#10. No cell phones made in Pakistan.
#09. Not much of Urdu services or local content.
#08. Driving + talking on mobile = Accidents …. And no one is doing anything about it.
#07. People using their phone as a status symbol.
#06. No unlimited calling plans.
#05. Silly advertising which is completely out of touch with ground realities.
#04. PTA: Sleepy customer service + a lousy web site where finding information is a pain.
#03. Too many fancy schmancy services (e.g. mobile TV) but 3G and data services are still a rip off.
#02. Prime Minister firing off a statement every few days about rising mobile subscriber numbers, alluding that all problems of Pakistanis are now solved and demanding that Pakistan is where all the foreign. investment should flow to.
#01. Mobile phone snatching.
Babar Bhatti is a Telecom professional based in Dallas, Texas. See more at Babar’s blog: State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan.
I loved point number 2 and 7. Pakistan has a huge cell phone subscriber base is not something to be proud of. Its like saying pakistan has 160 million TV sets. Whats the big deal. Phones are a neccesity because of Pakistan’s wireline issues and its not a sign of development. BTW: one + thing about the cell phone industry in Pakistan. Incoming is free!!!!!!
WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
I thing Shaulat Aziz should mention this also. We have incoming calls are free , we are a Asian TIGER economy!!!!!!!! come invest in pakistan and ignore the killing and lawlessness
“Pakistanis are too obsessed …. things to occupy our attention, anything like music, theater, sports, reading, travelling etc, but in Pakistan it’s all about stupid status symbols.”
Good point, Aqil and I agree with it. Our colonial past also has somehting to do with it.
“What makes our people to come into the streets en-mass and wage gun battles against each other like they have done it last week in Karachi?” PMA
PMA, Organized gangs were involved to fire on the crowds. Any karachite will give you a detailed download about such events, their history, etc. Majority of the population, except for the poor who have to go out to make their daily living, stays home on such days. I think you may not have understood what happened on may 12 or what was happening in the late 80s and 90s in the city for that matter. It’s a very very complex city with almost all the pakistani ethnicities represented in its population. [Just the fact that ANP is a major party along with MQM should say something about how diverse the city is]. About gun battles and how they start ask MQM or better yet ask general zia’s masterminds from the mid 80s who were selling AK47s for 100 rupess to 16 years kids in the city.
Owais you have a point here. Our otherwise very nice friends in our residential neighborhood in Pakistan have added two more floors to their home where most houses are only of two stories. On top of their home is a large antena. They were very happy to tell us that the addition will pay itself off from the antena royalties.
1) Pakistanis have very few healthy activities to indulge in.
2) There should be more constructive things to occupy our attention, anything like music, theater, sports, reading, travelling etc, etc.
3) It is often said that Pakistan’s lack of progress and political problems are mainly due to its large mass of illiterate people.
4) Our educated upper middle class is very much part of the problem.
Aqil Sajjad: You have made some valid points. You always do. Now what should be the next step to get off the dead center? Here are some more questions if I may.
What makes our people to come into the streets en-mass and wage gun battles against each other like they have done it last week in Karachi?
How to convince the “educated-upper-middle-class” to get involved in the uplift of the “large-mass-of-illiterate-people”?
Mobile phones come with more and more ubiquitous environmental hazards. Besides the low-power radiation from mobile phone antenna itself, bigger danger is from ever-mushrooming mobile phone towers in residential areas. If you look at Pak cities landscape from any higher point, the most prominent landmarks now are the mobile towers atop residential and commercial buildings. I’ve heard (but not confirmed) that mobile phone companies give you upto 40000 Rs/month for getting their tower installed at your property. Our neighbors in Pakistan have done so. The other neighbor has allegedly sued the first neighbor citing the danger in case this tower falls down on their roof during a heavy storm, and the story goes on. So the point is that technology advancement comes with its own share of social and environmental evils especially if infrastructure is not planned ahead.
Interesting list.
I think the last point on mobile snatching is very important becoming really bad in Karachi but not that much in Lahore yet.
Pakistanis are too obsessed with cell phones and have very few healthy activities to indulge in. Buying a ridiculously expensive cell phone and showing it off to others to the extent that we do, is a manifestation of a very serious ‘get a life problem.’
There should be more constructive things to occupy our attention, anything like music, theater, sports, reading, travelling etc, but in Pakistan it’s all about stupid status symbols.
It is often said that Pakistan’s lack of progress and political problems are mainly due to its large mass of illiterate people, but this is only true to some extent. Our educated upper middle class is very much part of the problem, in fact in some sense more so because it has more power than those who have not been fortunate enough to be educated.
Nice picture…. my top gripe is that Pakistanis take cell phones TOO seriously. They talk ON teh phone all the time and they talk ABOUT cell phones all the time