Tag Archive for ‘United States’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'United States'

Call for papers: Mobile2.0: Beyond voice
Deadline: 31 October 2008.

Barack Obama calls for broadband deployment during debate

on September 30, 2008

Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for U.S. president, mentioned broadband rollout as one of his top priorities during a debate Friday evening, bringing applause from several groups promoting universally available broadband as a key part of a turn-around in the U.S. economy.

Obama, debating Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate for president, listed broadband rollout to rural areas as one of his top priorities that he wouldn’t cut when asked about U.S. government budget constraints.

Read the full story in ‘Network World’ here.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Broadband, John McCain, U.S. government, United States.

Mobile2.0: Beyond voice? Call for papers

Ayesha Zainudeen

on September 29, 2008

Preconference workshop at the 2009 conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) | 20-21 May 2009, Chicago, Illinois, USA | Download Call for Papers (pdf)

Mobile phones are becoming increasingly important in bringing people into the Information Society. It is widely accepted that the inhabitants of the future household will carry mobile devices that will be capable of voice and data communication, information retrieval and forms of entertainment consumption. Mobiles are now (and will increasingly become) payment devices that can also send, process and receive voice, text as well as images; in the next few years they will also be capable of information-retrieval and publishing functions normally associated with the Internet. Through such services and applications, industry experts predict that many in emerging markets will experience the…

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Tags: BOP, Bottom Of The Pyramid, cellular telephone, conference, emerging markets, ICA, Illinois, international communicaiton association, International Communication Association, mobile applications, mobile communications, Mobile2.0, payment devices, United States.

Canada’s broadband quality below threshold?

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 16, 2008

Canada is woefully positioned for future internet usage and the quality of current broadband networks is barely enough to cope with current traffic because of a lack of investment by providers, according to a new study.

The survey, conducted by the Oxford Said Business School in London and the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain and released Friday, found that Canada is below the global broadband quality threshold, which measures the proliferation of high-speed internet in a country, as well as the speeds available and the reliability of connections.

While Japan was the only country to meet the study’s standards for future readiness, broadband networks in countries such as Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria scored better than Canada, which ranked 27th out of the 42 nations covered. The United…

1 Comment
Tags: Broadband, broadband network, broadband networks, Bulgaria, Canada, high-speed Internet, Internet traffic, Internet usage, Japan, Latvia, London, Oxford Said Business School, Romania, Spain, United States, Universidad de Oviedo in Spain.

Internet traffic bids farwell to America

Abu Saeed Khan

on September 11, 2008

The era of the American Internet is ending. Invented by American computer scientists during the 1970s, the Internet has been embraced around the globe. During the network’s first three decades, most Internet traffic flowed through the United States. In many cases, data sent between two locations within a given country also passed through the United States.

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control. And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences. Read more.

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Tags: Internet traffic, United States.

Net Neutrality debate: No free lunches, so why ‘FREE BROADBAND’?

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 7, 2008

We pay for other utilities (electricity, water, phone services) by the amount utilised, but usually a flat rate for broadband depending upon the bandwidth. I have earlier compared this to paying for water based on the diameter of the pipe, instead of liters consumed.

The following letter by a reader to USA Today highlights similar concerns - may be in another context.

WHY SHOULD BROADBAND BE FREE?

James Lakely - Chicago

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin’s reference to the phone industry exposes the weakness of his argument to provide free broadband access in the USA.

Yes, copper phone lines were, for decades, “the main means of communication for millions of Americans.” But the government didn’t invent that technology, nor give it away for free. The market provided, and…

12 Comments
Tags: Broadband, broadband access, Chicago, electricity, Federal Communications Commission, James Lakely, Kevin Martin, net neutrality, phone services, United States, USA Today.

Net Neutrality: Why LIRNEasia may not see byte to byte with Barack Obama

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 2, 2008

Barack Obama stands for Net Neutrality while John McCain sternly opposes. Internet should be open space, says Obama, for anyone to use any application of his/her choice without discrimination.

That is like saying the roads are free for anyone to drive any vehicle they like at any time. It sounds good in theory. However, in practice it is a different story.

Can we let the container-trucks to move during peak hours congesting roads? Can we let bullock carts in a high way?

