Smartphones: Future of communication

•  Etisalat Lanka Director/Chief Executive Officer Dumindra Ratnayaka reminisces on the smartphone journey in Sri Lanka

While the landlines are still stationed on the same tables they’ve been on since they arrived and laptops continue to not serve their namesake, mobile phones have taken the leap from a simple wireless device to a modern convenience that has empowered lives and enabled businesses to communicate in previously unimaginable ways.

It has redefined and revolutionised the way we interact, engage, share, work and live not just on a personal level, but even on a business-effecting scale. Wireless electronic communication, at its advent was a phenomenon and a great breakthrough in technological innovation and ingenuity. But the beauty of the technology is that it never stagnates, but instead continues to evolve every day, every developer, every brand, every engineer and even every user, adds something new to the smartphone that sustains this evolution.

Feature phones had their peak, and gave us a peek into what the future was going to be like for phones, where they would be more than just voice and text receiving and sending devices. It was the Apple iPhone that opened the doors and built the bridge that took the feature phone to its next phase of evolution: The smartphone. Its breakthrough led to the formation of many companies and entire industries that today, increasingly power the world of communication.

For a telecommunications provider in an emerging market, Etisalat is honoured to be at the forefront of the drive to ensure every Sri Lankan experiences the power of the smartphone. When Google announced the Android Operating System, we saw its immense potential and beyond that, how this power could be used in Sri Lanka to increase ICT literacy and uplift lives.

But bringing the devices to Sri Lanka and distributing them, wasn’t the answer you can’t control what you don’t know, and at the same time, Sri Lanka needed localised content accessible island-wide. Our first step was to build and foster an ecosystem which we did through the App zone that allowed the creation of local content and the rising of professionals to sustain and grow it. Once the ecosystem was in place, we upgraded our network capabilities to accommodate the increase in data and demand for speeds that would ensue, and today, we have the fastest network in the country.

After establishing island-wide accessibility, Etisalat launched a drive to educate potential users on the power of the smartphone, especially the Android platform. But the emphasis was not just focused on commercial users, but also corporate users, who had a lot to benefit from the increasing abilities of the smartphone.

The combination of smartphone communication and social networking has provided business with a powerful medium that allows brands and companies to get closer to their customers and stakeholders and interact with them on a more personal level; this, with the benefit of being able to accurately measure the reach and effect of communications. The consumer is now more informed and empowered to directly communicate with the brand and find solutions to problems and deliver their consumer feedback directly.

Today, the smartphone is the main driver of mobile penetration in Sri Lanka. Smartphone penetration started 2012 at a negligible 0.8% and ended the year at a high 30%. Every day, more and more Sri Lankans are experiencing and unleashing the power of the smartphone and the internet. It is a technology that continues to evolve, and Etisalat is here to deliver the latest in devices and data speeds, to suit every Sri Lankans needs.