LIRNEasia might not be as high tech as some of the big IT players but in our own way we have made a successful effort to make ourselves a virtual team. Not a choice – that was the only way we could operate in multiple countries (For example, in this cycle, TRE surveys will be in nine countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand; not to mention CPRSouth 3 in Beijing)without budgets comparable to what INGOs use to run regional networks.
We also thought our own experiences will be useful for others. Hence the Virtual Organisation (VO) project. It had two aspects; developing the VO and using it to conduct LIRNEasia’s other research projects.
The case study is now out. It describes our efforts,…
Tags: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Virtual Office, Virtual Organisation, Virtual Team.
The 2008 Global Information Technology Report prepared for the World Economic Forum shows the five big countries of the SAARC backsliding in the rankings with small exceptions in the case of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which advanced from 86th place to 76th (using only 2006 countries; otherwise to 79th place) and from 118th place to 116th (again using only 2006 countries; if not, it would be in 124th place), respective.ly.
India went from 44th place to 48th (2006 countries only; if not 50th). Pakistan from 84 to 85 (actual rank 89) and Nepal from 108th place to 111th (actual rank 119).
The full report is here
23/03/08: Mobile phone service costs in Sri Lanka are cheap, even for the poor (Sinhala), Ravaya, Sri Lanka
25/03/08: Mobile is cheaper in Sri Lanka, even for the poor, The Daily News, Sri Lanka
Two recent studies have found that Sri Lanka is among four countries that offer the most affordable mobile services to the poor in emerging Asia and the world.
The first study conducted the LIRNEasia, a regional policy and regulation think tank, has found that the costs of using mobile telecom services are among the lowest in South Asia for all types of users. For the low user, essentially the poorer user, the average monthly cost of using a mobile in Sri Lanka is as low as US$ 3.83 per month if using prepaid. Sri Lanka…
Tags: Asia, Bangladesh, cellular telephone, India, mobile services, mobile telecom services, Pakistan, Ravaya, Sri Lanka, The Daily News, USD.
LIRNEasia researchers will participate at the International Communication Association conference in Montreal, Canada, May 21-26, 2008.
Rohan Samarajiva will present a paper based on LIRNEasia’s study on the gendered aspects of telecommunications use in emerging Asia, entitled, ‘Who’s Got the Phone? The Gendered Use of Telephones at the Bottom of the Pyramid‘.
Abstract: ‘Much has been said about women’s access to and use of the telephone. Many studies conclude that a significant gender divide in access exists particularly in developing countries. Women are also said to use telephones in a different manner from men –making and receiving more calls, spending more time on calls, and using telephones primarily for ‘relationship maintenance’ purposes, while men make fewer calls, shorter calls and use telephones primarily for instrumental purposes. However, much…
Tags: Asia, Canada, India, International Communication Association, Montreal, Pakistan, Rohan Samarajiva, Sri Lanka, telecom services, telecommunications, telephone users, Thailand, the Philippines.
According to LIRNEasia’s latest comparative study of price and affordability indicators in eight South Asian countries, Bangladesh emerges as having the lowest average monthly cost of using a mobile at all levels of use (low, medium and high) for different tariff plans (prepaid and postpaid). Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka follow closely, while Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan are seen to have significantly higher average monthly mobile costs.
The study compares mobile tariffs in South Asia using price baskets, derived from those used by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The baskets are calculated for low, medium and high users for pre- as well as postpaid tariff plans, factoring in usage charges (voice and SMS), line rental, connection charges (depreciated over a three year period), and…
The Economist is not correct saying ‘No Evidence’ of Internet blocking in Sri Lanka, and in Laos and Cambodia the Internet usage is low so blocking does not make any difference.
As shown, even in Asia the attitude of officialdom varies when it comes to filtering content of a social nature. In many places agreements are set with service providers to block nasty stuff such as child pornography. In a few countries intervention is stronger, up to the level of pervasive censorship. This week Pakistan’s block on YouTube accidentally caused an international outage for that website. Iran and Saudi Arabia have also prevented their citizens from accessing the video-sharing site.
Source: The Economist, Chart Gallery
Tags: Asia, Cambodia, Chart Gallery, Internet blocking, Internet usage, Islamic Republic of Iran, Laos, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, video-sharing site, YouTube.
Pakistani officials have lifted a ban on the YouTube video-sharing Web site, saying that material deemed offensive to Islam has been removed.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered Internet providers to unblock the site Tuesday.
In a statement Tuesday, YouTube confirmed the Web site was again accessible in Pakistan. Company spokesman Ricardo Reyes says YouTube took down the particular link on Saturday, after receiving flags from the YouTube community and determining the content violated the Web site’s terms of use.
