Gearing up SL to become a digital economy in smart and secure way: TRCSL

Fast-tracking development is at the core of all efforts in Sri Lanka’s journey towards progression and with technology evolving at a rapid pace across the world, the island nation has acknowledged and understood the importance of getting onboard the digital bandwagon sooner than later.

Sri Lanka is one of the few emerging economies that is only now truly kicking off the digital revolution, an effort that will allow the country, people and its economy to be smarter, agile and efficient in their endeavours.

Sri Lanka’s high mobile penetration and annual Internet population growth rate have been harped upon time and again over the years as a massive positive. While it is a positive feature, the ‘growth’ rate doesn’t necessarily translate to actual productive usage of the Internet.

The reality of the situation was evident when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March last year, where the need to transition to online systems overnight highlighted the challenges in access, connectivity and quality of Internet in the country.

However, even before the global pandemic hit the country, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) was active in its efforts in fulfilling International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) ‘Connect 2030 Agenda for Global Telecommunication/ICT Development’, which focuses on how technological advances will contribute to accelerate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Connect 2030 Agenda aims to achieve five bold goals: growth, inclusiveness, sustainability, innovation and partnerships.

Via the agenda, the ITU pushes telecommunication regulators across the world to ensure 65 percent of global households have meaningful Internet connectivity and about 70 percent individuals to have access to meaningful Internet, both at affordable rates.

Getting basics right 
So, where does Sri Lanka stand in this regard? According to TRCSL Director General Oshada Senanayake, active efforts to meet the agenda was embarked upon towards end-2019, where plans were conceptualised to get the necessary infrastructure and connectivity factor right.

“If you don’t get the connectivity piece correct, it is never going to work. And this was something that is always the topic of discussion for us at the TRCSL,” said Senanayake to Mirror Business in an exclusive interview recently.
The TRCSL together with the key stakeholders initiated the compilation of data from ground level to gain clarity on the reality of the situation.

Connecting with the 330 additional secretariats across the island, which in turn connected with the 14,016 Grama Niladari Divisions (GNDs), revealed that a significant proportion of the local populace did not have connectivity to even 2G, which meant they would be cut off from what we now call the ‘new normal’.

Today, the TRCSL is able to know on a pinpoint basis the exact connectivity position of 18 districts.

“What we realised from this survey was that while the connectivity numbers showed that a particular district has good access to the Internet, certain GNDs have zero connectivity, not even a land phone. Unlike before, we now have insights of the exact coverage and this has helped us remove the bottlenecks,” said Senanayake.
Pointing out there is still a long way to achieve 100 percent coverage, Senanayake confidently expressed that the TRCSL is on track in reaching that goal.

Efforts rolled out 
Acknowledging connectivity is not only about 4G, Senanayake shared that the route taken towards embracing a digital nation is a 4G plus fibre approach.

The effort, under the banner ‘Gamata Sanniwedanaya’, was initiated in the Ratnapura district, where the relevant stakeholders were brought on to one platform and a working committee was established. The model will be replicated across the island so that all districts will have technical representatives overlooking the progress in achieving full connectivity.

With steady progress achieved in Ratnapura, the ‘Gamata Sanniwedanaya’ effort is being rolled out in Kurunegala and plans are underway to launch the efforts in Anuradhapura, Matara and Jaffna in the coming months. While plans are afoot to wrap up a total of 10 districts by end-2021, the TRCSL is hopeful islandwide coverage will be achieved in about 24 months, provided there are no travel and work restrictions imposed due to the pandemic.
Furthermore, to ensure the effort is resource efficient, the TRCSL has opted for a tower-sharing model to improve efficiency while ensuring minimal impact on the environment. 

Making the project a complete local effort is also the directive to push the manufacturing of towers within Sri Lanka itself. At present, the country has three entities engaged in the manufacturing of signal towers. 

With regard to funding, while a Telecommunication Development Charge (TDC) is being collected, until recently, the funds were directed towards the government treasury. However, from last year, the TRCSL has been successful in holding back 50 percent of the funds collected by way of the levy, which has allowed the smooth rollout of the islandwide connectivity agenda, as the effort was identified by the government as a national project. 
Just as the TRCSL takes over 50 percent of the funding responsibility to have the necessary infrastructure in place, the telecom service providers too pool in finances where they are funded back based on the TDC contributed.

