We have seen cell phones being produced as evidences in very crucial historical cases, this time, it’s the Blackberry phones possessed by assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Recently, 2 Blackberry phones, belonging to Benazir Bhutto were handed over to the joint investigation team conducting an inquiry into her murder on Thursday, reported Express Tribune.

Today, the newspaper broke another news which claims that data from the blackberry has been retrieved by the investigation team which reveals that Benazir Bhutto was promised Prime Minister’s slot from highest authorities in both Pakistan and the United States that.

Paper claims that close to 60 e-mails, dozens of text messages and close to four hundred contact numbers have been retrieved from both the BlackBerry phones.

Express Tribune has produced few emails of Benazir Bhutto as following:

“Respected Prime Minister (Benazir Bhutto), the United States confirmed that a crucial message had been sent to intelligence agencies of Pakistan, specifically not to interfere in party affairs and stay away from the electoral process.  Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and director-general Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) have done a secret deal for your (Benazir Bhutto) premiership.

Congratulations Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and warm regards,” read an e-mail sent by a leading PPP leader on October 23, 2007, to Benazir Bhutto calling her “Respected Prime Minister”.

An email was sent by Benazir to Ron Suskind, an American journalist, some days prior to her assassination. The former prime minister, while referring to the then president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf said that he wrote to his friend that he (Musharraf) gave her an alarming message:

“You (Benazir) should understand that your security is based on the state of relations between you and me (Benazir and Musharraf).”

In another e-mail, dated October 26, 2007, the slain PPP leader wrote a letter to her advisor in Washington DC, Mark Siegel, in which she expressed dissatisfaction over her security.

She wrote:

“Nothing will happen, just wanted you to know. If it does, in addition to the names in my letter to President Musharraf, I would hold Musharraf responsible.

I have been made to feel insecure by his minions and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private security or using tinted windows of four police mobiles to cover all sides could happen without him (Musharraf).”

Bhutto also sent an SMS message to Daphne Barak, a famous interviewer who often writes for Mail Online. In reply to an SMS message, Barak wrote:

“Bibi, you are going to Pakistan. It’s a trap for you now. But you are insisting to go back.”

via ‘ProPakistani.PK‘

Ufone today announced the launch of Blackberry Bold 9780 Smartphone for its subscribers.

BlackBerry Bold™ 9780 smartphone comes with the advanced BlackBerry® 6 OS. It is equipped with a 5 MP camera, grouped social feeds and so much more to excite U.

BlackBerry Bold™ 9780 Specifications:

• A faster interface and integrated social networking and email.
• 624 MHz processor
• 512MB installed memory, expandable to 32GB with micro SD card.
• Improved web browser.
• Wi-Fi connectivity.
• 5 megapixel camera.
• BlackBerry OS 6.
• 3G/HSDPA
• Wi-Fi 802.1 b/g with UMA
• Bluetooth 2.1 w/A2dp
• Gps with aGPS support
• Music player.
• QWERTY keyboard.
• Screen resolution of 480 x 360 pixels.
• Talk time 7 hours.
• Video player with recorder.

Price and Availability:

• Ufone is offering Blackberry Bold 9780 Smartphone for Rs. 45,000
• Blackberry Bold 9780 is available at all Ufone Service Centers

Which means, Ufone Uth customers can send 100,000 SMS to one Ufone number for Rs. 10 plus tax for one month.

Above equation seems pretty appealing, however, variables are increasing with every new offer coming from cellular companies.

With its current offer, Ufone is claiming that this is cheapest SMS rate in the world. Rightly so, however, this cheapest possible SMS could get the love juice from the whole world if it had come with a liberty of sending SMS from any Ufone number to anyone, on any network.

If you want to avail this offer, and are switching your number to Uth, then be informed, that there are daily charges of Rs. 1 per day with Ufone Uth Package. Here are complete details on Ufone Uth Package.

Here is what Ufone has to say about its claim:

These SMS rates are the lowest in the world. This is based on the SMS rates comparison given on the website of the cellular companies on 24th January, 2011.

