Tag Archive for ‘China’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'China'

Call for papers: Mobile2.0: Beyond voice
Deadline: 31 October 2008.

Asia-Pacific region leads high-speed Broadband connectivity, but wide divide prevails, says ITU

on September 3, 2008

While some Asia-Pacific economies are world leaders in information and communication technologies (ICT) where broadband access is ultra-high speed, affordable and close to ubiquitous, in most of the region’s poorer countries Internet access remains limited and predominantly low-speed.

This is what ITU’s Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region 2008 says. It was released at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, Bangkok, Thailand yesterday (Sept 2, 2008).

The Report finds evidence that ICTs and broadband uptake foster growth and development, but the question remains as to the optimal speed that should be targeted in view of limited resources.

The area in which the region really stands out is the uptake of advanced Internet technologies, especially broadband Internet access. The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest broadband market with a 39…

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Tags: 3G, Asia-Pacific, Bangkok, Bangladesh, Broadband, broadband access, broadband and triple-play services, broadband Internet access, broadband Internet subscribers, broadband technologies, Cambodia, China, communication services, communication technologies, continuous high-speed Internet access, desirable and valuable online services, Distance Learning, fibre optic, Fixed and mobile broadband technologies, HIGH-speed Internet access, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Internet technologies, Internet Telephony, IP telephony, ITU TELECOM, Japan, Laos, Maldives, mobile phones, Myanmar, poorer countries Internet access remains, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Tonga, ubiquitous Internet access plan combining, ultra-high speed Internet applications, USD, Wi-Fi.

New Orleaners asked to evacuate as Hurricane Gustav nears

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 31, 2008

One key difference between natural hazards happening in Asian countries and similar hits in the West is the possibilities of them turning to disasters. While in west the timely issue of early warnings and evaluations lead to the reduction in casualties, many Asian countries still suffer from the lack of such arrangements.

We hope the early warning in New Orleans will reduce the damage by Hurricane Gustav – a luxury unthinkable by the vast majority of the people of Burma and rural China.

This is from BBC:

The mayor of New Orleans has issued a mandatory evacuation order for the entire city, as Hurricane Gustav bears down on the US Gulf Coast.

Ray Nagin said residents of the city’s West Bank should begin moving out at 0800 (1300 GMT)…

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Tags: BBC, Burma, China, Cuba, Hurricane Gustav, Isle of Youth, New Orleans, Pinar del Rio, Ray Nagin, US Gulf Coast, West Bank.

Sri Lanka to have a Telecom Icon

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 29, 2008

Sri Lanka will build a state-sponsored 250 metre tall common broadcast tower for television, radio and telecom firms, information minister Anura Yapa said.

“The building of towers in a haphazard manner cannot be allowed,” Minister Yapa said.

“The tower will be a national icon, like those in China, Kuala Lampur (image) and Tehran.”

Sri Lanka’s telecom regulator Priyantha Kariapperuma said the tower will be located in Peliyagoda in the greater Colombo area and will have a public observation gallery and a restaurant.

The tower will be built at state cost, but a private investor may be attracted later, he said.

Source: Lanka Business Online

2 Comments
Tags: Anura Yapa, China, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tehran.

Over 500m new mobile subs in Asia’s emerging economies-report

Ayesha Zainudeen

on August 26, 2008

Aug 26, 2008, telecomasia.net

Asia’s emerging markets, comprising eight nations, are expected to see mobile subscriber net gains of 573 million by end-2012, breaching the one billion mark to close the year at an estimated 1.06 billion subscribers, a report from research firm Frost & Sullivan said.

In 2007, these emerging markets were home to some 487 million mobile users, accounting for 37.1% of Asia-Pacific’s total mobile subscriber base, the report said.

The report also said the mobile services sector in eight emerging Asia-Pac countries (excluding China) earned revenues of $33.27 billion in 2007. This is predicted to reach $61.35 billion by end-2013, at a CAGR of 10.7% (2007-2013).

Growing at a CAGR of 15.1% (2007-2013), the mobile subscriber base is expected to hit 1.13 billion by end-2013 to…

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Tags: Americas, Asia, Asia-Pacific, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Europe, Frost & Sullivan, India, Indonesia, Jeff Teh, Laos, Pakistan, prepaid services, Sri Lanka, USD, Vietnam.

India adds 9.22 million mobile users in July

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 26, 2008

Indian mobile telecoms firms added 9.2 million users in July, taking subscribers in the world’s fastest growing wireless market to nearly 300 million, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Monday.

Leading mobile firm Bharti Airtel signed up 2.7 million customers, enough for it to overtake state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd as India’s largest telecom firm by total subscribers, including fixed-line subscribers.

