Tag Archive for ‘the Philippines’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'the Philippines'

LIRNEasia’s Mobile Benchmarks (South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Broadband Benchmarks Report for October 2008 has been released. Click HERE for more information.

Asia-Pacific region leads high-speed Broadband connectivity, but wide divide prevails, says ITU

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 3, 2008

While some Asia-Pacific economies are world leaders in information and communication technologies (ICT) where broadband access is ultra-high speed, affordable and close to ubiquitous, in most of the region’s poorer countries Internet access remains limited and predominantly low-speed.

This is what ITU’s Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region 2008 says. It was released at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, Bangkok, Thailand yesterday (Sept 2, 2008).

The Report finds evidence that ICTs and broadband uptake foster growth and development, but the question remains as to the optimal speed that should be targeted in view of limited resources.

The area in which the region really stands out is the uptake of advanced Internet technologies, especially broadband Internet access. The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest broadband market with a 39…

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Tags: 3G, Asia-Pacific, Bangkok, Bangladesh, Broadband, broadband access, broadband and triple-play services, broadband Internet access, broadband Internet subscribers, broadband technologies, Cambodia, China, communication services, communication technologies, continuous high-speed Internet access, desirable and valuable online services, Distance Learning, fibre optic, Fixed and mobile broadband technologies, HIGH-speed Internet access, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Internet technologies, Internet Telephony, IP telephony, ITU TELECOM, Japan, Laos, Maldives, mobile phones, Myanmar, poorer countries Internet access remains, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Tonga, ubiquitous Internet access plan combining, ultra-high speed Internet applications, USD, Wi-Fi.

LIRNEasia at International Communication Association Conference

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on March 11, 2008

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…

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Tags: Asia, Canada, India, International Communication Association, Montreal, Pakistan, Rohan Samarajiva, Sri Lanka, telecom services, telecommunications, telephone users, Thailand, the Philippines.

Asian countries slide e-government rankings

Abu Saeed Khan

on January 14, 2008

A United Nations survey of global e-government readiness has found that many Asian countries are sliding down the rankings. Just one Asian country—South Korea—made the top ten coming in at sixth, with Japan next on 11th.

The next highest was Singapore at a surprisingly low 23rd, and Malaysia at 34th. The top 35 countries are otherwise dominated by Europe, Australasia and North America.

The biggest revelation was that most Asian countries are sliding down the rankings.
Singapore was the most prominent to fall from grace, falling to 22nd from seventh position in 2005. China fell to 65 from 57, India from 87 to 113, Thailand from 46 to 62, the Philippines from 41 to 66 and Indonesia from 96 to 106.

Other countries to slide included Maldives,…

32 Comments
Tags: Australasia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Denmark, e-government, Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, North America, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, the Philippines, United Nations, United States, Vietnam.

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

Rohan Samarajiva

on December 13, 2007

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.

2 Comments
Tags: China, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Vietnam.

Award winning mobile networking firm uses LIRNEasia data

Rohan Samarajiva

on December 13, 2007

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.…

2 Comments
Tags: Asia Congress, cellular telephone, India, mobile networking, mobile networking applications, Pakistan, policy group, Rohan Samarajiva, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines.

Teleuse on a shoestring: Poverty reduction through telecom access at the bottom of the pyramid

Ayesha Zainudeen

on December 3, 2007

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’.

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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.

Phones at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Telecom Accessibility

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on November 2, 2007

i4d, a reputed Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) magazine, recently featured an article co-written by LIRNEasia researcher Ayesha Zainudeen based on LIRNEasia’s Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid study conducted in 2006. The article highlights the study’s main findings with a special emphasis on the gendered aspects of telecommunications use at the BOP.

Phones at the bottom of the pyramid: Telecom Accessibility - i4d Magazine

In a 2006 five-country study, which was conducted by LIRNEasia, researchers asked 6,269 respondents in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Thailand about their access to, and use of telephones. Those surveyed were all users at the lowest socio-economic strata in the countries, at ‘the bottom of the pyramid’ (BOP). Their responses revealed many differences between users in the five countries,…

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Tags: Ayesha Zainudeen, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, telecommunications, Thailand, the Philippines.

