Tag Archive for ‘Broadband’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'Broadband'

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

Telecom, Google veterans to Write Obama’s Tech Policy Priorities

on November 20, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama has named two telecom industry and policy veterans and a leader of Google’s philanthropy arm to craft the new administration’s high-tech policy priorities.

The policy working group on Technology, Innovation and Government Reform will “develop proposals and plans from the Obama Campaign for action during the Obama-Biden Administration,” according to the president-elect’s transition web site www.change.gov.

The authors of what could be sweeping changes in broadband rules, privacy and government transparency include:

–Blair Levin, a telecom investment analyst at Stifel Nicolaus and former chief of staff to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt. Levin is also seen among a short list of candidates to head the FCC in the new administration.

–Julius Genachowski, former chief counsel to Hundt at the FCC and a member of Obama’s…

Comment
Tags: Barack Obama, Blair Levin, Broadband, Department of Treasury, Federal Communications Commission, former law school classmate, Goldman, Google, Google Inc., high-tech policy priorities, IAC/InterActiveCorp, India, Indicorps, Julius Genachowski, Obama-Biden Administration, Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board, policy working group, Reed Hundt, Rock Creek Vetnrues, Sachs and Co., Sonal Shah, Stifel Financial Corp., Stifel Nicolaus, telecommunications leaders, The Washington Post Company, transition web site www.change.gov, Washington Post.

What do we know about Sri Lanka’s Telecentres?

Chanuka Wattegama

on November 20, 2008

Here are the summarised results from the telecenter operator survey done by LIRNEasia at the weCan workshop in October 2008. Sample was not representative, but large enough to get a general idea about the telecenter operations in Sri Lanka.

Out of a total of 147 operators surveyed, the bulk, 101 were from Nenasalas, the 500 odd telecenter network created under the World Bank funded e-Sri Lanka programme. 10 were from Sarvodaya multi-purpose telecenters and 6 from others (eg. public libraries) 30 have not specified the type of the telecenter.

Do telecenters in Sri Lanka make money? Yes. They report an average monthly income of Rs. 22,119. (=USD 201) This is associated with a relatively large standard deviation of Rs. 21,714 (= USD 197) indicating a variation within…

2 Comments
Tags: Broadband, Colombo, electricity, ICT Agency, ICTA, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Internet charges, Internet services, Nenasala, odd telecenter network, print services, printing series, Rs, Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka, survey, telecenter, telecenter network, telecentre, USD, VOIP, weCAN, World Bank, World Bank The.

Know your broadband – LIRNEasia/Sarvodaya workshop (For bloggers and telecenter operators), Nov 25, 2008

Chanuka Wattegama

on November 18, 2008

Your operator promises you x Mbps. Are you sure he keeps promise? If not, what you miss?

LIRNEasia, has been researching on Broadband performance quality issues in Asia. One objective of our work is to create ‘EMPOWERED USERS’ armed with broadband performance information.

Our first milestone was to develop ‘Ashoka-Tissa’ methodology of Broadband testing. This was released at a seminar jointly organized with Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka on March 18, 2008.

Next move was to automate the test process. LIRNEasia has developed an Open Source based tester (named AT-Tester) with the help of a team from ITT-Madras. After few months of beta-testing now it is available on the net (including the source).

LIRNEasia plans to launch it in Sri Lanka on at a workshop jointly organized by Sarvodaya.

ATTENDENCE FREE (with…

2 Comments
Tags: Asia, Broadband, Chanukah, Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka, Madras, Sarvodaya, Sarvodaya Laboratories Ltd, Sri Lanka.

Broadband: Customers in Colombo and Chennai get more or less the same speeds, but the promises vary widely

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 16, 2008

The download speeds that customers get in Chennai, Colombo and Dhaka are not very different, if you carefully examine the results of the October 2009 results of broadband QOSe using the Ashokatissa methodology jointly developed by IIT Madras and LIRNEasia. What differs is the level of truth in advertising. In Sri Lanka, everybody is lying. In India, they are closer to the truth.

The difference is regulation. In India, the regulator is proactive on this issue; in Sri Lanka, the regulator only worries about things like porn and imaginary towers. We cannot mandate truth in advertising; only engage in friendly moral suasion. In other words, we will try to shame the operators into calling their products by the right names: 512 Kbps instead of 2Mbps would be…

5 Comments
Tags: AshokaTissa, Broadband, Chennai, Colombo, DHAKA, quality of service experience, truth in advertising.

GSMA urges Bangladesh to licence 3G to expand broadband

Chanuka Wattegama

on November 13, 2008

GSMA, the global trade body representing the mobile industry, called on Bangladesh to issue 3G licences soon to make broadband services more widely available.

