Japan is the transit of most of the transpacific cables connecting Asia with the USA. The earthquake of 3/11 has ruptured numerous undersea cables in the Pacific ocean. It has impacted the internet traffic. Optical Fiber is made of silica, the primary raw material of glass. The quake has again demonstrated the fragility of undersea optical fiber cable networks.
Operators in Singapore will have to allow customers to cap data roaming charges at S$100 (US$78.90) under new consumer protection regulations proposed by IDA. The operators will have to introduce the ability to automatically switch-off roaming once this cap is reached by the first quarter of 2012. It is likely to hit the local operators’ ARPU. IDA will also require operators to provide consumers with a free premium rate services (PRS) barring service by 2012, which will prevent consumers from accidentally subscribing to these services.
Japan is shattered by the catastrophic earthquake in every respect and communication has become critical thereafter. Mobile phone is one among the first victims at infrastructure front. The rescuers have immediately switched on two-way radio and possibly satellite communication gears. But the citizens’ mobile phones are predictably sunk into silence. And the emergency hot-lines were getting as hot as the dysfunctional nuclear reactor.
A news report indicates that lowering leased line prices (described as commercial broadband in the report has risen on the policy agenda in Sri Lanka. This is excellent news, though, of course, I would have preferred a story in the past tense: i.e., “domestic and international leased line prices have been reduced.” Present broadband charges which are higher than competitor countries are deterring foreign ICT and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms from setting up in the island and are partly responsible for poor internet penetration, a report said.
Since Harvard Forum II, we have been engaged in a low-key conversation about the liberating potential for ICTs, especially networks. For understandable reasons, the pace has picked up in recent times, especially in relation to the use of the kill switch by cornered tyrants. Now here’s a piece that is relevant to the discussion about the companies responsible for the networks we debate on and debate about: But three years later, the effort known as the Global Network Initiative has failed to attract any corporate members beyond the original three, limiting its impact and raising questions about its potential as a viable force for change. At the same time, the recent Middle East uprisings have highlighted the crucial role technology can play in the world’s most closed societies, which leaders of the initiative say makes their efforts even more important. “Recent events really show that the issues of freedom of expression and privacy are relevant to companies across the board in the technology sector,” said Susan Morgan, executive director of the initiative.
For a number of reasons, including our conclusion that for most of the BOP the path to the Internet runs through a mobile handset, LIRNEasia is interested in how people use smartphones. Here is a report summarizing research findings: The average smartphone owner spends 667 minutes a month using apps. That is more time spent with apps than spent talking on a smartphone or using it to browse the Web. But not all smartphones are equally friendly to apps. Programmers have an easier time designing apps for iPhones and Android phones, giving these devices a much broader pool to draw from.
In a recent piece in Himal, I summarized the ideas I have been developing on the nation state and its control of telecom networks used by its citizens. The thesis was that in countries above a certain threshold of electronic connectivity, shutting down networks was futile. The regime would fall. Now here’s a new spin. A proposal to ease the pressure of the Qaddafi’s chokehold: As a result, democracy demonstrators have had a harder time communicating with one another, while foreign correspondents in Libya have found it nearly impossible to report on events fully.
Regulator proposes and market disposes. MNP has backfired in India since its introduction three months back. Hindustan Times said, Reliance and BSNL lose. Vodafone, Idea and Airtel win. CDMA is out, GSM is in.
Dr. Harsha de Silva, LIRNEasia’s Consultant Lead Economist, was among the invited speakers at the 34th Governing Council meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development at its headquarters in Rome from 19 – 20 February 2011. Delegates from the 167 member states met to hear prominent international figures, high-ranking government officials and emerging leaders on topics related to ensuring food security, invigorating small-holder farming and the need to support and encourage rural youth. A press release issued by IFAD said that Dr. de Silva spoke on the need to improve the quality of life for young rural people and give them the same opportunities young urban people have.
Namibia poses an interesting question. The regulator acts to reduce one of the key costs of providing offnet calls, the mobile termination rate. But the operator holding 85 percent market share refuses to make a corresponding reduction in offnet call charges. Now the regulator has responded by ordering reduction of offnet call charges. Namibia has led SA in cutting call termination rates — the fees the operators charge one another to carry calls between their networks.
The people of Philippines stunned the world when they mobilized demonstration through text messaging and toppled the government in 2001. Communication technology got embedded among the protesters worldwide thereafter. Rohan’s recent visit in Iran has evidently prompted him to revisit the increasingly inseparable bond between technology and freedom movements. Demonstrators throw stones, possibly, because the power the enforcers protect lives in the stone-age in terms of values. That’s why the latter’s desperation for communication blackout has been futile.
Ofcom has warned that the UK’s landline ISPs are still delivering less than half of the peak-download speeds they advertise. The regulator’s research shows that the average broadband speed increased from 5.2 Mbps (May 2010) to 6.2 Mbps (November/December 2010) but was less than half (45 per cent) of the average advertised broadband speed of 13.8 Mbps.
Haven’t seen the movie yet, but it is always nice when brains go with beauty and skill. The last time this combination was present in Hollywood was in the 1940s, when Hedy Lamarr was both inventing and acting. Her contribution was an antecedent to spread spectrum. The most celebrated invention of frequency hopping was that of actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil, who in 1942 received U.S.
We were dragged into work on roaming by the SATRC. Our focus was on intra-SAARC call charges, but the then Chairman of SATRC, Mr Nripendra Mishra of TRAI wanted to act on both. So we started. We were more interested in intra-SAARC call charges because it affects more people, and more at the BOP. But looking at roaming prices, one cannot but be outraged.
Research Fellow Tahani Iqbal represented LIRNEasia at an mWomen (GSMA) working group meeting in India in late 2010. Several global telcos were also invited to help develop a “business case” for tapping the female market, and to identify what operators were already doing in this regard. Tahani presented data from the Teleuse@BOP studies, which indicates that the “divide” in access at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in most countries studied is clearly narrowing, with men and women talking as much as each other on the phone. Though there are pockets where the access divide is severe (e.g.
The Colonel and his “LSE-educated” son have gone beyond any proportion long ago. Shooting and bombing the citizens of Libya (by the mercenaries) have not been working. Now the father and son are getting mad as their days are getting numbered. Following the footsteps of deposed Egyptian neighbor, the Colonel first snapped his country’s Internet. It hasn’t worked.