The future of the world is digitalisation and this trend needs to be embraced in going forward. 5G, the next generation technology, could be used to transform Sri Lanka into a digital nation, an IT industry expert said.
“The Information Communication Industry (ICI) has become the fastest growing industry in Sri Lanka. The technology will help to do the transformation. A country cannot progress rapidly without adopting technology. As the 21st century will be knowledgecentric, Sri Lanka needs to gear up to face the transition,” Vice President, Public and Government Affairs, Enterprise Business Group of Huawei Technologies Lanka Co. (Pvt) Ltd., Indika de Zoysa said.
“We are the first country in this part of the world to adopt 4G and 5G technology is coming soon. Global 5G commercialisation is accelerating. Sri Lanka conducted commercial trials for 5G technology last year. It is expected that the Government will release the spectrum to facilitate the adaptation. The rapid roll out will deliver game changing capabilities,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s internet and social media penetration is seven million and six million users. However, worldwide one billion people have no mobile connectivity and 3.8 billion are offline.
The new technology will create challenges in some areas when it comes to rural deployment such as transmission, power supply, logistics and installation.
“Technology is the future. However, to benefit from this, building skills at all levels of society is the key. This technology will help to reduce poverty, create a healthy population, provide education for all and a also a clean environment. The technology will revolve across all stratus of society. The way forward will be for digital inclusion to become a global innovation hub with a citizen centric digital government that facilitates IT entrepreneurship,” he said.
According to de Zoysa, this will be the next learning paradigm shift. Technology will give the space to do the transactions. A growing trend in ICT adoption in the SME sector could be seen at present. This highlights the importance of becoming future ready and updated.
The benefit of cost reduction and saving of time could be achieved through the deployment of technology which will also bring economic gains to the country
Although experts claim that Sri Lanka is a long way from implementing 5G technology, preparations are under way to install smart poles in several provinces.
Major categories of use for 5G include: Massive machine to machine communication; also known as the Internet of Things (IoT) which involves connecting billions of devices without human intervention at a scale not seen before. This has the potential to revolutionise modern industrial processes and applications including agriculture, manufacturing and business communications. 5G also provides significantly faster data speeds and greater capacity keeping the world connected. New applications will include fixed wireless internet access for homes, outdoor broadcast applications without the need for broadcast vans and greater connectivity for people on the move.