Four years to history, ‘Your tears are mine’ (see below) was my reaction to Asian tsunami. Reproduced in multiple sites, it was recited once in a remembrance event. Though written more in a Sri Lankan context, let me pick it again today, to remember all 225,000 lives lost, in the worst tsunami in recent history - that caused vast damage to four countries LIRNEasia closely works in, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India.
Not my every wish was granted. The aftermath of tsunami, instead of creating a division-free society demonstrated how pathetically the disparities were amplified. Still the humanity did not collapse on December 2004. We did not let tsunami block our way.
Four years later, having completed the recovery process, most tsunami victimized societies stand on…
Tags: Chanuka Wattegama, Disaster Management, India, Indonesia, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Lanka Software Foundation, Maldives, Nargis, Sahana, Sri Lanka, Telecom Authority of the Maldives, Thailand, tsunami, Your tears are mine.
The looks may deceive, but this is a radio station. Prabhavi Community Radio - the first Internet community radio in Sri Lanka comes from Prabhavi Resources Center, Weranketagoda, Ampara - the post-conflict district in Eastern province (8 hours travel from Colombo). It operates from a Nenasala, one of the 500 odd telecenters funded by the World Bank under e-Sri Lanka program. A brainchild of Ajith Karunarathne, it runs as a nonprofit venture entirely by volunteers Asiri (red shirt, first photo) and his team.
Strangely, this radio station connects to Internet thru a 128 kbps pipe. That is all available, though both major broadband providers claim they cover the Ampara town – 15 km away. The link is from not any of them. The unidirectional antenna - in…
Tags: Ajith Karunarathne, Ampara, AT-Tester, Batticaloa, Broadband, Broadband benchmarking, e-Sri Lanka, Nenasala, Nenasala Information Technology Training Centre, Prabhavi Community Radio, telecentre, Weranketagoda, World Bank.
LIRNEasia’s annual report for the 2007-08 period is now available. Click here to download. Click here for previous annual reports.
On January 16, 2008 a bus bomb went off killing 25 and injuring more than 60, in a remote area of Moneragala, arguably the least connected district in the island. Within less than two hours, the international news channels were up with clips. Nuwan Sameera (inset) FTPed them from his Nenasala telecenter in Bibile town – about one hour journey away.
Nuwan operates just within 200 m from a telecom tower (see photo) but bureaucracy is bureaucracy. Spending World Bank money generously, ICTA, the implementation agency of Nenasala telecenter network under the e-Sri Lanka program, first provided a VSAT link from a different operator. (Perhaps the tower came later and fortunately, and Nuwan does not have to foot the bill, about US$ 750 per month, in…
Tags: Bibile, ICTA, implementation agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Moneragala, Nenasala, Nuwan Sameera, Rs, Sri Lanka, telecenter network, USD, VSAT.
Ambuluwawa, about 1,100 m above sea level, is probably the highest point in the vicinity of Gampola. Not surprisingly, all telecom operators exploit the geography. Transmission stations/towers encircle the summit. (See above) That is what one calls infrastructure.
Just 10 km away, Sirimalwatte Ananda thero, a young and energetic Buddhist monk, runs a Nenasala, a telecenter established under the World Bank funded e-Sri Lanka program. He is not content with the Internet facilities. He pays Rs. 11,250 (about USD 100) per month for a 128 kbps link of inconsistent speed. This is twice more what a user in Colombo pay for her, not 128 k but 2 Mbps link – from the same operator.
Use simple maths. Ananda thero pays THIRTY TWO (32) times more per kbps than…
Tags: Colombo, e-Sri Lanka, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Internet facilities, Nenasala, Nenasala Information Technology Training Centre, Rs, Sri Lanka, telecenter network, telecenter operator, telecentre, USD, World Bank.
There are still some who talk about the value of government ownership of telecom operators. In their talk of national interest and local control, rarely is mentioned the word corruption.
The recent case in which Siemens pleaded guilty to massive “accounting violations” and paid large fines should be of interest to all who care about transparency. More than the fines, the court record is of great significance. Investigators and the law firm for Siemens amassed massive amounts of data, starting from the five terabytes of information seized from Siemens offices at the start. They have 100 million documents from 1700 interviews conducted in 34 countries. The lawyers and forensic auditors had more than 1.5 million billable hours. This is the treasure trove that corruption hunters…
Undersea cable operators have a nasty habit of laying cables close to each other. When they get cut, they tend to go in sets. The first question I have is why Maldives would lose 100% of traffic when it is connected by two undersea cables, one to Colombo and the other to India. That’s serious redundancy, especially for a tiny country of 300,000+ people. I can understand the traffic on Reliance’s Flag system going down because it was Atlantic focused. But most of Sri Lanka’s Internet traffic runs west via the Pacific. The very fact that I am posting this is evidence that Sri Lanka’s connectivity to the US is unaffected.
