gmane.org.telecom.pakistan-grid

Shortcodes provider

Adnan — 2013-06-19T15:50:31

Salam

I need to know about companies providing shortcodes. Any idea?

Thanks

/A

Pakistan internet user base

Inspirex — 2013-04-27T07:45:21

Over the past few years, there seems to have a a continuous meteoric rise
in the number of internet users in Pakistan, as reported by various sources
and the same are often cited in PTA and other policy documents.

These sources include the ITU, The World Bank, and sometimes often the PTA
itself.

The latest numbers that seem to be going around is approximately 29 million.
Source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/pakistan/internet-users-wb-data.html

If the ITU's definition of "internet users" is the source of this value,
then it seems we are relying on nothing more than a very vague statistical
reference that seems to be misstating the real size of internet users that
use the internet regularly and face the risk of grossly oversizing the
market when planning for products / service development.

The ITU's definition of internet users is:

"4212 Estimated Internet users
The estimated number of Internet users out of total population. This
includes
those using the Internet from any device (including mobile phones) in the
last
12 months. A growing number of countries are measuring this through
household surveys. In countries where household surveys are available, this
estimate should correspond to the estimated number derived from the
percentage of Internet users collected. (If the survey covers percentage of
the
population for a certain age group (e.g., 15-74 years old, the estimated
number
of Internet users should be derived using this percentage, and note
indicating
the scope and coverage of the survey should be provided). In situations
where
surveys are not available, an estimate can be derived based on the number
of
Internet subscriptions."
Accessed from:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/material/TelecomICT_Indicators_Definition_March2010_for_web.pdf
on
April 27, 2013 at 11.30 am PST

Would appreciate if someone point me to a contact in PTA that can help me
confirm if this is the reference being used and if so, I would like to have
a discussion on the surveys used to derive this info.

Help appreciated!

Best regards.

Imtiaz N. Mohammad

Regulations on the Payment Gateways in Pakistan

Haris Shamsi — 2013-04-25T05:43:44

Hi

I have recently got a chance to register to one of the e-com sites in
pakistan. Having the understanding that Citi bank has stopped offering
online merchant solutions and that state bank had some concerns on using
the payment gateways outside the broder, i was surprised to see that the
use of international exchanges/gateways has become pretty common in ecom.
other than the normal telenor paisa and UBL/SCB accounts i see few
merchants are utilizing gateways like http://www.adyen.com/ etc.

Can some please fill me in on the latest regulations/ norms in Pakistan for
online payments.

Thanks

is wi-tribe blocking dns?

Faried Nawaz — 2013-04-01T08:45:31

A few days ago, I noticed that I couldn't do DNS lookups on the office
wi-tribe link.  I had my computer set to use Google's public DNS
servers, which work fine on the office PTCL link.  I did a little more
testing today, and discovered that I could query the WiMAX device's
DNS server (at 192.168.15.1), and wi-tribe's own DNS servers, as
reported on the device's web interface.

I can't imagine why they'd block DNS requests.  Is this yet another
attempt to control access to the internet?  Oddly enough, I can query
other non-wi-tribe servers if I use TCP instead of UDP, which means
this block on wi-tribe's end has nothing to do with the unsolvable
DNSSEC amplification attack, or anything similar.  (Even worse, half
of their own nameservers don't respond to TCP requests, something you
need for ordinary queries like an ANY for gmail.com.)


Faried.

SWM4 down

Muhammad Aamir — 2013-03-27T07:04:12

Any faulty details/descriptions? Any ETTR?


