We all know well that Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of weather change, Seasonal changes are like clockwork, they take place every year, and every time there is a drop or increase in temperature, infections occur like cold, sore throat, flu, allergy and tummy troubles happen frequently with every change in season.

Studies have proven that weather changes are not directly responsible for the illnesses. The change in weather just provides a favourable environment for the viruses to multiply and spread. All they need is cool and dry air, and they will thrive. Though you may not be able to have control over the weather, you can protect your child by following a few simple dos and don’ts.

Do’s

Eating the Right Things, The Right Way

The importance of a good diet can’t be emphasized enough; Children are picky eaters in general, Getting all the good vitamins and minerals into their body is a bit of a challenge, foods rich in vitamin C, anti-oxidants and zinc important for youngster growth and well-being.
Feed superfoods to your child it’s best to go natural and prepare his body to fight the increased viruses during changing the weather. Give him immunity-boosting foods such as Banana, Turmeric added to milk, serve him with a healthy platter of fruit or wholesome chicken soup fruit juices high in vitamin C. Depending on your child’s previous history of immunity as well as the place where you live, you may want to consider him getting a flu vaccine.

Drinking Water

Dehydration occurs throughout the year, our bodies are made up of more than two-thirds water, if you experience 5% decrease in water levels your energy can drop by 25% to 30%, so dehydration must be treated as a serious condition, and all steps must be taken to stay hydrated.
It is as important to drink plenty of water during summers and winters both as dehydration can occur in both the seasons make sure to give your child plenty of fluids in the form of water, juice, a well-hydrated body can fight infectious diseases easily.

Hygiene

Every time your child steps out of the house, he will be assailed by infection-causing germs. Most infections are transmitted from hand to mouth. The first step to safeguard him is to encourage him to keep his hands clean by washing them.
Try to keep your child away from crowded places as in winters the more time we spend in crowded places the more you come in contact with people and increases the chances of transmission of germs and bacteria so during winters try to use humidifiers at home, avoid close Spaces to prevent exposure to bacteria and germs.

Bathing right

Keep track of the bath water temperature during the cold months of winter, so your child does not catch a cold. Whenever giving bath also takes proper care of the time you choose to bath your child as afternoons and mid-day are good times and a little warm as well, if you are washing their hair, ensure that it is completely dry before she steps out of the house.

Turning to herbs

Herbs and other natural remedies are one of the best ways to keep healthy, especially during changing the weather. While turmeric, ginger and lemon are found commonly in most kitchens, also make it a practice to use honey, cinnamon and other natural ingredients regularly. They will help boost your children’s immunity.
Keep honey and ginger handy: Kids love this sweet potion and will love this in place of horrible smelling cough syrups. Ginger and honey may be combined to relieve itchy throat caused by sudden weather change.

Don’ts

Processed and Junk food

This food is easy to eat, high on flavour but provides no nutritional value, making your child feel full, this will discourage them from eating healthy food. So, make it a rule of thumb to allow junk only if your child has eaten his quota of fruit or veggie for the day.

Keep away mosquitoes

Mosquitoes breed rapidly during the winters, causing diseases like dengue and malaria. Make your house mosquito-proof by fixing nets on all the windows and other entry points. Make sure there is no stagnant water around the house, use mosquito repellant on children when going out as you will more mosquitoes around you in winters due to lack of breeze.

Sedentary lifestyle

Being active will help your child develop immunity and get stronger. It will help your child fight most illnesses, including the seasonal ones. So, gently nudge your child to go outdoors regardless of the season. Encourage her to play their favourite games and be active.

Being adaptive

Protecting your child from the vagaries of the weather and making him to sensitive may not serve the purpose in the long run. Expose them to the changes in climate, allow them to get wet in a shower once in a while or to play in the sun occasionally and you’ll find them developing the resistance to diseases.

The changing seasons are a thing of beauty. The human body can adapt to these changes. The next time a seasonal change comes along, don’t panic. Follow these dos and don’ts, and you’ll sail through without falling ill. Mark Twain rightly said, “Climate is what we expect, the weather is what we get”. Being prepared for changes and being knowledgeable is the right way of facing weather changes, which are beyond our control. Follow the above tips and keep your child protected against the challenges of changing the weather. Exercise, eat well and be happy – the mantra to keep fit!

