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KARACHI – A significant quantity of Chinese-made handsets are available in Pakistan that come without valid International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) that has posed serious threats to the national security as such phones have allegedly been used by the terrorists.
It was found that the lack of unique IMEI numbers has made it impossible to detect the suspected calls from a specific handset. It was further learnt that IMEI series allocation happens only in hardware type approval.
Moreover, these Chinese handsets are fully functional, however, they lack IMEI programming because Chinese manufacturers are usually not registered companies thus no IMEI range is allocated to them.
The government of Pakistan has yet not initiated any plan to combat this issue. On the other hand Indian media has reported that as many as 25 million Chinese handsets were blocked in India which were available in the market without valid IMEI numbers. It was reported that the move came after The Department of Telecommunications, India (DoT) had instructed the operators to block cell phones without a valid IMEI number.
In this regard several phone sellers have confirmed that the Chinese handsets are usually the duplicates of branded phones. These mobile phones are without IMEI numbers which are typically low-end handsets manufactured by the small Chinese phone manufacturers who cut their costs by skipping the IMEI programming stage.
They were of the view that cellular companies and manufacturers in the country are heeding to adopt the prerequisites in this regard but they have yet to streamline mobile connection ownership issues.
“Let’s not expect any super natural thing in Pakistan regarding this in near future,” commented an official. He further said that the cellular operators in India had offered such subscribers to either discard their handsets or bring them to official outlets of cellular companies to re-programme their IMEI numbers.

Nokia is on the roll ,launching one new device after the next  last week it was the N97 Mini they introduced in Pakistan market and a couple of days ago coinciding with the global retail launch the much awaited business centric flagship the E72 was available for sale in Pakistan .

At current the prevailing prices for E72 in Pakistan range from Rs. 44,000 to Rs. 49,000  however the official Nokia price is between 32,000 to 35,000 so almost a 50 % premium is being charged from early adopters.

I’m one of the lucky ones who can get to play with the phone on or before the launch courtesy Nokia Pakistan and this time too I was obliged and here is the unboxing post of Nokia E72 QWERTY Pakistan Edition

The Nokia E72 ‘s box is the same run of the mill design Nokia had been using since E71 , there is nothing innovative about the it , I’d said it before that  although Nokia talks about recycling they waste a lot of paper with un necessary flaps and boxes. If you want to keep it simple , use the recycled molded case and put the phone in it instead of numerous boxes. If you want to make it premium /  innovative checkout the Motorola KRZR case or DU SIM case in Dubai.

On a quick run around of the box  the top has the usual snap of the phone , although the E72 I’ve got is Topaz Brown ( Golden ) in color , the box has the sleek Black E72 pictured on it .  On the right side of the box Nokia E Series is written in black on a Red background .  Why Red , could it be because the phone is manufactured in China , red is considered lucky there or Red is an eye catching color ( in terms of marketing sciences ) or simply being carried over from E71 days

while the left side has the usual Nokia E72 written in large letters .

On the front wall the phone details such as Region it’s meant to be used , Pakistan QWERTY , Phone Color – Topaz Brown and Country of manufacture ( China in my case )  along with IMEI  , WLAN MAC address are mentioned

The back is where Nokia talks about the details of the phone from their USP ( Unique Selling Point -  I’m a marketing guy by profession )  -

The USP -  Designed For the Way We Work -  written in Bold Black letters and  selected E72 features mentioned in English , Arabic , Urdu , Farsi /  Persian ,  French and Spanish are mentioned.  The Back panel also mentions the technical capabilities of the phone such as 3G , WLAN , HSDPA and HSUPA , VoIP , email , web , Camera , A-GPS , security , speaker phone , two modes beside Bluetooth , Real Player , S60 ( the OS )  and Java powered as phone’s software strengths are mentioned

I’ve made a small video showing the box in it’s glory check it out below .

On opening the box the first thing you see is the E72 lying in all it’s glory .  The feeling I cannot define it , but the phone definitely has the pick me up pull to it .

However with Nokia’s love of making Russian Matryoshka Doll type boxes  , there are two more cases in the main box , one right under the phone, which is more like a flap with the phone charger and Bl-4 1500 MAH battery , same as of Nokia E71 and N97  and one under the case containing E72 carrying all the accessories .

The accessories are a nice surprise from Nokia , with Nokia E72 , the older norm of an excellent phone with below par accessories is gone , now the accessories match the quality , functionality and performance of the phone .

