Executive Director, Rohan Samarajiva will participate at the ITU Asia 2008 conference taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 2-5 September 2008. He will talk about universal service at the opening plenary with the Indian Minister at the Telecom Development Symposium on 4th September. He will also give the keynote talk at the Business and Finance Session of the ITU Asia Youth Forum on 2nd September, chaired by Bosco Eduagive a rdo Fernandes, Vice President (BU & IM Industry Relationship), Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH & Co. KG (Germany).
ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 is a key networking platform for Asia’s top ICT names to come together and focus on core issues relating to ICT expansion across the region.
Aug 26, 2008, telecomasia.net
Asia’s emerging markets, comprising eight nations, are expected to see mobile subscriber net gains of 573 million by end-2012, breaching the one billion mark to close the year at an estimated 1.06 billion subscribers, a report from research firm Frost & Sullivan said.
In 2007, these emerging markets were home to some 487 million mobile users, accounting for 37.1% of Asia-Pacific’s total mobile subscriber base, the report said.
The report also said the mobile services sector in eight emerging Asia-Pac countries (excluding China) earned revenues of $33.27 billion in 2007. This is predicted to reach $61.35 billion by end-2013, at a CAGR of 10.7% (2007-2013).
Growing at a CAGR of 15.1% (2007-2013), the mobile subscriber base is expected to hit 1.13 billion by end-2013 to…
Tags: Americas, Asia, Asia-Pacific, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Europe, Frost & Sullivan, India, Indonesia, Jeff Teh, Laos, Pakistan, prepaid services, Sri Lanka, USD, Vietnam.
A Review by Frederick Noronha. MobileActive.org
August 18, 2008 | KatrinVerclas
Civil society can play a large role in getting people digitally connected, say the co-editors of the new book ‘ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks’.
“However, in order to reap the full benefits from connectivity in a long-lasting manner, underlying issues of policy, affordability and technology need to be addressed,” LIRNAsia’s Executive Director Rohan Samarajiva and co-editor of the book with Ayesha Zainudeen, told Mobileactive.org in an email interview.
Currently Asia is the fastest growing region in the world in terms of connectivity. Between 1984 and 1993, the Asia Pacific as a region overtook the other regions of the world (mainly due to mobiles), and it continues to grow, he noted.
…
From Sify.com
Frederick Noronha (IANS) | Thursday, 07 August , 2008, 11:40
Bangalore: India is growing by leaps and bounds when it comes to mobile use, but it could be doing better, the authors of a new book on policy roadblocks to communication growth in South Asia have said.
LIRNEasia executive director Rohan Samarajiva and researcher Ayesha Zainudeen, editors of the book ‘ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks’, told IANS in an interview that over the study period, India’s mobile connectivity was overtaken in per-capita terms by both Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“There is still a large gap between rural and urban telephone growth, as highlighted in the book, due to flawed policy implementation (at the time of writing),” said Samarajiva.
The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, June 08 2008. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080608/FinancialTimes/ft331.html
Norman Gunawardene was one of the three part-time members appointed to the reconstituted Telecom Regulatory Commission in 1997. He was the only appointee to serve out the full three-year term in the history of the TRC. The quality, commitment and independence of that first group of members set the standard for all who followed. I was privileged to work with Mr Gunawardene, Deva Rodrigo, R.K.W. Goonesekera and K.C. Logeswaran (Chairman) who constituted that first group.
LIRNEasia’s Lead Economist presented the findings on the percieved benefits of telecom access at the bottom of the pyramid at ‘The Global and Globalizing Dimensions of Mobile Communication: Developing or Developed‘ a pre-conference program at the ICA 2008 conference in Montreal on 20-21 May 2008.
The paper presented, ‘Perceived economic benefits of telecom access at the Bottom of the Pyramid in emerging Asia‘ takes a look at what BOP phone owners gain from telecom access from their own perspective. One of the most interesting findings here, is that although they see efficiency gains stemming from phone access/use, they don’t relate these to economic gains. This is puzzling, because we know from macro-level studies that a positive relationship exists between phone penetration and national income; additionally, theory suggests…
LIRNEasia’s Executive Director will present a paper on the gendered aspects of telecom use at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in emerging Asia, at the 58th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), ‘Communicating for Social Impact’ in Montreal, Canada, on 26 May 2008.
The paper ‘Who’s got the phone? The gendered use of telephones at the bottom of the pyramid’ explores the so called gender ‘divide’ in telecom access at the BOP in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Thailand, finding that that a significant gender divide in access to telephones exists in Pakistan and India , to a lesser extent in Sri Lanka , but is absent in the Philippines and Thailand. The authors argue that perhaps as penetration levels increase, overall the…
LIRNEasia’s Executive Director will speak at the International Conference on Information, Communication and New Media & the First Annual Convention of the Information and Communication Association of Taiwan, being held in Taipei on 17 May 2008. His presentaiton, Asia at the leading edge of communication and new media developments? can be downloaded by clicking on the link.
