Vietnam’s score and ranking on the Skills subindex remained unchanged (value of 5.72 and rank of 108), behind Sri Lanka, which was not exactly in line with its superior ranking in the Service Location Index. But leave that aside. The score in the Use subindex improved from 0.93 to 1.57, but the rank advanced by only one (77th to 76th). The 10-place jump was caused solely by the improvement of the Access subindex score from 3.11 to 4.39, resulting in the Access rank rising from 88th to 72nd.

The report explains Vietnam’s rise as being caused by “an increase in the IDI use sub-index, with 13 mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, up from no subscriptions in 2008.” This is not, however supported by the evidence: the Use sub-index rank increases by only one. The Spider chart on p. 23 provides a contrary explanation: the increase was driven by the Access subindex, and within that by a doubling in the value from mobile-cellular subscriptions. Elsewhere in the text it is stated that Vietnam’s “already high mobile-phone penetration in 2008 (87 per cent) climbed to 175 per cent by the end of 2010.”

What is actually meant by 175 mobile-cellular subscriptions per 100 people? Why is it better than, say, 75 per 100 people? The only possible explanations for mobile SIMs over, say 70 per 100 people in any country are:
• There is significant multiple SIM use;
• There is no control of the reporting of SIMs, with inactive SIMs being reported along with active SIMs;
• Large numbers of foreigners are holding SIMs; or
• Machines are being assigned SIMs.

In any country, a certain number of citizens/residents do not own mobile phones, because they do not want to, or because they are too young or too old or sick. That is the reason why any number above around 70 implies one or another of the above explanations.

LIRNEasia has surveyed multiple SIM use among those at the Bottom of the Pyramid and conducted qualitative research to find out why people hold multiple SIMs. Our research shows that multiple SIM use is decreasing in South Asia, principally because of the greater controls of SIM registration and reporting by regulators. Qualitative research conducted in 2009 showed that the poor carried multiple SIMs because they were
• Elements of strategic behavior intended to keep costs down by using affinity calling plans offered by different operators;
• Responses to significant differentials in on-net and off-net call prices;
• Needed to address differences in signal coverage in different localities frequented by users; or
• Used to segregate different aspects of one’s life, such as work-related calls and personal calls or relationships with spouse and paramour.

Based on this research, I have objected to the government imposing rigid limits on multiple SIM ownership. However, that does not imply that there is anything intrinsically good in public-policy terms of people carrying around multiple SIMs. Affinity calling plans reflect actual calling behaviors. They are offered by operators with the intention of making it more difficult for customers to defect, or to reduce “churn.”

Differential off-net pricing is prima facie evidence of failures of interconnection pricing. There is nothing to be proud about patchy signal coverage, causing people to develop workarounds in terms of multiple SIM use. There is nothing wrong with segregating aspects of one’s life through the use of multiple SIMs, but should not cause a country’s ICT development to be seen as superior to anothers where that practice is less common.

So it seems that the logical thing to do is to not reward a country for having more SIMs than, say 100 per 100 people, if it is difficult to arrive at a lower number that will be appropriate for all countries.

If this was done, Vietnam would not have experienced a 16-place jump in the Access ranking. Therefore, it would not have experienced a 10-place advance in the overall IDI ranking.

If the ITU wants its ICT Development Index to be taken seriously, it will make the above correction, among others, in its methodology.

Vietnam, a high performer on all composite ICT rankings, has leaped forward from 91st place to 81st place, in a rare 10-place advance.

In South Asia, Bhutan advanced four places to 119th; Nepal by three places to 134th; and India and Sri Lanka advance by one place to 116th and 105th respectively. Pakistan and Bangladesh drop two places each to 123rd and 137th, respectively. Maldives, the leader among the South Asian countries, drops one place to settle at 67th place.

Thailand drops nine places to 89th, something that should cause concern. Philippines advances by 3 places to 92nd rank and Indonesia by one place to 101st.

