National Broadband Policy to support high-speed services

Rasika SOMARATHNA

Sri Lanka's National Broadband Policy to come into effect shortly, focuses mainly on developing the country's telecommunication infrastructure facilities to support the delivery of high-speed broadband services and providing guidance to stakeholders to develop broadband in key application areas where it is used to provide services to the public.

One of the salient features according to authorities will be the proposed tax incentives and special subsidies to operators to encourage them to deploy high-speed broadband services in underserved areas where return on investment would be low.

In developing services, a number of steps have been proposed in the policy. It includes a national definition, and conditions to create a level playing field for operators and technological standards.

It also has provision to promote broadband in schools and other educational institutions while encouraging distance learning programme development.

Alternative technologies to take broadband to the rural communities have also been considered.

The policy also provides guidance to stakeholders including government, industry operators and broadband users to develop broadband in key application areas where broadband is used to provide services to the public.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka(TRCSL) anticipates filling the longstanding vacuum in the data communication sector in Sri Lanka through the National Broadband Policy.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his speech at the inauguration of the International Telecommunication Unions(ITU) Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) on Tuesday in Colombo said Sri Lanka would have a National Broadband Policy before the end of this year.

Later speaking to the press, Secretary to the President and TRCSL Chairman Lalith Weeratunge said the national policy focusses on supplementing the enhancement of broadband penetration in Sri Lanka, especially in underserved areas, while encouraging investments directly in broadband deployment.

He said that one of the main aims of the government was to ensure equity in access to ICT. A case study on Sri Lanka conducted by the ITU named "strategies for the promotion of broadband services and infrastructure" points out that Sri Lanka has made impressive strides in the field of ICT and in the next phase, the country will give priority to deploy high-speed broadband services with greater bandwidth capacities.

The TRCSL says it will provide guidance and encourage operators to deploy fiber networks right up to the customer premises using alternative and cost effective methods.

The TRCSL is expecting Sri Lanka's first Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network to commence its operations in Sri Lanka shortly, with speed up to 25Mbps.