LIRNEasia might not be as high tech as some of the big IT players but in our own way we have made a successful effort to make ourselves a virtual team. Not a choice – that was the only way we could operate in multiple countries (For example, in this cycle, TRE surveys will be in nine countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand; not to mention CPRSouth 3 in Beijing)without budgets comparable to what INGOs use to run regional networks.
We also thought our own experiences will be useful for others. Hence the Virtual Organisation (VO) project. It had two aspects; developing the VO and using it to conduct LIRNEasia’s other research projects.
The case study is now out. It describes our efforts,…
Tags: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Virtual Office, Virtual Organisation, Virtual Team.
Africa is the world’s fastest growing market for mobile phones over the last three years with 65 million new subscribers in 2007 alone, according to the head of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General, said the figure is cited in the United Nations agency’s regional report entitled “African Telecommunication/ICT Indicators 2008: At a Crossroads,” which he presented at the opening of the ITU Telecom Africa trade fair here on Monday.
A UN press release quoted Toure as saying, “Today, the African ICT industry is an exciting place to be. Market liberalization continues and most countries have established regulatory bodies to ensure a fair, competitive and enabling environment.”
The report indicated that there were more than 250 million mobile subscribers on the continent at the start…
Yesterday, LIRNEasia successfully concluded 1.5 day Knowledge sharing workshop on methods for ICT user research in emerging markets in Negombo, Sri Lanka. The workshop brought together researchers from the region to share methods (quantitative as well as qualitative) for accurately capturing the teleuse experience of those at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) or in emerging markets.
In conducting its previous research (Teleuse@BOP1 and Teleuse@BOP2), LIRNEasia has found that this kind of research requires a different approach to that in more mature markets. Experience with research in developed markets has involved (in addition to sample surveys, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions) the analysis of telephone bills as well as call logs on mobile phones, and even the deployment of real time technologies such as Interactive Voice Response…
Is accurate early warning possible for earthquakes?
Chinese authorities have said they did not pick up any warning signs ahead of Monday’s earthquake.
“Monitoring before the earthquake did not detect any macroscopic abnormalities, and did not catch any relevant information,” Deng Changwen, deputy head of Sichuan province’s earthquake department, said.
Chief ministerial candidate Rauff Hakeem told ‘Lanka Dissent’ that the Ministry of Defence has ordered service providers to interrupt mobile phone services in the Eastern Province, which goes to polls tomorrow (May 10th).
He also said that the government was preparing to stage a massive vote rigging on election day and the move seems to prevent the outside world from getting information on those violations in the East.
As a former Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mr. Hakeem said the Defence Ministry could give such orders only on matters pertaining to national security.
The chief ministerial candidate added that he would initiate legal action against any service provider and other responsible officials if such undue interruptions are effected tomorrow.
http://www.lankadissent.com/allnews/2008_05_09_12_news.htm
This article summarizes the series of event leading up to the impact, the events during the devastation, and other noteworthy information pertaining to cyclone Nargis’ encounter in Myanmar (Burma).
Before the impact
26-04-2008: The early signs of Nargis developing in the Bay of Bengal were detected by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). “Way back on April 26, we told them a cyclone was coming,” B. P. Yadav said, referring to general warnings of a growing storm. According to a Inter Press Service (IPS) - IMD which keeps a close track of geo-climatic events in the Bay of Bengal and releases warnings not only to provinces on the Indian east coast but also to vulnerable littoral countries said it warned Myanmar (Burma)…
There has been a continuing discussion on this website about “free” WiFi. We were of the opinion that sustainability depended on some kind of payment, directly or as part of a bundle of services. The lights are going out on the metropolitan WiFi networks in the cities that did not address this issue. The linked article, which refers primarily to use of WiFi by travellers, shows that the solutions are beginning to settle in a sustainable range.
The battle between free and paid wireless Internet access is starting to look like a draw. Or more accurately, a third variation is winning — a combination of the two. Travelers want to log on everywhere at no charge, while hotels, airports and coffee shops are looking for a way…
It would be the biggest thing to pass between India and South Africa since Mahatma Gandhi moved from one country to the other. This week it emerged that Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile-phone operator in India, is holding “exploratory” talks to buy South Africa’s MTN, the biggest operator in Africa.
