Findings have also made to the Pakistani  media. Read the full article appearing in the The News, here.

M. Somasekhar’s piece on Hindu Business Line on mobile payments says:

Experts from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya, Thailand, the Philippines, Bhutan and Bangladesh among other nations met in Islamabad recently to discuss their experiences in providing mobile phone services for the BoP segment in their respective countries. They agreed that a beginning has been made and the road ahead appeared daunting, but technological progress promised quick results.

Don Sambandaraksa’s  piece “Mobile phones offer hope to ‘bottom of the pyramid” to Bangkok Post focuses on mobile use in farming, transport and banking. Says he:

“ICTs cannot solve all problems, chief of which is land reform, but when it comes to making decisions, lowering transaction costs and going to market and selling, information can make a big difference.

The researched categorised the decision-making process and information value in each from decisions to seed, planting, growing to harvesting and selling.

Information search costs are highest at the beginning of the cycle. Information on deciding what to grow are three times all other costs, and this is where ICTs have a potential role to play.

Sriganesh Lokanathan said that ideally he wanted to change the decision-making chain into a cycle where the decision on what the farmer wants to grow is based on the price when he expects to harvest. For this to happen, prices and supply and demand needed to be predicted and farmers need to get into forward sales contracts which does not often happen in this part of the world.”

Meanwhile we see Pakistan Telecom Authority, the co-organiser takes the message forward. ‘PTA Focuses on Value-Added Services Including E-Commerce, E-Agriculture & E-Education’ was the title of a report from Pakistan Telecom News Bulletin. It says:

Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr. Mohammed Yaseen has said that PTA’s focus is on value added services and with a high penetration level of mobile and low penetration of internet we have to explore the available possibilities which could be gained via mobile 2.0 theories. I very much foresee the further development of presently available technologies and those coming ahead through value added services and content. He was addressing to Connect 2010 ICT Forum – Telecom Session at Expo Centre Karachi and talking to media men on the occasion. He said that our emphasis is on e-commerce, e-agriculture and e-education, it is the time to open doors of opportunities to our young innovative minds and to bridge the unseen gaps between all potentials players of ICT proliferation.

For the full media coverage and presentations,  please see here.

Bus tickets:

The use of mobile phone to buy tickets has shown promising results for the public transport system in Sri Lanka. Currently, Government buses use both ticket books and manual ticket machines to issue tickets on payment of cash. Private buses mainly use digital ticketing machines that print out the tickets, said Harsha de Silva of LIRNEasia.

The major problems in this system include a 25 per cent revenue leakage for the bus operator, a process that is time-consuming and the bother of carrying exact change, for the commuter. The challenge is to reduce revenue leakage and speed up the transaction.

With 10 million passengers daily using 10,000 private and 5,500 Government buses, and 13 million of the 20 million Sri Lankan population having access to mobile phones, there is a fit case for mobile-based ticket vending, de Silva said.

…NFC is a standards-based, short-distance, wireless connectivity technology which enables two-way conversation between electronic gadgets. The user can authorise the payment requested by the NFC reader. While Nokia had introduced the NFC technology in 2005, in recent times an NFC SIM has also been introduced by China Telecom, Nokia and Japan’s NTT DoComo. Mobile-based bus and rail ticket systems are operational in developed nations, and it is time to try them out in South Asian countries with appropriate innovations, de Silva added.

Pakistan: Experiencing Easy Paisa

In Pakistan, Telenor has in collaboration with the State Bank of Pakistan launched ‘Easy Paisa’, whereby the mobile phone can be used for payment of utility bills and money transfer through banks. The service was launched last year with the help of the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA).

Kenya: Embarking on M-PESA

This African country with 75 per cent of its 39 million people living in rural areas has an interesting story on M-PESA ( pesa is Swahili for money). In five years, the mobile-based initiative has virtually killed all informal and some formal modes of money remittances in this country. It has indeed nearly killed the post office, said Muriuki Mureitha of Summit Strategies.

India: Agri value-addition

About eight services have been launched in India since 2007 targeting the agricultural sector, said Sriganesh Lokanathan of LIRNEasia in his presentation.

Of these, the Reuters Market Light (RML) is a subscription-based model while IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL) is free. Technologies such as IVR, SMS, WAP and so on are being deployed to provide the services in at least nine languages at present, Sriganesh told Business Line.

Read the full article here.

Rohan Samarajiva is in Pakistan. Near the border, once marked by Mountbatten’s sharp knife, his cell phone links him to India. Airlines do not understand this proximity. Indian participants, to Expert Forum Meeting jointly organized by LIRNEasia and Pakistan Regulator, first travel led west (3 hours to Dubai) and then east (another 3 hours) to cover 678 km between Islamabad and Delhi – a one hour flight if existed.

In the backdrop of Thimpu SAARC summit Rohan asks the same question he has been asking for sometime. (But this time in Bangladesh media): Can’t telecom bring these South Asian cities closer? Should they remain artificially distanced?   

