Mobile penetration pushes companies into 3G networking

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

MOBILITY: It is estimated that one in three persons in Sri Lanka has some mode of connectibility and this is very high for the region and a major positive factor for a developing country like Sri Lanka. This is one of the best penetration rates for a developing country.

Sri Lanka which was the first South Asian country to have a 3G-test network is moving fast in the area with two operators already pursuing 3G aggressively.

In addition the tele-density in the country too is increasing at a rapid growth.

While South Asia has been cautious in its adoption, Sri Lanka was the first South Asian country to adopt to this modern type of communication.

While spectrum allocation issues are being finalised across the region from India to Sri Lanka, according to the leading industry analyst IDC's latest report "Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Mobile Services 2006-2010 Forecast Update: 2005 Year-End Review" 3G penetration is expected to reach 13.5% in the Asia-Pacific region (without Japan) by 2010, while mobile penetration will shoot up to an overall 37%.

In Sri Lanka too the mobile penetration rate is far greater than of India an official of the Telecom Regulatory Commission said.

It is estimated that cellular users in Sri Lanka would touch the 5 million mark by the end of this year with Dialog GSM passing the 2.5 million-subscriber mark.

Sri Lanka Telecom announced that they have connected one million fixed line subscribers.

In addition the CDMA wireless technology provided by SLT, Suntel and Lanka Bell too has helped to increase tele-density and total CDMA subscribers are expected to reach the one million mark early next year.

The pay phone booths too are increasing with an annual growth of around 20 percent and are expected to reach the 10,000 mark by mid next year.

Country Director, Nokia Networks Lanka, Sunil Lakshmanasinghe said while fixed broadband technology in the form of ADSL and other technologies are spreading like wildfire, mobile broadband is the latest technology that is sweeping the Asia Pacific region.

Many new players are scrambling to get a foothold of this booming market, fuelled by the needs of "truly mobile" individuals.

Technologies like HSDPA (High Speed Download Packet Access) have also emerged in the Sri Lankan market. While emerging markets continue to focus on closing the digital divide with rising tele-density, developed markets will emphasise more on growing non-voice revenue.

Over the forecast period, increasing launch of mobile data content and applications will enhance service differentiation for service providers, and 3G services will be progressively launched across all key 10 markets, which includes Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippines, the PRC, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

3G is still in its infancy in most countries, mobile operators in Japan and South Korea have already reached 40% penetration of 3G services and they provide valuable lessons for mobile operators in other regions.

Adoption of such technologies in turn provides massive opportunities for operators to use technology innovatively to bridge the digital divide and to enable Sri Lanka to leap frog in the area of technology adoption.