Category Archive

Another post in the Disaster management technologies series. Japanese mobile telephone users may soon be warned of an earthquake in their area just before it strikes. Japan’s two biggest operators, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have announced that they are jointly developing a system to notify customers of an imminent earthquake. Now the first question I have is: What good will it do? What will YOU do if you find out that a big earthquake is coming in 5 seconds?

And the second question is: How will this work?  Read it here.

Interesting study about the telecommunication trends in Asia reveals that there’s still a lot of unmet demand in the low-income population. Read the rest of the story here.

Korea is at the forefront of mobile technology adoption and the industry pays special attention to the trends there. One example: Korean mobile carrier SK telecom is introducing google search (with advertisements) on its wireless web portal. I came across a multi-part series of interesting posts written by Kim Min-seok about future trends of mobile technologies and markets at Korea Herald, here and here. In this post I’ll present some excerpts from the sixth and seventh articles which analyze the “broad changes that Web 2.0 is bringing about in the business world.” I’d recommend reading the full articles but for those in a hurry, here are the key thoughts:

1.Mobile phone makers would like to integrate content into their own platforms instead of allowing others to control content.
2. Customers will select a service provider that has a platform which is convenient to use and enables access to diverse content and channels.
3. Hyper-customization will decide the winner.

Here are excerpts from the article (emphasis is mine):

The current consensus is that mobile terminal makers stand to gain the most from the fact that customers must first connect their devices when using content and services.

Up to now, the core elements of success of the mobile phone have been the hardware characteristics of the equipment itself, such as price, function, quality and outside design. But in Mobile 2.0, it is a means of accessing the mobile Web, not just a means of talking by telephone. This implies that design of the mobile platform embedded in the terminal is going to be important - it must enable user interfaces, UCC production and full browsing.

Due to the sharing of open operating systems and equipment middleware platforms in order to reduce costs, the possibility of functional differentiation will decrease in terms of quality and general functions. Therefore, if convenience is maximized by innovating the small screen and input device, which are regarded as the maximum constraints, terminal makers will exert a tremendous influence on the mobile service market.

Mobile phone makers, led by global No. 1 player Nokia, are trying to integrate content into their own platforms. Their strategy is to move into the content portion of the mobile value chain with convergence of digital equipment. Nokia is utilizing its powerful brand and domination to become a mobile media platform operator that provides related media content including advertisements, images and games.

In order to strengthen the competitiveness of its platform, Nokia has introduced mobile advertising platforms such as Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Connector, and developed a game platform, N-Gage.

Apple offered a service that can be used in linkage with iPhone after purchasing all the content such as TV programs and movies from iTunes using Mac. That is, media content including music, broadcasting and movies and terminal lines such as mobile phone, PC and TV are provided simultaneously. This allows us to get a glimpse into Apple’s strategy that customers can enjoy everything within the platform called Apple by providing them with total service ranging from software to hardware.

In the Mobile 2.0 age, the platform that gives value to the customer when he purchases a terminal will become one of the core purchase elements. In Korea and Japan, mobile operators such as LG Telecom and DoCoMo are considered one purchase category, and terminal makers such as LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson as another purchase category. In Europe, where the GSM system is used, terminals and mobile operators are also different purchase categories.

But in the future when terminal makers, internet portals and mobile operators all provide mobile services, the criteria for purchase will become different. The platform will become an important element, overtaking the design of the terminal or the charging system of the mobile operator. Mobile platform services offered by internet portals such as Google and Yahoo! will also compete with mobile operators and terminal makers.

Customers will select a service provider that has a platform which is convenient to use and enables access to diverse content. So they will evaluate the platforms of mobile operators, terminal makers and internet portals before they choose one they like. This is because the “prosumer” (producer-like consumer) can use open sources to create new services by combining the existing technologies. The most convenient platform, and one with the most differentiation, will therefore be the most popular.

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This post is a continuation of the Disaster management technologies series. The idea here is to present not just the commercial side of technology but also to showcase technical activities which can help save lives. This story is from Daily Yomiuri, a Japanese newspaper and it reports about plans to launch a satellite to create an emergency cell phone relay station in space by 2015. This is to solve 2 common issues (which Pakistan also faced in 2005) that after a disaster cell phones may be rendered useless due to damage to the local base station and due to the heavy call volume after the disaster which overloads remaining base stations.

The paper mentions how this effort will help:

Setting up a base station in space would ensure calls for help reach the relevant authorities in time, allow people to confirm loved ones’ safety without clogging regular mobile networks and relay calls to and from places that have lost connections.

The stationary orbital satellite with an antenna more than twice the size of any existing satellite antenna, would be used to secure mobile phone connections when ground base relay stations have been knocked out in an earthquake or other natural disasters.

