The rankings are released by Point Topic Global broadband analysis, a global research centre. According to the statistics, there are around 382. 4 million broadband subscribers worldwide by the end of August 2008 as compared with 317 million in August 2007, showing 17 percent growth.

Regional Broadband trend revealed that Western Europe has the largest share of broadband users with 26 percent followed by North America at 22 percent. South and East Asia regional is in the third place with 22 percent share.

In Pakistan operators are offering wide range of technologies like DSL, Cable, FTTH and WiMax. They have added 25,500 new broadband connections in the financial year 2007-08, which is around 150 percent increase compared to the previous financial year, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) statistics reported.

The Internet Protocol (IP) traffic through high-speed access link has become the success factor that have made rapid the transfer of online information and communication services, data, voice and video footage. The easy way of communication owing to highly competitive market of service providers has been penetrating in the country with modest acceleration in the metropolis.

Read the full story in Daily Times here.

August has been a busy month for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and its chairman, the redoubtable Nripendra Misra, a dyed-in-wool bureaucrat who has in his regulatory avatar done arguably more than any of his predecessors on the job. He has plenty of support and equally bitter critics who wish he would give up on forbearance, cut rentals, mandate cheaper roaming and ensure per second billing instead of per minute.

On August 20, the authority allowed India’s estimated 295 million telecom subscribers the freedom to use different long distance service providers without changing their service provider. Two days earlier, it had unshackled internet telephony (voice transmitted over internet protocol networks). Two weeks before that, it had opened the doors for virtual mobile networks, virgin territory in India till then.

Read the full article in Business Standard here.

NEARLY a third of Hong Kong’s households watch television via the internet, according to a new report from Telecommunications Management group, a consultancy. Because internet protocol television (IPTV) uses the same technology as that which links computer networks, smaller countries with high broadband penetration tend to have more subscribers. As well as plain old programmes, viewers can also enjoy other services such as on-demand video. So far, Europe accounts for over half of the world’s subscribers.

http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11318291

Available only in Calcutta and Pune at present, the facility would no longer remain confined to the urban areas and would soon explore rural markets in the state.

The task of setting up infrastructure across the state has begun. Officials of the PSU are also holding talks with television channels whose programmes could be made available through the Internet via the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

“The facility should be launched by September,” said Sanjay Kumar, deputy general manager, planning, BSNL (Jharkhand Circle).

Initially, IPTV would be launched in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. Later, the service would be extended to all the other cities, including rural areas across the state. The broadband connection would have a speed of 8MB per second.

Read the full story in The Telegraph here.

First the EU said: Network interconnection by means of the Internet Protocol (IP) has been a vital enabler of the Internet’s ubiquity and success. IP-based interconnection has usually been achieved without explicit regulatory obligations, and has for the most part been highly effective.

Given the rapid evolution of the economic, technological and social environment this study of the European Union investigates whether IP interconnection is still better left unregulated.

Martyn Warwick of telecomtv slammed: You have to wonder if some “analysts” live in the same world as the rest of us. Take for example a hefty new report, commissioned by the European Commission and written by a German research organisation, that goes so far as to recommend the abolition of termination fees – on the peculiar grounds that we might as well because, one day, everything will be the Internet anyway.

The judgment is yours!

:: Daily Mirror – FINANCIAL TIMES ::
SLT is also shifting its focus to non-voice data services and delivering broadband technologies.

“SLT Chief Corporate Officer Mrs. Pat Abeysekara stressed that plans are underway to roll out 100,000 ADSL connections in all 32 regional telecommunications areas. A request for a tariff revision for ADSL has also been submitted to the TRCSL.

Trials will also be conducted with newer technologies like IP TV (Internet protocol TV allowing users to access pod casts and internet TV). This shift from providing telecom services to multimedia services is expected to expand SLT’s business scope and increase usage levels.

SLT is also expecting to conduct 2 Wimax trials in Colombo and Kandy, in collaboration with two vendors. Once the trials prove successful, the challenge would be to obtain commercial frequencies for a mass scale rollout.”