According to EIU, the survey is for ‘human resources line managers and expatriate executives to compare the cost of living in 140 cities in 93 countries and calculate fair compensation policies for relocating employees.’ Companies can then apply this index to an executive’s spendable income to reach a fair cost of living allowance. The purpose of a cost of living allowance is to reimburse employees for excess living costs resulting from a foreign assignment.

In other words, according to Chairman and CEO of LIRNEasia, Rohan Samarajiva, the purpose is for mobile professionals and companies operating in multiple locations to base an anchor and figure out what to pay its employees.

So what does this really mean?

According to Samarajiva, this has an influence on companies placing in Sri Lanka. He also said this means that the Government should take this number seriously as Mumbai, Delhi and Dhaka are cheaper than Colombo.

“While we are cheaper than Singapore, we are expensive compared to India and Dhaka,” he said, adding that even though Singapore is more expensive, the value for money in Singapore is higher, as well as the facilities such as reliable transport and electricity.
“This suggests that we don’t even have a cost advantage,” he said. Samarajiva added that if Colombo had a cost advantage, companies would invest despite the facilities, if the living cost is low. But in this case, Dhaka has the advantage as potential competitor despite the transport issues, as it has a lower cost of living. India being cheaper that Colombo, he says, is surprising and a matter of concern.

LIRNEasia’s preliminary round of mobile broadband quality testing in selected locations in Western Province unveils both hopes and issues. The good news is that the quality of both key pre-paid mobile broadband services is satisfactory, in majority of locations. However, unusual quality drops in several places indicates that this performance is not always a certainty. In general, a mobile broadband user in Western Province can expect a reasonable quality unless a rare issue like the distance from a tower or a higher number of simultaneous users hinders it.

LIRNEasia tested the broadband quality of the popular pre-paid High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) broadband connections of the two key providers. Packages offered by the third provider were not tested only because the operator prevented pinging from outside the network. Mobile test applications newly developed and released by Zamsana PLC, were used on mobile handsets for testing. To further simulate the true conditions the tests were done on public transport.

We saw little reason testing mobile broadband quality from fixed locations. It should be done on the move as that is how it is used. We could have done it from a car, but purposely did it from a bus to examine how conditions beyond our control can affect the performance.

Testers used mobile test applications developed for Symbian and Windows CE, the two most popular mobile operating systems used in Sri Lanka. They took both stationary and on the move readings at key points along four main roads from Colombo to Kalutara, Negombo, Avissawella and Nittambuwa. Apart from the download and upload speeds, the two most common parameters the tools recorded Return Trip Time or RTT (the time taken by data packets to reach a destination server and return), Jitter (the variation in RTT), Packet Loss (what percentage of packets were lost on the way) and the availability. The actual values were compared with the promises of the operators or, if no operator specifications were available against international standards.

Mobile broadband quality testing is a part of LIRNEasia’s broadband Quality of Service Experience (QoSE) benchmarking work. With its partner organization‐ the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, LIRNEasia has been testing broadband quality since the beginning of 2008. The first tests were conducted manually. Later the test methodology was standardized and a software application was developed to get more accurate results. First round of testing was done only in Colombo and Chennai, but now the scope is expanded to cover New Delhi, Dhaka, Mumbai and Bangalore.

A direct approach to monitor Quality of Service Experience (QoSE) would be for the regulator to reach deep into the innards of the telecom network to install monitoring equipment and take remedial actions as per the licenses or the governing statute whenever the data indicate below‐standard performance, says LIRNEasia. Dearth of financial and human resources can be a key challenge for such an approach. The second approach is based largely on user activism. Educated users are expected to voluntarily contribute their time and computing resources towards building a performance database which in turn will be used in creating the bigger picture.

