From Lanka Business Online
Streaming Fast
28 September 2006 19:00:19
Sri Lanka Telecom links up with India’s BSNL to offer wider choice
September 28 2006 (LBO) – India’s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Thursday officially kicked off a 1.8 billion rupee undersea cable unit with Sri Lanka Telecom, which will bring down call rates between South Asian countries.
The optical fibre cable, which run between Mt Lavinia (Sri Lanka) and Tuticorin in India, will enable SLT customers to enjoy high speed broadband services such as audio and video streaming.
Read full article on LBO
The final report of the study that was conducted on Sri Lanka’s BPO sector is available for download below as a PDF file (931kb)
A Baseline Sector Analysis of the Business Process Outsourcing Industry of Sri Lanka
Finally domain names ending in .mobi can now be registered by the general public. Will this increase mobile content (i.e. content that can be viewed on your mobile phone)?.
A BBC article reports that less than 10% of mobile owners use their phone to surf the web, “due to concerns over cost, speed and poor content”.
It seems there’s hope at least the “poor content” part will be solved by users now being able to provide more mobile-enabled content . Read the full article here
The Hindu Businessline, Thomas K Thomas, New Delhi , July 13Increasing usage of broadband and Internet-based services has prompted Indian international bandwidth providers to raise their capacity by 95 per cent over a one-year period.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, bandwidth owned by various gateway service providers such as VSNL, Reliance Communication and Bharti has gone up to 12.7 Giga bytes in March 2006 compared to 6.5 Giga bytes at the end of the previous financial year.
Explaining the growth, Mr Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, said: “Bandwidth requirement is largely being driven by the IT industry, particularly the BPO sector, and also rapid Internet adoption at homes. In addition, it is being fuelled by requirements of a growing economy. Everything is moving towards data…
Tags: Bharti, Broadband, broadband services, dial-up Internet users, India, Internet Service Providers Association of India, Internet services, Internet Telephony, Internet-based services, IP telephony, Kiran Karnik, leased line Internet services, Nasscom, New Delhi, rapid Internet adoption, Reliance Communication, sample product, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, telephony, Thomas K Thomas, VSNL.
Joji Thomas of the Hindu Buisness Line reported this on August 21, 2006. LIRNEasia research by Payal Malik had recommended USO funds should be technology neutral as well as fund infrastructure creation, but the funds from the USF are not being released as mentioned in this report. Read on…
JOJI THOMAS PHILIP NEW DELHI
[ MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2006 10:27:47 AM]
DEPARTMENT of telecom has demanded that the finance ministry allocate an additional Rs 2,000 crore towards the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), over and above the Rs 1,500 crore that has been allocated in the Union Budget.
It has also said that all telecom companies should pay 5% of their adjusted gross revenue towards the USOF, which is used for building and supporting telecom infrastructure in rural India.
DoT move is…
Finally, a major company has shifted its call center out of Colombo. When will the government call center follow?
Telecommunications allows for distance to be overcome. Taking back office operations to Rajagiriya is not enough; there should be call centers in Hambantota and Trincomalee.
Now that the SLTL fiber is on its way to Hambantota, the former may yet happen. Trinco, of course, is another story.
Full story
Hindu Business Line
New Delhi , Sept. 21
The Government is planning a major digital expansion by setting up one lakh rural Common Service Centres (CSCs), which will basically be computer kiosks, at a total cost of Rs 5,742 crore [USD$1.2 billion] , through a public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism.
These centres are expected to bridge the digital divide existing today between the urban and rural areas.
According to a Government spokesperson, a proposal for setting up CSCs was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday. These centres are proposed to substantially extend the reach of digital services and economic opportunities into the rural and remote areas of the country.
Of the total outlay of Rs 5,742 crore, the Centre’s share will be Rs 856 crore and the State Governments’ contribution…
BBC Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5344654.stm
Does anyone here suffer from Nebrols (Network Broken Limbs Syndrome) 
According to this article that appeared today in India’s Business Standard, TRAI seems to be considering using a base price + beauty pagent mechanism to award 5 licenses (of 5MHz each) for companies to introduce 3G services.