Cell phones that use communications satellites are already in use, but the large size of the equipment for sending and receiving signals restricts it to users with special handsets.

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I saw this news at a local paper that ISPs have lashed out strongly against PCL. The ISPs lodged complaint against PTCL for anti-competitive practices by offering lower rates to consumers than the rates it offers to ISP. I also saw this statement by the PM that 75% of house-holds in the country are to be covered with high speed Internet by 2015.

I am not sure what to make of these contradictory statements from the Telecommunication day on May 17.

The last time I checked PTA and PTCL were still in court about the bandwidth tariffs. If one was to look at the low bandwidth penetration rate and all the issues such as the ISP complaint described below, we are still in a poor shape. So HOW in the world are we going to go from say 2% to 75% in 7 years?

As you can note from the statements by Prime Minister, it does not specify an action plan or a policy change - just empty political statements. Does it give us any confidence about bandwidth proliferation in Pakistan?

Shaukat Aziz has said that we are moving forward with great speed to bridge the digital divide in the country by improving the access of information and communication technology to low-income groups and a target of 1.6 million broadband connections has been set for the next three years and infrastructure would be developed to cover 75% of house-holds in the country with high speed Internet by 2015.

“We are moving forward with great speed to bridge the digital divide in the country by improving the access of information and communication technology to low-income groups”, he expressed these views while delivering a speech on the world telecommunications and information society day being observed on May 17.

And then there’s the view from Pakistan’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as reported in The News.

As the world marks Telecom Day on Thursday, small telecom operators in Pakistan see their business threatened, blaming the giant Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) for anti-competitive practices, which has launched DSL service at much lower rates without the regulator’s approval.

The country’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have warned that if the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) fails to stop the PTCL from offering such service, it would put the future of most of the operators at risk.

It was also reported that the ISPs Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) has formally complained to PTA asking to intervene and to play its role. According to ISPAK there should be a hearing on this. The ISPs offerDSL services of 256 kbps for home users at Rs1,00o-s1,200 per month out of which around 25 per cent is paid to PTCL for local loop sharing charges.

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Pakistani business community, bloggers and consumers have been asking for a sensible VOIP policy for a long time. Finally we see a glimmer of hope - PTA has published a consultancy paper on VOIP which invites comments by all. The 58-page - written by a consultant, Naseem A. Vohra - is a good summary of VOIP technology and VOIP situation in Pakistan. You can download the paper in pdf format from PTA site or from telecompk blog.

The paper addresses legal issues, policy issues and issues related to licensing and regulation of the service. Even though comments are inivited on this paper I doubt that anyone at PTA is eagerly waiting for the comments.  But even if the fate of our input is unclear this is no reason to not participate in the process. This may be the best time to provide your input and feedback to VOIP policy. I suggest that all bloggers aggregate their reader comments on this topic and send to PTA - perhaps on paper, just in case PTA has difficulty using the complex technologies of e-mail or Internet.

Here are a few excerpts from the paper. The idea is to give you the flavor of what points are raised and options presented. One has to go through the paper to make sense of some of the points below.

There are four options to deal with the situation.
1. Liberalized option – all forms of IP Telephony service are legal with minimal regulation.
2. Incremental option – some forms of IP Telephony service are legal with significant conditions placed upon IP Telephony entrants.
3. Consultation (largely “wait and see”) – a public consultation is underway to seek opinions before definitive rules on IP Telephony are issued;
4. Prohibition – IP Telephony is illegal except for use in the core network i.e. long distance and international networks which almost all LDI operators have deployed but it does not touch the customer.

Comments are invited on
i) Conclusion that option3 and option 4 are not viable anymore
ii) Conclusion that VoB will catalyze the growth of Broadband.

Comments are invited on
i) Conclusion that telecom sector in Pakistan has already started migration from circuit switching to packet switching
ii) Conclusion that the boundary between VOIP and gray traffic is not clearly defined
iii) Conclusion that regulation of IP Telephony will not push the prices further down

Comments are invited on
i) Conclusion that Incremental Approach is the right way to go.
ii) Proposal that IP Telephony offerings are placed under three categories
iii) Proposal that category 2 offerings are split into two types i.e. “IP IN” and “IP OUT”.
iv) Proposed recommendations for IP Telephony authorization.
v) Proposed amendment in Broadband/Internet Licenses

I admit upfront that this is only loosely related to telecommunication or Pakistan - but I decided its worth sharing with readers as many of us may not have thought about technology (r)evolution in this way. Even if you are a know-it-all tech guru, its an interesting clip. By the way the creator of this video was highlighted as 2007 Rave Award winner by Wired magazine, which wrote:

How do you sum up the power and potential of Web 2.0 in a 271-second video? By moving really, really fast. When Michael Wesch, who teaches cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, made “Web 2.0… The Machine Is Us/ing Us,” he’d been working for months on an academic paper that would explain new Web tools. As he struggled to define concepts like hypertext, tagging, mashups, and wikis, he had an epiphany: He was working in the wrong medium. He needed to use the tools of Web 2.0 to explain Web 2.0. Anthropology — humans studying the experience of being human — is a recursive discipline, and Wesch’s is a recursive video, cutting quickly between screenshots that show him bookmarking Web sites with del.icio.us, creating a blog with Blogger, and posting pictures on Flickr.

