and we hope now Mobilink will be seriously looking after this issue and making efforts to implement Business Continuity Planning.


Regards,
Syed Rehan ul hasan Jafry

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Best Regards,
Rehan Jafry.

[Muhammad Asif]

I am not agreeing with below remarks   What's about disaster recovery centers philosophy , as using by financial institution , fixed by state bank of Pakistan. Here we are providing live services and no disaster recovery back up planes with telco??!!

Sent from my iPhone 4

[Fouad Bajwa]

Hi,

I have worked for sbp infosys dept in the past during the point in
time when BCP was planned, designed and implemented. It is a
systematic process both technology and process based and there were
various situations where fires or problems with down-time were
efficiently managed because the process and monitoring was in place
with all the necessary equipment despite the fact that at the point,
the building was neither intelligent nor built for the purpose of
housing a data center but then the back up and DRP was well designed
and connect through various ways. It requires a combined planing and
this is where PTA lacks to design for itself a strategy and then have
the telecom sector follow or implement such a strategy.

DRP isn't fixed at all by sbp, its just an example for the financial
sector to follow. This is something I always try to figure out that
these teleco's attempt to spend such huge budgets on advertising and
sponsorships but investments in infrastructure availability, disaster
responsiveness and sustainability remains a challenge for them.

It is not true that you need CISA / CISSP / PMP courses to implement
BCP or DRP planning and implementation. Most of the team at sbp was
neither of these and the IS Audit team would usually carry these
qualifications that were a separate dept out of the business support
systems or information systems dept.

Even after 6 years of leaving SBP, it would be worth mentioning that
its IS infrastructure and the disaster recovery'responsive systems
have been in place without any reports so far of critical downtime
halting the countries financial & banking operations.

Anyways, that was an irrelevant analogy for comparison of DRP
strategies between the telecom sector and sbp??? No, because I tend to
believe and from what I have seen, sbp does not service the same
number of clients/customers/users as the telecom sector does and
neither is SBP's infrastructure as such beyond its branches that it
has to service the masses? The banking networks that connect to SBP
like NIFT, National Bank etc are again connecting at the banking
application layer and not at the general cash management layers so
nothing massive as the telecom sector though the infrastructure is
worth mentioning.

Well anyways, in case anyone needs BCP or DRP help as I was assigned
this responsibility for some time at sbp, I can be available for
advice.

Btw, these telecom companies have considerably efficient NOCs in
place, weren't they able to do the switches even manually if not
automated. Did they have DRP's? Optic fiber connected back up sites?
blah blah .......... as I am not a telecom guy........!

--
Regards.
--------------------------
Fouad Bajwa

[Majid Farid]

I think the board meeting which was called after the disaster should
have been called earlier to have a decision on DR/BCP department
formation with a mandate to ensure service and business continuity.
This typically shows the mindset. Not saying its Mobilink only issue
but as one of the major telco operator in Pakistan, they have a
responsibility greater than others.

A telco with Mobilink size should have a dedicated DR/BCP department.
Specifically since in recent years we had floods, earth quakes, bomb
blast etc. All of this boils down to customer experience and revenue
assurance.

Without going into how DR/BCP should be done the aim shouldn't be to
hire CISSP etc resource but to ensure that enough measures are in
place to ensure continuous services in case of a disaster.
I am sure different Core/RAN planning tools can simulate different
traffic patterns.

Lastly, DR solutions in Telco network is expensive and requires
additional equipment etc compared to IT networks hence the cost of DR
is normally an investment that telco makes to enhance customer
experience. In these times when CAPEX & OPEX are under great pressure
I am sure DR solutions normally are overlook. MSC in pool blah blah

[misbaha...@googlemail.com]

On a slightly different but related note...
May I question the level of safety measures to protect human lives in
such big organizations.

Let me share a personal experience. Around four years ago, while I was
working in a leading Cellular operator in RF Department, I was made to
unpack Qvoice equipment with extremely unsafe cable cutters. And then
it happened- I got my left thumb finger so badly injured that blood
rushed out into the entire room.

The interesting story is- while it happened right in front of my
manager, he didnt even rise from his seat. The Assistant manager was
laughing. There were no first aid/ emergency kits in the entire office
that housed the technical team. I was rushed to hospital by my friend
with blood still flowing out. No insurance claim was entertained later
by the company!

Whereas no lives were lost in recent event in Mobilink, what safety
measures were there to avert any such calamity? How many times a year
do they check their extinguishers? Do they train their "valued and
skilled human capital" how to use the extinguishers? Is there any
first aid/emergency kit? Medicines?? First aid trainings? Is there
even any session on "Health and Safety"?

Do they compensate the riggers who fall from the 60m tower & lose
their lives? Do they pay for the promised insurance at the time of
need? Do they ensure the resource doesn't suffer from psychological
disorder while they stretch him for work for 24+ hours, just because
they had no redundancy in resources?

I can confirm, the answer is No. & I have seen all these things
happening in front of me. In some of the cases, I have been the
recipient. In such scenarios, voicing is met with threats of being
fired from the job....

Without any bias, I know that only Telenor has a focus on these issues
to some extent. I dont remember if they had any training for using
fire extinguishers, but still the focus was there. Not sure about the
current scenario.