Sri Lanka’s mobile data revolution

By Cheranka Mendis

A pioneer in establishing mobile networks in the region, Sri Lanka has a revolutionary mobile data market which is expected to grow at an average of 15% over the next few years, having marked a 20% population penetration in 2012.

With a steady growth record, the country’s challenge now is to connect the disconnected and bridge the gap that has resulted in not enabling full connectivity with the world. Discussing the present landscape in data services and technology, challenges that hinder wider coverage and delivering insights into the new developments that are likely to drive growth, Etisalat hosted an exclusive discussion to deliberate on the mobile data revolution in the country.

History of mobile data in Sri Lanka

Having implemented the first mobile phone network in South Asia in 1989, subsequent to the telecom regulation that happened in Sri Lanka at the time, Sri Lanka was also the first country to switch to ULTS or 3G services in the region in 2004. The country also holds the title as being the first to implement the 4G network in the region in 2012.

Sri Lanka is also known for having the very first Long Term Evolution or LTE network and has a rich history in being the pioneer in cutting edge mobile telephony in the region. Having come a long way since then, voice and data domains have contributed significantly to create a bigger impact on the lives of the citizens in the country.

Current scenario

Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) CEO Reshan Dewapura noted that today, there are close to four million Sri Lankan citizens on the internet, which is a 20% penetration of the population. Over half of them access the internet through either mobile phones or wireless broadband dongles, which has grown eight times more than what it was in 2010.

He also estimated that the total data consumption in Sri Lanka via mobile sims both on wireless broadband dongles or mobile phones is currently estimated at 2,000 terabytes per month. There has been an eight-fold growth in this as well as it has grown to 2,000 terabytes from 250 terabytes in December 2010.

“This goes to show how mobile data has evolved and how it continues to grow at an exceptional rate,” Dewapura said. “From all indicators that we have, we can expect it to grow at a more exponential rate at the future.”

In the private sector, ICT has grown tremendously in the last six to seven years and within the growth of the industry, the recognition of the country as a global ICT destination for products and services has been growing in excellence in the mobile applications product services sub sector.

Government contribution

To complement the growth, in 2003, the Government of Sri Lanka embarked upon a national e-development initiative called e-Sri Lanka, Dewapura noted. With the ongoing implementation of this initiative as well as others, the ICT sector of the country has grown from strength to strength to provide meaningful services in the Government and private sector, as well as in civil society.

“With this development and expansion of information, we saw the propagation of electronic data to the masses.” With the continuing spread of mobile phones and convergence of voice and data, more and more of the electronic data is channelled over mobile devices, while applications specific to mobile devices were also created.

Dewapura pointed out that through the e-Sri Lanka initiative, Government critical information infrastructure ecosystems have also been built, namely the Lanka Government Network, Lanka Gate (the service delivery platform and the country portal of the Government) and the Lanka Government Cloud.

“Leveraging on this infrastructure, over 400 Government institutions have created a web presence, interacting at various levels with the citizens from simple information services to non traditional services. In addition to this, 160 e-services are being implemented today and all these are accessible through multiple channels including mobile devices,” Dewapura stated.

A separate mobile portal has also been set up for Government information and services under which four specific mobile applications are available for download for Government applications and nine SMS services are also accessible.

On the regulatory front, the Telecom Regulatory Commission (TRC) reduced the telecommunication levy in the last Budget from 20% to 10% to promote the usage of broadband in order to support usage of mobile and electronic data content.

State going IT

Speaking of the latest venture, Dewapura spoke of the Open Government Data Initiative through which 86 Government data sets are now open to the public. “This has been happening in other countries before even though we just started this,” he explained. “Individuals as well as organisations can make use of the data to develop innovative applications including mobile applications for the benefit of the citizens.”

He assured that the Government expects to open more and more data sets in the future. “All these initiatives and schemes we have embarked upon will create a huge demand for data, specifically for mobile data.”