Second-ranked mobile firm Reliance Communications added 1.75 million customers, and No. 3 Vodafone Essar, controlled by Britain’s Vodafone Plc, added 1.76 million.

India is the world’s fastest-growing market for wireless services and the second-largest market for such services after China, with growth fuelled by cheap handsets and call rates as low as 1 U.S. cent a minute.

See the full story in Reuters here.

…

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Tags: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Britain, China, India, Reliance Communications, Reuters, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, United States, Vodafone Plc, wireless market, WIRELESS SERVICES.

Sri Lanka not to allow mobile phones as gifts

Chanuka Wattegama

on May 28, 2008

Worried over the growing grey market for mobile phones due to illegal imports from countries like China and India, Sri Lankan Customs has decided to confiscate such cell phones being brought in as accompanied or unaccompanied baggage or as gift.

The Sri Lanka Customs has announced that all goods for commercial purposes/commercial quantities have to be imported in accordance with the provision of the Import Control Act and regulations framed there under.

It is estimated that over 20,000 mobile phones are entering the country through illegal channels every month.

“We are optimistic that this initiative will help in combating the grey market in Sri Lanka with strong implementation Directo/ Chief Executive Officer of Softlogic Communications Samantha Rajapaksa told the “Daily News”.

Softlogic an authorised dealer for Nokia phones in…

8 Comments
Tags: cell phones, China, Daily News, India, mobile phones, Softlogic Communications Samantha Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka.

No Early Warning Signs for China

Natasha Udu-Gama

on May 13, 2008

Is accurate early warning possible for earthquakes?

Chinese authorities have said they did not pick up any warning signs ahead of Monday’s earthquake.

“Monitoring before the earthquake did not detect any macroscopic abnormalities, and did not catch any relevant information,” Deng Changwen, deputy head of Sichuan province’s earthquake department, said.

AlJazeera.net | No Early Warning

1 Comment
Tags: China, Early Warning, earthquake.

LIRNEasia researchers present at International Workshop on ICTs and Development in Asia

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on April 24, 2008

Rohan Samarajiva and Tahani Iqbal will participate at an International Workshop on ICTs and Development: Experiences in Asia, held at the Faculy of Arts and Sciences (Communications & New Media Programme Science, Technology and Society (STS) Cluster), National University of Singapore from 24th - 25th April 2008.

Samarajiva will chair a session, where papers will be presented on the Development of Web 2.0 and Social Networking Websites in Thailand, Internet Adoption and Usage among Farmers in China and the Use of ICTs in Rural India.

Iqbal will present a paper entitled, “Gender Inequalities in Access and Use of Telecom at the Bottom of the Pyramid?: Findings from a Five Country Study”, based on research findings from the Teleuse@BOP2 study.

More information is available here.

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Tags: Asia, China, Internet Adoption, National University of Singapore, Tahani Iqbal, Thailand.

China Telecom, after seeing negative growth, buys Beijing Telecom

Chanuka Wattegama

on April 3, 2008

China Telecom, China’s largest fixed-line phone provider, has announced plans to buy regional phone operator Beijing Telecom for $793m.

The government-controlled former monopoly, which still owns about 70 per cent of China’s fixed telephone lines, has struggled to cope with a rapidly evolving market and competition from mobile phone operators.

“Due to intensifying mobile substitution, China Telecom experienced negative growth in access lines in service for the first time [in 2007], and voice business revenue decreased by 7.9 per cent from 2006,” the company said in a statement.

Charice Wang, an analyst at research firm Ovum, explained that China Telecom has been facing strong competition from China Mobile as customers switch to mobile services under increasing fixed-mobile substitution.

“China Telecom’s traditional voice business has been [declining in] recent years,”…

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Tags: Beijing Telecom China Telecom, cellular telephone, Charice Wang, China, China Mobile, China Telecom, fixed telephone lines, Ovum, phone operator, USD.

Bharti Airtel may be re-drawing plans for Sri Lanka

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on February 26, 2008

Indo-Asian News Service (IANS)

Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel, which had announced its entry into the Sri Lankan mobile phone sector with much fanfare last year, is experiencing delays and may well be re-drawing its investment plans for the island country, says a Sri Lankan telecommunication expert.

Rohan Samarajeewa, former head of Sri Lanka’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC), told IANS that while there was no doubt that Bharti Airtel was committed to operating in Sri Lanka, it had altered its timetable and could well be scaling down its original investment plans.

The reasons for the delay in starting the operations were in the realm of speculation, Samarajeewa said. But he did point to a possibility of difficulties in getting frequencies from the TRC, as it is generally recognized…

19 Comments
Tags: 3G, 3G services, Amali Nanayakkara, AOL, Bharti Airtel Lanka Pvt Ltd., cellular telephone, China, Dialog Telekom, Huawei Technologies, India, Kerala, mobile phones, Rohan Samarajeewa, Sri Lanka Indo-Asian News Service, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka\'s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, USD.