The prduence of using beauty pagents needs to be questioned. The failures of 3G auctions in Europe in 2000 has been mentioned as one of the reasons for opting for a beauty pagent. However the failures of those auctions stemmed from operators’ over-estimating the potential of a new and untested service. It is unlikely that operators would make the same mistake again - my argument being once-bitten, twice shy.
Economists would argue that auctions, with sufficent safe guards to eliminate (or at the very least minimize) collusion/signalling and to enforce…
(unofficial translation)
Insignia of Nepal Government
Nepal Gazette
Published by Nepal Government
Part 56) Kathmandu, Bhadra 26 2063 (Number 20
Part 3
Nepal Government
Notice of Ministry of Information and Communication
This notice has been published to notify that the Nepal Government using the authority given by Radio Communication (license) regulation, 2049, part 18 sub-part (c) has declared that use and storage of radio equipment in the ISM Band of 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz with the Maximum Effective Isotropic Radiated Power of 4 Watts will not require any license.
As Directed,
Shankar Prasad Koirala
Acting Chief Secretary of Nepal Government
Previous discussion on this issue available here.
Tags: Asia, Bhadra, India, Kathmandu, Ministry of Information and Communication, Nepal, Nepal Government, Nepal Government Nepal Gazette, Prasad Koirala
Acting, radio equipment, Shankar Prasad Koirala.
Ambar Singh Roy, The Hindu Business Line
Habarana (Sri Lanka) , Sept 17
It would be imperative for India to replicate the urban competitive model in its mobile telephony segment in the rural areas with a view to improving the country’s ranking in the global digital opportunity index (DOI), according to LIRNEasia, a regional information and communication technology policy and regulation research and capacity-building organisation. Read full story at The Hindu Business Line online.
Sept 12: Pradip Baijal, the former chairman of the TRAI, puts forth his comments on TRAI’s experiences with competition regulation in this article on Rediff.
Read the entire article HERE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TO CONDUCT LIMITED TSUNAMI WARNING COMMUNICATIONS TEST ALONG U.S. WEST COAST
NOAA’s National Weather Service will conduct a limited communications test of the Tsunami Warning System in the coastal areas of California, Oregon, and Washington on Wednesday, September 13, between 10:45 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
Complete Announcement
NEW STUDY CONFIRMS LOW TSUNAMI RISK AT PEARL HARBOR
“The study shows that none of the historic tsunamis, nor any of the 18 modeled scenario events – based on magnitude 9.3 earthquakes – caused inundation at the proposed location of the NOAA facility,” said Eddie Bernard, director of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environment Lab, which operates the research center. “The models indicate that the greatest rise in water levels at Ford Island would be less than five…
Tags: California, communications test, Eddie Bernard, Ford Island, Live Test NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TO CONDUCT LIMITED, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA facility, NOAA\'s National Weather Service, NOAA\'s Pacific Marine Environment Lab, Oregon, PEARL HARBOR, SERVICE TO CONDUCT LIMITED TSUNAMI WARNING COMMUNICATI, United States, Washington.
Inter-operator congestion is choking India’s fast growing mobile market and lack of proper interconnection overshadows its telecoms success story. TRAI is keen to mitigate this crisis. But its authority has been dwarfed administratively. Read the details in http://www.telecomasia.net/article.php?type=article&id_article=1573
A consortium of technology companies, including I.B.M. and Cisco Systems, announced plans Tuesday for a vast wireless network that would provide free Internet access to big portions of Silicon Valley and the surrounding region as early as next year.
The project is the largest of a new breed of wireless networks being built across the country. They are taking advantage of the falling cost of providing high-speed Internet access over radio waves as opposed to cable or telephone lines.
The project will cover 1,500 square miles in 38 cities in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Santa Cruz Counties, an area of 2.4 million residents. Its builders, going by the name Silicon Valley Metro Connect, said the service would provide free basic wireless access at speeds up…
Tags: Alameda, Broadband, Cisco Systems, free basic wireless access, free Internet access, HIGH-speed Internet access, I.B.M., San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, technology*, telephone lines, USD, wireless access, Wireless Network, wireless networks.
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