Enoy the clip.

Back in 2000 “Any 2 Any” was a catch phrase coined by e-business consulting firms to market technologies and solutions for innovative device to device communications. It was supposed to be a big driver for the “new economy” - if you remember that phrase. Just one problem: the Internet bubble bust and the any 2 any stuff didn’t happen. As usual it was too early and the hype did not live to the expectation. However I was reminded of the recent technology improvements by an article in Economist (When everything connects - The coming wireless revolution) which provides a good overview of machine to machine communication.

The article talks about the new wireless technologies - wireless sensor networks, RFID (tags). Lets see if the Fridge is ready to talk with the cattle?

Here are a few key points from the article:

In coming years wireless will vanish entirely from view, as communications chips are embedded in a host of everyday objects. Such chips, and the networks that link them together, could yet prove to be the most potent wireless of them all. Example: Tags will certify the origins and distribution of food and the authenticity of medicines. But we are stil far from the

The wireless-communications revolution is about making digital information about anything available anywhere at almost no cost. No longer tied down by wires and cables, more information about more things will get to the place where it is most valuable.

For the moment, the mobile phone is stealing the show. It is evolving from a simple phone into a wallet, keychain, health monitor and navigation device. But as mobile-phone technology matures, even more innovation is taking place in areas of wireless that link things only metres or millimetres apart.

Etched into silicon, the radio is starting to benefit from the dramatic decreases in size and cost and the huge increase in
performance that have recently propelled computing. Satellite-navigation chips today cost as little as a dollar apiece.

The decrease in cost of chips will drive the adoption of these technologies. Developed economies will use it for commercial purposes. Develping countries will have to focus on critical issues first.

Security and privacy will be of primary concern.

Standards, spectrum availability and government regulations will be important for all this to happen.

This post has barely scratched the surface of these topics. A few additional resources are presented. Here’s a link to a related Economist audio interview file in mp3. Also see this DRITTE link about a technical book on Wireless Networking in the Developing World. And here’s a blog about RFID.

Outsourcing of technology or business operations by telecom companies  is an area which has recently been in the headlines.  One of the reason for this trend is the popularity of managed services trends. Telecom outsourcing has a huge potential for Pakistani technology industry as well. Currently there is no large IT company in Pakistan which competes globally for telecom outsourcing projects. Here are some of the recent mega deals in South Asia which have made global headlines:

As noted by Analysys Research, IT vendors such as IBM and HP are building on their IT solutions and equipment businesses to capture outsourcing deals in the enterprise telecom space. They have been working hard to develop strong service offerings and, in some cases, have even set up telecom practices within their service divisions. The illustration below from Analysys shows how telecom companies are positioned in the outsourcing chain. Note that in this post I am focussing only on the outsourcing BY telecom firms and not any work which is outsourced TO telecom firms.

In Pakistan most of the telecom technology solution deals seem to be happening with foreign technology product and solution providers - at least that is the impression one gets from the press releases and the media articles. Si3 is a notable company - it has offered payment solutions to many telecom providers in Pakistan. I do not know if Pakistani companies such as Techlogix, NetSol, TRG etc. serve the telecom vertical but I’m sure there must be other outsourcing (Technical, BPO or otherwise such as HR services)  from Pakistani IT companies. However one thing is clear: the scale of such business seems to be on the small side or the work is limited to certain hot areas such as call centers. Is this another sign that Pakistan lags behind in depth of skills and technical resources needed for larger telecom outsourcing deals?

Of course we cannot compare directly with giants like Tech Mahindra in India (see below) but there is room for improvement. Here’s a relevant article from The Times of India.

The phenomenal growth in telecom, combined with severe competition and cost pressures and rising customer expectations, is driving a slew of huge outsourcing deals in the sector.

The telecom outsourcing story started with the Bharti-IBM deal and then the Idea-IBM one. Now, analysts and industry expect several more similar 10 or seven year deals to conclude soon. Hutchison (Vodafone) Essar is said to be looking for an outsourcing partner. The market speculation is that it could once again be IBM, in a deal worth $1.6 billion. Reliance Infocomm is said to be in talks with companies like Accenture and EDS for a $1.5 billion outsourcing contract. Sources say Aircel is also in talks for a large deal.

