Technology

Lanka to host eleventh SATRC meeting

Sri Lanka will be hosting the Eleventh South Asian Telecommunications Regulators Council (SATRC) Meeting from November 24 to 26 at the Cinnamon Lakeside in Colombo.

Director General of TRCSL Priyantha Kariyapperuma

The meeting is organized by the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) and hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL). The SATRC meeting is held annually to discuss and coordinate regulatory and other related issues in the area of telecommunication and ICT that are of common interest to the South Asian sub-region.

The meeting will be attended by the heads of Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities of SATRC member countries and designated senior level officers.

Among the issues to be discussed at the 11th SATRC meeting are: the key policy and regulatory issues in the SATRC countries, Reports of the SATRC Working Groups under Action Plan Phase, Implementation Report of the SATRC Action Plan (Phase-II), New topics for consideration in the Next Phase Action Plan, Adoption of SATRC Action Plan (Phase III) and funding initiative of SATRC Activities.

The event will bring together APT experts, officials from Government and regulatory agencies, and industry leaders.

There will be over 100 foreign delegates and over 100 from Sri Lanka attending the event.

Director General of the TRCSL Priyantha Kariyapperuma said as a country with state-of-the-art technology in telecommunications, Sri Lanka is honoured to host this significant meeting as it is the year of ICT and English which was declared by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

We welcome the delegates and believe that the discussions will bring about important developments in the region. As suggested by President Rajapaksa who is also the Chairman of SAARC we want to have one rate applicable to the region. SATRC is working on it and should be able to take a decision during the conference.

He said that Sri Lanka enjoys the most and advanced technologies including 3.5 G network, HSPA, GPS, ADSL with IPTV. In the next few months Sri lanka will boast of Long Term Evolution (LTE) which is the convergence of CDMA and GSM technologies.

Though we have the modern technologies we lack mobile number portability and the interconnection rates and TRC will introduce it within the next three months keeping on par with countries such as India, Malaysia said Kariyapperuma.

DG also said that Sri lanka will acquire satellite technology in the near future with the setting up of the Sri Lanka Space Agency (SLASA), a regulatory body for new technology. Already the Cabinet approvals have been given to obtain satellite technology which would be considered an investment for the future.

( SG )

Ideal platform to find job vacancies:

JobsLadder launched

A cost effective way to advertise and recruit quality staff via the web - JobsLadder, a comprehensive employment and HR portal that promises to offer an innovative, speedy and cost effective service has been launched in Sri Lanka.

The new web portal on www.jobsladder.lk is an ideal platform for organizations, institutions and associations to announce their vacancies and hire quality staff and is also an efficient way for job seekers to find employment opportunities that suit their needs, the company said.

Business Development Manager of JobsLadder Rukshan Sheriff said: "We are structured to offer organizations a chance to hire the right candidates for vacancies without wading through large numbers of applications that are unsuitable. This allows them to recruit staff in a cost effective way." Job seekers will also be able to access a wide variety of choices from a permanent employment opportunity to part time or even volunteer work on JobsLadder," he said.

"Unlike traditional vacancy sites that allow only basic features or those that introduce new features only when the competition is around, JobsLadder will continue to offer new features and enhancements through a well defined business approach," Sheriff added. He explained that the JobsLadder web portal is hosted on its own dedicated internet backbone and therefore, offers high-speed downloading capacity to users. Commenting on the newly launched recruitment web portal Ms. Kithali Jayawickrema, Industry Analyst of Tharunyata Hetak said: "JobsLadder sets a new industrial standard by integrating market needs and future market requirements with technology. It offers employment opportunities for deserving youth while assisting them with the necessary employability related training." Keerthi Aponso, Manager Services for the Institute of Personnel Management of Sri Lanka, a leading HRM Institute said: "We congratulate JobsLadder for their initiative in promoting recognized institutes that could be consulted for guidance in their respective fields." Dharshana De Silva, President of The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Sri Lanka Chapter said: "We congratulate JobsLadder for this new initiative.

We are delighted to note that auditors are not considered a mere business unit but a professional business support entity." "Today we need portals that can provide the required resources and promote the need to seek professional advice or guidance in this new area of employment opportunity," he said.

JobsLadder also allows users to find resource pools for projects. It offers them the latest updates and new enhancements and guarantees to offer innovative services.

Dialog to protect children in cyberspace

Reiterating its commitment to protect children from online exploitation, Dialog Broadband Networks (DBN) has introduced a new service for its subscribers titled Website Filtering. This service was launched with the objective of promoting a safer online environment for children by filtering websites that contain explicit and damaging content such as pornography, gambling, violence and drug-related material.

Commenting on its efforts for online child protection, Suren Goonewardene, Chief Operating Officer of Dialog Fixed Telephony and Broadband Services said, "Protecting children from online exploitation is of paramount importance to us as an organisation, and for the future of the nation. We will take all measures to curb every instance of children being exposed to negative online content, and we encourage parents to join hands with us to create a safe online environment for our future generations.

As a responsible corporate citizen, Dialog is committed to promoting good business practice in maintaining the triple bottom line."

The website filtering service entails no activation charges and could be subscribed on DBN's HomeNet, HomeNet plus, OfficeNet, OfficeNet plus, SmartHome, SmartHome plus, Box Office, and Box Office plus Internet packages for a monthly rental of Rs. 250.

The company's online child protection initiative is part of a larger proposal set forth by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) under the directive of the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

'Oracle Accelerate' launched

Oracle launched its new product 'Oracle Accelerate' in Sri Lanka last week providing new capabilities for mid size organisations. The General Manager Commercial Applications of Oracle Suraj Pai said that this new product and development methods make oracle applications more affordable for mid size businesses.

The product was launched in other parts of the world in 2007 and since then oracle added more than 7,000 new application customers increasing its mid size customer base to 25,000, he said.

Pai said that Oracle solutions are popular among large business organisations and now with Oracle Accelerate it has reached smaller organisations as well. Key feature of the new product is implementation simplicity. We have removed the complexity and now there is a expert delivery ecosystem. Implementation time has reduced by 50%. It allows online access and provide new financial and development packages. It is a simple business process and no technical experts require to implement the solution and you can configure the back end by answering simple questions in English. Thus the implementation is faster.

(GW )