Tag Archive for ‘Washington’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'Washington'

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

Regulation must stay one step ahead of innovation: Chidambaram

on October 24, 2007

India’s finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said Monday in Washington, “Regulation must stay one step ahead of innovation”.

He said the developed countries’ financial authorities are not keeping up with the new and complex financial market instruments that lay behind recent credit market turmoil.

“Thanks to the present crisis which originated in the advanced economies … I think developed economies will listen more to the developing economies’ point of view,” Chidambaram remarked.

“In the name of innovation, regulators or governments in the advanced economies have fallen behind the curve.”

The time has come for the developed world to attend to its own problems, and stop lecturing emerging economies about what is right and what is wrong, he said.

“For too long the advanced economies have told the developing economies that this…

1 Comment
Tags: Chidambaram India, finance, India, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, Palaniappan Chidambaram, Reuters, United States, Washington.

Google proposes real-time auction for efficient spectrum use

Divakar Goswami

on May 22, 2007

Google has proposed to the FCC that instead of getting into long-term contracts for allocating spectrum, companies buying spectrum should be free to resell the spectrum in real-time auctions. This would probably not involve human beings in protracted auction negotiations but rather negotiations between devices in real-time. Since FCC’s auction is done at the wholesale level it would probably involve companies reselling spectrum that they won to consumers on real-time basis.

NYT: “The driving reason we’re doing this is that there are not enough broadband options for consumers,” said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google’s policy office in Washington. “In general, it’s the belief of a lot of people in the company that spectrum is allocated in an inefficient manner.”

“In their proposal, Google executives argue that…

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Tags: Adam Kovacevich, Broadband, digital services, Federal Communications Commission, Google, Internet access, real-time auction, Reed Hunt, retail prices, the New York Times, Washington, wireless handsets, wireless spectrum.

WiMax pricey; mesh using WiFi the solution to last mile?

Rohan Samarajiva

on February 4, 2007

With new acronyms (NGN) being introduced instead of better service (ADSL that actually gives the 2 mbps or 512 kbps we paid for), our thoughts had begun to wander to WiMax, but sadly, cold water is being poured on that hope too.

On continuing discussion of municipal wireless there is a great quote in here: ‘Using municipal Wi-Fi for residential coverage, [Sanjit Biswas] said, was “the
equivalent of expecting street lamps to light everyone’s homes.” ‘

Wireless Internet for All, Without the Towers - New York Times

WiMax, which will be a high-power version of the tower approach, comes in two flavors: mobile, which has not yet been certified, and fixed, which is theoretically well suited for residential deployment. Unfortunately, it’s pricey. Peter Bell, a research analyst at…

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Tags: ADSL, Broadband, DSL, municipal wireless, Peer-to-Peer, Peter Bell, TeleGeography Research, Towers - New York Times, USD, Washington, Wi-Fi, wireless internet.

Internet or internet?

Rohan Samarajiva

on January 5, 2007

The significance of capitalizing the Internet (which LIRNEasia religiously does) and latest effort to decapitalize it and bring it under the thrall of international bureaucracy:

What’s in an ‘i’? Internet governance - Technology & Media - International Herald Tribune

When David Gross heard last month that the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, wanted to lower-case the word Internet as a matter of official policy, he did not know whether to be alarmed or amused.

“We immediately thought, ‘Gee, what’s up with that?’” Gross, the coordinator for international communications and information policy at the U.S. State Department, said by telephone from Washington last week. “Who made the decision and on what basis? We didn’t have a clue if this was something insignificant or significant.”

But some others among…

1 Comment
Tags: Antalya, David Gross, Department of State, International Herald Tribune, International Telecommunication Union, Internet Governance, Turkey, United Nations, Washington, word Internet.

Progress with tsunami detection buoys

Rohan Samarajiva

on December 3, 2006

One hour warning possible for tsunamis originating from the Sunda Trench. What we do with that one hour is the key question.

People’s Daily Online — Nations progess on tsunami detection

Thailand launched the first of 22 US-made tsunami-detection buoys to be positioned around the Indian Ocean as part of a regional warning system against giant waves caused by earthquakes under the sea.

The satellite-linked deep-sea buoy, unveiled at a ceremony on the tsunami-hit island of Phuket, will float 1,000 kilometres offshore, roughly midway between Thailand and Sri Lanka.