A comprehensive methodology to benchmark Broadband Quality of Service Experience (QoSE), based on the latter approach has been developed jointly by LIRNEasia and the TeNeT Group of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT‐M). While there is no barrier for regulators to use it, the methodology is largely user centric. Instead of depending on one time pinging, this methodology uses AT‐Tester, an open source software tool to monitor all crucial QoSE broadband metrics over a longer period, on both weekends and weekdays, covering peak as well as off‐peak traffic. The traffic is also monitored within segments, ISP, local and international.

(The figure above shows the average peak time download speed to an international server offered by the pre‐paid mobile broadband packages of the two key mobile broadband providers on a selected date. The ceiling is the promised speed of 1 Mbps. Speeds may vary depending upon the type of the handset, time of the day, number of simultaneous users connected to a tower and the weather conditions. Please click on image for an enlarged version.)

Teleuse@BOP, pioneered by LIRNEasia in 2005, is a unique series of cutting edge demand-side studies on ICT use among the BOP. The 2008 study was conducted across six countries, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and most recently, Bangladesh, among a sample of 9500+ BOP (SEC D and E) users. Aside from exploring traditional aspects of access and ownership at the BOP, this study focuses on if and how mobile phones are being used for non-voice, or ‘Mobile2.0’ applications.

COAI was constituted in 1995 as a non-profit, non-governmental society dedicated to the advancement of communication, particularly modern communication through cellular mobile telephony.

More information on the study can be found here.

The police official, Javed Shamim, said both men were in Calcutta in October when Mr. Rehman used a dead relative’s photo identification to buy the SIM cards. Mr. Rehman then activated them and either gave or sold them to Mr. Ahmed, Mr. Shamim said. He emphasized that no definitive links to the attacks in Mumbai had been established by the police.

Rakesh Maria, a joint commissioner with the Mumbai police, said Friday that the police had recovered seven cellphones, in addition to three Global Positioning System handsets and one satellite phone, all of which they believed the terrorists had used.

The police have said that 10 terrorists carried out the attacks on luxury hotels and several other locations that began on Nov. 26, and that all of them came from Pakistan. This was the first sign that the attackers may have had help from Indian citizens.

Note that the proper identification documents had been submitted to get the SIMs, but they were of a dead person. No findings yet on who ordered the satphones and whether the bills were paid on those accounts.

In an ongoing audit, ordered by the government to establish the genuineness of customers, DoT found that out of 10 lakh connections verified so far, more than 2 lakh had been issued to customers whose identity could not be established.

The extent of fake identities has rattled the government which has started penalising service providers at Rs 1,000 for every fake user found.

Sleuths suspect that the Mumbai attackers, like in the past, had obtained SIM cards on fake identity and had used it for communication with their handlers across the border. Though details are yet to be made public, officials have procured details of SIM cards from where they were procured and whose identities were used for the same.

Read the full story in The Times of India here.

Mr. Muzammil, who is the right-hand man to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakvhi, the operational commander of the group, talked by satellite phone to the attackers from Pakistan when the gunmen were in the Taj and Oberoi hotels, the Western official said.

The attackers also used the cellphones of people they killed to call back to Mr. Muzammil somewhere in Pakistan, the official said.

One use is clear: they killed people; took their mobiles and called the mastermind of LeT back in Pakistan. Nothing we can do about this, realistically.

The other is not as clear. So Muzammil uses a satphone in Pakistan. How does he talk to the cannon fodder? Did they carry satphones? If yes, why did they have to use the mobiles of the people they killed (saving money is not an issue when you are on a suicide mission)? If the raiders did not have satphones, did Muzammil call them through the Taj exchange (I am basing this question on the report that some of these murderers booked a room at the Taj and stayed for several days)?

Can someone shed light on these questions please?

As usual, media is blamed for their role in Mumbai. Unconfirmed reports claimed the terrorists trapped in Taj Mahal Palace constantly watched TV for news and they might have got a feeling of excitement if not ideas from the live coverage. Stupid guys. They never knew what they missed. The best ball-by-ball coverage was hardly on TV but on Twitter, anybody could have accessed thru a mobile. (Twitter added hashtags to terms like ‘Mumbai’ and ‘Attack’) Indian government at one stage requested ‘Twitters’ not to tweet anything about police activity, but it was more because the mainstream media too started depending on them rather than their own paid correspondents.

