Here’s what the ADB website says about the project:

The Project is aimed at enhancing the benefits of ICT and regional cooperation for inclusive growth and poverty reduction by increasing the supply of affordable broadband, skilled ICT manpower, and local content and e-applications, with a special focus on the needs of the poor. It is also expected to help SASEC countries improve their productivity and efficiency and participate more fully in the global information economy. To this end, the Project will establish (i) a SASEC regional network with fiber-optic and data interchange capacity, directly connecting the four SASEC countries; (ii) a SASEC village network expanding broadband ICT access to 110 rural communities in the SASEC countries and providing direct connections among the communities for local networking and local information sourcing; and (iii) a SASEC research and training network to build technical and business skills in developing local ICT content and e-applications (e-government, e-learning, tele-medicine, e-remittance, e-commerce, etc.) that serve the needs of the poor in particular.

Bhutan Today said “Information Highway Project on Track” in the headline.

The ADB website said the project had been approved on 17 Dec 2007 (almost four years ago). Cumulative disbursements (upto November 2011; this month) were 2 percent. Cumulative contract awards were 7 percent.

Not bad for four years.

The IDI is a composite of three sub-indexes. South Asia has done well in access, with rankings increasing in all countries, except for the Maldives. India jumps seven places. The only countries that do well in the use sub-index are Sri Lanka (advance of 10 places) and Nepal (nine places). Pakistan and the Maldives fall back 13 places. Only Bhutan and the Maldives advance three and two places respectively in the skills sub-index. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh fall back one place, while all others hold their places.

What the above illustrates is that one cannot move ahead in the overall rankings simply by improving one dimension or one sub-index. For example, Bhutan advanced by four places in access, by three in use, and by three in skills. This translated into an overall advance of four places for Bhutan. Sri Lanka advanced by 10 places in use, but this appeared to be negated by a one-place retreat in the skills component and a lower-than-most advance of two places in access.

The Maldives increased by the most (0.51), yet dropped a rank position, indicating that the countries in the range where the Maldives is located is highly competitive. The least increase shown by Bangladesh (0.21) resulted in a slippage of one position in the rankings.

But they are not publicly available in Sri Lanka. Our custom in such circumstances is to publish the best available data and ask the parties who know (and who are embarrassed by the outrageous prices we show) to correct us. If they do not, we will assume the number we published is correct.

The October 2011 broadband price benchmarks are here.

It shows that the price of a 2Mbps 2KM leased line connection is 16 times that of Bhutan. This is outrageous, given Bhutan’s difficult terrain and later liberalization.

This suggests that Internet charges should also be high in Sri Lanka. They are not, which is the mystery. Hope someone, hopefully the people at the Telecom Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, will unravel the mystery.

Vietnam, a high performer on all composite ICT rankings, has leaped forward from 91st place to 81st place, in a rare 10-place advance.

In South Asia, Bhutan advanced four places to 119th; Nepal by three places to 134th; and India and Sri Lanka advance by one place to 116th and 105th respectively. Pakistan and Bangladesh drop two places each to 123rd and 137th, respectively. Maldives, the leader among the South Asian countries, drops one place to settle at 67th place.

Thailand drops nine places to 89th, something that should cause concern. Philippines advances by 3 places to 92nd rank and Indonesia by one place to 101st.

The overall winner remains Korea (no change from 2008). Hong Kong SAR is at 6th place (same as in 2008). The gap with Singapore has widened, with Singapore falling back to 19th place from 15th in 2008.

The general lesson is that one must run fast even to maintain one’s rank. Singapore’s score improved from 6.71 to 7.08, but it still fell back four places.

I’ve had little time for people who criticize energy use of web search. Earlier writing was without too much data, because data was not available. Here are the data.

Every time a person runs a Google search, watches a YouTube video or sends a message through Gmail, the company’s data centers full of computers use electricity. Those data centers around the world continuously draw almost 260 million watts — about a quarter of the output of a nuclear power plant.

Up to now, the company has kept statistics about its energy use secret. Industry analysts speculate it was because the information was embarrassing and would also give competitors a clue to how Google runs its operations.

