Myanmar has shortlisted 22 aspirants for two mobile licenses for an initial 15-year term. Global and regional heavyweights in this beauty contest is listed bellow in alphabetical order: 1 ACO Investment Group 12 Millicom 2 Asia Megalink (local) 13 MTN Consortium 3 Axiata 14 Orange / Marubeni 4 Bharti Airtel 15 Orascom / EPIC 5 China Mobile / Vodafone 16 Qatar Telecom / Ooredoo 6 China Telecom 17 SingTel / KBZ (local) / M-Tel 7 CP Group / True / Thana Telecom 18 SK Telecoms / Red Link 8 Digicel / Quantum 19 STT / Bewell / Frontier 9 First Pacific 20 Telenor 10 IG Group / MTI 21 Telkom Indonesia 11 KDDI / Sumitomo 22 Viettel China Mobile, the world’s largest operator by subscriber and Vodafone, the world’s top operator by revenue has teamed up for a license. Telenor, which operates in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia – has strong aspiration for a license in Myanmar to make its presence seamless across South and South East Asia. Bharti Airtel, China Telecom, SingTel, Telkom Indonesia, Viettel (Viet Nam) SK Telecom (South Korea), KDDI (Japan), Axiata (Malaysia), Orascom (Egypt), Orange (France) and Ooredoo (Qatar Telecom) are the other big […]
Today, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, held the oral-presentation component of the 2013 tariff hearing. In their effort to accommodate 70 or so persons/organizations among the 200+ that had made written submissions, they limited speaking time to 5-10 mts depending on how many issues had been covered and did not ask any questions of those making presentations. This was a pity, since the whole point of face-to-face interaction is interactivity. That said, I still found the exercise educative. For example, the spokesperson for one organization asked why the PUCSL had allowed a component of costs for ROE, return on equity.
The first mobile phone network in South Asia was implemented in Sri Lanka in 1989. It also first switched on UMTS or 3G service in this region in 2004. Sri Lanka is now launching South Asia’s very first Long Term Evolution or LTE in FDD bands, which covers twice as large area compared to LTE in TDD spectrum of 2.6 GHz. Dialog Axiata, a unit of Malaysia’s Axiata Group and Sri Lanka’s biggest carrier by subscribers, has won a pair of 10 MHz spectrum in 1800 MHz band last week to launch LTE mobile broadband service in FDD spectrum.
An old folk tale describes a tired traveler in the desert, where the nights are cold. His camel is outside the tent. The camel wants the warmth of the tent. The traveler permits him to bring in the snout. By morning, the camel is in the tent and the traveler outside.
It’s certainly worth sharing and I am to be blamed for belated posting. Douglas Madory is the Senior Research Engineer at Renesys Corporation, which is globally respected as the “Internet Intelligence Authority.” Doug closely watches how the Internet functions worldwide. Two months back he published the imperatives of terrestrial backup for the only submarine cable of Bangladesh. In the concluding paragraph titled, “Greater Terrestrial Connectivity in Asia” he wrote: Abu Saeed Khan, the Senior Policy Fellow of LIRNEasia, helped persuade the government of Bangladesh to join the SMW4 consortium in 2002 and has been working ever since to increase Internet inter-connectivity all across South and Southeast Asia.
Digicel made its name and fortune in the Caribbean. Then it became a major regional player in the Pacific. Now it is hoping to land a license in Myanmar, a much larger market than the ones its operates in. Interestingly, they are pushing for an enabling framework for mobile money, even ahead of getting the telecom license: “The telecommunications sector offers many opportunities, and companies can provide a variety of services in this industry,” said Lorna J. McPherson, the operations director of the Irish-owned Myanmar Digicel Company.
We found people at the BOP in Indonesia claiming they did not use the Internet, yet going into great detail about their use of Facebook. Our colleagues in Africa, RIA, also noted this phenomenon. Western observers are skeptical about the value of a Facebook phone, but perhaps it may make sense in our parts? A smartphone that gives priority to Facebook services is good for Facebook, but it is unclear whether that is something consumers want. Jan Dawson, a telecommunications analyst at Ovum, said the concept was “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The report broadly explores the customer relationship management (CRM) practices in the electricity distribution sector in Bangladesh. It identifies some of the existing challenges and how these can be improved with the use of ICTs and better service design. In a country where less than half the population has access to electricity through 13.5 million connections to the grid, the challenge facing the sector is two-fold. First, those that are privileged to be connected to the grid, need improved services.
Earlier we discussed the snapping of four submarine cables in Egypt and its impact. Now we have come to know it was an act of sabotage. Telecom Egypt’s CEO Mohamed al-Nawawi has confirmed that his country’s Armed Forces have arrested three saboteurs. Among the global news outlets, Associated Press and BBC have covered it by far. There is, however, nothing to celebrate.