Khurram Zahid

The post 5 Do’s and 5 don’ts About How to Protect your child health when the weather changes appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

To own a debt you need nothing much to do. Gather some documentation ask few friends eligible to give your guarantee and you are all done, ending up with tons of money in your bank account and enjoying a long time, spending the money you got in the loan.

But getting out of debt is a reverse process. If not used wisely, you might end up with a big problem of paying the amount back to the person or institution you asked for debt from. Here we will not focus on teaching you ways to get loans from banks rather; we have compiled some amazing ideas for you to get out of your debt, on your own.

There are a number of cases where people can be seen running lots of credit cards and used the amount that was a lot more than their actual salary. They can also be seen buying a number of stupid things and the things they didn’t even need including weekends in hill stations, brand new cars, flying lessons and much more.

Although, we can’t say that they didn’t have fun during all those ventures but, all those spendings were actually based on the dream of earning a 100K job just after graduation. But facts are always different than the dreams and we all know that things don’t work well and as per we dream, think or plan about them.

In the most general case, such people have a tough time in completing their studies and then finding an average paying job. The things didn’t end up the way they might be thought.  And soon they get caught with the debt and are left with no way out of the money problems anymore. Such people soon realize that they are barely making money to meet their monthly needs and the amount they owned was twice of what they were earning.

Related Read: How to Manage your Expenses when you get Unemployed in Pakistan

Understanding the numbers, such people are soon seen to be deciding to change their habits of using and borrowing money and every now and then. What help such people the most in this situation is their hardworking nature. If they are not afraid of working hard or spending some more hours each day. But they can only bring a change when they decide to do so.

Here is a simple guide to the sure-fire ways of getting out of debt this year 2018 and move towards a financially stable life ahead.

     Defy: Face the numbers of how much debt you own?

Although it might come as a nightmare to you, you have to face it and come with a clear number of how much debt do you own. Ignoring is never a solution or a way out of the problems in any way. Try to face the numbers as early as possible; ignoring it won’t save you from the problem.

In the past, I did pay the minimum of my debts and forgot about the rest afterward. This is not a healthy activity and I would not recommend it to anyone. If you are really looking to get things done, go for seeing a clear picture of the numbers, consider and calculate every single penny you own to anyone.

In Pakistan, we do not have any kind of university or student loans, but in a case, as that of mine, you might have to pay the car loans, credit card loans and others. Calculate all of them.

2.      Debt Versus Income Ratio:

   

The ratio between the two is the most commonly used figure that is meant to place your debt side by side to your income.  This ratio is calculated in a number of ways. If you apply for a loan for a car, the bank will calculate your DTI with a percentage of the monthly installment you will be paying to the bank, from your monthly income.

For example, if you are earning PKR 50,000 per year and you have PKR 25,000 in debt; your debt ratio will be 0.5. This number will give you a clear picture of where do you stand in your debt scale and how you have to move on with the process of paying it off. No matter how much debt do you have, you need to look at the ways in a positive manner to the things done.

3.      Change Your Behavior:

   

Getting out of any problem starts by kicking off the habits that dragged you into that situation. Thus you must start with eliminating the reasons that dragged you into the debt. Check yourself your habits and your activities that lead you to the current situation. Not even a lottery can help you if you don’t know how to spend less than what you have earned. People get in debt for a number of reasons. Medical bills, school fees, job loss, or if you are spending insanely, just like me. Whatever the reason is, analyze the facts and find the root causes and kick off those causes from your good book.

Here are some suggestions that you can keep in consideration! If you have already taken a loan for a car, do not ask for another to upgrade the latest model of car you own.  If you are piled up with debt because you lost your job, once you pay off all the debt, start working on saving some emergency funds to never let it happen again. If you have spent years on living a life that you cannot afford, start moving towards a lifestyle that you can actually afford.

Living within your means is the best thing to keep with you to stay away from situations like these. However, changing your lifestyle the way you have been living for long. However, if you get it done once you will surely live a better life ahead.

4.      Earn Enough:

   

To get out of debt you need to grab enough money from your pocket. Remember you need to earn money to meet your daily and ongoing expenses and have some amount on hand to pay the debt installments.  The faster you want to get out of debt, the more you need to earn money, limits your expenses and pay maximum amount for the debt installments and decrease the debt number.

Earning more is important for paying your debts. By just only cutting the expenses, you can never help you the way it should. Rather it will leave you with a bit more frustrated and stressed, as a result having a negative impact on your productivity and self-motivation.

