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Sri Lanka Telecom: Government Must Support OperatorsNiall Hunt, Editor, 10/25/2017
Economic, infrastructure and social factors challenge rural broadband connectivity in Sri Lanka, an executive at the nation's leading service provider told Broadband World Forum attendees. Many rural residents have seasonal income, based largely on agriculture, said Tilak De Silva, chief business innovation officer at Sri Lanka Telecom. "In season, they are very rich and buy IT products," he said. "At other times they sell the IT kit." As a result, customer loyalty is often low, De Silva added. Other challenges are technical. Given the sparsely populated farmlands, houses are often widely spread. This creates problems when trying to use ADSL, he said. "We want to keep this to less than 2km to get 20Mbps, but this is problem in rural areas," De Silva said. "The ideal solution is 4G lite... Often access is across private land or the roads become overgrown. Towers also have to built to a height that is taller than the vegetation." Another issue is electricity, which can be an unreliable source in rural regions of Sri Lanka, he said. The government must address some of these concerns by solving legal and regulatory issues around land, approvals and incentives to operators, said De Silva. Like many peers at other operators in different nations, the provider wants the government to create a supportive environment and revise existing regulatory and legal frameworks, he said. Related posts:
— Niall Hunt, Digital Lead, Content & Communities, KNect365. Follow him on Twitter @Niall_Hunt. |
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