Recently in International Category

It's a story straight out of a crime movie: You are a not-so-scrupulous businessman trying to get, let us say, an out-of-turn permit from a government department. You are confronted with this brutally honest officer who can neither be forced nor be lured with a bribe. If you are not vicious, you may accept your situation. But if you are, and tech savvy too, there's help at hand. Get hold of a professional hacker, pay him to plant illegal content in the officer's computer, and then tip off his boss.

Chances are that the officer would either be moved or lose his job.

The trouble is, this movie-like scenario has become reality. A recent investigation highlights how malware can plant illegal content, like child porn, on innocent people's computers without their knowledge, And it is not just citizens who could find themselves victims in trouble with law enforcement. Experts say that employees of the government departments may be even more vulnerable to this kind of attack by hackers.

"Government officials, due to the sensitivity of their position, tend to be a pretty desirable target for hackers anyway. So as an expert I would be a little bit more concerned if I were working in the government than may be an average citizen or even a high profile corporate chief," says Jeff Michael Fischbach, a Los Angeles-based certified forensic technologist.

He says, with the sophistication and complexity of hacking crimes, there are now a plethora of techniques and viruses that can plant illegal content into the computers of innocent people without leaving a trail.

Fischbach added that government officers particularly face much greater risks because, in the U.S. at least, most of their emails addresses and other electronic contact details are listed and are thus very easy to find.

The threat isn't as far-fetched as some might suppose. Take what happened to Michael Fiola, an ex-investigator at the Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Advisory in Massachusetts. A few weeks ago, an Associated Press (AP) investigation revealed that in 2007 Fiola was charged and eventually fired by the Massachusetts attorney general's office for storing child porn in his state-issued laptop.

Fiola was innocent in so far as he didn't put the porn there. But it took him 11 months of court battle and a quarter million dollars of legal fees to prove that he not commit this crime.

Moreover, his acquittal came quite by chance. A defense finding stumbled upon a virus in his laptop that was programmed to implement the physically impossible task of visiting 40 child porn sites per minute, reported Associated Press.

Beyond just a curious case of creative cyber-crime, security experts view this as yet another example of how sophisticated cyber-crime is becoming.

"Hacking is getting increasingly sophisticated. There are now a growing number of viruses that not just simply change files, but, with the help of botnets, are usually able to install multiple functionalities with objectives like searching hard drives, sending out emails, attacking other users, and even dumping illegal content on hard drives for a framing-up," says Jonathan Logan, a UK-based expert, with Roque Holding, a boutique security consultancy outfit.

"Threats from these hacking methods increase manifold for government departments and officials because besides economic profits, there are many other motivations; an attack can disrupt the operations of the whole department" added Logan. "Imagine how easy it would be to implicate or replace for instance a building inspector, who doesn't take bribes."

Experts say hacking has not only become sophisticated, it has also become cheap -- very cheap in fact.

"Some of the things you can ask for on the black-market is a botnet operator who will attempt to access to a specific computer, based on details like an email address, or all users that have a particular email address in their address books," says Logan.

"All this can come for a mere US $50 per thousand hacked computers," added Logan, "and most importantly, in very large and sophisticated spying cases, it is tremendously hard to trace back the source of the attack."

Consequently hacking attempts are getting increasingly frequent and regular. Estimates suggest that at any point in time there are over 100 million hacked websites. And it is not uncommon today for a medium sized hosting platform to experience several hundred hacking attempts per day.

"For servers that host sensitive websites like government departments, stock market brokers, banks, etc, the frequency of attempts could be much higher," says Logan.

According to security software maker F-Secure Corp, millions of PCs worldwide get infected every day with viruses that could give hackers full control.

Unnerving numbers indeed, but a bigger concern is, as says Logan, "there's very little a government department can do to prevent such attacks."

Typically complex network like those found in government departments, financial institutions, etc, need very high level of security to be sufficiently tamper-proof. "But the problem is, in doing so, machines become very difficult to be used by an ordinary user," says Logan.

"The other problem is that most average individual users in government departments do not really understand their own computer security," says Fischbach "They are usually relying on somebody else to interpret security for them. And when another person manages somebody else's computer security, it is rarely a number-one priority."

