Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE
The Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry has targeted to earn US $ two billion by 2016 in foreign exchange through telecommunication and information technology related fields, Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
The minister in order to achieve the set target the workforce in the information related fields will have to be increased to 200,000 by 2016. Besides, infrastructure facilities will also be improved and developed.
"According to ministry statistics, the country earns US $ 400 million annually from information technology related fields at present. Therefore, the US $ two billion target will not be hard to reach", a ministry official said.
"The computer literacy rate which is around 40 percent at present will also be increased to 70 percent by 2016. The number of broadband connections will also be increased to four million to reach the targeted literacy rate. According to Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry statistics, there are around 250,000 Broadband connections in the country" the official said.
Meanwhile, the ministry looked into the bandwidth of broadband connections which are provided by several telecommunication institutions since it has been revealed that many broadband connections do not reach the specified speed when browsing the Internet or data uploading and downloading." Therefore, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission introduced accurate Internet speed testing facility to subscribers with the intention of obtaining a better service from Internet service providers", the official said.
Subscribers who visit the TRC website, logging on http://speedtest.trc.gov.lk/TRCSpeed/broadband.php can assess this facility to check the available speeds between subscriber and the Internet. In this regard, two dedicated high-end servers in USA and Europe have been selected for the purpose of provisioning speed testing. Both the servers are located in data centres and linked to the Internet at a speed of 1Gbps (Giga bites per second).
Tariff of broadband connections and usages are declining gradually so as to let many people to use the Internet. In the world context, the international and broadband charges are declining gradually.
"The price of Internet usage should be affordable while providing a quality service. Information technology will be a tool which will be used by many people", the official said.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/04/07/news40.asp
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