While the electricity figures may seem large, the company asserts that the world is a greener place because people use less energy as a result of the billions of operations carried out in Google data centers. Google says people should consider things like the amount of gasoline saved when someone conducts a Google search rather than, say, drives to the library. “They look big in the small context,” Urs Hoelzle, Google’s senior vice president for technical infrastructure, said in an interview.

Fueled by an insatiable demand for new Internet services and a shift to so-called cloud computing services that are largely hosted in commercial data centers and in the large data farms operated by companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, there has been an increasing discussion about the growing percentage of the nation’s electricity that will be consumed by vast data centers being constructed at a record pace.

But the new report indicates that electricity used by global data centers in 2010 remained relatively modest. “Electricity used in global data centers likely accounted for between 1.1 percent and 1.5 percent of total electricity use, respectively. For the U.S. that number was between 1.7 percent and 2.2 percent,” according to the report.

In an earlier paper, Mr. Koomey reported that the power used by servers in data centers represented about 0.5 percent of world electricity consumption in 2005. When cooling and auxiliary infrastructure were included, that figure was about 1 percent, he wrote.

Full report.

According to the World Bank, nearly half the labour force in Bhutan is engaged in Agriculture, however as in most South Asia countries, the sector’s contribution to GDP is less than proportional.

LIRNEasia’s research on agriculture has highlighted the importance of access to accurate, timely and actionable information improved the efficiency of the agriculture value chains. The presentation looked at the services available for delivering information to farmers in South Asia. Tradenet, based on an initiative by Govi Gnana Seva or Farmer Knowledge Service, in Sri Lanka, Reuters Market Light (RML) and Iffco Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) in India were some of the services highlighted.

A similar service is available in Bhutan, done as a joint effort by the Ministry of Agriculture, Bhutan and SNV. The system uses an Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) system, as a way of counteracting the illiteracy among farmers.   The system provides market price information to subscribers (or farmers) and is currently sourcing prices from three agriculture auction markets in Bhutan. It is hoped that the information on market price would help them get a better price for their produce.

The system implementers hope to expand the number of markets it sources the information from. As mentioned before the system currently only takes prices from the auction markets however, there are a number of agriculture markets scattered around Bhutan where the prices are set through negotiated traders between the buyers and sellers. If the current system is to be successfully expanded, then one of the key challenges would be the sourcing of the prices from the markets with the negotiated trades.

The system was launched in November 2009.

The slides used at the presentation can be downloaded from HERE

Broadband users can now self-regulate the bandwidth provided by the operators with the help of software which will be made available for free.

Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority (BICMA), in a move to facilitate the operators give better services and to emphasis evidence-derived regulations, tied up with LIRNEasia, an ICT policy and regulation think tank. LIRNEasia is based in Sri Lanka but works in all the South Asian countries and some South East Asian countries.

LIRNEasia had earlier presented a study on broadband quality in Bhutan. The study showed that the quality of connectivity among the national internet service providers was not up to acceptable international standards.

“It was revealed that one of the most pressing problems is connecting two internet service providers (ISPs) called “peering”. It shows that the quality of peering is not satisfactory,” said Wangay Dorji, the head of telecommunication division of Bicma.

The internet speed of the ISPs in Bhutan was above the international benchmark, which is 300 millisecond return trip time.

He said that Bicma felt the need to do something. “If we do not do anything, the traffic within Bhutan cannot be exchanged at the international level. If it has to be exchanged internationally, it has a lot of cost as well as bandwidth utilisation.”

As a regulator, rather than being reactive, we want to be proactive, he said.

The slides presented by LIRNEasia on 9th May 2011 on the AT tester findings can be found HERE

There was no causal connection. And the rest of the machinery for making cell broadcasting an effective public warning mechanism is not in place, yet. But we are confident the seed that we planted will bear fruit.

The slideset is here.

Present broadband charges which are higher than competitor countries are deterring foreign ICT and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms from setting up in the island and are partly responsible for poor internet penetration, a report said.
“The cost of commercial broadband and internet links such as IPLC ((international private leased circuit) and leased lines is higher in Sri Lanka when compared to the region,” said the ICT draft plan by the ministry of telecommunications and information technology.

“This makes Sri Lanka less attractive for companies setting up, especially in the early days when heavy cash outflows exist.”

