He did not mean LIRNEasia specifically, but when the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) guru Richard M. Stallman (RMS) says CLOUD COMPUTING IS WORSE THAN STUPIDITY – certainly we are in. So just cannot let it pass without comments.
Not that we are offended. Cloud computing is not our religion – it is just an experiment - part of our research. We may be proved wrong – but at least not so far. We are glad we use the model.
Here is how we, at LIRNEasia, use ‘CLOUD’ Computing:
This blog itself is in the CLOUD (Wordpress, to be specific)
All our documents are in the CLOUD (Scribd)
All our photos are in the CLOUD (Flickr)
All our video clips are in the CLOUD (You Tube)
All our databases are in the CLOUD…
The number of voice calls being made has remained steady over the past two years, but text messages sent and received have increased by a staggering 450 percent.
At the end of 2007, text messaging had just overtaken voice calls 218 to 213. But by the end of the second quarter of this year, an average mobile phone subscriber placed or received 204 calls, compared with sending or receiving 357 text messages.
Teens between the ages of 13 and 17 now send or receive 1,742 messages per month, compared to the second-highest age group, 18 to 24 year olds, who send and receive about 790 messages.
Read the story in Wired News or New York Times.
Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for U.S. president, mentioned broadband rollout as one of his top priorities during a debate Friday evening, bringing applause from several groups promoting universally available broadband as a key part of a turn-around in the U.S. economy.
Obama, debating Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate for president, listed broadband rollout to rural areas as one of his top priorities that he wouldn’t cut when asked about U.S. government budget constraints.
Read the full story in ‘Network World’ here.
LIRNEasia’s Executive Director, Rohan Samarajiva, is a candidate in the 2008 elections of the International Communication Association (ICA); he is being considered for a position on the Board of the ICA, representing West Asia. Visit the election page.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is asking the mobile operators to pay Tk. 112 crore (US$16.23 million) for each MHz of 2G spectrum. But the mobile operators don’t want to pay that amount. “Mobile operators once enjoyed frequency benefits free in Bangladesh, but it should not be,” said Major General Manzurul Alam (rtd), chairman of BTRC told the media. “We are not imposing anything on them. Let’s have a talk with them. But they have to understand one thing –spectrum is a national asset and it has a value.” The operators and the regulator are meeting today to settle the issue. Theoretically, the parties will be negotiating a price between zero and $16.23 million per MHz price of spectrum! Read more.
Preconference workshop at the 2009 conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) | 20-21 May 2009, Chicago, Illinois, USA | Download Call for Papers (pdf)
Mobile phones are becoming increasingly important in bringing people into the Information Society. It is widely accepted that the inhabitants of the future household will carry mobile devices that will be capable of voice and data communication, information retrieval and forms of entertainment consumption. Mobiles are now (and will increasingly become) payment devices that can also send, process and receive voice, text as well as images; in the next few years they will also be capable of information-retrieval and publishing functions normally associated with the Internet. Through such services and applications, industry experts predict that many in emerging markets will experience the…
Tags: BOP, Bottom Of The Pyramid, cellular telephone, conference, emerging markets, ICA, Illinois, international communicaiton association, International Communication Association, mobile applications, mobile communications, Mobile2.0, payment devices, United States.
Natasha Udu-gama has been invited to represent LIRNEasia at the Second International United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) Bonn Workshop: “Disaster Management and Space Technology - Bridging the Gap” in Bonn, Germany, from the 13th to 15th October 2008.
Natasha will make a presentation on, ‘Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination’ at a session entitled, ‘Contribution of space-based technologies to existing and proposed Early Warning Systems’. This session will examine how public-private partnerships (PPP) centered on space-based technologies can enable the development, establishment and embedding of early warning systems.
The event is organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), with the aim of providing a platform for brainstorming and in-depth discussion among decision-makers and…
Tags: Addressable Satellite Radio, Bonn, early warning systems, German Aerospace Center, Germany, HazInfo, Natasha Udu-gama, space technology, United Nations, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, WorldSpace Global Data Solutions.
LIRNEasia’s sister organization, The Center for Communication, Media and Information Technologies (CMI), of the Copenhagen Institute of Technology (CIT), Aalborg University, Denmark, will host its First International Conference on Converging Mobile Media on 28 November 2008.
Previous conferences have been held by the Center for Information and Communication Technologies (CICT), and the 2008 conference marks the start of a new research center at CIT of Aalborg University with an increased focus on the convergence of communication, media and information technologies and on new media opportunities.