Read the full story in ‘VOA News’ here.
The latest figures from the Pakistani telecoms regulator show that the mobile market in Pakistan grew to 78.74m customers at the end of January. The figure for monthly net additions of 1.86m was 17% down on the January 2007 total, and also represented the second lowest figure for two years, the lowest being the 1.52m recorded last October. Read more.
Click on the links to see the full articles covering LIRNEasia’s book, ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks.
‘BSNL’s monopoly over infrastructure a hindrance to growth’ - Financial Express (India)
Rural connectivity is now the focus of every telecommunication player in the country. Almost all stakeholders, from handset manufacturers to service providers, believe that the next wave of growth is in the rural areas.”However, India’s roll out (of telecom services) in rural areas has been slow. BSNL has the backbone infrastructure but is not yet ready to share it with private players,” he added.
Tags: access networks, Ashok Jhujhunwala, Asia, ATM, Ayesha Zainudeen, backbone infrastructure, Bangladesh, cellular telephone, Chennai, Department of Telecommunications, Financial Express, GSM, Harsha de Silva, IDRC, India, Jhunjhunwala, LIRNE asia, Madras, mobile phones, Pakistan, Rohan Samarajiva, rural telephony, Social Science Research Council, Sri Lanka, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, telecom services, telephony, Yahoo Tech Group.
Among the five countries LIRNEasia has conducted its survey on teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP), which country do you think we found people who are least willing to share their mobile phone with a another?
(a) India
(b) Pakistan
(c) Philippines
(d) Sri Lanka
(e) Thailand
This was one of the interesting questions asked during the interactive quiz show at the LIRNEasia organized session at GK3, ‘Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid’. The session addressed issues like the misconceptions about the teleuse (including Internet) at the BoP; exact nature of the demand at the BoP (in terms of using common facilities, getting connected, staying connected); strategic behaviours do users at the BoP engage in and policy and regulatory barriers stand in the way of the BoP being…
LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE - LBO
Although seen as India’s greatest challenger in terms of its potential scale, China fared poorly for language skills, Gartner said.
China, India and Singapore all had strong government support for the promotion of their country as an offshore services location.
The political and economic environment remains a concern for many companies when moving work to offshore locations and so Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam rated poorly, Gartner said.
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Buzzcity got the top award for mobile networking applications at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress held in November 2007. This blog describes how they are changing their charging structure, partially based on LIRNEasia research.
gammalife: BUILDING MOBILE COMMUNITIES
We organised a session of BuzzCity-NUS Digital Media Forum a few weeks ago with presentation by Dr. Rohan Samarajiva, who leads a regional ICT policy group called LIRNEasia. His group had a done a study across five Asian nations – India, Pakistan, The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand – and asked people the main reason why they use a mobile phone.
The pace and style of life in The Philippines is vastly different from Sri Lanka; India and Thailand have little in common other than a taste for spicy foods.…
Tags: Asia Congress, cellular telephone, India, mobile networking, mobile networking applications, Pakistan, policy group, Rohan Samarajiva, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines.
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.
by Harsha de Silva & Ayesha Zainudeen
In Does inequality matter? Exploring the links between poverty and inequality (p. 135-167), Edited by Prashan Thalayasingam & Kannan Arunasalam. Published by CEPA, Colombo, 2007
Pre-publication version available for download. The paper was presented at the Centre for Poverty Analysis Annual Symposium on Poverty Research in Sri Lanka (6-7 December 2007, Colombo)
Introduction:
Much has been said of the benefits of access to telecommunication especially at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’.
Tags: Ayesha Zainudeen, Centre for Poverty Analysis Annual Symposium, Colombo, communication technologies, Harsha de Silva, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, telecom services, telephone ownership, Thailand, the Philippines.
Although some of the major news agencies were reporting that SMS and cell
phone coverage had been jammed, it was only partially true with parts of
Islamabad being taken off at times. However, given some of the activists’
experience with disaster relief communications, many groups knew that SMS
couldn’t be censored (Pakistan’s Telecoms Authority generally use cheap mobile
jamming devices which had proven ineffective in the past). Added to the fears
that the internet may be taken offline in the weeks ahead (this hasn’t happened
in Pakistan yet) and the growing concerns over the clampdown of independent
media in Pakistan, a coalition . . . was formed as an
umbrella group to resist the ‘emergency’ in Pakistan. It was decided to deploy
SMS to aid efforts in getting factual/accurate information flowing in a two-way
manner for…
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