For companies based outside Pakistan, the comparison is based on rates after conversion from Dollars to Rupees(as of 24th January, 2011). This comparison does not include packages based on location, time specific or packages with friends and family daily or monthly charges.

The charges do not include 19.5% FED and 10% Income Tax charges which will be charged as per the prevailing Pakistani law.

And just for a clue, anyone can beat Ufone’s this offer. Here are tips:

• Get a new package with daily line rent of Rs. 10

• Offer 1,000,000 (one million) SMS a month to one customer for this package and – Bang!

Never mind, Pakistani cellular users are now used to of such caps that come with mobile packages.

Here are interesting Facts, you may want to consider:

• Seconds in one month (60 x 60 x 24 x 30) : 2,592,000
• Time required to send one SMS: 7 seconds (on average – actual time may vary from 4 seconds to 12 seconds)
• Total possible outgoing SMS in one month: 370,285

Just for records, if you send back to back SMS for one whole month, you won’t be able to send more than 370,285 text messages in one month. Just to mention, this doesn’t include composing time or anything else, these stats are for back to back SMS.

How to Activate:

To activate this offer simply send your desired number to 604

Mechanism:

• To Add the number as FnF, SMS the FnF Number to 604
• To Edit existing FnF number, SMS the FnF Number to 9104
• To Query the FnF number, SMS ‘INFO’ to 9192
• To Remove/Deactivate FnF package, SMS ‘UNSUB’ to 8104
• 19.5% FED on usage and 10% withholding tax at recharge or bill applies

Terms & Conditions:

• This package is only available to Uth Package customers
• FnF Number can only be an On-Net number
• Only one On-Net number can be added as an FnF Number at any time
• Customers can update/edit their FnF number as many times as they want by sending the FnF number to 9104
• FnF update/Edit charges are Rs. 10+tax
• SMS to all other numbers will be charged as per the customer’s tariff plan
• Customer can also subscribe to the SMS Buckets along with FnF package
• FnF Package will have the highest priority in case of subscription to SMS buckets, that is no deductions from Bucket SMS would be made in case of SMS to the FnF number
• The FnF package is valid for 30 days from the time of the package activation
• Upon the expiry of the FnF package after 30 days, the package will be renewed automatically
• Unsubscription charges are Re. 1+tax
• Query Charges are Rs. 0.5+ tax
• All charges are exclusive of tax

In a report published by PTA, on SMS traffic trends in local and global markets, says that a total of 151.6385 billion text messages were exchanged by Pakistani cellular subscribers in fiscal year 2009-10, generating a revenue of Rs. 40.76 billion.

This figure translates into 1532 SMS per subscriber in an year or 128 SMS per subscriber in one month. Average price of one SMS is said to be at 27 paisas.

Report says that four billion mobile subscribers use SMS service around the world, who sent five trillion messages in 2009 i.e. approximately 105 sms per person per month.

Pakistan is ranked Number four for average number of SMS sent per subscriber in a month.

By 2013 the volume of messages will double to 10 trillion, according to Portio Research. That is, the SMS traffic will grow double in coming four years. The forward prediction can be seen in following figure:

According to ITU, SMS traffic is generating an estimated revenue of USD 812,000 every minute (or around USD 14,000 every second) for the cellular companies from 5.3Billion users.

In 2009, SMS revenue accounted for 12% of China’s largest mobile operator’s total revenue. The Philippines and the United States combined accounted for 35% of all SMS sent in 2009.

SMS Traffic in Recent Years:

In Pakistan, SMS traffic over past few years is reported as following:

* 2006 PK Messaging: Approximately 8.7 Billion messages
* 2007 PK Messaging: Approximately 22.6 Billion messages
* 2008 PK Messaging: Approximately 61 Billion messages
* 2009 PK Messaging: Approximately 151.7 Billion messages

Report says that SMS traffic in Pakistan was exchanged at an average rate of 27 Paisa (Rs. 027) per SMS in the year 2009.

