Tag Archive for ‘Australia’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'Australia'

Call for Papers: Infrastructure Regulation: What works, Why, and How do we know?
Deadline: 05 December 2008.

Mobile broadband to soar in Asia: GSMA

on November 11, 2008

The number of subscribers to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) services - a technology that enables broadband access on mobile phones and other computing devices - will more than double next year in Asia, according to a forecast by telco industry group GSM Association (GSMA).

In an interview with BizIT, Jaikishan Rajaraman, GSMA director of product and service development, said the number of users in Asia subscribing to HSPA will swell from 26.5 million to 53.5 million over the next 12 months. Fuelling this trend are soaring demand from both businesses and consumers, coupled with falling prices of mobile broadband services, he said. This trend is expected to be mirrored in other parts of the world, including Europe and the US.

In August, GSMA - a global…

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Tags: Asia, Australia, Broadband, broadband access, cellular telephone, Europe, GSM Association, Indonesia, Jaikishan Rajaraman, Japan, Malaysia, mobile broadband services, mobile phones, South Korea, Sri Lanka, telco industry group, United States.

Australia to also provide early detection of tsunamis

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 1, 2008

In addition to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawai’i and the center in Japan, it appears that Australia will also be able to provide early detection data.

While Australia will be the main beneficiary of the new centre, upgraded and expanded seismic monitoring will now extend to Indian Ocean countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius and Kenya.

“We can be confident now that nearly all these countries have either had their telecommunications upgraded, they’ve had assessment parties go through their countries, (or) their governments because of their loss of life have treated it very seriously.”

Comment
Tags: Australia, hazard detection systems, Indian Ocean, Japan, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, tsunami warning.

Mobile number portability: the case for and against

Tahani Iqbal

on October 4, 2007

The implications of mobile number portability (MNP) were discussed at a Workshop on Implementing Mobile Number Portability, held in August 2007 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The forum, comprising participants from the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, provided insight into the technical, regulatory and operational aspects impacted by the porting process, with a focus on the Pakistani MNP experience.

The reasons cited in favor of MNP were classified into advantages to subscribers and regulators. The former were benefited by an increase in choice (of packages) and the eliminated costs of having to inform third parties of a number change, while the latter saw MNP as an approach to attract new investment and generate healthy competition. Operators on the other hand, were split in their views; new entrants…

2 Comments
Tags: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Australia, cellular telephone, Finland, fixed line services, GSM, Hong Kong, implemented solution, intelligent network, Ireland, Islamabad, John Horrocks, Malta, Middle East, MNP, Pakistan, PTA, Singapore, SMS, Telecommunication Authority of Singapore, The Netherlands, United Kingdom.

The days of SMS are numbered?

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 9, 2007

The days of SMS are numbered now that mobile email access is becoming a commodity, research firm Gartner says.

Long the preserve of businessmen in power suits, mobile email is about to hit the masses with one in five email users accessing their accounts wirelessly by 2010, according to Gartner.

Monica Blasso, the firm’s research vice-president, said mobile email had moved beyond the BlackBerry and was increasingly a feature of even low-cost mobile phones, driving consumer adoption.

“By 2012, wireless email products will be fully inter-operable, commoditised and have standard features,” she said. “They will be shipping in larger volumes at greatly reduced prices.”

Today there are less than 20 million wireless email users worldwide, but this will grow to 350 million, or 20 per cent of all email…

3 Comments
Tags: Asher Moses, Australia, cellular telephone, GPS, mobile email devices, mobile phones, Monica Blasso, Motorola, Robin Simpson, Samsung, SMS, wireless email products, wireless email users.

Nepal rural wireless pioneer wins Magsaysay Award

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 7, 2007

CITATION for Mahabir Pun
Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies

Nangi Village, where Mahabir Pun was born, rests high in the Himalayan foothills of western Nepal. Here and in surrounding Myagdi District live the Pun Magar, whose men have soldiered for generations across the globe as Gurkhas. Yet, their worldly careers have done little to change their sleepy homeland, so far from the traffic patterns that knit together the rest of the world. Indeed, Nangi is seven hours’ hard climb from the nearest road. No telephone lines have ever reached it. Despite this, these days the people of Nangi are definitely connected to the world outside. Wireless Internet technology has made this possible. Mahabir Pun has made it happen.

Pun passed his boyhood grazing cattle and sheep in mountain…

1 Comment
Tags: Australia, British Broadcasting Corporation, e-market, Europe, Himalayan, Mahabir Pun, Myagdi District, Nangi Village, Nebraska, Nepal, Nepal\'s lowlands, Pokhara, Ramche, Ramon Magsaysay, rural wireless pioneer, telephone connection, telephone lines, the University of Nebraska, United States, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Wi-Fi, wireless computer technology, wireless connection, Wireless Internet technology, Wireless Network.