So, can a government department really do something to stop hacking attacks or frame-up viruses? Uninamously, experts say no. But it is possible to make it very hard for a criminal to hack into a sensitive computer.

For that they suggest a few safeguards, the most effective of which is to ensure that the user's online identity remains hidden.

"The first step is maintenance of a strict communication hygiene, which means that the user should make sure that an official computer is not used for any sort of private communication in the workplace," says Logan. "Do not surf sites that are not directly work related. Do not go to the bank. Do not send emails to your family or friends from the office computer. These reduce the vector of attacks to a large extent."

Other useful safeguards include exposing only those government computers that need Internet access. "Not all government computers require Internet access," says Logan.

Making sure that the only way of communication within the department is through servers of the department, is another safeguard; and important too is ensuring anonymity for network connections through data encryption. These, according to Logan, make hacking extremely costly, which is a natural deterrent.

"But the most important thing to remember is that humans are hackers' biggest vulnerability," says Fischbach. "One human click on the wrong link or one wrong plugging-in can create havoc for the whole network."

Photo by Asbjørn Sørensen Poulsen. CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

Talk of a website purely for the Muslims and the first reaction is, "is it another one that rattles mostly about the Islam and spreads radical thoughts"? Click on the URL http://muxlim.com, however, and what attracts is its refreshing content. Although it only concerns Muslims, it is interesting enough not only to remove some of the misconceptions one may have had about Muslims and Islam, but also prods one to go deeper to know more about them.

Formed in 2006 in a different avatar before morphing into its present state early this year, Muxlim is the only and biggest online community on Muslims that enhances Muslim lifestyle instead of talking about purely religion or rambling politics, claims Mohamed El-Fatatry, its creator.

Muxlim's biggest contribution to the Muslim community, is that unlike all other social networking websites that provide people-centric service, it provides a content-centric services, which help in uniting the widely dispersed and fragmented Muslim population to one virtual venue.

"Most Muslim websites generally come in two types; either they are marriage websites, or those that are purely religious. There's another category though that talks only about politics. But if you are looking for a wholesome Muslim lifestyle experience that includes, Muslim fashion, Muslim music, movies, and everything that an ordinary Muslim does on a  daily basis -- which may not necessarily be related to religion but definitely based on its belief -- there's none barring Muxlim," says El-Fatatry.

Muxlim, he claims, fills the urgent need for a separate online community for Muslims, particularly against the background where in others (like You Tube Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the likes) "there's always someone dictating what Muslim values are, and the type of content that is acceptable or not."

Muxlim on the other hand, gives power to the people; "its users decide what content should be allowed or not, while they have all the power to ensure the content is accurate and closest to Muslim values," he says.

The users in Muxlim also ensure that Muxlim has no place for sex, crime, or drug use-related content, neither is there a place for illegal content or content that spreads radicalization.

This Finland based venture, which says El-Fatatry "is growing from strength to strength", currently has over 160,000 registered users (that leapfrogged from 100,000 three months back) and already reaches several million Muslims around the world.

"Muxlim is not only a source of information about Islam but it also helps connect like-minded Muslims around the worlds," says a young student user who along with her friends prefers to log only into Muxlim instead of MySpace or Facebook. "It kind of brings the entire rationalist Muslim community in one place," she says.

El-Fatatry claims 55 percent of Muxlim users are females, which is opposite to most other online sites. "The power is truly in the community's hand while the community feels very safe and empowered by using this site," he says.

Having grown in strength the next focus of Muxlim is "to pursue more service and more features that [besides maximizing its shareholders' value] make the world a better place," says El-Fatatry.

And now, El-Fatatry aims to use Muxlim as a channel to spread global awareness about social development projects that help Muslims around the world.

The website announced this week that it was selected to be the exclusive social media partner for Gaza 100, a 100-metre relay race attempt to break the world record, which is taking place in London next month. Gaza 100 aims to set a new Guinness World Record for "the most people running 100 meters in a 24-hour relay" and is seeking 4,000 participants to take part in the run at Mile End Stadium on May 23rd and 24th

This campaign aims to raise British ₤400,000 from all the participants in the run (every participant needs to either raise or contribute ₤100) for Gaza Aid project, that Save the Children, an international social development organization is organizing to help the children of the Gaza region.

