Broadband connectivity vital for businesses
Anjana SAMARASINGHE
Sri Lanka needs to focus special attention on broadband connectivity
as it is becoming more important for the development of businesses in
the country.
Speaking to the Daily News Business, Executive Director of Lirneasia
Prof Rohan Samarajiva said there should be more serious policy and
regulatory attention for broadband infrastructure in the country. In Sri
Lanka broadband connectivity is now becoming necessary for businesses to
function and for day-to- day life.
The most cost-effective broadband technology for ordinary people and
small businesses is ADSL. Unfortunately ADSL is monopolised in the
country.
This is a copper based technology and if authority is given only for
one service provider to use copper it will automatically create a
monopoly in providing ADSL service for that service provider, he said.
“Only one service provider in the industry is permitted to lay copper
while others are not permitted to do so. This should be stopped and a
level playing field created for the industry to improve competitiveness
in the sector,” he said.
There is a wireless alternative too and it is important give all the
players in the industry the option of using wireless broadband. If all
the players were supplying the same services they will have the keenness
to increase the quality of the broadband services to be competitive in
the industry.
However, the quality of the broadband service in Colombo has now
deteriorated.
The only solution for increasing the quality of the service is to
provide a level playing field and raise quality through competitiveness.
Local call charges have come down due to such competitiveness in the
industry he said.
Talking about the connectivity charges in the country Samarajiva said
that broadband residential connectivity charges were not too expensive
compared with other countries in the region.
But when it comes to leased lines (DPLC) used by large businesses,
the local charges are much higher than those of other countries in the
region which could badly impact on attracting investments in IT related
services to the country.
Recent research on the local BPO industry reveals that most of the
BPOs are unhappy with the quality of their leased lines. “A Service
Level Agreement (SLA) with the service provider is the solution to
maintain the quality of this service. But there is no SLA culture in Sri
Lanka,” he said.
The telecommunications watchdog also needs to focus on the undersea
cables and on the ways all players in the industry could access them to
increase the quality. “Only two companies in the county have access to
these cables,” he pointed out. |