Mobilink, that has announced the commercial launch of Mobilink Infinity, a wireless broadband and telephony service for residential and enterprise consumers based on the mobile WiMAX standard, estimates the service will attract 50,000 subscribers by the end of the year.

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Chips based on ARM designs power the majority of smart phones

Mobile phone chip designer Arm has announced an alliance with the makers of the Ubuntu open source software.

The deal will produce a version of the operating system for small net-browsing computers known as netbooks.

It marks a departure for Arm, which before now has been best known for designing the chips inside smartphones and feature phones.

The new operating system for Arm-powered machines looks set to be available in April 2009.

Battery power

Rob Coombs, director of mobile marketing at Arm, said he expected to see the first devices running the version of Ubuntu by the time of the Computex show in June.

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Warid Telecom (Pvt) Ltd. and Trafco Group renewed their agreement and signed another contract through which Trafco Group will utilise voice and data communication services of the GSM and Edge network of Warid Telecom.

Warid Telecom (Pvt) Ltd. is providing voice and communications services through its state of the art GSM and Edge network to Trafco since May 2006. Both Trafco and Warid have enjoyed and benefited from the partnership and has decided to strengthen the business relationship by extending the service contract for another year.

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ZONG has launched a simple, smart and elegant USB GPRS/EDGE modem that is capable of catering to all consumers needs including mobile professionals, laptop computer users and frequent travellers due to its efficiency and affordability elements.

Zong, Internet USB card will facilitate fast Internet browsing, instant access and the uninterrupted ability both to upload and download data. Combining cutting edge technologies with sleek design, ZONG’s customers can look forward to enjoying high-speed wireless access, both at home and on the go.

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When I joined the Gmail for mobile team a year ago, the mobile client worked like a web application designed for networks that were always available. This was fine on a fast and reliable network, but when you hopped on the subway, network reliability could be a big problem.

Today, we’re happy to announce Gmail for mobile 2.0 for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones. For this version, we changed our fundamental assumption about the network. We re-thought every action that you might perform with the app and tried to solve for the case where there is no signal. We wanted to make the mobile client faster and more reliable and added some other new features along the way.

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Mobilink coverage of 10,000 locations

Mobilink, Pakistan’s market leader in cellular communication with more than 31 million customers and a part of the Orascom Telecom Group, has crossed the figure of covering over 10,000 locations across the country. It has expanded its footprints to highest number of locations for voice and data than any other operator in Pakistan.

The President and CEO, Mobilink, Zouhair A Khaliq, while breaking the news said, ‘It is a momentous achievement both for the benefit and convenience of our revered customers, who have reposed absolute confidence in our services, as well as for the exceptional efforts of technical and network teams, who have toiled relentlessly to deliver this challenging task have more than 10,000 reasons to rejoice.

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Pakistan telecom industry is ready for the introduction of 3G (third generation) spectrum for telecommunications and this is the most suitable time for its launching owing to low prices of relevant equipment in the international market, said Telenor’s executive vice president, corporate affairs Irfan Wahab Khan on Wednesday.

Speaking at a workshop on “Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to 3G - the development of mobile telecommunication in Pakistan”, Wahab said that introduction of 3G will not only enhance services but would also bring Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

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Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to implement a system for activation of new mobile SIMs after verification of customers’ antecedents from January 31, 2009. The decision was taken unanimously in a meeting of mobile companies CEOs and the regulatory affairs officials here on Tuesday.

The meeting was chaired by Chairman PTA and attended by senior PTA officials. The chairman said that from January 31, 2009 onwards non-active mobile SIMs will be sold which would be activated only after the verification of consumer data from Nadra, subsequently sale of pre-activated SIMs would be stopped. The meeting discussed proposed model for activation of new SIMs after verification of customer data.

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Ufone Song Catcher

The Ufone lets its valued customers identify songs they like through the amazing ‘Ufone Song Catcher’ service. For the first time in Pakistan, now mobile users can instantly find out name of the artist and the title/album of song being played on TV, Radio, Music player or any other device.

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Ufone Pakistan is introducing innovative mobile products in Pakistan, and has now launched BlackBerry Bold smart phone in the country. First to bring this inimitable marvel to the local market, Ufone will further add to its reputation as a front runner in providing BlackBerry services to customers on the go.

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The BlackBerry Storm, which will go on sale later this year, is competing with Apple’s iPhone 3G and T-Mobile’s G1. 

You just can’t keep a secret in the tech industry these days. Early pictures of T-Mobile’s Google phone leaked onto the Web the week before its Sept. 23 launch, and now images are surfacing online of another eagerly awaited device: a new handheld from Research in Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry Storm. RIM hasn’t officially launched the new device yet — and it declined to comment on the leak — but the Storm is clearly a direct assault on Apple’siPhone 3G and T-Mobile’s G1. It’s also an attempt to wow consumers with both a jazzy new design and an App Center filled with games and other add-on programs.

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Phone firms, chip makers and PC manufacturers are uniting to push mobile broadband on laptop computers.

The alliance will build wireless modules into laptops to make it much easier to use the gadgets on future high-speed services.

Laptops with the wireless chips built-in will bear a service mark which shows they will work with the third and fourth generation wireless technology.

The branded laptops should be on shop shelves in 91 nations by Christmas.

Fast forward

Laptops and notebook computers bearing the “Mobile Broadband” logo will have on-board modules that will boost current third generation speeds and work with future fourth generation technologies.

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