Tag Archive for ‘electricity’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'electricity'

LIRNEasia’s Mobile Benchmarks (South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Broadband Benchmarks Report for October 2008 has been released. Click HERE for more information.

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…

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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.

Net Neutrality debate: No free lunches, so why ‘FREE BROADBAND’?

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 7, 2008

We pay for other utilities (electricity, water, phone services) by the amount utilised, but usually a flat rate for broadband depending upon the bandwidth. I have earlier compared this to paying for water based on the diameter of the pipe, instead of liters consumed.

The following letter by a reader to USA Today highlights similar concerns - may be in another context.

WHY SHOULD BROADBAND BE FREE?

James Lakely - Chicago

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin’s reference to the phone industry exposes the weakness of his argument to provide free broadband access in the USA.

Yes, copper phone lines were, for decades, “the main means of communication for millions of Americans.” But the government didn’t invent that technology, nor give it away for free. The market provided, and…

12 Comments
Tags: Broadband, broadband access, Chicago, electricity, Federal Communications Commission, James Lakely, Kevin Martin, net neutrality, phone services, United States, USA Today.

Sri Lanka: Udaya Gammanpila says Environmental Levy does not burden public

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 19, 2008

Responding to Rohan Samarajiva’s views on newly implemented Environmental levy in Lankadeepa last week, Central Environmental Authority Chairman Udaya Gammanpila calls it essential and the ‘first progressive tax’ in Sri Lanka. Assuring it does not burden public, he says any tax can be initially unpopular but the impact should be seen in long term. (Lankadeepa, August 19, 2008)

These are his points in brief:

1. If not for the Environmental levy, the government has to find money to address environmental issues by increasing either VAT or customs charges. That will raise prices in general. It is unfair. Why should villagers who have never seen a mobile phone contribute for its removal whenever they buy flour to make rotis? Instead we have introduced a tax only on pollutants.…

14 Comments
Tags: cellular telephone, Central Environmental Authority, Denmark, e-waste, electricity, India, mobile phones, Rohan Samarajiva, Rs, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Udaya Gammanpila.

Monopoly: The good the bad and the not-so-ugly

kapugama

on April 15, 2008

The colloquium notes

Lara Alawattegama (LA): Monopoly means ‘a market with a single supplier’

Why a monopoly happens:
1. No close substitutes
2. Legal barriers to entry
3. Resource barriers
4. Unfair competition -predatory pricing

Rohan Samarajiva (RS) : Lack of competition leads to monopolies. Microsoft Windows is an example where none of the above characteristics applied

Chanuka Wattegam (CW): Is LIRNEasia a monopoly?

RS: What is LIRNEasia’s market?

No technical barriers for anyone to entry to the LIRNEasia market. So the answer is no.

LA: Natural Monopoly is what you get when the market is too small for a competitor to offer a lower priced product. (dis-economies of scale ) So a new firm may have to sell at a higher cost and will not be successful unless that adds value (i.e. improved technology).…

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Tags: air travel, Alfred Kahn, AT&T, Colombo, electricity, Harsha de Silva, improved technology, Joseph Shumpeter, Lara Alawattegama, lower priced product, Microsoft, Rohan Samarajiva, shuttle services, Sri Lanka.

Friedman on rural outsourcing

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 31, 2007

If I.T. Merged With E.T. - New York Times

To appreciate that potential, look at how much is being done with just car batteries, backup diesel generators and India’s creaky rural electricity grid. I traveled to a cluster of villages with a team from the Byrraju Foundation — a truly impressive nonprofit set up by B. Ramalinga Raju and his family. Raju and his brother Rama are co-founders of one of India’s leading outsourcing companies, Satyam Computer Services. The Hyderabad-based brothers wanted to give back to their country, but they wanted it to be a hand up, not a hand out.

So besides funding health clinics and computer-filled primary schools in villages in their home state of Andhra Pradesh, they tried something new: outsourcing their outsourcing to…

8 Comments
Tags: Andhra Pradesh, Byrraju Foundation, car batteries, creaky rural electricity grid, E.T. - New York Times, electricity, Hyderabad, I.T., India, Rama, wireless networks.

Myanmar to implement cyber village project

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 6, 2007

Myanmar will implement a cyber village project aiming to enable every village in the country to have access to internet link like urban cities, according to computer entrepreneur circle Thursday.

A pioneer pilot project for the move will start late of this year by the open season with installation of IP Star phone lines by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), the Computer Entrepreneurs’ Association (CEA) said.

Investment is being invited from the private sector for the establishment of public access centers in villages and power source is being sought either from battery or solar energy to operate the internet in some remote villages in short of electricity as an alternative, the Association added.

According to the MPT, the number of internet users in Myanmar has reached…

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Tags: Computer Entrepreneurs\' Association, electricity, internet link, Internet users, Myanmar, Myanmar Computer Federation, public internet service centers, solar energy.

Internet through mobile networks in Bangladesh

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 25, 2006

A story worth checking out.

