Interesting link between ICT network growth and LIRNEasia’s interest in applying ICTs to disaster preparedness: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Mobile masts signal rain showers “The signals from mobile phone masts have been used to measure rainfall patterns in Israel, scientists report. A team from the University of Tel Aviv analysed information routinely collected by mobile networks to make their estimates. Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say their technique is more accurate than current methods used by meteorological services. The scientists believe the technique can also measure snowfall, hail or fog. “It may also be important because if you know there is heavy rainfall – you can warn about floods,” Professor Hagit Messer-Yaron, of the University of Tel Aviv, told the BBC News website.
AirJaldi Summit – Dharamsala, India Above is a link to a meeting on license-free WiFi networks, centered on what has been built at Dharmasala, the venerable Dalai Lama’s headquarters (he was denied the opportunity to visit Sri Lanka for the 2550 Buddha Jayanti, despite all the Buddhist rhetoric of our current government: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=1,2155,0,0,1,0.
LIRNEasia is sending its Lead Economist Harsha de Silva to participate on a MIT scholarship to the first ever executive course offered by the Poverty Action Lab this summer. The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, a unit within MIT’s Department of Economics, serves as a focal point for development and poverty research based on “randomized trials”. According to Harsha, this program can significantly contribute to WDR & LIRNEasia’s ongoing and future research projects on ICTs. For example, “In the Teleuse on Shoestring project it is difficult to measure how much the poor actually benefitted from having access to the phone. There are a number of variables like cultural background, access to other infrastructure services, level of education etc which make it difficult for us to pinpoint how much access to telephone had in improving the quality of life of the poor in India and Sri Lanka,” said Harsha.
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17101_print.php The GSM Association recently announced that its Emerging Markets Handset program is exceeding expectations: mobile operators in Bangladesh, China, India, and Russia have already purchased 12 million of its Ultra Low Cost Handsets (ULCH). But will the initiative reach the rest of the three billion unconnected peoples in emerging markets?
Hello… how do the poor use their phones? By Frederick Noronha, Indo-Asian News Service Dhaka, April 30 (IANS) It’s a billion dollar question: how do the poor of the planet use their mobile phones? A South Asian study conducted in India and Sri Lanka that looks at telecom users with monthly incomes of less than $100 says that over half the respondents do not even own the phone they use. Read more at DailyIndia.com Click here to access the main Shoestrings study
by Martyn Warwick – 28/4/2006 11:57:47 http://www.telecomtv.com/news.asp?cd_id=6652&url=news.
LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE – LBO LIRNEasia’s research from the outset has focused on the conditions for greater investment in the ICT sector. The effects of the larger political environment on the cost of capital in the ICT sector is one that was discussed in the research, but not fully supported by evidence. It appears that the sad deterioration of the political environment in Sri Lanka offers a natural experiment in assessing how the qualitative and sudden deterioration (as opposed to gradual decline) of the political environment effects investment in ICTs. It is hoped that the Sri Lanka team of the 2006-07 research cycle will capture the evidence as it appears.
Avanti Moonesinghe, Harsha de Silva, Neluka Silva & Ayoma Abeysuriya April 2006, Version 2.2 Version 3.0 The latest in the series of Teleuse on a Shoestring papers is now available for comment. It is often claimed that access to telecommunication facilities is a propeller of economic prosperity in developing countries. Mobile phones in particular are considered pivotal in encouraging growth.
At an ICT policy consultation meeting in Dhaka, organized by the APC (http://www.apc.org/), two participants prompted a much needed reality check for a room full ICT4D professionals. Mridul Chowdhury, a research affiliate at the IT Group in the Berkman Centre, Harvard University also a director of D.Net, kick-started the discussion with a presentation that questioned some of the key assumptions that that form the premise to much work in the ICT4D space.
The Association for Progressive Communication (APC), perhaps the most prominent international grouping of civil society organizations active on ICT issues, is holding a regional consultation on ICT policy for South Asia in Dhaka, April 19-21, 2006. LIRNEasia was invited and is represented by Ayesha Zainudeen, with a cameo role played by Rohan Samarajiva. The first prsentation by LIRNEasia was on the subject of what civil society can do in ICT policy and regulation. The basic thesis was that attention should be paid to industry fundamentals, rather than the easier topics of simply keeping prices low and increasing connectivity by subsidizing more. The short talk of less than 10 minutes was based on an illustration of an intervention by LIRNEasia in the policy debate in the host country on making good use of the submarine cable that is currently connecting a cable station in Cox’s Bazaar to the world, while the questions of connecting Bangladesh to Cox’s Bazaar and connecting multiple operators to the cable remain unresolved.
IEG Conference on Effectiveness of Assistance for Natural Disasters | Independent Evaluation Group LIRNEasia’s partner in the last-mile hazard-information project, Sarvodaya is representing the non-governmental sector at the above major conference. This is very significant because Sarvodaya is among the few organizations that are capable of, and already active in, building community-centered disaster preparedness.
The Webhamuva Project was showcased at the World Bank’s launch of the Small Grants Program (SGP) 2006 in Sri Lanka on April 6, 2006, as an example of the previous year’s funding under the same program. www.webhamuva.org was launched last year to ensure that the voices of the tsunami affected were heard widely and their interests and input were taken into consideration during the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase. Divakar Goswami, Director of Organizational Development and Projects at LIRNEasia made a presentation on the project and highlighted some of the findings.
OECD Broadband Statistics, December 2005 In December 2005, four countries (Iceland, Korea, the Netherlands and Denmark) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with more than 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Iceland now leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 26.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Korea’s broadband market is advancing to the next stage of development where existing subscribers switch platforms for increased bandwidth. In Korea, fibre-based broadband connections grew 52.
:: Daily Mirror – FINANCIAL TIMES :: Services Sector The Services sector maintained its importance in the economy, recorded a 5.9 per cent growth and contributed 53 per cent to overall economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2005. This growth was largely driven by the performance in the post and telecommunications, domestic trade and financial services sub sectors. Of these sectors, the Transport, storage and telecommunication sector expanded by 11.8 per cent during this period.
LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE – LBO Wired World 03 April 2006 12:24:30 Sri Lanka’s new computer sales to grow 11% by 2011 Apr. 03 (LBO) – Computer sales in Sri Lanka are forecasted to grow 11 percent by 2011, largely driven by demand from public sector, telecom and financial sectors, an IT study released Monday said. In 2005, sales of new computers rose 11 percent to 102,208 in Sri Lanka, despite risky peace talks and the after effects of tsunami, with Hewlett Packard being the favourite brand said the International Data Corporation who surveyed three South Asian countries. The report which covered Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan said new computer sales in these countries grew 16 percent to 851,735 units in 2005. Pakistan with a 19 percent growth, led the table followed by Bangladesh (13 percent) and Sri Lanka (12 percent).
At the Delhi Indicators Meeting earlier this month, there was discussion about how one would count the lifetime free subscriptions being offered in India. The following excerpt from Business Today, may shed some light on this new product: “However, there’s more to lifetime offers than meets the eye. First, call charges at Rs 1.99 per minute for local and Rs 2.99 per minute for STD are not necessarily low.