Tag Archive for 'Barcelona'


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Executive Director chairs session at Ministerial program at 2008 Mobile World Congress

by
Ayesha Zainudeen
on February 13, 2008
.

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.

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Philippines pioneers international remittance via SMS

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on February 17, 2007
.

Reading the reports from Barcelona, one may think that remitting money using the functionalities of the mobile phone is something new. However, it appears that it is a functioning service in the Philippines, the SMS capital of the world.

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The next billion is from Asia and Africa

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on February 15, 2007
.

Another story that reinforces our emphasis on the emerging Asia-Pacific and the Bottom of the Pyramid:

LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE - LBO

Making affordable phones and targeting consumers with smaller budgets have now become priorities for the largest companies in the sector who were all present at this week’s 3GSM trade show in Barcelona.

“There are between 2.5 and 2.8 billion people who have a mobile phone: the next billion will come from the high-growth market,” said David Taylor, strategy director for Motorola.

The areas representing the most opportunity are Asia, Africa and the Middle East, he said.

According to European telecommunications institute Idate, the average spending per user is about 26.50-37.50 euros (34.8-49.2 dollars) per month in industrialised countries, but this figure falls to about 8.20 euros in the…

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GSMA honours Indian government

by
Abu Saeed Khan
on February 14, 2007
.

Barcelona, Feb 13 (bdnews24.com) - The GSM Association (GSMA) has presented its Government Leadership Award 2007 to India for exceptional achievement in mobile communications policy.

India has been selected because of its success in establishing a framework of policies and regulations, which have stimulated the growth of mobile telecommunications over the past three years.

The latest data from the Indian government shows that India’s mobile operators are now collectively adding six to seven million new subscribers each month.

GSMA’s CEO Rob Conway presented the award to Thiru Dayanidhi Maran, India’s minister for communications and information technology. The presentation took place at the GSMA’s Leadership Summit in Barcelona.

The Indian government’s policies have not only helped revive but stimulate the country’s mobile industry, whose growth, only a few years ago,…

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Mobile as a payment mechanism

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on February 13, 2007
.

Inside the LIRNE.NET community, we have for some time been discussing a program of research centered on what we all mobile multiple play, a convergence of services around the transactional capabilities of the mobile phone and its unparallelled connectivity.  

Our friend and colleague Abu Saeed Khan is reporting on a major development on these lines from the GSM Congress in Barcelona:

:: bdnews24.com ::

Spearheaded by a special group of 19 mobile operators with networks in over 100 countries and representing over 600 million customers, GSMA believes the programme could double the number of recipients of international remittances to more than 1.5 billion, while helping to quadruple the size of the international remittances market to more than one trillion dollars by 2012.

To combine the strengths of the…

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LIRNEasia speaks at Global Telecom Market Research conference in Barcelona

by
Ayesha Zainudeen
on December 14, 2006
.

LIRNEasia Lead Economist, Dr. Harsha de Silva presented findings of a new study on telecom use at the bottom of the pyramid in five emerging Asian countries at the well attended ESOMAR global market research conference, Telecom 2006: Convergence Revolution held in Barcelona from 29 November – 1 December 2006. The study covers India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Thailand.

de Silva presented some findings contained in a paper written with LIRNEasia researcher Ayesha Zainudeen on the costs and benefits of access to telecoms and the expected next billion subscribers. A particular finding of interest to local policy makers was that almost a quarter of Sri Lankans at the bottom of the pyramid believe that direct access to a phone (i.e., through ownership of one) in fact worsens…

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