According to Dalia Association, a leading Palestinian Community Organization, "Gazans need an estimated $1.9 billion just to repair the physical damage caused by the recent war".

"The Gaza 100 aims to raise a humble sum towards this desperately needed aid, and we are delighted to be able to help them spread the word and garner additional support through our community, as part of a diverse and all-inclusive world," says El-Fatatry. "Social media in general and Muxlim in particular are very effective channels to spread global awareness about such projects. We hope to use the Muxlim community as a launch pad for wider social media activities that either attract attention to the fund raising effort, or help directly through sign-ups to the campaign."

Given that 80% of Indians have no access to proper information and good quality ICT, it is often a wonder that the country still manages to be the top destination for IT related outsourcing and back office services.

The truth is, the major reason behind India's success story in IT is perhaps what has been the country's biggest problems for decades -- population.

Even as the burden of India's 1.3 billion people has pulled the country down in many economic development parameters, its huge population has ensured a supply of abundant English-speaking, technology-savvy, and cheap but skilled IT workers. And this has helped India's IT sector to forge ahead in the global IT arena despite a plethora of hurdles back home.

The county also has a detailed IT Policy, and in fact, over the years has tinkered and experimented with various types of IT policies. But critics say that due to lack of focus and vision, the country has hardly been able to harness its IT prowess to propel the country forward.

Realizing that deficiency, India's main political opposition the Bharatiya Janata Party (or BJP) is now moving in to cash in on the opportunity by offering a well-crafted Indian IT Policy in the upcoming General Elections (in April and May).

Releasing the party's manifesto two days ago, BJP also announced its carefully-crafted IT vision that aims to bring about "the next revolution in India through the use of IT and technology."

Called "Transforming Bharat" (India is called Bharat in Hindi) BJP's IT policy promises IT sops to all -- starting from farmers to students, to even the poor -- if BJP is  voted to power that is in the next elections.

So, from proposing a multi-purpose identity card for all citizens, 12 million new information technology-enabled jobs in rural areas, laptops priced at slightly above $200 for millions of students, and providing "cheap" smart mobile phone to every poor, the policy promises to "connect everybody with IT."

In many respects "Transforming Bharat" is indeed impressive, For instance, it promises;

•12 million new IT-enabled jobs in rural areas.

• Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) with unique Citizen Identification Number (CIN) in 3 years; to replace all other identification systems.

• Bank accounts, with eBanking facilities, for all Indian citizens. Direct transfer of welfare funds.

•India to equal China in every IT parameter in five years.

• National Digital Highway Development Project to create India's internet backbone

• Broadband Internet (2 Mbps with 1:1 content ratio) in every town and village, at cable TV prices (less than $4 per month).

• All schools and colleges with internet-enabled education.

•Laptops at about $200 a piece with interest-free loan for funding the laptop, for 10 million students

• Computing in local languages that would include formation of National Mission for Promotion of IT in Indian Languages.

• Promotion of domestic IT hardware industry to minimize dependence on imports.

• Promotion of domestic hosting industry to minimize international bandwidth charges.

• An independent body, called Digital Security Agency (DSA), for cyber warfare, cyber counter-terrorism, and cyber security of national digital assets.

However, in accordance with its Nationalism bias, "Transforming Bharat" also contains a couple of proposals that could be thorns for global IT and top telecom companies. The BJP IT policy stresses on active promotion of open-source software and Internet telephony, which say analysts, could make the likes of Microsoft and the telecom companies see red. Driven by the country's (and Microsoft's) aggressive anti-piracy drive, ever since small and medium sized businesses as well as large enterprises started favoring Linux a few years back, the open-source alternative has gained quite a bit of traction in India.

And arguing that cheap Internet telephony could hit Indian telecom operators hard thus jeopardizing the country's telecom penetration ambitions, the local telecom industry has been fiercely objecting to the introduction of VoIP for years. While the industry says that call prices are cheap enough to offset the benefits of VoIP, many say that not allowing VoIP has  deprived Indian consumers the fruits of global competition.

Still it appears that the BJP's IT vision has been well-received by the industry. Commenting on the policy, Sun Microsystem's country director Jaijit Bhattacharya told the press that "We welcome the IT vision of one of India's significant political parties. We believe the policy will help in improving IT industry in India through adoption of open standards and promotion of domestic web hosting industry. We hope other political parties will follow suit."

