Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has been able to connect a mobile phone to its 5G trial network.
“The regulator has been very progressive in bringing new technology. They have issued trial frequencies,” Rasantha Hettithanthrige, Manager Engineering and Operations SLT, said participating as a panelist at the National Digital Strategy event held at the Nelum Pokuna on June 11.
Hettithanthrige added, “We are convinced of the business case of 5G. However, we are yet to recover our 4G investments. As with Singtel, we appeal to the regulator to roll out 5G with a free allocation of spectrum. Unlike in 4G or 3G arena, you need a large number of base stations. At the initial stage, the cost to the operator will be very high.”
Priyantha Fernandez, Chief Operating Officer SLT said “We invested in our wired and wireless networks. (For) Fiber we have an ambitious plan to connect one million ports by 2020 and two million ports by 2022. Mobitel has an ambitious plan to cover 90 percent of our country’s households with 4g technology by the end of this year.”
C H Yung, Director Smart City Solutions Huawei said, “By 2021 we are going to look at 40 billion devices all over the world, of which there will be more than 100 billion connections connecting all these devices, connecting 180 billion terabytes of data.
There is a need for a digital enabled platform, a nationwide platform. We should be able to get all these technologies together so we can use this, not just the government but businesses and the people.
“We are looking at fully connected video cameras. This is to provide a safe place. We are working closely with SLT as well as other partners to come up with a safer city for Sri Lanka.
We are looking at putting up intelligent
operation centers so we can make sense of all this data that is coming up.”
SLT has launched a sign language enabled video calling facility for the department of government information. SLT envisions connecting all government departments digitally. John Keells is to develop smart digitally equipped apartments in partnership with SLT and Keells Super is planning to digitally communicate purchases and potential future requirements to customers.
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