Read the article here.

Objectives: To share LIRNEasia’s Mobile 2.0 (i.e., the second wave of mobile use –beyond voice applications) research results among regulators, operators, policy makers and researchers of SAARC and ASEAN countries to: obtain feedback from key stakeholders on improving the research outputs, create a dialogue on policy and regulatory processes affecting Mobile 2.0 and explore replication opportunities for good practices

Click here for the draft agenda.

Mobile 2.0 is a term used to describe the use of mobiles for “more-than-voice”. Mobiles are increasingly becoming payment devices which can also send/process/receive voice, text and images; it is envisaged that in the next few years, they will also be capable of information-retrieval and publishing functions, normally associated with the internet.

The Mobile 2.0 @ BOP project consists of thirteen studies, researched in terms of ‘horizontal’ issues and ‘vertical’ aspects.  The horizontal studies explores the basic competitive and regulatory conditions that affect the emergence of Mobile 2.0@BOP. The vertical studies  explores  and explain how a particular aspect such as in-depth micro-payments and remittances, agriculture applications, voting applications, e-government services etc is taking shape and form among countries in the developing world.

For more information on the Mobile 2.0 project, click here.

Last week two Chinese nationals were arrested while the authorities busted a bypass den at Islamabad. They have been allegedly the partner of an “influential Pakistani” in this illegal venture. It claims to have caused an estimated six billion rupees (US$74 million) loss to the exchequer. The news followed by a lively debate is going on.

Meanwhile, the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) has rejected a regulatory decree to deploy necessary countermeasures to block the VoIP traffic. Their argument and a loud debate can be viewed here

For the full report:  frontlinesms_pakistan.pdf

The reasons cited in favor of MNP were classified into advantages to subscribers and regulators. The former were benefited by an increase in choice (of packages) and the eliminated costs of having to inform third parties of a number change, while the latter saw MNP as an approach to attract new investment and generate healthy competition. Operators on the other hand, were split in their views; new entrants and operators with smaller market share were of the view that it would create fair play in the industry, but larger operators with significant market power were, unsurprisingly, against the implementation of MNP.

High implementation costs were the main reasons against number portability. Mr. John Horrocks, an MNP consultant who spoke at the Workshop, demonstrated that a basic costs-benefit analysis of the portability process showed that implementing this service in smaller countries with populations of less than 10 million was not a feasible option, as the costs outweighed the benefits significantly. Instead, he suggested a few alternatives for these countries that would make number changes easier for subscribers (e.g.: operators send free SMS to all contacts on SIM, low cost for maintaining old number in parallel, etc), and ensure quality of service and competition among operators.

Figure 1: MNP implementations by country

Source: Presentation slides, MNP Workshop, August 2007

Mr. Horrocks also talked about the results of MNP implementations and lessons learnt in the countries listed in Figure 1. The success of MNP implementation is measured by the percentage of ported numbers, and it is evident that in countries with higher mobile phone penetration, competition and awareness, porting rates are high (e.g. Hong Kong and Australia). It was interesting to note though, that in some cases where MNP was implemented successfully, it proved to be an economic failure (e.g. Ireland, Finland, Malta, etc), while the implementations in UK and Netherlands were failures in all respects.

These varied results can be attributed to a number of reasons. Hong Kong’s MNP implementation, built on an already implemented solution set in place for fixed-line services, was driven heavily by the regulator; in addition, a highly competitive market structure in a technologically-aware community, and the fact that the introduction coincided with the entry of four new operators into the market, ensured portability a success there. The Australian regulator persistently promoted number portability to the public, while maintaining porting times of less than 3 hours on average, which eventually led to the successful implementation of MNP.

On the other hand, in the Irish case where MNP implementation was a success, the lack of competition (two incumbents and one weak new entrant) proved porting to be an economic failure. The same happened in Finland, where implementation was a success, but due to the absence of minimum contract periods and the provision of high incentives to port (from one operator to another), operators started losing heavily. This resulted in the introduction of minimum contract periods which, in turn, reduced the porting rate from 40% to 10% leading to economic failure. In the UK, Oftel (regulator at the time) pushed for MNP hoping it would increase competition, but did not play a hands-on role in the implementation phase. Additionally, only one operator in the UK was in favor of portability, and these factors collectively played a large role in the resulting failure.

A number of lessons can be learnt from these situations. Mr. Horrocks explained that it was essential for both regulators and operators to be in favor of and have heavy involvement throughout the porting process. The success of MNP depended greatly on competition and awareness and therefore it was the duty of both regulator and operator to keep subscribers informed of all things related to porting. He also said that it was important for regulators to understand that MNP did not create competition, but only improved it. Furthermore, for number porting to be successful it was necessary for a clear goal to be established, with a good set of rules (technical and legal) laid down from the start of the MNP process. He also stressed that porting time (i.e. time taken to port a number from operator A to operator B) had to be minimal, ideally one day at most, to ensure a successful MNP implementation.