Although no one is throwing away their mobile phones just yet, or for that matter, not even making fewer phone calls or surfing the Internet on their broadband connection less frequently, the global financial crisis may still hit the demand for ICT. That's the latest findings of a study by the ITU that feels that the current economic climate is affecting consumer incomes worldwide. And with many jobs under threat, consumers in general are turning increasingly cautious. So the end user demand for ICT will eventually suffer even if historically the demand for basic ICT services has been income-inelastic.

In the report called Confronting the Crisis: Assessing Its Impact on the ICT Industry, ITU said that demand for ICT may still continue to grow worldwide -- and particularly in the developing countries -- despite falling incomes, as telecom networks are in early stages and business use is high. However since consumers' disposable incomes were hit recently by rises in food prices in developing countries (where income elasticity for ICT, especially mobiles, is relatively high) and with falling incomes in the developed world, consumers may choose to give up or defer their broadband connection upgrades. As a result, usage of ICT may fall with a reduction in real income.

"There is no doubt that technology is a volatile sector where broadband connectivity and mobile telephony growth has remained robust despite the dotcom bubble. But to what extent the historical paradigm of technology as a growth sector will remain true in severe downturn is not known yet," said Phillippa Biggs, the author of the report.

The skepticism about the robustness of the future demand for ICT rises from the fact that during previous downturns, mobile and broadband were niche services, rather than the mass markets they have become today. So demand trends in response to the crisis may not be well understood.

Indeed, there is evidence that the rate of growth in some areas of ICT is already being  adversely impacted. For instance, analysis firm Point Topic says that as broadband in developed markets -- that grew largely by converting dial-up users to high-speed services in the past -- approaches saturation due to rapidly decreasing 'no-net' homes and businesses, its growth is already slowing.

"Developing countries such as China and India have also gone through their initial rapid growth phase and are now growing steadily, rather than exponentially," Point Topic said.

Similarly, in contrast to mobile phones, global sales of fixed and mobile WiMAX equipment have started falling as well from the third quarter of 2008 and may decline throughout 2009 due to the recession. "Even a few niche areas, such as the top-end PC markets and high-end handset markets are seeing some softening of demand," says Biggs.

Consider the plight of the companies in the ICT sector as well. Alcatel Lucent for example, declared an unexpected 7.5 percent Q4 decline in yearly revenues, which at EUR 16.98 billion for the full year 2008 was also down 1.1% at constant currency year-on-year.

However, the biggest jolt came from the largest PC maker Intel. After record Q3 results ($ 10.2 billion in revenues, up 8% sequentially), Intel announced Q4 revenues of $8.2 billion, down 23% year-on-year. Not just that, in the "uncertain environment" Intel CEO and President Paul Otellini also announced $3 billion worth of cost cutting measures.

The bad news does not stop there. Other ICT sectors that are also facing shortfalls include the semiconductor industry, enterprise software, security, telecom infrastructure, as well as technology, media and telecommunication (TMT).

According to ITU, these are challenging times for the ICT sector. The old cliché that the tech sector was a long term growth industry, riding on a wave of convergence and digitization, that can beat global GDP growth even during difficult economic times, seems even less true today than the 1987 market shock and 2001-2003 dotcom burst.

Nevertheless, even "as the crisis may challenge many," says Hamadoun Touré firms, ITU Secretary-General "it can also overturn the established order and stimulate the emergence of new entrants with new technologies."

The report adds that in some ways, the crisis will reassert the old order. Those ICT companies with sustainable business models, stable cash-flows and deep pockets could regain some of the ground they have lost to new market entrants.

Financial weakness in the sector creates opportunities for cash rich players to acquire competitors and to purchase distressed assets at depressed prices. Economic crises also create openings for disruptive technologies and, here, small start-ups can prove the most agile in exploiting new opportunities, the report said.

It is a quintessential takeover battle that RIM -- the company that produces the BlackBerry -- has been fighting for the past two months. But it seems that if the price is right, the world's most popular push-email service for hand-helds may be able to bag Certicom Corp, the Mississauga, Ontario-based mobile e-business security provider after all.

