Blueshift is one of the currently India based companies looking to move to neighbouring countries like Malaysia or Singapore where they believe it would be cheaper to operate.
“The corporate tax regime in this country is a tough 33% whereas when I look at neighbouring country Singapore it is only 18% at the highest level,” says Blueshift’s chairman Sankaran P Raghunathan.
“In fact, most of us have to pay only 7.5%. That’s a huge difference.”
Mr Raghunathan is also concerned at the way costs are rising in Chennai.
“Some 10% of our revenues are spent on rentals here,” he says.
“We pay more than $1 for a square foot of office space here. In Kuala Lumpur the same costs us less than $1 and I get class A infrastructure.”
Read the…
A United Nations survey of global e-government readiness has found that many Asian countries are sliding down the rankings. Just one Asian country—South Korea—made the top ten coming in at sixth, with Japan next on 11th.
The next highest was Singapore at a surprisingly low 23rd, and Malaysia at 34th. The top 35 countries are otherwise dominated by Europe, Australasia and North America.
The biggest revelation was that most Asian countries are sliding down the rankings.
Singapore was the most prominent to fall from grace, falling to 22nd from seventh position in 2005. China fell to 65 from 57, India from 87 to 113, Thailand from 46 to 62, the Philippines from 41 to 66 and Indonesia from 96 to 106.
Other countries to slide included Maldives,…
Tags: Australasia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Denmark, e-government, Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, North America, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, the Philippines, United Nations, United States, Vietnam.
A little known Irish company is attempting to breathe life back into the moribund concept of high altitude platform stations (HAPS) in the stratosphere to provide network connectivity to users. The latest wheeze is to provide service courtesy of some antiquated Russian-designed military aircraft.
Qucomhaps claims to have raised US$355 million to launch the service above Malaysia using aircraft that will circle the coverage area and provide wireless transmission to end users on behalf of service providers. It says it will trial the concept in Malaysia next March.
The company has made waves in the Malaysian media this week with claims that it will set up a national network offering data speeds of 512kbps. Qucomhaps says it will deploy aircraft “hovering or patrolling” at the stratospheric level…
A new documentary film, titled Teleuse@BOP, recently produced by TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP) and based on LIRNEasia’s study on Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid, highlights a communication revolution happening in Asia’s emerging telecommunication markets.
When it comes to using phones, the film says, people at the bottom of the income pyramid are no different from anyone else; they value the enhanced personal security, including emergency communications, and social networking benefits. Increasingly, poor people are not content with just using public phones or shared access phones (belonging friends or family). They see a utility and social value of having their own phones.
Tags: ACNielsen, Asia, Ayesha Zainudeen, Canada, Canada\'s
International Development Research Centre, cellular telephone, Dialog Telekom, emergency communications, Emerging Technologies, Global Knowledge Partnership, Harsha de Silva, India, International Development Research Centre, Kuala Lumpur, LIRNEasia Lead, Malaysia, Nalaka Gunawardene, Pakistan, Philippines, social networking benefits, Sri Lanka, telephone use, Thailand, TVE Asia Pacific, youth enterprise.
The Malaysian government will withdraw some WiMAX licenses “as the market is too crowded.” Earlier this year, the government gave licenses to four companies to operate WiMAX. But they have failed to perform, the country’s concerned minister has alleged. And that’s why the Malaysian government has now decided to revoke the licenses. Read more.
The Malaysian mobile phone providers were denied WiMAX licenses in the first place. The regulator in Bangladesh is also considering to follow the Malaysian footprint.
Are the ISPs (or small and medium enterprises) capable enough to successfully proliferate affordable Internet using broadband wireless in the emerging economies?
CAPEX and OPEX to run voice networks are fast decreasing, thanks to the evolutionery solutions. But the investment is “huge” for a green field data provider in a developing or underdeveloped economy. How realistic it is to forbid WiMAX for…
The military rulers of Burma are planning to open a cyber city, based on Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor, in January 2008. The following report states that the announced starting tenants are made up.
TelecomTV - TelecomTV One - News
Now, it just so happens that I was tracking a story on the junta’s plans for its very own cyber city just before the protests began. There have been quite a few reports across Asia recently that the Burmese “government” is building its 10,000-acre (4,050 hectare) “Yadanabon cyber city” project about 70 kilometres east of Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city.
Tags: ADSL, Alcatel, Asia, Bangkok, Burma, Cable TV, China, Internet black hole, Irrawaddy, Malaysia, Myanmar, Reporters without Borders, Russia, satellite conference, Shin Satellite, Thailand, Xinhua news agency.
In one of the most detailed analyses of WiMax issued for Asia to date, the influential investment house says that it is “particularly optimistic about the prospects for fixed WiMax in developing markets in Asia, where the copper infrastructure is too weak or limited to provide broadband services using DSL.” It adds, “We believe that WiMax and other wireless broadband technologies will be particularly successful in markets with low broadband penetration, such as India, Malaysia, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia.” Read more.
Tags: Asia, Australia, Broadband, broadband services, China, copper infrastructure, DSL, India, Indonesia, Lehman Brothers, Malaysia, the Philippines, wireless broadband technologies.
Iran’s ICT Minister Mohammad Soleimani has said his country’s Internet penetration had a 60% growth last year compared to year before last, reaching 16%. Therefore, he claimed Iran’s Internet penetration is above that of Malaysia today. But an industry analyst is reluctant to say “Yes Minister.”