Rohan Samarajiva chaired the panel discussion on ‘Convergence in Regulation - Designing Regulation for Convergence’ at the GSMA Third Annual Government Mobile Forum on 12 February 2008. The Forum was a part of the 2008 Mobile World Congress, taking place from 11-14 February 2008 in Barcelona 2008.
The panellists included:
Maria Del Rosario Guerra, Minister for Communications, Colombia
Binali Yildirim, Minister of Transport and Communications, Turkey
Daniel Pataki, Chairman European Regulators Group (ERG)
Mickael Gosshein, CEO Orange Jordan
Sol Trujillo, CEO Telstra
The Government Mobile Forum is a unique platform where ministers, regulators and industry leaders come together, face to face, to discuss the opportunities that the mobile industry offers for economic growth and social development and the barriers it faces in meeting this challenge.
…
Tags: Barcelona, Binali Yildirim, Colombia, communications, Daniel Pataki, European Regulators Group, Maria Del Rosario Guerra, Mickael Gosshein, Orange Jordan
Sol Trujillo, Rohan Samarajiva, Turkey, World Congress.
Rohan Samarajiva participated in the Third Annual ‘Joint Roundtable on Communications Policy - The Future of Indian Mobile’ in Kovalam, India from 7-9 February. The Round table was organized by the Aspen Institute India in collaboration with the Aspen Institute, USA.
The objective of the conference was to convene Indian and American business leaders, government policy-makers, leading academics, and other experts to discuss government and business approaches to mobile commerce, mobile banking and m-governance that will have a positive effect on India’s economic and social development.
LIRNEasia’s annual report for the year ending 31 March 2007 is now available for download here.
by Harsha de Silva & Ayesha Zainudeen
In Does inequality matter? Exploring the links between poverty and inequality (p. 135-167), Edited by Prashan Thalayasingam & Kannan Arunasalam. Published by CEPA, Colombo, 2007
Pre-publication version available for download. The paper was presented at the Centre for Poverty Analysis Annual Symposium on Poverty Research in Sri Lanka (6-7 December 2007, Colombo)
Introduction:
Much has been said of the benefits of access to telecommunication especially at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’.
Tags: Ayesha Zainudeen, Centre for Poverty Analysis Annual Symposium, Colombo, communication technologies, Harsha de Silva, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, telecom services, telephone ownership, Thailand, the Philippines.
Can dinosaurs dance?
Oct 11th 2007 | From The Economist print edition
Responding to the Asian challenge
ARE consumers in India and China too poor to afford high-quality Western goods? That used to be the old idea of doing business in these countries as firms offered watered-down versions of their products at reduced prices. Mr van Houten, of chipmaker NXP, says Indian and Chinese consumers are forcing multinationals to design sophisticated products that more closely meet their needs, and this is making firms operating in Asia better innovators.
By recruiting ingenious local engineers and designers in places like Bangalore and Beijing, and paying close attention to trends and practices in the market, firms are coming up with products and services that can be sold in other parts of the…
Tags: Alan Lafley, Asia, Atlanta, back-office services, BANGALORE, Beijing, China, Coca-Cola, distribution network, Georgia, Google, high-tech element, India, NXP, performance chemicals, Procter & Gamble, Russia, simplified magnetic-resonance imaging machine, software services, Unilever, van Houten.
The final report from the World Dialogue on Regulation (WDR) 3rd research cycle has been released and can now be downloaded or ordered in hardcopy. Edited by Amy Mahan and William H. Melody, this most recent collection of the network’s research and case studies elaborates on inclusive and propoor strategies for extending network development.
Title: Diversifying Participation in Network Development: Case studies and research from WDR Research Cycle 3
Editors: Amy Mahan and William H. Melody
Tags: 978-9974-8067, Abu-Saeed Khan, African Mobile, Albania, Ali Ndiwalana, Amy Mahan, Andrew Barendse, Argentina, Asia-Pacific, Ayesha Zainudeen, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bruce Girard, Caribbean, Christoph Stork, Claire Milne, Colombia, Erik Skouby, Ewan Sutherland, Foundation Partners, Ghana, Gustavo Gómez, Guyana, Harsha de Silva, Latin America, Malathy Knight-John, Mariama Deen-Swarray, Melody
Document, Mexico, Nepal, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Peru, Reza Tadayoni, Samuel Braithwaite, Sebastian Ureta, South Africa, Steve Esselaar, Telecom, Uruguay, William H. Melody.
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