Speaking of the usage in the Government portal, he revealed that there are around 10,000 mobile applications downloaded per month and around 25,000 Government SMS transactions per month. “Compared to mobile penetration in the country, these numbers may seem relatively small but what is important to note is that within the last 12-18 months, these numbers have grown significantly while the trends indicate that the numbers will go up further in the future.”

The Government has also taken up the M-Government initiative which is to be delivered in the near future. The project is not just about delivering Government services through mobile channels, but is also about the creation of services under the concept of mobility which will allow citizens who are consuming data to do it in a mobile manner while ensuring the mobile delivery of these services from Government officials.

For citizens, many initiatives have been implemented to provide the impetus for the creation and usage of data, access to ICT for all, as well as citizen capacity building initiatives. “What is more important is enabling local language computing – an important cog in the wheel of activity,” Dewapura said. “Efforts are now being made to complete the final component which is the implementation of standard based local language capabilities in mobile devices.”

“Also, the creation of local and localised applications and content, and the promotion and gaining of national and international recognition for such top quality content not only propel the creation and usage of data in the country but with a thriving developer community will go on to produce pioneering mobile applications, giving rise to a booming mobile content development ecosystem in the country.”

In this regard, Dewapura recognised the efforts of organisations such as Etisalat and Microimage who have been visionaries and pioneers in terms of pushing the e-content development agenda forward and helping the Government.

Will demand increase with supply?

Dewapura noted that many activities have been organised to ensure the supply of electronic data to all target groups, including ordinary citizens. What is vital now is to improve the demand side to consume the data, he said. Even though demand has been growing, more effort needs to be made to grow the demand.

“Without this demand and consumption of this data by relevant groups, the data will be of no value and the projects implemented to generate and create this data will have little impact.”

Dewapura added: “Electronic data is a great way to obtain information and knowledge in this day and age. This knowledge and information will not only be accurate, but also very current. With the supply of data currently available and the information available through that, citizens can get great benefits and great value for the communities if used in a timely manner.”

He commented that the ICTA hopes that as much as the supply is set to increase in the future, demand for the usage of such data will also grow in an equally strong manner.

Smart governments for the future

The focus over the next few years is to implement a smart government, smart jobs and smart information society and pioneering innovative growth areas, especially in the mobile and mobile content space.

“The Government of Sri Lanka has already identified ICT as a vibrant growth sector and will continue to commit itself to the development of the industry,” Dewapura asserted. “In this context, the ICT industry also will be dedicated towards supporting the industry in its efforts to become a global ICT destination as well as to showcase its niche talents and skills in areas of mobile content and mobile applications.”

Connecting lives and businesses

Expressing that the country is lucky to be exposed to mobile data, Microimage CEO Harsha Purasinghe noted that it is also a blessing that people can afford a device and have the capacity to understand and make use of the data. The challenge now is to connect the disconnected, Purasinghe said.

The challenges include high device cost, people’s understanding of the meaningful services that could be derived from data and smartphone adaptation.

“We probably have the most competitive data plans in the country compared to the region and the West,” he asserted. “There is also ease of access to content.”

As an example, Purasinghe brought attention to the recently launched Book Hub tablet, where rather than the default android screen, it straight goes to a user friendly screen which will allow users to choose the language of the choice, and then shows all apps that can be accessed. “You don’t need to be very literate to navigate and use this. It has everything from news to entertainment, games, books etc.”

Creating apps for the locals

Microimage is one of the most successful college start-ups in Sri Lanka and Purasinghe also proudly noted that the Book Hub process has taken Sri Lankan literature to the digital era. “We had to do a digital transformation, build a complete robust e-book platform and build a series of applications. People can now go to the website and select the kind of book they want to read or purchase and, if you have a smartphone, log in and read the books.”

