Mobilink becomes First Telco in the World to Launch Facebook at Work

In a move to increase efficiency and collaboration amongst employees spread across the country and ensure communication can become more efficient, Mobilink has become the first Telco in the world to launch Facebook at Work, the business version of Facebook that allows companies to build more productive, efficient and collaborative workplaces.    
The enterprise service shares a similar look and feel to the personal Facebook network but is completely separate from the consumer Facebook service.The service also has built in enterprise-grade security and administration tools.    
“As we move towards digitalization, Facebook at Work will serve as a platform which will not only connect our employees better but will also serve as an informal platform for information sharing. I am confident that the use of Facebook at Work will enhance our ability to communicate more effectively and help develop a better integrated Mobilink family,” said Jeffrey Hedberg, President and CEO - Mobilink.
“Facebook at Work has not only increased employee engagement, but has removed typical line management and hierarchical barriers to communication. It has also improved two-way communications and reduced outbound email traffic,” added Ehtisham Rao, Head of Digital Services - Mobilink.
With many of Mobilink’s employees already using the consumer version of Facebook, adoption of Facebook at Work throughout the organization was a simple process for Mobilink’s HR and Digital teams. The Telco initiated various creative engagement activities i.e. a Dubsmash Competition, Knowledge Share, and other similar activities to promote the use of the enterprise service amongst employees.
“In Facebook at Work, we have a tool which allows us to further embed our work culture across the organization,” said Asghar Jameel, Chief Human Resource Officer - Mobilink. “We want to derive an open, collaborative and non-hierarchical culture through the utilization where teams can communicate, share and solve problems in ways that traditional tools cannot.”  
Facebook at Work looks and feels the same as the Facebook that we use every day. The key difference is that it allows workers to create an additional work account that is separate from their own personal Facebook account. It uses familiar Facebook features like the news feed, groups, messages, and events, but has been designed purely for sharing content and collaborating with co-workers to build a more connected and productive workplace.   

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Mobilink Torchbearers take up Student Mentorship

Mobilink Foundation officially launched its ‘Teach to Transform’ (T2T) program by conducting a 90 mins mentorship session at Master Ayub’s Park School located at F-6, Islamabad. Under the program’s guidelines, Mobilink’s employee volunteers spent their time atthe school by providing teaching support to students who were struggling academically, and required additional tuition. Jeffrey Hedberg, CEO – Mobilink, was also part of the volunteer team and dedicated his time to a book reading activity with the students. The activity was concluded after the distribution of necessary course books, self-help reading materials and stationery amongst students. 

T2T is a student mentorship program that assigns Mobilink Torchbearers to under privileged schools across the country. Launched in 2013, it is yet another innovative corporate social responsibility initiative by the Mobilink Foundation. The pilot phase of the project was launched at the DSRA School in Karachi where 46 students benefited from the teaching assistance provided.

Commenting on this student mentorship program, Omar Manzur, Head of Corporate Communication - Mobilink stated, 

“Teach to Transform aims to academically assist students who are in need of slight guidance to remove their weaknesses, while also helping them realize the plethora of professional opportunities a sound education provides them with. For the past two years, we have expanded the reach of this initiative to impart education to students from deserving communities across Pakistan through our dedicated team of Torchbearers, and this year we will continue to expand its outreach.”

Following the initial success of this program, Mobilink has decided to include it in the annual CSR activities of the Mobilink Foundation. Through T2T, Mobilink Torchbearers tutor students in Math, English and Science, while also making them aware of the professional opportunities around them through higher education. Mobilink Foundation continues to work in the areas of education, environment and health to raise awareness, impart knowledge and contribute positively towards growth of the communities it operates within. 

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Tracking your loved ones through MobiLocator

Mobilink’s latest location based service gives users the ability to keep a track on their friends and family, and nearby landmarks

Committed to providing simple and convenient solutions to its subscribers, Mobilink has revamped its location based service, MobiLocator. This service provides users with the ability to find their current location and location of their registered friends and family. Moreover this service allows customers to find the location of nearest restaurants/cafes, ATMs, Petrol Pumps etc. MobiLocator also has a scheduled SMS alert option, which enables users to track and record the location of their family members after pre-set time intervals.

With faster access and flexibility in mind, MobiLocator service has been shifted from SMS to USSD channel. All features of this service are now bundled under one umbrella which makes it easy for the customers as they would not need to send SMS request on different short codes. Previously customers had to pay different price for each feature every time they use the service for finding locations.

The price of the service is now changed to PKR 2.5+tax/week for prepaid and PKR 10+tax/month for postpaid. This enables customers the opportunity to pay once for the entire week or month and use all features without any additional cost.

