With the rise in smart phones (particularly on the Android platform) it makes sense to have an app to test, either deliberately or by having it run in the background, the speed, latency and packet loss (among others) that your mobile broadband connection offers. The FCC has done just that. With the hope of having a large number of people in the United States downloading and running the app multiple times a day, that will normalize anomalies, the NY Times also reports that it will allow the commission to aggregate data about broadband speeds from consumers across the country. It will use the data to create an interactive map, giving consumers a tool to use in comparison shopping rather than relying on wireless companies’ promises. LIRNEasia’s sister organisation Research ICT Africa (RIA) is also using a similar app developed by Georgia Tech called MySpeedNet.
The Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) issued a consultation paper on the draft quality of service (QoS) regulation, that covers both fixed and mobile, voice and data QoS standards. LIRNEasia has been working on Broadband QoS experience (QoSE) since 2007. We use our own web and desktop based software application, the AT Tester, to run diagnostics in multiple around South Asian and Southeast Asian cities. Although Nepal has not been a country subject to LIRNEasia ‘s broadband QoSE research, the methodology adapted and trends from regional research are able to provide informed insights to the NTA. Click here for LIRNEasia’s comments.
At the recent SATRC (South Asia Telecommunication Regulator’s Council) workshop on Policy, Regulation and Services held in Kathmandu, Nepal, 30 July – 01 August 2013, Wangay Dorji, Head of Telecommunication at BICMA (Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority) spoke on the state of regional mobile roaming within the SAARC countries. Using LIRNEasia research, he points out the overall high prices South Asian’s pay while roaming within the region in comparison with the favorable tariffs offered in other regions such as the European Union (EU). The presentation confirms that plans are underway in the ASEAN region towards a unified approach. SATRC has also initiated a study for the same. However, given the proliferation of smart phones, and thereby apps such as Viber and Whatsapp, users are now able to communicate across the seas on a no-cost or low-cost basis (access to a reasonably good Internet connection being a mandatory condition).
This argument is prevalent in the US – A senator passing a bill to regulate data caps, the former chairman of the FCC claiming data caps are for operators to increase ARPUs and not for network congestion issues etc. But can we relate in this part of the world? Are data caps doing more harm than good (limiting potential innovation)? If network congestion issues rise because of constant concurrent use as opposed to how much each user consumer per month, why are operators and regulators telling us otherwise? The report by the New America Foundation raises a valid point: “The fastest car in the world won’t get you very far if you only have 20 feet of road, and a blazing-fast 4G LTE network is not worth much if you are limited to 2 GB of data per month.
In its recent report, Measuring the Information Society, the ITU provide a brief summary of key ICT services and their developments over the past year. One of the key highlights is the price of broadband that was calculated using the ITU basket methodology. The range is from USD 5 to an astounding USD 1700, with Sri Lanka being among the cheapest. The report also refers the comparatively low mobile prices. Home to a highly proactive regulatory authority and a competitive mobile market with five operators competing for some 21 million potential customers, the country ranks 14th globally.
In a recent amendment to the Quality of Service of Broadband Service Regulations, 2006, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) states: The purpose of these regulations is to prescribe financial disincentives on the service providers for failure to meet the prescribed Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarks for Broadband Services. These regulations prescribe financial disincentive on Broadband Service providers for noncompliance with the benchmark at a rate not exceeding Rs. 50000 per parameter for the first noncompliance and Rs. 100000 per parameter for subsequent non-compliance of the benchmarks. This amendment is effective from the 1st of January 2013 and provides for a deterrent against false reporting and delay in submission of mandatory quarterly Quality of Service benchmark reports.
I recently presented LIRNEasia‘s methodology on measuring broadband quality of service experience (QoSE) at the Expert Group on Telecom/ICT Indicators (EGTI) meeting held on the 23rd & 24th of September 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand just before ITU’s annual World Telecom/ICT Indicators meeting. The methodology suggests tests are carried out on multiple times of the day and on multiple days of the week to account of peak / off peak variances and that throughput, latency, jitter and packet loss are measured. In addition to the proposed method, ideal and minimal requirements (such as the number of domains being tested, locations, operators, broadband plans etc.) were also presented. The use of a diagnostic tool (software) as opposed to equipment that sits on the network was proposed.
