Indian government has endured stormy opposition when Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), its international telecoms arm, was privatized in early 2000. Since then, through merger and acquisition along with new build-outs, the Indian carriers – Tata, Reliance and Bharti – dominate the global connectivity business. Moreover, each submarine cable linking Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe hops in India due to its location. Therefore, like Japan in transpacific and the United Kingdom in transatlantic routes, India could emerge as a formidable transoceanic telecoms connectivity hub in the region. That has not happened, primarily, due to the Indian carriers’ mindless obsession for dominance.
The Mobile Data Surge in Hong Kong: Technical and Regulatory Approaches Shazna Zuhyle March 2014 Executive Summary Hong Kong has one of the most sophisticated telecommunication sectors in the world. It offers some of the highest broadband speeds regionally and globally and has the highest number of SIMs per hundred. Since the launch of the iPhone in Hong Kong the use of mobile data has risen exponentially. Given its advanced networks, technologies and unique regulatory regime, it provides examples of good practices for other economies yet to face the mobile data upsurge. Its size and population are by no means an indication of the number of services providers.
There was a time when voice telephony was seen as a public utility, requiring government involvement in supply. In most parts of the world, the end result was waiting lists and poor service. Now the same refrain is being sung re broadband. Why not take a look at Hong Kong? Here is where to start.
On the second day of the training course organized by PiRRC in Apia, Samoa, I made a presentation on the available regulatory solutions to the problem of market power associated with submarine cable landing stations. The countries covered include Hong Kong SAR, India, Fiji and Mauritius. The slide set: Gateway pricing Apr 2013.
To mark the 40th anniversary of TPRC, its current Chair Johannes Bauer and long-time member and international enthusiast Prabir Neogi have organized a special international panel “A Comparison of Broadband Strategies in Developed and Developing Countries: Perspectives, Challenges and Lessons.” The participants are Robert Atkinson, ITIF, USA; Catherine Middleton, Ryerson University, Canada; Jean Paul Simon, IPTS and EuroCPR, France; Rohan Samarajiva, LIRNEasia and CPRSouth; Alison Gillwald, ICT Africa; Judith Mariscal, CIDE and DIRSI; and Erik Bohlin, Chalmers University and ITS. It is intended to be an interactive panel organized the theme “When it comes to national broadband strategies One size DOES NOT fit all” The panelist will be invited to respond to two or more of the following questions: What is the most important aspect that you would want the audience to know about national/regional conditions affecting the design and implementation of broadband policies in your country/region? Does your country/region have an explicit Broadband Strategy at the national and/or regional levels? If yes, what is the scale ($$, Targets), scope (Demand side initiatives as well as Supply side ones) and duration (short, medium or long term)?
Our argument has been that the principal cause is the lack of terrestrial cables. While prices have declined globally, significant geographic disparities persist. For example, despite falling 22% compounded annually between Q2 2007 and Q2 2012, the median price of a GigE port in Hong Kong has remained 2.7 to 5.1 times the price of a GigE port in London over the past five years.
A conference entitled, ‘Infrastructure Regulation: What works, Why, and How do we know?’, is being organized by LIRNEasia, together with the Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore and the University of Hong Kong, to be held from 26 – 27 February, 2009, at the University of Hong Kong. Sponsored by the IDRC, Canada, the conference will bring together distinguished scholars and practitioners who are experts in the area to address essential issues in regulations through conceptual and empirical studies. The conference will address the following questions: Does regulation work? What kind of regulation works?
Rohan Samarajiva will make a presentation entitled, ‘Small Screen, Big Scream: How much has the mobile really delivered, how much more to come?’ at the International Institute of Communications Annual Conference to be held from 3-4 November 2008, in Hong Kong. The event is co-hosted by the Broadcasting Authority and the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, Hong Kong. Themed, ‘Trends in Global Communications: Capturing the High Ground in an Uncertain World’, the conference seeks to examine the impact of current trends and twists in the telecom market, against the backdrop of developing regulatory policy and the inevitably huge demands of infrastructure investments. Some of the questions the conference hopes to address are: What new scenarios will tomorrow’s broadband, internet, mobile and media markets present for business, government, regulators and consumers?
