The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has objected to the completion of the 12,971km Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), according to the Wall Street Journal. Once commercially launched in Q3 2019, the roughly $400 million PLCN system will plug El Segundo (California) with multiple Asian destinations: Aurora and San Fernando City (both in Philippines), Deep Water Bay (Hong Kong) and Toucheng (Taiwan). GU Holdings (a subsidiary of Google), Edge Cable Holdings (a subsidiary of Facebook) and Pacific Light Data Communication (PLDC) have teamed up to build this 144 Tbps capacity of transpacific cable, which is composed of six fiber pairs. It will be the first cable connecting Hong Kong and the U.S.
LIRNEasia's comments on the Framework for a Proposed Data Protection Legislation for Sri Lanka of June 2019
This document is intended to understand the extant policy context in relation to healthcare data protection, providing international comparisons, and raise important questions for Sri Lanka to consider in relation to data protection, albeit within a narrow sector specific scope.
LIRNEasia comments on the proposed Cyber Security Bill for Sri Lanka - 2019
Presented by Helani Galpaya, Ayesha Zainudeen and Tharaka Amarasinghe on 22 May 2019 in Colombo, Sri Lanka
MANY SRI LANKANS REMAINED UNAFFECTED BY THE SOCIAL MEDIA BLOCKS OF MARCH 2018, ACCORDING TO THE AFTERACCESS SURVEYS RECENTLY LAUNCHED IN SRI LANKA BY REGIONAL DIGITAL POLICY THINK-TANK, LIRNEASIA.
The biggest barrier to policing social media is language. Based on a draft LIRNEasia white paper on neural language processing. Published in Foreign Policy. 
Methodology matters. A lot. Often, however, once league tables are released, it seems to matter less. LIRNEasia has been involved with price benchmarks, both in-house and with the ITU, for over 10 years. As catalysts, we’re always encouraged to see our work improving others’ research, even in the smallest of ways.
Presented by Rohan Samarajiva at Data Governance event at Royal School of Public Administration, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 4, 2019.
Presented by Prof. Rohan Samarajiva at the Asia Liberty Forum in Colombo on 28th February 2019.
A 4-day residential course on ‘How to Engage in Broadband Policy and Regulatory Processes’ was held at Hotel Jal Mahal, Pokhara Nepal (16th- 19th February 2019). This is the ninth of a series of short courses funded by Ford Foundation. The first two courses of this series mainly focused on producing knowledgeable consumers of research who are able to engage in broadband policy and regulatory processes, whereas this course along with the previous courses in New Delhi, India, Nagarkot, Nepal and Marawila, Sri Lanka incorporate how to produce policy-relevant research into the syllabus. Call for applications: English Syllabus of the course can be accessed here. Photos of the Event Course Report The presentations of the course are below Day 1 Session 1 – Introduction to workshop Session 2 – Communicating to Policy Makers Session 3 – Comparative Data and Introduction to Web Resources Assignment 1 – Fine-tuning and Framing a Policy Proposal Session 4 – Introduction policy/legal research, including case study on ICT policy & regulation in federal states Day 2 Session 5 –National Broadband Networks of India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia: Comparative study Session 6 – Broadband laws and Policy regime in Nepal (Electronic Transaction Act, Telecommunication Act, Draft IT law and other relevant policies Session […]
Presented by Prof. Rohan Samarajiva at University of Moratuwa on 1st February 2019
Earlier this month, LIRNEasia Research Manager Shazna Zuhyle was in Geneva, where she was asked to speak about ICTs and Affordability at the last World Telecom / ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS 2018). Shazna headed the sub-group within the ITU’s Expert Group on Telecom / ICT Indicators (EGTI) in 2017 that proposed methodological revisions to the ICT Price Basket (IPB). Her talk revolved around the highlights of the changes made to the methodology and in understanding the supply-side data better. For example, at a national level while the value of the IPB may meet the Broadband Commission’s target of prices being less than 2 per cent of GNI per capita, if prices as a percentage of average household income per capita within income groups (e.g.
Details and application process for training event to be held 16-19 February in Pokhara.
Presented by Shazna Zuhyle at the 16th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium
Presented by Prof. Rohan Samarajiva at United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development. December, 2018.