October 2010 — Page 2 of 3 — LIRNEasia


Regulators are allocating spectrum bands to deliver 4G high-speed mobile Internet service across a wide range of frequencies. But the quest for bandwidth is harming prospects for 4G device economies of scale, operator competitiveness and 4G global data roaming. Operators and regulators must address spectrum harmonization, not just carve out bandwidth. 4G’s demanding speed requirements—100 Mbps peak rates for high mobility and 1 Gbps for low mobility—necessarily translate into a need for more radio spectrum. National regulators are working to secure this needed spectrum, but their efforts are resulting in fragmentation instead of an ideal narrow set of spectrum ranges consistently available around the world.
Last week FCC started to investigate the thumping roaming bills.  Yesterday Igor Artemyev, head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Russia said that there will be “significantly lower tariffs” for roaming in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia’s three biggest mobile operators, OAO Mobile TeleSystems (MBT), VimpelCom Ltd. (VIP) and Megafon, confirmed Wednesday that they have lowered mobile roaming tariffs in Russia and the CIS by up to 70%, ahead of the results of an inquiry into the high tariffs. The mobile operators will “significantly lower tariffs” for roaming in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States no later than Dec.
Somalia lacks an effective government for nearly twenty years. There is, however, no short supply of regulator. The rebel group “al-Shabab” has banned mobile money transfer service called ‘Zaad’, according to Reuters. This “decree” is effective from coming New Year’s eve, said TeleGeography. The al-Shabab management considers mobile money transfer a threat to the economy.
Information has been riding on technology. And now the technology is disrupting the business of information. Reuters’ Editor-in-Chief, David Schlesinger, has outlined the following battle-plan: Knowing the story is not enough. Telling the story is only the beginning. The conversation about the story is as important as the story itself.
The developed economies of Asia have taken the top spots in global broadband table, according to the Oxford University’s Said Business School. This study combines quality of service and penetration. South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan occupy the first three positions and Singapore is fifth. The survey has tested download and upload speeds along with latency in 72 countries. Korea, which topped the rankings last year, this year reported average download throughput of 33.

A different kind of sea

Posted on October 17, 2010  /  1 Comments

Internet brings people closer, gives more opportunities and it is a sea, with different kinds of fish. Indi Samarajiva wrote in The Sunday Leader, about few Sri Lankans making a living, without actually going to a conventional office. But simply login in to internet to use Twitter, Skype, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and so on and make a living, as well as LIVE it. Indi introduces Fahim Farook, Navin Weeraratne and Monalee Suranimala, as tech savvy fishermen in this different kind of sea. All of these characters launch their metaphorical boats from the island of Sri Lanka, off the southern coast of India, recently emerged from years of war but blessed with many English speaking, IT literate people, functional Internet infrastructure and a low cost of living.
LIRNEasia CEO, Rohan Samarajiva, will make a presentation entitled, “Asia: Broadband and forms of government intervention” at the International Institute of Communication’s Annual Conference on “Trends in global Communications: Riding the the next digital wave” to be held from 18-19 October 2010, in Barcelona, Spain. Presentation slides can be downloaded here.
LIRNEasia CEO, Rohan Samarajiva, delivered a guest lecture on the theme “Not one path to the Internet economy” at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, on 14 October 2010. Presenting findings from the LIRNEasia’s study of ICT use at the bottom of the pyramid, Teleuse@BOP3, he used a video of Chamara Pahalawattage, an 18-year-old Sri Lankan, who has utilized his phonefor obtaining more work, and hence, a higher income. Presentation slides from the talk will be posted shortly.

Bill shock; FCC steps in

Posted on October 15, 2010  /  0 Comments

Federal Communications Commission decided to step in and investigate on “Shocking bills” received by mobile customers in USA. FCC is looking into whether the mobile operators must do a better job by alerting the customers when they are roaming in foreign networks. Kerfye Pierre’s thanks for helping out victims of Haiti’s earthquake? A $35,000 bill from T-Mobile. Pierre tells CNN that she racked up about $35,000 while texting family and friends from Haiti with the news that she had just survived the devastating earthquake.
It is needless to reiterate the evil of free money. Universal Service Fund (USF) has been the crucible of boutique corruption for its complexity. The US Government revived this medieval rent-seeking in the early 20th century to favor AT&T. Today AT&T and other heavyweights siphon in excess of US$4 billion annually from the exchequer. And it has been as legitimate as the Collateralize Debt Obligations (CDOs) in the Wall Street.
The most recent addition to the Teleuse@BOP3 working paper series is now available for download. Author Sangamitra Ramachander (University of Oxford) explores the factors influencing the responsiveness of mobile use to small declines in per minute charges among bottom of the pyramid (BOP) users in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The full paper can be downloaded here. Abstract: The private sector in developing countries is increasingly interested in extending mobile telephony services to low income and rural markets that were previously considered unprofitable. Determining the right price is a central challenge in this context.

3G in 900 MHz: O2 be or not to be

Posted on October 13, 2010  /  0 Comments

The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has upheld Ofcom’s objection to O2 and Vodafone launching 3G services over 2G (900MHz) spectrum. The EU policy, however, permits 3G in 900MHz if the national regulator ensures fair competition. But the European policy gurus are silent on replacing copper wire with fiber. The EU regulators, precisely the ones in continental Europe, notoriously over-mystified 3G in early 2000. The Scandinavian regulators, however, carefully avoided the scandalous auction of 3G spectrum.
Chanuka Wattegama, former Senior Research Manager and Broadband Specialist at LIRNEasia, will be one of three speakers  at a pre-budget “sanvada” organized by the Pathfinder Foundation, on 14 October 2010 at the BCIS Auditorium, BMICH premises. Chanuka will make a presentation on “ICTs and Telecom: Opportunities, Challenges and Recommendations”. The sanvada will be chaired by Dr. Sirimal Abeyratne, Professor of Economics at the Universitity of Colombo. For more information on how to register (admission free), click here.
Not just eHealth but in any national innovation, finding a champion to own, operate, and promote the new intervention is crucial. We found ours in Sri Lanka to take the Real-Time Biosurveillance Program (RTBP) to the next level; our champion is Dr. R.M.S.
Singapore’s government is globally respected for outstanding governance. It is, however, not immune to making mistakes like other governments of its stature. Last year its investment arm got amputation of 66% value (US$4.4 billion) due to bad investments. The Lion City had paused to revisit its strategy.
The World Summit on the Information Society set several targets to be achieved by 2015 without specifying how they could be measured. The International Telecommunication Union has proposed four specific indicators that could measure progress made by countries toward the foundational Target 10, that of bringing ICTs within the reach of a majority of the world’s inhabitants. Two indicators are for mobile subscriptions and use, and two for Internet use by individuals and by households. Of the four, Indicators 1 and 3 currently exist, albeit with significant shortcomings. This paper proposes a modest improvement to the method of measuring Indicator 3, Internet users, which combines the existing supply-side data with available but incomplete demand-side data.