ANNOTATION
ANNOTATION 5 535 z
The active
business season is almost over and it is high time to have a rest. However,
whether you will spend your summer vacation in Cyprus or in New Zealand, you
still wont be able to do without communication, even without your laptop. You
would like to know how your company is doing without you, to send and receive
e-mails, to play on-line games (at last you have time for it!). The best way to
do it effectively is to use wireless Internet access in hotspots which become
more and more popular world-wide. Also
in the present issue of Sakaru Pasaule one
can find a lot of interesting information related to Internet access, Internet
content, Internet journalists (bloggers), e-mail ethics, Nettiquette etc. Enjoy the summer together with us!
In this issue:
· Lets not waste the national resource - numeration
(pages 32-33)
Latvia is
the only state in Europe where telecommunication network operators do not have
to pay for numeration resources. Optimal payment amount could be 5-10 santimes
per year. If such a system would be introduced also in Latvia,
telecommunication operators would use the numeration resources more
economically.
Anyway at
the present moment there are quite sufficient resources in Latvia both for
fixed and mobile networks. However, to give an opportunity for the new entrants
to compete more successfully, the Regulator has asked Lattelekom to reorganise numeration system in eight regions. These
were the ones where more than 90 per
cent of numbers were occupied, but now - after number multiplexing procedure -
there are 10 000 free numbers available for competitors in each of these
regions. Also in mobile networks the
situation is rather stable - 1.7 million numbers for about a million mobile
users. The situation could change within 5-7 years, and then we could start
thinking about 8-figure numbers that are very topical in many other
countries.
· How to enrich the Internet content in Latvia?
(pages 34-37)
One of the
key problems is that we do not have enough content in Latvian as the market is
too narrow to invest more. Also the revenue from web advertising is not
sufficient to develop content as it costs even more than technologies and
software. The biggest Internet resources are the most popular portals - www.delfi.lv, www.apollo.lv and www.tvnet.lv,
and, naturally, they bite the biggest piece of the advertisement pie. Internet experts suppose that there are only
two ways out - either to increase advertising budget or to find more attractive
motive for sponsoring or subsidising new Internet resources (one of the most
successful ones is portal www.politika.lv
sponsored by Soros Foundation).
On the
other hand, there are quite a lot web
sites in Latvia that are developed and maintained by enthusiastic people
without any investments. Also some car, computer, telecommunication industry,
as well as real estate and finance resources are quite successful. But one of
the ways how to make Internet content richer is - to pay for it. Also web users
in Latvia start to understand that if they want qualitative content, quick
browsing and good results, it is worth to pay.
·Are we ready for e-goverment?
(pages 42-43)
The
electronic document law was passed last
autumn and according to it a practical exchange of e-documents in state
institutions would have to start by January 1, 2004. It means that even each
tiny rural municipality will have to be able to accept electronic documents
from the inhabitants. However it is doubtful that it will be possible as
neither state institutions nor society are not ready for it.
Some of
the biggest municipalities try to implement elements of e-government and
e-documents themselves. Ventspils was
ready for e-document implementation already a year ago. They have finished
classification of all the services of the municipality, the employees are trained in handling the
Electronic document management system based on Microsoft .NET technology. The approximate investments in this
project during five years could be as high as 1,9 million lats. But it is quite
certain that only a few municipalities
in Latvia can afford to invest so much.
A very
significant e-document is also a persons identification card (IDC). It is
planned that the first cards should be issued by May, 1, 2004. IDCs in Latvia
are supposed to be very unique: in the IDC chip
a digital signature and also biometric data (finger prints) would be
integrated. Sure, it is very progressive, but it most probably means that
e-government solutions will be implemented in everyday life in a very distant
future.
· Wi-Fi - hot Internet wireless access
(pages 66-67)
Wireless access to Internet became topical already in 1999 when the
international Wi-Fi Alliance was formed to
certify interoperability of wireless LAN. Currently the Wi-Fi Alliance has 375
member companies from around the world, and 715 products have received Wi-Fi
certification. The Wi-Fi wave becomes
higher and higher, - it has expanded all over the world and has reached also
the costs of Baltic sea. The industry
analysts forecast that in 2005 there could be more than 118 000 public Internet
access points (hotspots) world-wide.
