Bridging the gap

I made some comments during the past few weeks, about the emergence of cellular-phones as a mass communication tool, with the potential to far surpass computers in usage volume and ubiquity.

Of course there are strong indications if not indisputable facts, that this has happened already, even though the market is a long way from saturation; especially in developing countries like Sri Lanka, where according to Dialog Telekom, 50% of the population owns some mode of telecommunication – whether mobile or fixed line.

Computing power is not nearly as expensive as it was 10 or 15 years ago, but the cost of a computer is still prohibitive for a vast majority of the population of Sri Lanka. Another reason for the slow growth rate of computer usage in the country is their limited usability both technically and in terms of their English language dependency. Windows Vista Ultimate has limited Sinhala language support through a downloadable language pack, but for all practical intents and purposes, computer usage is limited to those who have a working knowledge of English.

This is a gap which telecommunications services and the World Wide Web is now matured enough to bridge. Telecommunication devices such as fixed telephones and mobile phones are not nearly as intimidating to learn to use as computers are and they are also less language dependent. Even though Tamil has long been an established language on the World Wide Web, Sinhala web content development has also matured both technologically (thanks mainly to Sinhala Unicode fonts), and in common usage. The web has enough content in Sinhala and Tamil to engage interested users and the growth rate of Sinhala and Tamil content is very encouraging.

With the growth of digital communication networks such as broadband Internet access, there will inevitably be a migration of some telecommunication services and applications to the Internet. With the advent of VoIP technology in particular, the Internet has been a liberalising force on telecommunication services and made it more competitive. Broadband Internet users for example, can now use services like Skype to call each other for free – instead of direct dial telephone services. Skype – in particular – has a mobile phone application which mobile telecommunication providers all over the world are using to generous allowances for their users to make free calls to other Skype users, through the Internet. There is no particular reason however, other than the lack of a competitive telecommunications services sector, as to why digital telecommunication services such as internet and VoIP access as well as short message services (SMS) should only be available on mobile phones.

The fact is that for a vast majority of the population the cost of ownership for telecommunications services is lower and their usability and potential for return on investment is higher when compared with computers. Sri Lankan universities and the IT industry need to realise the importance of gearing the country and especially the industry professionals to make use of the opportunities that are yet to be fully utilised in the telecom sector.

It is equally important that the telecommunications industry gets the necessary support and incentives from government regulators and is driven to invest in the necessary technology in a competitive business environment where it has the potential to become a powerful force for social as well as economic growth in the country.

Write in with your views and comments to technopage@gmail.com

Blogola is a slang term used in on-line marketing circles to describe the act of bribing or paying influential bloggers to create a buzz in the blogosphere about a specific product or technology in their blog.

The monitor you are using with your computer may be affected by which hemisphere of the earth you are in. The Northern and Southern hemispheres of the earth have different magnetic fields, each pulling toward its respective pole. Monitors with cathode ray tubes, which are the majority of desktop monitors in use today, are manufactured specifically for which hemisphere they are going to be used in.

CRT monitors work by moving electron beams back and forth behind the screen, and the earth's magnetic fields act on the electron beams, pulling them toward the field. A monitor calibrated for the Northern hemisphere can still be used in the Southern hemisphere, but the colours and the image would be slightly skewed. Most major monitor manufacturers give users the controls to manually adjust the image.