The erstwhile reluctant management of Certicom Corp, announced today that its Board finally feels RIM's latest offer -- announced on February 3 -- to acquire Certicom for Canadian $3.00 per share is a "superior proposal" and if the price is right, the present Certicom management may allow the company to be taken over by RIM.

"Certicom's Board of Directors and the Special Committee of independent directors are working to ensure the process is fair and that it delivers maximum value for our shareholders," said a company spokesperson in response to my queries adding that although "the first offer from RIM was hostile only in the technical sense in that it was an unsolicited offer.  Certicom's Special Committee of Independent directors is currently reviewing a friendly RIM offer."

The source added that its "Board of Directors and Special Committee of independent directors are working with financial advisors TD Securities for conducting a process to maximize value for shareholders and ensure a positive outcome for the company."

Indeed for RIM these words may be music because the encryption technology solution provider based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), Certicom is a coveted company that is also being wood by VeriSign Inc.

The ECC technology, developed by Certicom, is what Certicom calls a next generation public key encryption technique that can be used to create faster, smaller, and more efficient cryptographic keys. ECC generates keys through the properties of the elliptic curve equation instead of the traditional method of generation as the product of very large prime numbers. The technology can be used in conjunction with most public key encryption methods, such as RSA, and Diffie-Hellman.

Some say ECC can yield a level of security with a 164-bit key that other systems require a 1,024-bit key to achieve. Because ECC helps to establish equivalent security with lower computing power and battery resource usage, it is becoming widely used for mobile applications.

"This technology is highly valued and used by companies across all industries, including IBM, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Samsung, RIM Continental Airlines, and the National Security Agency," says the Certicom official.

Small wonder then, that for both BlackBerry and Verisign, Certicom would be a prized possession. While providing intrusion-proof push email service is a guarantee that BlackBerry thrives on, for VeriSign that enables and protects billions of interactions every day across the world's voice, video and data networks, Certicom's technology is equally coveted.

Right after RIM made its first of C$1.50 per share-amounting to C$66 million offer -- that Certicom turned down as "hostile" -- VeriSign started chasing Certicom by making a counter offer of C$2.10 per share.       

However, for RIM, Certicom may be a must-have. Not only has "Certicom provided the encryption technology to RIM since 1998 and has had a long and mutually beneficial relationship," as says the Certicom official. But  RIM's security policy does not allow any third party or even the company to read the information transferred over its network. In that sense it is imperative for RIM perhaps to have absolute control of the encryption technology  ehind the BlackBerry.

Still, even as the balance tilts in RIM's favor -- at least as of now -- Certicom is not going to be an easy catch. Certicom wants to ensure that it gets the best deal in the current tug-of-war.

"If Certicom determines that the RIM Offer is a superior proposal as defined in the VeriSign agreement, VeriSign will have the right, but not the obligation, to offer amended terms within a period of five business days," said a company statement.

Certicom also adds that "If the Board determines that the RIM offer does not continue to be a Superior Proposal, the Board will promptly reaffirm its recommendation of the VeriSign Arrangement and enter into an amended arrangement agreement with VeriSign."

And if VeriSign does not offer to amend the terms of the VeriSign Arrangement, Certicom has retained the right to enter into the arrangement agreement with RIM, subject to certain conditions including the payment of a C$4 million termination fee to VeriSign.

Don't you wish you owned some Certicom shares?

At a time when the country is going through what is considered to be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929, it is heartening to note that US has improved the use of its ICT infrastructure over the last year. But the fact that the country is still over 2 points below the "Perfect 10," according to a new study -- 10 being the number that any developed country should score on ICT use in this Internet age -- means that country still has a lot to catching up to do.

This is particularly relevant during a severe economic downturn, given that it is commonly acknowledged that one vital key to improving the economic and productivity performance of a country lies with the greater and better-focused use of Information and Communications Technology,

Sadly, like every other country, the US too is focusing most of its attention on stimulating the conventional sectors of the economy although, say experts, the bang for money in terms of return on investments is the biggest when spent on high-tech. 

Consider the latest economic recovery plan presented this month by President Obama's and it becomes evident how little it contains elements of the21st-century twists. Of the huge $825- billion planned stimulus just about $37 billion has been earmarked for hi-tech areas that include $20 billion to computerize medical records, $11 billion to create smarter electrical grids, and a measly $6 billion to expand high-speed Internet access in rural and underserved communities.(Congress may raise this to $9 billion.)