US bemoans falling behind in broadband (and lacking data to measure the extent of the fall)

Rohan Samarajiva

on February 20, 2008

Broadband Access Data Mischief — SSRC

There is clear consensus that our nation’s ability to compete in the high speed broadband world is essential to our economic future. Unfortunately, the Administration and the Federal Communications Commission continue to rely upon inadequate, highly-flawed data to assess the marketplace for high-speed Internet access. The Administration’s “mission Accomplished” rhetoric does not match reality:

* According to a September 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project phone survey, roughly half of all Americans don’t have broadband at home. Half is far from universal.
* Fewer than 25% of New Yorkers in rural areas have access to broadband service and nearly two-thirds of people living in New York City lack access to affordable, high-speed broadband. Some New York City neighborhoods — like Sunset…

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Tags: America, Broadband, broadband access, broadband technology, Bush, Chicago, China, DSL, Federal Communications Commission, HIGH-speed Internet access, New York City, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Sunset Park, United States, US Department of Commerce.

The Great Firewall of China and its Sri Lanka equivalent

Rohan Samarajiva

on February 4, 2008

It is well known that China polices the Internet content that its citizens can access. The story below talks about a growing movement within China that seeks to challenge these arbitrary restrictions on simple information retrieval and publishing actions. A 17-year old girl’s comment “I don’t know if it’s better to speak out or keep silent, but if everyone keeps silent, the truth will be buried,” seems particularly powerful to me and motivated me to write this post.

Several months ago, the government of Sri Lanka blocked access to Tamil Net, a website used by many, including almost all the important journalists, to find out the other side of our one-sided news stories on the war. Of course, this was easily circumvented by those who wanted…

4 Comments
Tags: Burma, CDMA, China, Congress, Faces Online Rebels - New York Times, firewall, Guangdong Province, Internet content, Kangxi, Pan Liang, phone networks, SMS, Sri Lanka, Web site operator, YouTube.

We know who you are, we know where you are, we know what you buy, we know who you talk to

Rohan Samarajiva

on January 28, 2008

This past Saturday at a conference organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing Harsha de Silva chaired a session with Hans Wijayasuriya of Dialog Telekom, Rohan Samarajiva of LIRNEasia and Keith Modder of Virtusa that addressed issues such as this. One point that ran through the discussion was the need for companies to develop self-regulation to safeguard the trust of their customers.

China’s mobile network: a big brother surveillance tool? - LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE

“We know who you are, but also where you are,” said the CEO of China Mobile Communications Corporation, Wang Jianzhou, whose company adds six million new customers to its network each month and is already the biggest mobile group in the world by users.

He was explaining how the company could use the…

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Tags: advertising and services, big brother surveillance tool, cellular telephone, China, China Mobile Communications Corporation, Dialog Telekom, Hans Wijayasuriya, Harsha de Silva, Keith Modder, mobile group, mobile phones, Rohan Samarajiva, Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing Harsha, Wang Jianzhou.

China starts hearing on mobile roaming charges

Chanuka Wattegama

on January 23, 2008

China on Tuesday started a public hearing to discuss lowering domestic mobile roaming charges, state media said, to address complaints from users.

Hosted by the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, the hearing discussed two proposed plans for roaming charges, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Both proposals involve cancelling the existing roaming service fee of 0.2 yuan per minute, which users have criticized as being too high, according to local media reports.

China’s mobile operators, China Mobile and China Unicom collect domestic roaming fees if the subscriber leaves the local service area. Analysts have mixed views on whether a cut in roaming charges would affect earnings growth for the two operators.

Read the full story in Reuters here.

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Tags: China, China Mobile, China Unicom, local media reports, National Development and Reform Commission, Reuters, state media, Xinhua news agency, yuan.

Asian countries slide e-government rankings

Abu Saeed Khan

on January 14, 2008

A United Nations survey of global e-government readiness has found that many Asian countries are sliding down the rankings. Just one Asian country—South Korea—made the top ten coming in at sixth, with Japan next on 11th.

The next highest was Singapore at a surprisingly low 23rd, and Malaysia at 34th. The top 35 countries are otherwise dominated by Europe, Australasia and North America.

The biggest revelation was that most Asian countries are sliding down the rankings.
Singapore was the most prominent to fall from grace, falling to 22nd from seventh position in 2005. China fell to 65 from 57, India from 87 to 113, Thailand from 46 to 62, the Philippines from 41 to 66 and Indonesia from 96 to 106.

Other countries to slide included Maldives,…

32 Comments
Tags: Australasia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Denmark, e-government, Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, North America, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, the Philippines, United Nations, United States, Vietnam.

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