Regards,
Aamir

Google is sticking to its own vision of freedom of expression - The NEWS Pakistan

Fouad Bajwa — 2012-12-09T05:01:34

According to Pakistan's largest English Daily, the News International:

Permanent Link to the Story:
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/Dec2012-weekly/nos-09-12-2012/dia.htm#1
Only valid for today's e-print: http://e.thenews.com.pk/12-9-2012/nos_page9.asp

Virtually blocked - With no breakthrough on YouTube registration in
Pakistan in sight, the authorities affirm the ban will stay
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed
After a prolonged spell of suppressed activity, social media websites
in Pakistan suddenly became alive on Dec 3, with endless posts and
tweets about the reopening of YouTube in the country. To many, this
was nothing unexpected as the development had coincided with the
tentative deadline given by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)
Chairman for the removal of the ban. He had told a private TV channel
on November 15 that the Youtube ban may be lifted within 15 to 20
days.

Article:

Virtually blocked - With no breakthrough on YouTube registration in
Pakistan in sight, the authorities affirm the ban will stay
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed
refresh - TNS The News on Sunday December 09, 2012
Source: http://jang.com.pk/thenews/Dec2012-weekly/nos-09-12-2012/dia.htm#1

After a prolonged spell of suppressed activity, social media websites
in Pakistan suddenly became alive on Dec 3, with endless posts and
tweets about the reopening of YouTube in the country. To many, this
was nothing unexpected as the development had coincided with the
tentative deadline given by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)
Chairman for the removal of the ban. He had told a private TV channel
on November 15 that the Youtube ban may be lifted within 15 to 20
days.

Popular news channels also broke the news, mostly via tickers, but the
furore was short-lived. Soon afterwards, the PTA sources denied
issuing any such orders and held some service providers responsible
for this discrepancy. Like always, they had no clue of when the ban
was going to be lifted.

The situation to date is that there has not been any development since
the imposition of a blanket ban on YouTube in Pakistan which came into
effect on September 17. The PTA chairman once expressed the hope the
website will be registered in Pakistan, but sources privy to its
communication with Google — the owner of YouTube — say the internet
giant has not given an encouraging response. Having a local presence
in around 40 countries, with some small ones having an internet user
base of only 3 million or so, apparently Google is not desirous of
entertaining Pakistan’s request which has a base of 22 million
internet users.

The question haunting many is whether the authorities have succeeded
or not in getting the desired results with the help of this ban, and
what will be the future course of action if Google does not register
itself here.

Muhammad Nawaz, an IT geek, technologist and academic, says the
government of Pakistan should have signed a contract with Google years
ago as this was not the first time the website had been blocked in
Pakistan. Had it been registered inside Pakistan, it would have been
bound to abide by the local laws issued by the local authorities.

The ban, he says, is of no use as people have found ways to circumvent
it. “Those who want to access YouTube are doing that with the help of
certain softwares, proxy websites and Internet Protocol (IP)
blockers”.

Nawaz says the objectionable trailer of the blasphemous movie that
triggered the ban was blocked in India, Turkey etc. just because they
had country versions of YouTube. “In Turkey, anyone who types
YouTube.com is diverted to YouTube.com.tr but this is not the case
here. There the website has had to comply with the orders of Turkish
courts and has often blocked content such as that related to Kemal
Ataturk.”

On the other hand, a well-discussed Multi-Lateral Assistance Treaty
(MLAT) between Google and Pakistan is pending for well above two
years, mainly due to the lack of interest shown by the PTA and other
related authorities. “What can we expect from the authority which
cannot even block the websites like
https://www.facebook.com/3Gcorruption targetting its own sitting and
outgoing bosses.”

Nawaz points out that a large number of people have been deprived of
the opportunity to do educational research online, access
entertainment-related content, benefit from religious content and
health tips. To elaborate his point, he says, there are between 70,000
to 80,000 students enrolled with the Virtual University (VU) who
access their lectures via YouTube. “Though there’s a compulsion on
cable operators to air VU channels on their networks but hardly anyone
does that. So YouTube is the only option left for them.”

There is another angle to the story which is apparently haunting the
PTA. Fouad Bajwa, an internet rights activist and policy advocate
based in Lahore, observes that in Pakistan the internet policy has
always been based on public demand and defined by norms of public
morality. “The PTA fears that its policy decision to open YouTube may
affect public order as has happened in the form of protests leading to
loss of property and lives in Pakistan”.

