LIRNEasia’s Mobile Benchmarks (South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Broadband Benchmarks Report for October 2008 has been released. Click HERE for more information.
LIRNEasia lead economist Harsha de Silva recently had the honor of hosting 2006 Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus on his weekly television show; Biz1st: In- Focus, which runs on MTV and Shakthi TV in Sri Lanka.
A five minute cut on the discussion, where Professor Yunus discusses how a “digital genie” will appear from the “Aladdin’s lamp” [the mobile phone] to empower the poor, has been linked below.
hazinfo-sri-lanka-lirneasia-colloquium-03-july-2007-slides.pdf.
The Colloquium was on the HazInfo project lead by Nuwan Waidyanath and discussed the methology and research findings with respect to the specific objectives and hypothesis of the proposal with evidence to support the recommendations for an implementation phase of the LM-HWS.
The research indicated the different preferences made by users in regard to hazard notification technologies. He also explained the CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) profile that was developed for Sri Lanka. The different devices used were listed and the pros and cons discussed.
Harsha de Silva raised fundamental issue of ne whether the LM HWS will be bi-directional, ie upstream and downstreamraised.
Rohan Samarajiva argued that calls should not come into the disaster center, but an emergency number, because a disaster center cannot have everyone calling in when they receive alerts…
14 June 2007) Rohan Samarajiva, Joseph Wilson, Harsha de Silva and Tahani Iqbal presented recent research conducted by LIRNEasia at a media and stakeholder event organized by the Pakistan Telecom Authority in Islamabad today.
Following opening remarks by Chairman of PTA, Major General (R) Shahzada Alam Malik, Samarajiva and Wilson presented the new improved version of the six-country Telecom Regulatory Environment study, with emphasis on Pakistan.
de Silva discussed the results of the Teleuse @ the Bottom of the Pyramid (T@BOP) survey conducted in five countries, including Pakistan. Among other things, he discussed the disparate access to ICTs between men and women at the BOP as well as the tremendous progress made in connecting large numbers of people at the BOP in the past few years.
Iqbal presented comparative analysis of…
Dr. Harsha de Silva participated in the LIRNE.NET and WDR expert meeting entitled “Wireless Opportunities and Solutions: A Regulatory Perspective” held in Montevideo, Uruguay during 7-9 March 2007.
He made a presentation during the first session entitled “Getting a clearer picture: Demand side ICT data collection”, sharing with the audience some of the findings and the methodology used in LIRNEasia’s recently completed research on teleuse@BOP. During the discussion sessions and on the sidelines of the conference he engaged substantially with the DIRSI researchers planning to replicate the Asian study in Latin America. Dr. de Silva explained to the team the challenges faced in designing and implementing the study across the five countries and suggested possible alternatives.
In the second session entitled “Perspectives of telecom sector performance” he presented slides…
This colloquium will be on a new paper that is being developed on tools for intelligent benchmark regulation, based on Harsha de Silva and Tahani Iqbal’s presentation on Price & Affordability Indicators at the WDR Expert Forum in Singapore. The tools under consideration are price baskets and price elasticity of demand.
LIRNEasia’s Director of Organizational Development has been awarded a competitive scholarship for the International Program for Development Evaluation Training offered every Summer by Carleton University (Canada) and the World Bank.
This signifies LIRNEasia’s continued commitment to the values of a learning organization. Last year, LIRNEasia’s Lead Economist Dr Harsha de Silva was awarded a scholarship at the MIT Poverty Research Lab.
Sri Lanka: Cutting it
FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
In the world’s poorer countries, the purchase of a mobile phone has become increasingly affordable. Using it, however, can still be a struggle. Low-income mobile phone owners in Sri Lanka are getting around this problem with a novel method for keeping costs down.
Known as ring cutting, mobile phone subscribers rely on ring tones to communicate with others, rather than actually staying on the line to talk. By a pre-arranged signal that will convey the desired message – “two rings means I’m home” – callers negate the need for a conversation. They simply hang up as soon as the…
Sonal Desai | CXOToday.com
Mumbai, Mar 27, 2007: Mobile penetration will penetrate the homes of bottom or pyramid (BOP) families in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a study instituted by LIRNEasia has found.
