The 2013 Network Readiness Index of the World Economic Forum is out. Singapore is in second place worldwide, the only Asian country to make the top 10. Taiwan China, Korea, Hong Kong China and Malaysia occupy 10th, 11th, 14th and 30th positions respectively. China has fallen back seven places to 58th rank. India is now only 10 places behind China, at 68th, advancing one position.
In my opening remarks at the Ministerial Program of GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in February, I referred to predictions that tablet sales would overtake laptop sales in 2014. This Economist report supports the general argument, but does not break out the numbers by desktops and laptops. Apple, which makes desktop and laptop computers as well as tablets, suffered a smaller hit than other PC-makers. It also still commands a premium over other manufacturers for its sleek designs. And unlike other PC-makers, it makes up for lost PC sales with new tablet sales.
GSMA has urged the governments to immediately suspend the collection of Universal Service Fund (USF). Because, the trade body has found that USF has failed to deliver what it promises in theory. After surveying 64 countries GSMA has detected that more than one-third of these governments have not even disbursed any fund they have taxed the consumers in the name of public interest. Such accumulated idle USF amounts to in excess of a whooping US$11 billion only. The study cites India, Cote D’Ivoire and Paraguay as bad examples: In India, the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) continues to impose approximately a five per cent levy on operator revenues, despite the fact that is contains over 4 billion USD of accumulated funds.
Many talk about corruption in telecom procurement by government owned telecos. Here are details: According to a police source familiar with the probe, a suitcase containing US$2 million in cash was allegedly found in Thein Tun’s residence. Investigators are trying to establish whether the alleged funds may have originated from foreign firms, including major Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE known to be angling for potentially lucrative telecom contracts in Myanmar, according to the same source. Authorities are also trying to gain access to bank accounts in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore where kickbacks to senior ministry officials may have been deposited, according to the same source. Both Chinese companies have voluntarily given investigating authorities documents related to their previous deals with the MPT ministry, including during Thein Zaw’s tenure as minister, according to the police source.
Many of the millions of expatriate workers living in the Gulf are separated from their families. They need to keep in touch. They need to talk. But the cheapest way of the talking has been blocked so far in Dubai. But things change.
Who would have thought? A UK-based global operator that emerged in the competitive era joining with China Mobile, the big dog in China, to bid for a Myanmar license. Operator heavyweights China Mobile and Vodafone Group have formed a consortium to bid for a mobile licence in Myanmar. Keen to promote competition, Myanmar wants to increase the number of mobile operators from two (Myanmar Post & Telecommunications and Yantanarpon Teleport) to four. In a statement, Vodafone laid out some of the attractions of entering this market.
Myanmar has shortlisted 22 aspirants for two mobile licenses for an initial 15-year term. Global and regional heavyweights in this beauty contest is listed bellow in alphabetical order: 1 ACO Investment Group 12 Millicom 2 Asia Megalink (local) 13 MTN Consortium 3 Axiata 14 Orange / Marubeni 4 Bharti Airtel 15 Orascom / EPIC 5 China Mobile / Vodafone 16 Qatar Telecom / Ooredoo 6 China Telecom 17 SingTel / KBZ (local) / M-Tel 7 CP Group / True / Thana Telecom 18 SK Telecoms / Red Link 8 Digicel / Quantum 19 STT / Bewell / Frontier 9 First Pacific 20 Telenor 10 IG Group / MTI 21 Telkom Indonesia 11 KDDI / Sumitomo 22 Viettel China Mobile, the world’s largest operator by subscriber and Vodafone, the world’s top operator by revenue has teamed up for a license. Telenor, which operates in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia – has strong aspiration for a license in Myanmar to make its presence seamless across South and South East Asia. Bharti Airtel, China Telecom, SingTel, Telkom Indonesia, Viettel (Viet Nam) SK Telecom (South Korea), KDDI (Japan), Axiata (Malaysia), Orascom (Egypt), Orange (France) and Ooredoo (Qatar Telecom) are the other big […]
Today, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, held the oral-presentation component of the 2013 tariff hearing. In their effort to accommodate 70 or so persons/organizations among the 200+ that had made written submissions, they limited speaking time to 5-10 mts depending on how many issues had been covered and did not ask any questions of those making presentations. This was a pity, since the whole point of face-to-face interaction is interactivity. That said, I still found the exercise educative. For example, the spokesperson for one organization asked why the PUCSL had allowed a component of costs for ROE, return on equity.
