Click here to read the full paper and here to view PPT presentation.

Sri Lanka’s high regulatory risk score reflects insufficient transparency in the regulatory process combined with the regulator’s strong connection with the political framework.

The total regulatory risk score for each market is derived based on three major sub-categories:

1. Political & Social Policy Risk.
2. Industrial Policy Risk.
3. Inability of Ownership/Management to Offset Regulatory Risk.

Excerpt on Sri Lanka, as stated in the report, is noted bellow:

As in most developing markets, Sri Lanka’s telecom regulator has supported government policy in making telecom services more accessible and affordable. However, without a credible long term road map in place, the TRCSL has allowed far too much competition in the market, especially in the mobile space. Its rationale is still unclear for allowing a fifth mobile operator in an already intensely price‐competitive market with a total population of 20 million people.

Profitability of the operators has seen a marked deterioration over the last two years. For example, in October 2009, Millicom International Cellular SA sold its operations in Sri Lanka (Tigo, the third‐largest mobile operator) to Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat, ‘A+’/Stable). Dialog, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Axiata, which was among the most profitable corporates in Sri Lanka, reported losses in FY08.

Major concerns are a lack of transparency in licensing; allocation of scare resources; and certain regulatory decisions. For example:

1. The non‐transparent process under which the fifth mobile operator licence was issued in 2007.
2. A further non‐transparent process for the award of WiMax licences in 2007. SLT was not awarded a licence while some other established telecom operators and applicants were licensed; no reasons have been identified for the omission of SLT.
3. A directive was issued in 2008 prohibiting telecom operators from charging interconnection fees for a year until November 2009. The timing of this directive is highly questionable.
4. Reaction to anti‐competitive/predatory pricing has not always been equitable.
5. Transparency relating to the universal service obligation (USO) fund managed by the TRCSL has been very weak. No refunds have been made to operators on account of eligible capex.

Furthermore, the telecom sector has been specifically targeted to augment tax revenues. A levy of 10% has applied to usage charges on mobile and fixed‐telephony services since 2007/08. The TRCSL substantially increased spectrum charges in 2008, when operators were struggling with a rapid deterioration in profitability.

The Fitch report has covered Sri Lanka, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, India, New Zealand, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. Since Bangladesh has not been studied in this survey, the lowest score to Sri Lanka may be questioned.

Anybody could have guessed this. It is unimaginable that entire world will go through a recession simultaneously. Not everyone can be losers for too long. There should be winners somewhere. For example, what would the US firms that find their human resources costs, logically do? They outsource to Bangalore. So the BPO industry in India grows. Peter’s loss becomes Patel’s gain.

The Economist today presented the evidence.

MOODY’S Economy.com has mapped the geographic spread of the worst global downturn since the Depression. All of North America is in recession now. In Europe only Norway, Slovenia and Slovakia have avoided a similar fate, although Moody’s reckons these countries are on the brink of a downturn. Emerging Asia looks cheerier, although the small export-led economies of Singapore and Hong Kong are shrinking, as are Malaysia and Thailand. Even the BRICs are looking a bit diminished, with downturns in both Brazil and Russia. At least India and China are growing (the latter at a pace that is causing worries about overheating). Data for Africa are spotty but the continent’s biggest economy, South Africa, is in recession. The IMF expects global GDP to shrink by 1.4% this year, with rich countries’ economies contracting by around 3.8%.

The clinic focused on giving participants the necessary tools to formulate a communications strategy for a given project. Some of the key aspects identified were:

• identification of relevant audience/s and appropriate method/s of communication,
• importance of story telling
• timing of the release of results
• recognition of policy windows

The importance of developing a communications strategy at the proposal stage of the project was highlighted. However, such strategies would need to be updated in keeping with research results and the changing economic, political and social landscapes.

Presentation available HERE

Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy has declined to be the IT advisor to the Sri Lankan government, the IT bellwether said Wednesday.

In a letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Murthy said he had decided to withdraw from being the advisor due to personal reasons.

“I thank you for the courtesy shown to me during my recent visit to Sri Lanka. I have decided to withdraw from being the advisor to your government due to personal reasons,” the company quoted Murthy’s letter to Rajapaksa.

Murthy was appointed Feb 13 as Rajapaksa’s international advisor on IT after he was invited to be the chief guest at the launch of “2009 – Year of English and Information Technology” at the presidential secretariat in Colombo.

