| WDR e-Brief, Vol. 4, # 1 |
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| Friday, 21 January 2005 | |
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Friday, 21 January 2005 In this e-Brief Special Dossier: Emergency Communication WDR / LIRNE.NET news News from the Networks
Special Dossier: Emergency Communication Q&A: Disaster warning as a universal service Email your questions to
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. Answer: The disaster in Asia has highlighted the separate and often inconsistent treatment of different types of communication networks. Universal access, digital divides and even network development have been viewed as essentially matters of supplying a "private service" to individuals, i.e., access to a basic communication service. Although such a service has some true "public service" characteristics, e.g., benefits to people other than those directly involved in a conversation, the focus has been on individual access. This has been measured in terms of a standard calculation of main lines (now with mobile, communication paths) per 100 population, reported annually by the ITU and other organizations. Individual access to disaster, or perhaps more accurately, emergency communication services has been an important element of network development in most countries. An emergency telephone number is designated for reporting individual and local disasters, e.g., accidents, fires, etc. However, this is after-the-fact disaster mitigation and recovery, not disaster warning, and assumes that the public services essential to mitigate and recover, e.g., ambulances, hospitals, doctors, fire trucks, trained fire and police, etc., are established and functioning. In performing their duties, these agencies often establish their own communication networks, based partly on available telecom network capacity and partly on special equipment. ___________________________________________________ Regulatory Design for Disaster Preparedness and Recovery by Infrastructure Providers: South Asian Experience - The Missing Link The dramatic impact of the Tsunami on the shores of the Indian Ocean demonstrates the crucial importance of effective, all-embracing communication systems and very soon after the disaster hit articles began to appear arguing that many people could have saved their lives, if they had received a timely warning, via telephone, email or radio… Most of these focused on the technical aspects, ignoring the manner in which communication infrastructures are embedded within public policy frameworks and economic regulation. In his review of a study by Leena Srivastava and Rohan Samarajiva, Aad Correljé examines the missing link. ___________________________________________________ As one might expect for a field that evolved in close conjunction with national security and civil defence planning, ‘emergency telecommunications’ continues to embody many of the features of the military models that set the original tone for policy and program design in the field of emergency management. In most countries around the world, much of the effort in emergency telecommunications is therefore confined to addressing needs that arise in conjunction with preparedness, response, and recovery operations. In other words, the field is typically concerned with the envelope of actions directly related to critical incidents or disasters. This means that the field of practice has been concerned primarily with hardening vital facilities, restoring essential services and maintaining essential communication channels during an emergency, rather than with the long-term management of critical infrastructures in society. In short, the history of emergency telecommunications has been reactive rather than proactive. The recent and largely needless tragedy around the Indian Ocean basin highlights this legacy. Read the rest of the article on the WDR site at: ___________________________________________________ Consultation Process for Disaster Warning System for Sri Lanka In response to the catastrophe of December 26th 2004, LIRNEasia, a WDR partner based in Sri Lanka, is collaborating with the Vanguard Foundation to help better prepare Sri Lanka to face disasters that may come its way. This project will produce a "people’s concept paper" based on international best practice and wide local consultation, for a disaster warning system, while educating policy makers and the general public. Read more about the project on the LIRNE.NET site at: ___________________________________________________ An Assessment of the B.C. Tsunami Warning System Tsunamis and Coastal Communities in British Columbia: An Assessment of the B.C. Tsunami Warning System and Related Risk Reduction Practices, was the title of a study by Peter S. Anderson, currently collaborating with LIRNEasia’s disaster warning initiative, & Gordon A. Gow for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada. The Canadian province of British Colombia (BC) has more than 1,000 kms. of Pacific coastline and a very real tsunami threat. This study evaluates BC's tsunami preparedness and offers a series of conclusions that could be used to strengthen it. Read more and download the full report at: ___________________________________________________ As early images of the