Patients use the service by logging on to participating health plans’ Web sites. Doctors hold 10-minute appointments, which can be extended for a fee, and can file prescriptions and view patients’ medical histories through the system. American Well is working with HealthVault, Microsoft’s electronic medical records service, and ActiveHealth Management, a subsidiary of Aetna, which scans patients’ medical history for gaps in their previous care and alerts doctors during their American Well appointment.

The Hawaiian health plan’s 700,000 members pay $10 to use the service. The insurer also offers the service to uninsured patients for $45. Health plans pay American Well a license fee per member and a transaction fee of about $2 each time a patient sees a doctor.

Sri Lanka will issue new rules covering financial transactions through mobile phones, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said, as the island’s fast growing celcos join banks to offer new payment methods.

“Given the increased usage of mobile phones for financial transactions, the Central Bank intends to issue new operating guidelines for mobile payments during 2009,” Cabraal said in an annual policy speech Friday.

He said the move was part of an overall effort to improve the confidence in electronic payments, which would also cover payment cards.

Full report.

Analysts and industry players, however, expect the process not just to be further delayed, but also to attract fewer participants for the bidding process.

Their apprehension follows recent media reports, citing government documents, that the finance ministry has sought to double the auction price for pan-India 3G radio bandwidth, or spectrum, to INR40.40 billion.

“There is no (further) delay. The auction is on schedule,” said Akshay Rout, a spokesman for India’s ministry of communication, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The Indian government had already delayed the auction to Jan. 30 from Jan. 16.

Read the full story in CNNMoney here.

While new players are launching operations, existing ones are beginning to scale up. Now that the government has issued 120 new licences, telecom industry officials fear a talent crunch that could push salaries in core operations by up to 30% in the next few quarters.

“Conservative estimates put the demand from new players at one lakh people in the first phase. With rolling out of 3G and Wimax, existing players will need another 50,000 people,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO of Bangalore-based Headhunters India.

Read the full stiry in The Economic Times here.

TRAI has set the ball rolling to revise IUC, particularly termination charge from Rs0.3/minute to Rs0.1/minute and carriage charge from Rs0.65/minute to as low as Rs0.16/minute.

IUC is payable by one telecom operator to others for use of their networks either for origination, termination or carriage of a call. Inter-operator calls constitute a major part of the total calls handled by the telecom network. These charges are important as they can transfer network costs between operators.

Although reduction in these charges would lead to a lower tariff for customers, as benefits would be passed on due to intense competition, it would dent the profitability of telecom operators mainly Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular.

Read the full story here.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval to a new mobile (GSM) and fixed (SCDMA) telecommunications network provider. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General signed the agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the BOI Certificate of Registration to Mr. B.A.C. Abeywardena, Director of RTEC Mobile Lanka.

FDI, which has been successfully attracted by the BOI has played a major role in the development and modernization of Sri Lanka’s telecommunication.
RTEC Mobile Lanka (Private) Limited signed the agreement to set up and operate a mobile and fixed telecommunications network. The venture is an investment of US $ 100 million sponsored by Global Electroteks Limited, UK. The project will create 320 new employment opportunities in high technology field.

Panic over, then? Not quite. Perversely, the real threat may come from a reduction in internet-traffic growth, says Dr Odlyzko. Too little internet traffic, he contends, could prove to be more dangerous to the industry than too much. A traffic-growth rate of 50%, combined with steady declines in equipment costs, means revenues are stagnant, “which is hardly a cheering prospect for the industry”. If traffic growth continues to fall—it is already below 10% in Hong Kong, where high-speed access is abundant—there will be slowing demand for faster connections from operators and new equipment from vendors. But if compelling new applications drive the growth rate back up to 100%, its level for many years, there will be more demand from customers for new services and equipment. Accordingly, says Dr Odlyzko, the industry should be looking for ways to stimulate traffic growth, rather than limit it.

But does chatting to passengers have the same detrimental effect on driving? An earlier study found that it does not. That research, led by Frank Drews of the University of Utah, analysed the performance of young drivers using a vehicle simulator. Dr Drews found that when using a hands-free phone, a volunteer “drove” significantly worse than he did when just talking to someone playing the role of a passenger. Passengers, the researchers believed, might even help road safety by commenting on surrounding traffic.

The reported does not seem to have distinguished between idle chatter with people in the car and serious conversation.   But I could see notices going up warning people against serious conversations in person or on the phone, while in a car.

