Ovum said that broadband access is now as important as other essential utilities such as gas, water, and electricity. In developed countries, fixed broadband is available in the majority of homes and penetration is above 60% of households in many markets. However, mobile broadband usage is growing rapidly in both developed and emerging markets. Will the future of broadband see the convergence of broadband-based fixed and mobile services? Or will mobile broadband substitute for fixed services?
Europe’s model of auctioning spectrum has failed to generate competition. It helps big players to become bigger and marginalizes the small ones simultaneously. The market also remains out of bound for the new entrants. As a result the Consumers appear to be in danger of losing out because the largest operators are using their superior financial and political clout to shut newcomers out of the bidding process and out of the mobile market. Limiting competition is likely to have the effect of increasing the cost of mobile Internet services, slowing the adoption of its use and realization of the European Commission’s ambitious goal of providing broadband service with ultrafast, 30 megabit-per-second download speeds to every European household by 2020.
Authorities across the Arab world are getting allergic to Internet and social media. Government of the United Arab Emirates is, however, reversely comfortable. With almost half of its population owning Facebook accounts, the UAE government has released a set of policy guidelines for social media usage by its government departments. The introduction to the document says that social media tools “have eclipsed the static, publish-and-browse Internet and become a new force that could shape the future of governments through reinventing their structures and public services”. It says that the popularity of social media sites has been increasing rapidly, and that the number of subscribers at Facebook alone has exceeded 500 users.
LIRNEasia in partnership with Lanka Software Foundation and several other partners has spent a lot of time figuring out how we could catalyze the growth of useful apps on mobiles, in connection with a project proposal we just submitted. Unlocking the wealth of data sitting inside government, as described in this op-ed by Richard Thaler is a great way to go. The US is doing it. Can we get our governments also to follow? Not surprisingly, San Francisco, with its proximity to Silicon Valley, has been a pioneer in these efforts.
It seems like overkill when there are only 50 subscribers to Twitter in the whole country, but the Cameroon President seems ultra insecure. He should be, perhaps. He has been in the same job since 1982, a West African Ben Ali. And predictably, the Minister of Communication has equated the President’s security with that of the Nation. What next?
Japan is the transit of most of the transpacific cables connecting Asia with the USA. The earthquake of 3/11 has ruptured numerous undersea cables in the Pacific ocean. It has impacted the internet traffic. Optical Fiber is made of silica, the primary raw material of glass. The quake has again demonstrated the fragility of undersea optical fiber cable networks.
Operators in Singapore will have to allow customers to cap data roaming charges at S$100 (US$78.90) under new consumer protection regulations proposed by IDA. The operators will have to introduce the ability to automatically switch-off roaming once this cap is reached by the first quarter of 2012. It is likely to hit the local operators’ ARPU. IDA will also require operators to provide consumers with a free premium rate services (PRS) barring service by 2012, which will prevent consumers from accidentally subscribing to these services.
The MIT Technology Review is taken seriously by many people, especially those who see technology as part of the policy solution mix. When it more or less endorses cell broadcasting as an effective public warning technology, citing our work to boot, we cannot but be pleased. The technology is also being tested in a very different part of the world in which disaster may strike with very little warning: Israel. EViglio is working on an SMS-CB system that will warn residents of incoming rockets within seconds after they have been fired. Testing of the system will begin in June 2011.
LIRNEasia CEO, Rohan Samarajiva, recently spoke at a workshop organized for the telecom reporters in Bangladesh to strengthen their understanding and know-how on telecom, especially regarding legal, regulatory and business issues. The event has received extensive media exposure. While noting that Bangladesh boasts of the some of the lowest tariffs in the world, largely a result of budget telecom network business model, Rohan argued that the government’s vision for a “digital” Bangladesh can only be met “by extending the budget telecom network model to broadband, building wireless access networks capable of handling data cost-effectively, backed up by non-discriminatory, cost-oriented access to backhaul, including redundant capacity, and offering applications that are of value to consumers, giving them reason to use broadband.” Click here to read the full article in the Daily Star. More coverage will be tracked here in the coming days.
We first explored the idea of embedding sensors in dams so there would be better information about potential failures back in 2005 in the course of our dam safety research project. We were talking about relatively unproven RFID or electronic dust systems back then. Today it’s a proven technology, according to the NYT. Traditionally, most systems that monitor structures’ responses to earthquakes or strong winds have been wired ones. But wireless alerts may one day be an alternative.
Japan is shattered by the catastrophic earthquake in every respect and communication has become critical thereafter. Mobile phone is one among the first victims at infrastructure front. The rescuers have immediately switched on two-way radio and possibly satellite communication gears. But the citizens’ mobile phones are predictably sunk into silence. And the emergency hot-lines were getting as hot as the dysfunctional nuclear reactor.
We are saddened by the multiple tragedies of the earthquake, dam break, nuclear station problem, local tsunami and teletsunami. We offer our condolences to the victims and our admiration and encouragement to the brave men and women doing the hard work of providing succor to the survivors. More concretely, we are working on a media note summarizing lessons from our post 2004 tsunami research, which was on risk reduction, not on relief and recovery. Here below is a excerpt from the note. The full text is Pacific tsunami revised.
A news report indicates that lowering leased line prices (described as commercial broadband in the report has risen on the policy agenda in Sri Lanka. This is excellent news, though, of course, I would have preferred a story in the past tense: i.e., “domestic and international leased line prices have been reduced.” Present broadband charges which are higher than competitor countries are deterring foreign ICT and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms from setting up in the island and are partly responsible for poor internet penetration, a report said.
LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager, Sriganesh Lokanathan was invited by Wetlands International to speak on issues pertaining to the access and use markets and ICTs for livelihood resilience. The conference titled “Building Livelihood Resilience in Changing Climate”, was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 3-5 March, 2011 and brought together practitioners, researchers and donors working on livelihood resiliences issues, eco-systems and disaster risk reduction. Speaking on a panel on the role of ICTs for information, knowledge and innovation to support livelihood resilience, Sriganesh talked about the results of LIRNEasia’s research with farmers. He highlighted how farmers increase their adaptive capacity through improved market signals through the use of mobile phones. He stressed the importance of articulating the needs of the rural poor prior to tailoring interventions.
Since Harvard Forum II, we have been engaged in a low-key conversation about the liberating potential for ICTs, especially networks. For understandable reasons, the pace has picked up in recent times, especially in relation to the use of the kill switch by cornered tyrants. Now here’s a piece that is relevant to the discussion about the companies responsible for the networks we debate on and debate about: But three years later, the effort known as the Global Network Initiative has failed to attract any corporate members beyond the original three, limiting its impact and raising questions about its potential as a viable force for change. At the same time, the recent Middle East uprisings have highlighted the crucial role technology can play in the world’s most closed societies, which leaders of the initiative say makes their efforts even more important. “Recent events really show that the issues of freedom of expression and privacy are relevant to companies across the board in the technology sector,” said Susan Morgan, executive director of the initiative.
For a number of reasons, including our conclusion that for most of the BOP the path to the Internet runs through a mobile handset, LIRNEasia is interested in how people use smartphones. Here is a report summarizing research findings: The average smartphone owner spends 667 minutes a month using apps. That is more time spent with apps than spent talking on a smartphone or using it to browse the Web. But not all smartphones are equally friendly to apps. Programmers have an easier time designing apps for iPhones and Android phones, giving these devices a much broader pool to draw from.