Number of cellphone subscribers crosses 18m

November 15, 2005 by Daily Times  

KARACHI: The number of cellphone subscribers crossed 18 million mark last month leaving behind the authorities’ forecast, which predicted 16 million mobile phone users by December 2005.

The figures compiled by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority suggest that by October 2005 cellular density in the country stood at 11.95 compared with 10.98 registered in September 2005.

“The figures show that the country had some 18.4 million cellular subscribers by October 2005,” said a PTA official. “In absolute terms, the figures are 18,400,233 with a growth rate of 18.5 percent compared with September 2005.”

T-Mobile’s 20Mbps 3G service aims to destroy landline phones

The UK’s home broadband market is being shaken up at the moment, with Carphone Warehouse (our leading mobile phone retailer) offering free broadband bundled with its TalkTalk landline phone service. Now, T-Mobile has waded in by threatening to replace the landline altogether – both for voice calls and broadband data services.

T-Mobile’s plans involve using HSDPA to ramp up the data transfer rates of its 3G service from the current 384kbps to 1.8Mbps in 2006, and then onto 20Mbps by 2010. Better still, the service is completely open, and is offered at a flat rate of just £8.50 ($15) per month for unlimited use.

Invisible barcode sends info to mobile phones

Fujitsu have announced a completely new barcode that’s invisible to the naked eye, but which can be read by mobile phones. The new barcode can encode info such as a URL, which can be decoded by the mobile phone, enabling web-based content to be downloaded onto the phone. As the picture shows, the idea is to get more information about a product simply by waving a mobile phone over it, or over related publicity material.

via: Mobilementlism

Indonesia’s XL launches commercial 3G

Indonesia’s third-largest GSM operator and a subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia, PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk (XL), today launched a 3G-based service, XL3G, in Jakarta.

This makes Indonesia the third Southeast Asian nation, after Singapore and Malaysia, to launch 3G services commercially.

XL is the country’s second 3G operator after PT Telkomsel, the biggest GSM operator, which launched a similar service last month. PT Indosa