‘Getting a Dial Tone: Telecommunications Liberalisation in Malaysia and the Philippines’ by Lorraine Carlos Salazar

Tahani Iqbal

on October 19, 2007

‘Getting a Dial Tone: Telecommunications Liberalisation in Malaysia and the Philippines’ by Lorraine Carlos Salazar, Senior Researcher at LIRNEasia and Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), was published by ISEAS this week.The book analyses the telecommunications reform process in Malaysia and the Philippines where far-reaching reforms have taken place.By looking at the institutions and actors that drove these changes, this book examines state capacity, market reform, and rent-seeking in the two countries. In doing so, the study challenges conventional depictions of the Malaysian and Philippine states. It contends that despite the weakness of the Philippine state, reform occurred through a coalition that out-manoeuvred vested interests. In Malaysia, although considered a strong state, patronage and rent-seeking played key roles in policy adoption…

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Tags: Australian National University, Edmund Terence Gomez, Fidel Ramos, Hal Hill, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Lorraine Carlos Salazar, Malaysia, Paul D. Hutchcroft Associate, SouthEast Asia, telecommunications, telecommunications policy, the Philippines, United Nations Research Institute for Social Developmen, University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin.

Western Union to transfer money to ‘mobile wallets’

Chanuka Wattegama

on October 19, 2007

Mobile phones are about to become the simplest and quickest way to transfer money across borders, under a deal announced yesterday by Western Union and GSM Association, the main mobile phone operators’ body.

The agreement could have a big impact on global cross-border remittances, worth an estimated $500bn a year, and provide a springboard for mobile carriers and Western Union to offer other mobile banking services using “mobile wallet” technology. Cross-border money transfers valued at up to $100 in countries such as India, the Philippines, Mexico and China - which have large volumes of remittances from migrant workers - will be an early priority of the deal.

Thirty-five mobile operators with 800m customers in more than 100 countries have signed up to take part in the GSMA…

3 Comments
Tags: Bharti Airtel, cellular telephone, China, GSM Association, India, Mexico, Mobile banking, Mobile banking services, mobile phones, Sunil Mittal, the Philippines, USD, Western Union.

Driving Productivity at the Bottom of the Pyramid: How ICT can help

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on October 15, 2007

The Daily Mirror, a leading English daily in Sri Lanka, recently featured an article on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its potential to drive productivity at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP). The article cited research conducted by LIRNEasia on telecom users at the BOP and the pioneering Grameen microfinance approach to extending telecom access to the poor.

The notion that users at the bottom of the pyramid are either unwilling or unable to access telecommunication facilities is effectively dismissed by the findings of the LIRNEasia cross-country research, which indicates that low income users in Sri Lanka averaged about 23 calls per month, while those in India and Pakistan averaged more than 30 and those in the Philippines averaged around 16…A particularly interesting conclusion that emerges from this…

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Tags: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, telephony helps, the Philippines.

Cell Phones Double as e-wallets in RP

Lorraine Salazar

on October 4, 2007

Cell phones double as electronic wallets in RP
By Oliver Teves
Associated Press
Last updated 10:42am (Mla time) 09/30/2007
Philippine Daily Inquirer

SAN MIGUEL, Philippines–It’s Thursday, so 18-year-old Dennis Tiangco is off to a bank to collect his weekly allowance, zapped by his mother–who’s working in Hong Kong–to his electronic wallet: his cell phone.

Sauntering into a branch of GM Bank in the town of San Miguel, Dennis fills out a form, sends a text message via his phone to a bank line dedicated to the service.

In a matter of seconds, the transaction is approved and the teller gives him P2,500 (US$54), minus a 1-percent fee. He doesn’t need a bank account to retrieve the money.

