75% of passenger transport is via public transport and of that 93% by bus and 7% by train. Roughly 5500 SLCTB and 18000 private buses. The fare is regulated by National Transport Commission (NTC). They also have timetables which are n0t implemented.

Shortest distance (~2KM) LKR 6:00.

Longest distance 260 KM – LKR 655.00.

Most of the BOP uses bus transport. 36% of the BOP use mobile and fixed phones.

SLTB buses use both ticket books and manual ticket machines to issue tickets to commuters

Private buses primarily use digital ticketing machines that prints out tickets. Can store data, process memory. Can even tell you how may people have to get off at the next bus stop.  The one in use now is also lighter in weight.

These are mainly used in the Western Province and on a few inter provincial buses.  Manual ticket machines are used in other areas.

Issues with the current ticketting system:

Money lost in Transit. Bus conductors and Drivers take the money, or tickets are not issued, or passengers do not buy the tickets. CTB estimates a 15% loss of revenue and private bus owners 25%.

Chanuka: How is the estimates done?

RS: through Load share.

HdS: Bus owners want to reduce leakage.  They wold like to issue a e-bus tickets. So the solution is either a card system or a mobile. So from the suply side there is a need but what about the demand side?

A  simple survey was done at the Fort railway station. Not a Sample survey but to get an idea. 2/3: 1/3 male: female. There maybe selection bias as it is a starting point.

What is the real cost of a ticket? Do the passengers receive the balance after getting a ticket? only 5% said that they always get there balance. Most people carry exact change. And only 50% of the people receive a bus ticket. Ticket checkers are used both in public and private sector. Some private companies have their own people to check for tickets.

So because of these issues, there is a need.

Possible benefits of e-tickets:

For Bus operators

• reduce leakage
• Offer loyalty plans etc.

For Commuters

• Cost only actual fare
• Can better schedule travel; save on transport expenditure

State [local government]

• Tax collection
• Target subsidies

What are the options?

Contactless smart cards: Oyster, ez link. Delhi is running a pilot, minimum reload INR 25.

Mobile phones: either through SMS or Near field Communication (NFC) merging mobile phones with a contactless smart card (Innovation).

NFC mobile phones: Nokia introduced the first in 2005 (3220). Break through innovation is instead of a NFC  phone, what about an NFC SIM. China Telecom has come p with a NON NFC standard RF SIM.  Nokia 6216: First NFC standard SIM compatible. Operator can load application.

Japan is leader with NTT DoComo Osaifu-Keitai e-wallet phones. Spain, Netherlands, France and Germany, mobile bus and rail ticket system are being piloted.  China has started.  UK to start by 2015 and fully switch to NFC by 2020.

At least some have first assumed it a practical joke, but Daily Mirror online confirmed President did send a New Year wish to all mobile users today. Using romanised Sinhala President wrote “Kiwu paridi obata NIDAHAS, NIVAHAL RATAK laba dunnemi. Idiri anagathaya sarwapparakarayenma Wasanawantha Wewa! SUBA NAWA WASARAK WEWA! Mahinda Rajapaksa” (As promised I delivered you an independent and free country. May your future be a success. Happy New Year!)

At the cost of LKR 1 per SMS message, this might have cost approximately USD 150,000 – equivalent to publishing roughly 75 full-page colour advertisements in national newspapers.

Sender’s number was hidden so the millions of mobile users, now constitute at least half of the population, could not return the greetings.

Had Cell Broadcasting (CB) been available in Sri Lanka, President would not have to use SMS – which is relatively too cumbersome for both the sender and receiver. CB would have been more economical too. Given that it uses a different band and sends messages together, it wouldn’t have congested the networks and the cost would have been certainly less than USD 150,000. As CB, unlike SMS differentiates users President could have even used a romanised Tamil message in Northern Province.

LIRNEasia have been a promoter of CB – mainly for, but not limited to early warning. It can be used effectively for other commercial and non commercial messages. Rohan Samarajiva highlighted some of its advantages over SMS in his short presentation in ‘Beyond the typical Early Warning Systems’ session at LIRNEasia at 5 conference. Download the presentation slides for more details.

“I came more to learn from you; than to teach” was the message I passed before my two presentations with Sujata. Thanks Fusion/Telecentre.org for the opportunity. The three days spent with 200+ telecenter operators from eight provinces in Sri Lanka was a worthy investment. One does not interact with so many ground level ICT4D practitioners every day. It was a learning experience, for them; and for us.