According to the study, called Connectivity Scorecard 2009 commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks and written by the a noted expert in the telecom arena, Professor Leonard Waverman, even the world's best connected countries are not exploiting communications technologies to their fullest potential. And in many cases policy and regulatory activity designed to promote connectivity is not having the impact intended.

The Connectivity Scorecard 2009, which has doubled the number of countries covered in the ground-breaking 2008 study (when US also topped by scoring 6.97 albeit out of a possible 10.0), ranked the United States first in the group of 25 innovation-driven economies, while Malaysia leads a table of 25 resource and efficiency-driven economies 
 
The rankings are determined by the measurement of each country against two criteria - infrastructure and usage plus skills -- in the realms of business, government and consumer, with weightings of each of the three tailored to each country. Low scores reflect gaps in a country's infrastructure, usage or both.
 
For each of the six components of the Scorecard, countries are benchmarked against the best in class in their tier. Tthus if a country was best in all dimensions, it would score a maximum of 10. The Scorecard, therefore, measures countries against the best ICT usage that currently exists rather than an ideal model.
 
Thus, the fact that the United States scores 7.71 illustrates that not only is there considerable room for improvement in comparison to its peers in aspects of its performance, but also that there is scope for development beyond that. The Scorecard finds, for example, that the United States achieves a somewhat low score in consumer infrastructure where 3G penetration, and even household broadband penetration, is moderate by standards of other innovation-driven economies.

This under-performance also gets underscored in light of the fact that the Connectivity Scorecard confirmed the reputation of Scandinavia as a technological power region with Sweden, Denmark and Norway all ranked in the top five.

Interestingly, Japan (10th) and Korea (18th) repeated their surprisingly low performances of 2008 as did Germany (13) and France (15). The poor showing of southern European economies is also repeated as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece shared the bottom slots in the table with eastern European nations.

Connectivity Scorecard is a global ICT index, which measures the extent to which governments, businesses and consumers make use of connectivity technologies to enhance social and economic prosperity. Unlike other research available, Connectivity Scorecard also measures "usage and skills," such as literacy, the use of enterprise software and the accessibility of women to ICT.

According to Ilkka Lakaniemi, head of global political dialogue and initiatives at Nokia Siemens Networks, "Although the scorecard is just about two years old, it has gained immense popularity since the study helps driving future development in the areas and at the same time understand what connectivity can enable development of in societies."

With over 270 million subscribers -- that's the second largest after China -- and adding almost 9 million each month, India may have wowed the world by becoming the fastest growing telecom market. But, in terms of another major development indicator, broadband penetration, India still has a long way to go -- a very long way to go in fact.

According to the International Telecommunication Union's latest study on Asia-Pacific Telecom scene, at close-to-zero level of broadband penetration India is far behind most economies of the Asia-Pacific region.  "India's success in telecom revolution is restricted to just mobile phone growth and that too in the voice segment while the country has very little to showcase in fixed line and Internet access, or high-speed broadband," says Vanessa Gray, the author of the report, entitled Asia-Pacific Telecommunication/ICT Indicators .

For a country that is the considered to be a global hub for IT/ITeS services and the world's back office, it is indeed strange that Internet penetration remains one of the lowest in the world. But for Gray, that is not really a surprise.

"There is a very strong link between income level and broadband penetration simply because broadband infrastructure is expensive," she says. "The per capita income of India [at about $1000] then doesn't allow the country to spend much on growing the broadband infrastructure and a low income level is also the reason why Indian government has a limited amount of influence on broadband penetration as well."

The other is big problem is the dispersement of population. About 65 percent of Indians still live in rural areas that suffer from very poor infrastructure -- like roads, electricity, etc -- and "that makes it very difficult to increase the level of broadband penetration," she says.

Moreover according to Rajesh Chharia, president, Internet Service Provider Association of India, "The dismal penetration could be attributed to a slew of other factors like government policy failures, inadequate of fixed line infrastructure, a barely profitable ISP business, and low domestic PC penetration."

