How it applies to Internet and broadband is what Rohan Samarajiva, Chair and CEO, LIRNEasia explained in his keynote speech at the workshop ‘Expanding access to the Internet and broadband for development’ on November 16, 2009, at the Internet Governance forum 2009.  His presentation entitled, ‘How the developing world may participate in the global Internet Economy:  Innovation driven by competition’, can be downloaded here.

The session was chaired by Dimitri Ypsilanti, Head of Information, Communication and Consumer Policy Division, OECD. The discussants were Tim Kelly, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, infoDev – World Bank, Olfat A. Monsef, Vice President of National Telecommunication Regulator, Telecom Services, Egypt, Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director, Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Virat Bhatia, President – External Affairs, AT&T, South Asia will be the discussants.

The workshop is jointly organized by OECD and infoDev.

Rural and low-income consumer segments are attracting immense interest as they are expected to contribute to the next wave of growth in India, particularly for telecom products and services.

Many industry experts believe that the next billion telecom subscribers will come from the BOP. Telecom adoption at the BOP highlights the role of telecom in enhancing household income and transforming personal identity by increasing accessibility and hence, credibility. Telecom adoption is also seen to impact their social and professional network
coordination by strengthening family ties and increasing business coordination by overcoming challenges posed by location and context.

“If we are to have an inclusive society, it is imperative that the poor are connected to electronic networks. How can that happen unless companies deliver services that meet their needs? What LiRNEasia does with this survey is bridge that gap”, says Rohan Samarajiva, chairman & CEO, LIRNasia.

“The complex and different nature of demand for telecom services among households making less than two dollars a day is illuminated by the teleuse@BOP research, enabling companies to develop appropriate products and governments to implement appropriate policies”, Samarajiva explains. Missed calls are used by a high 84% of the sample to minimize communication expenditures.

Is broadband quality a subject of interest only to urban top-of-the ladder users?

Not necessarily. With the latest developments in telecom services broadband access is increasingly becoming a reality to rural populations as well, even in developing countries. The penetration levels might not be the same but should that mean quality should be compromised for rural users?

Broadband quality is critical for telecenters where a link is usually shared.

LIRNEasia introduces its AT-Tester software application for any users to find out how far the operators keep their promises for quality broadband. This is developed using open source software by a group of researchers from IIT Madras and available freely for download from www.broadbandasia.info.

The tests can be conducted by any user, with least effort and within few minutes. No more than basic computer literacy is required. All you need is a PC running Windows XP connected to Internet. (Other operating systems will be supported in near future).

AT-Tester is different from popular broadband performance testing tools (speedtest.net, for example) because:

• It is more accurate: AT-Tester measures the throughput rates while actually downloading/uploading files. It does not calculate them using empirical formulae and ping data.

• It is more comprehensive: Unlike most other tools, AT-Tester does not confine testing to an end server. It tests the throughput to three servers, namely (a) the local ISP; (b) another server within the same country and (c) a server in US. This helps pinpointing the bandwidth bottlenecks.

• It tests more parameters namely,

i. Download speed (kbps/Mbps)
ii. Upload Speed (kbps/Mbps)
iii. RTT (milli seconds)
iv. Jitter (milli seconds)
v. Packet-Loss (%)
vi. Availability (%)

The software is developed in such a manner that minimal configuration is required by the user.

The software is already customized to be used by the telecenter operators in Sri Lanka. They can report the performance results district-wise. (For example, a telecenter operator in Panamura can report under Ratnapura, not Colombo) Our objective is to develop a more descriptive picture of broadband performance instead of depending solely on testing in major cities.

Telecenter operator in any country can use this but needs a prior customization. (We will ask you some fundamental information like your ISP, promised speeds of the package and location) Unlike incase of speedtest.net we need this information as we go deeper in our testing. It can be done with least hassle for any country on request.

For more information Please write to: chanuka [at] gmail [dot] com

The $1 trillion telecommunications industry has long been one of the most resilient parts of the economy. But as the financial crisis has intensified, it has recently become clear that telecom can’t escape the fallout of the credit crunch.