Readiness to embrace next gen technology
As much as the connectivity infrastructure of the country requires fixing, Senanayake said Sri Lanka cannot put to the backburner the requirements of the 5G and next generation technologies.

He stated that consumers may question why the TRCSL is even looking at 5G, when 4G itself is yet to be properly rolled out. However, to fulfil the goal of bringing to Sri Lanka the smart city concept and ensuring the country is on par with its regional peers with regard to technology, it is essential for Sri Lanka to explore and expand boundaries. 

“We need to understand that 5G is going to be the base for putting up high technology infrastructure for smart production and process facilitation,” he said.

Senanayake shared that currently the TRCSL is looking at 5G spectrum allocation and certain telcos have already kicked off 5G trials, which are progressing well.  

Stumbling blocks and areas of concern
According to Senanayake, the pressing areas of concern for Sri Lanka is largely in terms of policymaking and legislative measures, both which need the necessary changes to be fast-tracked.

“I’ll be very upfront. We are working on a Telecommunications Act, which has been done up in 1991, which again is based on an act that dates far back as 1982. It’s too old and one of the biggest hurdles that holds the industry from moving forward,” he said.

Senanayake added that despite the industry being regulated with outdated laws, necessary measures are being introduced to ensure consumers are served better.

One such effort introduced is the Quality of Service rule, where call centres must attend to a customer call within the set timeframe. The other is the imposing of a timeframe to settle billing disputes. 

“These go a long way in ensuring that we empower the consumers and ensure that the consumer protection aspects are in place. This is key,” he said.

Another major issue Senanayake highlighted is the management of spectrum. The industry was dealing with a bulk of Supreme Court cases, which placed both the operators as well as the TRCSL in a deadlock. 

Nevertheless, the TRCSL was successful in closing most of the cases despite the limiting legal framework.
On the other hand, high taxation is identified as one of the stumbling blocks. Senanayake pointed out that for years the telecommunications industry has been viewed by successive governments as one that can be highly taxed.
A few years back, the telecom tax paid by the consumers reached a staggering 49.7 percent.

“It did more harm than good because it completely started rolling off the industry. Increased taxes for the industry directly lead to a drop in investments, which only slows down the industry,” asserted Senanayake. 
He stressed it is a must to have a pragmatic and stable tax framework, as it is an industry that deals with high capital expenditure. 

Meanwhile, in an effort to increase investment in the industry, the TRCSL is looking at waiving off the tower tax, Senanayake shared.

Unlimited Internet
No more is the concept of day-time/night-time bundles, since from last year, the TRCSL has halted the approval of such packages and what is available in the market are in fact Anytime Data packages. The confusion, according to Senanayake, that has led consumers to assume they have separate allocations for day and night is the gap in marketing communication efforts carried out by certain telcos.

“The night-time component is actually free. It’s a feature that the operators give based on the utilisation of the networks in the night. But what has happened is, the way some telcos communicated this was absolutely misleading. The limitation there is the data can be used for free only within a certain time block,” Senanayake explained.  

While the data allocation for specific time periods issues were fixed, the demand for unlimited data was building up for almost two decades but no progress was achieved in that space.

In this day and age, unlimited data is an imperative to pave the way for Sri Lanka to fast-track its digitisation efforts, Senanayake said.

Unlimited packages were being introduced on a step-by-step basis, where the first was the launching of unlimited YouTube packages. Thus, was later extended to other services such as WhatsApp and Viber, amongst a few others.

Although the TRCSL has paved the way to make available unlimited data, it is important for consumers to understand that it will not be offered at lower rates but all efforts are taken to make unlimited data packages available at reasonable rates, Senanayake pointed out.

A directive was issued in March this year for telcos to put forward their proposals on unlimited data packages, most of them which have been reviewed and approved by the regulator and are launched in the market. 

Senanayake pointed out that while consumers might argue the offering in Sri Lanka is expensive when compared with other countries, it must be acknowledged that the operators are at a stage where heavy investments are pumped to increase coverage. The industry is at a point where the capital expenditure is high but as the necessary infrastructure falls in place, charges for unlimited data would reduce eventually.

