Development organizations are pressed to demonstrate that their programs result in significant lasting changes in the well-being of their intended beneficiaries. However, such “impacts” are often the product of a confluence of events for which no single agency or group of agencies can realistically claim full credit. As a result, assessing development impacts is problematic, yet many organizations continue to struggle to measure results far beyond the reach of their programs. Outcome Mapping is one methodology used to address this issue. The originality of this approach lies in its shift away from assessing the products of a program to focus on changes in behaviour, relationships, actions, and activities in the people, groups, and organizations it works with directly.
According to a story in this week’s RCR Wireless News, building and climbing towers (which can be hundreds of feet tall) is more dangerous than ranching, fishing, logging, and even ironworking. The fatality rate is currently 183.6 deaths per 100,000 workers: Five tower workers died during one 12-day span earlier this year alone. 18 tower workers died on the job in 2006. The cause for the runup in tower worker deaths isn’t completely clear, but it’s likely a combination of careless working practices (workers not using safety gear 100 percent of the time, or not using it correctly) and network operators pushing to build out and upgrade their networks too quickly.
(Opening Panel, from left: Hernan Galperin (DIRSI, speaking); Bill Melody, Rohan Samarajiva (LIRNEasia), Alison Gillwald (RIA!), Anders Henten (LIRNE European network) and Amy Mahan (Comunica/LIRNE coordination)) It is not that we had never met, but this was a sustained full-day engagement. The last time all the LIRNE.NET entities and their primary funder IDRC were in the same room, it was amidst the cacophony of WSIS in Tunis in November 2005. People talked but listening was not always possible.
Any operator considering Mobile WiMAX should take into consideration the following challenges: There are currently more than 32 million HSPA connections worldwide, with nearly 467 HSPA mobile handsets offering 4Mbps in the downlink, which is comparable to Mobile WiMAX. 3G LTE is expected to be a fully ratified standard by the end of this year, with trials occurring in 2009 and deployments in late 2009 or 2010 offering mobile data rates of up to 170Mbps (2×2 MIMO; 2.6GHz; 20MHz). QUALCOMM’s Gobi technology which supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA, EV-DO Rev A will be integrated into laptops this year, which either have been certified, or will be certified with operators such as T-Mobile, Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. Tier 1 laptop vendors such as HP and Dell are supporting this.
Report on the 12th Executive Course on Telecom Reform, 10 – 14 June 2008, conducted by LIRNEasia and CONNECTasia Forum (Pte.) Ltd. Rohan Samarajiva, Course Director The 12th Executive Course on “Telecom Reform: Strategies to achieve connectivity and convergence,” co-organized by LIRNEasia and Connectasia, and funded by the IDRC, was successfully completed by 21 persons from 13 countries, ranging from Brazil to Fiji and from Kenya to Kyrgyzstan. It was held from June 10th – 14th, 2008 at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore. Participants consisted of 12 persons from research organizations, four from Public-interest organizations, three from the management of telecom operators and two from regulatory agencies.
Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) of Hong Kong was ranked as the most effective National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority site in the recently conducted LIRNEasia study ‘NRA Website survey: Asia Pacific 2008’ receiving 94%, followed by Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore with 89% and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with 87%. In South Asia Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) scored highest (80%) but Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of India (TRAI) was not too behind (75%). PTA site which scored highest marks in the previous survey in 2005 this time lost marks due to the lack of some features like the non availability of local language version. More information in paper format and Presentation Slides
A new study suggests that attitude rather than availability may be the key reason why more Americans don’t have high-speed Internet access. The findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenge the argument that broadband providers need to more aggressively roll out supply to meet demand. Only 14 percent of dial-up users say they’re stuck with the older, slower connection technology because they can’t get broadband in their neighborhoods, Pew reported Wednesday. Thirty-five percent say they’re still on dial-up because broadband prices are too high, while another 19 percent say nothing would persuade them to upgrade. The remainder have other reasons or do not know.
