Since the Australians started throwing money at broadband, the issue of governments subsidizing broadband access has come to the fore. Beyond that, the debate has tended to focus also on download speed (one dimension of broadband performance) and on fiber. Robert and Charles Kenny have entered the fray with a well-argued case against massive subsidies for FTTH.

What I found interesting in what is essentially a “foreign” debate was the following:

Unlike previous investments to enable internet access (dial-up and DSL) it involves a major rebuild, not simply an upgrade at the edges. And the benefits in terms of new applications provided by superfast over standard broadband look limited on close examination. In particular, the argument for a market failure based around network effects or the need to provide access to vital services is weak when applied to superfast broadband. All of this suggests that governments should think very hard before spending billions of taxpayer dollars in a race to the top of the superfast broadband league table.

What a lot of people do not appreciate is that wireguided broadband necessarily requires nationwide rebuild in developing countries. When the developed world got into broadband, they had wireguides (copper pair put in for voice telephony and coax put in for cable TV) in place; all that was required was an incremental investment. But in most developing countries, the wireguides are not in place. Broadband over wire means that a complete rebuild is required. This then makes Kenny and Kenny required reading for those who still dream of FTTH in Bhutan and Mongolia.

The fourth myth is that “the Internet is becoming a wireless internet”, to quote Malcolm Turnbull, who appeared on the program with his nifty little wireless tablet computer.

The claim is disingenuous, and Turnbull, of all people, knows the limits of wireless technology. Bandwidth is limited, and what works today for a few users will become the Internet equivalent of road gridlock in just a few years. Even now the wireless spectrum is getting crowded, and the up-and-coming 4G network will provide no more than a stopgap improvement.

The future will almost certainly see more wireless devices, but these will be on short tethers generally within homes and other buildings; the domestic wireless LAN with a range of 10 or 20 metres is the model and these need the support of widely distributed fibre.

The Gold Coast authorities used SMS for 10,000 people. How did they know these were the phones belonging to the people in the high-risk areas? Is it not common that people who are found on beaches, do not necessarily live nearby? So how did they pick the 10000 numbers? And how come they missed the head of the local disaster management group?

“Not everyone keeps their radio on.

“We need a system to make sure the low ground gets priority warning.”

Dr Wilson said a siren system, doorknocking and use of modern media such as Facebook were needed.

Emergency Management Queensland regional director Eddie Bennet said 10,000 text messages were sent to residents in seven suburbs identified as at greatest risk of flooding.

He said a blanket text message to the whole Gold Coast was not deemed as necessary.

The message that was sent directed Lakeview, Boykambil, Woongoolba, Currumbin, Cabbage Tree, Budds Beach and Paradise Point residents to seek further advice.

Mr Bennet said he believed the state’s first formal emergency alert had been successful.

“There was absolutely no confusion. There was a sound reason for this and valid purpose for sending them out.”

Local Disaster Management Group deputy chairman Councillor Ted Shepherd was not aware the texts had been sent and said he believed the level of threat did not warrant the service.

“It attracts too many spectators,” he said.

Helani presented a paper on “Measuring the Effectiveness of the Telecom Regulatory and Policy Environment: Methodology and Results from 8 Emerging Asian Countries” based on findings from LIRNEasia’s TRE study in 2008. She was also a panel member at a policy roundtable on “Investing in African and Asian telecommunications infrastructure during a global financial crisis”. Her presentation entitled at the panel, “Universal Service Policy in Africa, Asia: Investments in a financial crisis”, can be downloaded here.

Assuming that the backbone is relatively static technology, this might work as well as having a private entity operate the backbone under regulation. Given it will be an essential facility, there had to be regulation anyway.

One does have to ask why none of private bidders met the requirements. Were the risks too much? Did they want to lose?

THE federal government will establish its own company to build the national broadband network to provide faster internet across Australia. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the announcement during a joint press conference with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner in Canberra today.

Mr Rudd described the announcement as “historic”, describing broadband as the core of 21st century infrastructure.

