It was gratifying to see McKinsey picking up on the work that PIPU did in 2002-04 and praising the TRCSL in the regulatory chapter in GITR 2009. There is a lot more refarming to be done TRC; keep up the good work. The move toward a more technology- and service-neutral spectrum policy was mainly triggered by a desire to treat all providers equitably, the urging of mobile providers to shift to GSM technology, and the need to use CDMA as a low-cost solution for fixed wireless access in rural areas. Although the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) was constrained to some extent by existing allocations and defense considerations, it issued more spectrum space. The regulator also recognized the problem of scattering spectrum and attempted to streamline allocations while it cleared capacity in the 1800–1900 megahertz range.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Network Readiness Index (covering 134 countries in 2008-09), only Sri Lanka has gained any ground among the South Asian countries. India is the first within the region, ranked 54th (down from 50th in 2007-08). Sri Lanka has made considerable progress from 79th place in 2007-08 to 70th place in a straight comparison (72nd among the 2008-09 countries). Congratulations to the industry, ICTA and all who contributed to this gain. Pakistan has slipped to 95th in a straight comparison from its 89th position in 2007-08.
Reading the WEF and INSEAD Global Information Technology Report 2008-09, I was struck by the presence of several references from within the LIRNE.NET community. I would have of course preferred some mention of LIRNEasia (in the same way DIRSI had been mentioned) and or a URL, but still, nice to know our work is being read and used. It is noteworthy that the second author on the first reference below, A. Aguero, is currently with LIRNEasia completing a professional internship.
Location-based services are likely to be the next big thing in telecom. Twitter is getting its ducks in a row according to NYT. There are a bunch of possible uses for location-aware tweets. With this new feature, Twitter users — many of whom use the service from their phones while on the move — could choose to view all the tweets written by people in their city, neighborhood or building, for example. In a post on the company blog, Biz Stone, a Twitter founder, suggested that the feature would be particularly useful for people following an event like a concert or an earthquake.
Two days back SearchTelecom said Intel and Google have written off more than US$1.3 billion combined in Clearwire. The deep pockets are in deep trouble unless Clearwire goes for massive deployment. But that’s a huge challenge in this economic climate. The future of WiMAX is pretty bleak in developed countries and as a result, equipment makers aren’t likely to sustain their investments in the space, said research firm Analysys Mason today.
LIRNEasia’s T@BOP3 research findings on ownership levels of mobile phones versus radios at the BOP have been cited in both MobileActive.org and MediaShift Idea Lab. Seemingly surprising findings reveal that in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, more people own mobile phones than radios. Read the two articles here and here. MediaShift Idea Lab, 19 Aug 2009: In the United States, high-end smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry don’t have built-in radios.
In our work, we refer to both the OECD and ITU definitions of broadband. They are quite different, indicating this is not settled science. Now the FCC has entered the fray, asking for comments on interpreting broadband. This is what one online commentator says: Nicely put, but defining and, even more, “interpreting” broadband may be a tough call. The FCC’s Notice certainly doesn’t make it easy.
Harsha de Silva, LIRNEasia’s Lead Economist, presented a paper at the 27th IAAE conference in Beijing yesterday (19 August 2009). His paper entitled “Role of ICT in Linking Farmers to Markets a transaction costs perspective from Sri Lanka“, based on findings from LIRNEasia’s AgInfo study, was presented at a min-symposium titled, “Role of ICT in linking smallholder farmers to markets: What do we know?” I presented a paper at the 27th IAAE conference in Beijing China yesterday; 19th August. http://www.iaae2009.
What LIRNEasia tries to do with its teleuse@BOP research is to understand how and why people use ICTs at the bottom of the pyramid. We do this from the demand side. That has its advantages, but disadvantages too, such as cost, shortcomings in memory, etc. Therefore, we were thrilled to see someone else engaged in the same project, but from a different angle. Nathan Eagle, a research fellow at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, believes that mobile phones offer more than a way to communicate.
SciDev, a prestigious science communication channel, has featured our cell broadcast report, the first of the Mobile 2.0 reports to be released. Texting short messages through mobile phones could help in early warning of natural disasters in the Maldives, says a new report. The technology, called cell broadcasting, helps to deliver messages simultaneously to multiple users in a specified area. “In the case of the Maldives, if an early warning is introduced, it must be able to reach all of the outlying islands including tourists on resorts.
Today (August 19, 2009) the telecoms watchdog of Bangladesh has invited responses on two public consultations. They are: QoS parameters and benchmarks for PSTN and broadband. And the deadline is August 24, 2009. That means you have only three working days to read, analyze and comment on the two documents. Interestingly both the documents are dated on August 3, 2009.
Helani Galpaya represented LIRNEasia at the 4th International Telecommunications Society (ITS) Africa-Asia-Australasia Regional conference, held on 16 – 18 August, 2009, in Perth, Australia. The theme of the conference was on”Mobile Technology and Broadband Application Developments – The Search for Corporate Value Chains.” More information on the conference is available here. Measuring the Effectiveness of the Telecom Regulatory and Policy Environment: Methodology and Results from 8 Emerging Asian Countries Helani presented a paper on “Measuring the Effectiveness of the Telecom Regulatory and Policy Environment: Methodology and Results from 8 Emerging Asian Countries” based on findings from LIRNEasia’s TRE study in 2008. She was also a panel member at a policy roundtable on “Investing in African and Asian telecommunications infrastructure during a global financial crisis”.
Chanuka Wattegama, Senior Research Manager, LIRNEasia, chaired the thematic session on ICT for Disaster Risk Reduction during the International Conference on Building a Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction in Incheon, Republic of Korea, on 11-13 August 2009. The thematic session brought together specialists from Asia and the Pacific to share knowledge and experiences on ways in which ICTs have been used in response, recovery and risk reduction efforts. The session – organized by the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT) – was part of the International Conference, jointly organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) and the Incheon Metropolitan City of the Republic of Korea, and was attended by senior government policymakers, disaster managers and representatives from international and regional agencies. Chanuka was also interviewed by Korean electronic media on LIRNEasia’s disaster management efforts Chanuka Wattegama, Senior Research Manager, LIRNEasia, chaired the thematic session on ICT for Disaster Risk Reduction during the International Conference on Building a Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction in Incheon, Republic of Korea, on 11-13 August 2009. The thematic session brought together specialists from Asia and the Pacific to […]
Sri Lanka hurriedly banned mobile phones at schools, not just for students but teachers as well, following a suicide of a Museaus girl, allegedly after an incident involving a mobile phone. Pity that they never reflected on the other side of the story. Mobile phone is a security device that enables critical communication between parents and children. Take it away and the results can be disastrous because that makes a child vulnerable. Take the story of Lasantha Gimhana Kanewela (10), for example.
The sixth edition of the “Telecenter Debates” published by Telecenter Magazine presents a debate on whether or not the PC is the best vehical for providing IT-related services to rural areas. Rohan Samarajiva presents an article against this assertion, using evidence from the Teleuse@BOP3 study, to state that “mobiles, not PCs, have the potential to be best vehicles for delivering services to rural areas in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the world’s largest concentration of poor people”. Read the full article here. The PC is the best vehicle for providing IT-delivered services to rural areas
All that was wired (telephone) will henceforth be delivered wirelessly. All that came wirelessly (radio and TV) will henceforth be delivered through wires. That was the Negroponte Switch. No longer theory and speculation, it seems: The decline in landline use, which has been under way for several years, has picked up speed in recent months. In the first half of 2005 only 7.