Wednesday Apr 25, 2007
TECHNOLOGY: For the first time Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) would be introduced to the country by Sri Lanka Telecom. The company hopes to invest Rs. one billion to bring this service to the country.

SLT was granted the licence by the Media Ministry to operate IPTV last week and the service would be available in Sri Lanka by the end of the year.

Head of IT Division, Deepa Liyanagama said this service is offered specifically to deliver and broadcast quality video and new integrated TV services over broadband networks on demand.

She said the introduction of IPTV would also contribute towards the ICT knowledge initiative initiated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. “This would take knowledge to the rural areas too,” she said.

She said a decoding box costing around US $ 100 would be provided for the subscribers and the system would be delivered through telephone lines. The existing Television set and SLT telephone lines are the only two requirements needed to connect to this service.

“This service would be initially offered to Colombo subscribers who are already using copper lines for voice and data,” she said.

The SLT hopes to provide the decoder on installment basis so that there would not be a big financial commitment for subscribers. “We want this service to be available for the less affluent class as well and this is why we are offering instalments,” he said.

The SLT is yet to decide on a rental for this service and it is likely that IPTV would be billed on a usage basis.

The SLT already has nearly 2 million subscribers.

The IPTV subscribers in addition to watching local TV channels would also have the benefit of viewing other educational, sports, news and leisure channels that are connected through this service.

“One of the key features of this service is that a customer could even watch a programme that was already telecast a few hours ago,” she said.

The service would also be a very effective education tool during the secondary stage of the installation as it could be a good guiding tool for school children specially to increase knowledge, as there would be special educational programmes that would be aired. IPTV had a very successful growth in the past 6 months especially in France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe and in Asia.

“Forecast shows service provider revenue in this area would grow from $3.6 billion in 2007 to $20.3 billion in 2011.

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SLT to get BoI status

BOI STATUS: Sri Lanka Telecom, a blue chip with an annual turnover in excess of Rs. 37 billion is to be recognised as a BoI company soon. This is in response to a request made by the SLT a few months back.

Chairman Board of Investments Dhammika Perera said they are looking at SLTs request in a positive manner and soon BoI status would be awarded.

SLT, which has NTT Communications of Japan as a strategic partner, also provides mobile telephony through its fully owned subsidiary Mobitel. Newly incorporated SLT Hong Kong Ltd, is a fully owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom.

There were also reports that a Malaysian based company, Maxis, is buying shares owned by NTT and subsequently would re-invest a further US S 500 million for expansion of SLT in Sri Lanka.

Several rounds of talks were held in Malaysia over this.

SLT already has a customer base of over two million including multinational corporations, large and small corporates, retail and domestic customers.

SS

Source: DAILY NEWS