I was surprised by the response to a recent piece that I wrote on mobilephobia and health. There seems to be a deep well of anxiety on this topic. Siddhartha Mukherjee is an author I greatly admire. I will read his book Emperor of all maladies when they extend the day to 26 hours. He has written a beautifully argued piece on mobiles and cancer in the last NYT magazine.
Libya’s highly centralized telecoms network remains in Gaddafi’s grip at the country’s western front. And the Colonel has promptly shutdown both the mobile networks (State-owned Almadar and Libyana) across the rebel-held eastern front. He also jammed the satellite-phone signals, which equally impacted the rebels, the international media and the humanitarian workers. NATO bombings have evidently impaired the jamming. Yet the prohibitive satellite phones cannot replace the mobile phones.
We are not the greatest fans of the Network Readiness Index, but we do believe it matters. Many of these composite indices are built upon questionable data such as the problematic “Internet users/100” indicator. No time at this moment to probe the details, but here are some key takeaways: The study showed the rapid progress of the so-called Asian Tigers, whose governments have invested heavily in technology. Besides Singapore, Taiwan was ranked 6th, South Korea 10th and Hong Kong 12th. Japan was 19th.
In what appears to be an affirmation of the value of consultation, it appears that the government of Bangladesh is rethinking the confusing and counter-productive license renewal draft issued late last year. Telecoms Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju told reporters that the guideline drafted by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission would be revised. “The radio spectrum price as well as other charges would be determined after another meeting with the finance ministry,” he said. “Fees will be reconsidered and kept at rational level.” Telecoms Secretary Sunil Kanti Bose, chief executives of the four mobile operators and BTRC representatives were present at the meeting.
Carriers are to cross the Pacific to connect Asia with the USA. They also have to cross the Suez Canal to link the continent with Europe. The Pacific, being the home of volcanoes and earthquakes, is a natural minefield for the submarine cables. The Egyptian government’s draconian rules throw the submarine cable projects in the troubled water of Suez. But the carriers have to increase diversity of their routes to maintain SLAs.
Phones allow coordination and convenience. But as politicians in many countries learned several years ago, they allow surveillance. Security isn’t just a concern in Middle East autocracies, or for would-be revolutionaries. Mobile phone surveillance, for example, is tough to escape for cellphone users anywhere, said Ethan Zuckerman, senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, and a founder of Global Voices, a worldwide group of bloggers and interpreters that has produced similarly themed guides. Mr.
Mergers. mergers, everywhere. We’re told there are merger reviews on in Pakistan and the Philippines. But it’s the AT&T acquisition of T Mobile that’s getting the media play. Sam Paltridge, Member of the Scientific Advisory Council of LIRNEasia, is quoted on the implications of the merger for visitors: Mr.
LIRNEasia CEO, Rohan Samarajiva, recently published an article appearing in the Daily Mirror on the potential health threats of mobile phone use. He argues that while it is true that electromagnetic radiation from handsets does pose a potential threat, studies by the Indian government and the WHO argue that: to date, no adverse health effects have been established for mobile phone use; that studies are ongoing to assess long-term effects of mobile use; and that there is increased risk of traffic injuries when drivers use mobile phones while driving. However, we, as responsible consumers, need to take the necessary precautionary measures such as buying safe handsets, among other things. Click here to read the full article.
TVE Asia Pacific is looking for an answer to this question: What’s the first image that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Internet’? If you’re a techie or geek, you’ll probably come up with a detailed answer that is technically accurate or precise. But most of the 2 billion plus people who use the Internet worldwide are not techies. They don’t know – or care – about the back-end technicalities. A good icon is simple, language-neutral, and can be understood across different cultures and by people with very different educational backgrounds.
Consumers at bottom of the economic pyramid have been fueling the growth of mobile across Asia and elsewhere. Sharing mobile phones have been business as usual at this segment. Profitably serving the low-ARPU yet vastly expandable clientele became a challenge for the mobile industry of India. Operators became innovative and “constraint optimization” became central to their business plan. Outsourcing various segments of operations was the first step.
When discussing our Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) indicator, we first introduce the concept of regulatory risk. I emphasize that it is not limited to the regulatory agency’s actions, but to all government actions that have a bearing on the operation of the company. The list of woes afflicting Vodafone in India is illuminating. “The combination of the capital gains tax, uncertain regulation and the very tough competitive environment has caused investors to say it wasn’t great timing” to do the deal, said Robert Grindle, an analyst with Deutsche Bank in London. Still, he said, “India is one of the fastest growing assets in Vodafone’s footprint, and without the contribution from India the company would have much lower top line growth than it does.
Paul Baran. The history of the Internet cannot be told without mention of his name. I remember reading him while still in grad school. I was reminded of what he wrote about information utilities when engaging in debates about cloud computing in recent times. In my book, if you can have readers think about what you wrote 30 years down the road in relation to contemporary debates, you made an impact as a scholar.
This should be of relevance to the ongoing debate on the net benefits of mobile networks for liberty. But as a German Green party politician, Malte Spitz, recently learned, we are already continually being tracked whether we volunteer to be or not. Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts. The results were astounding.
The US State Department is developing an application called “Panic Button” for the anti-government activists. A demonstrator will hit this button and the address book, call records and other information of mobile phone will be deleted when the device is confiscated. Subsequently the device will emit an “Alert Message” to inform the comrades about looming attacks. The panic button is one of the new technologies the U.S.
Auction design is hot. The Economist reports on 4G auction design in the UK: The government will want to squeeze as much revenue as it can from the sell-off, but it must also preserve competition in a consolidating industry. The recent merger of Orange and T-Mobile has left Britain with four mobile-phone operators: Everything Everywhere (the imperious name for the newly merged company), Vodafone, O2 and Three. That is a healthy number compared with some countries, such as America, where AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA would create what some regard as, in effect, a duopoly. But Three warns that it would struggle in an unrestrained bidding war with its larger rivals for the new spectrum.
I was asked about charging different amounts for spectrum when I was in Dhaka recently and I said it was like pricing jet fuel differently for competing airlines; it did not make any sense. Now we have the full argument laid out. It’s very peculiar. On what basis was this utilization factor calculated? I asked Dr Harsha de Silva who prepared the comments on the consultation paper; he said it was fully opaque.