Licensing the 2100 MHz spectrum band for 3G services would enable Bangladeshi operators to launch mobile broadband services, which their customers can use to gain fast and easy access to the Internet and online services, it said on Wednesday.

Bangladesh’s mobile sector has grown rapidly, with user numbers reaching more than 45 million at end-September from 200,000 in 2001, while the country has only 1.32 million fixed-line phones.

“Laying new fixed-line connections is expensive and inefficient, so high-speed mobile networks are Bangladesh’s best bet to realise the many social and economic benefits that arise from widespread access to broadband services,” said Ricardo Tavares, senior…

1 Comment
Tags: 3G, 3G services, Bangladesh, Broadband, broadband services, high-speed mobile networks, Kenya, Malaysia, mobile broadband services, Reuters, Reuters Group PLC, Ricardo Tavares, South Africa, Sri Lanka.

IBM to bring broadband over power line to rural America

Chanuka Wattegama

on November 13, 2008

IBM has been hired to help rural Americans get broadband access using power lines.

On Wednesday, Big Blue announced it has signed a $9.6 million contract with International Broadband Electric Communications to bring the technology to rural America where it hopes to deliver high-speed broadband connectivity to millions of people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get it. IBM and IBEC, which will build and manage the networks, are working with over a dozen electricity cooperatives in seven states, The Wall Street Journal reported.

For years, people have hoped broadband-over-power line technology, or BPL, would allow power companies to become the third alternative in the broadband market, competing against cable operators and telephone companies. But technical limitations and interference issues with local emergency radios and short-wave ham…

1 Comment
Tags: America, Big Blue, BPL technology, Broadband, broadband access, broadband-over-power line technology, dozen electricity cooperatives, DSL, HIGH-speed Internet access, I.B.M., International Broadband Electric Communications, International Business Machines Corporation, Partnership, telephone, The Wall Street Journal, USD.

Mobile broadband to soar in Asia: GSMA

Chanuka Wattegama

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…

Comment
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.

Indonesia Telecom Players Honoured

Chanuka Wattegama

on November 5, 2008

Four Indonesia Telecom players were honoured at the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Indonesia Telecoms Awards in Jakarta on Tuesday. The Awards ceremony was inaugurated by Giri Suseno Hadihardjono, Chairman, Masyarakat Telematika Indonesia (MASTEL). Over one hundred industry leaders and the telecom industry’s well known personalities were present at this ceremony.

Companies honoured (see below), says Frost & Sullivan, are forerunners in the ICT space in Indonesia whose best practices in operations are recognised as exemplary.

Vendor category
Telecom Equipment Vendor of the Year - PT Nokia Siemens Networks

Service Provider category
Broadband Service Provider of the Year - PT Indosat, Tbk
Mobile Service Provider of the Year - PT Excelcomindo Pratama, Tbk
Mobile Data Service Provider of the Year - PT Telekomunikasi Selular, Tbk

Best of the best category
Market Challenger of the Year - PT…

1 Comment
Tags: Broadband, Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk, Four Indonesia Telecom, Giri Suseno Hadihardjono, Indonesia, Indosat Tbk, Jakarta, Masyarakat Telematika Indonesia, PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk, PT Indosat Tbk, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk, Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk, Telekomunikasi Selular Tbk, Year - PT Nokia Siemens Networks.

Net neutrality can raise broadband prices

Chanuka Wattegama

on October 22, 2008

Broadband prices could rise by up to one-third if regulators in Europe insist on strict “net neutrality” rules that would block carriers from charging content providers premium prices to prioritise certain web traffic, a leading think-tank is set to warn.

Net neutrality has become a big issue in the US as internet congestion has increased. In Europe, regulators and industry players have claimed that the situation is different because users have more choice of network providers, and the debate has been more muted.

However, there have been growing concern among big telecoms companies that changes introduced in the European Parliament into the so-called telecoms package – the sweeping legislation which is designed to overhaul European Union telecoms laws – could open doors to net neutrality regulation in…

Comment
Tags: Broadband, Europe, European Parliament, European Union, Financial Times, internet congestion, net neutrality, United States, web traffic.

Wholesale broadband from the sky by 2010

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 17, 2008

An intriguing move from a consortium that includes Google that seeks to provide cheap and plentiful broadband to areas around the Equator:

O3b, by contrast, intends to offer bandwidth on a wholesale basis to internet-service providers, and transmission services to telecom operators, to link remote base stations to their core networks. Furthermore, O3b’s service will be available only in a ribbon around the equator, covering most developing countries. It can start offering this service with just five satellites (it will eventually have 16) circling 8,000km above the equator. These should be in orbit by late 2010.

My Name is Vint Cerf, I’m a Scientist and I am Voting for Barack Obama

Chanuka Wattegama

on October 16, 2008

Vint Cerf, who can fairly be described as one of the godfathers of Internet has endorsed Barack Obama in the US presidential race, saying that his decision is swayed by Obama’s stance on net neutrality - the question of whether content providers should be charged more for different content by the “pipe” providers.

Extracts:

We believe that the Internet should remain an open environment. It’s vital to innovation. Companies like Google, and Yahoo, and eBay, and Amazon, and Skype and so on, got their start without having to get permission from any ISP or any broadband provider to offer services. They simply acquired access to the internet, put their services up and then made them available to the general public.

We think that’s the best way for the…

2 Comments
Tags: Amazon, Barack Obama, Broadband, eBay, Google, ISP, net neutrality, Skype, United States, Vint Cerf, Yahoo!.

Bangladesh doesn’t need a universal service tax

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on October 15, 2008

An article written by Rohan Samarajiva on Bangladesh’s proposed universal service taxes has been published in The Daily Star, Bangladesh; an excerpt follows.

Bangladesh currently has the lowest mobile prices in the world and perhaps the world’s highest mobile growth rate. Pretty good, by any measure. A universal service tax can ruin the business model that has given millions of Bangladesh citizens the opportunity to get connected to an electronic network for the first time and to use telecom services at affordable prices. Instead of solving a problem, it will create one.

…the same basket of calls, texts and apportioned connection charges (low-user basket, based on OECD methodology adapted for the region by LIRNEasia) that costs $5.25 in Nepal, costs only $2.46 in Bangladesh.

Yet, the low prices and…

Comment
Tags: Bangladesh, bankok, Broadband, OECD, Rapid Response Unit, Rohan Samarajiva, telecom asia forum, the Daily Star, Universal Service Fund, USF.

Talking contention ratios at Telecoms World South Asia

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 9, 2008

At the end of a long day at Telecoms World South Asia in Dhaka, I presented some of the preliminary results of the Broadband QoSE work being done with IIT Madras. I talked about the finding that the bottleneck in Chennai and Colombo appeared to be the international segment and that the first results from the testing done in Dhaka suggested the same applied to Bangladesh, with the ISPs using satellite (versus undersea cable) were suffering very high latencies.

The CEO of a Pakistan ISP, Mr Wahaj us Siraj, said that the situation in Pakistan was very different, with plenty of capacity available on the undersea cables and low contention ratios (1:4) being used. Prices of international capacity had come down radically in recent times,…

3 Comments
Tags: Bangladesh, Broadband, contention ratios, ISP, Pakistan, quality of experience, Quality of Service, Sri Lanka, Undugodage.

Cloud Computing: Richard Stallman calls us STUPID! (With respect, we don’t agree RMS!)

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 30, 2008

He did not mean LIRNEasia specifically, but when the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) guru Richard M. Stallman (RMS) says CLOUD COMPUTING IS WORSE THAN STUPIDITY – certainly we are in. So just cannot let it pass without comments.

Not that we are offended. Cloud computing is not our religion – it is just an experiment - part of our research. We may be proved wrong – but at least not so far. We are glad we use the model.

Here is how we, at LIRNEasia, use ‘CLOUD’ Computing:

This blog itself is in the CLOUD (Wordpress, to be specific)

All our documents are in the CLOUD (Scribd)

All our photos are in the CLOUD (Flickr)

All our video clips are in the CLOUD (You Tube)

All our databases are in the CLOUD…

5 Comments
Tags: Broadband, central physical server, LAN, LIRNEasia, open-source software, Richard M. Stallman, Virtual Organisation.

Barack Obama calls for broadband deployment during debate

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 30, 2008

Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for U.S. president, mentioned broadband rollout as one of his top priorities during a debate Friday evening, bringing applause from several groups promoting universally available broadband as a key part of a turn-around in the U.S. economy.

Obama, debating Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate for president, listed broadband rollout to rural areas as one of his top priorities that he wouldn’t cut when asked about U.S. government budget constraints.

Read the full story in ‘Network World’ here.

Comment
Tags: Barack Obama, Broadband, John McCain, U.S. government, United States.

LIRNEasia