The Sri Lanka government launched the IT initiative to meet the demands of the 21st century in skills and capacities, mainly in the rural sector.

Incidentally, Murthy told IANS Tuesday that the role of an advisor was to keep his mouth shut and open it only when asked for his views based on experience.

“I am advisor to president of South Korea, prime minister of Malaysia and have been made advisor to Rajapaksa,” Murthy said on the sidelines of a function at the Infosys campus in the electronics city, about 30 km from here.

A day later, Murthy declined the offer.

Read the full story here.

The Training Workshop will focus on concepts and hands-on training on various technologies and
applications that are suitable for deployment and aimed at facilitating rescue and relief
operations in emergencies, especially in the aftermath of a disaster. The stated aims of the workshop are to:

• create awareness and demonstrate telecommunication technology options, facilities
  and services applicable for use in response to disasters or emergencies especially in
  disaster relief operations;
• provide practical experience to participants in using the telecommunication/ICT
  facilities and services during these operations;
• strengthen partnerships in disaster relief among international agencies/organizations,
  NGOs, industry, and governments as well as encourage roles of public sector or NGOs
• identify issues and challenges in countries in order to find ways to overcome them.

This workshop is organized jointly by the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the ITU, Universiti Utara Malaysia (ITU CoE ASP UUM), the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC), Malaysia and sponsored by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), Government of Australia.

A draft version of the agenda is available here.

Licensing the 2100 MHz spectrum band for 3G services would enable Bangladeshi operators to launch mobile broadband services, which their customers can use to gain fast and easy access to the Internet and online services, it said on Wednesday.

Bangladesh’s mobile sector has grown rapidly, with user numbers reaching more than 45 million at end-September from 200,000 in 2001, while the country has only 1.32 million fixed-line phones.

“Laying new fixed-line connections is expensive and inefficient, so high-speed mobile networks are Bangladesh’s best bet to realise the many social and economic benefits that arise from widespread access to broadband services,” said Ricardo Tavares, senior vice president for public policy at the GSMA.

Analysts predict the number of subscribers could top 70 million by 2011, nearly half the country’s population of more than 140 million people.

Many developing countries, including Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kenya and South Africa, have already deployed mobile broadband services enabling their people to get easy access to information on health, education, job opportunities and agriculture.

There are six cellphone carriers in Bangladesh, including five foreign operators.

Read the full story in Reuters here.

In an interview with BizIT, Jaikishan Rajaraman, GSMA director of product and service development, said the number of users in Asia subscribing to HSPA will swell from 26.5 million to 53.5 million over the next 12 months. Fuelling this trend are soaring demand from both businesses and consumers, coupled with falling prices of mobile broadband services, he said. This trend is expected to be mirrored in other parts of the world, including Europe and the US.

In August, GSMA – a global trade organisation comprising more than 750 mobile phone operators around the world – reported that the number of HSPA subscribers worldwide had exceeded 50 million, from 11 million a year ago. There are 197 HSPA commercial deployments in 92 countries, with Asia currently accounting for 46 per cent of the global HSPA subscriber base, according to GSMA.

‘Mobile broadband has truly made socio-economic impact, especially in emerging markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka as well as developed markets like Australia, Japan and South Korea,’ said Mr Rajaraman.

Read the full story in Asiaone Business here.

“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 full story in BBC here.

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, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Brunei and Myanmar while Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia improved their rankings. Sweden topped the rankings followed by Denmark, Norway and the United States. Read more.

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 – 20 kilometres from the ground – to provide “instantaneous, nationwide broadband connectivity at cost levels significantly lower than anything commercially available today.” Read more.

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.

These insights emerged from LIRNEasia’s large representative sample survey of telephone use at BOP in India, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The survey conducted by ACNielsen, a multinational market research company, confirmed some known trends, whilst challenging conventional wisdom on several fronts. According to LIRNEasia Lead Economist Dr. Harsha de Silva, the findings completely debunked the myth that 50 per cent of people had never used a telephone.

Part 1

Scroll down for Part 2

The survey also found that men and women use phones pretty much the same way at the bottom of the pyramid. Says Ayesha Zainudeen, Senior Researcher, LIRNEasia: “There are almost no differences between men and women — except in the case of Pakistan, where you have the cultural factors playing in.”

The survey, supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, IDRC, has been well received by telecom operators and industry regulators across Asia.
 