Report said that 80 percent of SMS traffic utilized SMS bundles offered by cellular companies, while rest of 20 percent SMS were sent using flat rate of Rs.1/sms.

An average bundled package of 700-SMS/ Month is approximately for Rs. 60. According to these two rates, the revenue for SMS-traffic is calculated to be approximately 40.76 Billion.

Operator Wise Details:

Zong and Mobilink has more outgoing traffic than the incoming traffic. Ufone has the highest SMS traffic on the network. The out and incoming traffic of Mobilink is almost balanced in each month respectively. Telenor has quite high incoming than its outgoing.

Following is the dissection of the traffic of all the operators network.

According to Mobilink, it has highest difference in exchange of traffic with Ufone. Incoming traffic from Ufone is more than the sent traffic. Similarly its receiving more SMS messages from Zong than the sent messages. Where as its sending more messages to Telenor and Warid.

Ufone SMS traffic is the highest landing traffic at the Telenor network. Zong is also sending more traffic to Telenor than is receiving from it. It is interesting to note here that he incoming traffic to telenor from all other networks, except warid, is more than its outgoing to all the networks.

Zong is sending more SMS to all the operators than receiving The difference in exchange of traffic is highest with Warid, followed by Mobilink then Telenor and Ufone.

*Download Complete Report – Report by ProPakistani.PK

The Secretary Cabinet Division, Mr. Abdur Rauf Chaudhry has said that 3G services would hopefully be available to the Pakistan mobile users by the end of 2011, while it is expected that the Policy for auction of 3G services licenses would soon be presented to the government and Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for discussion and approval.

He said this while speaking at a seminar organized by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaborat0ion with Qualcomm and Central Asian Cellular Forum (CACF) at Islamabad on 3G mobile services.

The theme was “Opportunities for All: Development of 3G Devices in Pakistan”.

Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, moderated the ceremony. Delegates from Board of Investment, Pakistan Engineering Council, Ministry of IT, Representatives from Qualcomm, IT & telecom Industry experts, CEOs of telecom companies, International Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Local Investors, Mobile Distributors, Academia and media representatives attended the seminar. The Secretary said that the local manufacturing of 3G handsets is very important and govt would consider the recommendations given by the Industry during the seminar.

On this occasion, Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen said that by the end of this quarter we will be able to roll out plans for 3G services once the Policy is approved by the Government. He said that handset manufacturing is a vital segment of mobile Eco System, by the end of 2011, there will be an estimated sales volume of 300 million 3G mobile handset around the globe. Pakistan offers an excellent opportunity for investment in 3G handset manufacturing with availability of skilled manpower and upward growth of mobile market. He said that creation of a favorable climate for high value added, low cost R&D, production and marketing will certainly instigate investment window in the country.

During the seminar Chairman PTA also delivered a comprehensive presentation to highlight the worldwide practices regarding 3G manufacturing. He presented various investment incentives offered in various countries. Chairman also highlighted the present 3G handset market in Pakistan with necessary future roadmap to promote handset manufacturing industry in the country.

Mr. Raheel Kamal, Mr. Sanjeet Pandit and Mr. Hani Yassin of Qualcomm also made presentations highlighting magnitude and importance of 3G Manufacturing in Pakistan. During the seminar speakers of International fame focused on the pre-requisites for handset manufacturing proliferation such as incentives, mutual coordination, infrastructure development and technology research.

Mobile phone has become the biggest platform available today with almost 5 billion wireless subscribers, of which there are more than 1 billion 3G subscribers in the world. The 3G number is expected to grow to 2.8 billion by 2014. With upcoming 3G auction in Pakistan and network rollouts in the near future, the industry would be benefited from the data growth and exciting applications and services on the 3G networks. Various full-featured mobile operating systems such as Android, Windows, Java, Brew MP, etc., continue to drive the proliferation of mass-market Smartphones offering thousands of applications, services and mobile content.