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Mobilink Receives WWF ‘Award Of Innovation

WWF Pakistan, in a latest honor recognizing the telco’s ongoing endeavors to protect the environment, conferred the ‘Award of Innovation’ to Mobilink at the third annual ‘WWF Green Office Network’ meeting. The award is in honor of Mobilink’s ongoing green sustainability initiatives, which target the telco’s industrial and corporate activities in a bid to cut down on consumption of electricity, paper, water and residual solid waste. Previously, Mobilink also received WWF’s Green Office Certification, only telco in the country to do so, for its corporate premises in Lahore and Islamabad after ensuring a 73% drop in the consumption levels of natural resources.    

Expressing his delight at receiving the award, Omar Manzur, Head of Corporate Communication - Mobilink said, "Mobilink's Corporate Responsibility function, not only, ensures that our employees are aware of environment-friendly practices and make efficient use of resources, but the corporation, as a whole, amalgamates this green philosophy with its corporate objectives. At Mobilink, we believe that global businesses are the only institutions strong enough to meet the huge long-term challenges facing our planet, thus we are willingly to strive harder to ensure our part is played out efficiently. The ‘Award of Innovation’ by WWF acts as an encouragement for our employees and ‘Green Office’ coordinators for all the good work they have been doing to live up to our corporate objectives.”  

As part of these ongoing green initiatives, Mobilink has incorporated a Building Management System – an intelligent centralized energy management solution to efficiently control & optimize the telco’s buildings’ consumption, and different Power System Optimization Projects. It also continuously revamps its communications structure to reduce paper usage, while cutting down on CO2 emissions through a reduction in corporate traveling; for this purpose Mobilink launched ‘MobiRide’ - an environment friendly-carpooling network designed and configured to address issues such as parking space constraints, high traveling expenses, and traffic congestions. The telco also holds regular employee engagement activities to create awareness about various environment issues, while Mobilink Torchbearers, volunteer employees, carry out environmental friendly activities like the recent tree plantation drive at the New Islamabad international Airport, where 2000 Silver Oak Trees were planted.

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Mobilink Supports WhatsApp Urdu

The world’s mostpopular messaging app, WhatsApp, has just released an Urdu version of WhatsApp Android app, which has prompted Mobilink to exempt all data charges associated with the app’s usage through their Social Bundle. This move has been made in partnership with WhatsApp to promote the app’s usage amongst Mobilink’s large proportion of mobile internet users who All prefer Urdu as their first language, and those residing in towns and rural localities. To avail this limited time offer, subscribers need to dial *114*5# to activate their Free Social Bundle, and enjoy free WhatsApp over Mobilink Edge/3G.

“WhatsAppis now available in Urdu (on Android)!' said Brian Acton, Co-Founder of WhatsApp. “We’re excited to be partnering with Mobilink to enrich communications for Pakistani users in Pakistan and abroad.”

Aamir Manzoor, Head of Data, Mobilink commenting on the benefits of this partnership stated, “Mobilink is consistently looking to empower people to lead an enriched life through the introduction of innovative services and products. Supporting Whatsapp’s Urdu update is another step towards increasing the outreach of the use of internet and data in Pakistan through locally customized services. I am confident that with our free social bundle offer, Mobilink users will make the most out of WhatsAppUrdu.” 

  

Available on Android smartphones, the latest version of WhatsApp has a fully localized Urdu language update. To use WhatsApp in Urdu, customers simply have to change their language setting to Urdu on their Smartphones.

WhatsApp is not just your average messaging app and its popularity the world over has been possible thanks to the plethora of interactive features it offers i.e. Group chats, file sharing with contacts, Status Updates, Location sharing and voice notes ,to name a few. Mobilink believes it needs to spread its usage across every strata of the mobile using community in a bid to build a better real time SMS & MMS alternative, one that connects you with the world instantly through the Telco’ssuperior 3G connectivity.

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UC BROWSER SIGNIFICANTLY OUTPERFORMS ON NEXT GENERATION MOBILE NETWORKS

UC Mobile Browser Delivers Mobile InternetAnd Downloading Speed Three Times Faster than other Mobile Browsers Used on NGMNs in Pakistan

UC Browser, Pakistan’s number one mobile browser with over 26.3% market share, has outperformed in a trial over NGMNs (The Next Generation Mobile Networks), delivering three times faster download speed comparing other mobile browsers. In a series of internet downloading demos conducted by leading sites, data download and web browsing was typically three times as fast as existing other mobile browsers, with the average download speed under 3G and 4G-LTE  networks.

For millions of smartphone users around the globe, fast web browsing and downloading speed is critical in the selection of selection mobile browser app selection. UC Browser has therefore been delighted to enhance its downloading performance by leveraging the cloud technology to ensure super-fast browsing experience.

