Monthly Archives: July, 2006
Reforms reduce disparities
LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE – LBO The above column presents evidence to the effect that: “Given enough time and competition, reformed infrastructure does reduce disparities among regions. The reforms that started to have effect in the mid 1990s, with the licensing of the fourth mobile operator and the two fixed entrants in 1995-96, the partial privatization [...]
Digital Opportunity Index 2006 Report is out
The World Information Society Report 2006 showcasing the results from the Digital Opportunity Index applied to 180 countries was released this week by the ITU. The DOI evaluates the opportunity, infrastructure and utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) worldwide. The report can be downloaded here. Amongst the countries that LIRNEasia works in, the biggest [...]
University in the age of the Internet
This is the text of a talk that I am giving on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka in Belihuloya on the 7th of July 2006. A excerpt is given below: The world economy is becoming more knowledge intensive and communication dependent. Leaving aside the question of cause and [...]
FCC to levy USF charges on web phones
June 21 (Bloomberg) — Vonage Holdings Corp. and other providers of Internet-based telephone service must help subsidize services in rural and low-income areas, U.S. regulators said. A rule adopted today by the Federal Communications Commission requires providers of Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, service to contribute 10.5 percent of their long-distance revenue to the [...]
Mobile price war begins in Sri Lanka
LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE – LBO Sri Lanka’s biggest mobile-phone operator Dialog Telekom Thursday slashed outgoing call charges by as much as 50 percent as the firm stepped up its expansion drive in the country. Call charges within the network from 11.00 pm to 6.00 am will go down by 50 percent to 2.00 rupees, while [...]
Pressure to reduce roaming charges
BBC NEWS | Business | EU plans crackdown on mobile fees “A plan to regulate mobile phone charges for calls made abroad will shortly be published by the European Commission, despite intense opposition. The industry is concerned that the proposals go too far, and even within the commission itself there are doubts. At present, most [...]
Keeping connected in the aftermath of a disaster (Lessons from 7/7 events)
By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News In the aftermath of the 7 July bombings, people were understandably keen to talk on their mobile phones. Londoners wanted to assure friends, relatives and colleagues that they were OK; keep up to date with the latest news or find out whether anyone they knew had [...]
FDI bad for developing countries?
Our colleagues from Latin America have drawn our attention to the following article, perhaps because they think that our TRE (telecom regulatory environment) work is premised on FDI being an unmitigated good. We welcome the opportunity for a debate. Kevin P. Gallagher and Lyuba Zarsky, “Rethinking Foreign Investment for Development”, Post-Autistic Economics Review, issue 37 [...]
Internet lowers phone charges
Internet Calling Pressures Bells to Lower Rates – New York Times “The Bells still control the bulk of the country’s 180 million landlines and are far from giving up on what has been a giant cash cow. When pushed, they are even offering their own Internet-based calling, but these services are rarely advertised. It is [...]
Telecom Policy Research in Asia: A Framework for Assessing Knowledge Capacity
Title: Telecom Policy Research in Asia: A Framework for Assessing Knowledge Capacity Author: Dr. Sujata Gamage, Director of Knowledge Networks, LIRNEasia Date: July 3, 2006 Description: In this study we assess presence, quality and relevance of telecom policy researchers in Asia, and present the results in the form of a set of knowledge capacity score [...]
Indian spectrum policy flawed according to Qualcomm
Qualcomm has come under some pressure recently when Reliance, with one of the fastest growing CDMA-based networks in the world based on Qualcomm’s patented technology, announced that it would provide mobile service using GSM technology and criticised Qualcomm’s high royalty and licensing fees. The inference was that Qualcomm’s fees were resulting in higher costs for [...]
DoT shelves new Indian Telecom Policy
Full article available here New Delhi, July 2 (PTI): Even as the existing National Telecom Policy of 1999 lays down the roadmap of a review in every five years, the Department of Telecom has dropped the ill-fated draft of the proposed policy completely with no immediate plans to revive it. [...] Permitting number portability, implementing [...]
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