The wired headset is the Nokia WH-601 same as provided with Nokia N97 Mini ( told ya E72 is a N Series in E Series skin )

The headset is not your usual run of the mill headset , with large Ear Plugins , a better sound quality and the upgraded remote , Nokia has learnt that Headset plays an important part as an accessory and still people use it to listen to music and radio ( where it’s required to act as antenna )

Other accessories include

A leather pouch with inside Felt lining -  I always have my problems with E71 pouch , had to change it 3 times in the year I had it , the rubber lining joining the cloth and leather used to break apart causing the Felt lining to peel away giving the pouch a dirtier look .

Also the Felt lining was prone to get dirty , the red color turning black with the dust and humidity of  Karachi Pakistan , However Nokia is learning from it too , the Felt lining this time is darker in color which may not catch the dust easily .

The improvement on the pouch this time is that unlike Nokia E71 , which had a top and half side opening making the top to turn dog eared /  bend with months of use , the Nokia E72’s pouch opens from the side ( The picture will explain ) so there is less chances to touch the Felt covering inside .

Carried forward from Nokia E71 , a  leather wrist strap is provided with the Nokia E72 , I never understood the utility of it , imagine someone in an Armani suit carrying a NokiaE72 with it’s wrist  strap on the hand .  Nokia ,  my suggestion,  wrist straps are good for a Nintendo Wii Nan chuck but not for a business phone , in my whole year of use , I never once used the strap as it looks oddin carrying and while talking on the phone

My box didn’t contain the MicroUSB Sync /  Charging cable ( it’s provided ,  mine was left out at  Nokia Pakistan Office ) but the specs posted online shows it’s the regular CA-101-D so no biggie about it .

The Mini Pin charger AC-8E is also supplied although Nokia E72 supports Micro USB charging that means you can charge it with your laptop while on sync.

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Another surprise addition is the included cleaning cloth .  THANKYOU  Nokia , the E71 was a fingerprint magnet so is E72 and the provided cloth will help me in keeping it maintain it’s shine and looks .  Again with my careless nature I’ll loose it in a month and will resort to numerous my spectacles cleaning cloth I have in my house , car and Office nonetheless I loved it .

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In Paperwork , the usual addins , a Warranty Card , a User Manual in English and  a how to make the most of your phone guide along with a OVI Maps pamphelt announcing that Navigation License for drive and walk are included with the phone  , Thank God this time no Pc Suite CD is provided , already have  enough in collection  but Nokia has the foresight to provide it in the 4GB microSD provided with the phone for those who don’t have it

Nokia started a good trend with bundling the softcopy of User Manual and PC Suite in the memory card of S40 phones , the same could be done with other phones , not many people read the manual it will not only save Nokia on cost but will also reduce the clutter provided with the phone and will be beneficial for the environment . With N97 Mini Nokia also started a new trend of carrying a MMS message with the OVI services pamphlet in it now that’s innovative and the user is bound to read it .

So folks the Nokia E72 is unboxed ,  the next step I’m inserting my SIM card into it and will take it out for a spin , let’s see how it survives the day with me , tonight will try to post my initial thoughts with a full blown overview later in afew days .

Zumbeel played a wonderful part to get top notch telecom industry professionals to speak on trending technology topics at their event ‘Are You Online’.

One of them was Mr.Ahmer Arsalan, Customer Solution Manager from NSN (Pakistan and Middle East). He has worked as a subject matter expert for network planning and also on various projects mainly Greenfield networks and 3G/HSPA in Europe, UK, Middle East and Africa. He delivered a presentation on the most heated topic in our telecom industry, ‘3G and Pakistan’, calling it Pakis3Gstan.

The presentation focused on realization of the 3G potential for emerging countries like Pakistan. It discussed the market readiness factors, services 3G can be offer with 3G/HSDPA, strategies to implement and much more all supported by statistics.

“3G drives data use, not the other way around”
– Ovum, 2008

I have always advocated 3G/HSDPA for Pakistan and in my last post about this I also questioned on when will it happen? At out neighbors India, the 3G is already playing its services with government run BSNL and MTNL, which were allotted 3G spectrum ahead of the auction expected to take place in January 2010. And here is Pakistan we have been delaying it. The authority must realize on this and act promptly for license auctions in the coming year.

Coming back to the presentation, it also mentions that the operator’s ARPU is likely to increase with 3G services. Also the first operator to launch it is likely to create stickiness and have a bright chance to raise the brand image.

You many download the complete presentation slides from here and below is a short clipping of the session.