UMTS broadband mobile technology is a reality – Confounding many expectations

Contrary to the negative public perception, third-generation (3G) broadband mobile telecommunication, aka UMTS, has become reality. UMTS networks have been rolled out above all in Central Europe. The take-up of UMTS differs sharply from one country to the next, though. The large differences are due not only to market-related factors and differing marketing strategies, but also to political intervention that distorts the market. At present, content providers, handset makers and telcos are working feverishly to produce UMTS-based supplementary offerings. For the sluggish demand for mobile broadband services still harbours a big risk for the entire telecommunications sector.information an communications technology; telecommunications; 3G; broadband

Tragedy of the Regulatory Commons: LightSquared and the Missing Spectrum Rights

The endemic underuse of radio spectrum constitutes a tragedy of the regulatory commons. Like other common interest tragedies, the outcome results from a legal or market structure that prevents economic actors from executing socially efficient bargains. In wireless markets, innovative applications often provoke claims by incumbent radio users that the new traffic will interfere with existing services. Sometimes these concerns are mitigated via market transactions, a la “Coasian bargaining.” Other times, however, solutions cannot be found even when social gains dominate the cost of spillovers. In the recent “LightSquared debacle,” such spectrum allocation failure played out. GPS interests that access frequencies adjacent to the band hosting LightSquared’s new nationwide mobile network complained that the wireless entrant would harm the operation of locational devices. Based on these complaints, regulators then killed LightSquared’s planned 4G network. Conservative estimates placed the prospective 4G consumer gains at least an order of magnitude above GPS losses. “Win win” bargains were theoretically available, fixing GPS vulnerabilities while welcoming the highly valuable wireless innovation. Yet transaction costs—largely caused by policy choices to issue limited and highly fragmented spectrum usage rights (here in the GPS band)—proved prohibitive. This episode provides a template for understanding market and non-market failure in radio spectrum allocation

Mobile banking in Asia

Technology has transformed the banking industry with the introduction of mobile banking services that offer unprecedented convenience and accessibility to customers. This Asia Focus report describes the various approaches to mobile banking in Asia, and examines how particular countries have addressed regulatory issues.Payment systems ; Electronic funds transfers

Africa Economic Brief - Mobile Banking in Africa: Taking the Bank to the People

KEY ISSUES • Mobile telephony penetration in Africa has increased exponentially from less than 2 million subscribers in 1998 to over 400 million in 2009. • Mobile banking offers an opportunity to serve the “unbankedâ€: only 20 percent of African families have a bank account. • Mobile banking is staging a true “revolution†in access to finance. A mobile phone can serve as: a virtual bank card; a point of sale terminal; an ATM; an internet banking terminal. • Mobile banking offers more opportunities for partnerships between banks, non-bank financial institutions; mobile telephony enables MFIs and IFIs to increase access to finance, especially in rural areas for households and SMEs

Responsibility modelling for civil emergency planning

This paper presents a new approach to analysing and understanding civil emergency planning based on the notion of responsibility modelling combined with HAZOPS-style analysis of information requirements. Our goal is to represent complex contingency plans so that they can be more readily understood, so that inconsistencies can be highlighted and vulnerabilities discovered. In this paper, we outline the framework for contingency planning in the United Kingdom and introduce the notion of responsibility models as a means of representing the key features of contingency plans. Using a case study of a flooding emergency, we illustrate our approach to responsibility modelling and suggest how it adds value to current textual contingency plans

Mobile Water Payment Innovations in Urban Africa

This study assess mobile payment options for water service bills in four urban African contexts. Systems are evaluated to identify differences in adoption levels and motivations and barriers to uptake; how costs are distributed among water service providers, mobile network operators, and customers; and mobile payment applications and designs. Data was collected through interviews with water service providers, mobile network operators and service regulators, as well as a household survey in one of the study regions and the aid of World Bank and national water regulator data. Mobile water payment adoption rates were low, but there was also evidence that key barriers such as limited awareness, lack of physical proof of payment, and high transaction tariffs, could be overcome. Increased mobile water payment is found to result in considerable savings in time and money for consumers, revenue for mobile network operators, and perhaps most importantly, strengthened finances for water service providers to improve their ability to provide sustainable service

The Emergence of Camera Phones - Exploratory Study on Ethical and Legal Issues

One of Louis Daguerre’s1 earliest pictures of a Paris street scene was taken in 1839. Due to long exposure time required to capture the image, moving objects did not register, so the street appears empty. However, during the exposure, a man stopped on the street corner to have his shoes shined. As a result, both he and the person shining the shoes appear in the picture. It can be argued that these men are the first people to ever have been photographed. If this is one of the earliest photos, then they are certainly the first to be unknowingly photographed. Late in 2002, in the run up to Christmas, outlets acting as agents for the three mobile phone licence holders in Ireland started selling a new generation of mobile phone handsets. These handsets incorporated a digital picture messaging facility, which enables the phone user to take a digital photograph, which can be sent to others with similar handsets, and in some cases, via the Internet and email. This is an exploratory study of the usage issues surrounding camera phones. The study highlights a number of issues concerning privacy. This study identifies camera phone stakeholders and includes analyses of their attitudes regarding camera phone use. The study uncovers stakeholders’ reluctance to accept and address possible negative effects. It also highlights the lack of both formal and informal methods of regulation. The legal examination highlights the possibility of existing (Irish) legislation curtailing the use of camera phones for specific purposes. The ethical literature, while contradictory in places, mirrors in some cases, general principles of privacy outlined in Irish case la

Impact On Small Farmers and Fishermen Through Use Of Mobiles in India

Telecommunication and more specially mobile phones have the potential to provide solution to the existing information asymmetry in various lagging sectors like Agriculture. India’s agricultural sector suffers from low growth rates and low productivity. Issues in access to information is a week point at every stage of the agrisupply chain. For small farmers base economy like India, access to information can possible enable better incomes and productivity to the farmers. This paper through focus group discussions and in-depth interview with farmers in villages of India, has tried to find answers to the use and impact of mobile and mobile enabled services on agricultural productivity. The answers to these questions are of relevance to develop better policy environment conducive for the small and medium farmers and has implications for mobile operators, for information service providers, and for policy-makers. The results show that although, mobiles can act as catalyst to improving productivity and rural incomes, the quality of the information, the timeliness of the information and trustworthiness of the information are the three important aspects that has to be delivered to the farmers, to meet there needs and expectations. There exist critical binding constraints that restricts the ability of the farming community to realise gains at full potential and this is more for the small than to large farmers.Mobile and Agriculture, India, Productivity, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Marketing, Production Economics, Q13, Q16, Q18,