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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2010
Telecom
news
According to the report, despite the
gathering surge in Internet usage, most
people in the top emerging economies
still lack ready access to broadband.
Personal computer penetration ranges
from about 32% in Brazil and Russia
downward to about 5% in India and
Indonesia, with many users relying
on mobile devices and Internet cafes.
An oddity of the broadband profile is
that in China, with its penetration rate
of 28%, broadband is cheaper than
dial-up.
In reference to these findings,
Wall
Street Journal
“Digits” blogger
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries pointed
out the error of assuming that
Internet usage is essentially similar
across developing markets. Noting
some “intriguing quirks,” she wrote:
“Indians, for example, are really into
job-hunting sites. Social networking
is most popular in Indonesia and
Brazil. India, Brazil, and Indonesia
favor multinational sites, while people
in Russia and China go local – mainly
because of the low percentage of the
population that speaks English.” (“How
Internet Growth Is Playing Out in Top
Emerging Markets,” 1
st
September)
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
The government of India has lifted
✆
✆
a ban that since May 2009 had
prevented the state-run telecom
BSNL from procuring equip-
ment from Chinese vendors.
Under new guidelines issued 19
th
August, BSNL may now purchase
equipment, software and services
from foreign vendors without
exception, while consulting with
the Ministry of Home Affairs on
security concerns.
BSNL employee unions had joined
✆
✆
the issue of discrimination with the
Department of Telecom, alleging
that barring the company from
dealings with Chinese vendors
placed it at a disadvantage to
private players allowed the imports
from China. In New Delhi’s last
tender for some five million GSM
lines, the only bids invited were
from three European and American
vendors, with Chinese vendors
excluded.
The Azerbaijan Business Center
✆
✆
reported on 6
th
September that
production had begun on the
first Azerbaijani national tele-
communications satellite, known
as Azerspace. The work is being
done by the US company Orbital
Sciences Corp (Dulles, Virginia).
Ali Abbasov, the Azerbaijani
minister of information techno-
logies, said that a contract has
been signed with the Malaysian
satellite operator MEASAT for
lease of an orbital position for
Azerbaijan’s satellite. With its 24
transponders “C” (frequency band
4–6 GHz) and 12 transponders
“Ku” (frequency band 11–13 GHz),
Azerspace will service Europe,
Central Asia and Africa over a
projected service life of 20 years.
A Scottish think tank has called
✆
✆
on the government of the United
Kingdom to invest $310 million
in broadband infrastructure in
Scotland. As reported by BBC
News (16
th
August), Reform
Scotland asserted that fibre optic
technology is just as important
today as railways and canals were
to the Industrial Revolution, and