Asian tsunami disaster were flashed around the world, an aircraft loaded with equipment touched down in Sri Lanka at Colombo international airport. Within minutes, technicians had set up an emergency telecommunications centre with satellite phone lines and high-speed internet connections. Relief organisations were quick to avail themselves of the service. Satellite lines were made available to hospitals and to link survivors with the outside world. The initiative was the work of Télécoms sans Frontières (TSF), a new charity backed by companies including Vodafone, Cable & Wireless and Inmarsat. Read more at: ___________________________________________________ In our research we have come some good resources related to emergency communication, policy and regulation. A few of these are below. We will be expanding this section of the website over the next few months. Please send any relevant links to
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. Understanding African ICT demand on the agenda for WDR expert forum The findings of the study on ICT demand in nine African countries will be examined and their implications debated by African regulators, policy makers and researchers at the World Dialogue on Regulation Africa Expert Forum to be held in Accra, Ghana on the 31 January. While Africans are making unprecedented use of information and communication technologies, with over 52 million mobile subscribers across the continent, in Uganda less than 1% of households continue to have access to fixed line telephony and only 0.3% to Internet access. In Rwanda, gaining access could cost consumers more than their median monthly income making pre-paid mobile the only option for many Africans. Even in South Africa, with the highest GDP per capita on the continent, mobile penetration has only extended access beyond the 22% of households, which already have fixed-line access by a further 10% to 32%. Read the full article at: ___________________________________________________ LIRNEasia Responds Rapidly to Nepal’s call LIRNEasia made a short, but productive call on Nepal’s High-Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) recently, to advise on jump-starting its e government and reform processes. The visit came within less than ten days of a request for Rapid Response assistance by Mr. Sharad Chandra Shah, HLCIT’s Vice Chairman. In his three-day visit, LIRNEasia executive director Rohan Samarajiva conducted two key sessions, with HLCIT and decision making level representatives of government, private sector and civil society. Read the full article at: ___________________________________________________ The 2004 South African ICT Sector Performance Review (SPR) has been published and is available at http://link.wits.ac.za. The annual review prepared by Alison Gilwald and Stephen Esselaar from LIRNE's African partner, the LINK Centre, seeks to monitor and assess ICT policy (though specifically telecommunications policy) against policy outcomes in the sector, and against the broader impact these policies have on the South African economy and society. It does so by examining the performance of the sector in terms of delivery against national policy objectives. The study draws on the methodology developed by LIRNE.NET and is now used by Research ICT Africa! to review sector performance across the continent. More information at: ___________________________________________________ Copyright: rights-holders, users and innovators With Anders Henten (CTI and LIRNE.NET) and Alexander Oest as guest editors, an issue of the journal Telematics and Informatics on 'Copyright: rights-holders, users and innovators' has just appeared (vol. 22, issues 1-2, February-May 2005). The papers have been selected from papers presented at the CTI conference in December 2003. For more information and to access the online edition of the journal: ___________________________________________________ The University of the West Indies Master’s Degree in Telecommunications Regulation and Policy will open its virtual doors for applications for a third group of students in August 2005. The application period runs from January 13 to March 25, 2005. The MRP (Telecommunications) programme, a multi-disciplinary Master’s degree with an emphasis on practical application to national and regional development, is intended to strengthen the capacity of the public and private telecommunication sectors in areas relating to regulation and policy. More information at: ___________________________________________________ The conference will explore emerging patterns of information flow, and their political, economic, social, and cultural consequences. Professor W.H. Melody, managing director of WDR, will be speaking on "Information Asymmetries in the Marketplace of Ideas: Identifying Public Interests in Information Societies". The conference is organised by the Yale Information Society Project and will take place 1-3 April 2005. More information at: Questions and support |
The WDR e-Brief is an occasional electronic bulletin from the World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies (WDR) and LIRNE.NET. The e-Brief keeps you informed of new documents, new projects, ongoing discussions and information of interest to the regulatory community on our websites at 