SABB 2007 wraps up with overwhelming participation

The first ever South Asia Broadband Communication Congress and Expo (SABB 2007)held in Colombo last week, ended successfully. SABB 2007 attracted delegates and speakers from across the region including keynote plenary speaker, Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, the adviser on ICT to India's Prime Minister.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala said that the main broadband concern in the Southeast Asian region is affordability. He suggested through prices as low as $7 per month in mobile phone use, operators still have the opportunity to profit. Using India as a case study, Dr. Jhunjhunwala believes in a staggered pricing scale accommodating urban and rural sectors who on average earn $500 and $200 a month respectively.

Some rural areas' mobile operators were able to profit even at a $4 a month per user rate. Through such relative pricing scales, Dr. Jhunjhunwala believes in 2-3 years, rural mobile coverage will expand to 90%. He explains rural broadband expansion will help in education, provide remote healthcare and promote BPO's in villages so computer literate people will not be forced to migrate to urban areas.

Broadband, considered 'the next big thing' after the mobile revolution, is aggressively growing worldwide. Speaking at the Congress, Janaka Abeysinghe, DGM Solution Buisness Section at SLT, said that broadband growth in the Asia Pacific has grown from 45.6 million in 2004 to 62.5 million in 2005 and is expected to double to 119 million by the year 2010.

SLT CMO Priyantha Perera said data and IP revenue growth in Sri Lanka has risen by 79 percent whilst non-voice services such as ADSL have also shown strong growth. It was noted that broadband will give a boost to fixed-line telcos, which have been losing voice customers to the wireless operators. Broadband will enable fixed-line companies to use their existing infrastructure without much investment to generate additional revenues.

From a consumer's point of view, broadband not just simplifies systems with more choices, it also offers high speed connectivity. In a world where the globalisation becomes the general operating principle, access to information and communication technologies is a key for economic and social development. This is, of course, a crucial issue for emerging countries.