Although most analysts believe the damage won’t be nearly as bad as the last telecom bust—when hundreds of firms went bankrupt, including giant Worldcom—there is growing evidence that the financial crisis is going to depress the debt-heavy telecom industry. To start with, rising capital costs are likely to take a bite out of earnings. In addition, the softening economy will probably crimp demand for such telecom services as land lines, cell phones, and Internet connections. Over the last week several Wall Street analysts trimmed their 2009 earnings estimates for AT&T, Verizon Communications, Sprint Nextel, and other operators. “Everyone is going to pay more for credit,” says Craig Moffett, a senior analyst with Sanford Bernstein who has been bearish on telecom stocks.

A telecom slowdown could ripple through the technology sector. If the operators’ cash flow declines as expected, that’s likely to cause them to cut back on their capital spending plans. This would hurt the primary equipment makers that supply gear to the industry, as well as those that sell to them. It would also slow down the build out of future wireless and terrestrial networks.

Read the full article in Business Week here.

Mega panel at ITU Telecom Asia 2008

I had the opportunity of chairing a panel of seven persons from various parts of Asia at the Forum at ITU Telecom Asia 2008 in Bangkok.  After we got around the inane title of Manga for the masses, we had a decent discussion, focussing on the aspects of connecting the unconnected, assuring adequate quality to the connected, and content.   My overview slides setting the frame are here.

Contrary to expectation, the Chairman of the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission, representing perhaps one of the least connected of the countries of Asia, talked about using universal service funds to develop content.   Several people referred to the counter-productive nature of universal service taxes, wherein poor people were being taxed to provide services to poor people, yet those taxes were not being utilized, wisely or otherwise.   I personally was relieved to hear that the Bangladesh universal service fund is still under consideration, and not a done deal.

On the subject of taxes, we had an interesting intervention from the floor, when Professor Howard Williams, the Acting Head of ITU Telecom Forum, intervened from the floor in defense of taxes being imposed on the telecom sector.   One assumes that he was working off the misconception that the objections were to ALL taxes on telecom services, and not on punitive mobile-only taxes, including universal-service taxes.  I clarified this.   It would indeed be a dark day when the ITU starts defending punitive taxes being imposed on telecom services.

Immediately after this session, I attended another session that addressed a topic we had done considerable research on, and which was said to be one of the ITU Secretary General’s three top issues:  Emergency telecom and relief.  This was, as I told the head of the ITU Telecom Board, the worst session I had ever attended at an ITU Telecom event.   After hearing many, if not all, the speakers refer to the role that telecom could play in early warning, I asked a simple question about cell broadcasting, with reference to the Maldives.   Pretty much no one on the panel knew what cell broadcasting was, but they answered nevertheless.

Why, when it has in-house expertise in early warning technologies, the ITU puts a non-specialist political official to read a prepared speech at major session, is a mystery to me.   The Thai speaker knew what he was talking about, and more importantly, stuck his area of expertise.  But I was truly disappointed in the rest.

The Bill that is scheduled to be debated in Parliament on the 19th of March makes provision for the levy to collected by telecom operators and paid to the Telecom Regulatory Commission and then to the Environmental Conservation Levy account of the Consolidated Fund.   The other levy collector is the customs.   The removal of the complex collection procedure mentioned in the Budget Speech is definitely an improvement.

As is common with present-day legislative drafting, this is a very poorly crafted bill.  For example, it includes a definition of a motor vehicle that excludes two-wheel vehicles, even though the defined term is not used anywhere in the text.   Its true danger lies in the vagueness of the provisions.

Pretty much any good manufactured in or imported into Sri Lanka, or any service provided in Sri Lanka, or any household, can be subject to this levy by an Order made by the Minister in charge of the subject of Finance in consultation with the Minister in charge of the subject of Environment.  No controversy, no fuss, just wait for a moment when we’re all excited about winning a cricket match and quietly slap a levy on whatever you please.  If Parliament lets this bill go through, it is voluntarily, and possibly unconstitutionally, giving up its control of finance.

The pernicious implications of slapping additional levies on telephones and telecom services have been previously discussed.  The temptation to milk the goose that lays the golden eggs is irresistible, it seems.