According to the Financial Times, Bharti has indicated it would be willing to pay about $19 billion for 51% of the company. That would make it the heftiest overseas acquisition ever made by an Indian firm, more than Tata Steel paid for Corus, a British steelmaker, and seven times the amount India invested in the whole of Africa over the ten years to 2004.
The deal would unite the leading companies in the world’s two most promising…
Tags: Acquisition, Africa, Bharti Airtel, Corus, Gartner, India, mobile-phone operator, MTN, South Africa, Tata Steel, the Financial Times, USD.
“Mom, where are you calling from? Your voice is trembling, are you sure everything is alright?”
These were the first words Carmen Hernandez heard after getting through to her son on the phone following the massive earthquake that struck Peru in August 2007.
Mrs Hernandez lived in Pisco, where the quake hit hardest.
“Please keep talking, it’s so good to hear your voice,” she replied.
The huge quake left at least 500 people dead and thousands homeless in the Ica region, south of the capital Lima.
It instantly wiped out electricity, fresh water and communication infrastructures.
But Mrs Hernandez was able to speak to her son in Spain thanks to the work of charity Telecoms Sans Frontieres.
BBC News | Building Digital Life Lines
…
What these kinds of failures of warning (and of relief and response) do is destroy the legitimacy of the government. US First Lady Bush should know: her husband’s downward slide in popularity had much to do with fiasco of the Katrina response.
Myanmar’s military rulers were under fire Tuesday after revealing more than 10,000 people died in the cyclone that battered the secretive and impoverished nation, with thousands more missing. As relief agencies scrambled to get food, clean water and supplies into a country that normally scorns foreign aid, US First Lady Laura Bush accused the regime of not doing enough to warn its people about the storm. The criticism from Bush, one of the most prominent critics of Myanmar, came after the junta acknowledged the…
NEARLY a third of Hong Kong’s households watch television via the internet, according to a new report from Telecommunications Management group, a consultancy. Because internet protocol television (IPTV) uses the same technology as that which links computer networks, smaller countries with high broadband penetration tend to have more subscribers. As well as plain old programmes, viewers can also enjoy other services such as on-demand video. So far, Europe accounts for over half of the world’s subscribers.
http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11318291
Those who are old enough might remember the days where you lived in a house that had no telephone. When you want to take a call you went to post office or a public place where telephone facilities are available.
In India, Sam Pitroda’s name went into history for the ubiquitous, yellow-signed Public Call Offices (PCO) that enabled cheap and easy domestic and international public telephones all over the country in 1980s.
Nearly two decades later the rapid expansion of mobile phones has finally brought that era to an end. Not surprisingly, public pay phones are rarely used these days. This photograph taken in Chennai few months back tells it all.
In UK, Telecoms giant BT has proposed removing 194 payphones from its network in the Highland region. …
LIRNEasia’s sister organization in Africa is meeting May 6-11 in Cairo to plan its future research activities and disseminate finding from the research already done. LIRNEasia’s Executive Director will participate, presenting on governance, interconnection and banded forbearance and also sharing experiences on conducting studies on teleuse at the BOP and on telecom regulatory environment. Workshop Agenda
Contrary to jingoistic claims that foreign owned telcos draining out local resources, the telecom sector continues to bring in new investment from outside. In Pakistan, at one point, 50% of the FDI was telecom. If the breakdown is provided, it may well be that the telecom sector accounts for 50% of FDI in Sri Lanka too.
“The BoI recognized Dialog Telekom as the company with the highest level of realized investment in 2007 totalling 328 million dollars in 2007.” Dialog Telekom, which has over four million subscribers, secured the top slot in investment rankings for the third year in succession having being recognized as Sri Lanka’s largest investor in 2005 and 2006 with investments of 90 million dollars and 150 million dollars.
Sri Lanka Dialog Telekom top…
The globalization paradigm leads people to see economic development as a form of foreign policy, as a grand competition between nations and civilizations. These abstractions, called “the Chinese” or “the Indians,” are doing this or that. But the cognitive age paradigm emphasizes psychology, culture and pedagogy — the specific processes that foster learning. It emphasizes that different societies are being stressed in similar ways by increased demands on human capital. If you understand that you are living at the beginning of a cognitive age, you’re focusing on the real source of prosperity and understand that your anxiety is not being caused by a foreigner.
The Cognitive Age - New York Times
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