Here I would like to mention that now everyone has to earn extra bucks to pay his/her debt but it surely makes the process a lot easier. And if you are really willing to do that, there are a number of options to earn money.

Related Read: How to Save Money in Your Health Insurance Plan?

5.      Selling Your Stuff:

   

For a person like me, it is obvious to have a lot of stuff that is not in your use. Get help from OLX or other such websites. They can offer you potential customers with better rates for the goods you are not using anymore.

Selling stuff, you don’t need will not only help you get rid of things you don’t need anymore and they can give you some instant cash.

6.      Working Harder:

   

Get yourself busy in some extra means of earning. But the second job is not fun, it requires a huge amount of energy, dedication and time to get these tasks done. But it is a must as well when you have bills to pay with a lot of zeros in it. Think of how stress you are by the end of 9 to 5 job and then getting into your car and rushing to the next 6 to 10 job, getting free from there and get back to home at 11, left with energy to do nothing.

However, putting some extra hours will give you some extra money but will surely suck the life out of you. If you are not willing to go this way, or it is hard for you to manage in this way or that, you can go for other options like delivery route services, babysitting, mall stores and others.

7.      Work Smarter:

   

No hard work can pay you well if you are not playing smartly. Smart working is one of my favorite ways to increase your income. Smart working will surely promote you at work and if it is not happening, it is the time to change your job. Find yourself a better paying job. If you are not getting any higher paying job, that you think you deserve, you must find ways of your own.

Tools that Helps to Get Out of Debt:

Top of the list, motivation is half the battle. But there are many other tools that can help you get out of debt easily, and if they exist, why not take advantage of them!

Getting out of debt in 2018 is far much easier than it was a few years ago. The credit crunch is an old story unless you completely burnt your credit scores. The credit systems these days can help you climb your way up, to the edge of the hole.

a)   Balance Transfer: In some cases, zero% balance transfer can offer an immediate relief from a higher credit card debt. But this situation is not a cure for all. A balance transfer is a lollipop that is used by credit card companies to attract new customers to sign up for a new credit card with an interest rate of zero% for the specific time period. But there are many drawbacks to this approach as well.

b)   Loans for Debt Consolidation: Finding unsecured personal loans is becoming easier day by day and are used to consolidate various many debts into an affordable payment on monthly basis.

c)   Debt Management and Credit Counseling: despite the fact that you can save money by paying your debt on your own, there are times that it just simply doesn’t work. In such instance, the credit counseling services or debt management services might help you. However, being in Pakistan you have to check with your lawyers or finance management companies if they are offering any such services or not.

Related Read: 25 Ways to Save Money in Pakistan if You are a Salaried Person

An Overview of Possibilities:

Let’s now end up the discussion with an aim to review of what are the possible and potential elements that we found in this discussion to help us deal with the debt management.

•         Diminish the use of a credit card
•         Sell things that are not in your use
•         List down goals you might focus on to earn money
•         Look for better salary increment or higher paying job
•         Transfer a high-interest rate balance
•         Overview of your debt and find the exact number of what you own in terms of debt
•         Recheck your budget
•         Make extra debt payments
•         Look into credit counseling

Once done with these essential steps, you are almost halfway done to pay to start getting rid of your rising debts.

Khurram Zahid

The post 7 Sure Fire Ways of Getting Out of Debt this Year (2018) appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

This small ignorance from our daily routine not only brings us some short-term damage but the bad impact on these habits stay with us for long. We all know many of the bad habits we carry in our daily life but ignore them. While there are many others about which we have no idea.

Here we have listed the top 10 habits that are seriously damaging our life and we need to stop doing them right now if we really want to live a healthy and happy life.

1- Sleeping Less Than 7 Hours:

If you are not sleeping for about 8 hours, each day, your health is at risk.

Most of us take it as a compliment for not sleeping more than 4 to 5 hours each day and spending most of the time in working. Many of us stay up even if we have a lot of work to finish the next day. We think that by doing so we are building our stamina and will end up being more productive. This thinking can mostly be found in the students who are struggling to get a good grade.

Beware! If you are not taking enough sleep each day you are racking your health. If you sleep less than 6 hours a day, continuously, the chances are high for your immune system to turn a week. It will also have a negative impact on other body functioning.