Prof. Rohan Samarajiva was recently interviewed by LMD. In his view, an industry such as telecommunications should grow in two ways. Firstly, through structured reforms, which entail privatising state-held telecom companies and breaking international monopolistic control. Secondly, the industry should expand further through day-to-day policy implementation and regulation, both of which need transparency.
The first Annual General Meeting of the Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Centre (PiRRC) was held in July 2012 in Suva Fiji. Click here for the news coverage and interview with the PiRRC Director Mr. Aslam Hayat. Chair and CEO of LIRNEasia and Regulatory and Policy Expert to PiRRC, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva made a presentation on the state of broadband in the Pacific Islands with suggestions on how bottlenecks can be identified.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently released draft regulations on “Standards of Quality of Service for Mobile Data Services Regulations, 2012” (press release). LIRNEasia‘s response included recommendations on; (a) Advertising realistic speeds as opposed to the theoretical maximum (b) Carrying out tests at multiple times of the day, on multiple days of the week at least once in six months at different domain levels (e.g. within the ISP network, International – a server located beyond the first U.S.
According to this feature in the Line Media, it is not in Silicon Valley. Here’s the pop quiz for today–If you wanted to use your garage for a high-tech startup, one that was going to require a gig of connectivity, where would be the best possible place for that garage to be located? Silicon Valley? Raleigh-Durham’s Research Triangle? The Twin Cities?
Based on LIRNEasia research, Telecom Tiger and Knowledge Partner carried a story on the lack of transparency and consistency in IDD and roaming tariffs within the SAARC. If judged by the criterion of relative ease of electronic connectivity within the region as against outside, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a failure. If SAARC is real, prices for intra-SAARC calls must be lower than for calls to points outside SAARC. Roaming within the region should be cheaper and less opaque than outside the region. Both are not so, despite some improvements since 2008 says LIRNEasia, a regional think-tank.
by Don Rodney Junio In 2001, half of Indian households (50.4%) did not own any of the specified modes of communication- radio/ transistor, television, telephone. 10 years later, this figure is down to just 27.4% of total households. This is just some of the interesting data in the Houselisting and Housing Data 2011 recently released by the Indian government that shows the changing social patterns taking place in India.
The 2010 Annual Report issued by the Ministry of Finance and Planning is a comprehensive review of sector-wise economic development, economic reforms, foreign investment and financial statements (among others). It is an impressive document that highlights and compares core statistics from 2005 and 2010. The particular index I was looking at (computer literacy rate) seemed to have a typo – the number quoted in page 13 states 75% in 2010, however, it is quoted as 20.3% in page 22 with 75% being the projected rate for 2016. Also on page 22 access to telecommunication is reported to have surpassed the 2016 target of achieving 100%, as the percentage reported for 2010 is 100.
Etisalat pioneered the ‘App Store’ in Sri Lanka with AppZone – Sri Lanka’s first SMS based mobile application platform that allows software developers to create, test and monetize applications, while operators use their existing consumer base to promote the use of these value added services and thereby their networks. They now promise to take it a notch up and introduce the eBook / eReader concept to consumers in the Island, with the recent M.D. Gunasena and Microimage partnerships. At the signing that took pace yesterday, Etisalat CEO Dumindra Ratnayaka said, “EBook readers and eBook stores have become a global phenomenon but their benefits have eluded Sri Lankan readers, writers and publishers.
In their paper ‘The end of the net as we know it? Deep packet inspection and internet Governance‘, authors Ralf Bendrath and Milton Mueller explore the ways in which internet governance is responding to DPI. At present, the structure and dynamics of the internet is such that the intelligence is at the edge of the network, with only the header of the IP packet being referred to as it traverses the network. With DPI, service providers can scan the payload segment of the packet in real-time and handle in differently, based on pattern recognition. The article refers to 3 arguments that supports the internet’s end-to-end structure: Without DPI With DPI Technological Flexibility Efficient, Scalable Additional overheads Political Freedom Content is not a barrier Invasion of privacy, Opportunities for regulations on censorship Economical Openness Multiple ISPs compete on an equal playing field Increases the network’s ability to discriminate The authors model a framework for technology-aware policy analysis (based on the ACI, Actor-Centered Institutionalism framework) to understand the dynamics between actors, interests, political interactions, influence of institutions etc.