Monthly Archives: July, 2008
BIG BROTHER backs off: Individual mobile phone ‘Licenses’ not for another eight months!
Perhaps to the shock of those who wholeheartedly justified the new regulations on mobile and CDMA phones, it looks as if Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has decided ‘National Security’ can be compromised for another eight months. You still can afford not having a piece of paper (aka a license) to carry your [...]
More household spending on “free” education than on “not-free” communication?
The summary results of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2006/07 conducted by the Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics make interesting reading. According to the latest HIES, an average household spends LKR 539 per month on communication (2.35 per cent of the total). We know that there are no subsidies here. In contrast, [...]
Will the TRC allow parents to keep in touch with their children using mobiles?
In a TV interview yesterday, I said that the new anti-sharing and certificate-carrying rules promulgated by the TRC would affect the poor disproportionately, because the rich could buy their children phones, while sharing was the only option for most Sri Lankans. Indeed, a special package for parents wanting to be in touch with their children [...]
Do the terms of the US net neutrality debate have relevance to low-bandwidth countries?
Net neutrality has become the hot-button issue in US telecom policy. Barack Obama is for net neutrality and the Republican-dominated FCC is leaning in that direction as can be seen below. However, is this something we need to import? If everyone is charged the same irrespective of use, what really happens is that the low-users [...]
Don’t share your mobiles! BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!
The motto of any typical bureaucrat is “First my convenience!”. How can one expect Sri Lankan types to be different? In late 1980s, when motor cyclists were found responsible for few key assassinations, the Police reacted first by banning helmets (before that it was compulsory) and then by prohibiting pillion riders. Why this nuisance? National [...]
Tsunami Detection by GPS
Seismic instruments and models are used to predict a possible tsunami following an earthquake and ocean buoys and pressure sensors on the ocean bottom are used to detect the passage of tsunami waves. But globally, the density of such instrumentation is quite low and, coupled with the time lag needed to process the data to [...]
Evaluation in Practice
Development organizations are pressed to demonstrate that their programs result in significant lasting changes in the well-being of their intended beneficiaries. However, such “impacts” are often the product of a confluence of events for which no single agency or group of agencies can realistically claim full credit. As a result, assessing development impacts is problematic, [...]
Deadliest job in America: Working on cell phone towers
According to a story in this week’s RCR Wireless News, building and climbing towers (which can be hundreds of feet tall) is more dangerous than ranching, fishing, logging, and even ironworking. The fatality rate is currently 183.6 deaths per 100,000 workers: Five tower workers died during one 12-day span earlier this year alone. 18 tower [...]
LIRNE.NET meets IDRC
(Opening Panel, from left: Hernan Galperin (DIRSI, speaking); Bill Melody, Rohan Samarajiva (LIRNEasia), Alison Gillwald (RIA!), Anders Henten (LIRNE European network) and Amy Mahan (Comunica/LIRNE coordination)) It is not that we had never met, but this was a sustained full-day engagement. The last time all the LIRNE.NET entities and their primary funder IDRC were in [...]
Mobile WiMAX – The End is Nigh
Any operator considering Mobile WiMAX should take into consideration the following challenges: There are currently more than 32 million HSPA connections worldwide, with nearly 467 HSPA mobile handsets offering 4Mbps in the downlink, which is comparable to Mobile WiMAX. 3G LTE is expected to be a fully ratified standard by the end of this year, [...]
12th Executive Course on Telecom Reform: Report and Presentations
Report on the 12th Executive Course on Telecom Reform, 10 – 14 June 2008, conducted by LIRNEasia and CONNECTasia Forum (Pte.) Ltd. Rohan Samarajiva, Course Director The 12th Executive Course on “Telecom Reform: Strategies to achieve connectivity and convergence,” co-organized by LIRNEasia and Connectasia, and funded by the IDRC, was successfully completed by 21 persons from [...]
OFTA Hong Kong: The best telecom regulator website in Asia Pacific
Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) of Hong Kong was ranked as the most effective National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority site in the recently conducted LIRNEasia study ‘NRA Website survey: Asia Pacific 2008’ receiving 94%, followed by Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore with 89% and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with 87%. In South Asia Pakistan [...]
LIRNEasia researchers at ITS 2008, Montreal, Canada
LIRNEasia researchers participated at the International Telecommunications Society (ITS) 17th Biennial Conference in Montreal, Canada, from June 24-27 2008. The theme of the conference was on, ‘The Changing Structure of the Telecommunications Industry and the New Role of Regulation’. The picture above shows Professor Sudharma Yoonaidharma, Commissioner, National Telecommunciations Commission of Thailand commenting on the [...]
Study says many USA dial-up users don’t want broadband
A new study suggests that attitude rather than availability may be the key reason why more Americans don’t have high-speed Internet access. The findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenge the argument that broadband providers need to more aggressively roll out supply to meet demand. Only 14 percent of dial-up users say [...]
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