Fergie and Josh Duhamel plan baby number two

Fergie and Josh Duhamel are planning to have a second baby.
The Black Eyed Peas singer gave birth to the couple's first child - a son named Axl Jack Duhamel - in August, but it appears the couple are ready to add to their brood already.
Gushing about his newborn son to Access Hollywood, Josh revealed: 'He's a really good little baby, which means the second one will be a holy terror!'
Quizzed if that meant they are looking to have another child, the 'Transformers' hunk added: 'Of course! Yeah, we've gotta move fast.'
For now, however, Josh, 40, and Fergie, 38, are enjoying being parents to little Axl.
The star said: 'It's the best thing ever. The best thing that's ever happened to me. It's fantastic. We're beyond happy.'
Josh recently praised his wife, saying she looks better than ever since giving birth.
He enthused: 'She is doing so great. She really is. She is happy. She looks amazing ... three weeks ago she gave birth and she looks probably better than she did before. I don't know if it's because of what she's been eating or what, she looks really, really great

Slowdown: Telecom sector looks inward for growth

Warid Telecom alone is getting approximately 8,500 subscribers daily back to their network with different advertising and promotion activities. The number even crossed the 10,000 mark, if we count the number from their most recent campaign, according to sources. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: 

Telecom companies operating in Pakistan these days are neck and neck, locked in competition with each other. Industry experts believe that the telecom subscriber base has now reached a point of saturation.

There are a lot of hopes pinned on the future, especially for the upcoming Third Generation (3G) auction, which will move things forward for them but for the time being these companies are working hard to get the maximum number of subscribers back to their network. To achieve this, each telecom company is increasingly concentrating more on getting inactive subscribers back on their networks through direct or indirect offers.

Pakistan’s telecom industry witnessed massive growth in last 10 years. In the earlier stages of mobile revolution in Pakistan, having a mobile set and a SIM was more of a status symbol, but as more and more telecom companies entered in market especially after 2004, the status symbol turned into a dire need. The real battle between Telco’s started after 2005; mobile SIMs were easily accessible at low prices to the general public without proper verifications. Every mobile user at that time had more than one SIM from different mobile networks.

As the law and order situation started worsening in Pakistan, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority tightened the connection issuance policy which slowed the increasing number of new mobile connections. Many unsubscribed their extra connections and blocked those SIMs which were issued at their names without their knowledge.

Now that mobile subscriber base in Pakistan has reached 125 million connections, the five telecom companies operating are focusing more on getting inactive subscribers back to their network, through various different attractive campaigns, which offer the subscribers free minutes, SMS and internet bundles and much more.

Industry experts believe that the growth rate of new mobile connections has slowed down; such campaigns are an alternate solution to get maximum subscribers on the network.

Here’s an example of one such campaign. Warid Telecom alone is getting approximately 8,500 subscribers daily back to their network with different advertising and promotion activities. The number even crossed the 10,000 mark, if we count the number from their most recent campaign, according to sources.

“Telco’s rely on reactivation campaigns for two primary purposes: revenue stabilisation and retention of subscribers in order for late commercial offers to be more lucrative”, said Sadaf Zarrar, Director Marketing and Communication Warid Telecom.

For telecom companies, despite reactivation on the network, a customer is considered to breakeven when he or she spends at least 180 days on their network.

But the Telco’s face another issue− churning of connections. This means that if a customer has multiple SIMS and he or she uses these connections regularly whenever a particular telco offers competitive campaign.

According to industry sources all Telco’s face a churn rate of roughly 18-20% of the total industry base. Out of this rate, approximately 55-60% of subscribers churn before the 180 day break even period.

Reactivation campaigns help bring new/inactive subscribers back on the telco’s network and reduce the gap between churn customers, trying to reactivate as many as possible to minimise the loss from customers who churn, and hold the customers for 180 days at least

Teenager launches country’s first ‘free’ web-hosting service

Launched in June this year, base.pk is a Rawalpindi-based startup that offers free web-hosting services to Pakistanis who want to create and host their personal or business websites on some platform. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

In a thriving culture of web-based startups whereby young professionals with expertise in information technology seems to be focusing on quick earnings, a 17-year-old from Rawalpindi has launched what appears to be the country’s first ‘free’ web-hosting service.

“I see that everyone these days has an email address but [wonder] why not a website?” the young CEO of base.pk Hassan bin Fahim told The Express Tribune. “In Pakistan, the biggest hurdle [to creating a personal website] is the cost involved,” he added. That’s when the young entrepreneur first came up with the idea of launching base.pk.

Launched in June this year, base.pk is a Rawalpindi-based startup that offers free web-hosting services to Pakistanis who want to create and host their personal or business websites on some platform. “It is Pakistan’s first free web-hosting service,” he claims.

“The purpose behind base.pk is to let everyone in Pakistan create an online presence for themselves and their business without worrying about the costs involved,” the teenager said.

Only three months into the launch, according to Hassan, 573 people have built their own websites using the platform. “September served a total of 110,636 hits from our servers and this month, we’ve already hosted 87,034 hits,” he said.

For an A-level student, who has achieved all of this without any marketing, this progress seems to be very significant, thanks to a free package, which Hassan claims is better than those offered by paid web-hosting services.

Base.pk offers 10 gigabytes (GB) of storage, which means one can store 100,000 text-based web pages or 30,000 multimedia-rich web pages, Hassan said. For this storage capacity, one can store up to 2,500 songs or 50 hours of video footage on their web server, he said.

The website also offers 100 GB of bandwidth – the amount of data hosted on one’s server that can be accessed by the end user in a month. Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data transfer allowed per website per month on base.pk or any other web host.

Explaining, Hassan said 100 GB [of bandwidth] translates into a single text-based web page being accessed a million times until the limit is reached.