Nevertheless, in terms of Information and Communication Technologies, Asia-Pacific is mind-boggling in many ways. It is home to almost half of the world's fixed telephone lines, and with over a billion mobile cellular subscribers, the region has the largest mobile phone market share globally. The other areas in which the region stands out most are, advanced Internet technologies including broadband Internet access and mobile data communications.

According to Gray in the region's high-income economies in particular, ubiquitous access is progressing through a competitive race to provide ever faster fixed broadband access. Operators in Hong Kong and Japan for instance have launched one-Gigabits per second broadband and triple-play services aimed at the residential market, featuring applications such as Internet telephony and television.

And Korea, which already leads the world in terms of the percentage of households with fixed broadband access, has also emerged as world leader in fibre optic connections, which is essential for supporting the next generation of ultra-high speed Internet applications.

ITU says that the Asia-Pacific region is the world's largest broadband market with a 39 percent share of the world's total at the end of 2007. In terms of broadband access, Asia-Pacific has made remarkable progress in the past few years, with subscriber numbers growing almost five-fold in five years: from 27 million at the beginning of 2003 to 133 million at the start of 2008.

But like India, not everyone in the region lives in the ultimate high-speed Internet access experience; and the contrast is stark.

"The regional broadband divide is striking, with poor economies having a close-to-zero broadband penetration, compared to that of rich economies where one in four persons is a broadband subscriber," says Gray

The gap in available broadband speeds between rich and poor countries is as wide as broadband penetration. In Japan, Korea and Hong Kong for example, the minimum advertised broadband speed is faster than the maximum broadband speed in Cambodia, Tonga, Laos and Bangladesh.

As far as India is concerned, the good news is that the low level of penetration is not going to last long. That's because, India has just released spectrum for rolling out 3G and WiMAX services-the next generation wireless technologies -- and those services are expected to start in about 6 months. "A lot might change once India launches its 3G network because that will help broadband penetration over the much cheaper mobile phone to spurt," says Gray.

Moreover, the 3G roll out will also encourage new operators, including foreign ones, to enter the Indian market. And that in turn could "stimulating competition, liberalizing the broadband business even further to make broadband access cheaper for higher broadband penetration," says Pradeep Baijal, a former telecom regulator.

Mobil ASL, the software that the University of Washington has just developed for deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans may be the first software that enables an American to use sign language over mobile phones. But thanks to its unique features, this software may also be ideal for the developing world as well.

Discussing the significance of this development Eve Riskin, the principal investigator, who is a professor at the Washington University and a part of the team that developed this software explained, "The software is tailored for American Sign Language. But since it is based on cutting edge technology, it could be modified for use for any sign language because all sign languages basically have similar gestures."

According to Prof. Riskin, the biggest challenge of transmitting sign language -- which the deaf use to communicate with each other -- over cell phones is not to compress the video of the gestures of sign language compact enough to be transmitted and received over cell phones, but rather to use an algorithm simple enough for a cell phone to do the real time encoding and decoding fast enough.

"Cell phones posses far lower hardware resources in terms of processor speed and memory, and that is a big hurdle for video communication over cell phones," she said.

Riskin added that the advantage of Mobile ASL lies in a sign language encoder designed by the team that not only adheres to the ITU compression standard -- new H.264/AVC -- but also nearly doubles the compression ratio. Consequently, the software can compress the gestures tight enough to make it comprehensible on low-resolution video.

"This is why we feel that the new software would a big help for people in the developing world because all developing countries suffer from poor bandwidth problems" says Riskin. "And even if some of them do have access to faster networks, they are usually very highly priced for most."

Which isn't to suggest that Mobile ASL is not a significant development for Americans as well. "A lot of people are excited about this," said Riskin. That's because, even as faster networks are becoming more common in the United States, such networks are still not fast enough for high rates of data transmission, and that means that there is still a need for software that can operate on slower systems.

Moreover, faster networks are not available everywhere and they also cost more. "We don't think it's fair for someone who's deaf to have to pay more for his or her cell phone than someone who has hearing," feels the team.

Of course, cell phones often have become indispensable for the deaf, just as they are for others - even if text messaging was the communication underpinning for the deaf. That, according to many deaf users, was very limiting, to say the least. For one, text messaging doesn't allow one to communicate rapidly one's native language. And  more importantly, it is slow and does not convey emotions at all.