The overall winner remains Korea (no change from 2008). Hong Kong SAR is at 6th place (same as in 2008). The gap with Singapore has widened, with Singapore falling back to 19th place from 15th in 2008.

The general lesson is that one must run fast even to maintain one’s rank. Singapore’s score improved from 6.71 to 7.08, but it still fell back four places.

Click to view presentation slides.

Dr. Gow who was previously at the LSE is now an Associate Professor at University of Alberta.

The presentation began by looking at situations where systems/programmes are developed but only to fall to disuse. The focus will be on the last-mile. The presentation looks at the long term viability of a system. Financial resources are eimportant. The need to tap everyday communicative acts was also highlighted. The need to move beyond a narrow scope of early warning. As investment in last mile systems fall, the vulnerability increases. The cycle continues. The need for more moderate investment was stressed.

If the vulnearbilities of the local communities are reduced then their ability to eliminate or mitigate the disaster increases. This over time leads to risk reduction.

What role does community media play in hazard warning?

The stages of disaster management cycle were introduced as mitigate, prepare, response and recover.

Technologies with local contributions and variety of technologies were discussed. A differentiation was made with the ‘cult media’ such as twitter. Peer to peer was recongised as the best in terms of emergency communication. A lot of this is going on already, in examples such as California wildfires. The idea of crisis informatics was also introduced. The idea of effective use was stressed. The importance of local knowledge and participation for effective use.The UN has similar ideas about warning to risk reduction.

Three related ideas was introduced. Early warning linked to disaster risk reduction and for it to be sustainable the effective use of ICTs should be done.

The need for knowledge sharing was stressed leading from talking amongst community members about risk reduction.

3 stories were highlighted.

story 1 was highlighted the creation community based hazard warning system. Successful but long term sustanance is in doubt. An example of community media bridging communities and the global media.

Story 2 on bridging the generational gap. In Andaman and Nicobar island, it was stories passed down for generations as folklore that saved lives. But there are risks due to false positives. However, it is an example of informal early warning over time. An inter-generational warning system.

Story 3 is on bridging both space and time. An individual who heard about the news 1000s miles away, called village elders and an emergency evacuation plan was put in place.

The road to disaster resilience needs both time and space and hence relationships. The importance of social capital in sustainability hazard warning systems.

The importance of the sharing economy was highlighted. 3 insights were identified as being necessary for the sharing economy  to work.

How does this work? The need for tools for sharing is necessary, phone calls, texting, pictures. Looking at the Haz Info project, mobiles were the most popular. Specialised technology maybe abandoned. Use of everyday technology will lead to better sustainability. These tools need to be given to the community.

The need to respect diversity was highlighted. Allow community members to spend little or more time as they want. A selfish motivation can lead to collective value eg: tagging pictures on flickr, but the tag is now available for everyone.

3rd Insight was identified as the need to build open systems. Allowing people to create and share as they wish.

Standards for information sharing is necessary for this, as in open application interfaces and non propriety licensing for the building of open systems.

The success stories from 2004 tsunami highlights the need for relationships across space and time. Importance of Social capital.

Local risk mapping was also introduced. A pilot in Vietnam found that ownership of the system to the community leads to long term sustainability.

The presentation concluded with idea that a successful strategy needs to go beyond early warning. Time and Space in terms of relationships is key. The findings of the 2004 Tsunami need to be shared.
Ms. Helani Galpaya asked if there is example on the disaster world that related to this concept. Dr. Gow replied that he idea was to look at the overarching aspects.

Prof. Rohan Samarajiva asked if flickr the best example of this concept or is it open source. The reply was Open source.

Dr. Gow in response to a question said that the emphasis in more on sharing economy as opposed to social media. The idea behind the concept is to understand what makes people share knowledge and build relationships that go beyond technology.

RS: The central argument of the concept is around sharing Economy.

Comments by RS: In Sri Lanka, most activity in open source is through payment. The platform maybe open source but people do not contribute willingly. In order for the sharing economy to work, other aspects such as infrastructure and other economic aspects may need to be in place. The sharing economy is more visible in more economically developed countries.

