Telecom Summit 2010, colombo:
Revolution lies ahead
Broadband services to be key growth drive:
Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI
Sri Lanka and India have immense growth potential for collaborations
in the telecommunication industry.
UT Starcom’s Managing Director for South Asia Vijay Yadav said Sri
Lanka has a well adopted technology in telecommunications and
geographically Lanka is well placed.
UT Starcom MD Vijay Yadav |
“Therefore with the dawn of peace the true potential of the industry
will come to the forefront,” he said speaking on the theme “Telecom
Revolution in Sri Lanka-Vision for a fast track growth,” at the Telecom
Summit 2010 held yesterday.
Yadav said Sri Lanka is a point of entry to India and it has easy
access to the South East Asian region.
It will go beyond South Asia and the future is very clear for
countries like Sri Lanka, India and South Africa.
It is going beyond from convergence of services where the user gets
the same experience as a face to face meeting.
Therefore Sri Lanka has an eminent role to play,” he said.
Science and Technology Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana said Sri Lanka
needs advanced ICT.
He requested the support of India to provide with the necessary
impetus while helping themselves. He assured maximum benefits to
investors in this sector.
Suntel Chief Technology Officer Vajira Wijesinghe said although Sri
Lanka has shown a tremendous growth in the industry, a stagnation of
revenue is witnessed due to policies, technology and market adoption.
Sri Lanka Telecom Summit inaugural session in progress.
Pictures by Saliya Rupasinghe |
“The costs including taxes are very high. Revenue is down and all
stakeholders must cooperate to address these issues with commitment,” he
said.
Telecom operators need to have a code share system for fiber optic
network and the growth will have to come from advanced services
Wijesinghe said.
IPTV India Forum President Dr D.P.S. Seth said the key requirement in
the sector is to be able to provide broadband services to Sri Lanka.
“Regulatory provisioning is essential for the telecom sector to grow.
It has to be a pulse line as Broadband services act as catalyst in the
developing of the economy,” he said.
Dialog Mobile CEO Supun Weerasinghe said Dialog had a tough time
during 2008 and 2009 due to price cutting by other operators.
“But now we are coming out of that situation with the support of the
Regulatory Commission,” he said.
“We have broadband services which will be the key drive of growth for
the next two to three years with a five percent of market penetration,”
he said.
Over 200 participants from around the country and from India were
present at the Sri Lanka Telecom Summit.
The Summit concluded with the anticipation to poise Lanka’s telecom
industry to be the next biggest growth engine in the SAARC region.
The conference was organized by Bharath Exhibitions India. |