At the recent SATRC (South Asia Telecommunication Regulator’s Council) workshop on Policy, Regulation and Services held in Kathmandu, Nepal, 30 July – 01 August 2013, Wangay Dorji, Head of Telecommunication at BICMA (Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority) spoke on the state of regional mobile roaming within the SAARC countries. Using LIRNEasia research, he points out the overall high prices South Asian’s pay while roaming within the region in comparison with the favorable tariffs offered in other regions such as the European Union (EU). The presentation confirms that plans are underway in the ASEAN region towards a unified approach. SATRC has also initiated a study for the same. However, given the proliferation of smart phones, and thereby apps such as Viber and Whatsapp, users are now able to communicate across the seas on a no-cost or low-cost basis (access to a reasonably good Internet connection being a mandatory condition).
The effective dissemination of the University of Washington study on telecenters is creating a minor revival in telecenter enthusiasm. We have not had opportunity to examine the Washington study in detail, but a first look surprised us since no LIRNEasia or Research ICT Africa was cited, despite South Africa being a focus country. Observing heavy use of telecenters does not seem to be best evidence, since the alternatives must also be studied for the claim to be supported. Coward and his team scoured the earth, working with local research teams and surveying more than 5,000 computer users in Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Lithuania, Philippines and South Africa. What they found seems counter-intuitive.
For those who doubted our narrative that the future of Internet access in our parts is wireless, here is the proof. It’s not that fixed broadband is not growing (year-on-year is 9 percent), but that wireless is growing faster. There are 15 million fixed broadband subscribers v 143 million connecting over wireless platforms. TRAI’s quarterly performance report.
Internet in Myanmar has suffered outage on July 20, 2013. Since then the country remains choked in terms of connectivity. Officially the breakdown of only submarine cable (SEA-ME-WE3) at 13 kilometers away from the coast was blamed. The Irrawaddy wrote on July 24: “Works are being carried out to repair the fault as quick as possible in coordination with [a] Singapore-based underwater repair and maintenance team. It is expected to take about one month,” the state-owned company said in a brief announcement in government newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.
Intercom was a small telephone network, which allowed calling strictly within the office. That was the Jurassic era of telecommunication when the dinosaurs state-owned incumbents mercilessly harassed the consumers. At that time the ‘sophisticated’ office automation equipment called intercom was a ‘must have’ gadget across the public and private enterprises. Speakerphone or hands-free calling feature was intercom’s jewel in the crown. Unlike the rotary-dial PSTN phones, the “trendy” intercom sets were fitted with a push-button keypad.
I know. Kenya is not in Asia. And M Pesa is in Kenya. But I read this nice blog post and figured that readers of LIRNEasia might appreciate learning a bit more about M Pesa. Few initiatives in microfinance, or for that matter in development, have been as successful as M-PESA: 3 and a half years after launch, over 70% of households in Kenya and more importantly over 50% of the poor, unbanked and rural populations use the service.
A dark cloud has appeared on the horizon of the Myanmar telecom sector in the form of a license granted to a military affiliated company. There is precedent in countries such as Iran. As long as the regulator can regulate, ownership need not be an issue. Usually the problem is the difficulty a regulator has in effectively exerting authority over the incumbent. The Myanmar incumbent is in such bad shape and the network in so undeveloped that this may not be such a huge concern.
A new study by the European Commission (EC) recommends more spectrum be kept reserved for Wi-Fi to relieve the 3G and 4G networks from the burden of data. It promotes the usage of Wi-Fi and other small cell infrastructures like femto cells to relieve congestion on 3G and LTE and so save operators “tens of billions of euros” as they upgrade networks to meet surging customer demand. The EC report said that 71% of all EU wireless data traffic in 2012 was delivered to smartphones and tablets using Wi-Fi, “possibly rising to 78% by 2016”. Consumers can also save money by using Wi-Fi instead of paying for mobile data when they are near a Wi-Fi hotspot. The study makes three main recommendations: to make spectrum from 5150 MHz to 5925 MHz available globally for Wi Fi; to continue making the 2.
It was one thing for Gmail to ask “did you intend to attach a document to this email?” based on your use of the word “attached” in the email. But it moves things to a whole new level when an app analyzes your digital bread crumbs and tells you stuff that you haven’t even thought about. The services guess what you want to know based on the digital breadcrumbs you leave, like calendar entries, e-mails, social network activity and the places you take your phone. Many use outside services for things like coupons, news and traffic.
Myanmar has never been so shaky about getting disconnected before. It has happened after SEA-ME-WE3, Myanmar’s only submarine cable, was snapped at 13 kilometers south of the Irrawaddy Delta’s shore last week. “Works are being carried out to repair the fault as quick as possible in coordination with [a] Singapore-based underwater repair and maintenance team. It is expected to take about one month,” warned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), reports Irrawaddy. Douglas Maduray of Renesys Corp.
Tablets are mobile devices. They may work off WiFi, but they also work off mobile networks when WiFi is not available. Their sales are expected to overtake those of notebooks this year. While sales of PCs to businesses remain steady, demand among consumers has plunged, largely because people are instead buying iPads, Kindle Fires and other tablets. Still, a reality check: more than 300 million PCs are expected to be shipped this year globally.
We’ve been placing our bets on wireless as the platform for connecting our people to the Internet. People like Eli Noam have criticized this as a neglect of Fiber. But consumers are communicating their preferences. The number of wireless-broadband subscriptions rose by 14% last year among the members of the OECD, a mut ainly rich-country club. At the end of 2012 these countries had an estimated 781m subscriptions, of which 85% were standard mobile broadband; satellite and fixed terrestrial wireless systems accounted for less than 1%.
Dimuthu was a computer science graduate from University of Peradeniya who came to us to learn economics. Learned a lot and made a massive contribution. Left after a few years; started his own company and all that. Next week he leaves for Houston with his family to start a Finance PhD. We’ve had people go off for Master’s degrees and fellowships, but Dimuthu is the first to set off for a PhD.
I saw this lament and my first thought was, she does not live in Kenya, but in backward New York. A truly mobile wallet — one that would let you easily pay for restaurant meals, subway rides or beers at a bar with a quick wave of your cellphone — has long been described as imminent. But it remains elusive. Some innovations have begun to bridge the gap, but most have been a disappointment or have not yet worked well enough for mainstream adoption. In 2012, Square, which makes a credit card reader that can be plugged into an iPhone or iPad, worked on a credit-cardless system that let people pay for goods without ever pulling out their wallets or phones.
I was thinking back to when our alternative narrative on mobile becoming the central platform started. I think it was when Divakar Goswami and I were invited chair some sessions at ITU Telecom World in Hong Kong in December 2006. I listened to the various talks on fiber to the cabinet and home and felt like I was on listening to Martians. Our demand-side work was telling a completely different story. Our alternative narrative went into the 2008-10 research proposal that was written shortly after that.
The perception is that 3G networks are not being rolled out rapidly in India. But it could be that the Indian consumer is ahead of the operators and regulators, as we saw in Thailand where smartphone sales picked up well before 3G frequencies were assigned. Global smartphone shipments jumped 47 per cent to 229.6 million in Q2 2013 from 156.5 million units in Q2 2012, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, with Samsung accounting for much of the growth.