Your body will lose the ability to fight the external germs if your body has a weak immune system. In such situations, your body becomes more vulnerable to disease and infections. And you will get sick sooner and often. Thus science suggests sleeping at least for 8 hours a day to keep your inner self-healthy.

2- Negativity in Mind:

Nothing can harm you more than your own negative thoughts. To live a healthy and happy life, you need to stay positive in every way possible.

Positivity is not only good for your mental health but has a huge impact on your physical health. One must never stress on if they have limited friends or if they are facing some kind of problem in their life. All such situations are a part of life, if you are keeping yourself positive you might find a solution but if you tend to stay negative, you will come with no benefits.

You mental stress will have a direct impact on your physical health and will weaken your immune system.

Related Read: Top 5 Health Care Tips for Couple with Kids

3- Using Headphones for Long:

Today we can see almost every person wearing headphone, plugged in for hours. Either used for music or for taking a call during driving, headphones are one of the essential parts of our daily life. But only a few of us know that they are a big risk to our life.

The habit is really bad as it will cost you damage in your earbuds if you keep using headphones for a very long time. To avoid any damage to your sensitive eardrums, make sure you are not using the headphones for many hours.

Also, try to keep the volume audible enough so that you can hear the words correctly and effortlessly.

4- A Couch Potato:

Obesity is one of the major health issues, globally. Obesity is taking a considerable number of lives, each year and is also a root cause of life taking a disease like heart attack and diabetes.
And one of the root causes of obesity is lesser physical activity. No matter if it’s a long vacation or if it is the weekends, sitting in front of the TV, playing video games on the computer and laying on the couch for hours and hours is really bad for your health.

If you are sitting for hours and using these electronic devices, not only you will get infected with the radiations but will other health problem like eyes and heart disease and obesity. Apart from causing you such serious health issues this habit will make you lazy and can have a negative impact on other matters of your life.

Rather than becoming a couch potato one must adopt a healthy and active lifestyle. Indulge yourself in sports activities and have some walk and exercise as a part of your daily routine.

5- Heels:

Here the fashion lover might have some serious arguments with me and maybe they will lose a wish to read ahead but it is something that is damaging your health for real.

No matter how successfully you can carry yourself in high heels and how gorgeous they can make you look, but the fact remains the same that they are silent killers of your health. Wearing high heels every day make dispose you to early age back pain and other skeletal issues like tendon injuries, arthritis, and bone deformation.

Even after knowing all this, if you want to wear them, make sure that you are not wearing more than 1.5 inches.

Related Read: How to Save Money in Your Health Insurance Plan?

6- Carry Heavy Bags:

This one again goes for girls. Every girl likes to look fresh all day, anywhere, anytime. For this reason, most girls love to carry everything they might need for this purpose.

But we must not do this at the cost of our health. If you are carrying an extra heavy bag with you all the time, your back and shoulders will be stressed. This habit can lead to long-term issues like neck and back pain and will lead to a posture problem as well. Thus, avoid taking that risk on your life and empty your bag from all the extra material that you have in it.

7- Sleeping with Makeup On:

It’s one of the most common problems the females face, specifically the working women. When they get back home after a hectic day at work, tired a lot they are normally they just want to hit their bed. Many do this without taking their makeup off.

This is a dangerous habit that hurt the skin and leads to serious skin damage like clogged pores, congested skin and spots etc.

Sleeping with eye makeup on is more dangerous than the face. As eyes are the most sensitive area on our face, sleeping with strong products can cause a damage to vision and eyes infection.

8- Eating with Empty-Full Stomach:

Your eating patterns define your health and predict your future. If you are not eating with a defined and proper pattern your stomach will stop sharing the signals of hunger, when it should. If it happens, you will eat even if you are not hungry, as a result, your body will get flooded with extra calories.

If we look at the modern food items they are also not healthy and getting our body stuffed with such food throughout the day it will have to cause us lasting health problems like heart disease, acidity and obesity and many others.

Related Read: Why Health Insurance is NOT a Thing to Avoid

9- Avoiding Breakfast:

The saying to eat breakfast like a king is not without a good reason. Breakfast is the most important meal of a day and if you skip having a proper breakfast your metabolism will be affected negatively. It will also have a negative impact on the energy reserved in your body.

Here important to note is that if your breakfast is not healthy, you will not gain the benefits that you must earn by eating a breakfast. A healthy breakfast contains fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

Dietitians may recommend you to skip your lunch (in some cases) but they never agree for skipping a healthy breakfast.