However, unlike in case of 9/11 no mobile based interactions with the victims were heard – which was bit surprising given the increasing mobile use in India.

There were also reports that the terrorists accessed British news sites using Black Berries. Well, on second thoughts, they might even have had a quick look at tweets – before being gunned down.

Tata Teleservices, which has got GSM licence under dual technology policy, has also been allotted spectrum in the lucrative Mumbai circle while it is yet to get the radio frequency in other three circles.

With this, new players can now roll out services in 10 circles as the government has already released spectrum in six circles of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

In Punjab, only three players have been accommodated as only 15 MHz spectrum was available. HFCL, a CDMA player, has got GSM spectrum in Punjab under the dual technology policy. Idea Cellular and Unitech are the other beneficiaries.

Similarly in the UP (East) region, Unitech, Datacom, Swan Telecom and Tatas have been allotted the airwaves.

In Maharashtra, Datacom, Spice (Idea) and Unitech have got the spectrum, official sources said here.

In the CDMA space, Shyam Telecom is the only new company that has got pan-Indian spectrum and is in the process to roll out network.

Source: Business Standard

BANGALORE, India (AFP) — India remains the favoured technology outsourcing destination, an industry report said Sunday, amid concerns a rising rupee and soaring wages would blunt the country’s competitive edge.

A study by industry publication Global Services and investment advisory firm Tholons put the Indian cities of Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune at the top of a list of 15 emerging outsourcing destinations for global companies.

Kolkata at number five and Chandigarh at number nine were the other two Indian locations on the list, which contained three Chinese and two Vietnamese cities as well.The three hot cities for outsourcing from China were Shanghai at number eight, Beijing at 10 and Shenzhen at 13. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were put at number six and number 12.

Cebu in the Philippines came in at number four, the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo at seven, Cairo at 11, Buenos Aires at 14 and Sao Paulo at 15, the study’s sponsors said in a statement released in Bangalore.

The list is based on criteria such as scale and quality of workforce, financial infrastructure, risk environment and quality of life.

But it does not include established outsourcing locations such as Bangalore, the New Delhi capital region, Manila, Mumbai and Dublin that have had a decade’s headstart.

Costs are surging in the prime cities in India, which has earned a reputation as the world’s back office, as property values and rentals rise and wages increase at an annual pace of more than 15 percent amid a shortage of skilled employees.

Indian outsourcing firms are also feeling the pinch from an appreciating rupee, which dents dollar-billed earnings, forcing them to cut costs by expanding to less expensive locations.

“With the demand-supply gap widening, newer tier II cities will play a critical role in re-engineered globalisation models,” said Tholons chairman Avinash Vashistha.

“Destinations will need to provide greater level of cost effectiveness and operational efficiency.”

India’s outsourcing companies have thrived by winning work from companies in the US and Europe that sought to tap the country’s low costs and large employee pool by handing over jobs ranging from answering customers’ calls to risk management and financial analysis.

Pure-play outsourcing firms account for about 10 percent of the 50 billion dollars in revenue logged in the year ended March by the entire information technology industry, which also includes software giants such as Tata Consultancy and Infosys.

The Nation Economist, Sunday 26 August 2007 | See Print version

I have to say that JHU does not know economics. What is the rationale behind taxing the only sector that is growing? The industry is giving government enormous amount of revenue. Twenty percent of every mobile rupee goes to the government. If you squeeze the goose for more eggs the goose will ultimately die. To my knowledge some of the taxes the government is thinking of will really kill the industry. We have got data which say people in the bottom of the pyramid are willing to spend Rs.500 per month on communication. So if the government put another tax these people will be discouraged to get themselves connected and as a result of that the government will lose revenue.

By Indika Sakalasooriya
The entry of the Indian business tycoon Sunil Miththal’s Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest mobile operator into the Sri Lankan market has left many players in the telecom sector to ponder on the harsh effects of severe competition in the future.

