Technology

Mobitel brings superior mobile technology

by Gamini Warushamana

With its third generation mobile service launched recently Mobitel has brought a superior mobile technology to Sri Lanka. Mobitel CEO, Suren J. Amarasekera, said that Mobitel 3.5G technology is superior to the existing 3G technologies in Sri Lanka.

The highly competitive telecommunication industry brings the latest technologies to the country. Operators are competing quality-wise and price-wise and as a result consumers benefit with better service at a lower price.

Mobitel has invested US$200 million on its 2.5G/3.5G network. Amarasekera said the network is now fully-fledged to provide Mobitel M3 super 3G services.

Sri Lanka is one of the first in South Asia to use 3.5G mobile technology. Sri Lanka is always ahead in the region in the mobile industry. Sri Lanka was the first to introduce 3G and 2G mobile technologies.

Dialog Telekom introduced 2G GSM technology in 1995 and 3G technology in August 2006. The telecommunication sector in the country is a fast growing sector in the economy with an annual growth of 13%, according to the latest statistics.

Highest data capabilities

According to Amarasekera, the 3.5G technology has the highest data capabilities in uploading and downloading and therefore provides the best mobile internet experience.

Mobitel tested the system from August this year and found that consumers were interested and wanted internet access in the office or at home. Mobitel 3.5G will provide hassle free internet service.

Amarasekera said that the Mobitel 3.5G service is not limited to the Colombo area and the service covered 60% of the population at the beginning and will be expanded to cover 90% of the population within six months.

When asked what was the advantage of being the first in introducing the world's latest technology to a third world country where over 50% of the people are living below the poverty line, Amarasekera said that this would increase the internet penetration across the country and the internet penetration would reach double digit level in the next few years.

Many people want to access the internet and they feel that it would help in their children's education. The Mobitel 3.5G service will facilitate them.

All mobile players have contributed to the growth of the industry and the mobile penetration in Sri Lanka will be doubled in the next three years and reach 60%. However, mobile services are under-utilised in the country.

Users do not take advantage of all services in their handsets. Most of them use only the voice services. Teenagers use SMS facilities. Amarasekera said that the main reason for this under utilisation is because the handsets are not supported with local languages.

Optimistic of internet penetration

Despite this situation Mobitel is optimistic of internet penetration to cover its huge investment. Due to backward and forward integration capability of the technology the investment is relatively low. Customers too can use their existing SIMs in new 3G handsets to get new advanced service.

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Evolution of mobile technology

Mobile telephony has gone through many phases. Mobile technology was first used for military purposes and it came into commercial operation in the 1980s. The first analogue mobile network came into commercial operation in the mid 1980s in Sri Lanka and it was started in 1988 by Celtel.

This phase of the technology is called the first generation or 1G. There were capacity-limitations, system limitations and Spectrum limitations in this 1G mobile system. It could carry only voice. Confidentiality issues and limitation to local calls are the other limitations of the 1G mobile technology.

The technology then evolved to second generation or 2G when the digital network started.

The Global System for Mobile Communication or (GSM) is one of the digital mobile standards. 2G technology came into operation in the late 1980s. 2G mobile technology addressed many issues in the 1G mobile system. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technology in 2G networks offered internet access and other data services. However, there were some capacity and system limitations in the 2G technology.

The technology evolved in the latter part of the 1990s to include packet data. This phase of the technology is called 2.5 G. General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) provided internet access through the mobile phone to watch television. Data speed facilitated 56 kbps and with Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution technology or EDGE technology data speed increased to around 100 kbps.

This technology enhanced data communication, access to email and internet through mobile devices. The first time packet technology or IT protocol were used in mobile phones.

This was the beginning of MMM or Multi Media Messaging. User experience in access to internet through mobile improved but still there were some issues. Data speed was one problem and it was around 115 kbps. User experience was not perfect. The 3G technology provided a solution to these issues.

Third generation technology

The significant feature of the 3G technology is improved spectral efficiency. It has improved about 30 times compared to the early analogue systems and three times the spectral efficiency available in 2G systems. Spectral efficiency measures the ability of a wireless system to deliver information within a given amount of radio spectrum and is directly related to system capacity.

It determines the amount of radio spectrum required to provide a given service (e.g.10 kbps voice service, 100 kbps data service) and the number of base stations required to deliver the service to end users.

3G offers significant capacity improvement compared to 2G with better power control mechanism, better voice coding technique and high degree of users per carrier. Therefore 3G systems have increased voice capacity in the system and it is 3-5 times more than 2G.

The data transmission rate in 2.5 G is 14.5-19.2 Kbps and in 3G it has improved to 300 -350 Kbps. The High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) used in 3G information handling speed is as high as 1.5 Mbps.

According to the Mobile Industry Association 3.5G technology gives network operators more capacity for voice calls. Upgrading to HSDPA means faster speeds for mobile internet access - up to more than 10Mbps, theoretically.

Mobitel 3.5G technology improves the internet user experience as it has faster upload and download capabilities. It has a download speed of up to 7.2 Mbps with High Speed Down Link Packet Acc (HSDPA) technology and an upload speed up to 1.92 Mbps with High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology. Amarasekara said that Mobitel is the only operator in the South Asian region to offer the HSUPA technology.

Greenpeace takes on gaming giants

Greenpeace has called on gamers to persuade Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo to make their consoles greener.

According to the environmental campaign group, game console makers have so far "failed to reduce the toxic burden of their products". It accuses Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony of lagging behind mobile phone and PC manufacturers.

The initiative is part of Greenpeace's campaign to persuade the electronics industry to be greener. "Game console manufacturers are lagging way behind the makers of mobile phones and PCs who have been reducing the toxic load of the products over the past year," said Zenia Al Hajj, Greenpeace International's toxics campaigner. "Game consoles contain many of the same components as PCs so manufacturers can do a lot more," she added.

As part of its campaign, Greenpeace has launched a 90-second video featuring some of the iconic games console characters - Microsoft's Master Chief, Nintendo's Mario and Sony's Kratos - competing for the prize of a greener games console.

Gamers can compare how each console meaures up on toxic materials, recycling and energy efficiency, as well as logging their support for the campaign.

The campaign is aimed at the big three game console manufacturers - Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

Dell launches new products

Softlogic Trading (Pvt) Ltd, the agents for Dell products in Sri Lanka launched the latest Dell Poweredge server and the Dell Openmanage Server Management Software system that simplifies computer data, last week at a ceremony at the Waters Edge.

Country Manager for Developing Markets Catherine Lian, said Dell Openmanage Software 5.3 provides IT customers with a simplified procedure that reduces the number of tools necessary for Dell server deployments. "The Dell Open manage 5.3 system was designed to help customers run IT better," she said.

When asked to differentiate the latest Dell system from other systems available in the market, Lian said the new system provides energy saving solution for different applications.

Catherine Lian manages more than 17 countries in the South Eastern region. She together with her sales team is responsible for expanding Dell business in developing countries. Her other role is to develop local partnership.

Since joining Dell in 1998, she had contributed in various roles in areas of sales, business development and held several management positions in the Dell Asia Pacific.

Catherine Lian holds a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and International Business from the Northern University of Malaysia.