Have the Bangladesh mobile operators solved the problems of providing reliable and cost-effective Internet connections over GSM networks?

Internet Extends Reach Of Bangladeshi Villagers - washingtonpost.com

Villages in one of the world’s poorest countries, long isolated by distance and deprivation, are getting their first Internet access, all connected over cellphones. And in the process, millions of people who have no land-line telephones, and often lack electricity and running water, in recent months have gained access to services considered basic in richer countries: weather reports, e-mail, even a doctor’s second opinion.Cellphones have become a new bridge across the digital divide between the world’s rich and poor, as innovators use the explosive growth of cellphone networks to connect people to the Internet.

Bangladesh now has about…

10 Comments
Tags: Bangladesh, cellphone networks, download job applications, electricity, GSM, Internet access, Internet centers, Internet connections, Internet Extends Reach Of, Internet phone calls, online dictionaries, Web cameras.

Village with a mesh network, but not a single telephone

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 6, 2006

Sri Lanka’s first outdoor wireless computer network is now up and running.

Surprisingly, it is not in Colombo. It is not even in any of the other key places. It was installed in Mahavilachchiya, a little known village, 40 km from the nearest town Anuradhapura, and surrounded three sides by the Vilpattu jungle.

Most of the villagers are either farmers or labourers with a monthly income of about Rs. 5,000 - 10,000 (US$ 50 - 100). Though there is electricity, it is not yet covered by any of the terrestrial or mobile phone networks. This means there is not a single telephone in this village.

On the other hand, Mahavilachchiya has more than 50 PCs and a sophisticated multimedia lab. Majority of the computers are at the houses…

182 Comments
Tags: cellular telephone, Colombo, design web sites, direct Internet, electricity, Mesh Wireless, mobile phone networks, outdoor wireless computer network, Rs, Sri Lanka, telephone lines, USD, Vilpattu jungle.

Benefits of telecom reform

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 2, 2006

Sri Lanka’s infrastructure industries are in very bad shape, with reforms postponed, billion-rupee losses in electricity and petroleum and predictions of power cuts in 2007. In the blog of one of the business publications we read regularly, the following comment had been made by a reader. What is interesting is that she/he points to the good conditions in the telecom industry, no strikes, lower prices, etc.

LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE - LBO

If you had more competitive markets, without the government trying to control everything, you would have immediate price reductions. The producer that passes on the benefits to the consumer will have higher sales, if he beats his competitiors to the price-cut.One reason we dont have enough domestic competition is perhaps bureaucratic barriers to entry.

Look at the…

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Tags: electricity, kerosine oil, Sri Lanka, state banks.

LIVE FEED: Colloquium: Initial findings from the Base Line Sector Analysis of the BPO Industry In Sri Lanka

Ayesha Zainudeen

on July 13, 2006

Dilshani Samaraweera & Harsha de Silva

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and LIRNEasia have partnered to conduct an in-depth baseline sector analysis of the BPO sector in Sri Lanka, to assess its direct, as well as indirect impacts on the country, and to identify opportunities and constraints for its growth.

The preliminary findings of the analysis will be presented at the colloquium. The finalized country report will be available publicly and it is envisaged that it would constitute an essential input in the formulation of effective policies that would catalyze sector growth.

6 Comments
Tags: BPO Industry In Sri Lanka, Chicago, electricity, Harsha de Silva, HSBC, India, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri, Sri Lanka.

LIRNEasia’s Executive Director moderates panel discussion on offshoring

Sriganesh Lokanathan

on November 11, 2005

Sri Lanka aims to be paradise for high-end outsourcing

By Poornima Weerasekara
The need to position Sri Lanka as a provider of top-end, high value adding outsourcing destination was highlighted yesterday at a CEO’s conference, titled “Offshore to Sri Lanka.”
The conference organised by the ICT sub-committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the World Bank in partnership with the Board of Investment (BOI) and the Information and Telecommunications Agency (ICTA) comprised of industry experts, venture capitalists and over 150 public and private sector CEOs. It aimed to create awareness about Sri Lanka’s potential as an off-shoring destination and to galvanize CEO’s into collectively realizing this potential.
“Sri Lanka has the largest number of UK qualified accountants outside of UK. This itself is a unique differentiator…

1 Comment
Tags: Abhishek Jain, Avinash Vashintha, China, electricity, high telecommunications, India, Information and Telecommunications Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Internet access, Ismail Radwan, Manju Hattotuwa, NeoIT, off-shore services, off-shoring value chain, Sri Lanka, telecommunications, The World Bank Senior, United Kingdom, USD, WTP Capital.

LIVE FEED Colloquium Jan 7, 2005, Disaster Management

Divakar Goswami

on January 7, 2005

Rohan: Vanguard Foundation was recently created which has a center for disaster management. The work I have done at TRC on disaster management will be leveraged in the current context, and we will prepare a document. Pete Anderson is disaster communication expert who will be brought in to design a concept paper to set up parameters of a disaster management system. We are moving very fast on this.