The existing mobile operators in the market seem to have appraised the impact even before the physical arrival of the Indian giant. The majority of the industry analysts are now of the view that the profit margins of the mobile operators will become thin due to the expected intense competition in the market.

However, amidst all these developments, from the government’s side we heard a story of further taxation of the growing mobile industry. The Nation Economist thought it opportune to get some insights from Professor Rohan Samarajeewa, a former head of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka who is a keen observer of developments in the telecommunication sector in the Asian region to find out his assessment of the Sri Lankan mobile industry and where it is heading.

Here are the excerpts of the interview
Q : What is your general assessment of the Sri Lankan telecom sector as it stands today?
A : Doing well and could do much better. Why do I say doing well is compared with every other sector, the telecom sector is doing well. Its contribution to the GNP growth rates is considerable. Why do I say it can do better is Pakistan has overtaken us in mobile and our ADSL data situation is not really satisfactory in terms of people getting value for money. A lot of the BPO industry is not growing as fast as we expected. So in that sense we really could do much better than we are doing now.

Q : What kind of an impact will the arrival of Bharti Airtel have on SL telecom industry and to the mobile operators in the market?
A : Well, first we have to look at the Indian market and Bharti Airtel. India is one of the exciting markets in the world because every month 7 million new phones are added to the market. That means 7 million new subscribers. So now you get a sense of how big the Indian market is. And also India belongs to BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). BRIC has the most happening markets in the world and we are sitting next to a BRIC. In the Indian telecom industry Sunil Miththal and Bharti are seen as innovators. He is getting awards and prizes in India. We have to find out for what he is getting prizes?

They are not getting those for being the biggest or for being profitable. We have to understand that there is no technological innovation but business innovation when Bharti is considered. The business innovation is how you make high profits on very low revenues per user. The company has pioneered very innovative techniques and that is they don’t run their networks. They outsource the whole thing down to the supplier. So what they are doing is basically brand managing. They own the brand and manage the interface with the government and they supervise the outsourcing process. Having the two facts in mind let us think of the size of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is about the size of greater Mumbai or greater Delhi. So, here we have is a company extremely good at managing costs and handling numbers. So here they come to Sri Lanka. I’ll be very concerned if I’m one of their competitors.

However there are two things that go against them. One is Sri Lanka has a few very efficient and sharp mobile companies and among them nobody is a sleeper. The second reason is Bharti is investing two little. It suggests to me that they are basically going to do a very conservative roll out. In 2004 the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in the Consumer Finance Service said 25% Sri Lankan households except in Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mulathiwe areas had some kind of phone. Now I’m willing to stick my neck and say it has gone up to 55% by now and that’s an extrapolation from some data we have. So we have to understand that this is a highly saturated market. At the same time we don’t have mobile number portability. The only country that has mobile number portability is Pakistan. So considering all these facts I’d say it is not easy for Bharti.

Q : Will the competition be healthy in terms of survival of the industry?
A : Yes sure. I’m always there for intense competition. Many think that the margins of the service providers will go down with the entrance of a new player. But I don’t think so. In 1994 when Dialog enter the market many people thought Sri Lanka was a tiny little market and there was no way that a fourth mobile operator can succeed. First it was said that Dialog would not succeed and secondly the margins will come down. But what happened? A fourth player came. Did the margins come down? Let us assume that what you are saying is correct. So the worst thing that can happen is the exiting of one player. The player who cannot give the enough commitment will exit the market. What is wrong in that?

Q: With the arrival of Bharti it was reported that some parties in the government had proposed to further tax the mobile industry as the sector is considered to be profitable. What is your reading on that?
A : I have to say that JHU does not know economics. What is the rationale behind taxing the only sector that is growing? The industry is giving government enormous amount of revenue. Twenty percent of every mobile rupee goes to the government. If you squeeze the goose for more eggs the goose will ultimately die. To my knowledge some of the taxes the government is thinking of will really kill the industry. We have got data which say people in the bottom of the pyramid are willing to spend Rs.500 per month on communication. So if the government put another tax these people will be discouraged to get themselves connected and as a result of that the government will lose revenue.