Based on his interactions with different stakeholders, Bajwa feels the
government has been under pressure to open the website. “But the
challenge on the other hand is that the Google is not listening to the
government demands to remove or block the objectionable content. I’ve
also heard that Badar Khushnood, the Google representative in
Pakistan, has also failed to convince the Google to do something
acceptable to the Pakistani authorities”.

So right now, the PTA is facing a challenge and has to decide whether
it should open the website or not and, if yes, on what conditions. It
is strongly believed among the internet community that the Google is
sticking to its own vision of freedom of expression, something its
representative expressed at the Internet Governance Forum in Baku
recently.

Google representative Badar Khushnood was not willing to comment due
to the sensitivity of the issue. It was also learnt he is avoiding
media interaction since the day the Interior Minister Rahman Malik
publicly warned of action against him if the Google refused to
cooperate with Pakistan on terrorism-related issues.

Sources say the Google has expressed fears that local registration of
YouTube will compromise the interests of the Pakistani public at the
hands of the state. They add the PTA has offered to follow all the
requirements for local registration, but Google is giving one excuse
or the other every time. The internet giant believes the restoration
of judiciary in Pakistan, the Arab Spring in the Middle East and the
uprising in Iran became successful only because the site was not
subservient to local laws.

So, the option the PTA is working on is to set up a highly advanced
content filtering system which will block the unwanted material and
may also detect use of proxy servers, the sources say, adding “when
will it be possible is a mystery.” This will be a tough task as an
estimated 72 hours of video content is uploaded on Facebook every
minute.

TNS forwarded a questionnaire to the PTA spokesperson Malahat Rab more
than a week ago, but she has still not responded. All we have received
is a statement forwarded on behalf of Sajjad Latif Awan, Director
Enforcement, PTA Headquarters, Islamabad. It says the PTA has not
ordered anybody to open the access of YouTube in Pakistan and there
are reports that some service providers and operators have facilitated
that.

“The PTA has initiated inquiry to check which Service Providers and
Operators have opened the access to YouTube and afterwards stern
actions will be taken against those responsible,” it adds.

UAE-IX Pricing

Majid Farid — 2012-12-11T08:19:26

Looks very attractive ...

Pricing:
http://www.uae-ix.net/products/pricing/

Customers:

http://www.uae-ix.net/customers-partners/customers/

Carriers:

http://www.uae-ix.net/customers-partners/carriers/

BuzzFeed.Com

Shieraz-ul-Hassan Shah — 2012-11-18T14:42:33

I often wonder how website are put on censord/banned list. Can someone
share with us how buzzfeed.com ended up on PTA list of banned sites?

Thanks.

Shieraz Shah*
*

Youtube is going to Open in Pakistan within 20 Days

Muhammad Anees Ur Rahman — 2012-11-15T14:49:18

I just came to know on one of News Channel Geo that PTA is going to open 
youtube services in Pakistan as they are also in discussion with Google. It 
was informed by Chairman PTA Mr. Farooq Awan that they are also in 
discussion with Google to block all blasphemous contents. 

Best Regards,
Muhammad Anees Ur Rahman

MNP Banning

Ahsan Javaid — 2012-11-14T19:52:33

Just wondering what could be the thought behind having Mobile Number 
Portability banned.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/465615/pta-permanently-bans-mobile-number-portability/

SANOG 21 - Call for Papers/Presentations

Aftab Siddiqui — 2012-11-15T07:50:54

Dear All,
This year we will be celebrating 10 years of SANOG. Lets try to improve
further for next decade.