Meanwhile, when questioned on the possibility of Internet speed being compromised with the roll out of unlimited Internet, Senanayake explained it all depends on the consumption and high usage will take a toll on the speed.
A mechanism to address that has also been formulated by the TRCSL, where those abusing the unlimited data facility, which could hamper the consumption experience of others, will be penalised.  

Affordability and access
Senanayake noted that when it comes to telecommunications services, affordability is subjective, as it cannot be compared on the face of it but should be looked at by taking into account the GDP of a country.

According to the ITU, which assesses each country for its affordability of data, Internet and voice services, in 2019, Sri Lanka was in the 29th position, out of 100 on data affordability.

“I think it’s good we are in the 29th position. But of course, I admit we should improve. We have to improve. But more interesting is that a lot of people don’t even know it. We were also in the ninth place for the cheapest voices in the world,” he shared.

While the latest ranking by the ITU is available is for 2019, the 2020 figures are yet to be released. As 2020 was the year of pandemic, where a surge in Internet consumption was witnessed across the world, in Sri Lanka too a shift in usage patterns was observed.

Since the pandemic pushed work and school activities to be carried out online, to improve access and affordability, the TRCSL called on the service providers to conceptualise work and study from home packages at concessionary rates. A 100 GB package was made available for less than Rs.500. 

To support schoolchildren and pave the way for continued education, e-learning platform E-Thakshalawa was made available for free for students and teachers.

Launched with the support of service providers, initially it was planned for the platform to be made free only when COVID-19 restrictions were imposed. However, with a usage continuing to expand, a decision was taken to formalise the platform and offer it at zero charge permanently. 

Creating a balanced and safe digital society
Despite the industry having no choice but to work its way around the archaic Telecommunications Act, Senanayake stressed that one of the key mandates is to ensure that Sri Lanka has a conducive and well-balanced telecommunication industry without the possibility of creation of a multiplicity situation.

“Simplest reason is that if we don’t do this, consumer rights are going to just fly out of the window,” he said.
The number portability is one such area that will empower consumers when the facility is launched, Senanayake said.

The implementation of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP), due to come in by end-2021, is essential as it will help break the ongoing consumer ‘lock in’ practice currently adopted by telcos.

He pointed out that consumers are currently ‘locked in’ by the service providers and the launch of the MNP will push service providers to step up to provide high-quality services to their client base to retain their market share.  
The decision to launch the feature has been resisted by telcos for many years. However, the TRCSL is firm in its decision to go ahead with the implementation as planned.  

“The consumer will now have the right to decide on the best service providers that he or she would prefer to be with. Telcos will now have to give their 100 percent on service delivery, which is good for the industry,” shared the TRCSL chief.

The MNP will shatter the prevailing glass ceiling in the industry, create a level playing field and create a conducive environment for all service providers, regardless of their size.

“Service providers will be able to be sustainable competitive. Otherwise there is no way,” stressed Senanayake. 
Stating Sri Lanka has no intention in reinventing the wheel, he shared that the TRCSL will follow the processes adopted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), in implementing the MNP.

“They have done it very well. They have shared with us all the pitfalls and issues they’ve had. We have received a lot of support from them and will be replicating their model,” said Senanayake.

Furthermore, as Sri Lanka aims to further embrace a more digitalised environment, cybersecurity is a key pillar that requires special focus, Senanayake pointed out.

He shared that with the overnight transition to move processes online, cyber bullying incidents surged in a similar pace. 

Senanayake stressed that educating the public, across all ages, on how to use the Internet in a safe and secure manner is essential to ensure they are not impacted from online harassment. 

“We need to educate the public, especially children, not to accept friend requests from unknown persons on social media or click on pop ups. We can’t stop them from interacting online if we, as a society, want to embrace digitalisation but what we can do is educate the masses as much as possible on being safe online,” Senanayake said.

Asserting Sri Lanka is currently at an inflection point, he pointed out that the telecommunications industry has a major role to play in ensuring that the critical imperatives are in place. 

“The TRCSL as a regulator has taken up a very proactive role, as opposed to a traditional role. We are driving the industry and we are trying to create that required balanced situation, where we ensure that the consumers and the public get the best digital dividend from these services, while ensuring the equilibrium of the telecommunication industry is maintained to ensure these long-term investments are continued moving forward,” expressed Senanayake.