An interesting article on the use of ICTs among those at the BOP, has been written by Syed Mohammed Ali, a participant at the 12th Executive Course on Telecom Reform, held recently in Singapore. The article explores the potential benefits users at the BOP can enjoy from the use of mobile telephony, as well as the current gender divide that exists in some developing countries. Development through mobiles | Daily Times, Pakistan Unless the prevailing range of gender-related hurdles in availing the opportunities being provided by communication technologies, it is likely that women may become further marginalised from the economic, social, and political mainstream of their countries. Citing LIRNEasia research, he argues that that the simplicity and affordability of mobile technology has allowed it to penetrate developing markets fairly quickly. However, an evident gender divide exists with regards to mobile accessibility in both Pakistan and India, and to a lesser extent in Sri Lanka.
An Expert Forum on ICT Sector Indicators and Benchmarks Regulation for SAARC Regulatory Authorities, co-organized by LIRNEasia and Connectasia, and funded by the IDRC, was held from June 14 – 15, 2008 at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore. The forum brought together representatives from National Regulatory Agencies (NRAs), in addition to participants attending the 12th Executive Course on Telecom Reform, held prior to the event, at the same venue. Photos taken of the event can be viewed HERE. The presentations made are available for download below; a report outlining the day’s proceedings will follow shortly. 14 June 2008 Setting the Stage: Intelligent Regulation – Rohan Samarajiva (Dinner speaker) 15 June 2008 Collecting & Reporting Indicators: Problems & Potential – Helani Galpaya Broadband Quality of Service – Rajamanickam Thirumurthy Broadband QoS Test Results Illustration – Chanuka Wattegama NRA Website Survey: Asia- Pacific – Chanuka Wattegama and Lara Alawattegama Benchmarking broadband/data prices – Helani Galpaya Benchmarking telecom prices: The South Asian case – Tahani Iqbal Asian ICT Indicators Database: An introduction – Sriganesh Lokanathan
Couldn’t Financial Times be more careful? This 10.7 million is neither the number of telephones nor the number of subscribers. It is the ‘access paths’: Number of connections in case of ‘fixed’ lines (including the dissent CDMA) plus SIMs in case of mobile (including ones not used, issued to tourists for short term use and perhas as sales promotions too) Many subscribers have used more than one SIM. So certainly it cannot be the number of telephone subscribers (or owners) which has to be less.
Twenty two participants from across the world, from Fiji to Ecuador and from Brazil to Kyrgyzstan, participated in the course (plus the 1.25 day expert forum of regulators from the SAARC region) at Changi Village Hotel in Singapore, June 10-15, 2008. The topics covered included challenges of NGN and mobile payments, how to make the spectrum management process more efficient and the pros and cons of general competition regulation versus sector-specific regulation. The two keynotes were delivered by Lai Kok Fung, CEO of Buzz City and Sherrill Ismail, senior official at the FCC (speaking in a personal capacity). A more detailed report will be posted shortly.
Grace Mirandilla, ICT4D researcher from the Philippines, has been a frequent face at LIRNEasia’s capacity building programs since 2005. Currently an Economic Policy Associate at the Policy Reform Program (PRP) of The Asia Foundation – Philippines, Grace’s research interests include community telecenters, ICT applications for rural areas, and policy reform in general. Her commitment to making an impact on the policy process has paid off significantly. Through consistent effort, she has established herself as a high-quality policy researcher. Grace exemplifies the success of LIRNEasia’s capacity building efforts.
How would a small island nation Barbossa, (population 540,000) with limited regulatory resources and limited competition mange its telecom prices without becoming a burden to its consumers (who are dissatisfied over high prices) simultaneously without making them too prohibitive for new investors? This was the question the five participant groups at the 12th Executive course on Telecom Reform had to answer, from five different points. Authority for Regulating Rates (ARR) is the Regulatory unit in charge of prices within the Barbossa Regulatory Authority (BRAT), PinTel is the incumbent, Sparrow Com and CalypsoNet are the relatively new entrants who struggle hard to increase their market share. SCAB (Society for Consumer Action Barbossa) is the active consumer group driving the regulators to re-think their telecom regulatory strategy. The photo shows the judges and audience deliberating during the ‘public hearing’, Saturday morning.
