There was a time when the bans were on graphic novels in schools. The Sri Lankan version of Manga was chitra kata. We read them, despite the prohibitions, and lived to tell the tale. Why don’t the telcos put chitra kata or Manga on mobiles and give the prohibitionists another reason to ban? Currently the reasons for banning mobiles in schools are weaker than those for banning school ties.
TVEAP (on behalf of LIRNEasia) videoed a series of interviews with teleusers to explore their usage patterns at the BOP. Below is an interview with eighteen-year-old Chamara Pahalawattage, a Sri Lankan school leaver, who does not have a steady job but that hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for mobile phones he now uses his sixth phone in two years. This resident of Gonapola, western Sri Lanka, finds odd jobs at construction sites thanks to his phone. And after a hard day’s work, he unwinds listening to the radio, or swapping phone songs with friends. Click here to view other videos.
The eroding viability of Village Phone in Bangladesh was reported two years back. Grameen Telecom of Muhammad Yunus never looked beyond voice. And the micro-credit scheme using mobile phone succumbed to financial injuries from the wildfire of competition. Thanks to the exploding growth and coverage of mobile without regulatory intervention or USF injection in Bangladesh. Now D.
The Sunday Times (English) and Ravaya (Sinhala) carried the results of the migrant component of the teleuse research, making direct reference to the need to set the rules in place, a topic that was addressed in a previous issue of the Times by M. Aslam Hayat. “The challenge for mobile operators is to make a remittance service as simple as handing over the money and a slip, with hand-written transfer details, to a bank clerk,” said the study. On average, a Sri Lankan migrant sends home US $ 137 per month. The most common method of remittance is through the banking system.
There is little doubt that future wars will include cyber theaters. The NYT story describes cyber attacks and the dangers of collateral damage. Although the digital attack on Iraq’s financial system was not carried out, the American military and its partners in the intelligence agencies did receive approval to cripple Iraq’s military and government communications systems in the early hours of the war in 2003. And that attack did produce collateral damage. Besides blowing up cellphone towers and communications grids, the offensive included electronic jamming and digital attacks against Iraq’s telephone networks.
Bangladesh is currently conducting a public consultation on proposed Significant Market Power regulation. The recommendations made by an ITU consultant proposes Significant Market Power (SMP) regulation. This is not something many regulators in our region have focused on, at least not recently (though very light flavors of SMP determinations can be found in some countries such as Pakistan). So we sought the help of our sister research network RIA. Using the recent experience of South Africa in using SMP in regulation (and contrasting with Namibia and Botswana which do not use SMP), Allison Gillwald of RIA gave us useful input on the pros and cons of the approach.
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, which, now also regulates pornographic content, today created telecom regulatory history by appointing perhaps the world’s first Pornographic Monitoring Committee. While congratulating the newly appointed Chairman and his proud family (“Amma, you are never going to believe this! Hubby is now getting paid for watching nude girls”) we, in our own humble manner like to suggest a mission statement. (above) Reports Daily Mirror Online: The Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has appointed a monitoring committee to be on the alert for pornographic websites in the island. The TRC had said that telephone and internet services companies have agreed to be constantly on the alert for pornographic websites and to control access to them in the island, with twelve such websites already having been banned.
A story that extensively draws on LIRNEasia research by Voice and Data has coined a new and probably more appropriate term for MNP: not mobile number portability but multiple number possession. MNP seems to be another case of applying Western regulatory instruments without looking at the actual context and needs. In the interview, I said that I too had favored MNP in the old days, but that the results of the Teleuse @ BOP surveys, especially the qualitative studies shows we need to rethink. If we are implementing number portability (which could be useful for corporates and high-end customers) we need to ensure that the costs of portability are assigned to those who cause them and not the operator who is losing the customer. The simple fact that multiple SIM ownership has increased in Pakistan which was the first in the region to implement MNP should suggest something.
This was not a representative sample survey like Teleuse @ BOP, but still it was conducted in a remote village in the Polonnaruwa district in Sri Lanka as part of a community communication effort. The numbers they came up with were much higher than ours. We also spoke about the advantages of using mobile phones to complement the radio productions. 3G was not present in all areas, and in any case, few of the handsets supported audio streaming. That said, the production team said that upwards of 95% of all households owned at least one mobile.
“I am the teacher; you are the student; but still we are in the same class” (guruthumee mama, sisuviyayi numba; eath api eka panthiye) This line from the popular Sinhala song ‘Saroja’ (sung by the wife of a powerful minister of the current regime) tells it all. First it was for students, but now the government wants to extend the mobile phone ban for teachers too. Not a surprising move by a government that wants to block ‘Adults Only’ films watched by…er, adults. Reported Daily Mirror: “I have heard that the Nuwara Eliya incident had taken place involving a teacher and the other incident was connected to a female student. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha has taken measures to prohibit the use of mobile phones at public schools.
This colloquium was conducted by Erwin Alampay. E-Banking refers provision of retail and small value banking products and services through electronic channels. This includes deposit taking, lending, account management, the provision of financial advise, electronic bill payment and the provision of other electronic payment products and services such as electronic money. = M-banking: financial services delivered via mobile networks and performed on a mobile phone. may or may not be defined as banking services by the regulator, depending on the legislation of the country in question, as well as on which services are offered.
Anybody could have guessed this. It is unimaginable that entire world will go through a recession simultaneously. Not everyone can be losers for too long. There should be winners somewhere. For example, what would the US firms that find their human resources costs, logically do?
Both India and Pakistan had negative growth in fixed wireline 2003-2008: -3.5 for India and -0.4 for Pakistan. Sri Lanka has too, but this is masked by the rapid growth of CDMA, which in this country is called fixed.
Russia’s most powerful business lobby has moved to clamp down on Skype and its peers this week, telling lawmakers that the Internet phone services are a threat to Russian businesses and to national security. The lobby (Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs or RUIE) says that 40% of calls could be made through VoIP services by 2012. In partnership with Vladimir Putin’s political party, RUIE has created a working group to draft a new law to ban Skype and other VoIP telephone services from September. Interestingly, both New York Times and Pravda have referred to the isolated initiatives of blocking Skype by few West European carriers. Neither publication has, however, said how strongly the European Commission has been fighting back such anti-consumer steps.
Research on Peruvian demand for telecom services by Aileen Aguero, a researcher from DIRSI, who is current working at LIRNEasia for six months, has made it to the leading newspaper in Peru. The article, which documents the introduction of bundled services by telecom companies, uses Aileen’s research on the demand for telecom services in Peru to explain the provision of varied packages by operators to suit different socio-economic groups. Her study shows that the lowest socio-economic group spends only 5% of family income on telecommunications; however, for every 10% increase in family income, Peruvians increases their spending on telecommunications by 19.7% on average. The full (local language) article is available here.
LIRNEasia and the International Telecommunications Union are organizing a 5 day training course on “Measuring ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals” in Bangkok, Thailand from 19 – 23 October 2009. The local host of the meeting is the Ministry of Information Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), Thailand. The training targets staff of National Statistical Organizations (NSO)s. Interested NSOs can find more information on the ITU website or here. Through support from IDRC (Canada) and DFID (UK), LIRNEasia is able to provide funding for NSOs from SAAR and ASEAN countries who qualify to attend.