The film features an interview with the head of Sri Lanka’s leading mobile phone company, Dialog Telekom, who acknowledges using survey findings to further customise products to suit aspirations at the bottom of the pyramid.                                                                              

The film will be premiered at the Third Global Knowledge Conference (GK3) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 11 to 13 December 2007. It will be part of an interactive quiz that LIRNEasia and TVE Asia Pacific will jointly present during the global event, expected to attract 2,000 participants.                                                                                                  

Focusing on the theme “Emerging People, Emerging Markets, Emerging Technologies”, GK3 will connect those in governments, business, civil society and academia engaged in using ICT tools for meeting the real world’s needs — to reduce poverty, increase incomes, create safer communities, create sustainable societies and support youth enterprise, etc.
                                                                                                                                                           The interactive quiz will be conducted by TVEAP Director Nalaka Gunawardene, who counts many years of experience in broadcast quiz shows. He will be joined by LIRNEasia’s research staff to provide the live audience with interesting insights into the wide-ranging survey.

The telecom industry believes that the next billion phone subscribers will come mostly from the emerging markets. Therefore, understanding tele-use at the bottom of the pyramid becomes very important.

As with all TVEAP films, Teleuse@BOP will be available to broadcast, civil society and educational users without a license fee.

Both LIRNEasia and TVE Asia Pacific are members of the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), conveners of the GK3 platform.

Part 2

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 cellular mobile providers? Are the small players capable of deploying nationwide broadband networks? And bridge the digital divide?

Here are some reviews of the book:

“This is a lively, comprehensive, and illuminating investigation of telecommunications policy in Malaysia and the Philippines. Much has been written about the processes and outcomes of reform in these countries but, employing a rich and eclectic political economy framework, few researchers have managed to distil as much information with as much authority as Dr Salazar. Moreover, and to further underline the complexity of the issues, the Philippines emerges as a relatively successful reformer, contrary to widespread perceptions that reform in that country is extremely difficult.”

Hal Hill
H.W. Arndt Professor of Southeast Asian Economies
Australian National University

“This original and pioneering comparison of privatisation in Malaysia and the Philippines is an incisive and compelling study of the outcome of the nexus between the state and capital in developing economies. This book is essential reading for those seeking insights into the discourse on democracy and development and the political economy of privatisation in Southeast Asia.”

Edmund Terence Gomez
Coordinator
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)

“Salazar’s work is an important contribution to the scholarship on Southeast Asian political economy. Her book addresses the dynamics of reform in the telecommunications sector, examining the puzzle of why greater success was achieved in the Philippines under a “weak and captured” state than in Malaysia under a “strong and developmental” state. Salazar provides a convincing and well-argued explanation, pointing the Philippine case to the advocacy efforts of a reform coalition that enjoyed the vigorous support of President Fidel Ramos. The comparison between the two countries is skillfully executed and based on rich, historically grounded analysis of their respective political economies.”

Paul D. Hutchcroft
Associate Professor and Associate Chair
Department of Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison

To see flyer, please click HERE

To purchase, please go to http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/

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.According China’s Xinhua news agency, not only is it going ahead as planned, but the first stage will be opening officially in January 2008 with some big-name tenants from China, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia headlining the propaganda event.

Back in June, “The Irrawaddy”, probably the best news source about Burma, filed a story that panned the grandiose ICT plans of the junta. In particular it quoted Reporters without Borders, which labels Burma an “Internet black hole”, and suggested that no foreign company in its right mind would risk going anywhere near “Myanmar”.

However, according to Xinhua last month, the list of companies signed up to be anchor tenants in the cyber city include the likes of ZTE and Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB) from China, Thailand’s Shin Satellite, IP Tel from Malaysia and Russian software outfit CBOSS. It also claims that an airport had been built “in” the cyber city and that “various systems including ADSL, CATV, Triple Play and WiMax are being installed, experts said, adding that the present stage before the soft opening deals with fibre cable installation.”

That’s quite a detailed list of development. As it turned out, I was at a satellite conference in Bangkok the same week and thus had a chance to ask a number of people at Shin Satellite, including the company president, directly about this.

Not one single person at that company had even heard of the mythical Yadanabon cyber city, never mind being listed as an anchor tenant there. I then contacted Alcatel about the Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB) involvement and got the same response – there were no plans to invest in the cyber city project.

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