So it is possible that Dhiraagu was unaffected. Can readers from the Maldives shed…
“Sri Lanka’s leading mobile operator is creating a broadband revolution. By leveraging HSPA mobile broadband technology, it is bringing affordable access to all levels of society, from the wealthiest businesses to the poorest villages.”
Thus starts the GSMA case study on the Dialog mobile broadband. It is just four pages and in easily readable format – but still enough new stuff, that makes it a worthy read.
Selected extracts:
- Dialog estimates that the rural economy generates $350 million per month compared to $110 million in the urban economy.
- Dialog’s success lies in pioneering the low ARPU business model. Eighty-seven percent of the operator’s 5 million mobile customers are prepaid with an ARPU of less than US$4.
- In 2007, the expanding nationwide network was supercharged with HSPA, giving users access to…
BizFirst this week will focus on LIRNEasia’s Broadband benchmarking research. This will be broadcast over MTV and Shakthi TV simultaneously, on December 19, at 9.30 pm.
Apart from me, R. Tirumurthy of IIT Madras – the thought leadership of the team that developed the test software package will participate in this program. We talk about the Broadband scenario in Sri Lanka, with the issues and how we propose to approach the Quality of Service issues.
The same program will be repeated on Sunday Dec 21, 2008 at 12 noon over the same channels.
More information about LIRNEasia’s Broadband Benchmarking work is available at:
http://www.broadbandasia.info
http://lirneasia.net/projects/2008-2010/broadband-benchmarking-qos-20
http://lirneasia.net/projects/2006-07/bbqos
Like no one asks who invented the mobile, few ask who invented the mundane components of the computer that allow us to do what we do routinely. The mouse for one (try using a modern computer without one!). Doug Engelbart, a man I am proud to have been in the same room with, was the inventor of the mouse. Forty years of his vision was celebrated earlier this month at Stanford.
The mouse was merely a byproduct of Engelbart’s larger vision, said his daughter, Christina Engelbart, executive director of the Doug Engelbart Institute. “That was what the public recognizes as a great innovation that’s really had a huge impact on everyone. But truly his greatest innovation of all was the vision and the strategic organizing principles…
Indonesia’s PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk said on Tuesday it had shareholder approval for a plan to sell its telecommunications towers, which could raise 380.22 billion rupiah ($34.48 million).
Bakrie Telecom said proceeds from the sale of 543 towers would go towards capital expenditure, which is set at about $200 million next year.
“The sales provide us not only with additional fresh funds but also flexibility for our financing needs,” president director Anindya Bakrie told a news conference, adding that the move was also in line with a recent telecommunication regulation.
Mobile phone operators are required to share the telecommunication towers of their base transceiver stations (BTS) to reduce the risk of spoiling the landscape.
Bakrie Telecom is owned by the family of Indonesia’s chief social welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie.
Read…
India’s government has finalised the plans for its 3G and WiMAX auctions - with the 3G auctions starting on January 16th next year. Auctions for WiMAX licenses will commence two days after the 3G licenses are sold. Acording to a memorandum from the Department of Telecoms, there will be a pre-bid conference next week, with the final submissions to enter the auction being due on the 5th January. The licenses are all valid for 15 years. But there have been concerns about lack of 3G spectrum in some parts of the country. Delhi will be limited to just two private companies operating 3G networks - while Mumbai could have up to four private operators (in addition to the state operators). As for the WiMAX licenses - there is…
The trend to mobile continues.
Mobile phones have been a key driver of growth, due to subscriber growth in developing countries and the recent emergence of low-cost international mobile calling plans. In 2007, nearly one-third of international calls were placed from mobile phones, and 45 percent of international calls were terminated on mobiles. Current trends suggest that by 2009, more international calls will be made to mobile phones than to fixed lines.
More detail here.
The question most who phoned our office last week asked was: When Bharti Airtel will start its Sri Lanka operations? We have no clue why they assumed LIRNEasia is linked to the Indian telco that plans to launch its operation in Sri Lanka shortly. So our polite answer was: Sorry, we do not know and we do not have Bharti Airtel phone number.
The website www.airtel.lk too was not much of help. It like a massive bill board in front of a cinema hall, just says ‘Coming Soon’. Please do not mistake the guy in the middle to be Santa. You might not see him anytime within the festive reason. Looks like Bharti Airtel’s initial plans to start its operations in December is not going to…
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