An Expert Forum on ICT Sector Indicators and Benchmark Regulation for SAARC Regulatory Authorities will be held in Changi Village Hotel, Singapore on 14 – 15 June 2008 following the 12th LIRNE.net course on Telecom Reform. Photo by: olduvai
Mobile broadband could be bundled with standard contracts as early as 2009, a broadband comparison site has claimed. If the current rate of price-cutting continues, mobile broadband will soon be perceived as free of charge, according to Top 10 Broadband. “Competition is reaching its zenith in the mobile broadband market,” said Jessica McArdle, a spokeswoman at Top 10 Broadband. “It is only a matter of time before mobile broadband modems are offered for free in conjunction with mobile phone packages in the same way as ISPs such as TalkTalk currently offer ‘free’ home broadband with home phone deals.” Read the full story here.
The 27 telecommunication ministers of the European Union unanimously dismissed Commissioner Viviane Reding’s plans to create a powerful central telecom regulatory body at a meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday. They were more supportive of other elements of her reform plans, including the functional separation punishment with which she wants to threaten former telecom monopolies. They also backed her latest idea: to issue guidelines for the telecom industry on ensuring a fair return on investment and sharing of next-generation telecom infrastructure. Reding’s vision of a single European regulator was laid down last year in her proposals for reforming Europe’s telecom laws. Initially, her plan was presented as a European equivalent of the powerful U.
BT has launched a new service that promises frustrated broadband customers that they can speed up their internet connection – or they can get their money back. The company has vouched that it can improve speeds of people’s broadband by at least 0.5Mbps (megabits per second), regardless of who provides their internet. As long as the householder has a BT land line they will send around engineer who can help the customer speed up their service, either by de-cluttering their computer or by rewiring some of their sockets.
The 12th Executive Course on Telecom reform organised by LIRNEasia and CONNECTasia FORUM gets underway in Singapore. The course will be held at Changi Village Hotel from 10-14 June, 2008. This year’s participants will have the added benefit of being part of the Expert Forum for SAARC region regulatory agencies on sector and regulatory performance indicators. The Expert Forum will be on 14-15 June, 2008. In addition to Dr.
As reported elsewhere , Harsha de Silva and I had a productive time at the Mobile Preconference organized by Rich Ling (http://www.richardling.com/ ) and others. One of the outcomes was that LIRNEasia has undertaken to organize this event for the next two years, in conjunction with the ICA conferences scheduled for Chicago, May 21-25, 2009 and for Singapore in June 2010. As Jonathon Donner mentions , there is a distinct value to discussing related papers among a group of like-minded researchers for a day and a half.
LIRNEasia , in association with the School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication (BUPT) , is organizing the third CPRsouth conference, in Beijing, China from December 5-7, 2008. The conference aims to provide a forum for senior, junior and mid-career scholars to meet face-to-face and exchange ideas, establish networking opportunities and improve the quality of their scholarly work, in order to facilitate the long-term objective of fostering the next generation of active scholars and in-situ experts capable of contributing to ICT policy and regulatory reform in the region. 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, visit the CPRsouth 3 conference page . Please note that the deadline for Young Scholar Applications has been extended to Friday, June 6, 2008.
The central question of whether ICTs do any good, is discussed in relation to always-on broadband connections in the OECD. The question is, of course, of even greater importance in developing countries. The OECD released its latest report on May 19th. It surveys the broadband landscape to December 2007, and tells a warm tale. The number of broadband subscribers in the world’s 30 biggest countries grew by 18% to reach 235m, or one-fifth of those countries’ total population.
Researc h to practice is the central preoccupation of LIRNEasia. We differ from conventional researchers in our fixation on how to convey our research to policymakers, regulators, senior managers of operators and to the symbolic universe they live in. We choose our research questions and methods with this end in mind and we conduct our research on schedules determined by the need for effective communication to these key stakeholders. We measure success by whether the research that we communicate catalyzes changes in laws, policies, practices and worldviews . In this light, the SSRC organized pre-conference seemed an ideal academic event to attend after many years.
An inevitable outcome of mobile phone penetration among BOP is longer average life time of a unit. At that level replacing cost is significant. The only alternative is to repair and use the same for a longer period. This explains the mushrooming of mobile repair centers in many developing countries. Internet has loads of technical information about repairing, but in English.