The first mobile phone network in South Asia was implemented in Sri Lanka in 1989. It also first switched on UMTS or 3G service in this region in 2004. Sri Lanka is now launching South Asia’s very first Long Term Evolution or LTE in FDD bands, which covers twice as large area compared to LTE in TDD spectrum of 2.6 GHz. Dialog Axiata, a unit of Malaysia’s Axiata Group and Sri Lanka’s biggest carrier by subscribers, has won a pair of 10 MHz spectrum in 1800 MHz band last week to launch LTE mobile broadband service in FDD spectrum.
An old folk tale describes a tired traveler in the desert, where the nights are cold. His camel is outside the tent. The camel wants the warmth of the tent. The traveler permits him to bring in the snout. By morning, the camel is in the tent and the traveler outside.
It’s certainly worth sharing and I am to be blamed for belated posting. Douglas Madory is the Senior Research Engineer at Renesys Corporation, which is globally respected as the “Internet Intelligence Authority.” Doug closely watches how the Internet functions worldwide. Two months back he published the imperatives of terrestrial backup for the only submarine cable of Bangladesh. In the concluding paragraph titled, “Greater Terrestrial Connectivity in Asia” he wrote: Abu Saeed Khan, the Senior Policy Fellow of LIRNEasia, helped persuade the government of Bangladesh to join the SMW4 consortium in 2002 and has been working ever since to increase Internet inter-connectivity all across South and Southeast Asia.
Digicel made its name and fortune in the Caribbean. Then it became a major regional player in the Pacific. Now it is hoping to land a license in Myanmar, a much larger market than the ones its operates in. Interestingly, they are pushing for an enabling framework for mobile money, even ahead of getting the telecom license: “The telecommunications sector offers many opportunities, and companies can provide a variety of services in this industry,” said Lorna J. McPherson, the operations director of the Irish-owned Myanmar Digicel Company.
We found people at the BOP in Indonesia claiming they did not use the Internet, yet going into great detail about their use of Facebook. Our colleagues in Africa, RIA, also noted this phenomenon. Western observers are skeptical about the value of a Facebook phone, but perhaps it may make sense in our parts? A smartphone that gives priority to Facebook services is good for Facebook, but it is unclear whether that is something consumers want. Jan Dawson, a telecommunications analyst at Ovum, said the concept was “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Earlier we discussed the snapping of four submarine cables in Egypt and its impact. Now we have come to know it was an act of sabotage. Telecom Egypt’s CEO Mohamed al-Nawawi has confirmed that his country’s Armed Forces have arrested three saboteurs. Among the global news outlets, Associated Press and BBC have covered it by far. There is, however, nothing to celebrate.
Pakistan’s 50% internet traffic has been impacted as the Sea-Me-We-4 submarine cable went down in Egypt, said local press. The blogpost of Sunil Tagare brings more bad news: altogether four major submarine cables — I-Me-We, Sea-Me-We-4, EIG and TE North – have been severed in northern Egypt impacting a huge portion of Eurasian telecoms traffic transiting the Middle East. Last week I highlighted the risks of Egypt being the only gateway of Eurasian cables networks. Collapsing of the aforementioned four cables is just an example of the fragile transcontinental submarine telecoms backbone.
Exploding growth of smart devices has divided the industry into two camps debating on the availability of spectrum in future. One says the world is running out of spectrum. The other says there is nothing to get panicked. One year ago the mobile phone’s inventor Martin Cooper has suggested using innovative technologies rather than giving the carriers more spectrum. He said that currently the technology with the most potential for carriers to use their networks more efficiently is the smart antenna.