10- The Junk Food:

Thou, discussed throughout the discussion, junk food is the root cause of many health issues, but here necessary is to address the junk food in a separate slot.

Junk food is the root cause of many serious health issues, some of which are occurring globally e.g. obesity. Junk food is bad for our health but still, we consume it. If you are eating junk food every day or even two times a week, your body is at risk. Junk foods contain a high amount of preservatives, sugar, spice, and fats.

Eating lots of junk food can cause your health problems like stroke, high cholesterol, and diabetes etc. It is also found to harden the arteries and raise the level of plaque deposition in the body. This increased plaque in your body then leads to issues like heart attack and others.

Thus for a number of reasons the dietitians and health instructors refrain using junk food and adopting a healthy living style with a considerable amount of physical activities in our life.
If you are willing to live along and healthy life, you must take into consideration eliminating these habits from your lifestyle.

Khurram Zahid

The post 10 Common Habits which are Killing Your Health Quietly appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

If we speak about a simple, household, salaried person, we can have a better idea about hassle they have to take in managing their salary so that they can have a sufficient amount of money in their pocket at the end of the month hits them. Managing some savings is a great deal in such cases. In such situations, saving some money is a big deal.

An average Pakistani job holder is earning from PKR 30-50 thousand per month. This amount is obviously a handsome one for the intermediate level jobber in Pakistan. But the most common problem faced by this group of youngsters in their expenses. And most of them encounter it as they arrive at the second half of each month.

Here are some basic level tricks to keep your spending in your control and predefined budget.

Related Read: How to Manage your Expenses when you get Unemployed in Pakistan

Putting Your Budget in Place:

By budget, we mean to decide and allocate a fixed amount for your basic expenses. For a household person budget will include the average amount they need to spend on monthly grocery, electricity/telephone/internet/gas bills, fuel, fees and other expenses that are necessary to be paid on monthly basis. Apart from this, you must include a fixed amount for medical treatment into your budget.

Once you will enlist and calculate the amount you needed for these activities, you will be done with your budget. Once you will get your salary, take that calculated amount aside and make sure you are not spending it anywhere else.

Just waiting for the salary to get credited to make your saving for the month ahead is not enough. You need to make yourself a clear concise and strict, yet practical budget plan that need to stick beforehand.

You can consider the revision of your plan, every three months. There are chances your budget will change, you need to add new expenses, the fees for kids are increased or there are some additional medical expenses.

In budgeting, you also need to make sure that you are strict to the basic expenses and savings before you look for some party and outing activities. If you are left with some amount from budget or savings, you can think of other things like shopping or hanging out with friends.

Budgeting helps us to control the most common problem that we face overspending. Overspending is also found to be a major problem that keeps our bank numbers at their lowest by the end of each month.

Use Credit Card Wisely:

Simply keep them to a minimum. We believe that you are one of those youngsters who would like to keep a balance on their credit card. If it’s really so, prefer to shop for the card with the lowest interest rate as it will lower your credit card bills.

If you are a full-time job holder and are able to pay your bills by end of each month, financial experts would suggest going for a card that offers a reward program. Different banks offer different packages and facilities on their credit cards. Look for the credit card offer that suits you the best.

Well! In another case, if you fail to maintain this balance, be competent to avoid paying the interest while enjoying the perks. An expert tip for using a card perfectly is that “Never miss the due date of the payment.” If you are paying your credit card dues on time, let’s say by end of each month, you are going great!

Related Read: Which Terms You Need to Learn before Applying for a Credit Card?

One of the major issue that credit card users face is that they spend too much money by using their credit card. The credit card does not mean that you can shop anything you want to.  

Credit card just provides you the opportunity to pay your bills with a bit of delay. Let’s say by end of each month, or the moment you get your salary. Then how is it possible to pay your bills more than you earn???

Your credit cards help you to make some urgent payments at the time when you have less or no amount in your wallet. You can use a decided amount of money from your credit card and then return it back to the bank after some time. But make sure you are spending that much money which you can pay back to the bank once you will get your salary.

Have credit card to serve you as a helping friend, in the time of need. Having it for your leisure expenses will never be a good idea.

Spend Carefully on Yourself:

This might sound strange but you need to pay yourself for your salary. Managing your personal expenses is also a must if your salary is under PKR 50,000, from which you have to pay your expenses and fulfill needs of your family at the same time.