------------------
SANOG XXI
27 January -4 February, 2013, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
10 Years of Networking Excellence in South Asia

Call for Papers

Deadline for proposals : 15 December 2012
Acceptance Notification: 20 December, 2012
Paper Confirmation: 31 December, 2012

Please submit Online at

http://submission.sanog.org/papers/user/login.php?event=5

The following is an open call for papers/presentations for the two day
conference at the 21st South Asian Network Operators Group (SANOG)
Meeting. Marketing and sales content in presentations is against the
spirit of the SANOG and is strictly prohibited. Please respond to this
call for papers/presentations by making submissions online at
http://submission.sanog.org/papers/user/login.php?event=5

Tutorial Proposals

Tutorial proposals are invited in the following general areas. Please
feel free to propose additional ideas and topics. Tutorials generally
are either half or full days.

IP Core, BGP, MPLS, IPv6
Data Center and Switching Technologies
Voice Protocols, IP Contact Centers
Security, IDS, DoS mitigation
SAN & Virtualization
Internet Exchange Point, transit & peering
Conference Presentation

The conference will be comprised of 6 session in two days, including the
plenary. The tracks are for general ideas, and feel free to propose
talks that you think are relevant to the operational and Internet
research community. The topics given below are not exclusive.
Presentations are expected to be 20-25 minutes long with technical
content.

Track 1: Network operations

In this session we invite papers, reports and presentations from network
operators, equipment vendors and academic institutions conducting
network research on operational issues. Possible topics for this track
are:

- - Prevention and mitigation of Denial of Service attacks including
intrusion
- - Routing policies and architecture for scalable IP and broadband networks
- - Data Center Management and Operations
- - MPLS and QoS implementation experiences
- - Traffic management and measurement
- - Network migration issues (IPv4 to v6, Layer 2 to IP etc.)

Track 2: Applications and Services

This track will discuss various services that can be enabled on packet
networks. Papers and presentations are invited from
developers, operators, equipment vendors and research organizations on
the following and related topics

- - Voice and Multimedia over IP
- - Managed network services including Security and VPNs
- - Mail servers, Spam prevention and migitation
- - Wireless Technology and Applications
- - Data mining for performance enhancements/abuse control/QoS

Track 3: Peering and IXP

This is to cater to the growing demand on the newly established Internet
Exchange Points in the region. As local ISPs are going international, we
would like to invite both regional and international experts to share
their ideas and experience on these topics.

- - Internet Exchange Points Operations
- - Peering Techniques and Policies
- - BGP Multihoming Techniques

Track 4: Regional updates

This track is fairly broad, and will include updates from ISPs, regional
Internet exchanges, APNIC, routing table updates and such information
that would be useful to the SANOG community.

You are also welcome to submit proposals for BoFs, tutorials and other
tracks.

Please submit Online at

http://submission.sanog.org/papers/user/login.php?event=5


Regards,

Aftab A. Siddiqui
On behalf of SANOG Programme Committee

Internet Traffic after YouTube blockage

JahanZaib — 2012-10-24T04:46:37

Dear All,
Just curious to know that how much was the internet traffic reduced after 
YouTube blockage in Pakistan?
Can any one please share these statistical results?
 
Thanks & Regards,,,
Jahan Zaib

Apple vs. everyone

Mustafa Rana — 2012-10-30T05:50:15

Interesting Read ...
Editorial: Apple vs. everyone ****

By Brad Hill <http://www.engadget.com/editor/brad-hill> *[image:
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/writer_rss.gif]*<http://www.engadget.com/editor/brad-hill/rss.xml>posted
*Oct 29th 2012 4:30PM*****

Columns <http://www.engadget.com/tag/columns>****

[image: Editorial Apple vs
everyone]<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/29/apple-vs-everyone/>
****

It's a big storm, moving slowly. A gigantic span of ferocious swirl meets a
front of chilly resistance. The effect of that collision is amplified by
powerful tidal influence. Upheavals and surges swamp the landscape. Many
people are displaced; countless others stay with the familiar.****

Also, in the real world, some nasty weather is happening. But I'm talking
about the tech industry of the last five business days, which has aligned
and concentrated its forces in a crystal-clear demonstration, if one were
needed, that mobile is where the bets are placed and futures will be won
and lost.****