The network, described as the single biggest infrastructure project in Australian history, will be built in partnership with the private sector. The new national broadband network will take eight years to fully roll out, and will cost taxpayers $43 billion.

While the Government will be the majority shareholder, it will also need significant private investment. That will be capped at 49 per cent.

Within five years after the network is built and fully operational, the Government will start selling off its majority stake. Not one of the private consortia tendering for the network met the government’s requirements, Mr Rudd said.

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 trade organisation comprising more than 750 mobile phone operators around the world – reported that the number of HSPA subscribers worldwide had exceeded 50 million, from 11 million a year ago. There are 197 HSPA commercial deployments in 92 countries, with Asia currently accounting for 46 per cent of the global HSPA subscriber base, according to GSMA.

‘Mobile broadband has truly made socio-economic impact, especially in emerging markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka as well as developed markets like Australia, Japan and South Korea,’ said Mr Rajaraman.

Read the full story in Asiaone Business here.

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.”

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 and operators with smaller market share were of the view that it would create fair play in the industry, but larger operators with significant market power were, unsurprisingly, against the implementation of MNP.

High implementation costs were the main reasons against number portability. Mr. John Horrocks, an MNP consultant who spoke at the Workshop, demonstrated that a basic costs-benefit analysis of the portability process showed that implementing this service in smaller countries with populations of less than 10 million was not a feasible option, as the costs outweighed the benefits significantly. Instead, he suggested a few alternatives for these countries that would make number changes easier for subscribers (e.g.: operators send free SMS to all contacts on SIM, low cost for maintaining old number in parallel, etc), and ensure quality of service and competition among operators.

Figure 1: MNP implementations by country

Source: Presentation slides, MNP Workshop, August 2007

Mr. Horrocks also talked about the results of MNP implementations and lessons learnt in the countries listed in Figure 1. The success of MNP implementation is measured by the percentage of ported numbers, and it is evident that in countries with higher mobile phone penetration, competition and awareness, porting rates are high (e.g. Hong Kong and Australia). It was interesting to note though, that in some cases where MNP was implemented successfully, it proved to be an economic failure (e.g. Ireland, Finland, Malta, etc), while the implementations in UK and Netherlands were failures in all respects.

These varied results can be attributed to a number of reasons. Hong Kong’s MNP implementation, built on an already implemented solution set in place for fixed-line services, was driven heavily by the regulator; in addition, a highly competitive market structure in a technologically-aware community, and the fact that the introduction coincided with the entry of four new operators into the market, ensured portability a success there. The Australian regulator persistently promoted number portability to the public, while maintaining porting times of less than 3 hours on average, which eventually led to the successful implementation of MNP.

On the other hand, in the Irish case where MNP implementation was a success, the lack of competition (two incumbents and one weak new entrant) proved porting to be an economic failure. The same happened in Finland, where implementation was a success, but due to the absence of minimum contract periods and the provision of high incentives to port (from one operator to another), operators started losing heavily. This resulted in the introduction of minimum contract periods which, in turn, reduced the porting rate from 40% to 10% leading to economic failure. In the UK, Oftel (regulator at the time) pushed for MNP hoping it would increase competition, but did not play a hands-on role in the implementation phase. Additionally, only one operator in the UK was in favor of portability, and these factors collectively played a large role in the resulting failure.

A number of lessons can be learnt from these situations. Mr. Horrocks explained that it was essential for both regulators and operators to be in favor of and have heavy involvement throughout the porting process. The success of MNP depended greatly on competition and awareness and therefore it was the duty of both regulator and operator to keep subscribers informed of all things related to porting. He also said that it was important for regulators to understand that MNP did not create competition, but only improved it. Furthermore, for number porting to be successful it was necessary for a clear goal to be established, with a good set of rules (technical and legal) laid down from the start of the MNP process. He also stressed that porting time (i.e. time taken to port a number from operator A to operator B) had to be minimal, ideally one day at most, to ensure a successful MNP implementation.

