<<July 11, 2000>>
John L. Mack, CEO <jlmack@erols.com>
Mr. Jim Miller <jimmsl@aol.com>
Mr. Bruce R. Best <bbest@uog9.uog.edu>
Motilal Sharma <msharma@mail.asiandevbank.org>
Dr. Dalia Moawad <dalia001@hotmail.com>
Alexandre Rivas, Ph.D. <alex_mau@argo.com.br>
Dear Electronic Colleagues:
===========================
(1) Upon request of John Mack, I am distributing a market survey
to rescue
Iridium in ATTACHMENT I.
Pls retrieve my following previous distributions
1. Rescue Iridium follow-up / GSTF for the Western Pacific - July 6, 2000" and
2. GLOSAS Board, Rescue Iridium report & GSTF Summit plan - June 24, 2000"
at <http://www.friends-partners.org/~utsumi/gu-l/mid-2000/index.html>.
(2) As mentioned in them, our intention to utilize Iridium
is to hopefully
have their excess capacity (say, 5%) donated for the Bandwidth
Source"
of our Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF) so that it can be used
for
narrow-band uplinking (as Jim Miller proposed) and also use a
similar
donated capacity of WorldSpace satellite for broadband downlinking
(as
John Mack proposed) for Internet access in remote/rural areas
around the globe.
The first thing prior to this scheme is to have Iridium be
rescued --
hopefully by Castle Harlan (see previous distribution) and/or
WordTel
Satellite Services (WSS) (see below).
Subsequently, pls respond to John with your survey questionnaire,
if the
new proposed cost/price figures of Iridium is attractive for your
region/community.
Dear Bruce:
===========
(3) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT II).
(4) You once mentioned that your nurse training distance learning
program
with ShareVision used a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) between
Guam
and Palau. The POTS had to come from Guam to the west coast of
the US
mainland, and then to Palau, costing almost $10,000 per month
-- and you
had to pay for it out of your pocket money!!
Referring to the last para of your msg, John's new cost figures
may be
attractive to your colleagues in the western Pacific region. You
may
discuss this possibility with attendees of your workshop on "Charting
the Future Course of Distance Education in the Western Pacific"
from
August 1 to 3 at your university. Should they agree, pls ask them
to
fill up the questionnaires and send to John Mack.
Dear Moti:
==========
(5) Referring to your excellent paper on "Poverty reduction
with Information
technology in developing countries" which can be retrieved
at
<http://www.friends-partners.org/~utsumi/gu-l/mid-2000/index.html>,
you
may also consider utilizing these new cost figures of Iridium.
Pls ask
your colleagues around East Asian countries to fill out the
questionnaire and send them to John Mack.
Dear Alex:
==========
(6) During our Manaus workshop on May 31 to June 2, some native
Amazonians
indicated me their interest in the use of Iridium. Pls ask them
to fill
out the questionnaire and send them to John Mack.
Dear Dalia:
===========
(7) Referring to your World Bank/InfoDev funded "Regional
Distance Learning
Network for Information Technology"
<http://www.infodev.org/projects/fin25.htm>,
you created a network of
your colleagues in several Arabic countries.
I would greatly appreciate it if you can kindly ask them to
fill out
John's questionnaire and send them to him.
This may be a few addition to your previous market survey appeared
in your final report to the InfoDev, i.e., Pages 106-109 at
<http://www.infodev.org/projects/25.pdf>.
Dear Bruce, Moti and Alex:
==========================
Pls visit Dalia's final report and prepare similar survey for
Internet in its Pages 106-109, and send to me, too.
Thanks for your cooperation in advance.
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
RESCUE IRIDIUM FOR SERVICE TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
A CALL FOR ACTION
Iridium was the first of the Global Mobile Personal Communication
Services by
Satellite (GMPCS) systems to become operational with a constellation
of
sixty-six satellites and eight spares providing voice coverage
to the entire
globe. Iridium is now in the process of going through bankruptcy,
which could
result in the wasteful demise of this powerful system.
A new company, WordTel Satellite Services, LLC (not to be confused
with the
ITU incubator company WORLDTEL) is proposing to acquire the system
and
rededicate it to addressing unmet needs for affordable public
voice telephone
service primarily in the world's underserved regions of Africa,
Asia, the
Middle East and Latin America.