Community sharing will be more relevant some hazards as opposed to others.

Response from GG: Where hazards are likely to often, the systems are likely to work better. If government supply of hazard information is scarce, then community based solution is what will work. Eg: Call from a mobile. The more the community is used to sharing information about slow onset disasters, the better the community is prepared to deal with the situation.

Comments by RS: Sarvodaya may have data on this. Communities will do it if there is stimulus from outside. Salaried staff will be needed to provide the stimulus.

GG: Agree with the idea that stimulus is needed for community sharing. The need for the community to see the value of disaster preparedness is important. In a system where the hazard knowledge is not provided by the government, where does one go?

RS: In Sri Lanka we have examples of community based activity however, we seems to have difficulty in channelling it to productive purposes.

TW: How do we convince people (first responders) using two-way radio to use the internet? Demonstrating the value of the internet. With new digital generation this might not be an issue in the future.

NW: What can replace ‘internet sharing economy’?

RS: Issue between private and public goods.

HG: Examples of sharing traffic information on radio.

RS: The examples are there, village knowledge sharing will work. But the sharing economy in terms of the economy may not work in Sri Lanka.

RS: The catalyst in the form of salaried employees will be needed to tell the community to work on its contingency plans.

GG: The idea is to ensure that this method (sharing economy) to benefit all areas rather than just hazards.

RS: It is possible that this maybe happening in some of the villages as seen during the haz info projects.

DS: The knowledge sharing is already happening among the village. Why not piggy back on that?

GG: Yes if possible.

RS: So how do we find these people who already have system to share knowledge between villages?

DS: Systems already in the health sector at local government level.

RS: Will the system be sustainable?

DS: Recongnition acts as motivationas there is personal gain. Identity brings about value. Can that replace money value?

RS: However in order for the system to work there would be a need for money at some level.

The IT industry’s revenue alone increased by 20 percent to US$3 billion, and its export turnover from electronic and telecom products reached US$2.4 billion, according to Information and Communications Minister Le Doan Hop.

Speaking at a round-up conference for the information and communication sector, Mr. Hop said this year the sector would focus on plans to bring internet services to schools and rural areas, open a news channel for foreigners and an online Q&A service on the ministry website.

By the end of 2008, the sector had registered 82.25 million telephone subscribers, or 97.5 telephones per 100 people. Of the total, 85.5 percent were mobile subscribers.

Read the full story here.

In 2002, Siemens COM paid approximately $140,000 in bribes in connection with a tender worth approximately $35 million for the supply of equipment and services related to a Global Systems mobile network for Vietel, a government owned telecommunications provider founded by the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense. P. 27

Between 2004 and 2006, Siemens COM paid approximately $5.3 million in bribes to government officials in Bangladesh in connection with a contract with the Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (“BT’TB) to install mobile telephone services. The. total value of the contract was approximately $40.9 million. The payments ‘were made to three business consultants pursuant to sham agreements calling for services associatedwith the mobile telephone project. The ultimate recipients of the payments included the son of the then-Prime Minister in Bangladesh, the Minister of the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunicationsin Bangladesh, and the BTTB Director of Procurement. In addition, Siemens Limited Bangladesh, a regional company, hired relatives. of two other BTTB and Ministry of Post and Telecom officials. p. 19

Siemens COM made approximately $12.7 million in suspicious payments in connection with Nigerian projects, with at least $4.5 million paid as bribes in connection with four telecommunications projects with government customers in Nigeria, including Nigeria Telecommunications Limited and the Ministry of Communications. The total value of the four contracts was approximately $130 million. The practice of paying bribes by Siemens COM in Nigeria was long-standing and systematic. According to a high ranking official within Siemens Limited Nigeria, a regional company, corrupt payments in 2000 and 2001 commonly reached 15 to 30% of the contracts’ value. p. 20

From the Siemens Complaint (SEC v Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Case: 1 :08-cv-02167, before the US District Court, for the District of Columbia).

