Paktel of an earlier era
Salman Ansari
Paktel started at the same time as Instaphone.
History:
Paktel: Dec 1989. Karachi; Jan 1990 Islamabad on 4 leased lines on an omni site in Rawalpindi Satellite town; Then a breakthrough - 12 channels on the Railway network to Lahore using Transmultiplexers on FDM, extending 6 channels to Faisalabad via the Railways network; Aug 1990: 12 channels to Peshawar on the PAF UHF strategic network using the extended Supergroup. All circuits were back hauled to the Karachi MSC!
This was the FDM era and PCM was just beginning to happen.
You may be wondering what the Railways and PAF had to do with this: the T&T (PTCL of the earlier era) was just as paranoid as it is today and did not give any capacity. Since I had designed and installed the PAF (and a part of the Railways) network, I managed to barter phones, airtime and a low leasing cost for getting capacity from them. They even did not know that their systems could have additional capacity by using Transmultiplexers (converting PCM to FDM and back). I guess I cheated as I had manufactured these in the newly acquired Siemens company in NY and brought these new fangled devices to Pakistan to CTI and were solutions sitting around looking for a problem!
I was not the CEO but GM Marketing, with considerable say in the development and operations.
Salman
From: Tee Emm
[mailto:tariq....@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:37 PM
To: Imtiaz Noor; mehwis...@gmail.com; Babar Bhatti; Ansari Salman
Ansari
Subject: Re: Fw: Your Help Required
My guess about the Paktel operations being the first one in 1995 is wrong as Mobilink which was not the first one says on its wikipedia that it was established in 1994. Hence, I think Paktel was founded somewhere in very early 1990s. We can ask Salman sb as he had served the company as the CEO.
On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 10:34 PM, Tee Emm <tariq....@gmail.com> wrote:
When was the first cellular service launched in Pakistan?
Paktel, I guess in 1995. Back then, it was a project of Cable & Wireless
and some local partners.
When did it first advertised its products or packages on TV channels, newspapers and other mediums of advertising?
I am not sure but by 1999, the TV ad space was regularly getting cellular
promotion from the three main brands - Instaphone (amps), Paktel (amps) and
Mobilink (gsm). There was a tough time during 1990s when due to military
operations against MQM, cellular and payphone services were stopped in Karachi
for around a year and this brought things to a stall for the industry.
Firstly there weren't any SIMs used when cellular service was introduced in Pakistan and also around the globe. When was SIM card introduced in Pakistan specifically?
With the launch of mobilink in Pakistan in 1994 which was the first GSM
operator here.
With the arrival of SIMs cellular companies were then able to target people other than businessmen. Cheap rate packages were introduced. What ways did these companies adopt to target such people in their advertisements?
I don't think marketing was a real factor in the cellular growth in the early
days. The real break for the industry (in the positive sense) came when the CPP
(calling party pay) regime was introduced where the receiving party was by law
not to pay anything. This was the real boom for the cellular industry.
Essentially, it meant that whoever can break the entry barrier of a good
few thousand rupees (registration fee, a sizable tax amount, expensive phoneset
etc) can theoratically put an upper cap on his monthly bill (there was a line
rent, deducted on a daily basis in the name of daily charges) and only restrict
him/herself to receiving free calls.
The topic for my thesis is "Conceptual Analysis of the Press Advertisements of Top Cellular Services in Pakistan Targeting Youth in Their Pre-paid Packages Advertisements"
I think you need to consider how the cellular services' effort to sell their
services were inadvertently benefitting from the cell phone vendors trying to
push their products in a credit-culture free market where prepaid connections
and unlocked phones were a reality.
So my study is focused on the advertisements of the cellular services. Is it possible for you to tell when was the first print ad published in the newspaper of any cellular service in Pakistan?
Hard to tell.
Also if you can suggest me to read any publised material which might be available in libraries or book stores (in lahore), kindly do let me know
I am really grateful to you.
Mehwish Nizami
On 5/7/08, Babar Bhatti <babar....@yahoo.com <mailto:babar....@yahoo.com> > wrote:
Sure, please send me your questions.
Babar
----- Original Message ----
From: Mehwish Nizami <mehwis...@gmail.com <mailto:mehwis...@gmail.com> >
To: ba...@telecompk.net <mailto:ba...@telecompk.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 12:20:59 PM
Subject: Your Help Required
Hello Mr Babar Bhatti
My name is Mehwish Nizami and I am student of Mass Communication. Currently I am working on my thesis which entails a study of the print advertisements of Cellular Services in Pakistan. While searching over the Internet I have a number of times come across your articles at pakistaniat.com <http://pakistaniat.com/> . After reading your articles I have been able to gather sufficient information for my thesis. But as per the requirement of my topic I seek further information.
