‘BSNL’s monopoly over infrastructure a hindrance to growth’ – Financial Express (India)

Rural connectivity is now the focus of every telecommunication player in the country. Almost all stakeholders, from handset manufacturers to service providers, believe that the next wave of growth is in the rural areas.”However, India’s roll out (of telecom services) in rural areas has been slow. BSNL has the backbone infrastructure but is not yet ready to share it with private players,” he added.

BSNL should be made to share its fibre and access networks, Samarajiva said. With shared infrastructure and innovation in marketing, costs can be brought down further, he said. Moreover, telecom companies should also shift their focus from calculating average revenue per user (Arpu) to average margin per user (Ampu), he added.

Also at:  http://asia.tmcnet.com/news/2007/12/26/3184529.htm
http://in.news.yahoo.com/071226/203/6ovtq.html
http://in.biz.yahoo.com/071226/203/6ovva.html

Book also discussed at Yahoo Tech Group forum.

‘Fact or fiction: Telecommunications in Asia By Liffy Thomas’ – Ergo (the Hindu, India)

At a time when GSM operators, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are at an imbroglio over spectrum allocation, Prof Rohan Samarajiva’s book, “ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks”, makes for a timely read. In Chennai for the launch of the book, Samarajiva, Executive Director of LIRNEasia and former Director General of Telecommunications in Sri Lanka, spoke to Liffy Thomas.

BOOK EXTRACT: ‘Subsidising The Smart Way’ – Business World Magazine (India)The Latin American experience holds lessons for the development of rural telephony in Asia, says Harsha De Silva

The supply of telephony has traditionally been skewed towards the urban affluent as opposed to the rural poor. The literature describes this bias as having been caused by a ‘market efficiency gap’ and an ‘access gap’. The market efficiency gap is the difference between what markets achieve under existing conditions and what they can achieve if barriers are removed. This gap can be bridged through effective competition, private provision of services, and market-oriented policies and regulations that create a level playing field for new entrants. The access gap refers to people and places that remain beyond limits of the market due to inadequate income levels or its skewed distribution. Bridging this gap needs subsidies to encourage service providers to enter these areas.

‘Policies for ICT’ – New India Express (Chennai, India) 

WHILE the common perception remains that India has the lowest mobile phone tariffs, other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have lower tariffs than India, Rohan Samarajiva, executive director, Lirne Asia, said on Tuesday.

Talking about his new book ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia – Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks, he said, when compared to all these countries, India’s cost is much higher.

The Deccan Chronicle, Chennai, 16.12.07:

 Policies and regulations are the main bottlenecks blocking the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in India, according to Prof Ashok Jhujhunwala, Telecom and Networks (TeNet) Group, IIT, Madras.

Releasing the book ‘ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks’, a collection of articles edited by Rohan Samarajiva and Ayesha Zainudeen, ICT experts, here on Sunday, Prof Jhunjhunwala said any technological problems associated with ICT could be sorted out by scientists within two to three years. “But the policy-makers and regulators fail to move ahead with the times. We are living in an era when things which were socially desirable once have become commercial to the core,” the professor said. He pointed out that ICT has the potential of helping developing countries tackle a wide range of health, social, and economic problems.

“While urban India is marching rapidly ahead, rural India is being left behind. We have to use ICT to accelerate the growth of rural India,” said Dr Jhunjhunwala. Elaborating on the pace of growth of ICT, Dr Jhunjhunwala said the next two years will see payments through mobile phones catching up all over the country.

“Instead of going to ATM centres or Banks, you can have cash transactions through your mobile phones,” he said. Dr Samarajiva said the book was a step forward in identifying the reasons for under-connectivity in emerging Asia. “The book itself is an introduction, not a conclusion. It reports the findings of a cutting edge demand-side survey of telecom use at the ‘bottom of a pyramid’ in India and Sri Lanka,” said Dr Samarajiva, a former director general of Sri lanka Telecommunications.

He said there is enough scope to bring down telecom charges. “It is the outdated policies of the governments in the region which are playing havoc with the communication revolution. This is aggravating the digital divide which will lead to major catastrophe,” he said.

The publication of the book was co-funded by the IDRC and Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

More information on the book can be found on the book page.