Q: Since you mentioned the issue of number portability, what are the pros and cons of number portability? Will the implementation of number portability lead to some perfect competition?
A : Competition has to be the basic rule we should be working on. An essential quality of competition is when a customer is not satisfied he or she should be free to go to another supplier. So now the question is if I’m not satisfied by my present mobile services provider I still have to bare it since I’m not ready to change my mobile number. But in a place where you have total competition you should be free to go to another service provider while keeping the same number. That is what mobile number portability is all about. People might ask me if the number portability is so important why didn’t you push for it when you were the DG of TRC? I had to deal with less than million phones and we had various problems such as interconnection. So during that time the idea of having number portability is very close to a dream. By now our telecom industry is growing and today mobile number portability has become a very important aspect of the industry.
There are two ways of doing number portability. One is call forwarding and the other way is to do it in a straight way through an intelligent network. It has costs and will take time. But it will definitely improve the market.

Q: As a former TRC DG and present advisor to the government of Bangladesh on telecom related matters, what are the reforms you are suggesting for the present telecom regulatory regime for the betterment of the industry?
A: I am a policy and regulation guy. For the industry to grow what we really need is a greater attention to be paid to what we call wholesale access. All the mobile operators should get the privilege to use the under sea cable going out from Mt. Lavinia on a non discriminatory cost oriented way. At the moment there are only three companies using the cable, SLT, GSNL and Dialog. But these other two companies get step motherly treatment from the SLT and that should be straightened. That’s a regulator’s job. Within the country majority of the fiber optic cables belong to SLT. But they should offer that facility to other companies at reasonable prices. Because it doesn’t make any sense in our country for every company to have their own fiber optic cables or to build microwave networks on top of already existing networks. So at a fundamental level I would put that as the highest priority because that can reduce the cost of a call. The other thing as I mentioned earlier is the mobile number portability.

Q : What are the key areas that the existing and the prospective telecom service providers should concentrate in carrying out operations?
A : The bottom of the pyramid is the place they should focus. I’m telling this because we have done research on the matter. The companies should understand that it is where the money is. As Professor Prahalag said, there is a fortune to be made at the bottom of the pyramid. The other fact is in Sri Lanka the main two growing sectors are telecom and banking. Why can’t we put the industries together since that is where the action is.

Q : Some say that the present regulatory system is in favour of the SLT of which the government still has the major stake. What is your opinion on this?
A : The Act we at the moment have is archaic and obsolete. The law is not very good and the staff is not very competent and it is possible that the regulatory authority is not doing well. What I can say is in my time Sri Lanka Telecom was fined for violating its licence condition. Therefore at least I can say during my period SLT was not favoured.

Q : As a person who is running a research body that overlooks the entire Asian region, can you explain why India still does not practise 3G operations?
A : Well the reason is the problem we also have. But India has it in a bigger way. Indian military is occupying a lot of frequencies. Therefore to start 3G operations the Indian Army and the other defence forces should be moved away to clear the frequency. We are not in bad shape as in India but we are close to it. We have not only military problems but also there are other parties who are using these frequencies for low value purposes.

Mumbai, Mar 27, 2007: Mobile penetration will penetrate the homes of bottom or pyramid (BOP) families in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a study instituted by LIRNEasia has found.

Titled, “Teleuse on a Shoestring- A Study of the Financially Constrained in Asia,” it interviewed and maintained diaries of respondents from Thailand and Philippines besides the above mentioned countries. A C Nielsen conducted the fieldwork. International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada funded the research.

The study notes that south Asia has the largest concentration of poor people in the world. It is an accepted fact that the new growth markets in telecom, especially mobile, are concentrated amongst the poor, or at BOP. According to the GSM Association, the next billion subscribers will come from such markets, a large share from India.

