Perhaps to the shock of those who wholeheartedly justified the new regulations on mobile and CDMA phones, it looks as if Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has decided ‘National Security’ can be compromised for another eight months. You still can afford not having a piece of paper (aka a license) to carry your phone through a check point. We do not know how many terrorists will take advantage of TRCSL’s ‘flexibility’ or why TRCSL wanted to back off if that move were so essential for security reasons. All we know is this (temporary?) backing off will help at least one third of the population – those who don’t own the phones they use – at the bottom of the pyramid.
The summary results of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2006/07 conducted by the Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics make interesting reading. According to the latest HIES, an average household spends LKR 539 per month on communication (2.35 per cent of the total). We know that there are no subsidies here. In contrast, the monthly spend on education, which is free from kindergarten to undergraduate degree and beyond costs an average household LKR 632 per month (2.
In a TV interview yesterday, I said that the new anti-sharing and certificate-carrying rules promulgated by the TRC would affect the poor disproportionately, because the rich could buy their children phones, while sharing was the only option for most Sri Lankans. Indeed, a special package for parents wanting to be in touch with their children in these uncertain times has been just announced (below). But the question that a commenter raised on the other discussion thread is whether it is any longer possible to buy a mobile for your own child. If a National ID is required to own a SIM, and the child does not have a NIC, it seems to follow that the child cannot have a mobile. Has anyone studied the ramifications of the rule before running press notices?
Net neutrality has become the hot-button issue in US telecom policy. Barack Obama is for net neutrality and the Republican-dominated FCC is leaning in that direction as can be seen below. However, is this something we need to import? If everyone is charged the same irrespective of use, what really happens is that the low-users end up subsidizing the high-users, especially in countries of the South, where the biggest cost driver is international bandwidth. What we need is a business model wherein low users pay only for what they use, in small amounts.
The motto of any typical bureaucrat is “First my convenience!”. How can one expect Sri Lankan types to be different? In late 1980s, when motor cyclists were found responsible for few key assassinations, the Police reacted first by banning helmets (before that it was compulsory) and then by prohibiting pillion riders. Why this nuisance?
Using the opportunity created by an invitation to make a dinner speech at the second international symposium of the Sabaragamuwa University, in scenic Belihuloya, I worked up a talk that drew on three different strands of LIRNEasia work, Teleuse@BOP, m-gov services and AgInfo, to work up what I thought to be a useful talk on what ICTs can do to help alleviate climate change caused by green house gases. The slideset (a tad big because of all the nice pictures) is here. Once the paper is ready for publication, a pre-pub version will appear here.
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.