Joji Thomas of the Hindu Buisness Line reported this on August 21, 2006. LIRNEasia research by Payal Malik had recommended USO funds should be technology neutral as well as fund infrastructure creation, but the funds from the USF are not being released as mentioned in this report. Read on… JOJI THOMAS PHILIP NEW DELHI [ MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2006 10:27:47 AM] DEPARTMENT of telecom has demanded that the finance ministry allocate an additional Rs 2,000 crore towards the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), over and above the Rs 1,500 crore that has been allocated in the Union Budget. It has also said that all telecom companies should pay 5% of their adjusted gross revenue towards the USOF, which is used for building and supporting telecom infrastructure in rural India. DoT move is likely to cause a showdown with the finance ministry .
Finally, a major company has shifted its call center out of Colombo. When will the government call center follow? Telecommunications allows for distance to be overcome. Taking back office operations to Rajagiriya is not enough; there should be call centers in Hambantota and Trincomalee. Now that the SLTL fiber is on its way to Hambantota, the former may yet happen.
Hindu Business Line New Delhi , Sept. 21 The Government is planning a major digital expansion by setting up one lakh rural Common Service Centres (CSCs), which will basically be computer kiosks, at a total cost of Rs 5,742 crore [USD$1.2 billion] , through a public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism. These centres are expected to bridge the digital divide existing today between the urban and rural areas. According to a Government spokesperson, a proposal for setting up CSCs was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday.
BBC Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5344654.stm Does anyone here suffer from Nebrols (Network Broken Limbs Syndrome) :-)
According to this article that appeared today in India’s Business Standard, TRAI seems to be considering using a base price + beauty pagent mechanism to award 5 licenses (of 5MHz each) for companies to introduce 3G services. The prduence of using beauty pagents needs to be questioned. The failures of 3G auctions in Europe in 2000 has been mentioned as one of the reasons for opting for a beauty pagent. However the failures of those auctions stemmed from operators’ over-estimating the potential of a new and untested service. It is unlikely that operators would make the same mistake again – my argument being once-bitten, twice shy.
(unofficial translation) Insignia of Nepal Government Nepal Gazette Published by Nepal Government Part 56) Kathmandu, Bhadra 26 2063 (Number 20 Part 3 Nepal Government Notice of Ministry of Information and Communication This notice has been published to notify that the Nepal Government using the authority given by Radio Communication (license) regulation, 2049, part 18 sub-part (c) has declared that use and storage of radio equipment in the ISM Band of 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz with the Maximum Effective Isotropic Radiated Power of 4 Watts will not require any license. As Directed, Shankar Prasad Koirala Acting Chief Secretary of Nepal Government Previous discussion on this issue available here.
Ambar Singh Roy, The Hindu Business Line Habarana (Sri Lanka) , Sept 17 It would be imperative for India to replicate the urban competitive model in its mobile telephony segment in the rural areas with a view to improving the country’s ranking in the global digital opportunity index (DOI), according to LIRNEasia, a regional information and communication technology policy and regulation research and capacity-building organisation. Read full story at The Hindu Business Line online.
Sept 12: Pradip Baijal, the former chairman of the TRAI, puts forth his comments on TRAI’s experiences with competition regulation in this article on Rediff. Read the entire article HERE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TO CONDUCT LIMITED TSUNAMI WARNING COMMUNICATIONS TEST ALONG U.S. WEST COAST NOAA’s National Weather Service will conduct a limited communications test of the Tsunami Warning System in the coastal areas of California, Oregon, and Washington on Wednesday, September 13, between 10:45 a.m. and 11:00 a.
Inter-operator congestion is choking India’s fast growing mobile market and lack of proper interconnection overshadows its telecoms success story. TRAI is keen to mitigate this crisis. But its authority has been dwarfed administratively. Read the details in http://www.telecomasia.
A consortium of technology companies, including I.B.M. and Cisco Systems, announced plans Tuesday for a vast wireless network that would provide free Internet access to big portions of Silicon Valley and the surrounding region as early as next year. The project is the largest of a new breed of wireless networks being built across the country.
LIRNEasia, in association with the National College of Public Administration and Governanace, University of the Philippines, Diliman, is organizing the inaugural CPRsouth conference, in Manila, Philippines from January 19-21, 2007. The overall objective of this exercise is to build Asian-based human capacity by reinforcing and developing the values and commitment of existing scholars in and with interest in the emerging Asia-Pacific. For more information, download the complete programme HERE Also, please check the Call for Papers and the Call for Young Scholar Award Applications to see how you may participate in this event and join an emerging community of scholars committed to improving the lives of people in Asia through information and communication technology.
The background paper of the keynote address given by Rohan Samarajiva at the Digital Opportunity Forum 2006 is available for download: Bridging the Divide: Building Asia-Pacific Capacity for Effective Reforms Samarajiva also chaired the two day conference held in Seoul, South Korea from 31 August – 01 September 2006.
“Norwich is pioneering a free wi-fi project which covers three sectors of the UK city and its centre. The £1.1m, 18-month pilot has been live for three weeks and is backed by the East of England Development Agency. Paul Adams, from Norfolk county council said: “It allows people to see the benefit of wireless technology.” The city centre, county hall and educational establishments such as the university all have wi-fi access.
Inadequate backbone infrastructure in Indonesia has been widely regarded as crippling its telecom sector. Uneven development of the backbone has meant that much of the East of the country has no fiber-optic based backbone network and those islands have to rely on more expensive satellite links. Poor long-haul domestic infrastructure has meant that many parts of the country do not have access to basic communication and those that are connected have some of the world’s highest leased line and Internet prices as my earlier study shows. The Indonesian government’s ambitious Palapa Ring project to create a fiber ring connecting the major islands had been shelved post the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Recently, however, efforts have been made to revive a modified version of the earlier vision.
There is an international report in a reputable medium (Reuters AlertNet) about a text messaging for disaster warning development in Sri Lanka. This is a request to whoever who is responsible for this project to give it publicity within the country, not limiting the publicity to foreign media. “Sri Lanka has also been trying to harness the mobile phone as a powerful warning device, and is working on a text message alert system to give people a crucial few minutes to seek safety if another tsunami hits.” The story that contains this claim is at Alertnet: