LTE the answer to exceptionally growing mobile data traffic

Aoun Muhammad

The data revenues of cellular mobile operators (CMOs) reached Rs47 billion during the year under review, showing a growth of 47.4% YoY. The data traffic has escalated by 19.3% overall in the telecom sector and 40% in voice traffic due to increased subscriptions and competitive bundle offers provided by the cellular services in Pakistan. These cellular companies have taken notice of the explosion of social apps usage in Pakistan and are offering lucrative offers that include daily, weekly and monthly plans for internet usage, which is also a major contributor to data traffic. Consumers are moving from voice call trend towards to mobile data trend because of apps such as Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter.

There has also been a substantial increase in the imports of mobile handsets worth US $544 million, an indication of the consumers opting for Smartphones with features like email, instant messaging, video and voice calls. The consumers are opting for Smartphones with smart apps to ease their lives on the go and to keep themselves updated with global trends. A Smartphone also provides a window for the consumer to mix their social and business activities. These Smartphones at a time were costly to obtain, but now telecommunication companies, banks and manufacturers are providing discounts and installment offers with 0% markup that make obtaining a Smartphone easy.

The aggregate effect of increase in subscriptions, bundle offers, internet packages, social apps, email and smartphones have created an entire segment of mobile data traffic that is worth monitoring and it because of such factors networks are looking in to 3G and 4G networks. This will not only be a source of revenue for the cellular companies but will also generate employment in the economy, contributing positively towards Pakistan’s GDP.

In lieu of this GPRS/edge supported network, Pakistan has entered in an era of Next Generation Wireless Networks (NGWN) commonly known as 3G and 4G networks. These NGWNs are going to innovative all services across a national platform, including but not limited to financial, business, information, social, and education and entertainment services. In addition to these, there will be superior voice communication and faster bandwidth will make video calls possible. Having a 3G network is a big step for Pakistan, as it means faster internet than Edge/GPRS services, clearer voice calls and a superior experience in mobile finance, entertainment, education, social and business services.

However, Fourth Generation LTE networks will revolutionize the entire process of mobile payments and banking. It will also provide superior voice call quality; the download speed will be faster and video quality clearer. One of the leading telecom operators Warid Telecom has recently launched LTE services in Pakistan and became the first operator to transform from 2G to LTE technology. This transformation will help ease the data traffic being generated from social and business apps but will also update and revolutionize the entire system and lifestyle of Pakistan. The network will be ten times faster and more responsive than a 2G or 3G network as the LTE technology is designed to reduce latency. Video chats and conferences will facilitate social and business lives of a consumer. Introduction of LTE by Warid will also create an influx of investment as software companies will begin to develop apps that are facilitated by LTE networks, which will also generate employment.

In short, our lives will be hard to picture without Next Generation Mobile Networks in the coming future. The introduction of LTE is going to revolutionize and uplift the entire social, economic and financial state of affairs in Pakistan. Pakistan can infact boost its ideas and conceptualization of progress with the help of LTE and in few years make these concepts a reality. These Networks can act as a catalyst that will bridge the development gap between Pakistan and First World Countries, if utilized accurately.

The author of this article is a renowned publicist with a penchant for information technology and corporate sector.

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You Can Now Receive Direct Messages from Anyone on Twitter

Twitter has made a number of significant changes to its Direct Messages Feature. In the past, Direct Messages have been a bit of a hit and a miss. Photos were not allowed in DMs and neither were non-Twitter links for some time. In addition, there were some red-faced moments where DMs would be shared on the main timelines of people.

No more though. Twitter has taken action to redeem itself and slowly but steadily, there has been progress. You can now send pictures via DM, kinks with link sharing have been ironed out and Twitter has also introduced a Group DM feature where you can add up to 20 people and share messages.

Now, there have been more significant changes which will fundamentally alter how you use the platform. Here they are:

Users Can Now Receive Messages from Anyone:

Allowing users to get Direct Messages from anyone, even if you don’t follow them. The feature has already rolled out to everyone so all you need is to go to Options -> Security -> Privacy -> Direct Messages and click on “Allow Direct Messages from everyone”. This option could be a significant attraction to advertisers who could use Twitter for mass advertising.

You Can Reply to Anyone Who Sends You A Private Message:

The second feature is that you can now reply to anyone who sends you a private message, regardless of whether he/she follows you back. In the past if you followed someone, that person was able to send you a direct message but you were unable to reply back. Now if the person you follow sends you a direct message, you can reply to it without that person having to follow you back.

Improved DM Experience on Mobile:

It is now easier to send Direct Messages to friends via your iOS and Android apps. There is an option for direct messaging right on the profile of the person. It was available in the web version but was unavailable in the mobile version till now. Earlier you had to search for the DM button and it was quite a pain.

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Periscope Is Twitter’s Latest Live Video Streaming App

By Gulshan Naz:  With the sudden rise of Meerkat, it is clear that live video streaming is becoming increasingly popular.

Twitter has now jumped into the game with its own live streaming app called Periscope. Twitter acquired the app a couple of weeks ago when it blocked Meerkat from its social network. After a little bit if tweaking Periscope is now ready to carry the Twitter label.

Periscope is easy to use and the app suggests the people you follow on twitter when the app is first launched. The app has a very simplistic interface, with the main page showing several videos that are currently being streamed. A user who is streaming can receive likes, in the shape of hearts, in real-time.

An added advantage over Meerkat is the ability to view archived videos hours after they have been streamed in exactly the same way as they were being viewed the first time. Kayvon Beykpour, Periscope's co-founder, says the idea behind this is intentional. "We try to recreate the experience of having watched it live as much as possible," he says.

Similar to Meerkat, the users get notifications when someone they follow starts a broadcast. If its not to someone's taste they can turn off these notifications. Comments and likes both can be viewed in real-time by the broadcaster and the viewers.

Another interesting feature is that Periscope lets you broadcast privately instead of just to a public audience. Broadcaster can invite people they want to broadcast to, which Beykpour says is good for sharing intimate moments.

Also, unlike Meerkat, which auto posts rather obnoxious "|LIVE NOW|" tweets whenever someone is livestreaming on the service, Periscope has the option to turn these tweets off. Twitter users will have the ability to tweet a link to their broadcast if they wish to do so. Viewers can then watch the stream on the app or on the web.

Availability:

Periscope is currently available to iOS users and Twitter has confirmed that an Android app is in the works but no time frame has been mentioned for the release.

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Twitter and Google Finally struck a deal with Twitter

Once Twitter started taking off back in 2009 and 2010, there was a lot of speculation about how their platform would affect Google. Over the years, speculation has ranged from tweets becoming a leading SEO factor to Google actually buying the company.

While there have been plenty of signs that point towards correlations between content that performs well on Twitter doing the same in Google rankings, there have continued to be obstacles for Google to fully utilize all of the new data that is created on Twitter.

Specifically, Google had to use their bots to crawl through this massive amount of data. As a result, Google was only able to include a portion of Twitter’s total data in search results. However, as of today, the two companies have officially struck a deal to show tweets in Google search results.

The Details of the Deal

Over the last couple of years, there have been several examples of Twitter limiting apps’ access to their platform. In some cases, they have actually banned apps from the platform despite them being very popular.

Because of those actions, some industry experts were skeptical about Twitter and Google ever coming to terms on working together. But based on this deal, it looks like Twitter may be taking a different approach to business.

While engineers from both companies are still working to implement this change, the result will be tweets showing up in Google search results as soon as they’re published. As you may have already realized, this means that Twitter activity is likely to have a direct impact on search engine visibility.

The most surprising component of this deal is that no advertising revenue is involved. Instead, it’s believed that Twitter will be compensated in the form of data-licensing revenue.

The Easiest Way to Harness Social Media for Your Business

Although we’re well past the stage of most businesses viewing social media as a trend, that doesn’t mean it’s become any easier to fully harness the marketing power of these platforms.

In fact, as social media platforms have grown, matured and become more complex, it’s gotten more difficult for businesses to find the time and resources to dedicate to these channels.

Since this deal is yet another clear reminder of the influence that social media has on the entire Internet, it can be frustrating to realize that your business isn’t fully utilizing social media. However, things don’t have to remain that way.

The post SEO Game Changer – Twitter and Google Finally Agree to a Search Deal appeared first on Web Strategy Plus.

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