Because WordTel Satellite Services (WSS) will be able to acquire
the system
for only a fraction of its original $7 billion completion cost,
the newly
configured Iridium system of WSS will be able to provide many
benefits to
national carriers in underserved regions and also to development
organizations
wishing to provide affordable voice telecommunications for their
operations in
rural and remote regions of the world.
The WSS system will allow national carriers immediately and
affordably TO
provide voice telecommunications throughout their rural regions
using
inexpensive 'call centers'-- a fixed WSS handset or handsets placed
in a small
building, or room of an existing building, with a dixie cup antenna
on the
roof for a cost of about $900 per line and very low maintenance
costs. A
'mini-gateway' placed in each country, at a cost of less than
$8000, will
allow all calls from the call centers to remain in-country from
the call
center to the satellite to the wireline network and vice-versa.
The WSS satellite system will offer the following advantages:
- A domestic long distance retail rate of approximately $0.20
per minute and
international rates at approximately $1.00.
- Highly competitive, discounted bulk rates for development
organizations to
provide modern voice telecommunications capability, including
emergency/disaster communications, to their rural-located personnel
and
projects.
- Domestic calls will remain in-country, thus eliminating international
tail
(toll) charges and resulting in lower costs to the customer.
- Because of its dedication to serving underserved areas and
the
reconfiguration of Iridium, WSS will enable national carriers
to interconnect
their networks with Iridium in order to provide immediate service
to their
rural and poor urban customers via call centers.
Development organizations will play an important role in achieving
WSS'
business plan. Accordingly, we are URGENTLY requesting development
organizations to complete the brief questionnaire on the following
page and
return it via email to jlmack@erols.com or via fax to +1-301-627-2188.
Your prompt response is crucial.
QUESTIONNAIRE
To assist with the 'rescue Iridium' activities already underway,
we URGENTLY
need to take an 'inventory' of the demand for remote and rural
voice telephone
services from development organizations. Information provided
will be kept
confidential and provided to others only on a strict 'need to
know' basis.
Please provide the following information:
1) Name of Organization.
2) How do you currently connect to rural/remote partners/customers/client areas?
3) Current monthly usage of remote voice telecommunications (in minutes).
4) Average cost per minute.
5) Desirability/ability to utilize rescued Iridium for worldwide
access, if
cost-per-minute is less and quality is the same or better.
If you are not now currently utilizing voice telecommunications
to reach
remote/rural partners/customers but would like to if costs came
down, please
complete the above questionnaire and insert a cost per minute
you could
afford. Please be realistic in this estimate given the current
costs of such
telephone service. Please share this questionnaire with other
organizations/lists with whom you work.
Please remember that time is of the essence, and many thanks.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II
From: "Bruce Best" <bbest@uog9.uog.edu>
To: "Roger Boston" <rboston@tenet.edu>
Cc: "Tak Utsumi" <utsumi@columbia.edu>,
"Barlow, Tom (exchg)" <barlowt@prel.org>,
"Dr. Norman Okamura" <norman@elele.peacesat.hawaii.edu>,
"Dr. Dirk Ballendorf" <ballendo@uog9.uog.edu>
Subject: General notes on the Aug. 1-3rd Policy Forum
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 14:06:21 +1000
Roger, hafa adai from Micronesia. You are welcome to attend
if you are
traveling through on August 1-3rd. You could shack up at my ranch
for
free or share a condo with other participants to save cash.
I have had a few people (some old friends) contact me after
reading
Tak=92s (GLOSAS) list server messages. I explained to them:
The August 1-3rd forum is for a small group of regional college
presidents to get together to iron out distance education challenges
facing the Micronesian entities. Only six hard working participants
are
funded (four from FSM, one from Palau, and one from the Marshalls).
To
set the scene, I have scheduled a few speakers to come up on video
teleconference for a 15 minute talk on their present and future
distance
education initiatives in Micronesia (Norman Okamura =96UH, PREL
Rep., a
telemedicine person). I am video teleconferencing in Congressman
Robert
Underwood to talk about PEL grant/compact/Dept. of Education title
grant
updates concerning the College of Micronesia, College of the Marshall
Islands, and Palau Community College programs. I am conferencing
in Dr.
Dirk Ballendorf and Tak Utsumi as a distance education
visionary/futurist presenters who understand remote island needs.
This
small forum has no workshops on technology or delivery methods.
(I am
having a distance education course development/technology workshop
in
April 2001). I am bringing in an outside (non-political/unbiased)
distance education program developer (Ted Christensen) to facilitate
the
policy development workshops.
