Comments on: Sri Lanka: BIG BROTHER wants a photo of every mobile user!

By: sarath

sarath — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:58:29 +0000

not a very imperssive card emile.Black and white. Rather keep in wallet and not take out. Too embarrasing. My uncle has one. His picture looks awful too. Mobitel going cheap.

By: sarath

sarath — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:56:11 +0000

Dear Prof.
So Mobitel Started it. Fine. But now war is over… Will Mobitel continue to produce cards? Overheads? Long term survival? Airtel is raising head and Dialog could not be pushed off its pedestal. They all adopted the idea… as its cheaper to adopt than innovate.

Will it be continued? IT should. but will it?
Mobitel spends on cricket high. Can finances matter?

By: Rohan Samarajiva

Rohan Samarajiva — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:48:51 +0000

Sarcasm is wasted on us. Best put those energies into something constructive.

We are a regional think tank that happens to be headquartered in Colombo. We work in 11 countries, including India. The population of India is 1.1 billion and they activate 15 million new SIMs a month. Sri Lanka’s population is 20 million.

Which country should be more important to a regional think tank?

By: Nadeera

Nadeera — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:49:27 +0000

Prof, Thank you very much for your suggestion. And it is great to hear that Sri Lanka is not the most important among that set. But a small correction, i never questioned about the superiority of Sri Lanka.

Chanuka, Let’s wait until 30th April when millions of Mobile/CDMA subscribers get disconnected if this order is in effect. At least you will understand what is the meaning of ‘pressing’.

Anyway None of you have answered the issue or the problems I raised. Let’s see how long you can skip this issue and when you start comment on this. Thanks a lot.

By: Chanuka Wattegama

Chanuka Wattegama — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:49:27 +0000

Add to that, we follow issues, not necessarily news – unless it is pressing. Why repeat we already said?

By: Rohan Samarajiva

Rohan Samarajiva — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:44:28 +0000

Suggest nadeera start her own blog. That way she can control the issues that are written about. We have not promised comprehensive coverage of all telecom issues in any of the countries we work in. And Sri Lanka is not the most important among that set.

By: Nadeera

Nadeera — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:10:10 +0000

What is going on here now ?
We can see most of the people including Prof & Chanuka had critisized Mobitel’s approach of Subscriber Re-Registration.

Now recently President of Sri Lanka has issued an order with regard to Mobille/CDMA Subscriber registration. According to that;

- ‘A recent Photograph’ is mandatory
- Current address & several information required
- If a phone (mobile/CDMA) is shared, information related to sharing personnel should be submitted.
- Everybody who are not been registered by 30th April 2009 have to be disconnected.

Why don’t you write on this ? Isn’t this the hottest topic at the moment in Sri Lankan telecommunication industry ?
@ Prof & Chanuka, Why Don’t you criticize President of Sri Lanka now as you did it for Mobitel ? Now what about your privacy ? guarantee ?
If you can’t do it, why don’t you appreciate Mobitel’s forward looking approach compared to rest of the operators ?

Here we go….

May God save all operators of Sri Lanka

By: Divaina

Divaina — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:02:23 +0000

another person has gone against BIG BROTHER http://www.divaina.com/2008/08/18/news18.html

By: Rohan Samarajiva

Rohan Samarajiva — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:45:57 +0000

No dispute about every handset being connected to a real human being. There should not be ownerless handsets. Every motor vehicle must have a verifiable owner. One person may own lots of vehicles, but allow others to drive. But the owner must take final responsibility that the vehicle is not used for illegal acts.

In the same way, we should allow a phone owned by one person to be used by another. Sharing should not be prohibited because many at the bottom of the pyramid use phones this way.

Does the photo approach solve the problem of a young person being given a phone for a limited time, so that the parents can be in touch?

Pakistan is working on making sure that no unregistered ownerless SIMs are floating around: http://lirneasia.net/2008/08/pakistan-acts-on-unregistered-sims/. Sri Lanka operators should do this too. But compelling us to carry additional pieces of paper that may or may not be forged is not the solution.

By: Nadeera

Nadeera — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:14:25 +0000

A very well organized and planned step taken by Mobitel by making it compulsory for everybody to Re-Register with their photographs. They have set a comprehensive benchmark for entire telecommunication industry. I personally believe that all other service providers should follow this and provide all their subscribers with such an identification certificate along with a recently taken photograph on it.

Though we have to submit a copy of NIC when we buy a SIM card, it is obvious that the photograph of the NIC copy is not clear or does not match with the current appearance of the subscriber. Tigo is providing a Certificate of ownership which is very good, but they have transferred the responsibility of matching the facial appearance against the NIC photograph to their front liners. The market leader Dialog has taken a ‘just to comply’ kind of action by providing only a Digital certificate (that even without validating the accuracy of their customer information databases).

If you visit the Mobitel website, you will notice the steps they have taken in order to communicate this procedure to the general public. All of their dealer’s are provided with a S/T/E comprehensive instruction manual & an FAQ as well.
http://www.mobitel.lk/pdf/final_instruction_manual-english.pdf
http://www.mobitel.lk/pdf/faq_english.pdf
http://www.mobitel.lk/pdf/press_release-english.pdf

Mobitel has done a great job & really proven that they are the “National Service Provider” of Sri Lanka….!!!

By: Dread

Dread — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:07:32 +0000

Well… Final socially responsible Mobile operators such as Mobitel have taken bold steps to re-register the subscribers. believe its a very good move. Some may not like it especially involved in illegal activities. Good for those buggers.. But rest of the genuine users it is very safe and we are helping the country to be a more secure place..

By: emile

emile — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:49:08 +0000

Well, at least we know BIG Brother is looking after us all. Mobitel is doing something solid by the looks of it. This feels more secure, somehow. A card with your picture. Any security checkpoint on the road can easily ID you, know you are a citizen of Sri Lanka AND a Mobitel user (who actually owns that simcard). Feels a bit VIP treatment – just flash your Mobitel Card!

By: Ravin

Ravin — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:28:09 +0000

Well, I feel that Kari Appa’s conclusion is baseless, This forum does not demand that kind of remarks. The government in this country is fighting a war to proctect the interests of all the communities.. Tamils are killing Tamils my friend.. and Some Tamils who go in search for hope and peace in some other land are funding Terrorists to make this land a worst place for their own community.. so please know that whatever you say its nothing to do with a Sinhala Buddhist cause.. its a matter of national security… Well as far as the registration is concerned .. Mobitel , Tigo or Dialog no one should comment on it.. They are doing their best to Comply … This is the problem with a Majority of us Sri lankan’s we are good critics but a bunch of hopeless im practical people when it comes to doing it..

By: Global Voices Online » Sri Lanka: Monitoring Mobiles

Global Voices Online » Sri Lanka: Monitoring Mobiles — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:37:53 +0000

[...] provider in Sri Lanka wants all users to include photographs in their registration documents. LirneASIA doesn't see the point of such a move. Posted by Neha Viswanathan Print Version [...]

By: Kari Appa

Kari Appa — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:30:15 +0000

What else do you expect of Mobitel? It is a fully owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom, which itself is majority-owned by the government of Sri Lanka. So when the government says jump, Mobitel and SLT only ask how high, and then jump higher than that to impress the political masters.

Privacy? What privacy? This is Sri Lanka where the Ministry of Offence (sorry, defence) may do whatever they want not just with the information about citizens but the citizens themselves. Don’t you dare even question it, or you will be branded as a traitor against the Sinhala Buddhist cause!