Monthly Archives: August, 2007
CPRafrica 2012/CPRsouth7: call for abstracts and young scholar applications. Click here for details.
Micropayments in a developed world; m-payments in our world
The article below talks about micro payments in the context of almost everyone having computers, Internet access, credit cards, etc. What we are talking about is m-payments (m for mobile, not micro) in a world where those assumptions don’t hold. But there may be ideas we can pick up from this discussion. In Online World, [...]
With Bharti coming telecom competition is getting tougher
We could still do better; But more taxes could kill the industry The Nation Economist, Sunday 26 August 2007 | See Print version I have to say that JHU does not know economics. What is the rationale behind taxing the only sector that is growing? The industry is giving government enormous amount of revenue. Twenty [...]
LIRNEasia at Telecentre National Alliance
Rohan Samarajiva will chair a session entitled, “Partnership Building: Beyond the traditional boundaries” and also present on “Mobile Phone Penetration at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP)” at Sri Lanka’s Telecentre National Alliance’s Partnership Building with NGOs & other networks, being held from 31 August – 2 September 2007. The event is being organised by [...]
IDRC internships
The Communication Initiative – Funding – IDRC Internship Awards The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Internship programme is for candidates who have shown interest in the creation and utilisation of knowledge from an international perspective and provides hands-on learning experiences in research programme management. Candidates can be Canadians, permanent residents, or citizens of developing countries, [...]
Doubts becoming widespread re mobile penetration number
When we started the indicators work in 2006, we thought we’d be able to crack the problem of defining the mobile customer. We did not. The end result is the we not longer report “mobile/100 people,” preferring instead the more accurate term, “Mobile SIMs/100.” The Arab Advisors Group has reached a similar conclusion. Their recommendations [...]
Reducing environmental impact of mobile networks (as well as costs)
I was asked to write something for world environment day in Montage, a local news magazine, and I wrote about how mobile could reduce the need for travel (in the long run) and thus postpone the inundation of the Maldives. It appears I did not cover all aspects of the problem . . . Is [...]
Bangladesh isolated by submarine cable break
It was only in 2005 that Bangladesh got connected to the world through an undersea cable. It is being claimed that this link has been sabotaged, at the same time as the government ordered the shut down of mobile networks, serving multiple millions of customers. :: bdnews24.com :: Dhaka, Aug 23 (bdnews24.com) – International telephony, [...]
Tsunami detection system coming up; will the last mile be ready?
Second Tsunami-Detection Station To Bolster Indian Ocean System As part of the U.S. effort, in December 2006, NOAA experts and Thai government officials put a deep-ocean assessment and reporting of tsunamis (DART) station in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Thailand and Sri Lanka. (See related article.)DART systems provide real-time tsunami detection as waves travel across [...]
Iraq sells 3 mobile licenses for $3.75 billion
Iraq has sold three mobile phone licences for $3.75 billion to Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co (MTC), AsiaCell and Iraq’s Korek Telecom. The three firms, which already run networks in the war-torn country, made the highest bids in an auction in the Jordanian capital that began on Thursday. TurkCell and Egypt’s Orascom had also bid for [...]
Bangladesh liberalizes international telephony
The government will auction three international gateway (IGW) and two interconnection exchange (ICX) licences among private operators in October, a top official said Monday. But no foreign company or foreign joint venture will qualify to apply for IGW or ICX licence. Even the non-resident Bangladeshis’ business outfits are not eligible either. Only the companies fully [...]
HP gets ready for mobile 2.0
The comment about “the world is going to flip” refers to the launch of the Apple i Phone Hewlett Introduces a Web Feature to Make Document Printing Mobile – New York Times “The world is going to flip,” Mr. Scaglia said. “We want to ride the wave of the Web.” The underlying idea is to [...]
ICTA, Sarvodaya and LIRNEasia on pro-poor e-governance
The Regional Development Dialogue, published by the UN Centre for Regional Development, in its most recent issue (volume 27(2), Autumn 2006, published in August 2007?!) carries two articles by Shoban Rainford, then at ICTA, and Harsha Liyanage, Sarvodaya on e Sri Lanka and the telecenter component within e Sri Lanka. In an invited comment, LIRNEasia‘s [...]
Engineers work to reconnect Peru
Technicians and engineers from Telecoms Sans Frontieres have arrived in Peru to help the earthquake recovery effort. The five-strong team will deploy satellite telephone and internet access in three centres – at Pisco, where the quake hit hardest, Ica and Chincha. Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6951981.stm
Possible research focus on expatriate workers and their use of ICTs
As LIRNEasia plans its research program for 2008-09, the issue of money transfers through mobiles (first raised in the academic literature, to the best of my knowledge, by Professor Jens Arnbak in his contribution to a book that I co-edited in 2002) is rising in importance in the news as well as in our own [...]
Village Phone facing obsolence in Bangladesh
Grameen’s famous Village Phone Program lifted thousands out of poverty– and helped Muhammad Yunus win the Nobel Peace Prize. The problem: It’s not working anymore. According to Grameen Telecom, the GrameenPhone affiliate that manages the program, profits per operator have been declining for years and in 2006 averaged less than $70. “The program is not [...]
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