SAN MIGUEL, Philippines–It’s Thursday, so 18-year-old Dennis Tiangco is off to a bank to collect his weekly allowance, zapped by his mother–who’s working in Hong Kong–to his electronic wallet: his cell phone.

Sauntering into a branch of GM Bank in the town of San Miguel, Dennis fills out a form, sends a text message via his phone to a bank line dedicated to the service.

In a matter of seconds, the transaction is approved and the teller gives him P2,500 (US$54), minus a 1-percent fee. He doesn’t need a bank account to retrieve the money.

More than 5.5 million Filipinos now use their cell phones as virtual wallets, making the Philippines a leader among developing nations in providing financial transactions over mobile networks.

Mobile banking services, which are also catching on in Kenya and South Africa, enable people who don’t have bank accounts to transfer money easily, quickly and safely. It’s spreading in the developing world because mobile phones are much more common than bank accounts.

The system is particularly useful for the 8 million Filipinos–10 percent of the country’s citizens–who work overseas and send money home, like Dennis’ mother, Anna Tiangco. Previously, she sent money via a bank wire transfer, which costs HK$20 (US$2.50, â‚1.83) and takes two days to clear. The cell phone method costs only HK$1 (13 U.S. cents, 9 euro cents) and is nearly instantaneous.

“The good thing here is, wherever my children are, they can text me and I can send money immediately,” she said by telephone from Hong Kong.

Consumers also can store limited amounts of money on their cell phones to buy things at stores that participate in the network–although this practice isn’t yet widespread in the Philippines.

Many more Filipinos use their phones to send airtime values called “loads” to prepaid subscribers. A parent, for example, can send a 60-peso load to replenish a child’s cell phone, charged to the parent’s account.

While Japanese and South Korean consumers have been using cell phones as virtual wallets for several years, those systems use a computer chip implanted in handset that allows people to buy things by waving the phone in front of a sensor. The Philippine system relies on simple text messages, which cost just 1 peso (2 US cents) to send.

The 41 million cell phone users in the Philippines are avid texters. The electronic connections have fostered a culture of quick greetings and forwarded jokes. Text messages also played a key role in mobilizing crowds that fueled the 2001 “people power” revolt that ousted President Joseph Estrada.

The Philippines’ two biggest mobile service providers, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, have harnessed this penchant for text messaging to enable consumers to enter the world of e-commerce.

Tapping into the cash flow from overseas Filipinos–who sent home US$12.7 billion last year–Globe and Smart forged partnerships with foreign mobile providers and banks, as well as with local banks and merchants, to create a network that allows users to send and receive cash internationally.

When Anna Tiangco wants to send cash home, for example, she goes to a branch of her local provider, Hong Kong CSL Ltd., where a clerk credits her cell phone with the amount she has brought with her. She then transfers the money to family members via text messages–in essence instructing her providers to deduct money from her balance to the recipients she indicates.

If a cell phone loaded with cash values is lost or stolen, the money can’t be tapped as long as the personal identification number isn’t revealed. Control over the funds can be restored with a replacement SIM card from either mobile provider.

The system was “built for remote payments and for the unbanked markets,” said Rizza Maniego Eala, president of G-Xchange, Globe’s subsidiary in charge of its G-Cash money transfer service.

Eala said her company’s 500,000 G-Cash users transfer about US$100 million monthly (â‚73 million), but she declined to say how many transactions involve remittances from overseas.

Smart offers a slightly different money transfer system, used by about 5 million Filipinos, that links cash or a debit card to a cell phone.

Users load up their phones with money via text messages. The card–which costs P200 but does not require a bank account–can then be used to purchase goods in establishments that accept MasterCard, or to withdraw cash from an ATM machine.

Smart Communications spokesman Ramon Isberto said each time the recipient spends the money, the sender receives a transaction message. That allows the sender to see how the funds are used.”The added value there now is that Filipinos overseas have greater control over their funds. Believe me, that is important to them,” he said.

Smart and UAE’s leading telecommunications operator, Etisalat, have agreed to provide money transfer service to hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in the Middle East. Smart also will soon launch a remittance system in Bahrain in partnership with MTC-Vodafone and Ahli United Bank there, and Banco de Oro in the Philippines, Isberto said.

“The bank products remain clearly bank products. We positioned ourselves as an enabler for banks and other financial institutions to provide products and services to their customers in ways they would otherwise not have been able to,” he said.