These trials are an imperative proof towards a super-powered mobile browser that can truly transform the mobile browsing experience by providing the unique UC technologies that can meet the capabilities of today’s smartphones. 

Downloading videos and music was a favorite activity among many users in the country. However, the mobile internet conditions in Pakistan are not ideal, users prefer to download the media to local storage and play it while on the go, so sometimes downloading files can be really challenging. By adopting multi-thread download technology, UC Browser improves download speeds no matter what the network condition is. UC Browser allows users to download files at an industry-leading speed, and it can automatically resume download process in case of interruption. It also provides a sweet file management feature for users to manage downloaded files.

UC Browser is available as a free download on Google Play. Download here: UC Browser for Android.

About UCWeb

UCWeb Inc. (UCWeb), an Alibaba Group company, is a leading provider of mobile internet software and services. Since its inception in 2004, UCWeb's mission has been to provide better mobile internet experience to people around the world. The flagship product of UCWeb, UC Browser, is available on more than 3,000 different models of mobile devices from over 200 manufacturers, and is compatible with all mainstream operating systems. Serving users in more than 150 countries and regions around the world, UC Browser is now available in 11languages including English, Russian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. Additional information about UCWeb and UC Browser can be found at www.ucweb.com. 

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Over 200 cities now experiencing Mobilink’s best in class 3G network

Mobilink has become the first Telco to expand its 3G network to over 200 cities of Pakistan. In line with its commitment to focus on the growth of high speed internet across the country, Mobilink sped up its 3G network expansion by adding 178 cities, to the existing 31, in the first half of 2015 alone.  Already the largest 3G network in Pakistan, Mobilink ensured its rapid 3G expansion was not hampering performance by certifying optimal performance in each area before moving on to the next.  

Coinciding with Mobilink’s vision to bridge the digital divide prevalent in the country, this milestone has been achieved in just over a year since the commercial launch of high speed mobile internet in Pakistan. During the course of 2015, Mobilink has expanded its 3G network across the country by providing comprehensive coverage in metros, smaller cities, and towns across the four provinces.

In order to encourage the use of 3G and increase awareness in these newly connected areas, Mobilink also offers its subscribers free 3G for a limited period of time, which has been appreciated by people from all walks of life.  

“Mobilink is playing a leading role in expanding the high speed broadband infrastructure in Pakistan. Being the first operator to launch 3G in more than 200 cities strengthens our position as the largest 3G network and also proves Mobilink’s commitment in bridging the digital divide by making a technologically advanced Pakistan,” said Aamir Ibrahim, CCO & Deputy CEO Mobilink. 

Further elaborating on the benefits to the public of a strong 3G presence, and the change in local trends, he stated, “3G broadband facilitates access to knowledge and is a key factor that positively impacts the social-economic canvas in the country. While call and text performance are important aspects of mobile communications, people are now relying more on the internet to for their productivity and entertainment needs. Mobilink remains committed to providing the benefits of a solid high-speed internet connection to every Pakistani, in every nook and corner of the country.”    

To support its superior 3Gservices, Mobilink has in place a robust fiber optic infrastructure that expands to over 8000 kilometers coupled with the latest technology, state-of-the-art equipment and a well versed team of professionals. Mobilink has invested heavily in its 3G network to provide exceptional 3G coverage to its subscribers in more than 200 cities.

Mobilink’s3G network connects millions of people who use the Telco’s superior internet speeds and affordable data packages for education, businesses, communication, entertainment, and e-learning purposes.

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The Third Generation Experience

The advent of 3G and 4G in Pakistan has been transformation for the country. While the masses have stepped into an era of free around the clock connectivity, businesses too have access to a multitude of avenues through which to reach customers and clients.

How people use technology and what patterns of consumption they employ will serve as a revelation for companies looking to track consumers’ preference trends. The experience will be particularly insightful for e-commerce businesses as they will have firsthand knowledge of the users’ habits.  Other than this valuable aspect of the advancement is the way businesses can reach consumers better now and at any time.

As people use smartphones more and more for their everyday activities and the reliance on laptops becomes less necessary every day, 3G has made communication fast and instant.E-commerce websites which are already going through a golden period have reaped complete benefit from 3G and 4G technology, and new internet related ventures are developing on a daily basis. The positive impact of these businesses is an indication of the sector’s good health and future potential. Now you can find fast and reliable internet in all hotels and lodges of Pakistan such as Express Lahore Hotel that provides uninterrupted internet in all rooms.

Consumers have also been introduced to a myriad of new services which were previously unavailable in Pakistan.  How 3G networks stretch throughout the country also means that even areas which had no internet connectivity now have the freedom to use these services. A new and rising area of e-commerce has been the delivery of convenience and recreational opportunities to consumers. Social networks have also enabled people to make informed decisions and also have a greater variety of entertainment avenues to choose from within and outside Pakistan. 