The Workshop also covered the technicalities involved in number porting. Various features such as the number portability database configurations (centralized, distributed and hybrid), the call/SMS routing schemes (direct and indirect), and payment mechanisms were presented over the course of three days. The use of ENUM and NGN systems to make the porting process simpler were also discussed.

In light of these technical developments, call forwarding as a low-cost solution to number portability was not seen as the most efficient way to deploy MNP, although it was implemented in Singapore. Over 10 years ago, when the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS) discussed MNP as a means to lower number switching costs for subscribers and increase competition among operators, they explored three alternatives: 1. call forwarding, 2. originating re-route, and 3. Intelligent Network (IN) solutions. While Option 2 deviated from the GSM standard and affected services such as international roaming, Option 3 was not technologically mature yet, and therefore they settled for Option 1. They did not, however, rule out the possibility of implementing Option 3 at a later date. (Read more about MNP in Singapore)

The technical specifications employed in the number portability process in Pakistan were also described in detail. Similarly, the regulatory framework (including operator rights and obligations, charging schemes, best practices, and policy implications) required for the successful implementation of MNP was communicated by members of the PTA who were engaged in the Pakistani MNP process.

The key lesson learnt from the Workshop was that there was no standard MNP solution for a country. Every solution was unique with success riding on a number of factors.

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 accounts, by 2010, she said.

Blasso added email-enabled phones traditionally lacked consumer-oriented features like cameras, music players, video players and GPS navigation, but this was not the case anymore.

Even the BlackBerry, once chunky and bland, now offers all of the above features in the new BlackBerry 8800 device. Other mobile email devices, like the Motorola MOTO Q 9h, the Palm Treo 750 and the Samsung BlackJack, were all designed with aesthetics, usability and fun features in mind.

The devices, Blasso said, were becoming more personal as the line between personal and professional life blurred.

Robin Simpson, mobile and wireless research director at Gartner Australasia, said mobile email access in Australia would soon be offered for free as part of mobile phone contracts.

“Once email becomes available more or less free of charge by default on your mobile handset, people will gravitate to that rather than just continuing to use SMS,” Simpson said.

He said mobile email uptake in Australia had been held back due to the high access prices charged by carriers, but recent price competition, particularly driven by Hutchison 3 and Virgin Mobile, indicated prices would drop rapidly.

“The interesting thing is that SMS, if you look at it in terms of actual cost for the data, is really expensive, and where we’re heading is you’ll get a free email package when you sign up to your monthly plan,” he said.

Asher Moses
July 27, 2007 – 12:35PM

http://www.theage.com.au/news/mobiles–handhelds/for-sms-the-days-are-numbered/2007/07/27/1185339221496.html

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 pastures and attending a village school that had no paper or pencils or books. Wanting more for his son, Pun’s father moved the family to Nepal’s lowlands, where, in Chitwan, Pun finished high school and became a teacher, working for twelve years to help his younger siblings through school. Finally, a timely scholarship led him to a bachelor’s degree at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Then, in 1992, after more than twenty years away, Pun returned home to Nangi, determined to make things easier for other youths than they had been for him.

Nangi’s leaders were busy establishing a village high school. Pun eagerly joined in. Once a month, he made the two-day trip to the nearest major town of Pokhara to check his e-mail and maintain his links to friends abroad. This led, in 1997, to the donation of four used computers from Australia. Powering them with hydro generators in a nearby stream, Pun began teaching computer classes at the high school. More computers followed, but it proved impossible to get a telephone connection to Pokhara and the Internet.

Pun e-mailed the British Broadcasting Corporation, asking for ideas. In 2001, the BBC publicized his dilemma and within a year volunteers from Europe and the United States were helping him rig a wireless connection between Nangi and the neighboring village of Ramche, using TV dish antennas mounted in trees. Some small grants soon led to the construction of improvised mountaintop relay stations and a link to Pokhara. By 2003, Nangi was online.

As word of Pun’s project bounced around the World Wide Web, backpacking volunteers carried more and more donated computers, parts, and equipment into the hills. Meanwhile, Pun expanded the wireless network to embrace twelve villages-distributing a hundred computers to local schools, connecting them to the Internet, teaching teachers how to use them, and then tinkering and troubleshooting until everything worked.