Aside from transferring cash and making purchases, both Globe and Smart also allow their users to pay bills with their phones. Anna Tiangco said she pays her family’s electric bills in San Miguel from Hong Kong via text messages, just like she sends money.

“Even if we are far apart, it’s like we are still together,” she said. “This is like my wallet now.”

Being able to communicate in real time via speech and text using basic cellphones has already proved invaluable for communities that were never connected by landlines. Ajedi-ka, an organisation that works to promote human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, distributes phones to local teachers, elders and business leaders so that they can report incidents of children being drafted as soldiers. The phones make reporting faster and easier. Meanwhile, health workers across the developing world have started using cellphones to monitor disease outbreaks in real time. In Kenya phones are being turned into mini-ATM machines via Vodafone’s M-PESA program, which allows users to load money onto their phones in shops and then send it via a text message to someone else, in their village say. They can also withdraw the money at another location using a password, which in Kenya can be much safer than carrying cash.

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If you know of anyone who maybe interested, please pass on and have them call the number listed (077 244 8888 or 011 244 8888) and an agent will visit you to demonstrate the solution and/or give more information.

This is ideal for individuals who have not been able to obtain credit/ debit card acceptance machines at their outlets at present. For example, Grocery stores, Bakeries, Restaurants (Kade), Pharmacies, Medical centers, Tailors/ Clothing shops, Salons, Hardware stores, Taxi services, Home delivery, Stationery/ book shops, Accessory shops, Car wash/Service stations etc.

Some of the key features are as follows;

- Merchant has to have a Dialog connection.
- Needs to sign up as a Merchant to accept eZ pay with NDB (similar to signing up to accept credit/debit cards).
- Need to obtain new SIM with eZ Pay (mCommerce) application, the SIM is initially given free and you can use your current subscriber number (SIM swap).
- Transactions are online and are in effect a mobile (account) to mobile (account) transfer.
- Settlements are effected next working day (or as agreed) to the merchant via Account credit, SLIPS or Pay order.
- All transactions are PIN for both the Merchant and Customer.
- Electronic receipts are sent to both parties in confirmation of the transaction.
- Detailed statement submitted to Merchant.
- Merchant has to pay a commission to NDB similar to credit/ debit card acceptance.
- No communication charges to the Merchant, Only one SMS charge to the Customer.
- 24 x 7 call centre support for both Merchants and Customers.
- Transactions include payments over the counter (OTC), Cash Top Ups, Cash withdrawals, Bill payments, Funds Transfers, Balance check, Mini statement etc.
- The Customer has to open a prepaid card account at NDB (other banks will be on board as well shortly) and Top it up (deposit funds) prior to use.
- Needs to have a Dialog connection in own name.
- Will require obtaining new SIM, but can retain same subscriber mobile number (SIM swap).
- Will additionally receive a global Visa plastic card that could be used in any ATM or POS terminal.
- Detailed statement can be requested.

What is eZ Pay

Merchant Quick Guide

Grow Your Biz the Eazy Way

Smart Corporate – Smart Padala – About Smart Padala

SMART PADALA is the first cash remittance service via text. It is a faster and cheaper way of remitting cash from a sender abroad to the celfone of a beneficiary here in the PhilippinesHow does SMART Padala work?

FOR SENDERS ABROAD:
1. Go to any SMART Padala Remittance Partner. Fill out an information sheet about your beneficiary in the Philippines, especially his SMART Celfone number / SMART Money number.
2. The Remittance Center will transfer your remittance to the SMART Money number of your Beneficiary. (NOTE: if you’re using SMART Padala for the first time, your beneficiary will be assigned a SMART money number to which the remittance will be transferred).
3. After a few seconds/minutes, the Remittance Center will confirm that the transaction has been completed.

FOR BENEFICIARIES IN THE PHILIPPINES:
1. You will receive a text message indicating your 16-digit SMART Money number. Another text message will be sent to confirm that the money has been received through the SMART money number.
2. To encash, go to any SMART Padala Center.
3. You will be sent a SMART Money card or you have the option to get a SMART Money Card in any SMART Wireless Center. Using the card, you can withdraw cash in any Banco de Oro, Expressnet or Megalink ATM’s nationwide