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 of this research on usage patterns is based on small-sample studies in affluent developed countries. The article provides evidence that a significant gender divide in access to telephones exists in Pakistan and India , to a lesser extent in Sri Lanka , but is generally absent in the Philippines and Thailand . This article also challenges some of the findings of studies which claim that women’s and men’s use is fundamentally different, shedding light on women’s access to and use of telecom services at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in five Emerging Asian markets. The article is based on an 8,600+ sample study of telephone users in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Thailand, focusing on the BOP, but also looking at the ‘middle and top’ of the pyramid to ascertain whether these findings are unique to the BOP or not. ‘

‘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.

BSNL should be made to share its fibre and access networks, Samarajiva said. With shared infrastructure and innovation in marketing, costs can be brought down further, he said. Moreover, telecom companies should also shift their focus from calculating average revenue per user (Arpu) to average margin per user (Ampu), he added.

Also at:  http://asia.tmcnet.com/news/2007/12/26/3184529.htm
http://in.news.yahoo.com/071226/203/6ovtq.html
http://in.biz.yahoo.com/071226/203/6ovva.html

Book also discussed at Yahoo Tech Group forum.

‘Fact or fiction: Telecommunications in Asia By Liffy Thomas’ – Ergo (the Hindu, India)

At a time when GSM operators, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are at an imbroglio over spectrum allocation, Prof Rohan Samarajiva’s book, “ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks”, makes for a timely read. In Chennai for the launch of the book, Samarajiva, Executive Director of LIRNEasia and former Director General of Telecommunications in Sri Lanka, spoke to Liffy Thomas.

BOOK EXTRACT: ‘Subsidising The Smart Way’ – Business World Magazine (India)The Latin American experience holds lessons for the development of rural telephony in Asia, says Harsha De Silva

The supply of telephony has traditionally been skewed towards the urban affluent as opposed to the rural poor. The literature describes this bias as having been caused by a ‘market efficiency gap’ and an ‘access gap’. The market efficiency gap is the difference between what markets achieve under existing conditions and what they can achieve if barriers are removed. This gap can be bridged through effective competition, private provision of services, and market-oriented policies and regulations that create a level playing field for new entrants. The access gap refers to people and places that remain beyond limits of the market due to inadequate income levels or its skewed distribution. Bridging this gap needs subsidies to encourage service providers to enter these areas.

‘Policies for ICT’ – New India Express (Chennai, India) 

WHILE the common perception remains that India has the lowest mobile phone tariffs, other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have lower tariffs than India, Rohan Samarajiva, executive director, Lirne Asia, said on Tuesday.

Talking about his new book ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia – Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks, he said, when compared to all these countries, India’s cost is much higher.

The Deccan Chronicle, Chennai, 16.12.07:

 Policies and regulations are the main bottlenecks blocking the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in India, according to Prof Ashok Jhujhunwala, Telecom and Networks (TeNet) Group, IIT, Madras.

Releasing the book ‘ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks’, a collection of articles edited by Rohan Samarajiva and Ayesha Zainudeen, ICT experts, here on Sunday, Prof Jhunjhunwala said any technological problems associated with ICT could be sorted out by scientists within two to three years. “But the policy-makers and regulators fail to move ahead with the times. We are living in an era when things which were socially desirable once have become commercial to the core,” the professor said. He pointed out that ICT has the potential of helping developing countries tackle a wide range of health, social, and economic problems.

“While urban India is marching rapidly ahead, rural India is being left behind. We have to use ICT to accelerate the growth of rural India,” said Dr Jhunjhunwala. Elaborating on the pace of growth of ICT, Dr Jhunjhunwala said the next two years will see payments through mobile phones catching up all over the country.

“Instead of going to ATM centres or Banks, you can have cash transactions through your mobile phones,” he said. Dr Samarajiva said the book was a step forward in identifying the reasons for under-connectivity in emerging Asia. “The book itself is an introduction, not a conclusion. It reports the findings of a cutting edge demand-side survey of telecom use at the ‘bottom of a pyramid’ in India and Sri Lanka,” said Dr Samarajiva, a former director general of Sri lanka Telecommunications.