The Workshop also covered the technicalities involved in number porting. Various features such as the number portability database configurations (centralized, distributed and hybrid), the call/SMS routing schemes (direct and indirect), and payment mechanisms were presented over the course of three days. The use of ENUM and NGN systems to make the porting process simpler were also discussed.

In light of these technical developments, call forwarding as a low-cost solution to number portability was not seen as the most efficient way to deploy MNP, although it was implemented in Singapore. Over 10 years ago, when the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS) discussed MNP as a means to lower number switching costs for subscribers and increase competition among operators, they explored three alternatives: 1. call forwarding, 2. originating re-route, and 3. Intelligent Network (IN) solutions. While Option 2 deviated from the GSM standard and affected services such as international roaming, Option 3 was not technologically mature yet, and therefore they settled for Option 1. They did not, however, rule out the possibility of implementing Option 3 at a later date. (Read more about MNP in Singapore)

The technical specifications employed in the number portability process in Pakistan were also described in detail. Similarly, the regulatory framework (including operator rights and obligations, charging schemes, best practices, and policy implications) required for the successful implementation of MNP was communicated by members of the PTA who were engaged in the Pakistani MNP process.

The key lesson learnt from the Workshop was that there was no standard MNP solution for a country. Every solution was unique with success riding on a number of factors.

:: bdnews24.com ::

The Nigerian telecoms regulator is working on plans to allow mobile phone subscribers to keep the same number when they change networks in a bid to force providers to improve services, its top executive said Monday.

As things stand, Nigerians have to give up their numbers if they want to move to a new network, which discourages many subscribers from trying a different provider even when they face constant problems making or receiving calls.

“We are planning for the future to allow number portability. The aims are to improve quality and competition,” Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice-chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, told Reuters by telephone.

“It is still some months away. We are going to conduct consultations with the industry and announce a starting date in the near future,” he said.

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“One innovative approach adopted recently in the
Asian market is to try to quantify the extent of
sector reform. LIRNEAsia has conducted research
into the regulatory environment in six Asian economies
(India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri
Lanka and Thailand). Their research is based on
interviews rating performance in market entry,
scarce resources, interconnection, prices, anticompetitive
practices and universal service. Their
evaluation of the regulatory environment is in general
agreement with sector performance, as measured
by the DOI. However, the fit is not perfect: for
instance, Sri Lanka actually gained two places in
the DOI, but it lagged behind, ranked fourth out
of the six countries in regulatory performance.11
This suggests lags in relating changes in the regulatory
environment to sector performance.”

We appreciate the care with which the report has been written, emphasizing in the reference that it is still a work in progress:

“Work to evaluate the Telecommunication Regulatory Environment by LIRNEAsia is ongoing. For interim results, see
the presentation by Rohan Samarajiva et al (March 2007) at: www.lirneasia.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/telecom-regulatory-environment-rohan-samarajiva.pdf. For ongoing work on refining the methodology, see: www.lirneasia.net/2007/03/colloquium-on-refining-tre-methodology/. ”

The most current version of the TRE results was presented at the Pakistan Telecom Authority workshop in Islamabad, July 15, 2007.  The final paper will be presented at the 35th Telecom Policy Research Conference in Virginia, USA, September 30, 2007 and will be available online prior to that.

Pakistan exceeds in Telecom Regulatory Environment – PakTribune

Chairman PTA said that PTA had provided level playing field in different areas of tele use in the country.

He appreciated the research activities in communication sector as they motivated to perform even better. The total tele density reached 43.44 % in May 2007 as compared to 12 % in June 2005 while approximately 2.3 million subscribers were being added on cellular mobile networks each month in Pakistan, he observed.

Shahzada Malik also observed that total mobile subscribers at the end of May 2007 crossed 60.8 million marks.

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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 mobile prices in three countries of South Asia, using a basket methodology adapted from one used by the OECD since 1995. With these comparisons, she illustrated that Pakistan has the lowest prices for SMS and also for low-users.

From the Daily Times, Pakistan. 15 June 2007

Presentation slides:
Telecom Regulatory Environment 2006 | Rohan Samarajiva & Joseph Wilson
Teleuse@BOP: Pakistan in Asian Context | Harsha de Silva
Basket methodology to benchmark telecom prices in South Asia: The cases of Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka | Tahani Iqbal
News Releases:
TRE:Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) 2006 survey results: Pakistan among the leaders in Telecom Regulatory Environment, a regional study reveals
Teleuse@BOP: Pakistan BOP doing well overall in telecom, but large gender divide still exists
Price comparisons: Pakistan low-user mobile baskets cheaper than in India and Sri Lanka; SMS charge is lowest in South Asia and lower even than in the Philippines

Media coverage
pakcoverage14jun07_1.pdf
pakcoverage14jun07_2.pdf