From what I saw (and heard from others) the workshop, ‘weCAN: Social Enterprise with a Triple Bottom Line’ the second in the series of capacity building workshops of the Telecenter family of Sri Lanka was a grand success. Organized by Fusion/Telecentre.org (and funded by IDRC), we met at MIMT (MAS Institute of Management and Technology), Thulhiriya for four days (two batches). Plan was to amass 400 of telecenter operators from eight out of nine provinces of Sri Lanka but the recent floods in many parts of the island have stood in their way.

200+ participants was not bad. It was a mixed group gender and ethnically balanced. We had mainly ‘Nenasala’ and Sarvodaya multipurpose telecenter operators, but there were few odds too- like those who represented the telecenters at public libraries.

So what did I learn?

More will surely come when LIRNEasia survey results are analysed, but just Four Lessons, for the moment.

Lesson No. 1 (Good News!): GREAT THINGS HAPPEN AT GROUND LEVEL.

More than 50% of the crowd were newbies – either those who have started recently or who run more a ‘hand to mouth’ existence – but on the other hand, successful telecenter operators were not that rare a commodity, as many would think. I picked eight guys who are doing excellent. (Sadly no gender balance here, but things will surely change with many innovative ladies entering to telecenter space.)

Inter alia, we have heard the stories of Kathivan from Badulla whose telecenter earned LKR 300,000 (> USD 3,000) in one month; of U.M.G.Prasad from Sevanagala who uses Internet to link job seekers in his community with prospective employers (This clips tells more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqwU6k8Y35E); of Noel Tharmarathnam from Trocomalee who opens the doors of online IT exams to a post-conflict society (“I have to keep a low profile” he tells me over lunch, “…if I try to do too many things; I might not see tomorrow”); of Sanjeewa Kumarathunga from Nivithigala who told us about his efforts to help agriculture activities of the community and of Jayantha Wickramaratne from Panamura who runs a BPO operation. Congrats guys, and I hope the others have learnt from your experience.

Lesson No. 2 (Good News!): TELECENTER FAMILY OF SRI LANKA IS WELL CONNECTED THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING.

Try www.tcf.lk. Not everybody is there yet. Neither every member is a telecenter operator per se. (There are people like myself – who spend more time at our desks than at telecenters) Still, a good start. With this, Telecenter family becomes perhaps the first group in Sri Lanka to *officially* exploit the full features of Social Networking. Glad to see it happening in a place where many consider Social Networking is just for fun. I guess the credits go to Isura for creating this great platform.

Lesson No. 3 (Bad News!): NOT EVERYBODY IS CONNECTED.

This was a real eye opener. I thought Internet connectivity is central to telecenter operation. Without connectivity, a place with few computers does not become a ‘tele-center’. I was wrong. Some ‘telecenters’ in Sri Lanka have neither Internet nor e-mail. There are two groups – the recent additions who eagerly wait till ICTA responds to their numerous requests, and those who once had Internet facilities but now isolated because of an operator/technology transition. One can just forget it attributing to bureaucracy, poor planning and attitude problems. Can they too, who interact with communities on daily basis? What can a telecenter offer with no Internet? Are PCs only to learn inserting clipart on PowerPoint slides? I am not sure whether ICTA is aware that Internet is cut off from some telecenters for months. (Classic case was NINE months). Please do something, fast! Bits and Bytes are the food of net life and if deprived one can starve faster than we think.

Lesson No. 4 (Bad News): MOST TELECENTERS IN SRI LANKA RUN PIRATED PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE.

This is sad, but true. Out of 200+ operators none claimed using original versions or FOSS. With pirated versions no longer publicly sold on CDs (as a result of recent raids) a telecenter operator has to be innovative in finding solutions. I met few ‘gurus of pirated software’ who know A-Z from best download sites to cracking codes. Many think these as ‘originals’.

When asked when or whether ICTA intends to provide licensed versions of these to them, all what its representative has to say was (a) this was an issue from the beginning; (b) ICTA has no solution yet and (c) he needs to talks to his boss, who he thinks may have an answer. (I doubt!)

My question is why donors spend millions of Dollars on Free and Open Source Software if they are not used at ground level. As we say in Sinhala, use a sword has if not for war?

Enough for now. More later, with figures. Please watch his space.

