China has the largest number of mobile users as a country. It now also has the largest number of Internet users. China Surpasses U.S. in Number of Internet Users – NYTimes.
This is from Lankadeepa online. It quotes Prime Minster Ratnasiri Wickramanayake saying one reason of restricting CMDA phones to be used only in one address (registered one) is to prevent the loss of government revenue from international traffic. He was responding to a query by Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera MP at the parliament. Sri Lanka uses CDMA technology for fixed connections but with signals available anywhere within local loop, or if not been blocked by the operator even outside, it can be converted to a ‘mobile’. Given the distinct sharing behaviour we have seen at BOP, many may use their CDMAs in multiple locations.
Dr Muhammed Yaseen, who served as a Member of the Authority since 2006, has been appointed to succeed Major General R Shahzada Alam Malik (retd.) at the helm of the PTA. LIRNEasia has been an admirer of the massive improvements the Pakistan telecom sector achieved since Chairman Malik’s appointment in 1 March 2002. We wish him well in his future endeavors and thank him for his dynamic service to the sector. We warmly welcome Dr Yaseen.
Indonesia’s telecommunication giants have demanded the government limit the number of new entrants to the industry, citing limited resources and growing investment risk. The Indonesian Cellular Telephones Association (ATSI) chairman Merza Fachys said limited frequency allocations and phone numbers meant there was no room to accommodate new players. “The government must regulate the number of players so as to ensure the sustainability of the industry,” Merza said in his speech at the annual national coordination meeting on telecommunication, information and media held by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Unlimited entry to the industry, he said, would crowd the market, increase competition and generate greater investment risk for existing players. Read the full story in AsiaMedia here.
He is not just talking. Neil Tagare brought the world FLAG (Acquired by Reliance in 2003) and Project Oxygen (Never kicked-off). He has now launched an online outfit (BySellBandwidth) where capacity will be traded somewhat like the Real Estate. BusinessWeek and TelecomTV have covered Neil’s latest venture. The idea of setting up an exchange for trading bandwidth between users with too much capacity and those with higher needs fell out of favor several years ago with the demise of Enron and Global Crossing, which were involved in illegal accounting.
Here is the answer to all those longed for a day when energy could be delivered without costly messy wires Op-Ed Contributor – Satellites With Solar Panels Can Beam the Sun’s Energy to Earth. – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com Science fiction? Actually, no — the technology already exists. A space solar power system would involve building large solar energy collectors in orbit around the Earth.
Orascom Telecom – which is currently building a GSM/3G network in the secretive North Korea has apparently secured access to the mighty, if unfinished Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang. The company has been reported by the few foreign residents permitted into the country to be working on the very top of the 105 story building and installing equipment for its mobile network. The Ryugyong Hotel dominates the Pyongyang landscape being by far the largest building in a city already full of monumental structures. Construction was started in 1987, and while the main structure is complete, the government cannot afford to finish off the structure. Construction work stopped in 1992 and the empty shell has been left since then.
There’s nothing like increasing fuel prices to generate telecom-transportation tradeoff stories. This is very promising stuff for people like us live 3.5 hours flying time from anyplace important. But none of these innovations can work here until we get decent quality on our broadband links. Has anyone tried skype videoconferencing other than in Singapore or Europe?
The special issue on “Community-based last-mile early warning system” carried on its back page the following contribution from Rohan Samarajiva (despite the title of the publication, it’s not possible to find this piece on the web, so what is pasted below is the pre-pub version: Between a rock and a hard place The tragedy of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was the absence of any official warning. The Bengkulu earthquake of 2007 September 12th shows that this is unlikely to be repeated. What we must guard against now is indifference to warning; of populations that will refuse to evacuate in the face of real danger. Tsunami prediction is an inexact art practiced in conditions of imperfect information and time pressure. In the Pacific Basin, which has had the most experience with tsunamis, 75 per cent of all warnings are false.
Maldives is the South Asian country that has reached market saturation in mobiles. Now the game is services. According to the report below, they have introduced a new service to move money from bank machines into prepaid accounts. One wonders how many of Maldives citizens have bank accounts. If a great majority do, this can be a very useful service, in places like Male and Hulhumale where most Maldivians live and work.
It is literally a child’s play getting a false UK passport, Frederick Forsyth said in 1972. In his bestselling thriller, The Day of the Jackal the protagonist used the birth certificate of a dead child to obtain a fake passport. Thirty two years later, BBC was not sure the loophole was plugged or not. Not sure how many mercenaries still benefit. The UK passport cannot be the only document an interested party can manipulate.
Lin Sun is a Beijing-based consultant with more than 20 years’ experience with the Chinese telecom industry. Recently he has analysed the future of WiMAX in the backdrop of 3G in an atricle. Excerpts are stated bellow: If speed is compromised, cost will become a serious concern. According to estimates, operator capex for WiMAX will be 20 percent to 50 percent higher than for HSDPA, a software-enabled overlay for sending data over 3G networks. At higher frequency, say 3.
This is an old debate. Back in 1999, Larry Ellison and Bill Gates were debating this. Thin client computing, the one-laptop per child, etc are all variations on the theme. Our interest is in what differentiates a netbook from an advanced mobile phone? Smaller PCs Cause Worry for Industry – NYTimes.
Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile communications service provider announced the launch of its 3G/HSPA service in Manipay Jaffna following the setting up of the 530th 3G Base Station in Manipay, Jaffna. Dialog Telekom earns the distinction of being the first mobile service provider to provide 3G services in Jaffna. Dialog 3G will deliver the unique communication channel of video calling to customers in Jaffna who will now be able to have face to face conversations with their loved ones locally and internationally. Read the full story in Daily Mirror here.
There is always a standards battle going on in telecom. The current fight is about LTE and WiMAX. Even though the main battlegrounds are the ITU, GSMA and various locations in the developed world, skirmishes will take place in places like India and Sri Lanka where WiMAX deployment has already started. This will be something to keep an eye on. Wireless telecoms | Culture clash | Economist.
In a previous post, I discussed the importance of making more services available online in order to exploit the telecom-transport tradeoff. My argument was based on the delays and waste caused by the poor transport system in Sri Lanka, exacerbated by the government’s eagerness to close roads at the drop of a security hat. According to the story below, e- commerce is rapidly gaining ground in the US, where roads are rarely closed but the price of fuel has increased (though still much cheaper in in purchasing-power terms than Sri Lanka). To Save Gas, Shoppers Stay Home and Click – NYTimes.com Online shopping is gaining at a time when simply filling up a gas tank to head to the mall can seem like a spending spree.