The Nigerian telecoms sector, one of the greatest success stories not just in Africa but also the whole of the rest of the world, just keeps on going from strength-to-strength. New figures just released by the Nigerian regulator show that, since May of this year, Nigeria’s telephony subscriber base has expanded by a further 3.7 million and now stands at 53.33 million. Teledensity is also improving, standing now at 38.
It’s been a long and glorious history. The German company Siemens was one of the very first companies ever to lay telephone cables and make telephony switches, but today it is exiting the industry after more than a century and a half. The company was founded by Werner von Siemens on October 1, 1847, (the year that Sam Colt sold an early version of his epoch-making revolver to the US government, Denmark began its first railway service and Alexander Graham Bell was born) and the infant company’s first product was a form of telegraph needle that, when activated, pointed out a sequence of letters transmitted from elsewhere. Martyn Warwick passionately writes.
Grameenphone has agreed to pay an administrative fine of BDT 2500 million (US$37.3 million) to the telecoms regulator, the BTRC, for providing E1 connectivity to third parties, enabling the use of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology which is unlawful and illegal. “We deeply regret that such unlawful practices were carried out and not disclosed earlier by Grameenphone,” said the company’s CEO in a statement. “We have cooperated with BTRC in the investigations and the Grameenphone Board also mandated an investigation by an external auditor to look into all aspects of our operations to ensure that we fully comply with all laws and regulations.” Read more.
TRAI’s recent letter to DoT, highlighting shortcomings in the government 3G policy, has kicked up differences between the telecom regulator and DoT. TRAI, in its letter, has highlighted six shortcomings in the 3G auction guidelines that were announced recently. The most significant one that can impact exchequer revenue relates to the need for an “amended’ ’ unified access service licence (UASL), which needs to be acquired by every successful new entrant in the 3G space. TRAI, in its letter to DoT, concludes that a reading of the 3G guidelines “implies that in case a non-licencee becomes successful bidder, he will be given a new (modified) UASL without the provision of 2G spectrum (spectrum in the 800, 900 & 1800mhz) at an entry fee equal to the entry fee of UAS licence’’ . Read more.
Want to buy a SIM while travelling to India? Passport and other identification papers may not be good enough. You will need two guarantors to get a new mobile connection, said The Economic Times.
Central Environmental Authority Chairman Udaya Gammanpila calls the new ‘Environmental tax’ essential, pro-poor and progressive. Releasing used mobile phones and CFL bulbs to environment is dangerous, he warns, with a long list of hazardous chemicals that would perhaps put a chemistry professor to shame. He wants to collect them for recycling. The tax money will be used to build recycling plants. Not everybody agrees.
Upon being awarded a full scholarship, LIRNEasia researcher Tahani Iqbal has moved to Singapore to commence her graduate studies in public policy at the LKY School at the National University of Singapore. She joins Senior Researcher Sriganesh Lokanathan who is in his second year at the Lee Kuan Yew School. He was also awarded a full scholarship. Sending our researchers to high-quality graduate programs is one way in which we operationalize our commitment to being a learning organization.
Indonesia is emerging as a hot broadband market, mainly as a result of the increasing availability of high-speed 3G and HSDPA mobile services. According to Arjun Trivedi, the head of business in Indonesia for Nokia Siemens Networks, high speed mobile services are now the dominant form of broadband access in the country. He says, “In Indonesia today, there are slightly more than a million broadband users. Quite a substantial number of these – we estimate some 60 per cent – are wireless broadband users, principally using HSDPA. We also estimate that there are about 400,000 fixed broadband users and a little over 600,000 mobile broadband users.
The Colloquium hopes to assess how the project can be sustained within the Sarvodaya arena. Chaminda Rajakaruna opened the presentation with a brief introduction to Sarvodaya. Sarvodaya is a widely expanded grassroots levels organisation. He went on to present the vision of the Deshodaya as well. Purpose of the intervention was to take the mssge behind Sarvodaya and Deshodaya to the media through text, video and audio.
Lakbima News, 10 August 2008: An article published in the Lakbima News documents an interview held with Prof. Rohan Samarajiva on the proposed mobile phone taxes in Sri Lanka: “Economic incentives are used to help the environment. The objective of such measures is not to make money – the sole objective should be to prevent people from doing things harmful to the environment. But if we take the two per cent envy levy on mobiles – for this to qualify as an incentive, it should modify certain behaviour…the behaviour that is modified is the use of mobile phones.”
Nicholas Negroponte said, in the context of the United States, that all that was carried on wireguides would shift to wireless (e.g., telephony) and all that was carried by wireless (e.g., television) would shift to wireguides.
When he built Parakrama Samudraya a millennium ago, King Parakramabahu the great did not have to depend on the Internet. How lucky! Had it been so, he would have achieved few great feats. The pitiable Broadband services at Polonnaruva looked as if we have not made any advances since the days of the Great King. Both SLT and Dialog boast about their island wide networks.
The Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that the country’s Department of Telecommunications allow MVNOs to operate in the sub-continent under a new licensing scheme. In a major new policy document, the TRAI lays out a plan to permit interested companies to establish MVNOs, negotiate network leasing agreements with existing mobile network operators and to select from three different available service models. The MVNO licenses will be issued under conditions very similar to those currently applicable to existing MNOs and with similar eligibility terms including FDI caps and limits on service areas. This means MVNO licenses will effectively be tied to the operating licence of their MNO partners with the main difference of approach being in the entry fees payable by MVNOs compared to existing MNOs. Read more.
The new Competition Commission of Pakistan has entered into competition with the Pakistan Telecom Authority. If the FCC had sole authority over telecom in the US, we wouldn’t probably have the Internet in its present form. That’s a controversial statement, but one that can be defended. AT&T was broken up and space created for the efflorescence of multiple providers of communication services and products by the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, not by the FCC. I state this upfront to indicate that I am not against telecom operators being regulated by multiple agencies.
LIRNEasia’s ‘Rapid Response Program’ is exactly what the name suggests. We react to immediate information needs of telecom regulators, at short notice. The response might not be lengthy and as comprehensive as we would like it to be, but nevertheless helpful, as Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) have realised. LIRNEasia saw BTRC’s move to issue three new Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licenses a positive development, as Bangladesh is certainly not a country that can boast of quality and affordable broadband. This is what we learnt from our research: Exceptionally high cost of broadband remains a key barrier that prevents the development of the BPO industry in Bangladesh.
From Sify.com Frederick Noronha (IANS) | Thursday, 07 August , 2008, 11:40 Bangalore: India is growing by leaps and bounds when it comes to mobile use, but it could be doing better, the authors of a new book on policy roadblocks to communication growth in South Asia have said. LIRNEasia executive director Rohan Samarajiva and researcher Ayesha Zainudeen, editors of the book ‘ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks’, told IANS in an interview that over the study period, India’s mobile connectivity was overtaken in per-capita terms by both Pakistan and Bangladesh. “There is still a large gap between rural and urban telephone growth, as highlighted in the book, due to flawed policy implementation (at the time of writing),” said Samarajiva.