Today, connectivity is changing Myagdi. Using the district’s “tele-teaching” network, good teachers in one school now instruct students in others. Doctorless villagers use Wi-Fi to consult specialists in Pokhara. Village students surf the Net and are learning globe-savvy skills. Pun himself is using the Web to e-market local products such as honey, teas, and jams and to draw paying trekkers to campsites that he has outfitted with solar-powered hot showers. In parallel projects, villagers in Nangi have themselves added a library, a health clinic, and new classrooms for the high school.

Pun, now fifty-two, is both self-effacing and charismatic. “I’m not in charge of anything,” he says. Yet, he seems to be the driving force of much around him. Eventually, he says, the people of Myagdi District will have to carry on for themselves. In the meantime, he hopes to play his unique role indefinitely. “As long as I can walk,” Pun says happily, “I can do this.”

In electing Mahabir Pun to receive the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his innovative application of wireless computer technology in Nepal, bringing progress to remote mountain areas by connecting his village to the global village.

http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/Citation/CitationPunMah.htm

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.

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

On March 16, the Director General of DGPOSTEL conceded that requiring new international operator to build 10 new gateways was a heavy burden on the new entrant especially when the two existing operators in total had six.

The tender for the telephone fixed line is postponed till June
March 16, 2007(Translated from Bisnis Indonesia, March 16, 2007)
Jakarta:[...] The director general of the Post and the Telecommunications, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar added that the government will lessen the requirements for the IDD tender by reducing the number of international gateways that must be built. “Before, one of the conditions followed the IDD tender was to have the commitment to be able to provide 10 units IDD Gateways. But afterwards the government reconsidered this obligation and it was reduced to five ,” he said.

According to the Director General of post and telecommunications, the decline in the obligation is because the provision of 10 IDD Gateways will be too heavy a burden for the operator since the existing operators currently only have approximately six units.

LIRNEasia‘s input to the White Paper issued by the Indonesian government on introducing a new license for local, long distance and international telecom is available here.

The tender for the telephone fixed line is postponed till June
March 16, 2007(Translated from Bisnis Indonesia, March 16, 2007)
Jakarta:The Government will postpone the tender schedule for fixed line telephone to June which was earlier expected to be issued this month. The postponment is due to legal delays and readiness of operators to participate in the tender.

The director general of the Post and the Telecommunications, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, said the government hoped the tender will go well and successfully. The legal instrument will take the form of a Ministerial
Decree. There is a “big possibility” that the “tender would be carried out this coming June although in principle the government will try to do that as soon as possible,” he stated to the reporter, yesterday.

The Tender for the provision of fixed local, long distance and international was originally scheduled for March 2007. At this time the government is carrying out the finalisation of the new licensing of the three services. Depkominfo (DGPOSTEL) is currently drafting the Ministerial Decree regarding the opening of new opportunity
to provide the Local, IDD & DLD services.

Basuki added that the government will lessen the requirements for the IDD tender by reducing the number of international gateways that must be built. “Before, one of the conditions followed the IDD tender was to have the commitment to be able to provide 10 units IDD Gateways. But afterwards the government reconsidered this obligation and it was reduced to five ,” he said.

According to the Director General of post and telecommunications, the decline in the obligation is because the provision of 10 IDD Gateways will be too heavy a burden for the operator since the existing operators currently only have approximately six units.

For international connectivity, Telkom and Indosat are the incumbent operators. Telkom has Internet hubs in Malaysia, Batam, and Hong Kong, while Indosat had optic fibre links between Jakarta-Japan, Jakarta-Australia,
Jakarta-the Middle East, and Europe.

Although the International Gateway market is not yet opened officially, there are several companies that have expressed interest in the tender. The interested companies are PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk and Telematika
Indonesia. The chairman of the Association of the Cellular Telecommunications Indonesian, Johnny Swandi Sjam considered the government should NOT open the new opportunity for providing Fixed telephony services (IDD, DLD & Local) since currently the service are still under “duopoly” status (ie. PT Telkom and Indosat).