He said there is enough scope to bring down telecom charges. “It is the outdated policies of the governments in the region which are playing havoc with the communication revolution. This is aggravating the digital divide which will lead to major catastrophe,” he said.

The publication of the book was co-funded by the IDRC and Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

More information on the book can be found on the book page.

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’. The economic as well as social benefits from such access can, in theory enable people to graduate from poverty and also contribute more widely to development. Thus it can be argued that inequality in access to telecom services can lead to limitations in fighting poverty.

Many in the ‘ICT for development’ movement highlight the benefits that telecommunication, the Internet and other information and communication technologies (broadly put, ICTs) can bring to the table in the fight against poverty. A number of studies have attempted to demonstrate the impacts of access on income at the macro-level. However supporting evidence for these arguments at the household level is limited at best.

This paper takes a unique look at telecom access and studies the perceived impacts of direct access to telecom services, that is, telephone ownership at a household level at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ in five developing Asian countries. It focuses on the perceived economic impact (positive or negative) of telecom ownership in terms of the potential to increase indirect income generation capacity or save on expenditure or transactions costs. The findings reveal that some telecom users do perceive the economic benefits of direct access to be high, but this finding is not seen across the board for a number of reasons explained.

The paper is based on a large sample survey of telecom users at the BOP in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Thailand. Section 2 reviews the existing literature on the impacts of telecommunication. Section 3 explains the study design and methodology, and examines the difficulties faced in conducting a study of this nature and the methodological innovations undertaken. Section 4 explores in detail the impacts of telecom services at the BOP in the five countries. Section 5 concludes, looking at the policy implications from the study.

The Hindu Business Line : Raja rejects telecom industry plea to cut USO levy

Operators had said that since the USO fund has over Rs 10,000 crore lying unused, the Government should consider lowering the contribution made by the telecom firms. “We realise that USO is an important tool to enable telecom services in rural areas. We have been contributing 5 per cent of our revenues annually towards it for the past so many years. However, now that the fund has surplus amount, which is enough to finance the new mobile and broadband projects, the levy should be reduced,” said a CDMA operator.The operators proposed that if the levy was reduced, they would reciprocate by dropping tariffs even further. Telecom industry generates revenues of Rs 80,000 crore and a 2.5 per cent reduction in the levy would have meant savings of around Rs 2,000 crore for the operators.

Powered by ScribeFire.

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

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?newsID=2020236857&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=24 
 
March 08 (LBO) – Indonesia, like Sri Lanka, sends its women to foreign lands to work as housemaids. The numbers may be larger, though the proportion is smaller. 
 
Telecom networks are expanding fast in both countries, Indonesia faster. The telecom sector is attracting massive investments in both countries as operators scramble to meet the burgeoning demand.

Generally, politicians and officials responsible for a sector are happy when it grows. Therefore, I was surprised to hear several senior telecom officials in Indonesia express concern about lowered gold sales supposedly caused by excessive use of calling cards by expatriate housemaids.

I could understand concern from those in charge of gold sales, but this was telecom.

I thought this was an Indonesian peculiarity, until I heard it in a different form from a Sri Lankan journalist. “The westerners had given us phones,” he said, “but not taught us how to use them: our people are wasting their money on phone calls.”

“What is waste,” I asked. I did not receive an answer.

Beneath both statements lay a concern about “wrong” uses of technology by people lacking the good judgment that the speaker was endowed with. But let us see what the evidence is on how poor people use phones.

How do people actually use telephones?

LIRNEasia recently conducted a five-country sample survey, involving almost 9,000 respondents, of how people at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) use information and communication technologies (ICTs). AC Nielsen affiliates in the five countries conducted the field research in July-August 2006.

This study, which used quantitative methods including a diary in which people recorded each call made in a two-week period including purpose, duration, and cost, provides unique insights on teleuse at the bottom of the pyramid, defined as the two lowest (D and E) socio-economic classification (SEC) groups in each of the five countries.