It will be really nice of you to respond to my querries via email. This will indeed be really kind and thoughtful of you.
Kindly reply to my email so that I can send you some questions in my next email.
Thank you for your time.
Regards,
Mehwish Nizami
--
- Inspirex
--
Tariq Mustafa MSN:t...@hotmail.com
Active Cell # http://tinyurl.com/2ob35t
Industry Blog: http://pakng.wordpress.com
Stuff I am sharing: http://tinyurl.com/2kagdu
--
Tariq Mustafa MSN:t...@hotmail.com
Active Cell # http://tinyurl.com/2ob35t
Industry Blog: http://pakng.wordpress.com
Stuff I am sharing: http://tinyurl.com/2kagdu
Babar
Thanks very much for sharing this interesting piece of history.
Babar
On May 10, 10:16 pm, "Salman Ansari" <sal...@super.net.pk> wrote:
> Paktel started at the same time as Instaphone.
>
> History:
>
> Paktel: Dec 1989. Karachi; Jan 1990 Islamabad on 4 leased lines on an omni
> site in Rawalpindi Satellite town; Then a breakthrough - 12 channels on the
> Railway network to Lahore using Transmultiplexers on FDM, extending 6
> channels to Faisalabad via the Railways network; Aug 1990: 12 channels to
> Peshawar on the PAF UHF strategic network using the extended Supergroup. All
> circuits were back hauled to the Karachi MSC!
>
> This was the FDM era and PCM was just beginning to happen.
>
> You may be wondering what the Railways and PAF had to do with this: the T&T
> (PTCL of the earlier era) was just as paranoid as it is today and did not
> give any capacity. Since I had designed and installed the PAF (and a part of
> the Railways) network, I managed to barter phones, airtime and a low leasing
> cost for getting capacity from them. They even did not know that their
> systems could have additional capacity by using Transmultiplexers
> (converting PCM to FDM and back). I guess I cheated as I had manufactured
> these in the newly acquired Siemens company in NY and brought these new
> fangled devices to Pakistan to CTI and were solutions sitting around looking
> for a problem!
>
> I was not the CEO but GM Marketing, with considerable say in the development
> and operations.
>
> Salman
>
> Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:37 PM
> To: Imtiaz Noor; mehwishniz...@gmail.com; Babar Bhatti; Ansari Salman Ansari
> Subject: Re: Fw: Your Help Required
>
> My guess about the Paktel operations being the first one in 1995 is wrong as
> Mobilink which was not the first one says on its wikipedia that it was
> established in 1994. Hence, I think Paktel was founded somewhere in very
> early 1990s. We can ask Salman sb as he had served the company as the CEO.
>
> <mailto:babar.bha...@yahoo.com> > wrote:
>
> Sure, please send me your questions.
>
> Babar
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
>
> <mailto:mehwishniz...@gmail.com> >
> Sent: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 12:20:59 PM
> Subject: Your Help Required
>
> Hello Mr Babar Bhatti
>
> My name is Mehwish Nizami and I am student of Mass Communication. Currently
> I am working on my thesis which entails a study of the print advertisements
> of Cellular Services in Pakistan. While searching over the Internet I have a
> number of times come across your articles at pakistaniat.com
> But as per the requirement of my topic I seek further information.
>
> It will be really nice of you to respond to my querries via email. This will
> indeed be really kind and thoughtful of you.
>
> Kindly reply to my email so that I can send you some questions in my next
> email.
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
> Regards,
> Mehwish Nizami
>
> --
> - Inspirex
>
> --
> Active Cell #http://tinyurl.com/2ob35t
> Tariq Mustafa MSN:t...@hotmail.com <mailto:MSN%3...@hotmail.com>
> Active Cell #http://tinyurl.com/2ob35t
> Industry Blog:http://pakng.wordpress.com
>
> Stuff I am sharing:http://tinyurl.com/2kagdu- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
H.M
Pakistan,I would like to share that I remember a Paktel ad which
showed a gentleman talking on a very big set while he was on civil
construction kind of field where there was some building on his
backgorund.
At that time this thing seemed very unique and we were really
astonished by the idea of a phone which can be carried anywhere
without cord or anything else.
I tried to search that on web but was unsuccessful,if someone has
please share.
- H.M
>
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
Salman Ansari
these converted to mpeg and upload them as soon as I get some breathing
space.
Salman