Apple is at the eye of the storm, where its devoted legions expect it, but
no longer as a pioneer. Defending its territory rather than breaking new
ground, the post-Jobs company did something its late and fabled leader
scorned, split hairs to justify it, engaged in implicit combat with four
competitors, ticked off some of its best customers and was squeezed by
inexorable pressure of a quickly evolving industry.****

As I noted<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/22/turning-point-for-the-tortoise-and-the-hare/>a
week ago, it has been a perfect storm of product announcements and
earnings releases. The two are always entwined. Though we like to imagine
that companies are solely dedicated to the happiness of consumers at the
end of the chain, the drumbeat of quarterly reports is what drives most
decisions around product timing and the release of feature sets.****

This umbilical connection was etched in bold relief last week when Apple
announced a new mini-maxi-Mac product lineup just two days before its Q4
earnings call. The mysteries of one were explained by the other.****

[image: Editorial Apple vs
everyone]<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/28/apple-vs-everyone/>
****

Though the accumulated import of last week's events had a tectonic rumble,
there was really only one surprise -- the launch of a fourth-generation
iPad, an upgrade that left disciples slack-jawed, and not entirely
euphoric. Christina Warren spoke on behalf of incensed iPad owners in
a 1,500-word
rampage <http://mashable.com/2012/10/23/ipad-3-owner-oped/> that explored
the thesaurus entry for "angry" and invited rugged push-back of the
#firstworldproblem type. The disaffected have a point, which is that a
seven-month dev cycle (between the third- and fourth-gen iPads) is shorter
than usual for Apple, and therefore, arguably, deceptive to third-gen
buyers.****

The argument loses steam when you splash cold water on your throbbing veins
and remember that Apple is a down-to-business corporation like any other,
its steely eyes focused on managing its public stakeholders. That can be
hard to remember during the live
event<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/23/apple-ipad-mini-liveblog/>,
which is about shiny new features and end-use scenarios.****

In the earnings call two days later, CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer
laid out past and future performance metrics like snapshots in a
mosaic<http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-q4-earnings-2012-10>.
Sales of iPads missed projections; iPod sales likewise below expectation.
Mac down. Revenue flat against guidance, but earnings-per-share down. Most
important to analysts<http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/10/26/apples-hit-and-miss-report-what-the-analysts-are-saying/>:
gross profit margin just below expectation, and projected to dip further.
In fact, gross margins have skidded the last two quarters, from 47 percent
to 40 percent, and the fiscal Q1 projection (that's the current quarter) is
36 percent, which harks
back<http://ycharts.com/companies/AAPL/gross_profit_margin>to fiscal
2008. Against all of this is a backdrop of plunging
AAPL stock<http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AAAPL&ei=cL2OUMDSI6CYlwOHtQE>
.****

When margins slump, volume must make up the difference. In a voracious
market of technology adopters, sales come from new and refreshed products.
Hence, the mini and the fourth-gen iPad.****

The post-PC company more clearly entered the post-Jobs epoch as Apple
repudiated its previous scorn for small tablets. The mini is not a
7-incher! Tim Cook wants us to be clear on that point. It is a 7.9-incher.
That's 35 percent bigger than a 7-inch screen! Put down the Red Bull, Tim,
we get the point. But Cook also weirdly and defensively compared the iPad
mini to the iPad 2 ("...equal to or better than the iPad 2 in every way"),
and a portion of the commentariat complained that the specs were
weak<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/23/the-ipad-mini-vs-the-competition-specs/>,
barely competitive with the Google Nexus.****

The $329 starting price isn't earning many compliments either. This is how
Apple works the offense and defense in the same play. Defensively, the
company was forced to plug its portfolio gap with an intermediate slate.
Forbes divined from Amazon's earnings
call<http://www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2012/10/26/apple-and-amazon-earnings-show-once-again-jeff-bezos-is-steve-jobs-true-heir/?partner=yahootix>(also
last week) that the Kindle Fire, with its succulent price point, is
eating into iPad's share. Impossible to know for sure, since Amazon doesn't
break out Kindle sales.****

