Comments on: Rohan Samarajiva

By: groundviews » Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma (1923-1994): A Passionate Champion of Public Science

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:08:23 +0000

[...] seamlessly from multiple locations. Realising this, Ponnamperuma wanted to do something about it. Dr Rohan Samarajiva, now head of the independent think tank LIRNEasia, recalls being recruited to the IFS in late 1985. [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:26:45 +0000

Mr.Samarajeewa

My problem can be out of the above topic. Though I thought you’re the best person to ask this question.
I came across (in my mobile phone) some Outbox masgs were getting deleted. Then one day suddenly I saw One masg was automatically created and was inside my outbox. I’m very sure I didn’t create that SMS.I’m very sure about that & the phone was on my table. So nobody couldn’t touch the phone.
That msg wasn’t delivered to that person. But it was in my Outbox. And the next day all my Outbox Inbox masgs were deleted. When I complained my Comm. Provider they said nothing wrong with my SIM & said there’re can be a fault in my phone. But this msg only created once & only to one person. This sounds not a familiar virus to me. Nobody heard this kind of a thing. I’m sure my phone has no fault. Can you explain this? Is this a virus? Is this a fault of my phone?

By: Sugomi

Sugomi — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 04:00:07 +0000

I fully agree with the guest who wrote on Oct 17 that “all the efforts of elites like Prof Samarajeewa has been a farce.”

Who is Rohan Samarjiva? Has he got a real tract record of achieveing the goals assigned to him?

This is whta he wrote about himself when he was at the Ohi State University:

“I have conducted research on the process of institutional reform in Sri
Lankan telecommunications, published in Asian Journal of Communication,
1993. This work can be extended to institutional reform in other parts of
government, particularly agencies providing infrastructure, on one hand and
to media industries on the other. In collaboration with Gamini Keerawella,
I have written on contemporary Sri Lankan political developments, including
the role of the media. I was one of the founders of the Institute for
International Research, a Peradeniya-based collective of university
researchers.”

By: Rohan

Rohan — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 18:02:48 +0000

Cambodia: Cambodia was the first country where mobile overtook fixed, somewhere in the mid or early 1990s. The reason was that they never got around to reforming the fixed telco, but issued several mobile licenses. This pattern can also be seen in Uganda and Bangladesh, where the fixed telco is now smaller than the mobile, by far. In Cambodia, the connection fee is extremely low, but airtime is higher than in India. For whatever it’s worth, I’ll upload a set of slides containing ITU data on mobile prices.

By: Chanuka

Chanuka — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 18:00:46 +0000

Mobile penetration in Cambodia: At the Internet Resource Management conference today in Colombo, I learnt that Cambodia has only 30,000 fixed lines, but over 770,000 mobile lines. The mobile share is as high as 96% ! Can some one explain me (a) The reason for this and (b) Is Cambodia the only country like this?

By: Rohan

Rohan — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 17:59:11 +0000

Rural Connectivity in Sri Lanka: I think the anonymous commenter is referring to the low rural rollout by Sri Lanka’s fixed entrants, Suntel and Lanka Bell. He/she is very well informed to know about the 1 rural connection = 10 urban connections rule that was adopted by the TRCSL in 1999 when I was DGT, for purposes of meeting some license conditions.

The immediate cause of the additional value given to the rural connections of Suntel and LB was the report by the Consultant David Barr, which pointed out in no uncertain terms to extraordinary disadvantages the new entrants were facing in terms of rural access because of the flawed interconnection and access regime. The point that effective and non-discriminatory interconnection is a precondition of everything I have published/presented on this subject. I would agree that the rural rollout of all three fixed operators in Sri Lanka has fallen short of expectations. What the e Sri Lanka infrastructure solution tries to do is to address the causes, including effective interconnection and lowering the cost of backbone use.

By: Payal Mallik

Payal Mallik — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 17:56:47 +0000

I agree with Luxman that equity without growth is impossible, you have to enlarge yhe pie to be able to divide it. This unfortunately is not understood by the Left in India. They are stalling growth in the telecom sector by putting ridiculous caps on FDI, their argument being that security concerns should restrict FDI, no counrty in the region i.e. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or pakistan has these caps. I am sure they are as much concerned of their security. Coming back to growth, fresh entry brings in more competiiton, does away with the apprehension of collusion, puts pressure on the incumbent, intoroduces innovative maens for network expansion and provides more revenue for subsidy funding. India cannot be smug with its growth, to meet the target of 200 million subscribers until 2007, an investment of Rs. 1600 billion is required, and if FDI is waiting then why not.

By: Luxman

Luxman — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 17:55:10 +0000

Those who try to narrow the gap even before opening the markets for oprators or soon after opening the markets are probably sincere though ignorant of the lessons of economic development process in the world. With market opening the initial outcome got to be widening gaps in income in every sense.

Lets be realistic without falling into the trap of achieving so-called equality before growth.

By: guest

guest — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 17:54:08 +0000

Almost all the efforts of elites like Prof Samarajeewa has been a farce .
The rural -urban gap has widened as clearly indicative of offerins made in wireless Local loop licenses to go in to rural and changing later to 10 equivalent to one in rural .