Since the early 1990's, the government has placed a great deal of emphasis of developing the Telecommunications Infrastructure. Policies such as lax import duties on cellular phones --which used to be at 87% of cost-- to help build the business communities, encouragement of foreign direct investments with attractive trading regulations and pledging of public funds to build the telecom infrastructure will all help the globally competing domestic firms.

However, despite these strong resolutions, the cost of setting up a simple LAN network with limited IT specialists (who are still few in numbers) continue to be an expensive venture. Analysts estimate the cost of a three party network, for example to run anywhere between $20,000 to $50,000. The cost of training staff in computers is also a high price activity with 3-4 week training sessions costing thousands of rupees.

My vision for Sri Lanka for the next five years in regards to telecommunications can be summarized as follows:

	Increased telephone connections and telephone usage in the rural areas of Sri Lanka.
	Heavy investment by foreign companies in building the telecommunications infrastructure so that they get a piece of the pie when Sri Lanka reaches NIC status.
	More widespread usage of e-mail and Internet activity in Universities around the nation. Stronger government policies regarding intellectual property rights.
	At least a five fold increase in PC usage.
	Currently, several foreign and domestic firms have united in joint-ventures to lay cables around the country. I foresee basic cable television hitting the market very soon too.

Return To Country menu	Previous Page	Next Page	E-mail Author

Last updated on March 6, 1996 by Ms. Nishanthi Mendis

The URL of this page is located at http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/mogit/nm9903a/sri_impact.html