With foreign journalists barred from what is one of the world’s most closed states, much of the worldwide media coverage is coming from exiled newshounds in countries such as Thailand and India — and their clandestine contacts on the inside. Technology ranging from the latest Internet gizmo to satellite uplinks to camera phones are ensuring pictures of the massed marches of monks and civilians and the response by security forces is on TV screens around the world in hours. The contrast to Myanmar’s last major uprising, in 1988, could not be more stark. Then, as many as 3,000 people were killed when soldiers opened fire on the crowds but it took days for the news — let alone pictures or video footage — to emerge. “The difference is night and day,” said Dominic Faulder, a Bangkok-based British reporter during the 1988 uprising.
Just like the late 1990s when 3G was deployed, billions are being spent to deploy systems capable of delivering video to mobile devices. In-Stat, however, reports that “mobile” doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as “cellular.” New technologies and business models are now under development that may threaten mobile operators’ ability to profit from video content, the high-tech market research firm says. Read more…
In the remote agricultural province of Lao Cai in Vietnam a few shared community phones are being replaced with high-speed WiMAX broadband connections and VoIP telephony for thousands of residents. 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.
United Arab Emirates company Etisalat began operating in Afghanistan on Wednesday becoming the fifth mobile phone service provider and one of the biggest foreign investors. With an investment of $300 million, Etisalat’s mobile phone network will initially cover Afghanistan’s main cities. Etisalat, the third-largest Arab telecom firm by market value, joins four other telecommunication companies operating in the country. These companies have invested some $800 million in the Afghan telecoms sector and the government has earned $100 million from them in the past year in tax and from issuing licences. Read more.
In a move that could enhance competition and spur mergers in an industry waiting to consolidate, India’s telecom regulator TRAI has recommended that there be no limit on the number of players in this sector. The TRAI also pushed for the relaxation of stringent merger and acquisitions norms, technology neutrality for telecom licences, in addition to suggesting that both GSM and CDMA players pay an entry fee and higher spectrum fee additional 2G radio frequency allocation. TRAI has called for the setting up of a multi-disciplinary committee consisting of representatives from the department of telecom, the Telecom Engineering Centre, the telecom regulator, the wireless planning and co-ordination wing and operators’ associations be set up to frame the new spectrum allocation criteria, different from the subscriber base-linked policy followed currently. Read more.
Mobixie was designed for mobile users to upload, download and share user-generated content such as games, videos and ringtones. But the students in Iraq have been scanning and posting thier valuable documents in Mobixie to safeguard them. Because the insurgents often kidnap the students and confiscate their passports along with personal documentation, issued by the new Iraqi government. Read more.
Yahoo has upgraded its free email service to put users in touch with mobile subscribers. The improved platform allows users to exchange text messages with mobile phones and comes as the portal experiments with making its Mail application “a stickier experience”. It offers a trio of contact options including basic email, Web chat and the transmission of text messages to mobile. The text-to-mobile feature is initially available in the US, Canada, India and the Philippines but will expand to a further 21 other markets within next six weeks. Mail users simply type-in a phone number to the email address field to send a text message to wireless friends – although some carriers have already announced they will charge for delivery.
A comparison of the customer numbers for China and India for the end of July 2007 yields some interesting results. Although in real terms China is still by far the largest mobile market in the world, with 491 million subscribers to India’s 189 million at the end of July, the Indian market continues to outpace the Chinese market in terms of growth. The figures are somewhat skewed by the fact that the AUSPI, one of India’s regulatory bodies, has moved to including all Wireless Local Loop (WLL) customers in its definition of Mobile, as Reliance did some time back. This move has positively impacted numbers by just over 4.7 million, which goes some way towards explaining the astonishing 12.
About 150,000 people subscribe to cell phone service each month in Afghanistan and there’s “no end in sight” to the growth, the country’s communications minister said Tuesday. Afghan economy is predominantly rural, and trade and industry are badly hampered by crumbling roads and chronic electricity shortages. Not including the illicit trade in opium, the nation’s few exports include dried fruit and carpets. But like in other developing nations, cell phone service providers have been doing brisk business, bringing communication to poor villagers who until four years rarely, if ever, used a telephone. “In Afghanistan, the majority of our people will be connected through mobile phones,” Sangin told The Associated Press.
Anam Mobile, a premium SMS service provider, says that global mobile operators are losing out on as much as €3.6 (US$4.9) billion of revenue per year through lost opportunities to create value-added SMS messages. The €3.6 (US$4.
Iraq has sold three mobile phone licences for $3.75 billion to Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co (MTC), AsiaCell and Iraq’s Korek Telecom. The three firms, which already run networks in the war-torn country, made the highest bids in an auction in the Jordanian capital that began on Thursday. TurkCell and Egypt’s Orascom had also bid for licences but dropped out of the race for one of the few sectors to thrive amid Iraq’s instability and crumbling infrastructure. The fixed-line network was hit by sanctions after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and by bombing during the U.
The government will auction three international gateway (IGW) and two interconnection exchange (ICX) licences among private operators in October, a top official said Monday. But no foreign company or foreign joint venture will qualify to apply for IGW or ICX licence. Even the non-resident Bangladeshis’ business outfits are not eligible either. Only the companies fully owned by resident Bangladeshi citizens are qualified for these international telecoms licences. Private fixed or mobile phone operators also cannot contest in this race.
Grameen’s famous Village Phone Program lifted thousands out of poverty– and helped Muhammad Yunus win the Nobel Peace Prize. The problem: It’s not working anymore. According to Grameen Telecom, the GrameenPhone affiliate that manages the program, profits per operator have been declining for years and in 2006 averaged less than $70. “The program is not dead,” says its manager, Mazharul Hannan, chief of technical services at Grameen Telecom, “but it is no longer a way out of poverty.” The reason is simple: Technology and GrameenPhone itself have made the village phone obsolete.
India’s MTNL, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications along with France Telecom, South Africa’s Telkom, British Telecom and Kuwait’s Alkazar are vying for a 51 per cent controlling share of Kenya’s sole provider of fixed line services. In Nairobi last week the plan to privatise Telkom Kenya was presented in detail at a two-day government-inspired and sponsored conference. It was very successful and the proposed sell-off of the the East African country’s state-run incumbent has now attracted seven potential bidders. Read more.
SP Technologies has sued Apple for infringement on a patent that SP filed in August 2000. SP Technologies, a Florida company, is seeking a permanent injunction against the Mac-maker. SP also seeks damages and attorney fees. SP’s patent, which was awarded in August 2004, is for a “method and medium for computer readable keyboard display incapable of user termination.” The document describes software that allows users to input directions on a virtual keyboard that cannot be minimized or closed.
Motorola has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. Nokia claimed the second spot, while Samsung and LG were ranked equally in third place in the company’s most recent evaluation of ultra low-cost handset vendors worldwide. ABI defines ultra low-cost handset that sells below US$50 in the retail outlets. Read more.