Setting aside some specific amount for your personal expenses on monthly basis will help you keep the bigger figure aligns and will allow you to make some saving as well.

You must think twice before spending the money on activities like hanging out and random shopping even when you are not much in need of the particular thing and you are buying it just because you liked it, or if you are about to start a new course and you need to pay funds for that.

Stick to your needs, rather than wishing to have everything what you look around you.

The Pro Tip!

Why not make some extra money from the amount you will save!

Focus on the saving plans that offer you the facility to divert your funds towards tax saving, insurance, and investments etc. Look for better and trustable insurance and investment opportunities to double your money with no effort.

Try to have an insurance for you with some basic ongoing investment. You can go for the insurance even if you have a huge amount of savings in your pocket. For the details, you can consult any financial analyst or even your bank might offer you some related opportunities.

Related Read: Smartchoice.pk Introduces New Features with Better User Experience

Keep a money bank saving for emergency purposes. This is always a great idea to cheat you into saving a bit more. At the time when insurance and investment plans are pre-planned financial tools, money banks can bring you some extra unplanned surprises with a very little amount of effort placed in it.

Maybe it looks childish but the idea works a miracle. If you are a salaried person and are worried to meet and manage your expenses, try these simple yet effective rules that will surely earn you some amazing benefits, but only if you apply them on regular basis for a year or so.

Khurram Zahid

The post Money Management Tips for People Income Under PKR 50,000 appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

Round The Clock Tech Support:
For any business, a reliable internet connection serves as the most important organ. If anything happens and your communication links with your clients/suppliers are broken then you could suffer a lot of losses within a short span of time. Every ISP gives some sort of tech support but corporate packages are given such a level of support that is 24/7 and uninterrupted and available round the clock. They also might assign you a dedicated team of tech specialists that may even visit to check and fix any malfunctions to keep things running smoothly. Something which does not exist at such a level in residential/consumer internet packages.  If you need to get in touch with your respective helpline then you also might not need to endure long waiting times as you get personalized support over the phone.

Tax Claims:
As a business entity you pay a lot in taxes for the services you use and thus at the end of every fiscal year you may file for tax claims. This is also possible for any consumer however with the huge amounts in question it’s only good that you’ve all the proper paperwork including receipts and claim forms necessary to file tax claims.

Dedicated Links:
Corporate packages usually work on dedicated links which helps as you get consistent and stable speeds rather than residential packages which usually run on shared connections among multiple users.

Zero Downtimes:
Business based internet packages, are given special priority and have near-zero downtimes as even if the ISP needs to do any maintenance work then it makes sure that its services are still uninterrupted for its corporate clients.

Better Hardware/CPE:
An ISP issues you WiFi routers and any other equipment as per your business organization’s needs. A customer at a residential premises might need one WiFi router for coverage whereas a workplace might need routers that cover a lot more area and must be placed strategically in order to offer best connectivity throughout the working space. You will also get network switches installed and any wired connectivity would be installed properly as needed.

Reliability:
It’s also pertinent to mention that any business broadband package should be reliable at any time. For this Fiber Optic connectivity is used because it’s much stable than copper and not prone to being tapped. It also supports much faster speeds that are the need of any business organization. Also an SLA agreement is signed with the ISPs to ensure that a business’ needs are served as per their requirements.  You may also get a Disaster Recovery website which is essentially a mirror of your original business website with near-complete backups of your data as well. It helps to recover within a short period of time in case your website goes down after any disaster happens. Your data is also securely encrypted for security purposes.

Prioritized Traffic:
An ISP usually routes corporate traffic on priority basis which means that your network works at stable speeds regardless of how much the usage patterns of an ISP’s customer base may be. In residential/consumer packages your bandwidth could be affected during peak times or holiday seasons.

VPN/Static IP:
For any business, a VPN(Virtual Private Network) and multiple Static IPs can be of essential need. Using these additional services you can monitor your office remotely as well as have a secure internal private network that enables employees to access a corporate intranet. With a static IP you can also host your own server, website or remotely access your workplace computers without complications.

Stronger Security:
For any business, security is a prime need and any hacks can be a major pitfall for your organization. To counter this fact, ISPs use stronger encryption levels and software aimed to make your network more secure.

Faster Uploads:
Residential consumers usually do a lot of activities online that include downloading for e.g streaming video content and downloading stuff. For business users there might be a lot of uploading included for e.g to the cloud hence uploads are also prioritized on business broadband packages.