But we know as a corollary that Samsung whipped Apple in smartphone share
and units shipped<http://www.macworld.com.au/news/samsung-apple-phones-lead-sales-while-nokia-droops-77847/>in
calendar Q3 by two to one. (56M vs. 27M phones sold; 31 percent vs. 15
percent share.) In a barbed announcement, Samsung
noted<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57541312-94/samsung-feels-the-power-as-galaxy-note-2-lifts-off/>that
its Galaxy S III experienced a sales spike immediately after the
iPhone 5 release.****

[image: Editorial Apple vs
everyone]<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/28/apple-vs-everyone/>
****

Google is another share-stealing tormentor. Sadly, Google scheduled its New
York event in conflict with the latest storm of the century, and tiptoed
out of the city<http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/27/raincheck-google-cancels-nyc-android-event-planned-for-monday-due-to-hurricane-sandy/>when
the weather forecast firmed up. But the new products came
out today anyway<http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/29/google-nexus-family-on-sale/>:
a 10-inch Nexus, plus a memory upgrade and price reduction of the 7-inch
tablet line. In Apple's perspective: more pressure. The $329 iPad mini will
soon be fighting for holiday gift status with a $200, 16GB 7-inch Nexus.****

For its offensive game, Apple relies on the concept and reality of *premium*.
"Premium" means different things to different people, and its
specifications are always changing. Apple's bankable status as a premium
merchant has relied on build quality (still current), brand reputation
(ephemeral, but earned and lasting for now), screen display quality (soon
to be bettered<http://gigaom.com/mobile/reported-google-nexus-10-tablet-specs-pics-leak-early/>by
a new Nexus), and a safe, curated, huge app ecosystem (hanging onto
leadership there for the time being).****

More than any other quality, though, Apple has accrued premium credibility
through innovation leadership. Its destiny as a business titan depends on
whether the company has invention left in the gas tank. Without the
innovation, Apple is in an assembly-line business of iterating its
products, synchronizing release cycles with finance milestones, managing
its pipeline and massaging margins. Naturally, any company must do all
these things. But last week we didn't see freshness from Apple; we saw a
company loading up the
pipeline<http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/25/apple-q4-2012/>for an
earnings assault in Q1 with a barrage of products. In the live
event, Tim Cook bragged about "...a truly prolific year for innovation for
Apple." Prolific is not breakthrough. Apple did not become the world's most
valuable company by making screens thinner, tablets smaller or phones
longer. It got there by persuading society to adopt new categories.****

The dark-horse innovator last week was Microsoft, an aging legacy ruler
facing entropic decay in a changing world of unmoored devices. There were
no surprises; Microsoft held back no secrets about the radically different
Windows 8 and the new Surface tablet. Windows Phone 8 was announced earlier
today <http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/29/windows-phone-8-event-liveblog/>as
the smartphone leg of Microsoft's stool. The boldness and commitment
of
Redmond's bet is breathtaking; that is universally recognized. But it's
uphill for Microsoft's under-developed ecosystem: according to an
Associated Press
poll<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/28/microsoft-windows-8-poll_n_2034872.html>,
most people haven't even heard of Windows 8.****

So it's Apple vs. Microsoft on daring, Apple vs. Samsung on smartphone
market share and patent conflicts <http://www.apple.com/uk/legal-judgement/>,
Apple vs. Google on specifications and price, Apple vs. Amazon on
willingness to cut margin, Apple vs. its customers on betrayed
expectations, Apple vs. itself on the insurmountable challenge of remaining
a true innovator forever. Interesting times. Fortunately for manufacturers
and consumers both, it's not a winner-take-all industry. Get out the pie
cutters.****
------------------------------

*Brad Hill is a former Vice President at AOL, and the former Director and
General Manager of Weblogs, Inc.*****

** **

ANDROID - VPN

Jamal Shamsi — 2012-10-01T17:34:31

Oct 01 2012

 

Please click - http://www.superfreevpn.com/android-free-vpn/

 

It is working good on my Android over PTCL BB connected to my home WIFI
router

 

_JS

 

---

ô¿ô sent from my iPad

Is LPIC Pakistan Still Exists ?

m waseem sarwar — 2012-10-01T11:40:10

HI All,

I want to know that does LPIC Pakistan still exist and can anyone guide me 
with the certification procedure, I am planning to get started with its 
initial cert. 