“This will give us the capability to provide 1 hour warning to most of the countries in the northern part of the basin,” Curtis Barret of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Washington donated the buoy, but Thailand will…

2 Comments
Tags: Curtis Barret, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, island of Phuket, satellite-linked deep-sea buoy, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Indian Ocean tsunami, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington.

US West Coast Tsunami Warnings Live Test

Nuwan Waidyanatha

on September 10, 2006

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TO CONDUCT LIMITED TSUNAMI WARNING COMMUNICATIONS TEST ALONG U.S. WEST COAST

NOAA’s National Weather Service will conduct a limited communications test of the Tsunami Warning System in the coastal areas of California, Oregon, and Washington on Wednesday, September 13, between 10:45 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

Complete Announcement

NEW STUDY CONFIRMS LOW TSUNAMI RISK AT PEARL HARBOR

“The study shows that none of the historic tsunamis, nor any of the 18 modeled scenario events – based on magnitude 9.3 earthquakes – caused inundation at the proposed location of the NOAA facility,” said Eddie Bernard, director of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environment Lab, which operates the research center. “The models indicate that the greatest rise in water levels at Ford Island would be less than five…

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Tags: California, communications test, Eddie Bernard, Ford Island, Live Test NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TO CONDUCT LIMITED, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA facility, NOAA\'s National Weather Service, NOAA\'s Pacific Marine Environment Lab, Oregon, PEARL HARBOR, SERVICE TO CONDUCT LIMITED TSUNAMI WARNING COMMUNICATI, United States, Washington.

Progress Reported on Tsunami Warning System

Nuwan Waidyanatha

on August 4, 2006

By Frank Ling
Washington
03 August 2006

Scientists expect more deadly earthquakes and tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Countries in the region are making progress towards a regional warning and alert center.

Wolf says that relaying the warning from central governments to their people remains a major challenge.

“The technical side is quite easy to install because this is just technology we know,” he explained. “Once the warning shows up in the national warning system in a country, the difficult part is for a country to set up an internal civil defense system to get the warnings to the endangered areas and to the last mile.”

FULL STORY

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Tags: because this is just technology, Indian Ocean, Washington.

World Bank President urges Tsunami reconstruction be driven by the affected

Divakar Goswami

on January 13, 2005

The press conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Washington DC of the World Bank President, Mr. Wolfensohn is available in its entirety via Audio and Video streaming.

More details on post-Tsunami reconstruction effort can be found on World Bank’s website.

Detailed damage assessments will follow initial estimates

WASHINGTON, January 12th, 2005-World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn said Wednesday that reconstruction in the tsunami-hit countries of Asia and Africa must be driven by the local communities affected by the disaster, adding that the process of rebuilding should be transparent and ensure accountability for
the funds pledged.

Mr. Wolfensohn returned this week from a visit to the disaster-affected areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, three of the twelve countries in Asia and Africa that were battered by the effects of…

21 Comments
Tags: Africa, Asia, Colombo, Development Bank, development finance, Indonesia, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, James D. Wolfensohn, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Tokyo, United Nations, USD, Washington, Washington DC.

Net Thru a Wall Outlet

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 28, 2004

Should this be added to the debate? 65% of homes have electricity; more than the 25% with some form of telecom access.

By TOM McNICHOL

HIGH-speed Internet access usually comes to homes through one of two wires: a telephone line for D.S.L. subscribers, or a coaxial cable for cable modem users. But an emergingtechnology known as broadband over power lines, or B.P.L.,may soon offer a third wire into homes, channelinghigh-speed data through a somewhat improbable conduit: anordinary electrical outlet. B.P.L. is the ultimate in plug-and-play. Users plug a smallpower line modem into any wall outlet and then connect the modem to a computer with a U.S.B. or Ethernet cable, orthrough a wireless Wi-Fi connection. The appeal of B.P.L.is that most of the wiring for the network is…

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Tags: Bill Grealis, Bob Dobkin, Broadband, broadband services, cable modem, Cincinnati, Cinergy, coaxial cable, Denmark, electricity, electricity customers, Ethernet, Federal Communications Commission, gas station, Germantown, high-speed Internet, HIGH-speed Internet access, high-speed Internet providers, Iceland, Internet access, Internet service, Internet-enabled meters, Japan, Jay Birnbaum, Korea, Maryland, Michael J. Copps, New York Times, Pepco, Potomac, radio frequency energy, telephone line, United States, USD, Washington, Wi-Fi.

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