Mobile Media includes all kinds of new media on mobile devices, e.g. mobile internet and mobile television. The conference features presentations on different kinds of mobile media by professionals from industry and by researchers including presentations on mobile television in the countries that have come…
According to TelecomTV, TeliaSonera is acquiring controlling interests in Spice Telecom, the second mobile operator in Nepal and Applifone, the fourth largest operator in Cambodia.
This is an intriguing development from a company many thought was withdrawing from the South Asian region. A few years ago there were well publicized negotiations to sell its stake in Sri Lanka’s Suntel, which is believed to have failed for the lack of a high-enough bid.
TeliaSonera and its predecessor entities have not shown the nimbleness of its Nordic competitor, Telenor which has strong positions in South and South East Asian countries. One hopes it will. Both Nepal and Cambodia need investment and innovation.
Grameenphone has sealed a deal with the postal department to boost its revenue by going deeper in rural areas through the postmen working in about 8,300 post offices in Bangladesh. Initially, the rural postmen will sell 24,000 prepaid mobile connections to the very remote places. The mailmen in such places are often the only gateway to the world beyond the horizon. They will also top up the customers’ accounts with small denominations. In return the low-paid rural mailmen as well as the ailing postal department of Bangladesh will make money out of every transaction. The operator along with the postal service makes money while people at the further bottom of the pyramid get connected! Read more.
The regulatory history has four phases, the first which was from 1964 to the 1989. PTT was established in 1964, this was a forerunner of DGPT. In 1985 DGPT gave operating licenses and were removed from the government budget. The second phase was from 1989 to 1999. The new Act of Telecom was established in 1989 that established DGPT as the policy maker and regulator. A new international operator (Satelindo) entered the market in 1993. In 1994 GSM licenses for Telkonsel and Indosat and two years later a private operator was granted a GSM license. The third phase was from 1999 to 2004. This was the period after the Asian financial crisis and proves to be the phase that was most revolutionary. A new Telecom…
Deploying 3G services using UMTS900 may create 70 per cent CAPEX and OPEX savings for mobile operators, says a recent case study on the exprience of Elisa Corporation of Finland, released by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. Widely used by GSM systems throughout Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, the use of the 900 MHz band lowers the number of cell sites needed to cover rural and suburban areas.
Another report of GSA says on May 6, 2008 AIS launched UMTS 900 in Chiangmai, Thailand in 900 MHz spectrum. Expansion to Bangkok and other major cities is planned for Q1 2009. Regulator NTC is reported to have authorized DTAC to deploy UMTS in 850 MHz spectrum, also planned in Q1 2009.
Results for Indonesia in LIRNEasia’s Telecom Regulatory Environment survey show an interesting trend. Unlike their counterparts in other countries (Bangladesh, India, Maldives Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand) Indonesia telecom experts have given marks so low for different aspects of their regulatory environment that none of the categories, in any three sectors, meet the average of 3. (The options were from 1 to 5, 1=extremely unsatisfied, 5=excellent service) The one comes nearest is the score for Market Entry in the mobile sector (there are nine players in the market – eight national, one regional) but that too miss the average by 0.05 points.
The results do not show a change from the previous (2006) scores. The score for the fixed sector remains same as it was in 2006,…
Tags: 2008, Bangladesh, Broadband, Colloquium, fixed, India, Indonesia, LIRNEasia, Maldives, Mobile, Sri Lanka, Telecom, Telecom Regulatory Environment survey, Thailand, TRE survey.
Proposals to slash the cost of using mobile phones abroad, for text, data and voice calls, could become law next July following a vote in Brussels.
The European Parliament is to vote on whether roaming costs for text messages should be capped.
The cost of sending a message is expected to eventually fall by 60% from an average of 23 pence to 9 pence.
Voice calls would fall from 36 to 27 pence a minute and customers would be able to set limits on data downloads.
A reluctant mobile phone industry first had limits on its roaming charges imposed by the EU in September 2007.
However, those applied only to voice calls, not those for texting or browsing the internet.
Mobile phone companies were limited to charging a maximum of around…
Conducted by Miraj Khaled.
Bangladesh has had a monopoly since 1989. The sector was opened in 1996. The Telecom Act was enacted in 2001. The regulator was established under this Act.
During this period the number of mobile subscribers increased significantly, with a peak in 2006. The fixed phone tariff fell dramatically from 2001 to 2002 and again in 2007.
The number of mobile subscribers seem to have grown exponentially, while the fixed subscribers remain much unchanged. There is a sharp rise from 2002 to 2003, this can be explained by the entrance on Banglalink in 2004 into the sector.
The six main mobile operators are AKTEL, Banglalink, Citycell, Grameenphone, Teletalk and Warid. Grameenphone seems to have dropped from over 70% market share in 2001 to 45% in 2008.
Total…
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