Asia’s emerging markets, comprising eight nations, are expected to see mobile subscriber net gains of 573 million by end-2012, breaching the one billion mark to close the year at an estimated 1.06 billion subscribers, a report from research firm Frost & Sullivan said.

In 2007, these emerging markets were home to some 487 million mobile users, accounting for 37.1% of Asia-Pacific’s total mobile subscriber base, the report said.

The report also said the mobile services sector in eight emerging Asia-Pac countries (excluding China) earned revenues of $33.27 billion in 2007. This is predicted to reach $61.35 billion by end-2013, at a CAGR of 10.7% (2007-2013).

Countries included in this study are Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam; all with mobile penetration rates of under 50%.

According to Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Jeff Teh, over half of the world’s mobile networks are believed to exist in emerging markets.

“Most mature markets in Europe, the Americas and even Asia are fast reaching saturation, adding fewer connections and offering fewer growth opportunities. As mobile operators in Asia scramble to add another staggering one billion subscribers onto their networks, Asia’s emerging nations offer the most palpable growth prospects, particularly in the rural sectors,” Teh said.

He adds that such opportunities are however not without a gamble “the inherent characteristics across these emerging markets are that they are generally lower-income hence low ARPU segments, with blended ARPU as low as $3.90 per month in some countries, and subscribers are largely inclined towards prepaid services.

Telecompk.net has also started a discussion.

Indian papers were unfortunately too preoccupied with the Parliamentary drama around the confidence motion. And then Ahmedabad happened. But we keep hoping. Bhutan and Maldives may come in too.

The test of course is whether intra-SAARC prices come down. It has been reported that Sri Lanka’s largest mobile operator has dropped prices to SAARC countries to LKR 15/mt (app. USD 0.15). If this holds, we would have done something.

Detailed information on international voice prices may be found here.

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, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Brunei and Myanmar while Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia improved their rankings. Sweden topped the rankings followed by Denmark, Norway and the United States. Read more.

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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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.

THE PHILIPPINES was the second fastest-growing market for broadband worldwide in 2006, according to a study by UK-based research and consultancy firm Ovum.

This was primarily due, however, to the fact that broadband is just taking off in the country, and Ovum said growth could be significantly higher if regulators allow more competition that would lead to cheaper services.

Greece took the top spot in the study, and the other countries in the top ten list were Indonesia, India, Ukraine, Ireland, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia and Turkey.

Total broadband growth in the Philippines from 2005 to 2006 was at 157% while Greece’s was 168%, Datamonitor affiliate Ovum said. The Philippines had 127,942 subscribers in 2005 and this number grew to 329,216 as of end-2006.
This was despite the fact that “broadband uptake has been slow in the Philippines”, which Ovum traced to costs and limits on foreign investments.

“There is no cable infrastructure in the country and the national regulator is limiting foreign investment in the network infrastructure and mass-media services,” the study noted.

The cost of broadband services in the Philippines is also expensive relative to average monthly disposable incomes of subscribers. The highest monthly fee in the Philippine market 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.

Digital subscriber line (DSL) was still the dominant broadband technology used in the Philippines. Cable made up only a small portion, roughly 13%, of the market.

But prospects in the next five years were upbeat as Ovum observed trials for other broadband technologies and greater competition.

“While a low starting figure is partly attributable to high growth, there is a positive outlook for the country’s broadband market,” Mr. Coham said.

The number of subscribers is expected to increase to 1.89 million by 2011 from around 127,000 in 2005 for a compounded average growth rate of 63%.

Mr. Coham told BusinessWorld that a combination of regulation and competition would bring down the cost of broadband, making it available to the mass market.

“The national regulator has to be more involved … to lower wholesale price,” he added.

The study noted that market leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) was facing “growing competition”.

The study said PLDT had a 77% market share and Lopez-owned Bayan Telecommunications, Inc. (Bayantel) with 11%.

“We see growth in competition from other providers; we see competitive offerings from other players. At some time, PLDT and Bayantel might be forced to drop pricing to make [their services] attractive to a larger proportion for the market,” Mr. Coham said in a phone interview.

