L I R N E . N E T

The Economics of Infrastructure section at Delft University of Technology has a e is a vacancy for an Assistant Professor in Economics of Electronic Communications. The Electronic Communications domain covers the widening field of electronically-mediated communication, which is evolving from formerly separate fields of voice and data in fixed and mobile communications, towards the convergent use of TCP/IP protocols and web-based communications in Next-Generation Networks (NGNs), as planned and developed in several countries. Under the auspices of the Professor of Economics of Infrastructures, the Assistant Professor will assume a leading role in the further development and implementation of education and in research in Economics of Electronic Communications.

Download call for applications and job description.
Closing date for applications: 15 April 2008.

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Just published in Information Technologies and International Development (ITID), this article by Steve Esselaar, Christoph Stork, Ali Ndiwalana, Mariama Deen-Swarray, reports on a Research ICT Africa survey. It argues that the negative return on investment reported in the literature can be attributed to the failure to distinguish between the formal and informal sectors. This article demonstrates that informal SMEs have a higher profitability than formal ones. It further shows that ICTs are productive input factors and that their use increases labor productivity for informal as well as formal SMEs. There is still demand for fixed-line phones among SMEs but, as the authors observe, mobile phones have become the default communications tool because fixed lines are either too expensive or not available. The primary policy recommendation arising out of this is that applications for SMEs need to be developed using mobile phones.

Download the journal article in .pdf from the ITID website.

Download the full study, Towards An African e-Index: SME e-Access and Usage in 14 African Countries, from the RIA! website (.pdf, 2.25 MB).

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The first billion internet users were connected because of particular privileges of access to infrastructure, the ability to afford use, education and geography, amongst others. The next billions to be connected to information society networks won’t have the same economic and social privileges and will have different reasons for not already being connected. These reasons need to be identified, targeted and built into information society strategies, business plans and partnerships. In this spirit, the GAID Inaugural Meeting (4-5 February 2008) was an opportunity to discuss and prepare proposals for the II Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, taking place directly after the seminar, and hosted by the El Salvadorian government.

The seminar and network initiative is the joint effort of the UN’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Development Research Centre-Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (IDRC-ICA), and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribean (ECLAC).

Go to the IDRC resource page for links to presentations, podcasts, bios and background documents for this event.

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[12 February] Rohan Samarajiva of LIRNEasia will chair the Convergence in Regulation panel discussion at GSMA Third Annual Government Mobile Forum. This event is held as part of the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, 11-14 February 2008.

Click here to go to the Mobile World Congress conference website.

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The Regional Dialogue on the Information Society for Latin America and the Caribbean (DIRSI) has launched a new research paper series, Investigaciones Breves (currently available in Spanish, with English translations to be made available later this year as Research Briefs). The first paper in this series is Patrones de acceso y análisis de gasto en telefonía móvil celular en Colombia 2001 - 2006 (Access patterns and expenditure analysis in mobile telephony in Colombia 2001 - 2006), by Luis Fernando Gamboa, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia.

Click here to download the paper in .pdf from the DIRSI website.

Click here to go to the DIRSI website.
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