LIRNEasia has come up with startling evidence on how transaction costs in agriculture could be reduced by simple mobile phone applications. The organization’s Lead Economist, Dr. Harsha de Silva called for a multi-stakeholder action plan to implement a series of actions that would help poor farmers as well as consumers by reducing information costs in agricultural markets and value chains. He was speaking at a panel following a public lecture by Indian Institute of Management Professor, Subhash C. Bhatnagar, who spoke on the benefits of ICT applications to farmers, taking India as an example.

eChoupal model, an initiative by Indian Tobacco Company, said Prof. Bhatnagar, is a good case study how ICTs can reduce transaction costs for the farmers. Electronic market places or Internet kiosks are set up in houses of a trained farmers within walking distance of target farmers which they can use not just to sell their produce, but also to receive services including obtaining information about local weather conditions, farm management and insurance. This will enable higher incomes for farmers through improved quality and reduction in transaction costs. Now 6,400 eChoupals are operational in 5 states of India covering 38,000 villages, servicing 4.0 million farmers, sourcing 13 agri commodities including oilseeds, grains, coffee and aquaculture products. Overall eChoupals have reduced the transaction costs to INR 335 (about LKR 1,000) per one MT of vegetables from the previous figure more than twice of that.

e-Sagu system, another collaborative effort of agriculture research institutions, currently tested among 5,000 farmers among 40 villages in Andra Pradesh, India has shown providing information at right time can result in a net reduction in the farmer transaction costs by INR 2,620 per acre. (about LKR 7,900) farmers need not even be literate to enjoy the benefits of this system, the implementers say.

Read more on our news release lirneasia-public-lecture-news-release.doc

Ethalaya.com reported the event within two hours. See its story here.

Click here to Download Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar’s slides

Click here to download Ms. Helani Galpaya’s slides

Click here to download Dr. Harsha de Silva’s slides

This is a positive move for a government that has imposed an additional 7.5 per cent levy on mobile charges (the government currently takes LKR 26.50 of every LKR 100 spent on mobiles through value-added and mobile-specific taxes).  At least this should bury the misconception that mobiles are used only by the rich.

So mobile use is socially desirable.   But not fixed phone use?  Why can’t these guys get it into their heads that a phone call is a phone call?

Sri Lanka inflation rockets to new record of 26.2-pct amid money printing – LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE

It was later revealed that alcohol and tobacco has been removed from the CCPI (N) index on a government directive, and was justified, because it was against a government campaign against the use of intoxicants.

The Centre for Poverty Alleviation, a non-profit organization, said the move went against an International Labour Organization recommendation that price indices should not exclude items that “may be considered socially undesirable”.

Alcohol and tobacco prices frequently go up in Sri Lanka as they are taxed heavily.

In a transparent ploy, authorities had then replaced alcohol and tobacco with mobile phone charges which have been steadily falling for more than a decade and are expected to fall further.

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The response to a question whether Sri Lanka SMS use is declining like in India was answered in the negative by Supun Weerasinghe, the new CEO of Dialog Mobile (Hans Wijayasuriya is now the Group CEO).   The question was triggered by the decline of SMS and VAS revenues from LKR 1,468 m in 2006 3Q (8% of total revenues) to LKR 1,223 m in 2007 3Q (5% of total revenues).

LIRNEasia’s research evidence from the T@BOP study played an important role in pointing out the likely adverse effect of the proposed regressive tax on the mobile users at the “Bottom of the Pyramid”.

The following are the articles/discussions on this topic.

• Sri Lanka plans to tax mobiles more heavily

• Taxing Sri Lanka’s mobile customers; Goose or eggs?

• Sri Lanka drops unfair mobile phone tax, slaps higher usage tax

The following is an extract of the The Parliament of Sri Lanka’s Hansard on Mobile Taxation Issue on 6th September 2007.

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Translation: We will be pleased if Hon. Minister removes the regressive tax of LKR 50 as pointed out by Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Dr. Harsha de SIlva of LIRNEasia and UNP Members. We also request not to increase the mobile subscriber levy to 10%. This tax will have an adverse effect on the common man.

To understand the following story better, it is useful to compare the budget for dam safety in Sri Lanka  which is LKR 15 million a year or slightly over LKR 1.2 million a month with say the purchase price of a unregistered car (cannot buy one with the budget for dam safety for one month) or the cost of a MIG 27 (USD 2 million plus; or LKR 200 million plus).  It will take 13 years of dam safety budgets to buy a reconditioned MIG 27.