In other words, he said this means 25,000 people playing a song until the given bandwidth limit is reached – by contrast 90% of the websites, according to statistics, do not consume more than 3 GB of bandwidth.

In order to launch this project, all Hassan did was that he partnered with iFastNet – one of America’s biggest web-hosting companies – and submitted his website to Google and other search engines.

While base.pk is Hassan’s brainchild, iFastNet is responsible for providing him access to its dedicated servers located in [iFastNet] data centres. “We utilise their servers to host our websites. In return if anyone [base.pk client] wishes to purchase a [.com] domain name or advanced features, he purchases it from iFastNet,” he said while explaining the business model.

“Money is not my motivation,” he said, responding to a question about how he earns from the venture.

Unlike many young entrepreneurs who have earned quick money by monetising their ideas, Hassan has a different motivation. He wants to land admission to one of the world’s top-class graduate schools. He wants to do double major in business administration and computer science.

“The only personal benefit I aim to achieve from the website is to add a credential to my profile when I apply this year to universities like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University,” Hassan said.

Investment roundtable: Finance minister meets investors in London

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar met with members of the international financial community at the Pakistan High Commission in London. This was part of a string of meetings undertaken by the minister in the past two weeks. PHOTO: INP

ISLAMABAD: 

The High Commission of Pakistan in London and Deutsche Bank jointly organised an investment roundtable for a select group of key investors in the international financial community for an interactive discussion with the Minister of Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization of Pakistan, Mohammad Ishaq Dar.

Pakistan High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, was also present in the meeting, says a press release received from London. The Finance Minister apprised the international financial community of five main issues.

First, Pakistan’s vision for economic prosperity, second, credit highlights which will enable the nation to realise this vision, third, key challenges facing the country, fourth, the opportunities for the
future and fifth, recent steps taken so far by the government to place the country on a path of sustained economic development.

The event was attended by several leading asset managers, representing assets of approximately $3 trillion. The attendees appreciated the finance ministers update on the country and the opportunity to engage in a discussion with the minister.

The minister highlighted opportunities in the financial, energy and information technology sectors and invited the international financial community and their investors to benefit from the vast opportunities available in Pakistan.

The investors showed keen interest in understanding the investment opportunities in various sectors including oil and gas, communication and financial services.

The meeting comes on the heels of the finance minister’s visit to Washington for the annual World Bank-International Monetary Fund meeting, where the minister met with various groups on the sidelines to promote investment in Pakistan. The government, which had been questioned over the need for attending the summit, claimed that these side meetings were important in bolstering investment for Pakistan and educating foreign investors about opportunities present in the country. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif followed Ishaq Dar’s trip in Washington to meet with his counterpart.

The finance minister, through these interactive meetings, intends to attract foreign investment  and educate foreign investors about
the business environment in Pakistan

Beyonce is allegedly enforcing a strict new 'no-camera policy' backstage among her crew.
The 'Diva' singer, who has a 22-month-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, with her rapper husband Jay Z, has also reportedly demanded her meals be served on crisp white tablecloths in all-white dressing rooms in every venue she plays at during her 'Mrs. Carter Show' world tour.

A source told In Touch magazine that the 32-year-old star's latest tour rider asks 'that her dressing room not only be completely baby-proofed, but that it be furnished in all-white,' and that the temperature be set at exactly 22.2 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit) at all times.
The insider said that the 'Single Ladies' hitmaker has also requested a large second room with state-of-the-art vanity and stage lighting at every arena so she can make sure she looks her best before stepping on stage or meeting her fans.

The source added that no one on set is 'allowed to take any pictures' of the singer at any time.
Beyonce is currently performing in New Zealand and Australia and will wrap up her current world tour in New York City on December 22.
The singer recently insisted she doesn't take her success for granted.
She said: 'I'm still completely nervous. I still feel pressure.'

Investment: GEM, KASB to launch $200m equity fund

GEM has also agreed to subscribe to the current common equity offering of KASB Corporation as a symbol to solidify the relationship and participate in the long-term growth opportunities in Pakistan. DESIGN: CREATIVE COMMON

NEW YORK: 

The GEM Group and KASB Corporation have teamed up to launch a $200 million private equity fund focused on Pakistan.

GEM has also agreed to subscribe to the current common equity offering of KASB Corporation as a symbol to solidify the relationship and participate in the long-term growth opportunities in Pakistan. The partnership will use the existing network of 105 branches of KASB Bank in 43 cities to source potential transactions, using the local expertise of KASB, while providing the global structuring, execution and monitoring capabilities of GEM.

“Private equity is the growth engine required to take small and medium-size enterprises to the next level, and the Pakistani market represents an excellent opportunity. We are delighted to partner with a global champion like GEM on this initiative, as we reach another milestone under the KASB product umbrella,” explains Muzaffar Bukhari, Managing Director of KASB Corporation.

Finishing touches: Gwadar Port to be operational in six months

The officials said that the Gwadar Port is expected to become operational in the next five-six months and almost 60% work the road linkage has been completed. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: 

Officials of the Ministry of Ports and Shipping on Friday said that the government is working on a plan to equip ports with modern facilities. They said that an IT based database system will be installed next month at all the ports which will help track movement of containers.

The officials said that the ship breaking industry is being moved to Port Qasim with 170 acres of land earmarked and development work planned for the purpose, whereas about 3000 industries are being shifted to Port Qasim.

They said that uninterrupted power supply would be ensured with 500MW of electricity production through a coal plant while another 600MW will be added with the help of the British government after utilisation of solid waste at Karachi Port. The officials said that the Gwadar Port is expected to become operational in the next five-six months and almost 60% work the road linkage has been completed.