In spite of the tech-savvy image he tries to cultivate, perhaps Obama has not heard about the broadband quality issues. Perhaps he assumes at the zenith of developed world USA does not face bandwidth issues. He is wrong.

Net Neutrality comes with a price tag attached. If…

31 Comments
Tags: Barack Obama, Broadband, India, John McCain, Sri Lanka, United States.

Obama = Broadband; McCain = Dial-up?

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 27, 2008

Leading Democrats on Tuesday attacked the Bush administration’s broadband policy and the technology track record of GOP presidential hopeful John McCain, while leading tech companies pushed for a more tech-savvy and innovative federal government.

“The Obama campaign is the broadband campaign and the McCain campaign is the dial-up campaign,” said Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecom and the Internet.

Markey and other members of Congress were on hand at the Democratic National Convention in Denver for several technology panels hosted by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado.

“On McCain’s watch, the U.S. fell from third to fifteenth in broadband penetration,” said Julius Genachowski, technology advisor to Democratic…

2 Comments
Tags: Barack Obama, Broadband, Bush administration, Colorado, Commerce Committee, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Congress, Denver, Edward Markey, House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, John McCain, Julius Genachowski, Massachusetts, open Internet, Republican Party, Silicon Flatirons Center, technology industry, technology panels, technology track record, United States, University of Colorado.

Warning: Slow progress in Iraq’s telecoms

Abu Saeed Khan

on August 27, 2008

A leading US adviser to the Iraqi telecommunications network reconstruction effort is circulating an extensive critique of progress there, charging that Iraq badly lags on development of core fibre infrastructure, faces a massive ICT training shortfall and has erred in rewarding politically-influential US vendors with supply contracts.

Bob Fonow, who completed a 18-month stint as senior consultant, telecoms and IT at the US State Department in Baghdad earlier this year, also charges that the recent military surge has seen the US Department of Defense command excessive influence in telecom reconstruction, often in areas where it has insufficient expertise.

For example, Fonow talks of a “very pleasant buck sergeant” assigned to advise the Ministry of Communications regional director in Tikrit who’s job back home in Arkansas was to…

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Tags: Arkansas, Baghdad, Bob Fonow, California, captain software, fibre infrastructure, Iraq, Ministry of Communications, telecommunications network reconstruction effort, United States, US Department of Defense, US military, US State Department, Wal-Mart.

Democratic Convention Brings Calls for Broadband Policy

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 27, 2008

The U.S. needs a broadband policy targeting unserved areas that’s backed by action, not just words, said several speakers at a technology forum in Denver.

The U.S. has gone from “leader to laggard” in broadband rollout and adoption during the past eight years under Republican President George Bush, said Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, speaking Tuesday at a forum hosted by Silicon Flatirons, a tech law center at the University of Colorado, held in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

In early 2004, Bush called for broadband to be universally available across the U.S. by 2007, but that hasn’t happened, Rockefeller said at the technology forum, which was webcast. “Despite all the rhetoric about improving Americans’ access to broadband, the Bush administration never…

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Tags: Broadband, Bush administration, Colorado, Denver, George Bush, Jay Rockefeller, Michael Katz, New York University, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, PC World, tech law center, technology forum, United States, University of Colorado, US Federal Communications Commission, West Virginia.

India adds 9.22 million mobile users in July

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 26, 2008

Indian mobile telecoms firms added 9.2 million users in July, taking subscribers in the world’s fastest growing wireless market to nearly 300 million, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Monday.

Leading mobile firm Bharti Airtel signed up 2.7 million customers, enough for it to overtake state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd as India’s largest telecom firm by total subscribers, including fixed-line subscribers.

Second-ranked mobile firm Reliance Communications added 1.75 million customers, and No. 3 Vodafone Essar, controlled by Britain’s Vodafone Plc, added 1.76 million.

India is the world’s fastest-growing market for wireless services and the second-largest market for such services after China, with growth fuelled by cheap handsets and call rates as low as 1 U.S. cent a minute.

See the full story in Reuters here.

…

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Tags: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Britain, China, India, Reliance Communications, Reuters, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, United States, Vodafone Plc, wireless market, WIRELESS SERVICES.