Microimage has built e-book readers for all the major smartphone operating systems available in the country, he said, namely Android and iOS, and has facilitated it for PCs and plans to do it for other smartphone platforms as well when the tablets start rolling out. “We have built an inclusive payment system. There’s no need for a credit card and users can purchase books through a mobile reload,” he said, noting that this was the best example of meaningful content and a complete ecosystem being developed to deliver best services.

Through this system, Microimage hopes to deliver school textbooks as well in the future. When the device cost comes down to the Rs. 4,000-5,000 range, children in a Colombo school and a rural school will get the same updated textbook overnight at the same time. “This is the kind of revolution data can produce. Not only does it provide static and updated books, it also provides interaction – there is no need to carry a backpack and a whole heap of books.”

Mobile data and handsets

Sri Lanka has a relatively high mobile penetration which has more than doubled from 27% in 2006 to over 87% by end-2011, Softlogic Communications General Manager Rajeev Goonerathne said. “By the beginning of 2012, the country’s mobile penetration level was higher than the regional averages.”

This shows that Sri Lanka’s mobile market has huge potential, he said, noting that mobile data is currently influencing the handset industry and product development. Thanks to mobile data and GPRS services, people are able to use email, Skype and social media sites (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare) from anywhere in the world with a tap on their phone.

In a local context, various applications have influenced the mobile market to reach greater heights in terms of mobile penetration in Sri Lanka. For example, Sri Lankan banks have introduced mobile banking applications through which transactions and balance inquiries can be done on the phone itself. Online booking apps have been developed to an extent where even movie tickets can be purchased through a smartphone.

“The world has also been moving towards a more private and secure territory where each person wants to have a backup of all the data they have, including pictures, music, documents etc. With the introduction of cloud services such as Skydrive and Dropbox, this is possible as well,” Goonerathne said. Commenting on GPS services, he added that they have improved with the evolution of mobile data services.

Role of an operator

Speaking on the role of an operator in this context, Etisalat Lanka Senior Manager – Marketing Gamika De Silva noted that the operator facilitates and synergises services from the content side, device side and from a network point of view to bring the whole world to the consumer’s hand.

“As an operator, from the beginning of the launch of 3G, Etisalat emphasised that we would deliver fast, safe and meaningful internet. The meaningful factor was driven by the fact that we believe that we have to give the consumer a reason to use internet. We need to educate the society and connect the disconnected and give them a reason to start using the internet.

“Extensive research has been conducted in terms of our broadband marketing as well as developing some of these segments. We have found how people refer to internet, what they mean by it and what their usages are,” De Silva said.

Elaborating on their contribution to data growth, he stated that Etisalat launched 3.9G technology with dual carrier HSPA+, allowing a proper, faster and more user friendly experience so that consumers could enjoy the technology and content with ease. “We will further invest in expanding this coverage as well as improving user experience on an ongoing basis.”

He added that Etisalat was the pioneer in bringing down more affordable smart devices with reasonable price points to Sri Lanka. “With the launch of 3G, we have continued to dominate price points which are more feasible and digestible for some consumers and have introduced device technology because devices have made technology more affordable as well as mobile.”

While taking the lead in device penetration, Etisalat has also taken steps to educate consumers, the youth, as well as rural people about what they could do with the devices. Such initiatives include the Mini Android Forum and the National Android Forum, as well as the smartphone classes that were conducted island-wide, including Colombo, Jaffna, Akaraipaththu, Matara, Kandy and Kurunegala.

Presenting a case study on a project conducted in partnership with Sarvodaya in Kantale to make it a e-village, he noted that the average usages of these communities who are not used to data have been averaging 2-3 hours of data on the internet now, while data capacity used, with or without knowledge, is 3-4 GB on average. “Accessibility in terms of contents used is Google maps, local news websites and YouTube for Sinhala content.”

De Silva said: “We will invest more time and money in developing this and are also committed to driving the economy through data expansion. As an operator, we are always forging ahead in terms of looking at giving the best experience to the Sri Lankan market.”