Ovum noted that PLDT is already conducting trials of another broadband technology, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), in Metro Manila.

FTTH can enable speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (mbps) compared to the current maximum rate of 5mbps.

However, Mr. Coham said he does not expect this kind of broadband to be commercialized in the next few years.

“While these services will be limited to the high-end market, they do suggest innovation is taking place in the Philippines which, combined with a potential for wireless services … and greater competition, should lead to further broadband growth,” the study noted.

In rural Cambodia, a new 3G/UMTS mobile network is being deployed for delivery of high-bandwidth wireless services, including live streaming of mobile TV channels.  

In rural India, farmers can monitor crop prices and place orders for goods electronically by visiting broadband “community centers” that are taking root around the country. 

All are examples of a “rural revolution” enveloping less-developed countries in
Asia and around the world, made possible by advanced telecommunications technologies such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3G.  

This revolution is bringing high-speed Internet access and next-generation telephony to millions of users who previously had little or no access to even the most basic telecoms services. Read more.

Asia: Telecom’s Rural Revolution

The project in Lao Cai illustrates the trends of joint cooperation between vendors, operators and governments to tap new opportunities for economic development.

Intel Corp., the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Vietnam Data Communications, a local service provider that is part of Vietnam Post and Telecom Group (VNPT), joined together last year to deploy WiMAX in the rural agricultural province of 600,000 comprised of 25 different ethnic groups. Lao Cai is located in a mountainous area of northern Vietnam, abutting the Chinese border. There had been some limited fixed-line telephone service and DSL broadband available within the city of Lao Cai, but even these services disappeared for the bulk of the population when they stepped outside the immediate town borders.

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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 crew went bonkers after detecting 11-kilometres of the cable was missing from the floor of Ca Mau Sea. The maintenance vessel went back as it never carries that many cables in the first place.

Baffled VTI already lost four million dollars revenue and it will incur further 2.6 millions dollars to fix the underwater missing link. Vietnam’s Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Public Security, the Naval Command and military commands joined hands to catch the fishy fishermen.

Authorities have not discovered who initially cut the cable. But last Wednesday, police in the southern coastal town of Vung Tau said they captured a boat carrying 60 tons of undersea optical fibre cable, reported cellular-news.com quoting German news agency dpa.

Earlier the police also captured three boats and recovered 40 tons of similar cables. Same man, a Vung Tau resident, allegedly owns all the four boats.

But VTI’s deputy director Lan Quoc Cuong said the cable seized by police in Vung Tau does not match the cable his company owns, and they must have come from a different severed line.

He said finding the cable would have been difficult for the thieves. “The cable is located in different locations and at different depths,” he said. “Maybe, while using an anchor, they found the cable by accident and started cutting it.”

Meanwhile the Vietnamese media has made a disturbing revelation. The country’s defence ministry contracted few companies last August to salvage the decommissioned undersea copper cables. The US-backed former South Vietnamese government deployed them before the country became independent in 1975.

Reports said some of these companies apparently went for legitimate undersea treasures hunt but they may have struck the operational undersea fibre optic cables instead.

Whatever the case may be, robbing the submarine cable is getting rampant in Vietnam, said VietNamNet Bridge. So far this year, five undersea optical cable theft cases have been detected.

The latest case was on May 3 when border guards of the southern province of Kien Giang detected two fishing boats carrying 80 tonnes of cable. A boat owner said that while catching fish offshore, his boat caught the cable and they cut the cable and brought it to the mainland to sell.

Earlier on April 15, three fishing boats loaded with 80 tonnes of cable were caught in the southern province of Soc Trang. Fishermen on those boats said that they found the cable offshore and stopped catching fish to cut the cable to sell as waste.

Authorities of Kien Giang, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang provinces have seized hundreds of tonnes of telecom cable from fishing boats. Police say they have broken up five rings selling some 500 tons of illegally salvaged cable since the beginning of this year, cellular-news.com said.