Titled, “Teleuse on a Shoestring- A Study of the Financially Constrained in Asia,” it interviewed and maintained diaries of respondents from Thailand and Philippines besides the above mentioned countries. A C Nielsen conducted the fieldwork. International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada funded the research.
Report on the 11th LIRNE.NET Executive Training Course on Regulation, 25 February – 3 March 2007, conducted by LIRNEasia and CONNECTasia Forum Pte.Ltd.
Rohan Samarajiva, Course Director
The 11th LIRNE.NET course on “Telecom Reform: Strategies to achieve connectivity and convergence,” was held February 25th - March 3rd, 2007 at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore. It was attended by 33 persons from 13 countries, ranging from Mongolia to Congo and South Africa to Bhutan.
Among the participants were 13 persons from regulatory agencies, including three members of regulatory collegiums. Eleven persons from the management of telecom operators, and nine from research organizations, universities and civil society made up the balance. Twenty were men; and 13 women.
The course had two components: a conventional lecture and assignment based module of five…
The results of LIRNEasia’s Teleuse on a Shoestring:2 - A study of teleuse at the bottom of the pyramid were officially released in Singapore at a media workshop on 28 February 2007. The release took place at the Changi Village Hotel, with the presence of media from four countries.
The research findings were presented to and then discussed with the journalists by Dr. Harsha de Silva and Ayesha Zainudeen of LIRNEasia and Dr. Lorraine Carlos Salazar of ISEAS, Singapore. followed by discussion with the journalists.
The presentations can be downloaded below.
Research Methodology and Key Findings | Harsha de Silva
Cost Cutting Strategies at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The SMS Story, Missed Calls, and others | Lorraine Carlos Salazar
The next billion customers | Ayesha Zainudeen
…
The WDR Expert Forum, held in association with the Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS), took place at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore from March 2-3, 2007. The Forum focused on ICT sector and regulatory performance indicators and discussed the issues that NRAs and NSOs face with regards to data collection and definitions.
The presentations made are available for download below:
March 2, 2007
1. Introduction
Rohan Samarajiva | Download Speech
2. Overview of Regulatory Performance in Six South & South East Asian Countries: TRE Methodology and Results
Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation
3. Problems & Prospects for Standardizing Sector Performance by NRAs
Helani Galpaya and Sriganesh Lokanathan | Download Presentation
4. Integrating ICT Questions in the Work of NSOs
Harsha de Silva | Download Presentation
5. Challenges of High AMPU in a Low ARPU…
Harsha de Silva, LIRNEasia’s Lead Economist presented a few of the preliminary findings of the Teleuse@BOP (Shoestrings:2) study at CEPA’s (Centre for Poverty Analysis) Annual Symposium on Poverty Research in Sri Lanka at the JAIC Hilton on December 6 2007.
The presentation turned around much of the discussion at the Forum, in line with Prahalad’s thinking, taikng a stand that the ‘poor’ should not be seen as a burden to the private sector, but more of a gold mine.
The presentation was based on a paper, co-authored with Ayesha Zainudeen, which will be published by CEPA in the coming months.
Download paper: Poverty reduction through telecom access at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ - Harsha de Silva & Ayesha Zainudeen
The Study of India’s Universal Service Instruments by LIRNEasia researchers Payal Malik & Harsha De Silva, critiqued the Indian government’s policy that made only fixed line operators eligible for USO funds:
As of today, the government is giving USO fund support to only the fixed line operators offering services in the rural areas. The over defining terms in the law is a bad idea in a rapidly evolving technology environment, though this correction has been suggested it is quite possible that the previous auctions have left huge amounts of rents that have been appropriated by the incumbent. In an industry that manifests the potential for rapid technological change and innovation, such as telecom, an economic analysis of a problem should not focus too narrowly or exclusively on the…
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