Sri Lanka’s telecom regulator is accelerating structural challenges and trends that have long suppressed the telecommunications industry’s growth to create a dynamic, competitive, innovative telecommunications infrastructure.
Oshada Senanayake, Chairman – Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRC) said that amongst these, the optical fiber submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between Sri Lanka and other nations or the Sea – Me – We cable capacity is being increased.
”The Sea – Me – We 6 submarine cable which would carry telecommunications between Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe is now being discussed through the convergence of telco operators across the region. We are looking at adding a further 6o bps of backbone connectivity in three years when Sea – Me – We are ready,” he told a virtual Sri Lanka Investment Forum on Tuesday.
In addition to this capacity building, the TRC is working on one of the first-in-the-world submarine cable resilience programme with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Maritime Crime Programme.
The TRC is in the final stages of introducing a data protection law to facilitate data management. ”It was sent to the Legal Draftsman,” Mr. Senanayake told the Business Times on Wednesday.
The telco regulator has introduced a spectrum management framework to streamline spectrum allocation.
“We are looking to introduce sandboxing for spectrum frequency testing,” Mr. Senanayake added. He said the sandboxing will give spectrum to test certain Internet of Things (loT) projects etc. ”This will empower innovation in the country.”
He said the first 5G spectrum auctioning will be done towards the end of this year in consultation with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). He added that 75 to 100 locations have 5G cover and the TRC has a rapid trial mechanism in place for 5G.
The Cabinet paper for clearing UHF bandwidth for 5G connectivity has been submitted. ”This means that the terrestrial television which is analog will change more towards digital transmission freeing 700 megahertz of the analog band which will be considered for the 5G spectrum,” he said.
He added that a new framework for radio frequency spectrum licensing based on ITU guidelines will be made. With this, there will be faster coverage bringing down overhead costs for firms. A faster turnaround time is needed to attract high-quality services into the country, Mr. Senanayake added.
He said that the TRC is in discussion with those providing ‘satellite as a service’ mechanism to help set up satellite base stations here to grant satellite as a service to multinational companies across the world from Sri Lanka. A cybersecurity law will be enacted within the next few months which will enable a Cyber Security Agency, he added.
Source: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210613/business-times/trc-goes-out-all-guns-blazing-446248.html