Features | Sundayobserver.lk – Sri Lanka

The Irrigation Department is equipped with the expertise, they have 275 Engineers. When the reports come to Head Office the Dam Safety Unit which is chaired by the Deputy Director and a few Engineers study the repot and if the Director’s intervention is necessary for the matter, it is referred to the Director himself. The annual budget for dam safety is around Rs. 15 million.Unfortunately there is no mechanism to give early warning to people even if a dam breaches, what the Department does is to get the assistance of the Police, Army and with loud speakers mounted on vehicles tell the people.

Kantale Tank Dam episode is a case in point.

This kind of situation is highly unsatisfactory. Therefore in case of dam breach situation the Irrigation Department has no mechanism in place to give prior warning to people.

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The recommendation was first made by the extremist Jatika Hela Urumaya party that is part of the governing coalition.  Another recommendation made by the JHU was that all major infrastructure projects be halted until the end of the war.  On one side, no government expenditures on vital infrastructures such as highways; on the other, taxes, that will slow down growth in the dynamic mobile sector that is being driven by private investment.

Pity.

Fixed or Mobile     

March 28, 2007 (LBO) – It seems like a no-brainer: A mobile phone is better than a fixed phone, especially in Sri Lanka. The costs of getting a connection are lower: a new phone and SIM can cost as little as LKR 4,000, while SLTL charges around LKR 20,000 for a fixed connection and its competitors charge around LKR 10,000.
 
Mobile phones are easy to use. They have built in directories and allow texting, though now these features are now available on the fixed CDMA phones as well.

Calling people instead of places that people are associated with seems obviously better, unless you don’t want to be reached. The whole world seems to think so, with mobile outstripping fixed all over the world, except in North Korea, Myammar and a few other bastions of self-sufficiency and juche.

Yet, our people think differently. A recent survey of teleuse at the bottom of the pyramid (teleuse@BOP) by LIRNEasia showed that a significant number of Sri Lankans in SEC D&E groups (and possibly all Sri Lankans) who plan to get connected in the next two years prefer fixed phones:

In fact, even those in higher SEC groups (A, B and C), what could be termed the ‘top and middle’ of the pyramid, prefer fixed phone.

Read full story at LBO.

For those not from Sri Lanka, 1 USD = 106 LKR, just lopping off two zeros will you a good sense of what is being discussed. 

LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE – LBO

Telecom operator Suntel, a unit of Sweden’s Overseas Telecom AB, plans to spend 3.5 billion rupees next year to expand its network, officials said Friday.

Suntel which uses a combination of traditional wireless and a mobile wireless technology known as CDMA, had spent around 3.0 billion rupees this year to extend services to remote parts of the country.

On Friday, the firm signed up for a 3.0 billion rupee syndicated loan, to partly offset this year’s expansion costs and meet funding requirements for next year.

While this constitutes significant progress and is indicative of the progressive approach of the current leadership at the TRC, the fact remains that a license fee of LKR 0 with a postcard notification, or complete unlicensing is the right solution. A user will have to spend hours if not days especially if he/she lives outside Colombo) fullfilling the requirements of a s. 22 license; transaction costs will exceed the LKR 100 that is to be charged

Nepal, a country that has been wracked by political uncertainty and definitely behind Sri Lanka in regulatory and sector performance is about to leapfrog the TRC according to the report below:

Parliamentary Committee directs Nepal Government to let people freely use the WiFi (2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz) Bands.

August 17, 2006

After a two hours discussion at the Development Committee of the parliament today, the committee gave directives to Ministry of Information & Communications (MOIC) and Nepal Telecommunication Authority to de-license the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands using 2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz frequencies. Moreover, the committee gave instruction to clarify policies in order to make computer to computer VoIP legal. At the start of the meeting, Mahabir Pun, team leader, Nepal Wireless Networking Project, gave detailed presentation about the accomplishments of the project to the members of parliamentary committee, and government officials present in the meeting. He made clear that restrictions on the use of equipment using those frequencies was the major obstacle for the advancement of Information and Communication Technology in Nepal. Minister of State, MOIC, Dilendra Badu, informed the meeting about his recent knowledge on the topic and it was he who wanted the committee to deliberate on it and make a recommendation.