According to the study, 94 per cent of the BOP in India had used a phone in the last three months, 81 per cent relied on shared phones, 38 per cent of non-owners plan to buy a phone in the next two years, 28 percent of the mobile owners use second hand sets, 35 per cent used SMS, compared to 100 per cent in the Philippines and 60 per cent in Sri Lanka, and keeping in touch with friends and family was the biggest use of telephones.

“96 percent of BOP who do not own a phone in rural India. They can access a phone in less than an hour, and public phones are the most popular access mode, followed by relative’s/ friend’s phone, neighbor’s phone, own (fixed) phone, household member’s mobile and own mobile,” the survey points out.

Convenience is the key for using a mobile phone for BOP families, privacy is more of a concern for higher income countries, it notes. Most BOP families in India obtained a mobile connection early 2000s. Pakistan has seen similar growth as previous years, where as Thailand BOP has grown much more steadily, the research states. It says that coverage was more important in rural India, and tariff was a major concern role in urban India.

Distinguishing the needs of the urban and rural BOPs, it opines, “While urban India wants cheap incoming and out going rates, better and easy connectivity, customer service and wider coverage, rural India’s needs are focused on a handset with connection, availability of easy payment schemes, interest in a particular package, low connection charges, as also cheap incoming and outgoing rates, better voice clarity, range of services and wider coverage.”

The researchers feel that the BOPs are more interested in prepaid mobile to control expenditures and no monthly rentals. Miss call alert is a universal strategy to minimize call costs by owners. Majority still call from fixed line to a fixed line, while a few use mobile to mobile calls and some use phone only as an incoming device.

The respondents experienced efficiency in daily activities after using a phone. “Only India BOP perceives economic benefit activities vs ability to earn or save are significantly different at 95 per cent confidence interval,” the study states. Respondents in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan said that they benefited in services and agriculture by saving travel time and costs, checking prices information and sale of minutes. They added sense of security is the main benefit in the ability to act during emergency.

The study also notes that three billion people would use phones by 2008, of which 50 per cent users would be from Asia Pacific, including China. India would lead the pack with a possible 101 new connections at BOP in the next two years, followed by Pakistan at 30 million, Philippines at ten million, and Sri Lanka and Thailand at one million each. Most respondents replied that they wanted to buy a mobile phone citing better value proposition as the reason.

A brief comparison in the fixed phones growth since liberalization (post NTP 1999) shows that the fixed phones have grown at a CAGR of 9.5 per cent in India, as against 11 per cent in Pakistan, 18.8 per cent in Sri Lanka, 10.43 per cent in Thailand and 11.1 per cent in Philippines. Mobile phones on the other hand have grown at a CAGR of 87.8 per cent in India, 109 per cent in Pakistan, 50.8 per cent in Sri Lanka, 65 percent in Indonesia, 68.8 per cent in Philippines and 49.6 per cent in Thailand.

Harsha de Silva, lead analyst at LIRNEasia avers the telecom operators should think about leveraging benefits of direct access, convergence, collaboration on meaningful content, SMS based services and innovations to enable cheaper calls for eg: any amount prepaid balance top ups. He also calls upon handset manufacturers to develop affordable handsets with local language SMS capabilities and ultra low cost phones with a warranty’.

Quoting C.K. Prahalad, “. if we stop thinking of poor as a burden and start recognizing them as value conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up,” he lists benefits from direct access as income generation through the sale of telecom services similar to the Grameen model. Indirect access includes use of a phone by an auto rickshaw driver, obtaining agricultural information by a farmer and cost savings made by making a call as opposed to taking a bus ride into town.

De Silva notes that the expectations of initial cost do match affordability and the mismatch between need and affordability has to be addressed. Most respondents expect the monthly usage charges to be below $5. He concludes adding, ” Wide PCO availability in India is perhaps protecting Indian BOP from paying poverty premium that Sri Lankan BOP has to face, those who use other people’s or public phones are being charged high rates.”

