Monday, March 21, 2011
ISLAMABAD: An earthquake this afternoon at 2.55pm jolted widespread areas of Punjab and upper areas of the country including Lahore, Islamabad, Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin, Khyber Agency, Peshawar, Mohmand Agency, Swat, Kohat, Nausehra, Chitral, Mansehra, Bat Gram, Kohistan etc.

Met Department said that the jolts measured 5.6 on the Ratchet scale, while the epicentre of the quake could not be ascertained immediately.

The revenue earned by PTML (Ufone), the wholly-owned subsidiary of PTCL, was higher by 16%, while the profit of PTML (Ufone) was recorded 82% higher in first half 2011 as compared to same duration last year, said the half yearly financial report published by PTCL.

Figures for profits and revenues were not made public, but according to Telecom Recorder’s estimates based on last year’s reports, Ufone’s revenues stood around Rs. 25 billion and profits remained at Rs. 2 billion during the reported duration.

Citing a PTA report, Telecom Recorder claims that Ufone received the highest traffic of SMS. It witnessed exchange of more than 10 billion SMS in July to December 2010.

In December only, the SMS sent on Ufone network was recorded 2.25 billion whereas the outgoing and on-net SMS numbers hit at 2.15 billion, further said the Telecom Recorder.

Ufone added a total of 725,902 subscribers during July-December 2010.

PTCL has announced PTCL EVO Big Bonus Offer, that allows all new customers to enjoy free second month if they purchase PTCL EVO device today.

Who can avail the offer?

The promotion is valid for all new EVO customers except for customers making purchase on DayPass package.

All you have to do is buy a new EVO Connection and you get full value of your first month’s usage absolutely FREE the next month.

This is a limited time promotion.

Terms & conditions:

* This offer is valid on purchase of all new commercial EVO packages except Day-pass.
* Offer is not valid for Nitro and EVO Wifi cloud customers.
* Customers are not allowed to downgrade their package till they have used free balance
* Additional usage in Go, Lite & Wiz packages will be charged from bonus balance.
* Customer must connect to the internet within first 3 days of the 2nd month to be eligible to use free balance or it will expire.
* Customer is not allowed to downgrade their package during this offer but customer can upgrade the package, in which case customer has to load the additional balance required to subscribe to the upgraded package.
* In the Advance billing package, customer will be required to pay Rs.2000 advance bill. After first bill payment, the next month will be free.
* In Landline package, customer will be billed for first month; after payment of first bill 2nd month usage will be free.

People of Multan are on the roll. Being always the first in any kind of resistance, NGOs and public in Multan staged a protest in front of Multan Press Club against Telenor’s “Khamoshi ka Boycott” TVCs.

The protest, on Sunday, was called by various NGO’s including Naveed Sehar Foundation, Save Future of the Child Organization, Young Pakistanis Organization, Rabita Pakistan Pasiban.

Protestors were holding banners to show their displeasure for Telenor’s “Kahmoshi ka Boycott” TVCs.

Senior officials of above mentioned NGO’s said that Telenor’s TVCs are not only spreading despair amongst Pakistanis but they are also negatively showing the culture of Pakistan which is hampering the image of the country.

They said that Telenor is presenting Pakistan’s culture in worst possible manner just for the sake of their marketing and subscriber count.

They said that gender discrimination and harassment is a global phenomenon. “While the ratio of sexual harassment incidents in Pakistan is way lower than other countries, Telenor is misrepresenting the facts just to spoil Pakistan’s image”, said a protestor.

“Telenor is trying to portray that due to gender discrimination, people don’t allow their sisters, daughters to work or to get education, which is not the case in real”, he added.

Protestors demanded Telenor to immediately stop airing these TVCs or these protests will be taken to next level.

Protestors demanded PTA to devise a policy for cellular company, so that national interest, national integrity and culture is not compromised in future TVCs from cellular companies.

Telenor Pakistan is airing a series of TVCs in which they are asking for the public opinion about various issues including:

* Booti Culture
* Parchi System
* Aurton ki Izzat (Women’s respect)

On Friday, the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet’s naming system, approved the creation of a red-light district online for pornographic websites. It follows a decade-long battle over such a name.

The uproar over the idea has brought together unlikely bedfellows.

Religious groups argue that giving adult websites their own corner of the Internet legitimizes the content.

Pornographers worry it will ghettoize their sites. Although it’s meant to be voluntary, they fear governments could try to mandate the domain’s use, so that pornographic content is more easily blocked.

Diane Duke, executive director of the adult entertainment industry’s Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement that ICANN has “disregarded overwhelming outpouring of opposition from the adult entertainment industry — the supposed sponsorship community” and dismissed the “interests of free speech on the Internet.”

Supporters have maintained that approving the domain is in keeping with the principle of openness that has fueled the Internet’s growth.

While the idea of “.xxx” has provoked a philosophical debate, for the U.S. company that submitted the application for the domain, the issue is little more than a matter of dollars and cents.

ICM Registry and its CEO, Stuart Lawley, who has led the fight for ICANN’s approval of “.xxx,” stand to profit handsomely from the rollout of “.xxx” websites — because he will be in charge of collecting fees for the use of the new domains.

Lawley plans to charge registrars $60 per year for the domain names. He estimates that he could sell as many as 500,000 by the time he rolls them out this summer.

“This was always going to be a very lucrative arrangement,” he said in an interview Friday.

Lawley’s prices have been a critical issue for opponents to his plan, since domain names typically sell for a fraction of what Lawley plans to charge. They often sell for $10 or less.

ICANN had repeatedly rejected Lawley’s application since 2000, under pressure from Christian groups and governments unhappy with the spread of online porn. Lawley has pitched the suffix as a way for parents to more easily block access to the content. He argues it will be easier for Web filtering software to block “.xxx” sites since they are clearly labeled as porn