While some Asia-Pacific economies are world leaders in information and communication technologies (ICT) where broadband access is ultra-high speed, affordable and close to ubiquitous, in most of the region’s poorer countries Internet access remains limited and predominantly low-speed. This is what ITU’s Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region 2008 says. It was released at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, Bangkok, Thailand yesterday (Sept 2, 2008). The Report finds evidence that ICTs and broadband uptake foster growth and development, but the question remains as to the optimal speed that should be targeted in view of limited resources. The area in which the region really stands out is the uptake of advanced Internet technologies, especially broadband Internet access.
Nicholas Negroponte said, in the context of the United States, that all that was carried on wireguides would shift to wireless (e.g., telephony) and all that was carried by wireless (e.g., television) would shift to wireguides.
Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) of Hong Kong was ranked as the most effective National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority site in the recently conducted LIRNEasia study ‘NRA Website survey: Asia Pacific 2008’ receiving 94%, followed by Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore with 89% and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with 87%. In South Asia Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) scored highest (80%) but Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of India (TRAI) was not too behind (75%). PTA site which scored highest marks in the previous survey in 2005 this time lost marks due to the lack of some features like the non availability of local language version. More information in paper format and Presentation Slides
NEARLY a third of Hong Kong’s households watch television via the internet, according to a new report from Telecommunications Management group, a consultancy. Because internet protocol television (IPTV) uses the same technology as that which links computer networks, smaller countries with high broadband penetration tend to have more subscribers. As well as plain old programmes, viewers can also enjoy other services such as on-demand video. So far, Europe accounts for over half of the world’s subscribers. http://www.
Broadband QoSE testing is generating interest. A news report on ‘Times of India’ yesterday (April 7) suggested the site www.speedtest.net to determine connection speed. This site, like many such others available on web, lets a user to ping to a selected server to check the throughput.
At last report, Hutch Sri Lanka had an ARPU of around USD 3. Sri Lanka Hutch subscribers double in 2007 – LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE Subscribers of the Sri Lanka mobile unit of Hutchison Telecom doubled to more than a million in 2007, while revenue growth topped 50 percent, the group said in a statement. Total subscribers had increased by 104 percent to 1,141,000 in 2007 while revenue measured in Hong Kong dollars grew 52.4 percent 189 million dollars (2.6 billion Sri Lanka rupees).
Robert Clark says: Apple and China Mobile recently broke off talks over selling the device in the mainland after the Chinese carrier rejected Apple’s insistence on a 30% commission. An executive at a non-mainland operator said the company was keen on selling the iPhone, but just couldn’t raise Apple’s interest. Apple doesn’t have a senior executive in Asia trying to push the device and is conducting negotiations from Cupertino at a leisurely pace. It’s worth remembering developing countries have never been happy hunting grounds for Apple’s high-end devices. The iPhone is a low-volume, high-margin device demanding a fat airtime commission.
The implications of mobile number portability (MNP) were discussed at a Workshop on Implementing Mobile Number Portability, held in August 2007 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The forum, comprising participants from the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, provided insight into the technical, regulatory and operational aspects impacted by the porting process, with a focus on the Pakistani MNP experience. The reasons cited in favor of MNP were classified into advantages to subscribers and regulators. The former were benefited by an increase in choice (of packages) and the eliminated costs of having to inform third parties of a number change, while the latter saw MNP as an approach to attract new investment and generate healthy competition. Operators on the other hand, were split in their views; new entrants and operators with smaller market share were of the view that it would create fair play in the industry, but larger operators with significant market power were, unsurprisingly, against the implementation of MNP.