Europe’s mobile phone industry will today mount a last-ditch effort to ward off strict price caps on text messages and data downloads within the EU by warning that heavy regulation is cutting capital spending and profit margins. With Viviane Reding, EU telecoms commissioner, poised to propose a new round of price caps this month, mobile operators claim their capital spending has already slipped from 13% of revenues in 2005 to 11% last year – and could fall further. The GSM Association – the global trade body representing more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators – citing data from a study by management consultants, says the industry’s return on capital employed was as low as 7% in 2007 or less than half that of other significant sectors such as steel and software. Sources said this gives the lie to Reding’s claim that it is making excessive profits from “roaming” services in the EU. Read the full stiry in the Guardian here.
A complaint lodged by BT about the speeds of Virgin Media’s broadband service has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority. The challenge centred around its advertisement “Hate to Wait?”, which ran in the national media and featured download times for songs and TV shows. BT argued that Virgin’s usage caps meant that downloads during peak times would be slower than advertised. The ASA has agreed and ordered Virgin to make it clear that speeds will vary.
The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, June 08 2008. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080608/FinancialTimes/ft331.html Norman Gunawardene was one of the three part-time members appointed to the reconstituted Telecom Regulatory Commission in 1997.
An article, co-written by Anu Samarajiva, and LIRNEasia researchers Ayesha Zainudeen and Harsha de Silva, has been published in the Information for Development (i4d) magazine, on the efficacy of telephones in expediting socio-economic development and buttressing accessibility. Based on findings from the Teleuse@BOP study conducted in 2006, the article illustrates that while previous studies have provided strong evidence for the connection between phone access and development at a macro level, the link is less clearly visible at a micro-level, with low income users at the BOP failing to perceive the potential financial and economic benefits arising from access to telephony. The PDF version of the article can be accessed HERE. Results from the survey responses of 8,660 households do not manifest a strong correlation with the macroeconomic evidence that access to phones carries significant economic benefits. Where then is the disconnect coming from between what households perceive as the limited economic benefits of phone use, and the significant increases in macro-level output?
Indonesia’s telecommunication giants have demanded the government limit the number of new entrants to the industry, citing limited resources and growing investment risk, local press said. The Indonesian Cellular Telephones Association (ATSI) argued limited frequency allocations and phone numbers meant there was no room to accommodate new players. Unlimited entry to the industry would crowd the market, increase competition and generate greater investment risk for existing players. “The government must regulate the number of players so as to ensure the sustainability of the industry,” ATSI chairman Merza Fachys was quoted by English-language daily The Jakarta Post as saying. Read the full story in telecomasia.
The New York Times documents a recent study conducted by Nielsen Mobile among 30, 000 wireless customers, that estimates over 3.6% of all mobile phone users in the United States have used their phones to pay for goods and services. This figure is expected to grow in the future, with nearly half of all users of text messages and mobile internet, stating that they hope to make a mobile phone purchase in the future. However, security concerns remain. 41 percent of the consumers who transmit data said security was the reason they didn’t buy things via their mobile phone.
Where exactly the line that segregates ‘Broadband’ from ‘Narrowband’? Interestingly every country and every organization seems to have one’s own definition. 256 kbps is adequate ‘broadband’ for some countries to claim to be at the top of the broadband map. More ambitious have kept the level at 1 Mbps or even 2 Mbps. FCC too was happy with 200 kbps (on either direction) for some time, but apparently has apparently realized that outdated.
Indonesia’ competition watchdog found six mobile phone providers guilty of price fixing, which may have cost consumers more than $300 million in additional rates. The Business Competition Supervisory Commission says the companies formed a cartel to keep tariffs for text messaging artificially high. The companies include Telkomsel, Telkom and Smart Telecom. They were given fines totaling more than eight million dollars. Source: Voice of America
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to review termination charges, a major component of telecom bills. The charges are paid by the operator, from whose network the call is made, to the operator on whose network the call terminates. The DoT has asked TRAI to review these charges on a priority basis so that consumers benefit at the earliest. “Given that the central aim of the telecom policy is to provide services at affordable rates, it is suggested that a review of mobile termination charges, based on present and projected costs and traffic, be undertaken by TRAI in a time-bound manner,” the DoT said in a letter to the regulator. In 2003, Trai had recommended a termination charge of 30 paise per minute.