Dhiraagu is owned by the Government of Maldives (GoM) and Cable & Wireless of the UK and has been a an important revenue generator for the Government of Maldives. According to LIRNEasia’ Telecom Regulatory Environment survey research, over 9% of GoM’s non-tax revenues came from Dhiraagu.

According to Miadhu News and Dhiraagu’s own press release (), the official ceremony was held on the 25th of December 2008 at TAM.

A draft report of findings from the Maldives Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) study conducted in 2008, is available here, for comments.

A text message initially travels wirelessly from a handset to the closest base-station tower and is then transferred through wired links to the digital pipes of the telephone network, and then, near its destination, converted back into a wireless signal to traverse the final leg, from tower to handset. In the wired portion of its journey, a file of such infinitesimal size is inconsequential. Srinivasan Keshav, a professor of computer science at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, said: “Messages are small. Even though a trillion seems like a lot to carry, it isn’t.”

Perhaps the costs for the wireless portion at either end are high — spectrum is finite, after all, and carriers pay dearly for the rights to use it. But text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network.

That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted.

Professor Keshav said that once a carrier invests in the centralized storage equipment — storing a terabyte now costs only $100 and is dropping — and the staff to maintain it, its costs are basically covered. “Operating costs are relatively insensitive to volume,” he said. “It doesn’t cost the carrier much more to transmit a hundred million messages than a million.”

The more important thing is to understand that adequate competition is the key.  It is not as easy as the NYT writer tries to show to calculate the real costs of an SMS.   Much better to create enough competition to preclude collusive behavior.  That will prevent collusive price fixing and high prices.  And will preclude the need for expensive cost studies.

Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe says the government will establish a series of Tsunami warning towers throughout the country from next month.

Speaking at the main ceremony of the Tsunami tragedy and National Safety day held in Kandy this morning the Minister said three Tsunami warning towers have been established in various areas of the country.

The Minister said the government hopes to establish another 25 Tsunami warning towers along the coast around the country by next March and five emergency disaster centers by next January.

This is getting to be quite boring.   The same story about three towers and 25 to come repeated since July 2006.  Instead of writing a new post, I will simply link to an old one.  If you don’t like that, here’s the original post from 2006.

The draft program for this one-and-a-half day preconference is now available (scroll down). Twenty seven papers were selected through a peer-reviewed process; papers based on research in 15 countries in five continents in on various aspects of mobile usage will be presented. Registration can be completed through the ICA conference website.

Mobile2.0: Beyond Voice?

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 Internet, or ‘elements’ of the Internet for the first time through a mobile phone, rather than a PC; mobile payments, mobile social networking, SMS voting are just a few examples of some of these services and applications.

Emerging markets appear to be following a different trajectory from developed markets; while the latter are moving forward via triple- and quadruple-play scenarios, the former are moving on paths that involve mobile phones as the key platform for bringing people affordably into the Information Society; something we describe as “2.0.”

This preconference will draw together research constituting evidence for and against this emerging Mobile2.0 narrative in the context of the larger social-science understanding of mobile-use behavior.  The preconference will also contribute to understanding emerging mobile use patterns.

The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Tim Kelly, Lead ICT Policy Specialist at the World Bank. Papers will be presented by academics from the US, as well as Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa.

The pre-conference is being organized by LIRNEasia (www.lirneasia.net).  For more information please contact sivapragasam[at]lirne.net

DRAFT PROGRAM:

Day 1, Wednesday 20 May

1300-1330   Registration

1330-1340   Welcome address, Rohan Samarajiva (LIRNEasia)

1340-1410   Keynote address, Tim Kelly (infoDev, World Bank)

1410-1510   SESSION 1: Mobile internet use, Chaired by Francois Bar (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California)

- The iPhone and mobile access to the internet, Richard Ling (Telenor/IT University of Copenhagen) and Pål Roe Sundsøy

- New paths: exploring mobile-only internet use in South Africa, Jonathan Donner (Microsoft Research, India)

- Assessing Cell Phone Usage among Low-Income South African Youth, Tino Kreutzer (Center for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa)

1510-1530   BREAK (refreshments provided)

1530-1700   SESSION 2: Trends in mobile usage,  Chaired by Tim Kelly (infoDev, The World Bank)

- Mobile Voices: A Mobile, Open Source, Popular Communication Platform for First-Generation Immigrants in Los Angeles, Francois Bar (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, USA), Melissa Brough  Sasha Costanza-Chock, Carmen Gonzalez, and Cara Wallis .

- Mobile Phones and Migrant Workers in Malaysia, Grace Roldan (Telenor Research & Innovation Centre Asia Pacific, Malaysia)

- Mobile adoption in Asia, Harsha de Silva (LIRNEasia)

- The Strategic use of mobile phones among poor people in some Latin American Countries, Luis Fernando Gamboa (Department of Economics, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia)

- Mobile teens in Taiwan, Yi-Fan Chen (Department of Communication and Theatre Arts, College of Arts and Letters, Old Dominion University, USA)

Day 2, Thursday 21 May

0800-0915   SESSION 3:  Mobiles, ICTs and livelihoods, Chaired by Rohan Samarajiva (LIRNEasia)

- Information and Communication, Human Development, Growth and Poverty Reduction:  A Background Paper, Randy Spence (ESDA, Canada)

- The personal hand phone: a vehicle for developing and sustaining local business networks? Exploring the usage of mobile phones among small Malaysian enterprises, Tom Erik Julsrud, Grace Roldan and Andrew Wong (Telenor Research & Innovation, Norway and Malaysia)

- Mobile 2.0 in Brazil, Income Generation and Power Asymmetries, Gilson Schwartz (Department of Film, Radio and TV, School of Communication and Arts, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)

- Education, mobile phone use and production decisions: A rural case study in Peru, Aileen  Agüero (DIRSI - Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP), Peru)

0915-1030   SESSION 4:  Mobiles and social networking, Chaired by Grace Roldan (Telenor Research and Innovation Asia Pacific)

- Emerging mobile phone uses among young users: the mobile images and the video, Corinne Martin (CREM Metz University, France)

- The role of mobile communication and social networks in civic life: A study of U.S. adults, Scott Campbell and Nojin Kwak (Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, USA)

- Omnipresence as a Strategy for Maintaining Expansive Social Horizons: The Social Utility of Mobile Phone E-mail for Japanese Youth, Jeffrey Boase (Department of Communication, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA) and Mito Akiyoshi (Senshu University, Japan)

- Reexamining interactions with urban space: A field study of a GPS-based mobile social network, Lee Humphrey (Department of Communication, Cornell University, USA)

1030-1100   BREAK (refreshments provided)

1100-1200   SESSION 5:  New mobile applications: Mobile governance, health, news and information services: Part I, Chaired by Harsha de Silva (LIRNEasia)

- The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces: Wireless Internet Use, Social Networks, and the Public Realm, Keith N. Hampton , Oren Livio and Lauren Sessions (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA)

- Taking e-Governance to the Masses through Government on a Mobile: Innovations in m-Government in Tiruvallur District in Tamil Nadu, India, Rajendra  Kumar (Indian Administrative Service, India)

- The interplay of information, payments and logistics over mobiles, Ayesha Zainudeen and Rohan Samarajiva (LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka)

1200-1330   LUNCH BREAK (lunch not included)

1330-1445   SESSION 6:  New mobile applications: Mobile governance, health, news and information services: Part II, Chaired by Randy Spence (ESDA)

- Longitudinal Findings from Aceh Besar Midwife Mobile-Phone Project, Arul Chib (Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

- Assessment of Health Repository over VoiceNet platform, Umesh Sachdev (Uniphore Software Systems, IIT, Madras, India) and Suma Prashant (Rural Technology and Business Incubator, IIT Madras, India)

- Perceptions of the mobile device as a news medium in Sweden and Japan, Oscar Westlund (Department of Journalism and Mass communication, Göteborg University, Sweden)

- Problems with Digital Inclusion and Public/Privacy Issues of Mobile Technology, Muneo Kaigo (Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan)

1445-1515   BREAK (refreshments provided)

1515-1630   SESSION 6:  Mobile TV and cinema, Chaired by Richard Ling (Telenor/IT University of Copenhagen)

- Comparison of Mobile TV in Singapore and Taiwan: Social-technical System Approach, Trisha Tsui-Chuan (Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) and Yu-Li Liu (National Chengchi University, Taiwan)

- Towards a realistic assessment of mobile TV developments, Anders  Henten and Reza Tadayoni  (CMI, Aalborg University, Denmark)

- Lonely adopters”? An exploratory study of early adopters of mobile television and their mobile phone appropriation, Veronika Karnowski (Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung, der LMU München, Germany), Thilo von Pape (Université Paul-Verlaine, Metz, France) and Werner  Wirth (Universität Zürich , Switzerland)