About three years ago, Bharti Tele-Ventures had signed a 10-year contract worth $750 million to outsource its entire IT infrastructure to IBM. Idea Cellular followed, a few months ago, with a $800 million deal with IBM for consolidating and managing its IT infrastructure and applications.

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There are many ways to get in touch with mobile phone user in Pakistan. One of the option is to send and receive text message through the Internet. All you - the sender - needs is a web browser with Java. It works well for Pakistanis abroad who often have broadband and who want a quick chat with friends or family in Pakistan. Here’s how.

Let’s start with the example of the case when you want to send a text message to a Telenor user. Below is a screenshot from Telenor web to sms page where you enter the recipient’s phone number and your name and message. It is free for the sender and Telenor charges Rs.2 to the mobile user per message.  

Note that the mobile user will receive the first message e.g. “Atif has sent you a Web 2 SMS chat message. If you wish to receive the messages from Mak, please reply Y. To reject, please reply N”. In case of reply with Y the session will start - otherwise it won’t. Once a session starts you can send and receive messages.

For those mobile users who do not use text messaging often this may be a surprise! This may not work with all handsets and this service can be blocked by the mobile users.

This functionality is available at many websites which connect to the mobile company’s gateway. I prefer going to the mobile provider site as much as possible so that I may avoid the clutter and ads at the other sites. Here are the links for sending such messages for other providers.

A few years ago Mobile Commerce was touted as the killer application of mobile technology. With the overall lukewarm interest in 3G, mobile commerce has also been slow to take off. In the next few posts I’ll share stories from around the world about mobile commerce applications. Industry analysts often point to Japan and Korea for signs of early mobile technology adoption so let’s start from a case study from Japan. The recent effort to introduce the so-called ”mobile wallets” in Japan has been interesting. Here I’ll share a news report from CARD TECHNOLOGY which ran a story with a sub-title “Japan’s Mobile Wallets Fail To Inspire - Yet”.

As the report argues, Japan’s mobile telcos and payment card players haven’t yet convinced subscribers to think of their handsets as mobile wallets. As you read the story note how the usability of the whole process has created hurdles for the users and technology adoption. Also note how preloading applications on the phone helped in increased usage.

Here are excerpts from the news report:

Carried by 19 million commuters in what is reputed as the world’s busiest mass transit system, East Japan Railway’s Suica contactless card is used more than 200 million times per month. So it seemed like a natural for Suica to move to the contactless mobile wallet phones telco NTT DoCoMo has been selling for more than two years, later joined by Japan’s other mobile network operators. With Mobile Suica, commuters could download train tickets and recharge their Suica e-cash purse over the air to their phones, which they could tap to pass through transit gates or make purchases at more than 10,000 merchant locations in Tokyo.

But 13 months after its much-anticipated launch in January 2006, only 350,000 customers had signed up for the mobile service. That’s only about a third of what the commuter rail operator had expected. It declines to release transaction numbers.

The registration process has been difficult for many prospective users, Akio Shiibashi, director of the Suica Systems Department at JR East, tells Card Technology. “Membership is a little complicated, so we need to make it simpler,” he says. “The digital ticketing function has not materialized.”

Nor was 2006 a breakthrough year for any of Japan’s other contactless payment schemes that have launched service on wallet phones, known as “Osaifu-Keitai” in Japan. While a reported 2.6 million subscribers had signed up to tap their wallet phones to make credit payments in convenience stores, supermarkets, restaurants and vending machines as of January, it’s obvious the number of transactions are less than what backers had hoped for. The 2.6 million doesn’t include users of e-cash on the wallet phones.

Interestingly even in Japan consumer awareness remains an issue and there aren’t enough places for consumers to tap.

“The most important thing is the number of acceptance points,” says consultant Masayuki Yamamoto, a former executive with Visa International in Japan. “The number of merchants is not very great. (And) because the startup is slow, people are not aware they can use mobile payment.”

Wallet-phone backers say it’s only a matter of time before their investment pays off. But the teething pains in Japan-the most advanced mobile payment and ticketing market in the world-have implications for mobile operators, banks, transit operators and others in Europe and North America, which are planning to launch services in coming years using phones supporting similar contactless technology, NFC.

Among the issues facing the mobile-commerce players in Japan of interest to the outside world is how to solve difficulties in personalizing phones over the air with applications. After all, this is a major advantage contactless phones hold over cards. Transit operators could reduce the number of their ticketing agents by allowing customers to download monthly passes or e-cash for single rides. Banks could avoid card-issuing costs. And the handset could serve as the multiapplication platform cards never managed to become.

Preloaded Applications

This study shows that makes a big difference if the application comes preloaded on the handset and is ready for the end-user. Excerpts from the above story:

For most of the registered users of contactless mobile payment in Japan, applications are preloaded on the handsets. Every new wallet phone the telco sells comes with iD pre-installed, ready to be registered by the subscriber-a much easier process than downloading the application itself. Japan’s largest credit card company, JCB, says its registered users jumped by three times after DoCoMo chief rival, telco KDDI, began preloading JCB’s QUICPay service onto its phones in February.