The Wi-Fi
pioneer in Latvia is Lattelekom which
together with its partners installed the first public wireless Internet access
point in September, 2002. At present there are more than 20 access points in Riga and Ventspils, by the
end of the year their amount could reach
50 but within three years - at least 1000. More information: lattelekom.lv/wifi,
The active
business season is almost over and it is high time to have a rest. However,
whether you will spend your summer vacation in Cyprus or in New Zealand, you
still wont be able to do without communication, even without your laptop. You
would like to know how your company is doing without you, to send and receive
e-mails, to play on-line games (at last you have time for it!). The best way to
do it effectively is to use wireless Internet access in hotspots which become
more and more popular world-wide. Also
in the present issue of Sakaru Pasaule one
can find a lot of interesting information related to Internet access, Internet
content, Internet journalists (bloggers), e-mail ethics, Nettiquette etc. Enjoy the summer together with us!
In this issue:
· Lets not waste the national resource - numeration
(pages 32-33)
Latvia is
the only state in Europe where telecommunication network operators do not have
to pay for numeration resources. Optimal payment amount could be 5-10 santimes
per year. If such a system would be introduced also in Latvia,
telecommunication operators would use the numeration resources more
economically.
Anyway at
the present moment there are quite sufficient resources in Latvia both for
fixed and mobile networks. However, to give an opportunity for the new entrants
to compete more successfully, the Regulator has asked Lattelekom to reorganise numeration system in eight regions. These
were the ones where more than 90 per
cent of numbers were occupied, but now - after number multiplexing procedure -
there are 10 000 free numbers available for competitors in each of these
regions. Also in mobile networks the
situation is rather stable - 1.7 million numbers for about a million mobile
users. The situation could change within 5-7 years, and then we could start
thinking about 8-figure numbers that are very topical in many other
countries.
· How to enrich the Internet content in Latvia?
(pages 34-37)
One of the
key problems is that we do not have enough content in Latvian as the market is
too narrow to invest more. Also the revenue from web advertising is not
sufficient to develop content as it costs even more than technologies and
software. The biggest Internet resources are the most popular portals - www.delfi.lv, www.apollo.lv and www.tvnet.lv,
and, naturally, they bite the biggest piece of the advertisement pie. Internet experts suppose that there are only
two ways out - either to increase advertising budget or to find more attractive
motive for sponsoring or subsidising new Internet resources (one of the most
successful ones is portal www.politika.lv
sponsored by Soros Foundation).
On the
other hand, there are quite a lot web
sites in Latvia that are developed and maintained by enthusiastic people
without any investments. Also some car, computer, telecommunication industry,
as well as real estate and finance resources are quite successful. But one of
the ways how to make Internet content richer is - to pay for it. Also web users
in Latvia start to understand that if they want qualitative content, quick
browsing and good results, it is worth to pay.
·Are we ready for e-goverment?
(pages 42-43)
The
electronic document law was passed last
autumn and according to it a practical exchange of e-documents in state
institutions would have to start by January 1, 2004. It means that even each
tiny rural municipality will have to be able to accept electronic documents
from the inhabitants. However it is doubtful that it will be possible as
neither state institutions nor society are not ready for it.
Some of
the biggest municipalities try to implement elements of e-government and
e-documents themselves. Ventspils was
ready for e-document implementation already a year ago. They have finished
classification of all the services of the municipality, the employees are trained in handling the
Electronic document management system based on Microsoft .NET technology. The approximate investments in this
project during five years could be as high as 1,9 million lats. But it is quite
certain that only a few municipalities
in Latvia can afford to invest so much.
A very
significant e-document is also a persons identification card (IDC). It is
planned that the first cards should be issued by May, 1, 2004. IDCs in Latvia
are supposed to be very unique: in the IDC chip
a digital signature and also biometric data (finger prints) would be
integrated. Sure, it is very progressive, but it most probably means that
e-government solutions will be implemented in everyday life in a very distant
future.
· Wi-Fi - hot Internet wireless access
(pages 66-67)
Wireless access to Internet became topical already in 1999 when the
international Wi-Fi Alliance was formed to
certify interoperability of wireless LAN. Currently the Wi-Fi Alliance has 375
member companies from around the world, and 715 products have received Wi-Fi
certification. The Wi-Fi wave becomes
higher and higher, - it has expanded all over the world and has reached also
the costs of Baltic sea. The industry
analysts forecast that in 2005 there could be more than 118 000 public Internet
access points (hotspots) world-wide.
The Wi-Fi
pioneer in Latvia is Lattelekom which
together with its partners installed the first public wireless Internet access
point in September, 2002. At present there are more than 20 access points in Riga and Ventspils, by the
end of the year their amount could reach
50 but within three years - at least 1000. More information: lattelekom.lv/wifi,