Leisure, travelling and the food businesses have seen positive growth since the launch of 3G and 4G in Pakistan - through the web and social media networks such as Facebook. Services now use geographic targeting for their marketing activities which has become a possibility through the telecom industry’s provision of 3G and even 4G throughout the country.  Consumers can be accessed at the ideal time when they would prove to be most receptive to marketing efforts and consumers can likewise derive benefit from lucrative offers the moment they are available such as huge discounts available in summers on Naran Kaghan Hotel rates for 2015 , discounts on online shopping for clothes, coupon for food deliveries and much more.

A year or so later, we have only scratched the surface of the potential 3G can provide us, and 4G is largely unexplored.  We can do so much more as the field presents unlimited opportunities and also convert the various uses into profitable business ventures which can have can have a transformation impact on the economy of the country. 

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Mobilink Now Offers 3G connectivity in 43 cities of Pakistan

Mobilink has expanded its 3G network to 43 cities of Pakistan by adding seven new cities to the existing 36 that already were experiencing the telco’s superior internet connectivity. This is Mobilink’s fourth stage of commercial 3G rollout and covers the following cities: Bhalwal, Chakwal, Daska, Dipalpur, Mandi, Bahauddin, Pattoki, and Wazirabad.  As an added incentive to its subscribers and for testing purposes, Mobilink is also offering free 3G trials in these seven cities till 25^th May, 2015.

Speaking about this 3G network expansion, Aamer Manzoor Head of Data, Mobilink said, “We are pleased to announce that with this latest expansion we shall be providing our superior 3G services to facilitate a greater number of our subscriber base. With a total of 43 cities under our 3G network through this fourth stage of commercial rollout, step by step, we are on our way to connect every Pakistani to the world at large.”

“Our plan was to cover the major metropolises in the first two rollout stages, and now we are focusing our attention towards the smaller urban and rural set ups in a bid to empower the masses to make a real difference to their community and be part of Mobilink’s commitment to close the digital divide between rural and urban areas,” he stated while providing a breakdown of the telco’s 3G network expansion strategy.

Since the commercial roll out of 3G services in Pakistan, Mobilink has seen its number of 3G users grow at an exponential rate thanks to its affordable data plans, superior service and innovative 3G VAS offerings.

The subscribers will be notified about the end of free 3G trial via SMS and Mobilink’s digital assets. Under the free 3G trial offer, customers can enjoy unlimited data every day. Data services on 2G will be charged as usual.

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3G Users in Pakistan Surpass 12 Million

Number of 3G/4G mobile phone users in Pakistan crossed 12 million mark till March 2015, said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

All mobile phone companies converted a total of 1.63 million of their subscribers to 3G network during the month of March, thus taking the total toll to 12 million.

Almost half of these new 3G subscriptions came through Zong that claims to have added over 800K users to its 3G network during March only.

Mobilink added 259K new users to 3G network while Telenor added 383K users to 3G. Ufone managed to grab 192K users for 3G services.

More in below graphs:

4G Users

According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, 4G users in Pakistan reached 97,722 in March 2014 — up from 68,184 a month ago.

According to PTA stats, Zong added 24K new 4G users in month of March to take its total 4G users to 31,582.

Warid’s LTE users’ count stood strong at 66,140,

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Zong to Provide Free 3G Mobile Internet on Daewoo Busses on Motorway

By Gulshan Naz:  Zong has signed an agreement with Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Service here on Friday to provide free Super 3G internet to all Daewoo passengers commuting along the motorway.  Zong is currently the only operator in the country to provide carpet coverage for 3G along the Motorway.

The collaboration with Daewoo Pakistan implies that Daewoo passengers travelling on the motorway will now have access to high quality 3G internet, without any charges and without the possession of a Zong connection. This facility will enable them to remain connected to their friends, families and businesses at all times, resolving past issues of connectivity.

Speaking at the occasion, Babar Bajwa Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Zong said that

We at Zong have always been very committed to providing our customers with cutting edge technology. We will continue to strive towards making this provision of high quality data a reality, and this current partnership is a step in the same direction.

Also present at the occasion was Dr Syed Ismail Shah, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), who noted that

Pakistan has an immense potential when it comes to provision of high quality and high speed 3G & 4G data services. Our vision for the future is based on accessibility to these services by all, and Zong's efforts to provide 3G mobile broadband services deserve applause in this regard.

Mr C I Park, President Daewoo also spoke at the occasion, and said that 

This partnership is a very welcome news for our passengers, as they will now enjoy unlimited connectivity along the motorway.

Next week onwards, Daewoo terminals at Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Peshawar will have kiosks whereby people can purchase Zong MBB products, Zong SIMs as well as carry out recharge through miniload and scratch cards.

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