Preparing to expand high speed Internet in Sri Lanka
Sanath Siriwardena
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 |