UMTS in 900 MHz band? Vive la France!

Abu Saeed Khan

on July 9, 2007

Deploying W-CDMA 850 to cannibalise the CDMA mobile as well as to launch 3G without having the so called “3G license” is on the move. Telstra (Australia) and Vivo (Brazil) have done it quite well.

Now the French telecoms regulator has approved plans to allow the incumbent GSM network operators to reuse their 900Mhz bands for 3G services.

ART has also announced that any 3G new entrant authorised following the application procedure for the fourth UMTS licence would also have access to the 900 MHz spectrum once it has been returned by the existing 2G operators. Read more.

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Tags: 3G, 3G services, Australia, Brazil, CDMA, France, GSM, Telstra.

Bright prospects for WiMax in Asia and rural Australia: Lehman Brothers

Abu Saeed Khan

on June 6, 2007

In one of the most detailed analyses of WiMax issued for Asia to date, the influential investment house says that it is “particularly optimistic about the prospects for fixed WiMax in developing markets in Asia, where the copper infrastructure is too weak or limited to provide broadband services using DSL.” It adds, “We believe that WiMax and other wireless broadband technologies will be particularly successful in markets with low broadband penetration, such as India, Malaysia, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia.” Read more.

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Tags: Asia, Australia, Broadband, broadband services, China, copper infrastructure, DSL, India, Indonesia, Lehman Brothers, Malaysia, the Philippines, wireless broadband technologies.

Tsunami kills in Solomans

Rohan Samarajiva

on April 2, 2007

A tsunami has swept ashore in the Solomon Islands after a strong undersea earthquake in the South Pacific. Initial reports from outlying, remote areas say at least eight people have been killed, but local officials fear the death toll could rise further.

The National Disaster Council chairman told reporters that some villages had been “completely wiped out”.

Tsunami warnings have also been issued for Papua New Guinea, north-east Australia, and other nearby islands.

Full story

Comment
Tags: Australia, National Disaster Council, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, South Pacific, tsunami.

Regulatory burden to be reduced on new international operator in Indonesia

Divakar Goswami

on March 16, 2007

The Indonesian government imposed unreasonable burdens on the new entrant for international service in a recently issued White Paper 140. LIRNEasia highlighted the unfairness of burdening new entrants with obligations that the two existing incumbents (Telkom & Indosat) were not subjected too in comments it submitted to DGPOSTEL (one of the two regulatory bodies):
4.4 The Indonesian policymakers may have misunderstood the concept of asymmetric regulation. Asymmetric rules place additional burdens on dominant group of providers that other operators are not subjected to. In the current White Paper, many additional burdens are imposed on the new entrant that are not imposed on the two incumbents, PT Telkom & PT Indosat. Requirements for building FO from Indonesia to TIER-1 IP backbone, building domestic FO to Internet Exchange, building…

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Tags: Australia, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, Europe, fixed-line telephone, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Indonesian government, Indosat, Internet exchange, Internet hubs, Jakarta, Japan, Johnny Swandi Sjam, Malaysia, PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk, telecommunications, Telematika Indonesia, telephony services, Telkom, Yusuf Iskandar.

Colloquium on “Bridging the Divide: Building Asia-Pacific Capacity for Effective Reforms”

Tahani Iqbal

on August 10, 2006

Bridging the digital divide is important. It may not be as important as ensuring safe water for all, or adequate healthcare, in terms of meriting investment of scarce public resources, but it is definitely important enough to merit concerted action to remove the artificial barriers to private supply. One of the best ways this can be done is by improving the knowledge that is brought to bear on the process.

The optimal way to achieve this is to create an environment within which international best practices are adapted to local circumstances by in-situ policy intellectuals. Some of these local experts could be in regulatory agencies and in government; but the optimal results will be achieved through participatory processes where all stakeholders, including the consumers are represented…

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Tags: adequate healthcare, Afghanistan, Asia, Australia, Bahrain, Bhutan, cellular telephone, China, Digital Opportunity Forum, Federal Communications Commission, Google, Internet profiles, Korea, large telephone densities, Myanmar, Nepal, Norther, open-source software premise, Papua New Guinea, Rohan Samarajiva, Singapore Australia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States.

Live Feed: Common Alerting Protocol Workshop of the Last Mile HazInfo Project in Sri Lanka

Nuwan Waidyanatha

on July 21, 2006

Nandan Jayasinghe –

We will start the event by lighting the traditional oil lamp. Next is a 2 minute meditation.

Nuwan Waidyanatha –

Welcome all partners including, Dr. Gordon Gow (University of Alberta), Dr. Dileeka Dias (Director Dialog Communication Research Lab), Prof Rohan Samarajiva (Director LIRNEasia), Mr. Nanadana Jayasinghe (Director Sarvodaya Disaster Management center), most importantly the Sarvodaya Participants (ICT Guardians).

