Monthly Archives: May, 2007
Wireless Opportunities and Solutions: A Regulatory Perspective; Montevideo, Uruguay, March 2007
Dr. Harsha de Silva participated in the LIRNE.NET and WDR expert meeting entitled “Wireless Opportunities and Solutions: A Regulatory Perspective” held in Montevideo, Uruguay during 7-9 March 2007. He made a presentation during the first session entitled “Getting a clearer picture: Demand side ICT data collection”, sharing with the audience some of the findings and [...]
TM more than doubles outlay for Bangladesh, Indonesia & Sri Lanka
Informa: TM doubles international budget Telekom Malaysia (TM) has earmarked to spend MYR8 billion (US$2.3 billion) this year expanding its international mobile businesses in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which is considerably more than the MYR2.8 billion it spent on its overseas units last year. TM chief executive Datuk Abdul Wahid Omar said TM’s foreign [...]
Emerging markets: a basic services bonanza?
Data and 3G may not be a priority in Asia: discuss. No, we’re not referring to Japan, Korea or Hong Kong. Not even China. This time we’re looking at the area’s so-called emerging markets – markets like Indonesia where the market-leading operator Telkomsel and third-ranked player Excelcom launched 3G services in early September. Or the [...]
Indonesia limits foreign ownership of premium call services
The Indonesian government is to limit foreign investment in premium call, premium SMS and courier services as they are “businesses to be set aside for domestic small-and medium-scale enterprises.” The Indonesian Communication and Information Minister, Sofyan Djalil, said, “As we know, foreign investors can control up to 95 percent of businesses in all the telecoms [...]
Non-transparent licensing for Palapa Ring project?
Licenses have been granted to consortium members for building the Palapa Ring–backbone that will connect the Eastern part of Indonesia that currently relies on satellites with the rest of the country. It is not clear how the licenses were granted and what are the fees and obligations of the license holders. Furthermore, technical and financial [...]
Rural telecoms still a big problem in the US
In the US, despite seventy years of telecoms legislation, some things haven’t changed that much. That’s why, in some parts of West Virginia it’s still harder to get telephone service than it is to buy a jug of moonshine liquor. The US Communications Act of 1934 legislated that all people in the United States should [...]
Negroponte’s one-laptop-per-child thesis challenged
Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops – New York Times Many of these districts had sought to prepare their students for a technology-driven world and close the so-called digital divide between students who had computers at home and those who did not. “After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact [...]
CPRsouth2: Empowering rural communities through ICT policy and research – December 15-17, 2007 in Chennai, India
LIRNEasia, in association with the TeNeT Group and RTBI of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, is organizing the second CPRsouth conference, in Chennai, India from December 15-17, 2007. The conference aims to provide a forum for senior, junior and mid-career scholars to meet face-to-face and exchange ideas, establish networking opportunities and improve the [...]
Developing a new rural payments system in China
China has just 530 point-of-sale (POS) terminals and ATMs per million people, far below the 10,000 per million found in the United States. Accordingly, cash is used in 83 percent of all payment transactions in China, compared with just 21 percent in the United States. With most of these terminals and ATMs in China’s cities, [...]
One in three Pakistanis is mobile
The latest figures from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority show that March 2007 was the best month for proportionate growth in the mobile market in Pakistan since the sudden change of gear in November 2006. The monthly growth rate in the first ten months of last year averaged almost 7.5% but dropped to below 5% in [...]
India’s USD 100 computer
Not Negroponte’s USD 100 one-laptop-per-child, which is now priced at USD 175, but a thin-client application that depends on software from a distant server. Makes sense if you have reliable connectivity, I guess. Made in India PC for just about $100 The machine, launched by Chennai-based Novatium Solutions in 2004, costs a little over $100 [...]
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