Global economic downturn spares none and its latest victim is the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation. The OLPC is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachussetts and the organisation’s laudable aim is to provide free “basic” laptop computers to deprived children in poor countries. However, as MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, the OLPC’s founder admits, “We’re no longer the newest story in town and the economic downturn has hit us, just like it’s hit everybody else”. Read more.
It looks pretty simple. Incoming free. Outgoing Rs. 2 per minute (to any phone) Local SMS Rs. 1.
Sri Lanka is a small and densely populated country. When the oldest mobile operator (started business in 1989) says that it is adding 40 towers a month, it shows a real hard push to increase coverage in rural Sri Lanka. The reward is reaching 2 million customers and high customer satisfaction ratings, according to the CEO. Sri Lankan mobile operator Tigo, a unit of Millicom International Cellular, said it had reached two million subscribers in 2008 after heavy investments to expand its network coverage. A statement from the company, formerly known as Celltel Lanka, attributed the growth to “network expansion, the strength of the brand and excellent customer service.
IT and telecom businesses in Vietnam achieved a revenue of more than US$5.4 billion in 2008, a 38 percent increase over 2007. The IT industry’s revenue alone increased by 20 percent to US$3 billion, and its export turnover from electronic and telecom products reached US$2.4 billion, according to Information and Communications Minister Le Doan Hop. Speaking at a round-up conference for the information and communication sector, Mr.
China’s telecommunications supervisor on Wednesday issued long-awaited third-generation (3G) mobile phone licenses to three mobile operators, a move that is expected to lead to billions of dollars being invested in building new networks. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said China’s biggest mobile operator, China Mobile, was awarded a license for TD-SCDMA, the domestically-developed 3G standard. The other two main carriers, China Telecom and China Unicom, received licenses for the US-developed CDMA2000 and Europe’s WCDMA, respectively. The 3G high-speed networks can handle faster data downloads, allowing handset users to make video calls and watch TV programs. Read the full story in China Daily here.
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) today published a list of short codes to be used in case of emergencies and to access other e-gov services. They will work on any phone, mobile or fixed from any operator. Emergency calls are free. To access a service, normal call charges apply. Public are advised to use these codes as per the specific nature of emergency.
James Bamford is the chronicler of the National Security Agency, the outfit with 10-100 (who knows?) times the budget of the CIA; the agency whose founding legislation was itself classified back in the 1950s. I’ve grown beyond thinking sigint was bad, but the watcher must be watched. And it takes courage to do it, in real life year after year. The guy who does it is Bamford.
A new service where patients can consult doctors over webcams is starting up in Hawai’i. The full article discusses weaknesses and strengths. Patients use the service by logging on to participating health plans’ Web sites. Doctors hold 10-minute appointments, which can be extended for a fee, and can file prescriptions and view patients’ medical histories through the system. American Well is working with HealthVault, Microsoft’s electronic medical records service, and ActiveHealth Management, a subsidiary of Aetna, which scans patients’ medical history for gaps in their previous care and alerts doctors during their American Well appointment.
One hopes of course that this will not detract from the Central Bank’s work on bringing inflation down to single digits and rebuilding trust in the banking system. Sri Lanka will issue new rules covering financial transactions through mobile phones, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said, as the island’s fast growing celcos join banks to offer new payment methods. “Given the increased usage of mobile phones for financial transactions, the Central Bank intends to issue new operating guidelines for mobile payments during 2009,” Cabraal said in an annual policy speech Friday. He said the move was part of an overall effort to improve the confidence in electronic payments, which would also cover payment cards. Full report.
India’s Department of Telecommunications, or DoT, Friday said the auction of radio bandwidth for third generation, or 3G, mobile phone services will take place as per schedule on Jan. 30 and that there will be no further delay. Analysts and industry players, however, expect the process not just to be further delayed, but also to attract fewer participants for the bidding process. Their apprehension follows recent media reports, citing government documents, that the finance ministry has sought to double the auction price for pan-India 3G radio bandwidth, or spectrum, to INR40.40 billion.
While others worry about the looming recession and job losses, the country’s telecom companies beg to differ. The sector will need up to 1,50,000 additional hands in 2009, according to the hiring consultants. While new players are launching operations, existing ones are beginning to scale up. Now that the government has issued 120 new licences, telecom industry officials fear a talent crunch that could push salaries in core operations by up to 30% in the next few quarters. “Conservative estimates put the demand from new players at one lakh people in the first phase.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set to review interconnect usage charges (IUC) after they were fixed back in 2002-03 and not revised since then. TRAI has set the ball rolling to revise IUC, particularly termination charge from Rs0.3/minute to Rs0.1/minute and carriage charge from Rs0.65/minute to as low as Rs0.
Board of Investment has granted approval to a sixth mobile/ 5th fixed operator. The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval to a new mobile (GSM) and fixed (SCDMA) telecommunications network provider. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General signed the agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the BOI Certificate of Registration to Mr. B.
In all networks, there is a perpetual debate about the growth of whatever flows across it (data, voice telephony, traffic. electricity) and what levels of investment are most appropriate for carrying the future load without deterioration of quality. This debate is going on now, about the Internet and the load likely to be placed on it by proliferating video, the so called exaflood. But then, profits are essential for investment. The quote below is about a data drought that could drive down profits and cause all kinds of bad things to happen.
Well, the research is coming in on the use of mobiles while driving and it ain’t looking good. Hands-free does not make a difference it seems, it’s the seriousness of the conversation. But does chatting to passengers have the same detrimental effect on driving? An earlier study found that it does not. That research, led by Frank Drews of the University of Utah, analysed the performance of young drivers using a vehicle simulator.
Dhiraagu, the incumbent telecom operator of the Maldives had its license renewed for a term of 15 years. Since its establishment in 1988, Dhiraagu enjoyed an exclusivity on the provision of fixed line services. It was also the only company allowed to carry international traffic into the island nation and terminate on any network. We are happy to note that the Telecom Authority of Maldives (TAM) has not extended these exclusivities in the new license that will be effective from January 2009. The move should, at a minimum, have an impact on international incoming call prices to the Maldives, since Dhiraagu’s competitor Wataniya will now be able to carry inward bound traffic and terminate on any network.