Rohan Samarajiva, Author at LIRNEasia — Page 168 of 182


New ideas on HR development

Posted on July 25, 2007  /  0 Comments

LIRNEasia places emphasis on developing capacity for ICT policy and regulation in the region, as well as developing the capacity of the members of its own team.   Part of the problem, we find, is that organizations do not put their money where their mouth is:   while platitudes about the importance of training come easy to leaders of organizations, actually committing money for training and releasing staff for training does not come that easy.   We try to walk the talk at LIRNEasia, but obviously we can be more systematic about it.   Here is brilliant idea from IBM, which may be too complicated for an outfit that is still 12-14 people depending how the counting is done.  But still worth thinking about.

Ideas change policy

Posted on July 22, 2007  /  1 Comments

Behind the Google led attempt to free up the mobile networks for all attachments (Carterfone 2), there appears to have been a scholarly article, a Law Review article of all things! This was after many had written requiems for law review articles saying they were getting too esoteric to be of any use. When Mobile Phones Aren’t Truly Mobile – New York Times Then, in February, Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, published an influential paper, “Wireless Net Neutrality,” which made a well-supported case that the government should compel wireless carriers to open their networks to equipment and software applications that the carriers did not control. Mr. Wu called his proposition a call for “Cellular Carterfone,” referring to the 1968 Carterfone ruling by the F.
Swedish Woman Gets Superfast Internet – New York Times In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer — many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit. Jonsson and Lothberg’s son, Peter, worked together to install the connection. The speed is reached using a new modulation technique that allows the sending of data between two routers placed up to 1,240 miles apart, without any transponders in between, Jonsson said. ”We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed,” he said. Powered by ScribeFire.
True to form, Google is proposing a radical rethink of the entire basis of the wireless industry.   And it is putting real money behind its ideas.   All that is in the way seems to be the FCC. Google Pushes for Rules to Aid Wireless Plans – New York Times “When you go to Best Buy to buy a TV, they don’t ask whether you have cable or satellite,” said Blair Levin, a former F.C.

Travails of Internet telephony

Posted on July 18, 2007  /  0 Comments

Many think that VoIP is the solution to all telecom problems. It is a solution, but not to all problems. It does not give you something for nothing, in the long run, though in the short term, something may be had for almost nothing. The articles describes the problems faced by VoIP operators in the US, where the basic infrastructure is already in place. In countries of the South, we have to keep in mind that the fiber has not been laid; the households have not all been connected; etc.
LIRNEasia research found that almost all Filipinos at the Bottom of the Pyramid send at least one SMS a day.  Here is data from the supply side: The Manila Times Internet Edition | METRO > Filipinos send 500M text messages daily FILIPINOS sent an average of 500 million text messages a day last year, doubling the number of text messages sent in 2005, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said. Edgardo Cabarios, director NTC’s Common Carrier and Authorization Division (CCAD), attributed the increase to the promotional gimmicks offered by mobile-phone service providers like unlimited text messaging, voice call discounts and the rising subscriber number. Data from the NTC show that the country’s subscriber growth rose by 23 percent to 42.87 million subscribers last year from the 34.

Hoarding USO funds in India

Posted on July 17, 2007  /  1 Comments

LIRNEasia research on Telecom Regulatory Environment (where India gets the lowest scores on the USO dimension) shows that Indian USO policy and implementation are flawed. LIRNEasia research on teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid shows clearly that lowering connection charges and keeping the use charges low are critically important in connecting the next billion. The policy recommendation that flows from this, made at meeting of regulators in New Delhi on the 15th of July, is that the USO levy should be phased out and the existing funds be disbursed as quickly as possible. But it appears that the Department of Telecommunications and the new Minister think otherwise: The Hindu Business Line : Raja rejects telecom industry plea to cut USO levy Operators had said that since the USO fund has over Rs 10,000 crore lying unused, the Government should consider lowering the contribution made by the telecom firms. “We realise that USO is an important tool to enable telecom services in rural areas.
The OECD has published comparative data on broadband speeds and prices. This will help drive prices down and quality up. The rest of the countries need to develop their own benchmarks. BBC NEWS | Technology | Global broadband prices revealed According to the report, broadband prices for DSL connections across the 30 countries have fallen by 19% and increased in speed by 29% in the year to October 2006. Cable prices and speeds followed a similar trend.