Rohan Samarajiva –

We started the lat Mile HazInfo Program on January 23, 2006. The objective of my talk is to introduce you to the framework used in this project. The attendees are people who have faced the great tragedy that happened in December 26, 2004. Since then, 20 months later, we still have no solution in our nation.

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Tags: Aburizal Bakrie, Addressable Satellite Radio, Alberta, alerting solution, All communication systems, Associated Press, Australia, Dialog Communication Research Lab, Dileeka Dias, early warning solution, earthquake, good information communication network, Gordon Gow, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Java, link technologies, messages to multiple technologies, mobile phones, multi-media dissemination, Nanadana Jayasinghe, oil lamp, Open source protocol, point-to-multiple media, raw software code, Rohan Samarajiva, SMS, Sri Lanka, Thailand, tsunami, University of Alberta, WAP, web links, wireless networks, XML.

Keeping connected in the aftermath of a disaster (Lessons from 7/7 events)

Chanuka Wattegama

on July 5, 2006

By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

In the aftermath of the 7 July bombings, people were understandably keen to talk on their mobile phones. Londoners wanted to assure friends, relatives and colleagues that they were OK; keep up to date with the latest news or find out whether anyone they knew had been caught up in any of the four explosions. Yet, while speaking on a mobile phone is a routine part of modern life, for a crucial eight hours on 7 July it became difficult, and for many, impossible. In some areas of London, the sheer number of people wanting to make phone calls was enough to bring the mobile networks to their knees.

1 Comment
Tags: 3G, 3G network, Australia, BBC, cellular telephone, David Sutton, Jean Luc Jezouin, Jonathan Fildes, local wireless hotspots, London, London Assembly, Luc Jezouin, mobile phones, New Year\'s Day, normal network, Nortel, O2, Royal Academy of Engineering, Russell Square, sporadic mobile network, United States, Vodafone, Wi-Fi, wi-fi networks, William Webb.

Mangroves role in tsunami questioned

Rohan Samarajiva

on April 4, 2006

Mangroves failed to protect coastal villages in ‘04 tsunami - INQ7.net
“The World Conservation Union, also known as IUCN, and other nongovernmental organizations earlier reported that mangroves saved lives in Sri Lanka and India — a finding they said could motivate hard-hit communities across Asia to consider replanting mangroves.

A quarter of mangroves have been destroyed in tsunami-impacted countries since the 1980s due to development and the rapid growth of shrimp and fish farms.

But Baird, of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, and his co-authors argued that governments would be better off putting their resources into an early warning system and evacuation plans. They also called for many coastal communities to be moved to higher ground.”

Obviously, this is quite controversial. I have nothing against mangroves or coastal…

4 Comments
Tags: Asia, Australia, India, INQ7.net, James Cook University in Queensland, Queensland, Sri Lanka, World Conservation Union.

NEWS RELEASE: Pakistan leads in providing regulatory services on-line

Sriganesh Lokanathan

on December 30, 2005

Colombo, Sri Lanka, 19 December 2005: A survey of the websites of National Telecommunication Regulatory Authorities in the Asia Pacific region has revealed that six countries – Australia, Hong Kong, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore – stand above the rest, with Pakistan leading.
The research was conducted by LIRNEasia, and supported by the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) as part of the research program on regulatory and sector performance indicators in the ICT [information and communication technology] sector……..

English Press Release: Pakistan leads in providing regulatory services on-line

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Tags: Asia-Pacific, Australia, Canada, Colombo, communication technology, Hong Kong, International Development Research Centre of Canada, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, regulatory services, Singapore, Sri Lanka.

Colloquium LIVE Feed

Divakar Goswami

on December 16, 2004

Sujata: summary too lenghty
Luxman: Since audience is EU needs to have language on ICT uplifting “masses” and “rural” access.
Malathy: Process element of regulation is not there?
Rohan: Study was originally for investor study and language taken from WTO language leaving out the independence of regulator. Process question will be in another study comparing different sectors.
Malathy: why cant process be built into current study?
Rohan: More questions you put in the response rate is poor.
Luxman: If performance indicator isnt ok, then need to know what is going wrong with regulator..
Rohan: If sector is doing well, why should I care if regulator isnt answering letters on time?
Sujata: Perception could be added for evaluating process regulator?
Amal: When respondents received questionnaire they thought it was too long. And deadlines keep slipping
Rohan:…

3 Comments
Tags: Australia, Bangladesh, Chanukah, electricity, electricity sector, European Union, Ghana, hold media conference, India, internet costs, Kerala, Maldives, Mauritius, National Science Foundation, Nepal, OECD, Pakistan, United States.

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