More than 5.5 million Filipinos now use their cell phones as virtual wallets, making the Philippines…

1 Comment
Tags: Ahli United Bank, Anna Tiangco, Associated Press, ATM, Bahrain, bank, bank account, bank accounts, bank line, bank products, bank wire transfer, cell phones, cellular telephone, computer chip, Dennis Tiangco, e - commerce, e-wallets, Etisalat, EUR, financial transactions over mobile networks, G-Xchange, Globe Telecom, GM Bank, HKD, Hong Kong, Hong Kong CSL Ltd., Joseph Estrada, Kenya, Middle East, Mobile banking, Mobile banking services, mobile phones, money transfer service, MTC, Peso, Philippines, Ramon Isberto, Rizza Maniego Eala, SAN, San Miguel, Smart, Smart Communications, South Africa, telecommunications operator, the Philippines, UAE, United States, USD, Vodafone.

Mobile money in the Philippines

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 2, 2007

Cell phones double as electronic wallets - Yahoo! News

Mobile banking services, which are also catching on in Kenya and South Africa, enable people who don’t have bank accounts to transfer money easily, quickly and safely. It’s spreading in the developing world because mobile phones are much more common than bank accounts.

The system is particularly useful for the 8 million Filipinos — 10 percent of the country’s citizens — who work overseas and send money home, like Dennis’ mother, Anna Tiangco. Previously, she sent money via a bank wire transfer, which costs $2.50 and takes two days to clear. The cell phone method costs only 13 cents and is nearly instantaneous.

2 Comments
Tags: Anna Tiangco, bank, bank accounts, bank wire transfer, cell phones, cellular telephone, cents, Dennis, Kenya, Mobile banking, Mobile banking services, mobile phones, South Africa, the Philippines, USD, Yahoo!.

India remains outsourcing favourite, says survey

Chanuka Wattegama

on October 1, 2007

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.

14 Comments
Tags: Avinash Vashistha, BANGALORE, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Cebu, China, Colombo, Dublin, Europe, favoured technology outsourcing destination, financial infrastructure, Global Services, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hyderabad, India, information technology, information technology industry, Manila, MUMBAI, New Delhi, Pune, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Shenzhen, software giants, the Philippines, Tholons, United States, USD.

Missed calls / beeping / flashing - a universal strategy?

Ayesha Zainudeen

on September 28, 2007

Missed calling (also referred to as beeping, flashing and many other names) has been most talked about in Africa; Johnathan Donner has been talking and writing about it for some time now; his research provides interesting insights into what he calls the ‘rules’ of beeping. A recent Reuters article looks at the growing phenomenon in not only Africa but other regions too. LIRNEasia’s Teleuse@BOP survey findings also show that the phenomenon is considerably common among bottom of the pyramid (defined here as Socioeconomic Classification groups D & E) phone users in India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. But what’s more interesting, is that the phenomenon was seen as being used more or less to the same extent in the ‘middle and top of…

4 Comments
Tags: Africa, Andrew Heavens, Cairo, Cape Town, cellular network, cellular telephone, cheaper technology, Devine Kofiloto, Ethiopia, Faisal Ijaz Khan, India, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Irene Mbarika, Johnathan Donner, Jonathan Donner, KHARTOUM, Microsoft, mobile telephone markets, mobile-phone operator, much cheaper technology, Pakistan, Philippines, Reuters, Rwanda, social protocol, SouthEast Asia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, technology association, Thailand, the Philippines, U.N.\'s International Telecommunication Union, USD, Victor W.A. Mbarika, Zain (formerly MTC).

Philippines is 2nd fastest-growing broadband market: Ovum

Abu Saeed Khan

on September 28, 2007

Total broadband growth in the Philippines from 2005 to 2006 was at 157% while Greece’s was 168%, Ovum said. The Philippines had 127,942 subscribers in 2005 and this number grew to 329,216 as of end-2006.

The cost of broadband in the Philippines is also expensive relative to average monthly disposable incomes of subscribers. The highest monthly fee in 2006 was $96.08, with the lowest at $17.28. In comparison, the highest monthly fee available in Greece was $60.91 while the lowest was $10.31.

The high price of broadband services in the Philippines, as well as in Vietnam and Indonesia, has resulted in penetration lags in consumer broadband among these Countries, Ovum said. Read more.

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Tags: Broadband, broadband services, Greece, Indonesia, Philippines, the Philippines, USD, Vietnam.

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