“It’s kind of difficult for average users to download the Java application,” says Shusaku Maruko, general manager in the planning department for FeliCa Networks, the DoCoMo-Sony joint venture handling the secure downloads.

Japan’s mobile-payment players face other challenges that those in the NFC world are unlikely to see. Foremost among them is the fact there is no standard application for contactless payment in Japan, in part because contactless phones and cards use a nonstandard technology called FeliCa, from Sony. It means when consumers find a contactless point-of-sale terminal, it may not accept the brand of contactless credit or e-cash they are carrying.

There are 5 contactless schemes rolling out in Japan. Efforts to make the point-of-sale terminals and readers interoperable rely not on international standards bodies, but bilateral agreements between the schemes. And progress has been slow. There are perhaps 100,000 terminals and readers deployed by the various contactless schemes at merchant locations in Japan, not counting multiple brands accepted at the same shop or restaurant. But that is still a small number in Japan’s vast retail market, says Yamamoto.

A Turning Point?

Still, wallet-phone backers are confident. DoCoMo’s Hiromiki Moriyama, a director in the telco’s multimedia services department, tells Card Technology 100 Yen shops (Japan’s counterpart to the U.S. dollar store) are among the latest retailers to accept iD. About 90 stores owned by the Aeon Group, one of Japan’s largest retailers, have already installed iD terminals. And Aeon also is among the first merchants to deploy readers supporting more than one brand of contactless payment.

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The 26th meeting of the Asia Pacific GSM Association (GSMAP) was held in Pakistan, The Nation reported. Pakistan had won the GSMA Government Award for 2006. Pakistan Warid Telecom sponsored and hosted the event for this international body.  CEO Warid Telecom Hamid Farooq said that the holding of conference in Pakistan was yet another landmark achievement for the telecom sector in Pakistan.

Chairman GSMAP, Mehboob Chowdhry said that GSM operators were present in 217 territories and countries. He said that the GSM Association was taking a close look at the numerous telecom indicators of these countries to process their analyses on the status of a country’s telecom sector, regulatory framework and quality in the GSM framework.

CEO Warid said that the primary goals of the GSMA was to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association’s members serve more than 2 billion customers - over 82% of the world’s mobile phone users.

Speaking in the conference  the PTA chairman admitted the quality surveys conducted by the PTA could not serve the purpose and MNP was there to serve the purpose.

He said that the telecom industry in Pakistan had attracted $9 billion foreign investment in the last three years, and another $ 4 billion are expected during the next 3 to 4 years. He said that 1.5 million new subscribers are being added each month.

CEO of Warid said that special sessions have been reserved to converse on Roll out of 3G, Regulations in IP world, Interconnection in IP world and the proposed direction for the operators and GSMA Public Policy update. The Warid CEO said that an exclusive case study ‘Inherent complications in emerging markets’ would also be shared with the participants.

If anyone has access to this study please share or let me know.

Universal Service Fund, commonly known as USF, is a tax on telecommunication service which is used to fund and subsidise telecommunication infrastructure for remote and rural areas. USF is a controversial regulatory tool. It has been around since 1997 in USA. The goals of Universal Service, as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, are:
  1. To promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates
  2. To increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation
  3. To advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including those in low income, rural, insular, and high cost areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban areas

In Pakistan USF was also setup with similar intentions of reducing the digital divide and to advance ICT. Minister for Information Technology, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari recently said that the government is firmly poised to spend millions of dollars from Universal Service Fund (USF) to add up about 1000 new Basic Transmission Stations (BTSs) and cell sites in remote areas which were not commercially attractive for the existing players. Part of the conditions for licence approvals for new companies such as Telenor and Warid included that these providers will invest in rural areas in addition to the more lucrative urban cities.

Awais Leghari said Ministry of IT had already engaged consultants which would lay down within the next couple of months a proper framework for the USF roll-out through a transparent bidding process to be conducted and overseen by the regulators. He said the number of cell sites in Pakistan had crossed the 10,000 mark and in a couple of years 90 per cent of the country’s population would have access to phone coverage. Also see my related post about network expansion in Pakistan.

As reported by The Economist in an article “At your service - Telecoms in the developing world“, the idea of “universal service” is being extended from voice to broadband.

In India, the government created an auction of the rights to create and run telecommunication networks in remote rural areas. Around the world, such networks are often subsidised by a “universal service fund” (USF) paid for by taxes on existing telecoms services. Auctions are held, and the network operators that demand the smallest subsidies win. They must then provide a certain number of public payphones, as well as signing up subscribers.