Suresh Kumar Pudasaini, Chairman, Nepal Telecommunications Authority, the Telecoms regulator, said “NTA has already sent it’s opinion on the opening of ISM band frequency for general use to the ministry, but the ministry has not made any decision”. He further added that he has been constrained by his own boards inaction and in-decisiveness on the issues related to VOIP. He had already taken the issue to the board thrice in a row, and blamed his board members for not enacting a decision on it. He had his own grievances towards the Ministry. While he had the rights to issue any form of license and set tariff, on even simple issues related to communications with different ministry of Nepal Government, he had to route it via a junior officer at the MOIC. He later commented that if such situation persists, government should just practice what it does and make NTA just a department under the ministry.

In the same meeting, Mr Satish Kharel, a lawyer, challenged the joint secretary of the MOIC, Mr. Shohan Bahadur Nyachon, when Mr Nyachon tried to mis-direct the group by saying there were prohibitory regulations. Mr. Kharel asked which regulations, and displayed a copy of regulations, only to be meet with silence. MP Raghuji Pant, shared his experience how bureaucrats always tried to mis-lead ministers most often by giving false interpretation of legal and technical issues. It was revealed that the decision on Frequency was under the domain of a committee formed under the chairmanship of the Minister of Communication with the secretaries of Home, Communications, Defense, Tourism along with the Chairman of Nepal Telecoms Authority. On this point, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee, MP Tanka Rai, said that since all members of the frequency committee were present at the meeting, if there were any objections from them. All the concerned secretaries said they had no objections, on which Chairman Rai gave direct instructions to the Minister to publish the necessary directive on the Gazzatte and bring and end to the matter.

Further, Mr. Pun from Nepal Wireless Networking project warned the group that if only NTA and service providers were involved in policy formation, the general users may be left high and dry again, so appropriate caution should be exercised so that the general public also has the rights to buy and use equipments in the ISM bands.

In the end, Chairman MP Tanka Rai, said that there should not be any hindrances in the development of ICT sector and everyone should work towards rapid development of such technologies in the country.

A study of ‘financially constrained’ telecom users in Sri Lanka has shown that compared to similar users in other areas of Sri Lanka, users in Jaffna exhibit markedly different patterns in their telecom use. The study, released today by LIRNEasia, an Asian research organization based in Colombo looks at telecom use amongst people whose monthly incomes are below LKR 10,000 in the Badulla, Colombo, Jaffna and Hambantota areas……

English press release: Jaffnaites spend up to 12% of their monthly regular income on telecommunications

More information about the project: Jaffnaites spend up to 12% of their monthly regular income on telecommunications

Suntel has also announced that it will offer pre-paid fixed service for the first time in Sri Lanka.  These developments have many interesting connections with LIRNEasia projects, including the focus on effective regulatory reforms (incl. spectrum refarming) for rural rollout, the role of microfinance and the ICT use on a shoestring project.

is there any basis for expecting that Sri Lanka’s very successful ICT strategy will in fact help in the economic recovery from the tsunami? For example, could ICT-enabled industries provide opportunities to replace the jobs/industries that have been damaged, or could the telecom structure help speed rebuilding efforts? In other words, have Sri Lanka’s efforts in building a digital economy put it in a better position to recover from this disaster?

Answer:

The fisheries industry that got almost wiped out had very low productivity. It’ll come back, hopefully with better productivity. The railroad that got ripped up belonged to an extremely badly managed govt department that requires LKR 4 in subsidies for every LKR 1 that a passenger spends on a ticket, and carries almost no freight because it is unreliable. Hopefully, what replaces it will be something less dysfunctional. The tsunami can, depending on intelligent management, serve as a force of creative destruction (with apologies to Joseph Schumpeter).

With or without the tsunami SL was moving from a low-productivity, uncompetitive agricultural/manufacturing emphasis (not in the economy per se, but in workforce utilization) to a higher-productivity, competitive services economy (where the share of the economy will also be matched by the share of the workforce). If the e Sri Lanka initiative works (it is still on paper; the test is implementation), it can accelerate and enable this process. The tsunami, by forcing government and the people to abandon certain low-productivity activities, may reinforce the process. So yes, the tsunami can be a force for good, despite the terrible suffering it has caused. By itself, it is nothing. It all depends on how the government, the private sector and the people respond to it.

Any comments? thoughts?