 Read story at CXOToday.com

LIRNEasia’s Lead Economist, Harsha de Silva presented the Indian findings of LIRNEasia’s five-country teleuse study, ‘Teleuse on a Shoestring:2,’ during the session entitled ‘Connecting the Next Billion.’ | View presentation slides

Executive Director, Rohan Samarajiva was also invited as a panel discussant on ‘Widening Access for Rural Communities,’ along side top administrator of India’s universal service obligation fund as well as President of New Projects of Indian operator, Spice Telecom.

The conference brought together key players in the GSM community from around the world as well as India to discuss key issues affecting the mobile industry, including 3G, regulation, international investment, Next Generation Networks, coverage, penetration, IMS and MMS. It was organized by Informa Telecoms and Media, as a part of a world series of annual conferences, located in regional hubs within fast growing markets. More information on the conference can be found at: http://www.gsm-3gworldseries.com/india/

de Silva presented some findings contained in a paper written with LIRNEasia researcher Ayesha Zainudeen on the costs and benefits of access to telecoms and the expected next billion subscribers. A particular finding of interest to local policy makers was that almost a quarter of Sri Lankans at the bottom of the pyramid believe that direct access to a phone (i.e., through ownership of one) in fact worsens their financial situation; this is in stark contrast to the findings in the other four countries. According to de Silva a key reason for this could be the island’s Receiving Party Pays tariff policy.  The presentation provided several recommendations to global telecom operators and handset manufacturers on how to develop business models that could result in win-win situations for both private enterprises and the poor based on what Indian management guru C K Prahlad’s work on the ‘fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.’

The study was conducted in mid-2006 and will be formally launched in Mumbai in January 2007 at GSM>3G India, a prestigious conference which will attract leaders in the mobile industry. The field work for the study was carried out by AC Nielsen Lanka and their affiliates in each respective country.

ESOMAR is the world organization for enabling better research into markets, consumers and societies. With 4000 members in 100 countries, ESOMAR aims to promote the value of market and opinion research in illuminating real issues and bringing about effective decision-making.

The news story that MTNL, the incumbent in Mumbai and New Delhi, has decided to deploy special teams to halt the ending of fixed subscriptions is good evidence that there is fixed-mobile substitution in India.  Caution should be exercised in generalizing from this to other countries where the conditions of CPP and price convergence have not been satisfied.

Thakkar

RESHMA PATIL & PRAGYA SINGH
Posted online: Sunday, February 06, 2005 at 0154 hours IST
Indian Express

MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, FEB 5: When tech entrepreneur Jayesh Thakkar geared to connect computers—without wires—20 km away in two Vadodara offices, his corporate client first applied for a licence. They have been waiting for a year. At Mumbai, a construction giant is waiting since nine months for permission to wirelessly connect offices in two suburbs. [...]
‘‘Most big corporates stay away from outdoor WiFi use because licences are cumbersome and bureaucratic,’’ says Thakkar, director, JayRaj Exim, a company WiFi-enabling offices in Mumbai. ‘‘By the time a licence arrives, what if the technology is outdated?’’ [...]
Many WiFi believers who appealed long and hard to free WiFi from regulations so telecom and Internet services reach rural India—at a fraction of usual costs—are disappointed though the government has been steadily freeing WiFi licensing restrictions since 2002. ‘‘The government agreed, in principle, to delicence low-power outdoor use of WiFi in December, but where is the notification to make this official?’’ says Arun Mehta, cyber rights activist and telecom consultant. When contacted, a ministry official said that spectrum availability is the real problem. ‘‘As and when more spectrum is available, we’ll be able to give out more frequencies. Till then, WiFi will have to be restricted to ‘confined areas’,’’ he said. Officially permitted outdoor use would take WiFi to rural India, where it is needed most. Potential applications include telemedicine, long-distance education and networked community portals. [...]

What we need is WiFi in the community, Mehta maintains. ‘‘Why is it taking so long to free people to place their WiFi antennae? This would create a network of towers providing Internet access at zero cost.’’[...]