Tag Archive for 'Singapore'Page 2 of 4


Call for Papers: Infrastructure Regulation: What works, Why, and How do we know?
Deadline: 05 December 2008.




India still tops on BPO; Sri Lanka stalled due to war

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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Indonesia’s Telkom asks Telkomsel to appeal anti-monopoly ruling

Indonesia’s largest telecommunications company, Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), said Wednesday it has asked unit Telkomsel to appeal a ruling that Telkomsel has broken the anti-monopoly law.Indonesia’s competition watchdog (KPPU) ruled on Monday that Telkomsel, the largest cellphone carrier here, has broken the competition law. The KPPU fined it 25 billion rupiah (2.7 million dollars) and ordered Telkomsel to lower its tariff by a minimum of 15 percent.

“As the majority and controlling shareholder of Telkomsel, Telkom has requested Telkomsel to immediately carry out a legal review in accordance with its own internal processes and governance practices,” Telkom said.

The KPPU also ruled that Singapore’s state-linked investment company Temasek Holdings has broken the law because it controls the two largest cellphone carriers through its indirect holdings in both Telkomsel…

Mobile number portability: the case for and against

The implications of mobile number portability (MNP) were discussed at a Workshop on Implementing Mobile Number Portability, held in August 2007 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The forum, comprising participants from the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, provided insight into the technical, regulatory and operational aspects impacted by the porting process, with a focus on the Pakistani MNP experience.

The reasons cited in favor of MNP were classified into advantages to subscribers and regulators. The former were benefited by an increase in choice (of packages) and the eliminated costs of having to inform third parties of a number change, while the latter saw MNP as an approach to attract new investment and generate healthy competition. Operators on the other hand, were split in their views; new entrants…

IDA for new interconnect, numbering arrangements for wireless broadband voice


Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has opened consultations on a proposed interconnect and numbering regime for voice services provided over the city-state’s wireless broadband networks.
 

Three operators—Singtel, iCell and Qalanet—offer wireless services in the 2.5GHz band as part of Singapore’s Wireless@SG initiative and the IDA says it is now time to formalise an industry regime to support voice services carried over those networks. 

The IDA adds that the move is needed as part of the global shift from discrete PSTN and wireless networks to a converged next generation network. However, the Agency stops short of harmonising the standard numbering range with IP addresses. Read more.

Myanmar bids for world record on slowest e-mail

LIRNEasia and ISEAS organized an expert forum on ICT indicators in Singapore in March 2007. On the 26th of January, the Myanmar Ministry of Post and Telecom sent an e-mail to the ISEAS in Singapore, nominating an officer to attend. That e-mail reached ISEAS yesterday (4th June 2007; more than four months later).

Does this not suggest a need to radically reform the Myanmar ICT infrastructure?

Vietnam’s submarine cable ‘lost’ and ‘found’

Dhaka, June 1 (bdnews24.com)—Maritime thieves have stolen at least 11-kilometres Vietnamese portion of Thailand bound SEA-ME-WE3 submarine cable and sold the 100 tons of illicit cargo as scrap, reported VietNamNet Bridge online newspaper Tuesday.

Such bizarre underwater international telecoms infrastructure robbery occurred on March 25 and since then Vietnam’s Internet users have been struggling with far slower speed.

The broken cable system, named TVH, was built in 1993-1995, connecting Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong with a capacity of 560 megabits per second.

The Vietnam Telecom International (VTI) got puzzled when the cable went down. It occurred soon after the Asia Pacific region recovered from prolonged bandwidth crisis as earthquake snapped bunch of submarine cables in the Taiwanese coast

VTI called a submarine cable fixing ship from Singapore. But its…

LIRNEasia’s push for liberalization of Indonesia’s IPLC market gets traction?

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Divakar Goswami made a presentation at Indonesia’s ICT 2007 Summit and Technoconference in Jakarta on May 3, 2007 organized by the President’s ICT Council, the Indonesian ICT Ministry, the Chamber of Commerce and MASTEL, the telecom industry association.

In his presentation titled Backbone of convergence: Getting the foundation right, Divakar argued that without sufficient “big pipes” (domestic and international backbone) the potential of convergence and NGN services will not be realized. Indonesia’s inadequate international backbone infrastructure and high prices have acted as a bottleneck to the development of the Internet in the country. For example, Indonesia’s international private leased line circuit (IPLC) to Singapore costs 21 times the price of equivalent service from India based on route kilometers. Divakar contented that the Government’s plan of licensing one…

12th LIRNE.NET course, Singapore - February 2008: Announcement

Read more…

South Asia slipping in e-readiness? Pakistan as the exception

The e-readiness rankings are relatively well regarded and do not contain absurdities such as Zimbabwe being ahead of India. The latest rankings are out and show India and the Philippines tied for 54th place (a one-place drop for India); Sri Lanka at 61 (dropping two places); and Pakistan at 63 (up four places and likely to catch up with Sri Lanka soon). Indonesia, another country of focus for LIRNEasia, has slipped 5 places to 67.

