 The Sri Lankan ban on imports of Global Positioning System (GPS) mobile phone handsets due to security reasons is a futile exercise, experts said. "Sri Lanka has prohibited import of GPS handsets which accelerates the speed of data. For an example, through such a phone the whereabouts of a particular person can be traced. These were prohibited mainly due to security reasons, but the irony is they are coming into the country through illegal channels. They are also hand carried," Prem Chand, General Manager Nokia Emerging Asia told The Sunday Times FT on the sidelines of the Nokia World 2008 in Barcelona, Spain recently.
He said that what the Telecom Regulatory Commission (TRC) is doing about these devices coming into the country through hand luggage and also the grey (illegal) market is currently not very clear. "I have made several representations to the TRC, but what they say is that it is in the hands of the Defence Ministry," he said.
He noted that Sri Lanka is more developed than the rest of South Asia in the mobile telephone market. "You introduced '3G' facility ahead of any other market, but the coverage needs to be expanded," he added.
He also said that consumers in countries such as Sri Lanka are slowly moving towards devices with more capability. "The big trend and opportunities are in the mobile Internet and Sri Lanka is a very advanced market," he added.
|
E-mail