The survey found that Thai users spent more than any other nationality on mobile phones, $93 on average compared to $50 or less elsewhere.

Most of the phones they bought had radio connections, while 14 per cent had a Web browser and 5 per cent had touch-screens.

Ninety-one per cent of the Thais said they’d used a mobile phone in the previous three months, up from 77 per cent in 2008.

More than 90 per cent of the urban users made regular calls, compared to 80 per cent in the rural areas. Interestingly, 90 per cent of Thai females had a mobile phone but only 80 per cent of the males, a proportion reversed in the other countries.

The most interesting part of the discussion was the attempt by various speakers to define new media. The moderator thought that LBO.LK was new media, despite the fact that it is run exactly like a business newspaper employing journalists. Reference was made to the comments that were possible on LBO. Its editor said that they are simply a different form of letters to the editor.

I tried to distinguish between publications, irrespective of medium, that spent money producing news (MSM) and those that were simply riffs on the already existing news and information (new media), the best example being blogs.

The period following the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami was clearly a media window, even if we can debate whether it was actually a policy window. LIRNEasia, which does not have ongoing research on disaster early warning was inundated by requests for interviews and articles.

Did a push in New Delhi too. But that was much harder. New Delhi media have not experienced tsunamis directly and they have trouble focusing on them, with one or two honorable exceptions.

A study paper by LIRNEasia, a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank based in Sri Lanka, says that ARPUs in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and even Sri Lanka are at an all-time low, especially amongst prepaid users, ranging between just $ 2-5. “There is very little room then for MNP to drive price competition and push tariffs that are already at rock-bottom,” said the paper, authored by Tahani Iqbal. Iqbal says that MNP implementation is a costly venture, with high recurring costs due to the technology involved.

It is implanting 6,000 Basij militia centers in elementary schools across Iran to promote the ideals of the Islamic Revolution, and it has created a new police unit to sweep the Internet for dissident voices. A company affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards acquired a majority share in the nation’s telecommunications monopoly this year, giving the Guards de facto control of Iran’s land lines, Internet providers and two cellphone companies. And in the spring, the Revolutionary Guards plan to open a news agency with print, photo and television elements.

Full story.

The new TV regulatory regime introduced surreptitiously as regulations under an archaic 1982 Act will to put a stop to many of these plans, if the government manages to defend it from its many opponents and the difficult-to-predict Supreme Court. Dialog for example may have to exit the satellite and terrestrial TV businesses altogether, because only public companies with majority Sri Lankan ownership can even apply for these licenses.

Even if one can apply, the issuance of the license is at the discretion of the Minister. He may also exercise broad discretionary powers to suspend, cancel, or renew/not renew licenses once granted. And unprecedentedly, the duration of the license is one year. So those who get these pieces of paper will have to be very confident about their friendship with the Minister or the President before they make significant investments.

Five of the major telecom operators are majority foreign owned, so it appears that their only option will be to allow majority Sri Lankan owned license holders to provide services over their networks. In the case of Dialog, they have to apply for a new license by November 10th, 2008, which does not even leave them time to restructure the TV business units. This may mean an enforced firesale, which sends a terrible signal in terms of foreign investment.

Of course, there is the alternative of ignoring the whole thing. There is no mention in the regulations or in the parent act about the offense of engaging in TV broadcasting without a license. And absent a definition of broadcasting, it may be possible to argue that the cable headend or the satellite uplink is not a TV broadcasting station, which is the anchor for all the definitions.