Future of telecenters

Posted on July 14, 2007  /  3 Comments

As LIRNEasia plans its future research plans, which will be centered on mobile as a “more-than-voice” mode of access to means of communication, information retrieval and publishing, as well as completion of transactions (including payments), we have come up against the need to critically examine current efforts on, and plans for, telecenters.   Obviously, this is a discussion that will be Asia-Pacific-wide, like everything LIRNEasia does.  However, we’d like to get this started with a provincial news report in a Sri Lankan newspaper, simply because it was posted on the website by a reader/writer.  The comments and thoughts of all on the future of telecenters are welcome. :: Daily Mirror – Opinion :: The Nenasala Information Technology Training Centre in Ganewatta DS Division in Hiriyala electorate which was declared open by the Provincial Council Member (NWP) Laxman Perera ceased to function within days of opening.
IDRC New Delhi organized a visit by 10 colleagues from the MS Swaminathan Institute and related organizations to Sarvodaya for a knowledge exchange exercise. LIRNEasia and Sahana (Lanka Software Foundation) were among those invited to make presentations to the group. In addition, LIRNEasia also helped in organizing a demonstration of the alerting technologies from the Last-Mile Project during the field visit to Brahmanawatta in Balapitiya. LIRNEasia made presentations on the role of ICTs in disaster risk reduction and Early warning systems in disaster risk reduction. The discussion was lively and addressed issues of the nature of linkage with government early warning systems and the difficult problems of developing effective methods of communicating the message within the villages.
The Aga Khan Foundation is the owner of Afghanistan’s first mobile operator, Roshan.   It is surprising that this social investment has not received a quarter of the publicity received by Grameen Phone in Bangladesh. Do Business and Islam Mix? Ask Him – New York Times Roshan has 1.3 million subscribers and is adding 60,000 a month.
Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet now at Google, appears to see a key role for the mobile especially in developing countries. ACM: Ubiquity – Cerf’s Up Again! — A New Ubiquity Interview with Vint Cerf CERF: Well, certainly that has happened in the sense that the mobile telephony has allowed the provision of communication services, and let me include in that Internet access, in places where it was very difficult to obtain that service before. And so, I think roughly the number of telephone terminations has more than doubled in the last five years. It’s gone from a little over a billion to a little over 2.
More mobile innovations.   This looks like a body blow to fixed telephony in high-income households. IPhone-Free Cellphone News – New York Times It’s called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, and it’s absolutely ingenious. It could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win plays like that are extremely rare.
The survey below, commissioned by Samsung in the US, contrasts with LIRNEasia’s research on teleuse by women at the Bottom of the Pyramid, still in the process of being written up.   Our Pakistan findings, being discussed on a PK focused blog, provide the starkest contrast. Survey Reveals Important Role Mobile Phones Play in Women’s Lives “A cell phone does much more than make calls for the Single Mobile Female,” said Randy Smith, vice president of channel marketing for Samsung. “The cell phone is an integral part of the SMF’s life, serving as a pocket-size detective, matchmaker, wing-woman and beyond. It is now officially a girl’s best friend.

Prototype of future mobile phones

Posted on July 3, 2007  /  2 Comments

One of the key factors that will determine the success of the mobile-centric future scenario for ICTs over the scenario that has a computer/telecenter at the center is the utility of the mobile handset.   Whether the iPhone is  the prototype of that handset, we cannot predict.   But at least it has juiced up the discussion. Rival Manufacturers Chasing the iPhone – New York Times Analysts and executives in South Korea say that the iPhone, with its full-scale Internet browser and distinctive touch screen with colorful icons, is more than just another souped-up cellphone. They fear this Silicon Valley challenger could leap past Asian makers into the age of digital convergence by combining personal computing and mobile technologies as no device has before.
There is no reason why Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and even the microstates of Bhutan and Maldives cannot get BPO business, not in competition with the Indian juggernaut, but in a complementary way. Sri Lanka had no BPO business to speak of prior to 2002, despite similarities with South India where it was booming. It was only after the international liberalization of 2002-03 that BPOs started in a significant way in Sri Lanka, though that promising start has been affected by the unsettled security situation. For the policy makers and implementors in these countries to contemplate: 1 percent of USD 60 billion is USD 600 million. That is not chump change.