Share this story!            

TELECOM WATCH: The shenanigans of a telecom steward

By Noshad Ali

KARACHI: The comedy of chaos at Wateen under the stewardship of Tariq Malik continues, according to insiders. Following revelations in the Daily Times of the goings on at Wateen-Warid, Mr Malik used his new found power in the press to sponsor a hilarious self serving advertorial in a local newspaper listing all his “achievements” as well as describing himself modestly as “a huge name in telecom”. At the end he was careful to praise Bashir Tahir, Pervaiz Shahid (who have little to do with telecom), Marwan Zawydeh and the vision of Sheikh Nahanyan!

“But there was no mention of the emasculated CEO of Warid Telecom, Hamid Farooq, whose authority has been skilfully usurped by Tariq”, said a source. “After reading Tariq’s laudatory article, it sounds like something between a CV and an obituary.”

The sponsored list of Mr Malik’s achievements never addressed his penchant for intellectual lifting. No mention was made for instance of the famous Request for a Proposal (RFP) to vendors hat this previous employer says was stolen from its premises. Over the past years he has approached just about everyone in the Telecom industry offering huge sums of “Sheikh Cash” to buy them out. DV Com, Worldcall, Burraq, Global Telecom, NBC (Cables), etc have all been made offers, say sources. After scrutinising their business plans, Mr Malik has stopped answering their phone calls. The purloined information is polished up and put into “power point” presentations and used to persuade the sheikhs to part with more cash to finance a new scheme of his, say his detractors. Recently he went to a printing press with the same offer. The owner who had wised up to him told him “you have already set up a secret partnership with Excel group for a press to skim off printing revenue from Warid, so why do you want information from me”?

The new determination by PTA reducing DPLC (Domestic Private Lease Circuit) rates by 20 to 30 percent is another nail in the coffin of Wateen. Long haul project without captive traffic and international circuits like those with PTCL and Mobilink ensure that Wateen cannot compete effectively, say experts. PTCL has no intention under the Reference Interconnect Order (RIO) of allowing companies to connect to Wateen housed in their premises. Wateen is running from pillar to post offering “30 percent” less than PTCL in pre-selling their back haul circuits which cannot be completed for at least another six months. To make matters worse, Warid Telecom’s latest opening loss is over $150 million. Since all its roll out is being funded by Pakistani banks, concerns are monitoring in official quarters, say insiders.

Meanwhile the residents of Defence Lahore are facing a nightmare as Wateen is laying waste their manicured lawns to lay fibre for Internet and cable, all of which is already available. The question being asked is: if Wateen is intending to provide wireless Internet, why are they digging up the roads to put in cable? Another inexplicable transaction is the acquisition by Wateen of 3.5 GHz. frequency from Micro Tech Limited (MTL) for an astronomical sum of Rs 185 million. On the one hand they have entered into a joint venture with DHA to supposedly use the same frequency for wireless Internet and on the other hand they are buying the same frequency from MTL. An insider revealed an interesting link which explains a lot. The optic fibre that Wateen has purchased for its long haul network is from a German company called Krunberg and by a strange coincidence the owner of the agents, Akbar Associates, is a close relative of the owner of MTL! A similar transaction is the purchase of its access portion at an inflated price of their backhaul network from a company called Dragon Wave, who nobody in the industry has heard of. No wonder Tariq Malik has kept procurement under his control, it is being whispered.

Apparently the exposé on the Motorola Canopy by Daily Times termed “Wimax” by Wateen created consternation to the extent that Mr Malik left a freebee Mediterranean cruise trip (sponsored by Motorola) and rushed back to Pakistan for damage control. A few days later a series of interviews and articles appeared in the media extolling the wonderful new technology Wateen was introducing in Pakistan.

Home | National

Share this story!