Zimbabwe, the country that leads all of South Asia according to the ITU, is not in the top- 70 that is provided. Nigeria, on the other hand, is just behind Sri Lanka, at 62. Unless some action is taken, next year, both Nigeria and Pakistan will be ahead of Sri Lanka.

PRESS…

Intelligent benchmark regulation: Forbearance within benchmark limits

This colloquium will be on a new paper that is being developed on tools for intelligent benchmark regulation, based on Harsha de Silva and Tahani Iqbal’s presentation on Price & Affordability Indicators at the WDR Expert Forum in Singapore. The tools under consideration are price baskets and price elasticity of demand.

Internet still an obscure term in India, says study

VRISHTI BENIWAL | The Financial Expresss, India

NEW DELHI, MAR 25:  Have you ever heard of Internet? As strange and shocking as this question is the fact that a sizeable chunk of India’s population doesn’t know what Internet is! About 72% people in the lower socio-economic strata of the country have never heard the word ‘Internet’, according to a study whose key findings were recently presented to the Cellular Operators Association of India and Universal Services Obligations Fund. The study will be released next year.

[Note: This study, Teleuse@BOP was released in Singapore on 28 February 2007.]

Read full article  | See print article

 

In India, only 9% use their own mobile phones

VRISHTI BENIWAL | The Financial Express India

NEW DELHI, MAR 23:  Over 200 billion telephone users and 7 million subscriber addition a month may paint a rosy picture, but the telecom boom is yet to ring loud in rural India. Believe it or not, 82% people at the bottom of pyramid (BoP) in India use someone else’s phone.
Only 9% people in India use their own mobile phones and an equal percentage use their household fixed line phone, according to a yet-to-be-released study ‘Teleuse on a Shoestring’ by a Sri Lanka-based non-profit research organisation LIRNEasia.

[Note: This study, Teleuse@BOP was released in Singapore on 28 February 2007.]

Read full article | See print article

Media coverage of Teleuse@BOP Project

LIRNEasia conducted a media workshop to present findings from the Teleuse@BOP project in Singapore on Feb 28, 2007. Teleuse@BOP (Shoestrings 2) is a large sample study undertaken by LIRNEasia on how low-income groups benefit from telecom and how the access pattern differs in five Asian countries, namely India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Thailand. The research looks at the use and ownership of telephones, what kinds of phones people use and why, the perceived benefits, expenditure on telephones and the barriers to telecom use in the five countries.

The study, Teleuse@BOP, is the second study of this nature that LIRNEasia has conducted. It has brought out several interesting findings, which would provide valuable insights into the telecom user space in these Asian countries.

Media coverage of the Teleuse@BOP findings are below:

Telecom Journal from Thailand

Following successful course, LIRNEasia plans regular offerings; next course in March 2008 in Singapore

Report on the 11th LIRNE.NET Executive Training Course on Regulation, 25 February – 3 March 2007, conducted by LIRNEasia and CONNECTasia Forum Pte.Ltd.

Rohan Samarajiva, Course Director

The 11th LIRNE.NET course on “Telecom Reform: Strategies to achieve connectivity and convergence,” was held February 25th - March 3rd, 2007 at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore. It was attended by 33 persons from 13 countries, ranging from Mongolia to Congo and South Africa to Bhutan.

Among the participants were 13 persons from regulatory agencies, including three members of regulatory collegiums. Eleven persons from the management of telecom operators, and nine from research organizations, universities and civil society made up the balance. Twenty were men; and 13 women.

The course had two components: a conventional lecture and assignment based module of five…

Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid

The results of LIRNEasia’s Teleuse on a Shoestring:2 - A study of teleuse at the bottom of the pyramid were officially released in Singapore at a media workshop on 28 February 2007. The release took place at the Changi Village Hotel, with the presence of media from four countries.

The research findings were presented to and then discussed with the journalists by Dr. Harsha de Silva and Ayesha Zainudeen of LIRNEasia and Dr. Lorraine Carlos Salazar of ISEAS, Singapore. followed by discussion with the journalists.

The presentations can be downloaded below.

Research Methodology and Key Findings | Harsha de Silva

Cost Cutting Strategies at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The SMS Story, Missed Calls, and others | Lorraine Carlos Salazar

The next billion customers | Ayesha Zainudeen

 

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