The availability of such quality services need to be expanded so that companies can locate regionally where pockets of talent exist, said the paper which was discussed at a meeting of government and industry officials Tuesday.

We are made happy by this announcement because it reflects the success of our efforts to initiate action through the collection and publication of benchmark data for several years. We did not stop at mere publication, but made specific criticisms about our prices being higher than those in Bangladesh and Bhutan.

High leased line prices, both domestic and foreign, must be brought down. There is much room for improvement by Sri Lanka as can be seen from the table below. A few years ago, Sri Lanka had low prices relative to its peers, but now even Bangladesh is cheaper because the regulator there has been paying attention. It is shocking that mountainous, landlocked Bhutan offers lower prices than Sri Lanka.

High-quality, low-cost leased lines with a choice among suppliers is a necessary condition for the effective application of knowledge to services, manufacturing and agriculture and their better integration to global value chains.

No matter our efforts are not acknowledged. Just get the job done and we will sing the praises.

M. Somasekhar’s piece on Hindu Business Line on mobile payments says:

Experts from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya, Thailand, the Philippines, Bhutan and Bangladesh among other nations met in Islamabad recently to discuss their experiences in providing mobile phone services for the BoP segment in their respective countries. They agreed that a beginning has been made and the road ahead appeared daunting, but technological progress promised quick results.

Don Sambandaraksa’s  piece “Mobile phones offer hope to ‘bottom of the pyramid” to Bangkok Post focuses on mobile use in farming, transport and banking. Says he:

“ICTs cannot solve all problems, chief of which is land reform, but when it comes to making decisions, lowering transaction costs and going to market and selling, information can make a big difference.

The researched categorised the decision-making process and information value in each from decisions to seed, planting, growing to harvesting and selling.

Information search costs are highest at the beginning of the cycle. Information on deciding what to grow are three times all other costs, and this is where ICTs have a potential role to play.

Sriganesh Lokanathan said that ideally he wanted to change the decision-making chain into a cycle where the decision on what the farmer wants to grow is based on the price when he expects to harvest. For this to happen, prices and supply and demand needed to be predicted and farmers need to get into forward sales contracts which does not often happen in this part of the world.”

Meanwhile we see Pakistan Telecom Authority, the co-organiser takes the message forward. ‘PTA Focuses on Value-Added Services Including E-Commerce, E-Agriculture & E-Education’ was the title of a report from Pakistan Telecom News Bulletin. It says:

Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr. Mohammed Yaseen has said that PTA’s focus is on value added services and with a high penetration level of mobile and low penetration of internet we have to explore the available possibilities which could be gained via mobile 2.0 theories. I very much foresee the further development of presently available technologies and those coming ahead through value added services and content. He was addressing to Connect 2010 ICT Forum – Telecom Session at Expo Centre Karachi and talking to media men on the occasion. He said that our emphasis is on e-commerce, e-agriculture and e-education, it is the time to open doors of opportunities to our young innovative minds and to bridge the unseen gaps between all potentials players of ICT proliferation.

For the full media coverage and presentations,  please see here.

“The Telecom Regulatory Commission is conducting its own investigations on mobile broadband speeds advertized by operators,” Priyantha Kariyapperuma, director general of the TRC said.

“If any mobile operator is found guilty of providing slower speeds than advertized, the TRC will take action against them. Our report will be out in about two to three weeks.”

A study on broadband speeds in South Asian countries conducted by the regional think-tank LIRNEasia showed Sri Lankan surfers were getting less speed than claimed by telecom companies.

I hope that the TRC will become more reasonable after a few weeks pass by and the grumpiness wears off. Otherwise we will have to ask someone to investigate why the TRC was inactive all these years while consumers were complaining, bloggers were ranting and peer regulatory agencies taking action.

In the meantime, we invite the TRC to use the rich information accumulated in our website since 2006 May (3.5 years ago) when we ran the first post on the subject. Prior to that Mr Sanath Siriwardene, who communicated with us through the blog had made extensive presentations to the TRC in writing and in person and had even published some articles in the media. I am sure Mr Siriwardene will also be happy to share his expertise. In particular, we invite the TRC to look at our benchmark data where we show that both Bangladesh and Bhutan now have lower leased-line prices than Sri Lanka. When competition forces retail prices down while input costs remain high, quality is bound to suffer.

On the fixed side, assisted by CDMA phones that are counted as fixed, Sri Lanka is the leader (17 connection per 100 people), followed by Maldives (15 per 100).

Like in cricket, the middle of the rankings are the most interesting. Both Pakistan (50/100) and Bhutan (37/100) are ahead of India (29/100) in mobile. This shows that India cannot afford to let up the pace of 10 million connections a month for some time. If it does, it might be overtaken by Afghanistan (29/100) and even Bangladesh (28/100).

Of course, the fact that Afghanistan is ahead of Bangladesh in mobile penetration should cause all sorts of palpitations in government offices in Dhaka. Bangladesh was one of the earliest in South Asia to adopt mobile and is the most densely populated country in the world. How they were overtaken by Afghanistan, a war-torn country with difficult terrain, should cause serious re-examination of policies such as the BDT 800 SIM tax. The fact that Afghanistan’s CAGR for 2003-08 is 109%, higher than Bangladesh’s 2003-08 CAGR of 101%, suggests that the gap between the two countries is more likely to increase than decrease.

In the fixed rankings, we find Afghanistan occupying the cellar (0.37/100 people) behind Bangladesh (0.84/100). Pakistan (2.5/100) is behind Nepal (2.8/100). This is very surprising given the apparent superiority of the Pakistan policy and regulatory framework. Both use CDMA on the fixed access side, so that cannot be the explanation. Comments from Pakistani colleagues would be most welcome.

India is the only country showing negative growth in fixed over the 2003-08 period (-2%), but this simply because India is more honest in its reporting, counting CDMA on the mobile side instead of on the fixed side. For example Sri Lanka is experiencing negative growth in wireline, that is masked by CDMA growth.

From 2003 to 2008, the number of active SIMs has increased by over 12 times, while the number of fixed connections has decreased marginally, the negative growth in India wiping out all the gains in the rest of South Asia. South Asia is clearly the territory of the mobile.

As attention shifts to services trade (for example, the most important element of the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and Sri Lanka, is the services chapter), there is of necessity a need to start looking at regulatory restrictions on services trade. Tariffs do not apply to services, so the only barriers are opaque, arbitrary and discriminatory regulatory provisions. This has been well recognized in telecom, with the reference paper on regulation being one of the key contributions to liberalization made by the GATS. The issue being raised at the UNCTAD meeting was whether there was value in exploring the regulatory aspects of trade in other infrastructure services. With electricity being traded across borders in pools and otherwise (Bhutan and Nepal have been trading electricity with India for a long time; if the proposed undersea cable goes through there will be trade between India and Sri Lanka as well), it is becoming clear that trade in infrastructure services is rising on the agenda.

In my concluding contribution I suggested that the focus that has already been there within the regulatory field on reducing regulatory risk and the international trade focus on removing barriers to Mode 3 (investment-based) trade in services suggests a good area for work by UNCTAD.

One reason I accepted the invitation was that UNCTAD had originally contacted four LIRNEasia researchers: Helani Galpaya, Malathy Knight, Payal Malik, and myself. That four people from LIRNEasia have been picked up on the UNCTAD radar screen, especially when we had no connections with that organization, speaks well for the reputation we have built for our researchers in the past four years.

On the fixed side, the only countries with intra-SAARC tariffs lower than to non-SAARC countries, are Bhutan and Nepal. Bhutan, because it has a special price for India (other SAARC prices are high) and Nepal because it has not changed its extremely high tariff structure (and the lower-by-comparison intra-SAARC prices). Lanka Bell in Sri Lanka offers low prices to India, but our methodology does not capture that, because we take the prices of the largest operator, SLT.

On the mobile side, the same story, except for Sri Lanka, where Dialog has cut its prices to India to a level lower than UK, USA, etc. Nepal and Bhutan were good earlier; no change this time.

More than six months have gone by since the SAARC Summit. The South Asian Telecom Regulators Council met and discussed this subject (we provided the data). Seeing Dialog and Lanka Bell drop prices, we thought that at least the operators would do the right thing, while the regulators twiddled their thumbs, but looks like Dialog and Lanka Bell in Sri Lanka are the exception (and even they may have been pushed by Airtel).

Looks like action is needed from the regulators.