Microsoft Sri Lanka has plans to introduce ‘TV White Space’ technology to increase Internet speed
While the Internet speed in Sri Lanka is very slow compared to other countries in the region, Microsoft Sri Lanka has plans to bring in one of the latest technologies, ‘TV White Space’ to Sri Lanka.
Pix by M.D Nissanka Meegoda
This is a technology where parts of the TV spectrum are used to transmit broadband over the air waves, offering a very low cost way of distributing Internet bandwidth over businesses, Microsoft Sri Lanka (Pvt) Ltd Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives, Brian Kealey told the Business Times on the sidelines of the official launch of Windows 10 and Office 2016 at the Cinnamon Lakeside in Colombo recently.
Mr. Kealey said, “With regards to increasing the Internet speed in Sri Lanka, there are a couple of initiatives to introduce and obviously all those will be done in collaboration with the telecommunication operators, licensees and the government. It’s a complex area to work on and we intend to introduce ‘TV White Space’ technology which is already there in other countries.” Microsoft Sri Lanka is having a conversation with the government on this initiative, he added. Speaking about Windows 10 and Office 2016, he said, Windows 10 is truly a blend of everything that people loved about Windows 7 and Windows 8 put together in one operating system. It’s free for consumers who have a valid copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8 to upgrade to Windows 10. The Windows Insider programme has people from Sri Lanka but there are no exact figures of the penetration of Windows 10 in Sri Lanka. Geographically around the world there is a good spread of 7 billion insiders who have downloaded Windows 10 so far since July 2015. Mr. Kealey also noted that it is an essential basic human right to have Internet access and the government has recognized it very well with the launch of free Internet access points island-wide. “We are certainly supportive with this initiative and we also understand that not everyone has the technology or Internet access.” Today technology is designed with the capability to work online and offline. With the new Windows 10 and Office 2016 and its rich experiences you can take your work content offline and continue to work from home.” Microsoft General Manager for Southeast Asia – New Markets, Michelle Simmons speaking at the event said that the company’s strategy is to build the best in productivity in the cloud world. Today all information is stored in a safe and secure platform in cloud creating a more personal computing, she added.