LIRNEasia » Libya

Mobile companies owned by despots and their progeny (and other relatives)

Rohan Samarajiva — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:21:23 +0000

Something we rarely talk about in discussions of the great public policy success of our time, the mobile explosion, is how various kleptocrats rode the mobile boom. Libya’s Qaddafi’s present problems serve to bring this skeleton out of the closet:

But never underestimate the human capacity for delusion. Here’s a despot who’s managed at various times to pocket America and Europe with après-moi-le-déluge talk of the need for his rule, bought off several smaller African states, cocooned himself for more than four decades with fawning acolytes, murdered with impunity, sired with abandon, enriched himself beyond measure and — like any self-respecting modern tyrant — doled out the cell phone companies to his kids. Through all this he’s survived.

Our politicians just tax mobile operators in multiple ways. The truly despotic take the whole company. But then, does it create incentives to reduce rent extraction?

We wrote about the Revolutionary Guard owning mobile operators in Iran. I asked people in the Iranian regulatory authority about the challenges this posed to even handed regulation. They seemed for the most part unaware of the ownership of the operators. Some things, you’d rather not know.

We’d welcome comments on mobile operators owned by despots and their children.

Breaking the chokehold on communication

Rohan Samarajiva — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 09:26:16 +0000

In a recent piece in Himal, I summarized the ideas I have been developing on the nation state and its control of telecom networks used by its citizens. The thesis was that in countries above a certain threshold of electronic connectivity, shutting down networks was futile. The regime would fall.

Now here’s a new spin. A proposal to ease the pressure of the Qaddafi’s chokehold:

As a result, democracy demonstrators have had a harder time communicating with one another, while foreign correspondents in Libya have found it nearly impossible to report on events fully.

Colonel Qaddafi and his loyalists, meanwhile, can use the military communication networks they control to counter rebel forces.

Fortunately, there is an easy step the United States and its allies could take to help: deploying cellphone base stations on aircraft or tethered balloons. The calls could then be routed to Navy ships equipped with satellite communications terminals.

Base stations are small and cheap. Indeed, this kind of portable system, though not used, was already available in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and in the years since the hurricane, the equipment has shrunk even further.

Ideally, a commercial cellphone operator would provide direct access to its network, and either the operator, the American government or the international community could foot the bill.

What’s more, establishing such a network would present minimal risk to pilots, who could loiter safely over the Mediterranean and still provide coverage to the coast, where the overwhelming majority of Libyans live and where most of the fighting is.

Can Qaddafi buck Gyanendra’s law?

Rohan Samarajiva — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:55:43 +0000

Countries that have a level of international connectivity above that of Burma and North Korea have so far been subject to Gyanendra’s Law. You pull the kill switch. You look for a new job.

Now Muammar Qaddafi has decided to the test the law.

Libya’s main Internet service provider, General Post and Telecommunications Company, began to cut Internet access on Friday, said Earl Zmijewski, general manager with Internet monitoring company Renesys. “They started pulling the plug around 23:18 UTC today and are currently largely off the air,” he said via e-mail. That was 1:18 a.m. Saturday, local time.

FLAG to invest $1.5 billion on new submarine cable network

Divakar Goswami — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 08:18:38 +0000

FLAG Telecom plans to deploy the largest IP-based submarine cable network that will connect 60 countries, including many that currently have poor connectivity by 2009. India, Indonesia, and Philippines are among the countries that FLAG’s NGN network will have a presence in.
Reliance to carry FLAG far and wide:

“We live in a world where there is too much of bandwidth for some, little for others and none for many – there is unequal access to bandwidth in and across countries, continents and communities,” said Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman, Reliance Communications. “FLAG NGN will democratise digital access,” he added.

FLAG NGN will comprise of our systems. FLAG NGN System 1 would cover Asia that includes India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Honk Kong. FLAG NGN System 2 would be for Africa covering Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mauritius.

FLAG NGN System 3 will cater to the Mediterranean region, including Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Malta, Libya and Lebanon. And the Trans-Pacific region, including the US West Coast, Japan, China and Hong Kong, would be covered by FLAG NGN System 4.

USD 150 computer

Rohan Samarajiva — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:07:53 +0000

In 2004, 4.1 percent of Sri Lankan households had computers. As the data comes in from our six-country study, we will post the numbers for those countries as well.

Looks like this will change the nature of the debate. The report states that Intel and Microsoft are not happy with Negoponte’s baby.

For $150, Third-World Laptop Stirs a Big Debate – New York Times

Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technologist for the project, likes to refer to the insight that transformed the machine from utopian dream to working prototype as “a really wacky idea.”

Ms. Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional laptop displays, cutting the screen’s manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing its power consumption by more than 80 percent. As a bonus, the display is clearly visible in sunlight.

That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years. Five countries — Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand — have made tentative commitments to put the computers into the hands of millions of students, with production in Taiwan expected to begin by mid-2007.

The laptop does not come with a Microsoft Windows operating system or even a hard drive, and the screen is small. And the cost is now closer to $150 than $100. But the price tag, even compared with low-end $500 laptops now widely available, transforms the economic equation for developing countries.

The bounty of sensible regulation in Africa and Middle East

Abu Saeed Khan — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:56:16 +0000

Arab Mobile Phone Subscriptions Jump 70% in 2005
Source: www.cellular-news.com/story/18589.php
The number of mobile phone subscriptions in the Arab world has grown by a whopping 70 percent in 2005, underlining a strong consumer demand coupled by increased liberalization and competition in Arab telecom markets, according to a recently published Madar Research study. The study also reveals that Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have achieved mobile phone penetration levels among their population that are comparable with those prevalent in Europe and Pacific Rim countries.
Mobile subscription in the Arab world – total of 18 countries covered by Madar Research excluding Somalia, Mauritania, Djibouti and Comoros – grew from 51.19 million by end 2004 to 87.06 million by end 2005, exceeding all expectation and forecasts.
This resulted in an average pan-Arab penetration rate equivalent to 28 subscriptions per 100 of population, ranging in individual countries from a low of just over five percent penetration to a high that exceeds 100 percent.
“Thanks to a telecom liberalization drive which gained momentum in many Arab countries over the past couple of years and the resulting competitive environment and dropping prices, mobile telephony has become accessible to a wider base of Arab consumers,” said Abdul Kader Kamli, president and research director of the Dubai Media City-based Madar Research. “Due to falling fees and rates – not to mention the mobility advantage – mobile phones have interestingly become a more viable alternative in many Arab countries where fixed telephone service is either unreliable or unable to meet demand. In such countries the subscription ratio of mobile lines to fixed lines can now reach a high of 10 to one as is the case in Morocco, which is by far higher than the ratio in the industrialized world,” Kamli added.
Madar Research expects mobile growth to sustain strong levels, especially in countries where penetration rates are still low.
Classification of Arab countries by regions shows that the highest growth rate in mobile subscription was recorded in the least information and communication technology-savvy countries of Yemen and Sudan, while the lowest growth was seen in the more mature markets of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The GCC witnessed growth of around 38 percent, while North Africa (excluding Egypt) made almost 86 percent, followed by nearly 83 percent in the Levant, which groups Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt. In terms of penetration rates the GCC leads by far the Arab world, followed by North Africa and the Levant, respectively.
Among other findings of the study are Libya’s remarkable three-digit growth in mobile subscription – the highest in the Arab world in 2005, Jordan’s rise to become the most competitive mobile telecom market among the countries covered by the study, and Bahrain’s ascendance to the list of world’s top countries in mobile penetration.