Babar Bhatti
The huge influx of imported mobile phones in Pakistan has spawned a whole industry around mobile phone repair work. The trend of mobile repair as a small business in Pakistan has taken off rapidly in the last few years. One reason for this could be the increase in handset prices caused by higher duty [...]

Babar Bhatti
The 3G version of iPhone was introduced this year in July. Despite the high price and software issues, popularity of iPhone has been growing everywhere including Pakistan. To date about 75 countries have been announced for this international launch but Pakistan is still not on the official list.
But given the talent Pakistanis have in [...]

Babar Bhatti
The aggressive competition in mobile telecom industry of Pakistan has led to introduction of many modern and useful features accompanied by some creative marketing.
So when Ufone started offering the first call blocking service in Pakistan, they came up with a catchy nickname for the call block service: 420. As every Pakistani knows, 420 in [...]

Babar Bhatti
The telecom honeymoon in Pakistan which lasted about 5 years (2002-2007) allowed Pakistani consumers to leapfrog over older landline based infrastructure and get cheap and quick access to modern telecommunication technology. The investors, telecom businesses and Pakistani treasury - all made good money and it was a win-win situation. It seems that the golden [...]

Babar Bhatti
I have been observing a trend of aggressive marketing and advertisement by the mobile operators in Pakistan. 50 paisa, 3 paisa, 1 paisa. Trying to one-up other competitors, the advertisements emphasise the lowest possible rate to grab attention.
In reality the low rates being advertised come with many conditions. To figure it out one has [...]

Babar Bhatti
In the last few years the entrepreneurial class in Pakistan has been on the rise - for the very first time I’d argue. This trend has been recognized by the media both in Pakistan and abroad as well as by quite a few bloggers. The interesting thing is that the trend of rising enterpreneurship [...]