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Preparing to expand high speed Internet in Sri Lanka

Broadband has been identified as a dominant technology in the world that people use to access information and services speedily over the Internet. Since its emergence broadband has created many excitements in the world especially in countries where broadband penetration is high

The Far eastern region is regarded as the birthplace of modern broadband. Much enthusiasm took place in this region in the recent past due to the introduction of high speed broadband Internet. The speed that is coexistent in broadband had virtually shortened the distance between countries and people. Data started to flow right across the world at lightning speed by connecting millions of people living in different parts of the world.

National level initiative

Broadband development is a Government driven mechanism. Today broadband has become the talk of the town. In the time to come neither economy nor society can survive without the presence of high speed broadband Internet. Having identified this situation many countries have taken a number of measures to adopt and deploy broadband in their countries by allowing its people to receive the remunerations of broadband.

Promoting broadband is a Government driven mechanism. It is a uniform process in all over the world and it flourishes with the Government.

Our neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan have timely identified the importance of high speed broadband in civic society and took national level initiative to promote and develop broadband in their respective countries. Pakistan would be the first in the region to implement a policy for broadband Internet and that was in early 2004.

Broadband was introduced in Sri Lanka in 2003 by the incumbent operator. Since then many players have joined the market to provide broadband in different forms of technologies from wired to wireless.

Sri Lanka’s broadband market is enriched with cutting edge broadband technologies that would capable of serving customers with the speed nearing 28Mbps. Wireless broadband technologies based on mobile broadband are taking the lead in speeds while fixed wired services such as ADSL were confined to single digits below 10Mbps.

In fact there would be no deficiency in technology. But as a nation we have yet to identify the potentials of broadband so far. This condition led broadband to go unnoticed and negatively impacted on our economy losing billions of rupees to our national economy in the process of economic development based on novel technologies.

Though we have high tech technologies available in the country, still the majority of people are living in the country without having access to the Internet. National priority has not been given to promote high speed broadband Internet except the programs launched by operators to market their products and services.

No authority was keen to educate the public about the benefits of Internet and its potentials. No standardization was ever made to uplift the service levels in broadband. Due to dawdling broadband services people in the country have failed to realize the benefits of high speed broadband Internet.

Existing obstacles Promoting broadband is a huge task that requires Government’s backing.

Information and services

It includes many components from public awareness to infrastructure development. In this regard public must be educated about the importance of high speed broadband Internet. And they must be provided with an affordable high speed Internet services to access the information and services irrespective of their locality. Then other factors such as legal barricades that dampen broadband must be removed by allowing broadband to flourish freely in the country. Similarly public services and applications must be brought online by allowing citizens to access them remotely.

This application development is regarded as one of the significant requirements that promote broadband usage among citizens. It could be entertainment or education. But regardless of the nature of the application public must be provided with an opportunity to access these services freely from their homes.

However the key factors that required for the development of broadband Internet in Sri Lanka has not been met. Lack of local content would be one of the major issues that prevent broadband usage in the country.

In this context content hosting prices must be brought down in the country with immediately effect by allowing content to be grown freely.

Favourable environment

Nevertheless e-mail storage quota must be increased per user and bandwidth restrictions must also be removed by reallocating unethical FUP limits.

Government is taking the challenge A favourable environment is required for the development of broadband. Barricades that discourage the public from using Internet must be identified and removed immediately.

This would be a challenging task from beginning to the end. Having identified this condition and the importance of high speed broadband Internet, the Government has taken strategic measures to develop high speed broadband (HSBB) in the country.

With the collaboration of Sri Lankan telecom regulator TRCSL, the National Broadband Consultative Committee initiated an accelerated broadband development project in Sri Lanka to develop and promote data communication services with immediate effect.

Broadband development is a multitasking exercise consisted of collective vectors that require streamlining. To develop broadband, speeds must be increased; coverage must be widening while removing other obstacles that hampers broadband proliferation. National broadband policy is essential for the broadband growth.

Rules and regulations could also be introduced to the industry through this as a remedy to the existing problems that hamper broadband penetration. In this regard formulating a national policy for high-speed broadband would be one of the key objectives of the National Broadband Consultative Committee.

While concentrating on the development of broadband through the introduction of new standards, NBCC would be focusing on critical matters that faced by ISPs in the country.

More or less it is the duty of the Government to support the industry players by identifying difficulties what they are facing in the process of delivering broadband services. In this context NBCC can make representations to relevant authorities on behalf of industry players to address their needs.

Presence of affordable widely spread data communication network is essential in the country. To achieve IT goals set by the Mahinda Chinthanaya NBCC will be taking all possible measures in the future to promote Sri Lanka as an IT hub in the region.

[email protected]

The writer is a member of National Broadband Consultative Committee

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