In Sri Lanka, the study accurately represents teleuse by 4 million Sri Lankans, ages 18-60 in SEC D and E, with a margin of error less than 3 percent.

Ninety two percent of those approached had used a telephone in the past three months. Of the users at the BOP in Sri Lanka, 41 percent owned the phone they had used. The others relied on friends, relatives, neighbors, and communication bureaus.

Both numbers are unexpectedly high. An overwhelming majority of people in these countries (that include a substantial part of South Asia, the largest concentration of poor people in the world), are familiar with the telephone. This allows one to infer that many of the world’s people are indeed familiar with, and have used, telephones.

This is a sea change from the claim made just eight years ago that half the world’s people have never made or received a phone call by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in a speech at an International Telecommunication Union event. (Read Speech)

The number that owned mobile phones or had a fixed phone within the house in Sri Lanka (41 per cent) was also high; in India, the comparable number was 19 per cent.

As recently as in 2004, the Central Bank’s consumer finance survey showed that 25 percent of the households had some kind of phone, fixed or mobile. The LIRNEasia survey shows that, just two years later, 41 per cent of the poorest households had some kind of phone in the house, indicating that the percentage of households with phones overall has to be even higher.

Sixty five percent of those at the BOP in Sri Lanka could reach a telephone within five minutes. Over 95 percent could reach a phone within one hour.

These people used the phone sparingly: 13 outgoing calls a month on average and 10 incoming. Obviously, those who owned a phone made/received more calls than those who had to go to a neighbor’s house or a communication bureau for that purpose.

Their calls were of short duration, 80 percent being less than three minutes long.

The principal purpose of calls for 65 percent of users at the BOP was to keep in touch with friends and family. Except in Thailand (29 percent), very few at the bottom of the pyramid used the phone for explicit business or instrumental purposes. In Sri Lanka, only eight percent reported this as the principal purpose.

Of course, the task of differentiating a call to friends and family from a business call in a not-fully monetized economy is not an easy one. Unlike in developed countries where roles are clearly demarcated and the division of labor is sharply defined, in countries like Sri Lanka, especially at the bottom of the pyramid, the roles are intermixed.

For example, maintaining good relations with one’s brother-in-law may be no different at the BOP than making a call to one’s insurance agent, because in a society lacking insurance, the reliance has to be on friends and family.

Compared to other South Asian BOP teleusers, the Sri Lankans made more international calls, explainable both by the large number of expatriate workers and the low international call prices. Four percent of the calls made at the Sri Lankan BOP were international, just below the Philippines (six percent)

A 2005 study conducted during the window of opportunity created by the MOU in 2002-2004, showed that the inhabitants of Jaffna were the heaviest users of international calls among the four districts (Badulla, Colombo, Hambantota and Jaffna) surveyed.

Seventy five percent of Jaffna mobile users made calls to family and friends abroad. Fifty five percent of public-phone users in Jaffna called abroad.

Teleusers at the BOP used a variety of cost-saving techniques. Sixty percent use texting (SMS) though the levels of use are less than in the SMS capital of the world, the Philippines, where everyone texts and almost everyone texts at least once a day.

In 2006, calling off-peak and missed calls (ringcuts) were among the most popular cost-minimizing strategies at the Sri Lankan BOP, used by 40 percent and 35 percent users respectively.

When asked the reasons for owning a phone, the highest weight was given to its utility in an emergency, 4.58 on a scale of 5. The phone was seen as improving the efficiency of day-to-day lives, 3.98 on a scale of 5.

However, the value assigned to allowing one to make money or save was the lowest in Sri Lanka (3.19/5 as against 3.97/5 for India, for example), possibly an artifact of the RPP [Receiving Party Pays] regime that remains only in Sri Lanka among the countries surveyed.

Only one per cent at the BOP used the Internet. Seventy percent had heard of the Internet but never used it, a much higher number than India (28 percent).

So this is the portrait of teleuse at the BOP. These people appear to be using the phone most frugally and intelligently, though they do spend a higher proportion of their limited income on telecom services.

So what could be the concern about gold and waste?