Economist notes that something rather odd happened in India: in 38 of the 81 regions on offer, many mobile operators bid zero. In other words, they asked for no subsidies at all. In 15 regions, India’s biggest operator, Bharti Airtel, even offered to pay. As a result, barely one-quarter of the 40 billion rupees ($920m) available in subsidies is likely to be allocated. If operators think there is money to be made running mobile networks even in some of the poorest parts of the world, is USF needed anymore?

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Till recently voice and data used to be transported on separate networks. With advances in network technologies this separation is no longer there. Next Generation Networking (NGN) is a term which refers to the technology where a single network is capable of transporting all information and services (voice, data, video) by encapsulating these into packets. NGNs are commonly built around the Internet Protocol, and therefore the term “all-IP” is also sometimes used to describe the transformation towards NGN (adapted from Wikipedia NGN page). The IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS, is a related concept to NGN. Technologies such as WiFi and WiMAX  belong to the NGN area.

The NGN illustration below is from Cisco Systems (get full paper in pdf or html).

ITU Definition of NGN - A NGN is a packet-based network able to provide telecommunication services and able to make use of multiple broadband, QoS-enabled transport technologies and in which service-related functions are independent from underlying transport-related technologies. It enables unfettered access for users to networks and to competing service providers and/or services of their choice. It supports generalized mobility which will allow consistent and ubiquitous provision of services to users. 

The interesting thing is that countries like Pakistan were able to adopt (or should I say import?) NGN without too much difficulty as they did not have a hefty investment in old technology infrastructure. The US companies, for example took considerable time to make the change. Only in 2001 the move beyond 2G was made which allowed the US companies to go from circuit switching to packet switching.

As ITU points out, the concept behind NGN is a shift away from an era of separate networks (such as narrowband fixed, broadband fixed, cellular mobile, cable TV), bearing different services (voice, video, text, data) to multiple devices, e.g. fixed handset, mobile handset, PC. NGN moves towards a unitary IP-based network in which the common features of the user environment (for example user preferences, contacts, databases, files and so on) are accessible as the user moves around, say between home, car and office, or between desk and meeting room. From a regulation point of view Next generation networks (NGNs) are likely to require next-generation regulation as the problems of scarcity are replaced by dilemmas of abundance and complexity.

Per ITU the NGN functional architecture should incorporate the following principles.

Alcatel, Nortel, Huawei, Siemens and Cisco are a few of the major companies who dominate NGN. Many of them are suppliers for service providers in Pakistan. As a case study, lets take a look at Wateen’s network which is poised for triple play in Pakistan.  Wateen’s website provides the following information about their NGN and other networks.

Wateen’s Next Generation Network (NGN) Core

• IMS enabled converged IP/MPLS core multi-access network based on layered architecture designed to provide quad-play services (voice, data, multimedia and limited mobility) and much more
• Robust class 4 and class 5 soft switches with a host of applications and value-added services to provide depth and breadth to our product offering

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Affordable connectivity in remote and rural areas in developing world remains one of the top telecommunication challenges. In recent years a lot of  research has focused on solving this problem and options include Mobile wireless networks,  Fixed wireless technology such as Wimax, Wireless local loop and Satellite networks. Wireless Mesh Networks have also been proposed as a viable solution. 

There are a few organizations in Pakistan working on this - one leading research group is DRITTE which is an initiative for leveraging Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for developing countries. For those interested in research work do take a look at this upcoming workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions. There is a blog at DRITTE site as well … the latest post there talks about Meraki, which is aiming to provide consumer wireless mesh Internet network designed to “unwire the world,” and bring Internet access to the next billion.

Talking about billions, I came across another interesting website NextBillion.net which also includes articles and resources about rural connectivity. Read this post titled “Wireless Mesh as a Transforming Tool” by Al Hammond. See the Wikipedia wireless mesh networking page for an overview. Al’s post talks about a pilot program in Vietnam and there is a link to a pdf paper titled “A New Model For Rural Connectivity“. Very informative, also includes an appendix about Wi-Fi phones.  Al has travelled to Pakistan as well and also written about mobile commerce. Here is an excerpt from the paper:

“The components of a community-based telecommunications network include:
1) an Internet Protocol (IP) network in lieu of a circuit switched network,
2) voice services that are provided through VoIP in lieu of custom hardware-based switching,
3) wireless distribution, be it Wi-Fi or WiMAX or, for the more remote locations, VSAT links for connecting the rural system to the Internet.

In this model, the local network is easily deployed, provides multiple telephony access points for both inter-community and long distance calling in addition to supporting data. There are several options for providing these services to the local community. One obvious approach is to upgrade an existing telecenter to become a true “last mile” solution provider by focusing on voice services, and delivering expanded access into the community through selected businesses or even homes that serve as “phone shops” for the immediate neighbors. Another approach is to turn an existing satellite ground station into a local community telco by adding Wi-Fi/WiMAX distribution capabilities and WiFi phones.”

 Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an important role of lifeline in disaster management life cycle. The recent disasters in Asia and USA have highlighted the need for interoperable standards and technologies, and better planning and coordination to leverage telecommunication for disaster management. This post will describe various efforts around the world to improve the use of telecommunication technologies for disaster mitigation.  

As a case in example, after the earthquake in Pakistan Inmarsat-sponsored Télécoms Sans Frontières(TSF) responded immediately to the disaster. TSF created emergency mobile satellite telecoms centres - using Inmarsat equipment - for rescue teams, local authorities and other emergency relief efforts. After the quake cellular mobile operators in Pakistan were also allowed to offer their services in Kashmir. Even so, according to ITU, rescue and relief operations in Pakistan were drastically hampered because telecommunication infrastructure was severely damaged and distribution networks almost perished, .

Let us take a quick look at how telecommunication helps in disaster management lifecycle, who are the key stakeholders, what are the challenges and what are the new developments.

The disaster management lifecycle has 4 phases: Preparedness, Mitigation, Relief and Recovery.

The Stakeholders include:
Policy Makers- ITU, World Bank, United Nations, WSIS
Regulators- ITU, Country specific Agencies eg PTA, FCC
Operators - Service providers, Equipment Makers
Academia - Universities, Researchers
Civil Society- Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) e.g. IFRC

The challenge is to bring the stakeholders together so that synergies are realized and innovative solutions can be offered. For instance see the image below from a Japanese mobile phone which provides maps and instructions in case of a disaster.  I’ll summarize some of the important developments over the last few years.

Hyogo Framework for disaster reduction presents the results of global leaders to build the resilience against disasters. It was adopted at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Hyogo, Japna in Jan 2005. It addresses issues of digital divide and how to leverage ICT for disaster mitigation and presents detailed action and followoup plans.

Tampere Conventionis a resolution specific to emergency telecommunication. ITU is responsible for driving its content, ratification and adoption.  Tampere Convetion describes the procedures for request and provision of telecommunication assistance, legal and financial matters and the logistics. You can get full details about it here.  Pakistan is not one of the 35 countries who have ratified Tampere convention.

The challenges
To give you an idea of the challenges faced, I’ll share excerpts from a talk by Dr Ferrari of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation :

The availability and use of interoperable and adequate telecommunication resources are indispensable tools for humanitarian relief and disaster mitigation. Public and private humanitarian relief agencies are often stunned to learn that hefty import duties must be paid for their telecommunications equipment, that they have serious problems to import and operate telecommunication equipment and that operators must obtain operating licenses before communicating within the area of disaster relief operations and with the outside word. The Tampere Convention is a targeted effort to facilitate the provision of timely and effective telecommunication resources and of rapid, efficient information flows for disaster prevention and response.

In another interesting development, a petition has been put forth in the USA to deal with emergency communication issues as faced by victims of Katrina hurricane. Read the full news article here , excerpts are below. The petition asks that carriers should be required to set up alternative communications service for customers affected by disaster-related outages. Carriers would be given a choice:

• They could activate a voice mail servicethat could be accessed by incoming callers dialing the customer’s phone number. This would enable customers who don’t have any outgoing phone service to receive incoming calls or record an outgoing voicemail message providing information about their status and location.
• Or, the carriers could provide expedited local number portabilityto customers whose service has been knocked out. This would enable customers to quickly port their phone numbers to alternative providers (including IP-based providers and providers outside the affected area) and thereby reestablish communications links with their families and friends.

The Pakistan earthquake of 2005 and the Tsunami of 2004 presents many learning opportunities. This post touched upon just one technical topic . However one post cannot do justice to this complex topic. I hope that you got a glimpse of how telecommunication can save lives.

Resources and Further Reading:

• ITU Site Pages on Emergency Telecom
• Emergency Telecommunication Working Group
• Reliefweb - Telecom
• LIRNE Asia, an organization for ICT, reports on a recent conference about ICT and disasters.
• Emergency Telecom Workshop in Bangladesh, March 2006.
• Papers - ICT UNSIDR Conference Report from Kobe/Hyogo Conference, Japan 2005.

This is a followup to my previous posts about bandwidth rate cuts. In the latest development Lahore High Court has granted PTCL stay against the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s decision to reduce bandwidth prices after the Etisalat-run company challenged the determination for the second time.

The NEWS article summarizes the issues nicely so I will present some excerpts directly below. This is a disappointment for those who wanted the prices to come down to an affordable level. I think PTCL has panicked due to its sliding market share and profits and has decided to use whatever means necessary to keep its tariffs high. No wonder Pakistan scored low on the digital opportunity index. It is the combination of lack of infrastrucure, monopoly at work and weak policies.