Financial Approval:
As per any business organization’s operating procedures, for any financial spending you’ll need proper approval from the finance department and in this case the ISP will issue you a quotation which you can then refer to the concerned department to get an approval and only then will your company issue the necessary amount required to acquire the desired services.

Above mentioned points are some important aspects which can determine if you need to have a business broadband internet connection at installed at your workplace. To compare various business/residential broadband packages in Pakistan from various ISPs nationwide, visit our online portal at www.smartchoice.pk where you can place an order for your desired service as well. If you have any feedback, feel free to voice yourself in the comments section below.

Khurram Zahid

The post 11 Reasons To Choose Corporate Broadband For Your Business! appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

The broadband industry also saw a growth as due to the influx of 3G/4G, telcos have now introduced their Mobile Broadband devices as well which add portability as well as multiple devices can be connected at one time. Zong has been a massive hit with the consumers as it’s giving fast and consistent speeds at attractive prices. Including all wired and wireless broadband services available  to consumers in Pakistan, the total number of subscribers now stands at 31 million  which is a growth of a staggering 13.28 million subscribers since the past 9 months starting from July 2015. Cable Net and EvDO technologies took a hit as the number of new subscribers have been going down however Mobile Broadband saw the most growth in number of new subscribers. WiMAX took a huge hit in July 2015 most probably due to Wateen’s exit from the broadband market which almost left its user base in half as shown in the table given below:

Note: *DSL, HFC, WiMax, FTTH, EvDO and others are as of Dec 2015
Note: **DSL, HFC, WiMax, FTTH, EvDo and others are As of Dec 2015

Khurram Zahid

The post Broadband Industry Crosses 31 Million Subscribers – Latest PTA Figures appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

As broadband users ourselves, we are aware of the issues consumers have to deal with. The major ones being not getting the promised speeds for your broadband connection and areas with spotty coverage. PTA seems to be aware of such issues and is planning to launch its own speed testing application for Android platform while an iOS version might be coming out in the near future.

The reason  PTA has decided to implement a speed testing solution of its own is because there is no standards of Quality of service when it comes to broadband internet in Pakistan. Hence there is a strong need to regulate and monitor Broadband companies and their performance as some users get highly variable speeds in different parts of the city. Broadband providers have their own servers on Speedtest.net, however they don’t share the statistics and analytics that they get when users check their broadband speeds. This initiative will help to make sure that the provider is delivering on its promise and consumers are satisfied in all areas with respect to all variables in play, PTA has decided to crowdsource speed testing data by launching its own app which will collect internet metrics from users and report geolocation as well. Thus any coverage or speed issues in a certain area can be pointed out as well as the promised speeds by the broadband provider can be audited by an independent authority to make sure that everything is in check. In the future if PTA makes this data public then users can get to know that which areas get better reception and thus make a smart decision about which provider to choose. Hopefully this new implementation will work in the consumer’s favour and people will enjoy better quality broadband services in Pakistan.

This app is currently in its pilot program with a limited number of users and would be launched properly after the required results start to come out. Are you happy with your internet provider? Do you think this new app will regulate service quality in a much better way? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Khurram Zahid

The post PTA to Launch Speed Testing Mobile App! appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

What is an Exchange Point?
Now let’s give you an overview of what an Internet Exchange Point is and what does it do. An Internet Exchange Point (IXP or IX) is a physical infrastructure through which Internet service providers (ISPs) and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) exchange Internet traffic between their networks (autonomous systems). The primary purpose of an IXP is to allow networks to interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than through one or more third-party networks. For example if you are using a local ISP and if a ping is sent for a website/server that is hosted on TransWorld for example, then traffic is routed through international exchanges that reside outside Pakistan. This traffic will now be routed within our local Internet Exchange after it’s set up.

Now that we have given our readers a brief introduction on the purpose and working of an IXP, you must be wondering that what advantage do you as a user can get by this? Well to mention the major merits of having an Internet Exchange Point are two-fold as not just the end-user but the ISPs can also benefit from this as mentioned under:

Benefits of an Internet Exchange:

* Reduction in costs for the ISPs.
* Lower Latency which in turn means lower Ping times and faster response times leading to better user experience.
* Local content development and hosting opportunities.
* Development of local cloud based infrastructures.
* Improved security and stability.
* Availability of services in case of disruption in international bandwidth.
* Attraction for international companies to create local images of their servers in Pakistan.