Sequence: Disaster happens, analysed, and transmitted in a secure communication mechanism to the media. Once the warning message is transmitted, the disaster warning process is over. As far as Vanguard and LIRNE is concerned this is a ICT and telecom problem. Disaster education will be undertaken by vanguard at a later point in time.

Since we are not govt,…

4 Comments
Tags: Arun Mehtah, Bangkok, Chanukah, Colombo, Divisional Secretariate, electricity, hour systems, India, insurance, medical services/police services, More government, New York City, Pete Anderson, publicy pushing solutions, resilient solution, solar/electricity, telecenter network, Thailand, TRAI, United States, Vanguard Foundation, video conferencing.

Colloquium LIVE Feed

Divakar Goswami

on December 16, 2004

Sujata: summary too lenghty
Luxman: Since audience is EU needs to have language on ICT uplifting “masses” and “rural” access.
Malathy: Process element of regulation is not there?
Rohan: Study was originally for investor study and language taken from WTO language leaving out the independence of regulator. Process question will be in another study comparing different sectors.
Malathy: why cant process be built into current study?
Rohan: More questions you put in the response rate is poor.
Luxman: If performance indicator isnt ok, then need to know what is going wrong with regulator..
Rohan: If sector is doing well, why should I care if regulator isnt answering letters on time?
Sujata: Perception could be added for evaluating process regulator?
Amal: When respondents received questionnaire they thought it was too long. And deadlines keep slipping
Rohan:…

3 Comments
Tags: Australia, Bangladesh, Chanukah, electricity, electricity sector, European Union, Ghana, hold media conference, India, internet costs, Kerala, Maldives, Mauritius, National Science Foundation, Nepal, OECD, Pakistan, United States.

Big picture of telecom reforms

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 7, 2004

Yesterday, I spoke to a large and restive crowd (made so by lack of air conditioning and a delayed start) in Matara (main city in the South of Sri Lanka) at the launch of the Pathfinder Foundation’s first book, a Sinhala translation of Janos Kornai’s Toward a free economy. I was asked to talk about globalization and the relevance of Kornai’s ideas for facing the challenges posed by globalization. In this talk that I pieced together thanks to time zone differences that caused me to wake up at 3 in the morning while in the US, I illustrated the issues referring to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), a broad area of service exports for which efficient, flexible and low-cost telecom is a pre-condition.

I think the talk provides…

Pages: 1 2

7 Comments
Tags: adequate infrastructure, agricultural products, air services, America, American Midwest, Apollo Hospital, Asia, Austria, bank, banking, BPO, Broadband, broadband networks, chemicals, Chennai Apollo Hospital, China, Colombo, Communist government, computer-based information systems, electricity, fiber optic, Germany, hotel services, house-maid services, housemaid services, HSBC, html, Hungary, India, infrastructure, infrastructure services, intricate web, Ireland, Kandy, Kenya, kitchen equipment, LKR, low food prices, low-value-addition services, Maldives, microwave, Middle East, Milinda Moragoda, New York, niche applications, Northwestern, Pakistan, Parliament Road, Pathfinder Foundation, people wearing telephone headsets, Port of Colombo, Pramod Mahajan, Ranil Wickremesinghe, regional resource center, rubber, Sabaragamuva, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Telecom, subsidized electricity, telecom services, telecommunications, telecommunications facilities, telecommunications supply, the Philippines, transport systems, ultra reliable telecommunications, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, VSNL Lanka, West Bengal, Wickremesinghe government.

Net Thru a Wall Outlet

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 28, 2004

Should this be added to the debate? 65% of homes have electricity; more than the 25% with some form of telecom access.

By TOM McNICHOL

HIGH-speed Internet access usually comes to homes through one of two wires: a telephone line for D.S.L. subscribers, or a coaxial cable for cable modem users. But an emergingtechnology known as broadband over power lines, or B.P.L.,may soon offer a third wire into homes, channelinghigh-speed data through a somewhat improbable conduit: anordinary electrical outlet. B.P.L. is the ultimate in plug-and-play. Users plug a smallpower line modem into any wall outlet and then connect the modem to a computer with a U.S.B. or Ethernet cable, orthrough a wireless Wi-Fi connection. The appeal of B.P.L.is that most of the wiring for the network is…

3 Comments
Tags: Bill Grealis, Bob Dobkin, Broadband, broadband services, cable modem, Cincinnati, Cinergy, coaxial cable, Denmark, electricity, electricity customers, Ethernet, Federal Communications Commission, gas station, Germantown, high-speed Internet, HIGH-speed Internet access, high-speed Internet providers, Iceland, Internet access, Internet service, Internet-enabled meters, Japan, Jay Birnbaum, Korea, Maryland, Michael J. Copps, New York Times, Pepco, Potomac, radio frequency energy, telephone line, United States, USD, Washington, Wi-Fi.

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