Read full news item here and also see the statement by PTA chairman about PTCL’s poor performance.

Compared to its previous decision, the PTA’s revised determination was quite mild, introducing a mere 6% reduction in the price of 2 Mbits and 20% reduction in higher data rates, yet PTCL’s new management from Etisalat decided to challenge this decision.

The Internet, IT and call center spheres of the telecommunication industry, who expected a letter-and-spirit implementation of the verdict, are voicing disappointment over the PTCL move to oppose the determination.

Call centers and business processing outsourcing (BPO) industry find bandwidth cost reduction imperative for making Pakistan an attractive global destination for such business.

This is turning out to be a real test for PTA’s authority. Lets hope the end decision works in favor of the public.

Are the developing countries and organizations such as ITU, WSIS making real progress against digital divide? A new measure called Digital Opportunity Index may provide an objective way to  answer this question.  

Following the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) summits (Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005) which brought together the stakeholders, ITU and partners including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development introduced Digital Opportunity Index (DOI), a tool for measuring the digital divide and monitoring progress in building the information society.

DOI is a composite index created from 11 internationally agreed ICT indicators, including the percentage of a population covered by cellular telephony, the proportion of households with internet access and the ratio of fixed broadband subscribers to total internet subscribers. Based on this approach Pakistan scored 0.73 out of a maximum of 1.o and is ranked 42nd out of 54 countries in Asia Pacific region in 2005. South Korea tops the list worldwide. Full results here (scroll to end).  A separate post will discuss the reasons for Pakistan’s low ranking.

As shown in the graphic above the index ranges from 0 to 1 where 1 is complete digital opportunity.

These indicators are divided into 3 categories: opportunity, which measures the basic access and affordability needed to participate in the information society; infrastructurewhich looks at networks and devices; and utilisation which focuses on who is using what.

The DOI was developed by a multi-stakeholder partnership (the Digital Opportunity Platform) comprising ITU, UNCTAD and the KADO (Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion) and which is open to other partners.

A recent Financial Times article by Alan Cane with the headline “Digital Divide: Still there for the poor” points out that despite the telecommunication growth rates observed in some countries, the poorest of the world still face formidable challenges of digital divide. Excerpts from the FT article: 

Less than 10 per cent of the world’s population had basic internet access in 2003, Paul Mountford, president of Cisco Systems’ emerging markets group, told the Silicon Valley Challenge Summit last month, vividly illustrating the size of the “digital divide” which separates the information rich from the information poor.

On Digital Opportunity Index: Mr Kelly, head of the ITU’s policy and strategy unit, says: “The first full release (of DOI) was published in July 2006 covering 180 economies. It is the first genuinely neutral index for the ICT sector. This first edition will provide a baseline for analysis between now and 2015 when the WSIS outcomes are due for review.”

This year’s WSIS report, the first of its kind, uses the DOI to show that India and China have made the most gains in closing the digital divide between 2001 and 2005, followed by Russia, Hungary, Peru and Indonesia.

The article ends with a dose of reality check.

“But the poorest countries have yet to taste the wonders of the internet and would, no doubt, prefer the taste of plentiful food, clean water and adequate sanitation.”

This is good news. INTEL Corporation has teamed up with Wateen Telecom and IT ministry of Pakistan to establish six tele-centres to provide low-cost connectivity for voice and data, ICT training and basic tele-medicine. This is part of INTEL’s “World Ahead Program”.

Intel would initially establish six tele-centres at Attock, Multan, DG Khan, Sukkur and Gwadar. Intel Corporation vice president, John Davies said that the telecentres would be a key step in bridging the digital divide and making technology more easily accessible to citizens in Pakistan.

ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology.  ICT is seen as an enabler for the developing economies. It is part of the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The question that arises is if ICT is just a good to have or is it really cost-effective? The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has performed studies on the impact of ICT and came out with promising conclusions. Included below is an excerpt from their 2006 ICT development report.

I am glad that INTEL has taken this initiative and from the news brief it seems to be a good plan.  Of course, technology companies understand the need and advantages of spreading interest in technology to less privileged areas of the world. For Wateen it is a good opportunity to showcase their cutting-edge Wimax technology implementation. And for the citizens of the above-mentioned cities it is a great opportunity. To use a cliche, it is a win-win situation.

Here are some statements about this - taken from GovTech website:

The Intel World Ahead program does more than just provide affordable PCs,”VP Davies said, calling it “a holistic program to help build everything from the right systems tailored to local needs, and critical connectivity, to sustainable local capabilities through quality education that makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wateen Telecom said, “We are proud to work with Intel and the Federal Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications to bring the first ever WiMAX broadband deployment to Pakistan.We also expect to make available cutting-edge wireless broadband connectivity in selected urban and rural areas,” he added.