I am unable to get any response from the LPIC Pakistan mailing list. Do 
anyone has any info .. Seems no one takes care of LPIC Pakistan anymore ?

Response will be appreciated, 

Thanks,
Waseem

DEAD Google

JamaL ShamsI — 2012-10-01T05:38:33

In Karachi, Google Play store, Google maps, picas web & Google Calendar is not accessible using PTCL BB, after log-in it is error 404  & time out is it me only or other members are having the problem over PTCL BB as well

please share

UAE-IX in Dubai: DE-CIX Takes Internet Exchange in Middle East to the Starting Line

Majid Farid — 2012-09-19T05:26:37

A dream for Pakistan?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/uae-ix-dubai-cix-takes-164800091.html

FRANKFURT AM MAIN and DUBAI, Sept. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Worldwide Internet: UAE-IX forms new bridge between Europe and Asia

October 1, 2012 marks the start of UAE-IX, an Internet exchange in Dubai, 
United Arab Emirates (UAE). DE-CIX, the world's largest Internet Exchange, 
based in Frankfurt, Germany, has provided know-how and support for the 
hub's operation. UAE-IX is a neutral Internet traffic exchange platform 
that interconnects global networks and, above all, network operators and 
content providers in the GCC region. The UAE-IX is built on a fully 
redundant switching platform located in a neutral secure datacenter in 
Dubai. The new Internet Exchange will reduce latency times by up to 80 per 
cent and costs by up to 70 per cent for GCC providers. Moreover, UAE-IX 
will improve IP network resilience and robustness and will also help 
provide reliable connectivity within the GCC.

For the full press release, please visit

http://www.uae-ix.net/about-uae-ix/launch-press-release.

Press contact for DE-CIX:

Birgit Osterholt

Phone: +49(0)69-1730902-53

E-Mail: birgit.osterholt< at >de-cix.net( mailto:birgit.osterholt< at >de-cix.net ) 
Internet:

http://www.de-cix.net

Press contact for the TRA:

Huda Al Mutawa

Corporate Communications

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Phone: 6118250 - 09712

E-mail: media< at >tra.gov.ae( mailto:media< at >tra.gov.ae ) , info< at >tra.gov.ae( 
mailto:info< at >tra.gov.ae )

Blocked access

JamaL ShamsI — 2012-09-19T04:44:13

Is it me only or there are others as well facing problem with Google Play website - the android is giving error for updates

Hacking/blcoking youtube

Muhammad Asif — 2012-09-18T07:28:30

Dear friends,

We, as Muslim Umma, are passing through very, very hard time
as blasphemous film has created difficult situation in many parts of the
Muslim world including Pakistan. I was wondering if we have the kind
of talent needed to hack youtube or any other related site on global scale?
I am sure that nor the US has the will or neither youtube would remove this
film from its web site so it in the interest of general public for someone
/a group of IT geniuses to hack or block it on global scale rather than
letting these protesters destroy themselves/or public property.

What's your thought guys??

BR,
Muhammad Asif

YouTube Block

usman — 2012-09-19T03:46:37

YouTube blocked, now cant access Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google 
Play, MightyText, Google Maps (afters signup), and other APPs using google 
signup  :(
Because, Google uses part of Youtube servers for authentications.  thanks 
God at lease gmail is working...

RIPE NCC handing out its last block of IPv4 addresses, tries to fend off internet survivalism

Haris Shamsi — 2012-09-17T05:13:23

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/16/ripe-ncc-handing-out-its-last-block-of-ipv4-addresses/