DIRSI and ACORN-REDECOM (Americas Communication Research Network / Red Americana de Investigación en Información y Comunicación) are organizing a Training Seminar on New Technologies and their Challenges for Telecommunications Regulation in Latin America. The seminar will be held on May 13 2010, immediately prior to ACORN-REDECOM’s 4th annual conference in Brasilia. LIRNEasia’s CEO, Dr. Rohan Samarajiva will deliver [...]
Applications now open for LIRNEasia Young Scholar Tutorials, hosted by NUS, Singapore. Click here for info on how to apply.
CPRsouth5: Call for Abstracts
The 5th Communications Policy Research, South (CPRsouth5) will be held on 6 – 8 December 2010, in Xi’an, China. The conference is organized by LIRNEasia and the Research Centre for Information Industry Development, Xian University of Posts and Telecommunications (XUPT), supported by the International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC) and the Department for International Development, [...]
US Universal Service Fund to disburse subsidies for broadband
The US universal service fund is among the oldest and most inefficient, spending more on administration than comparators and not targeting the subsidies well. Our research has been cited in debates about improving it. The FCC under the Obama appointed Chair does not appear to be engaging in fundamental reforms, but is instead [...]
Facebook beats Google in hits
More people visited Facebook than Google in the USA. Research firm Hitwise said that the two sites accounted for 14 per cent of all US internet visits last week. Facebook’s home page recorded 7.07 per cent of traffic and Google’s 7.03 per cent. It is the first time that Facebook.com has enjoyed a weekly lead [...]
Ambush rocks Bangladesh mobile market
Bharti AirTel has acquired 70% of Warid Telecom in Bangladesh. It immediately prompted the leading operators sharing each other’s infrastructure to keep the costs under control. Grameenphone’s CEO said his company “is the only operator in Bangladesh that is profitable so far. If tariffs fall further, it will have a big impact on the profitability of other [...]
Health workers don’t need degrees to operate mHealthSurvey
The literarcy rate in Tamil Nadu is above that of the national average. Health workers assisting in the Real-Time Biosurveillance Program (RTBP) in Tamil Nadu, all of whom are female, 68% have 10 years of education and the rest only 12 years of education. They have more than 10 years experience working in the field [...]
Mobile for the impaired
IBM and two Indo-Japanese academic outfits have planned to develop a mobile phone for the illiterate, blind, deaf and elderly people. The device will use open source software and other materials developed will be made publicly available to allow the governments and businesses around the world to take advantage of the technology.
A consortium has been [...]
Welcome to China Mobile-Bank
China Mobile has decided to buy 20% of Shanghai Pudong Development (SPD) Bank for $5.83 billion cash. Under the deal, Guangdong Mobile – China Mobile’s biggest subsidiary – will become the bank’s second largest shareholder. Guangdong Mobile has signed an MoU with SPD Bank “to closely cooperate in the joint development of mobile finance and mobile e-commerce [...]
Population as a growth engine
The snap shot age distribution in a population can take three basic shapes. Pyramid is the most common in animal world where reaching the ripe old age is rare. Advances in medicine and economy have changed that in human societies. The pot shape is the best (till is lasts) as the workforce is larger with [...]
Network effects exploited by Face Book, or why we advertise in Face Book
We think a lot about network effects: the positive externalities caused by greater connectivity. A telephone network with 100 subscribers offers 99 calling opportunities whereas one with 10 subscribers offers only 9. That is why regulators had to fight so hard to ensure seamless interconnection that would give the subscribers on each network [...]
Etisalat signals entry into m-payments space
Makes eminent sense for a telco operating in the Gulf and in Sri Lanka to offer mpayment services. Also makes eminent sense to abolish excessive roaming charges within countries they operate in, like Zain (in the process of becoming part of Bharti). And even selling Etisalat SIMs to our workers before they go [...]
Expert Forum Meeting on ‘Mobile 2.0 Applications and Conditions’ in Pakistan
An Expert Forum Meeting on ‘Mobile 2.0 Applications and Conditions’ is to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan on April 26-27, 2010. This meeting is co‐hosted by LIRNEasia and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
Objectives: To share LIRNEasia’s Mobile 2.0 (i.e., the second wave of mobile use –beyond voice applications) research results among regulators, operators, policy makers and [...]
LIRNEasia Dissemination event and Tutorials Singapore: 21-22 June 2010
Fifteen Young Scholars from the Asia-Pacific region will be selected to participate in tutorials taught by recognized scholars and practitioners scheduled to be held before the 2010 International Communication Association conference in Singapore and a research dissemination event, both at the National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Campus. The selected Young Scholars will also attend [...]
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