- GPSFilm:  Location-Based Mobile Cinema, Scott Hessels (School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

1630-1655   WRAP-UP SESSION, Discussion led by Richard Ling (Telenor/IT University of Copenhagen)

1655-1700   Closing remarks

]]> http://lirneasia.net/2008/12/mobile-2-0-beyond-voice/feed/ http://lirneasia.net/2008/12/mobile-2-0-beyond-voice/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lirneasia/wWnR/~3/497474402/ http://lirneasia.net/2008/12/indonesia-to-implement-wimax-broadband-in-2009/#comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:42:56 +0000 Chanuka Wattegama http://lirneasia.net/?p=3286 Indonesia will implement Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) broadband technology next year to improve access to the Internet across the country, an official said Sunday.

Engkos Koswara, an expert adviser to the state minister for research and technology, told Antara news agency the government was still testing the 2.3 GHz frequency for the Wimax technology.

“We hope that by next year, Wimax technology will be implemented,” he said in Medan, North Sumatra, adding the government would encourage the use of domestic products to support the technology.

Indonesia ranks very low in the region in the use of broadband for Internet access.

Read the full story in Jakarta Post here.

How far onshore rural BPOs cater to the needs of their clients? It might not exactly be toy manufacturing outsourced to rural China, but close. The connectivity issues still exist, and capacity building too remains a challenge. The good news is in spite of all that things do happen.

Isura Seneviratne, 22, runs OnTime Technologies at Mahavilachchiya – the first rural BPO in Sri Lanka, born as a joint effort of Horizon Lanka Academy and FARO (Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunities). Isuru and its first manager Nirosh did the business plan. Trained in Laos and India for BPO work, Isuru knows the nuts and bolts of the game. The operation is still lean, only 8 seats against 25 – the expect target within the first year of operation. Cannot blame because the business had to face the hard challenge of not only building capacity but also pulling legs by different parties. Fortunately the internal politics is now over with the bold step by Lovina Charles, a key donor of the Horizon project at Mahavilachchiya expressing her full backing for the BPO.

At OnTime technologies an operator earns Rs. 8,000 (USD 72) minimum per month, while the highflyers take something like Rs. 13,000 (USD 120) home. Assuming a reasonable PPP ratio this is equivalent to earning USD 240 – 300 in Colombo.

OnTime Technologies offer data entry, data verification, data Indexing, scanning, web designing and graphic designing services. Isuru is proud to mention his clients, John Keells Holdings and Dialog Telekom, two conglomerates. His next goal is a project too ambitious. From Mahavilachchiya Isuru and his team is going to handle the daily issues for a hotel network.

Isuru is not alone in the game.

Jayantha Wickramaratne of Panamura Nenasala, Embilipitita (a telecenter setup under the World Bank funded e-Sri Lanka program) provides e-commerce services using the e-Bay model through the site http://www.ecseva.lk. Advertisements placed by service providers are made available to the large base of site’s users. Anyone who has a job too can place an advertisement which will be then offered to a bidder through a competitive bidding process.

Selvaratnam Sri Kanthan of Koslanda Nenasala too runs a rural BPO service for local and international clients. Partnered with NLingua Services of New Delhi, a voice transcription and translation service, his Nanasala employs Koslanda residents to translate and transcribe audio files from Tamil or Sinhala into English, or vice versa. Web Design is another service he offers.

This does not mean everything runs perfectly. There are so many issues to be addressed. (For example Isuru can do a better job with a link of higher capacity than his present 256 kbps one) Still these courageous and innovative young men and women bring us hope - in difficult times.

One of the six high-flying jobs Yahoo! Hotjobs featured in its latest article is about designing content for mobile platform. Here is the full description. (with an eulogized version of the job title) In US it guarantees a six figure salary, apparently. Cannot be as high as that in the developing world, but something worth keeping an eye on.

Mobile Experience Architect

The cool streaming videos and eye-popping CD covers that get delivered to the screens of millions of cell phones and PDAs each hour are designed to make you spend money. Information architects create the structure and mind-manipulating patterns (site maps) of each mobile delivery. You’ll need to learn about marketing, strategy, and user testing through a degree program in computer science, Web design, or business. There’s even an IT certification for professional mobile architects. Salaries range into six figures.

Read the full article in Yahoo HotJobs here.