We hope that this latest initiative will boost the Quality of Service by all ISPs and in turn benefit the users along with creating new jobs and boosting economy in the process. What are your thoughts about this? Have your say in the comments section below!

Khurram Zahid

The post Internet Exchange Point to offer Better Quality Internet in Pakistan! appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

However there are a few advantages as well as few caveats that should be kept in mind hence we have decided to inform our readers and help them make a smart choice! There are 5 different carriers in the country and all 5 of them are offering the phone. Let’s talk about the advantages first and then the caveats.

The advantages are that the phones are officially imported through proper channels hence the devices are actually brand new and not pre-activated, also the accessories will be genuine and it wont be repacked as those are mostly sold in the local as gray market imports. Speaking of which you also get 1 year warranty on the device which is something you don’t get in the local market. These phones are also PTA approved but that also means that FaceTime is unavailable as PTA has a restriction on FaceTime. The prices are also higher(which we will discuss more about later in the article.)

The benefits of buying from the local market are that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are already available in the local market, at a cheaper price and have FaceTime enabled as well. However as we mentioned earlier that they lack any warranty or after-sales support and might not have original accessories and might be repacked as well. Hence it’s mostly upto the customer to choose where to buy from as the price difference is quite marginal.

However coming to price is where the real drawbacks come to play. The local carriers are all offering the iPhones but the terms and conditions are quite vague.  Here’s a rundown of how various carriers are offering the new iPhone duo.

Warid: We spoke to their customer representative who stated that the launch is scheduled for tomorrow i.e 13th November 2015, however they said that there is no confirmed pricing at the moment and pricing could fluctuate and it’s best to visit your nearest service center tomorrow to get exact price and availability information.

Telenor: The customer rep has stated that they have no availability information at the moment however we have recieved a SMS from Telenor that states the price to start from PKR 80000 onwards.

Ufone: The launch date is stated for 13th November 2015 i.e tomorrow however pricing is yet to be confirmed.

Mobilink: Their staff states that they have no pricing or availability information at the moment.

Zong: They were the only carrier that gave us concrete pricing, however availability date is yet to be announced and you have to submit a PKR 1000 deposit to reserve your device. Pricing is as follows and all units are factory unlocked however without FaceTime:

iPhone 6s
16GB: PKR 85000
64GB: PKR 99000
128GB: PKR 111000

iPhone 6s Plus
16GB: PKR 98500
64GB: PKR 111500
128GB: PKR 124000

We honestly think that these prices are a bit on the high side however if you want total peace of mind with 1 year AppleCare warranty plan then we would ask you to go for it. Though prices in the open market have gotten lower and are now stable and even slightly used units are available as well for those with a lower budget. In the end it’s upto the consumer to make the choice and it’s good to see carriers finally bringing in the iPhone with warranty for those who prefer it this way.

Khurram Zahid

The post Telcos Late to the Apple iPhone 6s Launch Party(as usual) appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

As per this new policy, customers will have to verify their identity through thumb impression to confirm that the CNIC they are using for activation of their internet connection is legitimate, original and it belongs to them.

As per PTA’s SOP, a customer has to present CNIC at Customer Service Centers of ISPs before making a purchase of a new connection. After which customer will have to record the thumb impression that will be matched with NADRA’s database. Finally the customer will be issued a new active internet connection.

It’s pertinent to mention that this implementation will have its fair share of benefits such as issuance of new connections to verified persons and better accountability of unpaid dues. Thus devices issued to customers can be recovered easily in case of discontinuation of services.

Furthermore, it does come with some challenges as well because there would be a huge influx of reverification subscribers at service centers/franchises, hence the staff would be overloaded during this period. Walk-in customers could be highly affected. Hence ISPs should induct sufficient workforce to deal with the rising number of consumers.

Following implementation timelines have been decided for BVS:

1) Deployment of BVS at Customer Service Centers by Nov, 2015.

2) Deployment of BVS at franchises and retailers by Dec, 2015.

3) Cessation of existing process of verification by Jan, 2016.

4) Re-verification of all existing connections, i.e those sold before implementation of BVS should be done within a time period of 2 months after BVS deployment is completed by Feb, 2016.

Khurram Zahid

The post Biometric Verification Now Required For Broadband Internet Connections appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.