I have many people interested in observing the conference,
both from the
University of Guam, the region and internationally, most of whom
are
passing through from the Palau PREL Conference that ends just
prior to
my forum. Guam hubs most Micronesia air traffic so to return to
FSM,
Majuro, Hawaii, or America, folks transit through Guam, therefore,
Norman Okamura, Christina Higa, PREL folks, some Dept. of Education
directors, etc., will stay over for a day or so to observe.
I just wanted to be sure we are all on the same bandwidth concerning
size, focus, and attendees to forum on video teleconferencing.
Roger, we have worked with H.324 (8x8, TeleEye) POTS VTC and
they are of
little use off-island because of circuit connectivity to America.
They
work great on island, but, are not useful to America for video.
We can
try, but have not connected above 9600 (usually 4800) band off-island.
Same goes for Shareview, Net Meeting, and other IP-dial up
configurations. We have no wideband Internet capability off-island
and
only 64kbs (occasional 128) V.35 through PeaceSat. We only have
experimental ISDN-H.320 Polycom VTC capability over 64kbs BRI
circuit to
Hawaii =96 this is the mode I am shooting for to bring in Tak
and others
from America. Tak needs to get to a H.320/64/BRI connection/hardware
site to connect to Guam.
Remember, Micronesia has only a few phones per 100 people,
circuits or
double hopped through satellite around Micronesia and a phone
call is
still up to $3.00 a minute in the region (even to next island
in some
cases) and, considering wages for teachers and nurses start at
90 cents
to $1.50 per hour, distance education over commercial services
is not
currently feasible. Therefore, PeaceSat and HF are valuable, and
hopefully in the near future, a VSAT network will bring the transmission
costs within our collective reach.
Comments?
Best regards,
Bruce
****************************************
List of Distribution
John L. Mack, CEO
John L. Mack & Associates
International Telecommunications Investment Consultant
P.O. Box 567
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-0567
301-627-2188
Fax: 301-627-2188
jlmack@erols.com
Mr. Jim Miller
President
SYNECTICS, Ltd.
2 Nickerson Street, Suite 100
Seattle, WA 98109-1652
206-283-9420
206-283-4136
Mobile: 206-619-2144
Fax: 206-283-4538
Paging: 206-955-1036
ShareVision: 206-283-4538 (call 206-283-9420 first)
ISDN Equipped - 206-218-0027/8 (call 206-283-9420 first)
jimmsl@aol.com
jwm@synecticsltd.com
http://synecticsltd.com
E-Rate SPIN - 143004591
74640.2214@compuserve.com
Mr. Bruce R. Best
PEACESAT/TADEO
Research Associate
Station Manager
Telecommunication and Distance Education Operation
Center for Continuing Education & Outreach Programs
University of Guam
Box 5278 UOG Station
Mangilao, Guam 96923
011-671-735-2621/0
011-671-632-5310 4PM-8PM
011-671-734-8826 (Car)
Fax: 011-671-734-8377
Fax: 011-671-734-8377<<04/22/1994>>for short msg
bbest@uog9.uog.edu
Motilal Sharma
Senior Education Specialist
Asian Development Bank
6 ADB Avenue
Mandaluyong City
0401 Metro Manila
P. O. Box 789
0980 Manila
Philippines
+632-632-6797
+632-632-4444 (main)
Fax: +632-636-2310
+632-636-2444 (main)
msharma@mail.asiandevbank.org
http://www.adb.org
Dr. Dalia Moawad
Project Coordinator
Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center
(RITSEC)
PO Box 433 Heliopolis Center 11757
Cairo, Egypt
tel:+20-2-339-1361 (Direct)
+20-2-339-1300
fax:+20-2-341-2139
mobile:+20-12-221-3623
dalia001@hotmail.com
dmoawad@ritsec2.com.eg
http://www.ritsec.com.eg/learnnet/
Alexandre Rivas, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Director of the Center for Environmental Sciences
University of Amazonas - Brazil
C.P. 4208, Manaus 69053-140
BRAZIL
+55-92-644 23 22
Fax: +55-92-644 23 84
alex_mau@argo.com.br
http://www.argo.com.br/~alex_mau/alex.htm
http://lab-tiama.pop-am.rnp.br/cca/workshop/English/wksp_E.htm
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.)
*
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
*
* Founder of CAADE *
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education)
*
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination
of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer
email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
**********************************************************************