Empowering Sri Lanka with 5G
The world is in a phase where technology is developing at a speed as it was never before. There is not a single field that has not been evolved and developed with time. Out of all, the sector that shows a massive change over time is telecommunication. The past few months with the global Covid pandemic has proven this fact even more. Starting from the latter half of the 20th century, telecommunication has paced through several milestones passing generations such as 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G as well. Right now, the world is stepping onto another major breakthrough of all time that has already forecasted a revolutionized future; the 5th Generation!
What makes 5G more interesting is that it is not limited to a typical message transfer via telephones that we have known so far. In simple terms, 5G is an integration of everything around us. The 3 basic features it offers; Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) and Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) have enabled it to overcome almost every drawback that previous mobile generations possessed.
DEPLOYMENT OF 5G
5G has been initiated in several countries by now at different levels. There are many commercially available 5G deployments as well as those with limited availability. Some countries have still launched this technology at the pre-release stage. When comparing with the rest of the world, South Asia seems to be somewhat behind the 5G deployment process. There are only very few countries in South Asia that have at least deployed 5G in the pre-release phase by now. But it is quite appreciable that Sri Lanka is among the very first countries in the world to deploy 5G.
Sri Lanka has initiated this revolutionizing technology by following a demonstration of 5G speed tests using a 5G smart phone in June, 2019. The pioneer in this process has been Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd, a communication service provider (CSP) in Sri Lanka and they have performed the demonstration using Huawei 5G network equipment in 3.6 GHz trial spectrum allocation from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL). At this initiation, a massive speed of 1.55Gbps has been achieved showing indications of a very fast future in Sri Lanka. Currently, there are 3 deployments of 5G in the country that are all at pre-release stage. Two of them have been deployed by Mobitel at Colombo and Polonnaruwa, while the other pre-release deployment has been done by Dialog Axiata also at Colombo.
HAS SRI LANKA BEEN EMPOWERED?
It is true that the initiation of 5G in Sri Lanka at a very early stage is a fact that we all can be proud of. But it simultaneously raises the question ‘Where is it now?’. 2 years have already passed and many countries that have initiated 5G along with us have eventually deployed 5G with limited availability and now there are about 21996 places in the world that have already made 5G commercially available to customers. It is evident that there exists a delay in 5G deployment in Sri Lanka. Let the issue be as it is, there is another side that requires attention, ‘Is Sri Lanka capable of initializing 5G all around the country?’.
National Digital Policy for Sri Lanka 2020-2025 draft 2.0 which has been published on 7th October 2019 has stated that even though Sri Lanka is a country with one of the highest GDPs (Gross Domestic Products) in South Asia, despite being able to embrace pervious technologies before any other country in the region, it lags behind wealthier economies in wider Asia on internet adoption and digital development. Also it mentions that the current telecommunications law in the country is needed to be modified in order to suit the requirements of the emerging 5G ecosystem. So it is clear that Sri Lanka is still at the early stages of testing and developing basic requirements for 5G commercial deployment within the country.
Right now every country is in a race to become technologically empowered. 5G is simply another revolutionary milestone in that path. Yet it is for sure that 5G is about to create a new era for the human kind. Of course Sri Lanka is way ahead of rest of South Asia but it has to develop more from infrastructure as well as other subsidiary facilities in telecommunication to empower Sri Lanka with 5G. It is the expectation of all Sri Lankans that, the day we all get to experience the high speed, low latency, massive connectivity new generation is not far away.
REFERENCES
https://www.mobitel.lk/pres.../mobitel-5g-revolution-is-real
https://www.mobitel.lk/.../mobitel-5g-becomes-the-first...
https://lki.lk/.../geopolitics-of-5g-and-its-relevance.../
https://www.lankabusinessonline.com/sri-lanka-telecom.../
http://kdu.ac.lk/.../Draft_National_Digital...
https://www.speedtest.net/ookla-5g-map
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