Obviously, the rapid growth of telecom is pulling time (attention) and money away from other industries. But why do officials in one case and a journalist in the other think that money and time spent on telecom is misdirected?

It could be that the critics consider telephone calls, lacking tangibility, as ephemeral and lacking in value. But they should just look at the Stock Market and the entertainment industries: ephemeral products, but a great deal of value changing hands.

It may not be the phone that is drawing their ire, but the users. In the “bad old days” of government-owned integrated monopoly, one had to be somebody to get a phone; either you knew the right people or had a lot of money.

This is no longer the case with over 5 million mobiles in use and almost 2 million households connected; nobodies are using mobile phones think the self-appointed somebodies. The phone is no longer a factor that differentiates somebodies from nobodies.

The objection to phones could be a remnant of paternalistic thinking. Perhaps the thinking goes that a call from a mother in the Middle East to the children left behind is not the best use of limited Dirhams. Better to use that money to buy gold to bring home and bury in the garden for use in a time of need.

These people have obviously not heard of consumer sovereignty. The poor, as much as the rich, have a right to spend their money as they see fit.

The fact remains that the BOP in the Asia Pacific (South Asia in particular) is teaching the whole world about the value of connectivity. They are talking and texting more for less, forcing the adoption of new business models that allow profits to be made with very low average revenues per user.

In India, a mobile is used for over 400 minutes a month (incoming and outgoing) and generates around USD 7 in monthly revenue. In Sri Lanka the equivalent numbers are 200 minutes and USD 6.

In the rich countries represented in the OECD, the minutes of use per month is as low as 65, for a much higher payment. And yet, the companies in emerging Asia are investing massively and making more than respectable profits.

Globalization and mismanagement of national economies are making all people more mobile. Even those at the bottom of the pyramid have been compelled to abandon their settled ways and migrate to distant parts, within and outside their countries. Telecom provides an invaluable link with loved ones in this turbulent time. 

Relationships are more valuable than gold. They are built and sustained by talk, on the phone and in person. Talk of this kind is definitely not a waste. 
 
 
 

:: Daily Mirror – FINANCIAL TIMES ::
SLT is also shifting its focus to non-voice data services and delivering broadband technologies.

“SLT Chief Corporate Officer Mrs. Pat Abeysekara stressed that plans are underway to roll out 100,000 ADSL connections in all 32 regional telecommunications areas. A request for a tariff revision for ADSL has also been submitted to the TRCSL.

Trials will also be conducted with newer technologies like IP TV (Internet protocol TV allowing users to access pod casts and internet TV). This shift from providing telecom services to multimedia services is expected to expand SLT’s business scope and increase usage levels.

SLT is also expecting to conduct 2 Wimax trials in Colombo and Kandy, in collaboration with two vendors. Once the trials prove successful, the challenge would be to obtain commercial frequencies for a mass scale rollout.”

Telecom use on a shoestring: Strategic use of telecom services by the financially constrained in South Asia (V2.0 for comment) (February 2006)

Telecom use on a shoestring: Strategic use of telecom services by the financially constrained in South Asia (V2.1 for comment, March 2006)

The Authors invite comments and discussion.

Abstract:

When one talks of a ‘shoestring’ budget, it is understood that reference is being made to constrained finances, where individuals make attempts to cut costs through various methods without harming utility. This paper looks at the use of ‘strategies’ by such ‘shoestring’ users to reduce their communication costs. While the use of ‘long-term’ strategies, relating to the investment in a phone, is evident, that of ‘short-term’ strategies, relating to everyday use are looked at is found to be low. It is concluded that this is a result of a series of constraints on users, rather than a lack of a concern for controlling spending on telecoms.

A study conducted by LIRNEasia, an Asian research organization based in Colombo, explores the use of telecom services amongst people whose incomes are less than approximately USD 100 per month in Sri Lanka and India. The study provides evidence that there are few significant differences between men and women in the use of fixed, mobile or public phones at these income levels. These results challenge the findings of several prior and well-established studies……..

English Press Release: Telephone use on a shoestring in Sri Lanka and India – Men’s use of telephones no different from women’s

More information about the study: Telecom use on a shoestring [2005]