Sri Lanka‘s first outdoor wireless computer network is now up and running. Surprisingly, it is not in Colombo. It is not even in any of the other key places. It was installed in Mahavilachchiya, a little known village, 40 km from the nearest town Anuradhapura, and surrounded three sides by the Vilpattu jungle. Most of the villagers are either farmers or labourers with a monthly income of about Rs.
Dhaka, Nov 3 (bdnews24.com) – GrameenPhone’s coverage beyond Bangladesh’s boundary has forced the Indian government to deploy cellular mobile network in the neglected northeastern states, reports Kolkota-based The Telegraph Friday. The Indians along the Bangladesh border in Meghalaya and other north-eastern states “are forced to use prepaid cards of GrameenPhone, the largest cell phone service provider of Bangladesh, paying ISD call rates.” People without mobile phones cross the border and use Bangladeshi phone booths and they pay hefty amounts of international tariff to call own country, the report alleges. Villagers have complained to the Telegraph correspondent that the Indian government does not provide them basic telecoms facilities on the pretext of security.
An international committee tries to answer the question of why we don’t do more to reduce the risks of disasters (prevent hazards from becoming disasters). They lay the blame on all governments, but comparative data on the loss of life from disasters in the developing versus the developed world, shows that our government are more to blame. This was discussed in a publication that came out last December. BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | World ‘lacks will’ on disasters Lives saved through risk reduction are invisible to the media, whereas people pulled from the rubble are highly visible
Sri Lanka’s infrastructure industries are in very bad shape, with reforms postponed, billion-rupee losses in electricity and petroleum and predictions of power cuts in 2007. In the blog of one of the business publications we read regularly, the following comment had been made by a reader. What is interesting is that she/he points to the good conditions in the telecom industry, no strikes, lower prices, etc. LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE – LBO If you had more competitive markets, without the government trying to control everything, you would have immediate price reductions. The producer that passes on the benefits to the consumer will have higher sales, if he beats his competitiors to the price-cut.
LIRNEasia along with its research partners conducted a needs assessment and gap analysis of local capacity for ICT policy and regulatory, research, training, expert assistance and advocacy in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands.
Dialog Telekom took a courageous step in 2002, deciding within weeks of the Cease Fire Agreement being signed that it would supply telecom services to the people of the North and East who had been excluded from the country’s telecom revolution for so long, because of the conflict and the military’s prohibition of service in conflict areas. The services thus provided were, without question, the most important dividend that the people of Jaffna saw from the path of peace, followed by the mobility allowed by the opening and restoring of the A9 highway. Now, Dialog and the people of the North are paying the price of the path of war. For two months, the mobile networks have been shut down in the North, with service being allowed intermittently in the East. This means that approximately 220,000 families are unable to communicate with their loved ones in the North and that another 200,000 or so families are not sure their phone will work when they most need it.
South Asian mobile companies are showing the world how to make good profits with low prices and the resultant low ARPUs. BBC NEWS | Business | Demand for mobiles boosts Bharti In addition to Bharti, Sri Lanka’s Dialog also announced major profit increases yesterday.
Creation of new knowledge by universities is typically assessed in terms of publications and citations in scholarly venues, and the same measures are used to assess capacity for future contributions. As the production and dissemination of knowledge becomes increasingly mediated by the Internet, the Internet presence of researchers is becoming a more valid and relevant measure of knowledge capacity than the conventionally used publication and citation data. This article proposes a methodology that includes the use of the scholar.google.com search engine to supplement the conventional indices for knowledge capacity in a policy-relevant field of knowledge.
The deadline for the CPRsouth Call for Papers has now passed. Reviewing of both abstracts and young scholar applications are in progress. Successful paper presenters and young scholars will be notified by November 15, 2006. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all those who responded.
U of Moratuwa Dialog Lab and MicroImage won two awards at the National Best Quality Software Awards 2006 conducted by the British Computer Society, Sri Lanka branch. They were for Best in R&D category; and Overall Best, both for the GSM-based hazard alerting device used in the HazInfo project. Our warm congratulations.
LIRNEasia and Sarvodaya initiated the Webhamuva program with assistance from the World Bank’s Small Grants Program to give voice to the people whose opinions go unheard in the post-tsunami reconstruction work. The final report is available here (PDF): WEBHAMUVA: Report on People’s Consultations on Post Tsunami Relief, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in Sri Lanka The findings from the report indicate that people are dissatisfied with the pace of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Most of the tsunami-affected spoken to have yet to recover their normal lives in terms of livelihood, permanent housing and their sense of safety and security. The feeling of helplessness and despair is quite prevalent especially when people do not have the capital or means to engage in sustainable livelihoods. Needs assessment from the donors has not been very effective because there seems to be a large discrepancy between what people need and what is supplied to them.
Three articles on LIRNEasia and its research have appeared in Business Line, one of the leading business newspapers in India belonging to the Hindu group. The most recent one appeared today, focussing on LIRNEasia‘s research activities in the Asian region. The way to go The Hindu Businessline, October 23, 2006 By Ambar Singh Roy […]Founded in September 2004, LIRNEasia (Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies) was initially focused on India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Indonesia. This year, LIRNEasia’s research footprint has been extended to the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan. Says Prof Rohan Samarajiva, Executive Director of LIRNEasia: “The Asia-Pacific is a leading region in ICT, both in manufacture and use.
North Korea is part of Asia. LIRNEasia should at least think about this strange country as it goes about its work. The connectivity of North Korea is described below: The Internet Black Hole That Is North Korea – New York Times “This is an impoverished country where televisions and radios are hard-wired to receive only government-controlled frequencies. Cellphones were banned outright in 2004. In May, the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York ranked North Korea No.
Former Chair of the FCC, Bill Kennard, calls for a broad national debate on how get more broadband connections, especially in rural America. One of his two recommendations is for the adoption of “reverse auctions” or least-cost subsidy auctions for the disbursement of US universal service funds. Another case of policy innovations in the developing world seeping back into the developed. See LIRNEasia’s extensive work on this subject, based on the Indian universal service fund and the least-cost subsidy auction in Nepal. Spreading the Broadband Revolution – New York Times “Any serious discussion of the future of the Internet should start with a basic fact: broadband is transforming every facet of communications, from entertainment and telephone services to delivery of vital services like health care.
Applications for Young Scholar Awards are now closed. The deadline for the Call for Papers, however, has been extended to Friday, October 20, 2006.
According to a recent report, the total number of mobile subscribers in Asia Pacific has doubled in the course of two years and by the end of 2006 will account for 45% of mobile subscriber growth worldwide. China,India and Pakistan account for 70% of the growth in the region.