China’s telecommunications supervisor on Wednesday issued long-awaited third-generation (3G) mobile phone licenses to three mobile operators, a move that is expected to lead to billions of dollars being invested in building new networks. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said China’s biggest mobile operator, China Mobile, was awarded a license for TD-SCDMA, the domestically-developed 3G standard. The other two main carriers, China Telecom and China Unicom, received licenses for the US-developed CDMA2000 and Europe’s WCDMA, respectively. The 3G high-speed networks can handle faster data downloads, allowing handset users to make video calls and watch TV programs. Read the full story in China Daily here.
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) today published a list of short codes to be used in case of emergencies and to access other e-gov services. They will work on any phone, mobile or fixed from any operator. Emergency calls are free. To access a service, normal call charges apply. Public are advised to use these codes as per the specific nature of emergency.
India’s Department of Telecommunications, or DoT, Friday said the auction of radio bandwidth for third generation, or 3G, mobile phone services will take place as per schedule on Jan. 30 and that there will be no further delay. Analysts and industry players, however, expect the process not just to be further delayed, but also to attract fewer participants for the bidding process. Their apprehension follows recent media reports, citing government documents, that the finance ministry has sought to double the auction price for pan-India 3G radio bandwidth, or spectrum, to INR40.40 billion.
While others worry about the looming recession and job losses, the country’s telecom companies beg to differ. The sector will need up to 1,50,000 additional hands in 2009, according to the hiring consultants. While new players are launching operations, existing ones are beginning to scale up. Now that the government has issued 120 new licences, telecom industry officials fear a talent crunch that could push salaries in core operations by up to 30% in the next few quarters. “Conservative estimates put the demand from new players at one lakh people in the first phase.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set to review interconnect usage charges (IUC) after they were fixed back in 2002-03 and not revised since then. TRAI has set the ball rolling to revise IUC, particularly termination charge from Rs0.3/minute to Rs0.1/minute and carriage charge from Rs0.65/minute to as low as Rs0.
Dhiraagu, the incumbent telecom operator of the Maldives had its license renewed for a term of 15 years. Since its establishment in 1988, Dhiraagu enjoyed an exclusivity on the provision of fixed line services. It was also the only company allowed to carry international traffic into the island nation and terminate on any network. We are happy to note that the Telecom Authority of Maldives (TAM) has not extended these exclusivities in the new license that will be effective from January 2009. The move should, at a minimum, have an impact on international incoming call prices to the Maldives, since Dhiraagu’s competitor Wataniya will now be able to carry inward bound traffic and terminate on any network.
Indonesia will implement Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) broadband technology next year to improve access to the Internet across the country, an official said Sunday. Engkos Koswara, an expert adviser to the state minister for research and technology, told Antara news agency the government was still testing the 2.3 GHz frequency for the Wimax technology. “We hope that by next year, Wimax technology will be implemented,” he said in Medan, North Sumatra, adding the government would encourage the use of domestic products to support the technology. Indonesia ranks very low in the region in the use of broadband for Internet access.
Recessions are not bad for everybody. Proverbial silver line in the cloud, they bring hope to some. Success of the India BPO industry can partially be attributed to the post 9/11 recession. Tighter the economy, cheaper the solutions business looks for. How far onshore rural BPOs cater to the needs of their clients?
As our world rapidly evolves, it’s no surprise that the work landscape is evolving as well. You can prepare for and keep up with the changes by updating your training and credentials. One of the six high-flying jobs Yahoo! Hotjobs featured in its latest article is about designing content for mobile platform. Here is the full description.
There was a time when Mira Lira wasn’t able to run her online business effectively out of this former mining town 60 miles east of Phoenix. Not on a dial-up connection. “I use the Internet daily for e-mail and marketing,” Lira said. But today Lira is enjoying broadband Internet access as she provides virtual administrative help for offices around the country through Miracle Executive Services. The relief came in the form of small white boxes with tiny antennas atop homes, the school, even a light pole at the baseball field.
Everyone is betting big on the telecom growth story as it is steadily gaining traction amidst the global financial turmoil. This sector has emerged as a big contributor to the GDP and has recorded a 42.2% growth in the quarter ended Sep ‘08. Telecom is being seen as a significant contributor to the country’s foreign direct investment (FDI). The launch of 3G will give a big boost to services.
For a country that stood at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of telecom penetration a decade ago, 2008 was a watershed when India’s subscriber base topped 350 million users to make its network the second largest in the world after China, displacing the US. The significant achievement was made possible by the mobile telephony segment of communications, which was once thought to be a gizmo for the rich – what with a tariff of Rs.16.80 per call when the telecom revolution began in the country in the early 1990s. But with tariff falling to 40 paise a call and incoming calls becoming free, mobile telephony began to appeal to the masses.
Electricity is said to be the only infrastructure the twentieth century communist rulers have truly cared for. The practice may have had its origins in Lenin’s efforts for full electrification of the Soviet state, started in 1920 (aka GOELRO Plan). Nevertheless it makes perfect sense. Let the masses have electricity so that they can switch on television sets. They will not worry about anything else.
Four years to history, ‘Your tears are mine’ (see below) was my reaction to Asian tsunami. Reproduced in multiple sites, it was recited once in a remembrance event. Though written more in a Sri Lankan context, let me pick it again today, to remember all 225,000 lives lost, in the worst tsunami in recent history – that caused vast damage to four countries LIRNEasia closely works in, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. Not my every wish was granted. The aftermath of tsunami, instead of creating a division-free society demonstrated how pathetically the disparities were amplified.
The looks may deceive, but this is a radio station. Prabhavi Community Radio – the first Internet community radio in Sri Lanka comes from Prabhavi Resources Center, Weranketagoda, Ampara – the post-conflict district in Eastern province (8 hours travel from Colombo). It operates from a Nenasala, one of the 500 odd telecenters funded by the World Bank under e-Sri Lanka program. A brainchild of Ajith Karunarathne, it runs as a nonprofit venture entirely by volunteers Asiri (red shirt, first photo) and his team. Strangely, this radio station connects to Internet thru a 128 kbps pipe.
On January 16, 2008 a bus bomb went off killing 25 and injuring more than 60, in a remote area of Moneragala, arguably the least connected district in the island. Within less than two hours, the international news channels were up with clips. Nuwan Sameera (inset) FTPed them from his Nenasala telecenter in Bibile town – about one hour journey away. Nuwan operates just within 200 m from a telecom tower (see photo) but bureaucracy is bureaucracy. Spending World Bank money generously, ICTA, the implementation agency of Nenasala telecenter network under the e-Sri Lanka program, first provided a VSAT link from a different operator.