Panel on Network Technologies
Session Chair: Ken Banks
Scribe: Guido Grassel

1. Talk:
Can Low Cost Networking provide a solution to wider ICT network access in
developing countries ? by Oscar Rietkerk, Gjalt Loots and Gerard van
Oortmerssen (TNO) 

Q: Case studies covering mobile phones:
A: Zambia main operator is rolling out cellular data, GPRS, EDGE. This could
be the backbone for ICT services. But state of technology is not there, yet.

Q: How can communities raise the money for the infra structure? - Why is
this the way to go? - The service is not offered for free to the community.
E.g. hospital pays, villages use pre-paid for services. A simple ICT service
can save people long and expensive travel.

Q: What does Software without Borders think about this? What are the costs,
who pays, who is involved?
A: bill of materials is 60kEur for one site. bill of material sis the
smallest part for a normal operator. However, in our case these other costs
are low because locals take care of the material.

Q: Role of W3C? - Communication bandwidth is low. E.g. eliminate banners
would help a lot already. Want to build awareness of low bandwidth
environments such as large parts of Africa.


session chair: such a community getting Internet access would be a good
possibility for a case study. What kind of needs can be satisfied? How do
people use the Internet? What improvements to the community can be realized?


                        ----

Information Services and Access Mechanism of Mobile Web for the
Under-privileged  by A. K. Talukder.

q: How many SMS by a user session
A: very few, 2 maybe. A proxy might transcode both way.

Q: How does this relate to GPRS?
A: We just talk about rouning SMS from any mobile to any service anywhere in
the world. Lives besides GPRS.

Q: Usability? What happens if we use this beyond very simple question answer
type of transactions?
A: Yes and No - We did all kinds of apps on top of SMS some 6 years ago with
my previous company. But the app needs to be operator independent.


                -----

Mobile Web in India by A. Ghaisas and K. Kakarla (Motorola)

Q: 
A: Based on Apps, use og graphics is feasible?

Q: one problem is configuration. I (Stefane B.) hear this very often.
A: yes , a lot of stuff needs to be configured. Everything is configured
when you get the phone. There are also OTA technologies established. There
is work to be done to make OTA configuration form better , e.g. for the case
where user subscribed to a new service.

A: Configuration is a proble, but there are other barriers as well. Mentions

Q: Not all phones have XHTML browsers? What is the cheapest browser with
browser.
A: All the new ones have a XHTML browser. The pricing is complex to answer.
If the service is disabled by the users plan, the browserr app might be
hidden on the phone.

Q: how about changing how an SMS looks.
A: Animated icons in SMS are in use by DOCO phone.


Q: what kind of devices will be sold in India, from Moto perspective.
A: I am not competent to answer, its not by area of work. Different kinds of
phones. In addition we offer very bottom end phones for voice and SMS only.


Q: Is disposing of phones considered already at the design phase?
A: Mentions: environmentally friendly sourcing for displays.  more resistant
to rough environmental conditions.