A study by Professor Rajat Kathuria, ICRIER and International Management Institute New Delhi, is now available. In the paper, Professor Kathuria seeks to assess the impact of decline of leased line prices in Indonesia. It tries to capture this impact through qualitative as well as quantitative impacts. Since the decline in prices occurred recently (2008 April), the period post the decline is not large enough to do a meaningful time series analysis. However, qualitative assessment is made and the impact is compared with India, where decline in leased line prices led to substantial benefits to user industries.
The 2009 Budget contains the following statement: Allocations were made in the 2006 Budget to connect rural villages in backward areas with the rest of the world and enable them to blend with the global community and economic trends, through Information Technology. This program has enabled online connectivity through around 500 Nana Sala Centres, between villages, schools and state and public institutions, and also facilitates to broaden the knowledge of English and Information Technology. I propose to name the year 2009 as an year dedicated to expand the knowledge of English and Information Technology and allocate Rs. 100 million to broaden the scope of this programme. The questions are: * The Budget contains no other allocations for ICT related activities, explained possibly by the existence of a USD 80 million or so e Sri Lanka program, funded primarily by a concessionary IDA credit and a Korean loan which has not been fully disbursed and is in danger of being cancelled.
Indonesia Telecom Regulator, Badan Regulasi Telekomunikasi Indonesia (BRTI) rewarded telecom operators and stakeholders in a ceremony held on Nov 10 at Hotel Borobudur. Bakrie Telecom (Btel) received the Best Achievement Award for fixed line category, and Indosat was the best in cellular category. The selections were said to be based on consumer satisfaction and brand popularity (55% marks) and network performance (45%) and conducted by an independent research institution Frontier. The winners: Best Achievement Award (Fixed Line): Bakrie Telecom, Runner up: PT Telkom Best Achievement Award (Cellular): PT Indosat, Runner up: Excelcomindo Pratama Award of Appreciation (Print Media): “Bisnis Indonesia” Award of Appreciation (Broadcast Media): Metro TV Award of Appreciation (Online Media): detikcom (detikINET) Lifetime Achievement: Arnold P. Djiwatampu (Reported by Juni Soehardjo in Jakarta)
Carol Weiss says one of the most useful things researchers can do is to give policy makers the tools to think about problems. She calls this policy enlightenment, as opposed to direct policy influence. In Sri Lanka we now make policy in the Supreme Court. This is not optimal, but it’s the way it is. Therefore, I was pleased to see that Justice Tilakawardene had used one of the analogies I had pushed hard in relation to the recent punitive measures taken against mobile phones.
The number of subscribers to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) services – a technology that enables broadband access on mobile phones and other computing devices – will more than double next year in Asia, according to a forecast by telco industry group GSM Association (GSMA). In an interview with BizIT, Jaikishan Rajaraman, GSMA director of product and service development, said the number of users in Asia subscribing to HSPA will swell from 26.5 million to 53.5 million over the next 12 months. Fuelling this trend are soaring demand from both businesses and consumers, coupled with falling prices of mobile broadband services, he said.
Existing telecom operators may have to pay more than the new players eyeing the 3G space, in the form of annual charge for the 3G spectrum. A committee chaired by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Joint Secretary J S Deepak has recommended that an operator having 2G spectrum and 5 MHz of 3G spectrum should pay an incremental 1 per cent more than the applicable slab rate for 2G spectrum. The committee, which was set up to suggest annual spectrum charges for 3G, has recommended that due to the efficiency in capital expenditure and synergy in operations, operators having 2G spectrum and acquiring 5 Mhz of 3G spectrum should be charged at a higher rate. GSM 2G operators get 4.4 MHz and CDMA players get 2.
The Indian government has decided that the auction of third generation (3G) frequency would be held on schedule, January 2009, despite the global financial meltdown. The Economic Times reports furthermore. The government may also abandon the concept of charging different spectrum license fees for 2G and 3G services, due to the impracticality of the proposal. Telecom Asia reports.
A wave of economic gloom is expected to hit mobile phone buyers next year, and more and more analysts predict the once-buoyant market will shrink for the first time since the 2001 crash, a Reuters poll shows. On average, analysts expect global growth to be 3 percent in both the fourth quarter and in 2009, compared with well above 10 percent in recent years. Eight out of 22 analysts said they expected the market to contract next year. In a similar poll just a month ago, only one analyst out of 23 expected 2009 market sales volumes to fall, and then only slightly. For the fourth quarter, analysts expect the market to grow 11.
