Bangladesh is a big country and a coastal country. Yet it was very late in getting connected to a cable. SEA-ME-WE 4 became operational only in 2006. Then it was the largest country without redundancy,having to rely on SEA-ME-WE 4 even to communicate with India, the country that surrounds it. Now all that is over.
The Economist carries a good piece on the innovation/entrepreneurial boom in Kenya centered around the mobile. There should be such a place in developing Asia. Where? In 2002 Kenya’s exports of technology-related services were a piffling $16m. By 2010 that had exploded to $360m.
Hard truth about why the successful mobile payments model pioneered in Kenya has failed to spread. However Kenya’s success has yet to be replicated much elsewhere. More than half of all the world’s mobile-money transactions are handled by Safaricom. Mobile money is popular in one or two chaotic countries, such as Sudan and Somalia, but barely used in most places where it could do immense good, including India and China. Not all countries need mobile money, of course.
I have heard many absurd proposals related to the mobile industry, but this about takes the cake. Pakistan’s government is considering a radical plan which could dramatically alter the mobile phone industry in the country – as it mulls proposals to ban Prepaid SIM cards from sale. The Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the government is considering a phased ban on all prepaid SIM cards in an effort to clamp down on terrorism in the country. However, with something in the region of 97% of the entire mobile subscriber base on PrePay tariffs, the impact on the industry would be huge. In addition to the costs of upgrading billing systems to cope with the surge in contract customers, and having facilities in retail stores to cope with the migration – the networks would also face a hole in their finances as payments switch from in advance, to monthly in arrears.
Asia is the world’s biggest seamless landmass. Yet the Asian countries have been interlinked by submarine cables. As if Asia is an archipelago. That’s why the undersea earthquakes have emerged as the serial killer of international connectivity. It disrupted Asia’s telecom services in 2006 and thereafter.
LIRNEasia is sending its Senior Research Manager, Sriganesh Lokanathan to participate in a short course on Visual Analytics at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom. The course if of high relevance to LIRNEasia’s 2012-2014 research agenda.a A big part of the upcoming research cycle involves the use of Big-Data analysis, partly to try and answer some social science research questions. Middlesex University is part of the UK Visual Analytics Consortium (UKVAC), which is a partnership of UK universities with a shared interest in establishing a multi-disciplinary scientific community in the UK dedicated to promoting and contributing to the visual analytics research and development agenda in the UK. The UKVAC Visual Analytics Summer School 2012 (VASS2012) is jointly funded by the US Department of Homeland Security via the US Centre for Visual Analytics for Command, Control and Interoperability Environments (VACCINE) and the UK Home Office.
ASEAN citizens don’t need to obtain visa while traveling within the region. They receive visa on arrival. It is an important benchmark of successful regional cooperation. Indonesia’s Communication and Information Minister, Tifatul Sembiring, wants to take it another step ahead. He has proposed to abolish mobile roaming charges withing ASEAN by 2014.
A book that I co-authored with C.J. Amaratunge was launched last week. An excellent summary and review by W.A.
In 2008, I was presenting the results of Teleuse@BOP2 at the University of Salzburg, when a member of the audience wanted my response to his assertion that the Sri Lanka’s telecom reforms had contributed to rising income inequality. I said I did not see a relation, but he went on to publish a paper on the topic. Internally, we had a few conversations about responding to this piece, but competing demands on our time put that task on the backburner and finally took it off the agenda. Income inequality is a serious problem, no doubt. Many people have studied this problem, looking at education levels, welfare polices and so on as possible explanations but without reaching a conclusive finding.
Botswana is a landlocked country. It invested in the West Africa Cable System (WACS) which it connected to through Namibia. It is now reaping the benefits. Internet prices are expected to go down as the Botswana Telecommunications Corporations (BTC) Group has slashed its wholesale internet bandwidth prices by 59 percent due to the commissioning of the West Africa Cable System (WACS) undersea cable. There is a lesson here for other landlocked countries.
ITU has joined more than 70 sources of Public Data to give away its treasure trove of statistics through the Google Public Data Explorer (PDE). ITU said, “With Google PDE users can now explore and visualize ITU’s key ICT statistical indicators from 1960 to 2011 (where data exists) for about 200 economies worldwide. Key indicators include fixed telephone, mobile cellular, fixed (wired) Internet, fixed (wired) broadband subscriptions and penetration, as well as the percentage of individuals using the Internet.” The database can be accessed from here.
“Economic Strategies for Sri Lanka”, a book written in Sinhala, co-authored by LIRNEasia Chair and CEO, Rohan Samarajiva and C.J. Amaratunga was launched at BCIS, Colombo on the 6th of September 2012. The keynote was delivered by former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, W.A.
If other countries have announced plans, please tell us. By region we mean South Asia, but even SE is fine. Of course, there’s the gap between cup and lip. Announcing is one thing. Actually getting the job done is another.
RESEARCH ASSISTANT VACANCY: We are currently looking to fill the role of a Research Assistant. The candidate must already be enrolled or choose to enroll in a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Master of Philosophy (MPhil) program in Agriculture or related program with an emphasis in ICT, at a Sri Lankan Institute. WHAT WE OFFER: In addition to a competitive, output‐dependent remuneration package, the position will enable a motivated researcher who takes advantage of the learning ‐conducive work environment and networking opportunities to build a rewarding career as an international knowledge professional. HOW TO APPLY: Please submit a detailed CV (no more than four pages), phone/email contacts of two non-related references who can speak to relevant experience/abilities, as well as a recent writing sample of not more than 10 pages to hr@lirneasia.net by 15 Aug 2012 or earlier.
Prof. Rohan Samarajiva was recently interviewed by LMD. In his view, an industry such as telecommunications should grow in two ways. Firstly, through structured reforms, which entail privatising state-held telecom companies and breaking international monopolistic control. Secondly, the industry should expand further through day-to-day policy implementation and regulation, both of which need transparency.
The first Annual General Meeting of the Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Centre (PiRRC) was held in July 2012 in Suva Fiji. Click here for the news coverage and interview with the PiRRC Director Mr. Aslam Hayat. Chair and CEO of LIRNEasia and Regulatory and Policy Expert to PiRRC, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva made a presentation on the state of broadband in the Pacific Islands with suggestions on how bottlenecks can be identified.