Discussion of the paper to be presented by Rohan Samarajiva at the Digital Opportunity Forum, South Korea on August 30, 2006.

Stunning difference between fixed and mobile phone densities in the two parts of Asia (developed – HK, China, Taiwan, Singapore Australia and Korea, developing – Nepal, Bhutan, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan and Myanmar). Developed countries have large telephone densities, whereas the developing countries have minute densities in comparison.

Looking at Sri Lanka, the Norther province has come up fast, in terms of telecom access (19% have access to telephones in the NP).

So there is a divide, but do we really need to promote ICTs? If it comes to spending taxpayer money, promotion of ICTs is not necessary, because there are more important needs like water, etc. But if it is to remove barriers to participation, then yes there is a need to promote ICTs.

How to reduce constraints? Liberalization through explicit regulatory regime, relaxation of entry controls and internal reform of incumbent or major operator.

Expansion of telecom in USA after breaking up of Bell monopoly (1892-1900) is parallell to that in SL when telecom was liberalised (1991-1999).

DG – Need to look at fixed & mobile separately to see whether it is fixed or mobile that has contributed to to the growth (slide # 8 )

In the Western Province, each new connection that is purchased provides a supplementary connection (i.e. to those that already have access to a phone). Whereas in the North-east for example, each new connection may connect an entire household, which was previously unconnected.

Bottom line: liberalisation narrows the gaps.

Difference between big-bang reforms and continuing reforms
Big bang reforms include privatization, licensing a second operator, etc; Continuing reforms include enforcing interconnection, etc.

Big bang reforms and continuing reforms both require in-situ expertise, latter more than former. Need the capacity to maintain the momentum of reforms. Some countries (eg Bahrain, UK) advertise internationally for the top job. Advantage is credibility and independence, because the individual is not part of the local ‘networks’.

Narrow conception – Expertise in government and national regulatory agency
Broad conception – Expertise in government and NRA + with all stakeholders, including consumer and civil society groups

Why in-situ expertise?
These people have tacit knowledge, enjoy a legitimacy that external consultants do not, are able to participate in the policy process betterthan external consultants, etc.

So how do we produce new experts?
Scholars without visibility and reinforcement (other scholars interested in the same issues in their country, or simple someone to bounce ideas off) alone cannot catalyze change.

CPRsouth, LIRNEasia’s capacity initiative, aims to identify scholars with likelihood of becoming in-situ experts, assists them to raise their Internet profiles, etc.

Ismail: Some of the problems the FCC has had with academics, is the time frames that they work with.

CPRsouth will carry out a knowledge mapping using ISI journals, citations, Scholar.Google, interviews, etc in order to identify young scholars interested in policy and regulation.

A conference will be held early next year, in addition to the development of a digital repository for archiving communication policy research, to promote CPR research.

Qualities of in-situ expertise
Just-in-time learning and Open-source research

JIT learning involves broad expertise with boundaries defined. With a knowledge of underlying theoretical issues, a network of research relationships, and the internet, JIT learning is a effective concept.

Open-source research follows the open-source software premise, which means that anyone has access to the source and can make changes, etc. Where policy research is concerned, speed is crucial. LIRNEasia puts research on the web in draft form and asks people to look at it, comment on it,and make suggestions, all in order to improve these drafts and work towards a final document. This ensures better output at the end of the day.

So the whole CPRsouth exercise is about narrowing the digital divide through the development of capacity. The gap can be bridged by removing policy-regulatory constraints and what better way to do this than building local, in-situ expertise.

DG – There’s a big gap between the divide that exists within the sector and the gap in capacity. The link between the two is not persuasive enough.
RS – Yes there is a gap, but the point is, that throwing money at it won’t work. You have to knock down the barriers and create a conducive environment to allow the sector to grow.

DG - In the Indonesian leased line case, they didn’t even know what other people in other countries were paying for this service.
RS – How is that different to each other? Private sector is relatively underdeveloped, in the Indonesian case, so it is a case of lack of expertise (capacity gap).