Global Telecoms Business, a journal for communications service providers around the world, has named Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) CEO N Srinath has been as one of the 10 most influential telecom personnel. Among the top 100 telecom personnel named by the magazine, N Srinath has been positioned at number 8. He has been credited for transforming Tata Communications in an international company and for the acquisition of networks like Teleglobe and Tyco Global Networks. The list tops with Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs at number two. Other Indians in the list are Bharti Enterprises Chairman and Group CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal (at number 35), Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint MD Manoj Kohli (number 39) and CEO of Motorola’s mobile services division Sanjay Jha (number 41).
One seemingly less important budget proposal made yesterday by President Mahinda Rajapakse – many might have missed it – is the eligibility extension of the popular ‘low cost’ UPAHARA package by Mobitel to clergy and employees of co-op societies. Only public sector employees plus retirees had the privilege before. No doubt, a private company, even a one with govt hand in it, can offer special rates for a niche market, which it finds lucrative. However, when that is recognized more as govt policy, and spelled in a budget speech, inevitably eyebrows go up and questions arise. The most deserving beneficiaries of low cost teleuse are the poor – or the so called ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ (BoP).
It is reported that the one million or so customers of Sri Lanka Telecom who have wireline connections can now look forward to paying the same amount in taxes as the ten million or so customers (mobile and fixed) who connect wirelessly (across GSM and CDMA platforms). We have opposed telecom specific taxes; but even more, we have opposed discrimination between different technologies. It takes some time for the people in Treasury to get it, but at least they got it after more than a year. If they got it earlier, there would have been no need to change the description in the phone bills from mobile subscriber levy to telephone subscriber levy. Hopefully this will also end the anomaly of taxing the same broadband service differently.
The Federal Communications Commission, as expected, approved a measure that would make “white space” spectrum available for wireless broadband. White space is industry lingo for the unused airwaves that abut broadcast TV spectrum, providing a buffer zone from stray signals and other inferference. The buffer zone was set up more than 50 years ago when TV was first invented. The FCC’s white-space plan was initially proposed four years ago. More than 25,000 comments — from supporters as well as critics — were submitted.
A review of LIRNEasia’s maiden book entitled, ‘ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks’, edited by Rohan Samarajiva and Ayesha Zainudeen, appears in the Asian Economic Bulletin (August 2008), published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. “…not withstanding the technical language, the question the book poses and the arguments it puts forward will be of interest not just to telecoms policymakers, regulators and policymakers, but also a wider readership that is interested in the policy-making process, the effects of technology, and the roles of institutions in shaping outcomes…this makes for an interesting reading, as it is not often that policymakers are given this type of “fresh” data.” The full article can be purchased here.
Four Indonesia Telecom players were honoured at the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Indonesia Telecoms Awards in Jakarta on Tuesday. The Awards ceremony was inaugurated by Giri Suseno Hadihardjono, Chairman, Masyarakat Telematika Indonesia (MASTEL). Over one hundred industry leaders and the telecom industry’s well known personalities were present at this ceremony. Companies honoured (see below), says Frost & Sullivan, are forerunners in the ICT space in Indonesia whose best practices in operations are recognised as exemplary. Vendor category Telecom Equipment Vendor of the Year – PT Nokia Siemens Networks Service Provider category Broadband Service Provider of the Year – PT Indosat, Tbk Mobile Service Provider of the Year – PT Excelcomindo Pratama, Tbk Mobile Data Service Provider of the Year – PT Telekomunikasi Selular, Tbk Best of the best category Market Challenger of the Year – PT Excelcomindo Pratama, Tbk Service Provider of the Year – PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk See here for more details.
The roll-out plans of new mobile players could be dampened with some of the existing pan-Indian operators demanding higher rates for providing interconnection. This includes higher termination rates (levied for ending calls from a new operator’s subscriber to an incumbent player’s network) and port charges (for accepting traffic from a new player to an existing network). Incumbent operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are at an advantageous position because they have a large subscriber base and, therefore, it is necessary for the new players to interconnect. If the new operators do not interconnect with them then their subscribers will not be able to call users on the incumbent player’s network. “The interconnection charges being imposed by the existing players are based on the telecom regulator’s order issued in 2003.
The Bharti Group is aiming to reduce its dependence on the telecom sector to 50 per cent for the group’s revenues by 2013. At the moment, telecom operations provide over 80 per cent of its revenues with new businesses which include retail, financial services and agriculture just about taking off the ground. Unveiling a new brand for the group, the third time that the group has announced mega brand changes, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group CEO, Bharti Enterprises, said, “We are breaking free from our telecom legacy. In the next five years, we hope to get more than 50 per cent of our revenues from businesses other than telecom, which constitutes more than 80 per cent right now.” Read the full story in Business Standard here.