No kidding! Operator pays YOU for incoming calls!!

Chanuka Wattegama

on August 16, 2008

Strange will be the telecom world in emerging markets.

Free incoming calls are the norm in many counties. Ever thought it can get even better? Operator paying the mobile users for incoming? Where on earth such crazy things happen?

Answer: In India.

Virgin Mobile pays 10 paise (about 0.25 US cents) for every incoming call minute a user gets. (In other words, boss calling to lecture you for ten minutes, will make you richer by one Rupee)

Where is the catch? Has Virgin Mobile CEO gone insane? Or does he mint coins?

Department of Telecommunication (DoT) India thinks Virgin Mobile can do that because its actual call termination costs are less than what it receives as termination charges– 30 paise per minute. Simple maths. If the costs are less than…

10 Comments
Tags: Department of Telecommunication, India, rupee, Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India, United States.

Copper comes back?

Rohan Samarajiva

on August 12, 2008

Nicholas Negroponte said, in the context of the United States, that all that was carried on wireguides would shift to wireless (e.g., telephony) and all that was carried by wireless (e.g., television) would shift to wireguides. Wireless was better at connecting people who were inherently mobile; while wireguides made better sense for hauling large amounts of data needed to give people high-quality entertainment experiences. George Gilder called this the Negroponte Switch.

The US market, of course, was heavily wired to start with: twisted-pair copper from the phone company and co-ax from the cable company coming to most homes and offices. In this context, the Negroponte Switch made eminent sense. The refarming, for mobile uses, of 700 MHz frequencies that were inefficiently used for television, earlier in…

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Tags: George Gilder, Hong Kong, legacy copper network, Nicholas Negroponte, Sri Lanka, telephone services, telephony, United States, wireless connections.

Over 3.6% of US mobile users make purchases via cellphones - Nielsen Mobile

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on June 25, 2008

The New York Times documents a recent study conducted by Nielsen Mobile among 30, 000 wireless customers, that estimates over 3.6% of all mobile phone users in the United States have used their phones to pay for goods and services. This figure is expected to grow in the future, with nearly half of all users of text messages and mobile internet, stating that they hope to make a mobile phone purchase in the future.

However, security concerns remain. 41 percent of the consumers who transmit data said security was the reason they didn’t buy things via their mobile phone. And 21 percent said they did not trust that the transaction would be completed.

LIRNEasia’s study on Mobile2.0@BOP intends to address such issues relating to M-payments, particularly exploring in detail the case of…

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Tags: M-payments, mobile Internet, Nielsen, the New York Times, United States.

Reflections On Research To Practice

Rohan Samarajiva

on May 31, 2008

Researc h to practice is the central preoccupation of LIRNEasia. We differ from conventional researchers in our fixation on how to convey our research to policymakers, regulators, senior managers of operators and to the symbolic universe they live in. We choose our research questions and methods with this end in mind and we conduct our research on schedules determined by the need for effective communication to these key stakeholders. We measure success by whether the research that we communicate catalyzes changes in laws, policies, practices and worldviews .

In this light, the SSRC organized pre-conference seemed an ideal academic event to attend after many years. I had attended many discussions on researc h in practice while in academia. There was a difference this time.

In 1993, for example, there was a memorable impromptu debate between Eli…

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Tags: Asia, Columbia, Eli Noam, Joe Karaganis, Media coverage, New York Public Service Commission, Ohio, research, Sri Lanka, Tom Streeter, United States.

An Easy Guide for Mobile Phone Repairing (for less than one Dollar!)

Chanuka Wattegama

on May 29, 2008

An inevitable outcome of mobile phone penetration among BOP is longer average life time of a unit. At that level replacing cost is significant. The only alternative is to repair and use the same for a longer period. This explains the mushrooming of mobile repair centers in many developing countries.

Internet has loads of technical information about repairing, but in English. That is why guides like the above, published by Wijeya Newspapers, Sri Lanka and priced at Rs. 75 (US cents 70) are useful. Written in the local language with ample colour illustrations it provides step by step guidelines to repair mobile phones. We hope the technicians at ground level get the best use of it.

16 Comments
Tags: cellular telephone, mobile phones, Sri Lanka, United States, Wijeya Newspapers.

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