Throughout the world, IPTV has continued to grow in subscribers. This new technology has been pegged to be the next great internet breakthrough. France is tops in the industry, with the largest subscriber base. It is followed closely by Hong Kong, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Morocco, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

In the past, Pakistan has lagged behind the rest of the region in broadband availability and especially in cost. It looks like the situation is set to change over the next few years due to policy and regulatory changes. Several companies are already in the process of preparing to offer the internet television services.

IPTV will be (and is) an important part this Lahori Generation. It offers Triple Play combination of phone, television, and internet services. Pakistan has the elements in place to become a part of this new world experience. It just has to step out and make it happen. I remember when WorldCALL first appeared to the Lahore with the introduction of their CableTV, they gave this idea of IPTV back in 2001 (I guess). But we ended up receiving Internet and Cable while they didn’t opt the License for Voice over Cable. Rather, they switched to their WLL – WorldCALL Wireless Local Loop service.

BrainNET I suppose is the only company in Lahore who is Unofficially full- functional (technically) to provide IPTV services. They are providing BrainTEL number along with Internet and TV (Test Transmission). Hence, they also haven’t opted the license for the TV broadcasting/rebroadcasting yet. They aren’t officially announcing the TV bit of their network on commercial basis.

So finally, PTCL – as expected – has won the first licence to launch an IPTV service in Pakistan, which will be a landmark development in the country’s telecom industry. Pemra will issue further licences to companies which meet the set criteria (I don’t know what it is).

Official statement states that:

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) is planning to launch an IPTV service in Pakistan in October 2007, following clearance from the Director-General of the Pakistan Electronic Media regulatory Authority (Pemra).

The PTCL project is supported by Chinese telecom equipment firm Huawei and Netherlands-based content security company Irdeto. Huawei is to supply the servers and set-top boxes for the project, while Irdeto will provide the content security solutions.

With an employee strength of 65,000 (mostly redundant) and 5.7 million customers, PTCL is the largest telecommunications provider in Pakistan.

I hope for the best of the new introduction in the market.

[References: IPTV-Watch.co.uk, WorldCALL, PTCL, BrainNET, Huwei, Irdeto]

Lets talk about future of cell phones i.e., iPhone, Apple’s gorgeous product that on Metroblogging everyone talked about (even in funny ways). It is super-hot gadget du jour and tech-savvy people around the world are waiting for it, see Vancouver and Hawaii for example as it is only available in USA with AT&T only (maybe its there by now).

Reason to bring this iPhone on LMB is that after Chennai, India -Pakistan also got involved in marketing monopoly by using this name. Yes, our very own bank UBL offered an entry in a lucky draw to win “iWin iPhone”, if one joins their Orion Club. Now, hi-fi aficionados will go and get the membership for maybe just iPhone (apparently attractive enough..huh?), what will happen if they come to know that iPhone cannot work in Pakistan? who knows, these are real ones or just a perfect clones or look-alikes, as Chennai posted, to mislead the buyer. Interestingly, you can measure the level of freakin’ indulgence by reading this, that a person actually had undergone an operation to re-size his thumb for using iPhone, …well, he deserves a wow (if he actually did that, which appears not to be the case).

Anyways, guys, if you look around for the best deal of iPhone (they are quite expensive), specially in Hafeez Center, don’t get maneuvered by the tactics and don’t even think about a Chinese version working well for you because the latest version itself is with lots of imperfections.

Suggested by Farrukh
Image credit to msn

There have been a fiber cut in the city which took the internet away from all starting from 2 PM till 4 PM today. According to PTCL resources, there were two fiber cut :

– Lahore – Karachi
– Lahore – Multan

Services has been fully restored at 4 PM. As we all know out internet goes via Karachi (via Submarine cables), so this outage paralyzed the technology activities in the country for all service providers. Inter-City connections were working fine (via which i was able to connect to Lahore office and route my internet via Satellite :P).

A LMB visitor, Asad ur Rehman, just like many of us must have, noticed the latest high-tech security related practice of authorities taking thumb-prints of everyone entering the Fortress Stadium in the cantonment area. This seems to be the first public place in Pakistan to get a security check system based on biometrics.

Fountains near the Fortress Stadium
Source: *_*’s flickr

In fact, it was exactly what I was thinking about when I visited the place by myslef yesterday. As far as I am informed, this new practice has started from just a few weeks back.

This may have something to do with preventing unwanted people inside the exclusive shopping circle of the Fortress; a precaution against increasing street crime including mobile phone snatching and car-theft, or just another gimmick to enhance the exlusivity of the place!

What do you guys think about it?