Malaysian regulator has ignored the claims of incumbent fixed and mobile operators and instead has elected to award four WiMax franchises to players new to the market. The decision to exclude existing operators was a setback for Digi. The company also failed to gain 3G spectrum and is now a saddled with an EDGE network that it will have to promote against potential HSDPA and WiMax alternatives. Read more.
Most Indonesians access the Internet primarily using fixed wireline infrastructure, mostly dialup. Because of lack of competition in the fixed line sector due to various reasons fixed line growth has been stagnant which has also affected Internet growth in the country. Not only are no new lines being added to bring more homes online, the inadequate backbone infrastructure in large swathe of the country makes deployment of broadband services unviable even if incumbent’s local loop bottleneck could be bypassed.
However, yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (March 15, 2007) seems to suggest that high speed 3G wireless technology like HSDPA can bring broadband on a large scale to Indonesians. It (misleadingly) implies that since HSDPA is merely a software upgrade to 3G networks it will not require any new…
Tags: 3G, 3G mobile-phone technology, 3G services, 3G technology, ADSL, Asia, backbone infrastructure, Broadband, broadband services, cable networks, cellphone technology, cellular networks, connectivity solution, connectivity solutions, Dev Yusmananda, Djarot Handoko, Ericsson, fiber optic, fixed wireline infrastructure, flood, high speed 3G wireless technology, HSDPA technology, inadequate backbone infrastructure, Indonesia, Indosat, Internet access, Internet connections, Internet download speeds, Jakarta, least-developed communications systems, local telecommunications, Malaysia, mobile-phone technology, Nokia, potential Internet users, PT Excelcomindo Pratama, PT Indonesia Satellite Corp., PT Telekomunikasi Selular, SouthEast Asia, Surabaya, telecom infrastructure, the Philippines, Wall Street Journal.
The Indonesian government imposed unreasonable burdens on the new entrant for international service in a recently issued White Paper 140. LIRNEasia highlighted the unfairness of burdening new entrants with obligations that the two existing incumbents (Telkom & Indosat) were not subjected too in comments it submitted to DGPOSTEL (one of the two regulatory bodies):
4.4 The Indonesian policymakers may have misunderstood the concept of asymmetric regulation. Asymmetric rules place additional burdens on dominant group of providers that other operators are not subjected to. In the current White Paper, many additional burdens are imposed on the new entrant that are not imposed on the two incumbents, PT Telkom & PT Indosat. Requirements for building FO from Indonesia to TIER-1 IP backbone, building domestic FO to Internet Exchange, building…
Tags: Australia, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, Europe, fixed-line telephone, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Indonesian government, Indosat, Internet exchange, Internet hubs, Jakarta, Japan, Johnny Swandi Sjam, Malaysia, PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk, telecommunications, Telematika Indonesia, telephony services, Telkom, Yusuf Iskandar.
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…
Tags: Africa, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, Asia, Brunei, China, Cyprus, FLAG Telecom, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mediterranean, Mozambique, Philippines, Reliance Communications, Republic of South Africa, Singapore, submarine cable network, Tanzania, the Philippines, Turkey, United States, US West Coast, USD, Vietnam.
The strong quake off Taiwan’s coast on December 26 damaged six separate submarine cables and severely disrupted telecom links in the East, Southeast and South Asia. Internet connectivity in a number of countries are either down or are slowed down thanks to taffic that is being rerouted over networks that have escaped damage. Most of Jakarta (Indonesia) and Pondicherry (Southern India) have been without Internet until this afternoon (Dec 27) at least. In our office in Sri Lanka, SLT’s ADSL connection (though congested) is working. However, Lankacom’s leased line is down since it probably connects to the Internet backbone via Singapore.
These disruptions have major consequences for any business that relies on telecom for delivering their services, including, banking, trading, call centers, remotely managed services etc.…
Tags: ADSL, Asia, banking, Bloomberg, cable network, China, China Unicom Ltd., Chunghwa Telecom Co., David Leong, earthquake, Europe, France Telecom SA, Hong Kong, HSBC Holdings Plc, India, Indonesia, Internet backbone, Internet connectivity, Jakarta, Japan, Korea, Leng Tai-feng, Malaysia, online banking services, Pakistan Telecommunication Co., Philippines, Pondicherry, Shanghai, Singapore, Singapore Telecom, SouthEast Asia, Sri Lanka, StarHub Ltd. Telekom, taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan\'s coast, Telekom Malaysia Bhd., Telstra Corp., USD.
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4988492.stm
More than 30 countries around the Pacific Ocean have tested a system to warn them of approaching tsunamis.
The exercise began with a mock alert at the Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii.
An earthquake with a magnitude 9.2 was imagined to have struck near the coast of Chile, sending a tsunami racing across the eastern Pacific.
A second mock earthquake alert, north of the Philippines, will provide a further test on Wednesday.
Governments will report back on how efficiently they received the tsunami warnings, relayed through various circuits including weather services, emails and faxes.
The drill, co-ordinated by the Hawaii warning centre, will also measure how well the message is relayed through local emergency systems.
‘Already a success’
At the start of the test, a beeping noise sounded throughout the warning…
Tags: American Samoa, Asia-Pacific, BBC, Charles McCreery, Chile, emergency systems, Ewa Beach, Hawaii, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, local emergency systems, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pacific Ocean, Thailand, the Philippines, tsunami, Tsunami Warning Centre, weather services.
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