"Video is much better than text-messaging," says Jessica DeWitt, a UW undergraduate in psychology who is deaf and is a collaborator on the Mobile ASL project. However, low data transmission rates on U.S. cellular networks, combined with limited processing power on mobile devices, have so far prevented real-time video transmission with enough frames per second that it could be used to transmit sign language.

So, that brings us to the next question; is the software ready to hit the market? Not just yet. 

 "It is still in its research stage and not ready for prime time. Work is still on to make it user friendly. But after that we would like a cell phone company to pick it up and release it over the cell phone system," says Riskin.

"The team is already in discussion with a major cellular network provider that has expressed interest in the project," she said, adding that it may hit the market in about 18 months.

And what if the talk fails? "No worries," says Riskin. "We will throw it on the web and turn it open source for anyone to modify it for prime time use."

For that matter, the team is also working to a future version that will incorporate custom tools to get better quality and a feature that will identify when people are moving their hands, to reduce battery consumption and processing power when the user is not signing.
 

The Indian authorities, may claim that the Pan-African e-Network is an extension of the "south-south cooperation" idea, but undoubtedly a major objective of this ambitious ICT project -- to be set up totally by India --, is to woo the resource-rich African nations to ensure a steady supply of resources for its voracious economy.

In fact, a big reason why India is implementing this project with gusto is to remain in step with China. As a resource-hungry nation, India too is wooing Africa in a big way for the same reason. This includes showering the continent with gifts by way of brick and mortar socio-economic infrastructure.

Although mooted in 2004 by the former President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Pan-African e-Network faced the usual red tape and delays -- which is so symptomatic of India- for close to four years until the final green signal came from India's Ministry of External Affairs  in March 2008. However, within three months of receiving the "mobilization advance," Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL), the government -owned telecommunication engineering company that is executing this project, has kicked off the first phase.

According to TCIL, the first Hub Earth Station started operation in Dakar (capital city of Senegal) on 31st July, which is a "major step because it marks the commencement of the project." This station is now connected to India data centre of TCIL which in turn is now in the process of hooking up 12 specialty hospitals and 7 universities in India with 5 universities and "at least" 5 hospitals in Africa.

While mooting this idea Kalam said that the objective is to bridge the digital divide in Africa and develop the continent's information and communication technologies by eventually connecting all the 53 countries. He also added that for India, which is funding this $135 million project completely, it is nothing but a part of   "south-south cooperation.

The idea of "south-south cooperation" that started evolving around late 1990s is based on a simple realization that developing nations need not seek the help of developed nations in the rich north to find appropriate, low-cost and sustainable solutions to their problems. Instead, it makes sense to seek solutions in other developing countries, which may possess far more cost effective solutions. For instance, if Africa doesn't have the resource and knowledge to dig out its vast reserves coal or oil, it could go to India or China for help instead of going to say USA,  from where the cost of importing the required expertise could be much higher.

However, even as India says that this project "continues the tradition of
India's close partnership with the countries of Africa in their developmental efforts aimed at the well being of their people," there is also a hope that the effort will bear fruit in the long run.

"We expect that in the long run this project will not only improve the cultural relationship between India and all African countries, but it will also help the growth of trade and commerce, and industry  between India and Africa," said an official from the Ministry of External Affairs, requesting anonymity.

For India, it is indeed very important to cultivate better relationships with the resource-rich African nations. Like China, India's scorching economy (which is growing at about 8% a year and is considered as one of the fastest) too is hungry for everything starting from food to oil, and Africa could play a crucial role there.

But while China with its ambitious Africa strategy has been showering Africa with almost everything ( starting from building roads, to providing free food, clothes, medicine and the likes) in return for lucrative partnerships with its oil and mineral companies, India has been lagging far behind.
            
With the Pan-African e-Network project though, India may score a brownie point after all. Not only will this be Africa's biggest ICT project ever, but it will be funded totally by India, which will include setting it up on the African side as well.

The e-Network project entails linking 53 African nations (although about 30 countries have signed up so far and about 6 have been linked yet) by a Satellite and Fiber Optic Network that would provide communication and connectivity among the African nations and India.

The network is meant primarily for Tele-education, Tele-medicine, Internet, video-conferencing and VOIP services, but TCIL sources say if a country wants, the network could also be used for e-government and administrative functions.